Warning: loads of screencaps

[ Original Visual and Animation: JK ]

So here it is! A bit overdue, but I make up the delays for these flurry of images I took without holding back. Okay, maybe not that’s not a good excuse but I’m putting this out, so let’s go over this spectacle OVA, which for some reason, they decided to have the initials stand for “original visual and animation” instead of “original video animation.”

The first segment is about Minami and her dog Cherry, the cute pup we’ve seen briefly in the series. I love how it starts off with Chihara Minori. It’s almost like she’s greeting us with a “good morning” as we start watching this. Miyuki comes over to share some cookies with Minami and asks Cherry to try some. “Cherry-chan mo tabemasu ka?” Indeed, Cherry goes straight towards Miyuki’s… well I think Cherry-chan got the wrong idea of what Miyuki was saying. Or maybe Cherry wasn’t listening, but still went for it. Eventually, Cherry is given a cookie but it’s buried right away…

Outside we see the other girls passing by. The Hiiragi sisters walk past, but Tsukasa seemed to have misplaced her cell phone somewhere. Nice to know they haven’t forgotten about Tsukasa and her beloved phone. I love how Patty insults Cherry, but she sounds so cute at the same time, saying stuff like “Baku inu!” or “Debu inu!” I think she said one other word that sounded extreme, or is it just me? Maguro… guess that means Cherry’s a girl after all. That “zetsubou shita!” that Patty suddenly shouted out was really hilarious too. Seems everyone loves Cherry, especially Yutaka, who sang “Cherry-chan, kawaii na” to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”

I remember Hiyori and Cherry weren’t exactly the best of friends, and it shows when Hiyori extends her hand out to her but Cherry slaps it and mauls her in a hilarious moment. Cherry sure is a strange dog. Poor Minami. First segment end.

RPG TIME! Interesting to note is that Kagami agreed to play the game with everyone was because she’s a fan of the author who worked on the screenplay for the anime tie-in of the game they’re playing. She’s most likely referring to Gatoh Shoji, author of FMP, which she clearly loves as we’ve seen. So the RPG is Tower of Druaga then.

Seeing the twins play the game is really something. Kagami heals Konata (<3) while Tsukasa... chomps on a bone of meat. Tsukasa knows how to get the laughter going. I love how she finally was able to chat with the rest, not used to these kind of things from the looks of it. Konata has the gang create a victory pose for their party which was Hare Hare Yukai's final pose. I laughed at the random guy though. Where'd he come from? Kuroi-sensei really needs to find herself a boyfriend really bad. She basically went WoW during Golden Week and leveled up by five.

One of the highlights of the OVA was Kagami’s dream, reminiscent to that of Cinderella, only her godmother turned out to be Konata in Yuki’s witch costume, the carriage was really lame, and they didn’t go to a ball, but a fighting tournament where Misao is the prince for some unknown reason.

But anyway, seeing the many great attires that Godmother Konata gave Kagami were awesome. A maid, miko, Tohsaka Rin, and finally, the amazing Hatsune Miku getup. The most hilarious moment is, of course, the magic words to make everything normal again. Kagami blurts it out, waking herself up, but Tsukasa hears it and promptly leaves to mail Konata. Oh man, the possibilities are pretty endless here, but I guess what everything was thinking was possibly “gattai” as the censored phrase.

Next up is the volleyball segment featuring Tsukasa. This was my favorite out of all of them as it was really moving, but also funny. Tsukasa always looked like the insecure type in this kind of situation, but seeing her giving it her all was a pleasure. It was really interesting to see Misao help Tsukasa out all the way just so she can be on the same pace as Kagami.

Konata blurted out a famous phrase from Haruhi when she played table tennis against Mikuru. “Super Ultra Miracle Eccentric Serve!” I bet Hirano Aya had fun with that nostalgic moment. Mikuru is really athletic after all, but she was a totally different person when she’s playing. She mentioned before she was the same with video games as well.

It was looking rather intense. I was kind of shocked that Kagami hit Tsukasa with a serve, though it wasn’t her fault, but seeing Tsukasa in tears left me feeling bad for her once again. The song playing in the background for about three seconds was Attack No. 1 no Uta, a cover performed by Tsukasa’s seiyuu, Fukuhara Kaori. You can hear the full version here:

With a little motivation from Misao, Tsukasa gets back up and gives it her all. Misao gives Tsukasa an opening for a spike shot but predictably, she fails and instead runs into the net instead. Pure gold moment there. Tsukasa may not have won that match and she may not have caught up to her sister but she’ll keep that spirit going and one day she will.

So next up is a segment about a school summer camping trip the girls went on. While hiking they somehow ended up lost on an uncharted trail. I think Konata did everyone a favor, reconfirming our belief that Miyuki is, indeed, the walking, talking Wikipedia. Hearing MiWiki-san was all that we needed.

The whole thing was probably one of the weakest points of the OVA, but it had its merits, like Tsukasa with astronomical knowledge (and getting scared shitless twice by Konata, no less) and the scary stories Konata was telling the girls. It kinda reminds me of the old show Are You Afraid of the Dark? where a group of kids gather around a campfire to tell a story. Once the story ends, they put out the fire and leave for the night. Now that I think about it, why was Kagami on the trip anyway? Some special thing involving anyone taking Kuroi-sensei’s course?

Afterwords comes a parody of Zetsubou, as if Patty’s line wasn’t enough. They even have similar scenes and make use of those screen note cards. I just love the seiyuu joke about the cat and the soul, referencing Katou Emiri’s role as Blair in Soul Eater. Shiraishi finally gets lines in this one, starting out with a pompous Geass line, but also a double entendre as it could also mean that the number of lines he has had since the OVA were… well, zero.

Shiraishi shows the girls frogs from Kerero Gunsou and then some weird delusion occurs or something. I… really don’t know what went on here. Was it a reference to something? Well, it definitely gave me a question mark in my head looking at the girls in frog costumes.

Luckily the OVA ends on an amazingly high note as Anizawa makes a special guest appearance in the RPG! He spots Konata aka Densetsu no Shoujo A and tries to sell his uber in-game items to her, but unfortunately for him, she’s apparently in sleep AFK. Laughter ensues.

In an unexpected but awesome twist, Lucky Channel returns in live action mode, as seiyuu Konno Hiromi as Akira and Shiraishi Minoru as… Shiraishi Minoru take the stage (or rooftop set). Hiromi bears a cosplay of Akira’s seifuku, but her hair color is still black and the do is long. On the other hand, Shiraishi appears out of the blue with the most hilarious getup plus fingerless gloves, shades and a wig, bearing some bling too. But what’s this, he even had a “Yaranaika?” tie, which had me laughing so hard and clapping my hands.

So the whole thing about “original visual and animation” is now cleared up. You have the animation with an original visual, that being the live Lucky Channel. That also applying to Shiraishi, as he takes form in the 2D and 3D worlds, which shocks Akira. CUE THE MUSIC! Ai wo Torimodose!! plays but Akira and Shiraishi are the vocalists, which also had me rolling. That was so awesome. Akira takes a break to have some water. Shiraishi is a little thirsty himself and calls the staff (sta-ffu~!), but he gets a hose spraying water in his face instead, haha! Good thing they took the mic out beforehand. It’s a shame we didn’t get the super idol in the OVA though. I’m kinda surprised Akira didn’t burst into a hellish rant like usual, but I guess for live-action it wasn’t needed, and very much a good choice too. Hiromi looked cute like that too. It looks like she’s going to try harder to get to the top, beyond the heavens. Uchoten!

+ Kagami’s obscure Cinderella story, Attack No. 1 Volleyball!, the many other references (Geass, Zetsubou, etc.), live-action Lucky Channel, Ai wo Torimodose!!
- Lack of Yui and Soujirou, first-year characters only present in first segment with little spotlight.

And there you have it. Overall, I really enjoyed this OVA a lot. Probably one of the best OVAs I’ve seen, no doubt. There’s plenty of fanservice for everyone. We got to see Kagamiku (and even Kagami Rin!), as much parodies and references as you’d expect in at least two episodes of the regular TV series. On the down side, I did feel that using different stories felt a bit strange, but maybe it’s because I was used to the linearity from the later half of the anime. Some segments were a bit beyond my comprehension too, like the last scene with the pet shop. I know the focus is usually on the main four girls but I do think the others could’ve gotten some more screentime. Konata’s family was surprising absent during the whole thing, and I was expecting at least one or two scenes of Yui’s road rage or drunkenness, or some more Kamen Rider Soujirou. While it does carry what we love about the series, I do think that it wasn’t as good as some of the TV episodes. Don’t get me wrong though, I would love more OVAs. I would love it more if a second season was greenlit. KyoAni sure seem to have a ton of projects that people expect from them. Get crackin’.

[ Episode 24: Untitled ]

And so it ends… the long trek of wonders and humor will forever be remembered in our souls. What better way to end this than with a bunkasai episode? I typically love any episodes based on the schools’ cultural festivals. We have something similar to that in my high school, but it pales in comparison to this. ‘Nuff said. For this occasion, I decided to extend this entry a bit more than normal.

So the Outou Festival is coming up, and Patty gets an idea to start off the opening ceremony: a cheerleading routine. Of course, she can’t do it alone and needs a lot of members to participate. That’s where all the other nine girls come in. She gets Yutaka, Minami, and Hiyori into it first. Konata seemed reluctant on doing it when Yutaka told her about it but a little call from Patty convinced her. More like she was being bribed. Patty offered her a ticket to see… AYA IN THE FLESH (lol) and in a… wait for it…. a handshake session. It totally made Konata spaz! So after she went in she talked the Hiiragi twins and they eventually join the girls as this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and it’s nice to leave something behind for your last years. Yutaka felt up for it too so that was even more of a reason to help out. For extra measure (in volume), Miyuki is convinced to be in as well.

Once they do assemble all the girls though, they get a little behind schedule. Kagami pesters Patty about what she’s doing about it, to which Patty responds “I don’t understand difficult Japanese!” and that makes Kagami angry, yelling at Patty about how she’s been understanding them the whole time while poking at her madly. Perhaps one of the best and funny moments I’ve seen. She certainly put some distance between them and the girls when she lectured. It’s just so amusing see Kagami so worked up over the routine thing when she was the one who refused to do it in the first place.

During the actual festival, Konata’s class is doing fortune-telling. Miyuki chooses to have tarot cards while Konata takes on the Yuki Witch attire. Of course, with the exact lines she says as Yuki, it’s more like predicting the future than telling fortunes. Tsukasa on the other hand, doesn’t know what to do. The fortune-telling through shapes is a new concept to me, and it already looked terrible from the way Tsukasa was doing it. Kagami’s class go for the generic haunted house, while Yutaka’s class does a Zuka café, with Yutaka in a cute white dress, and Minami in… men’s clothing, a really nice suit. The one thing about cultural festivals though is that it’s so interesting how their parents’ bunkasai had some different things, yet there are still ones that they keep even now. Hmm, I notice that they actually have a lot more colored background characters for this last episode. Nice job, KyoAni.

The Miyakawa sisters make another appearance, wanting to enter the school, but only students are allowed to enter until tomorrow. From what the older sister (Hinata) says, she heard Akira was going to be there too. Hmm, what’s their connection with her? Speaking of Akira though, she finally gets her real, physical appearance on the show!! Hurray for Akira-sama. Sakuraba-sensei introduces her to Shiraishi, who is in charge of the bunkasai activities. They cordially introduce themselves to each other but once sensei leaves though, tension rises. Seems they’re both not happy about what happened last time and start yelling at each other. It’s so great to not only see Shiraishi’s eyes wide open, but to see that he’s no longer afraid to talk back to Akira. After Akira does a low budget Lucky Channel segment, she sings on stage Misoji Misaki though it was only for a mic test, as Shiraishi cuts her off the second she starts. Hilarity ensues.

Patty wants to do something on Hare Hare Yukai’s level, so the next best thing she has is the Motteke dance. Heh, go figure. As they work on the choreography, Hiyori shows off the cheerleading outfit they’ll all be wearing, apparently designed by Hiyori’s brother. Everyone should know that familiar design, right? The girls prep one last time and starts the routine fully. I couldn’t really believe it. A full Motteke dance!! With even more choreography than what the OP has, this was clearly the highlight of the finale. They incorporated the scenes where the girls are in different locales doing a certain move into the dance itself too. They perform it flawlessly (and end up rather out of breath in the end). That’s a wrap!

To celebrate their success of working hard, Kuroi-sensei treats them all to drinks. We see the third-years watching other students working hard on their projects as they are feeling quite moved about this being their last festival. I love the tune “Zutto Bunkasai no Junbi wo Shitetai” playing in the BGM here, an arranged version of “Motteke! Sailor Fuku” that was ironically enough, first played long ago, but no so extensively as in this episode. It makes the scene even more touching, seeing as how the anime is close to concluding here.

The day of the opening ceremony begins and the girls are nervous. Their uneasiness is, however, broken up as while Shiraishi is making an announcement his phone suddenly rings and gets everyone, including the girls, laughing hysterically, completely taking away their hesitation, and now ready to perform on the stage a the curtain rises…

FINAL THOUGHTS

Shiraishi kicked off the ending with one more song for the fans. A song about love and how it keeps coming back like a boomerang. It’s a rather fitting song and sets the mood right. After the next Sunday this episode aired, I felt something was missing inside me. But now it’s over, and it’s time I put my thoughts into this as best as I can.

What can I say. This was truly the best show all season long for the year of 2007. It kept me on my seat not because it was edgy and was action-packed, but because it was very fun, it was moving, it made me laugh to bits. It was an adventure, desho desho? For nearly half a year, I’ve been enjoying such a wonderful ride and I never wanted to get off it once. The characters are so unique and compelling, you can’t help but relate to each and every one of them, and love them for that. I love every single character (demo demo, it’s Kagami that I love the most~). The show had a lot of great moments. Whether it was questioning about the most trivial things, making obscure references to anime/manga or even parodying them, Lucky☆Star had it all and more.

Sure, it may have started out small and not as thrilling, but the episodes got better each time and enjoying it is the most important thing. I rather it did build up than being incredibly awesome in the beginning and then failing hard near the middle. Having rewatched the series again, my love in it rekindled itself. All the greatest moments viewed again was truly a sight to behold. I want to take some time into sharing the best of the best of the best of Lucky☆Star.

Top 10 Lucky☆Star moments:
Episode 10 – Anizawa’s first appearance, Densetsu no Shoujo A Shift!
Episode 06 – The Initial D scene
Episode 11 – Static feedback
Episode 21 – Visiting Kyoto
Episode 15 – Girls @ Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou
Episode 24 – Motteke! dance
Episode 16 – Hare Hare Yukai
Episode 12 – Comike
Episode 05 – The electric fan
Episode 20 – Haruhi product placement

Best of Konata:
Episode 06 – Timotei
Episode 15 – Da Capo montage
Episode 07 – Marimite love
Episode 13 – Konata’s “Uguu~”

Best of Kagami:
Episode 13 – Konata’s Valentine fantasy
Episode 16 – Kagami’s stare (ji~)
Episode 21 – Kagami’s letter and woe
Episode 15 – Kagami in a different class again
Episode 02 – Keroro Gunsou claw machine
Episode 22 – Pan koujou!
Episode 12 – Kagami reads FMP yaoi
Episode 19 – Kagami the maid-tress

Best of Tsukasa:
Episode 10 – Tsukasa and the cell phone Part 2
Episode 07 – Tsukasa and the cell phone
Episode 06 – Tsukasa and the seashells
Episode 05 – Balsamic vinegar (barusamico su~!)
Episode 21 – Tsukasa in deer trouble
Episode 20 – “Nanjakoryaa?!”
Episode 20 – ‘Flat’ fireworks
Episode 19 – “Chin chin”

Best of Miyuki:
Episode 09 – Eyedrops
Episode 20 – Miyuki and the dentist
Episode 10 – Miyuki lost in her surroundings

Best of Yutaka:
Episode 22 – Mojipittan
Episode 14 – Walking to where Soujirou is in the bathroom with the door open

Best of Minami:
Episode 23 – Yukari witnessing the brilliance of Minami’s mind
Episode 18 – Sparta dodgeball

Best of Hiyori:
Episode 19 – The hand is an artist’s life
Episode 21 – Good ideas lost
Episode 19 – Wild yuri fantasy
Episode 19 – GS4 drawings

Best of Patty:
Episode 24 – can’t understand those difficult Nippon words!
Episode 16 – Classified information!

Best of Misao:
Episode 18 – 3-second rule
Episode 23 – No faults on losing in games

Best of Ayano:
Episode 23 – Ayano can be scary

Best of Yui:
Episode 06 – Yui and her Initial D-like driving
Episode 14 – The cousin with many disoriented habits

Best of Nanako:
Episode 15 – Finds Konata online at 2 AM
Episode 19 – Hangover
Episode 15 – April fools

Best of the Izumis:
Episode 22 – Kanata and the memories
Episode 15 – Soujirou’s Kamen Rider getup
Episode 17 – Setup for Konata’s birthday, 24 parody

Best of the Hiiragis:
Episode 17 – Sister drama, Kagami and Matsuri
Episode 14 – Watching Quiz $ Millionaire
Episode 15 – Watch more quiz shows
Episode 16 – Shabu shabu dinner
Episode 08 – Recorder session
Episode 10 – Konata’s sleepover, the hairstyle swap

Best of the Takaras:
Episode 16 – Yukari’s personality
Episode 20 – Yukari forgets to count herself in
Episode 14 – Conversation with a telemarketer

Best of Lucky Channel:
Episode 21 – Shiraishi rage
Episode 23 – Gotouza-sama
Episode 17 – Special guest appearance Anizawa
Episode 16 – Akira’s concert

But, wait, I haven’t even talked about my favorite music! Kousaki Satoru has composed quite a great deal of music and it’s just wonderful to listen to again and again.

Top 10 tracks of Lucky☆Star
01. Funfunfun dayo, Lucky☆Star
02. Gravity
03. Ranranran dayo, Lucky☆Star
04. Karoyaka dayo, Lucky☆Star
05. Kagami no Hatsukoi
06. Kanata no Theme
07. Konata no Theme India Version
08. Skip Skip dayo, Lucky☆Star
09. Hiiragi 4 Shimai
10. Jikai Yokoku dayo, Lucky☆Star

I typically notice that I love the tracks labeled with “Lucky☆Star” on it. To me, I think those define the series rather well. Overall, is has the feeling of a calm, nice atmosphere and fitting for a series about everyday life. I also really love the piano and other string instruments so it’s really great hearing such arrangements and compositions. Well, I guess that’s all the time I can put into this. Maybe I should put out more but it’s already long enough. So what do you guys think of the series? Any favorite moments of your own, maybe one I didn’t mention? You can comment on favorite tracks if you’d like to.

Of course, this certainly does not mean the end of the series altogether. Games, music, and other merchandise are still coming out, and the manga isn’t over yet either! I’m hoping there will be a second season someday as the finale ended on such an open note. For now though, the Lucky☆Star OVA review is just around the corner, guys! Look forward to it!

Motteke! Sailor Fuku Re-Mix001 -7 burning Remixers-

With the OP single selling millions, you can’t help but think there should be some sort of follow-up. Well here’s the answer: remixes! So good that it gets seven new mixes! You know, if they were able to do this, I wonder why they never bothered with a Hare Hare Yukai remix album?

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Choushi Koite Gyokusai Mix]

The song starts out with a long intro full of the lyrics right before the chorus and such, being repeated through editing effects, much emphasis on the DADADA part. It completely leaves out the actual lyrics and even the chorus, but it does sound funky with words being mashed up so now it makes even less sense. The lines “choushi koite gyokusai” from the song is repeated through most of the song, hence the name of this remix.
7.0/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Metabo Taisaku Mix]

This one has a disco/rave feel to it. The fast tempo remains, and there isn’t any drastic change to the arrangement, which I like.
7.5/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Naka no Hito on the floor mix]

This one is probably my favorite from the album. It has a slow tempo this time, and you can hear “sailor fuku dakara desu ketsuron” through a digital voice thing (not good with this name) throughout the song. The change of pace is really nice because I can clearly hear them a bit more, and it’s easier to sing along too, I suppose. I think my favorite part is the end where they keep repeating “SUGAR SUGAR SWEET” over and over until the song fades.
8.5/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [-Undakada ~ Kyou no Yabou-]

“Undakada” is another phrase that’s part of the lyrics, as was the first remix song. And just like the first one, the arrangement is a bit jumbled up, but the main chorus is still intact. The sounds have that digital effect to it too. As a whole though, not all too appealing for my ears, especially on the way to the ending. It’s the longest remix in the album, clocking in at at 6 minutes, 15 seconds.
5.0/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Glucosa Mix]

The instruments I’m hearing and the quality of it sounds like it came straight from the 60s or something! While unique in its own right, I don’t really see what they were thinking with this. There’s nothing from the song itself so can they even call this a remix? If you’re wondering where this is coming from, it’s the dialogue you hear after the chorus is repeated a second time. Now that’s actually a pretty good idea and it’s a nice touch. Still, I wish this had more.
6.0/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Matsuri Mix!]

Taniguchi desu!! There’s just something about this one that I love. It sounds basically like the original, but the brass instruments and the bass are more noticeable and the added beats really do make it sound it’s a festival. When you got Shiraishi blurbs added to the mix, it sounds more grand as well. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t go with Shiraishi the character, but Taniguchi instead. Well, there is that bit with him yelling “Lucky Channel!” so I guess you can say it’s all about Shiraishi then.
8.0/10.0

Motteke! Sailor Fuku [Seishun orz Mix]

Another great mix that indeed, brings a bit of “youth” to it. The new arrangement has that feeling of exuberant fun and dancing, perfect for a party. The last part is really cute when you hear the girls going “woo” (or “foo” / “hoo”) in the background.
7.5/10.0

Overall: 7.1/10.0
The remix brings a lot of fun and entertainment to the ears, but I think only a couple of them are actually worth listening to again while the rest might be treated as one-time only. That’s not to say it’s something you shouldn’t check out ever. You should all go and “Take it!”

And now it’s time for even more Shiraishi Minoru. Drum roll please….

Lucky Star ED Album – Shiraishi Minoru no Otoko no Lullaby

Since half the tracks are actually like, literally extracted from the endings in the show, I’m just gonna go over the actual, full versions.

Ore no Wasuremono

Well, here’s the song that started it all. This one-liner gave Shiraishi Minoru huge net attention on 2ch, turning that infamous Taniguchi scene into a meme. And now it has manifest itself to this ballad of a song. Not bad actually. Shiraishi’s a good singer, no doubt about that. Great way to end the song too.
7.5/10.0

Shikaidaa no Uta

Gurugurugurun! Todoke! I already mentioned how it sounded like tokusatsu before, and because of that, I find it really good. Gotta give props for the pun name there, a nod to “Kikaider,” which I’ve seen a couple of episodes of before.
8.5/10.0

Kaorin no Theme

Remember this sweet ballad before? It’s Kaorin’s theme! This time you can hear Shiraishi sing without messing up the falsetto! It’s a great song, but I think I actually liked the faster paced one that he did in the show.
8.0/10.0

Koi no Minoru Densetsu

I can’t go wrong with this one. Shiraishi + Koi no Mikuru Densetsu = awesome heavy metal music. The lyrics are tweaked a bit to fit Shiraishi too. Overall it’s arguably the best track on the album! It’s not even a manly lullaby, no way.
10.0/10.0

Waga Itoshi no Santa Monica

Lol a studio recording of Shiraishi singing about Santa Monica. Kinda sounds like it could be a nursery rhyme song or some sort of song performed during a soldier march, you know, those kind of things?
7.0/10.0

Koishita tte Ii Janai

Another hilarious recording. Every time he utters those words I just wanna freakin’ laugh out loud.
6.5/10.0

Omuko Rumba

Actually, why am I reviewing these too? Well, it does sound good, but I guess they didn’t wanna blow their budget and turn them all into awesome songs. So I’m assuming they want to save some dough at least. That explains why the booklet is black and white.
7.0/10.0

Otoko no Iki-sama

I wonder, is Shiraishi the one coming up with all these songs or someone else suggesting them? First time I heard this song I thought it was ridiculous, especially that phrase he keeps repeating. Tsuppon, I think? All the songs seem to be of the same genre.
6.0/10.0

Shiroishi Minoru ~Oku-san Series~

Okay, this isn’t even a song now. Maybe this was a bad idea after all (lol).
0.0/10.0

Overall: ~6.7/10.0

Well that was different, right? I can see why they thought it’d be a good idea to give him an album. I definitely think if they gave him more Kanzenban versions of songs it would’ve been better. I could really do without the TV rips and the studio ones, even though those aren’t really terrible.

Still got more to review. Check ‘em out soon.

More music, lucky you. What I have for review today aren’t solo character CDs at all! Four of them too. How ’bout that…

Character CD Vol.009 – Haikei Combination

“Lu” wa Lucky☆Star no “Lu.”

Continuing where I left off, the next set of character CDs is a duet between Kagami’s friends Misao and Ayano, who seem like background characters, hence “Haikei Combination.” The song has a catchy beat to it, but hearing the two sing together doesn’t sound all too professional and leaves room for improvement. It’s decent material and I love it at the end where Misao is teaching Ayano to say “va,” a term Misao uses in her everyday speech.

7.0/10.0

Haikei Houdai Yariho-dai

Another nice track and it sounds more refined than the first song, at least to a point. It kinda is a shame that they are looked at as background characters though.

7.5/10.0

aYa miSa post modern&ambients

Yet another fun and lovely track, using dialogue from both characters from the show.
3.0/5.0

Overall: 7.0/10.0
Hmm, if you listen to the karaoke tracks, it sounds pretty awesome. Vocals are probably mixed feelings though.

Character CD Vol.010 – Mune Pettan Girls

Minna de 5ji Pittan

So this CD is actually three people instead of two, and it stars the three most flat-chested of the girls from the show: Konata, Yutaka, and Minami. Kind of a weird song, but it’s nice hearing Minorin’s voice in something again. Unfortunately, the song itself is less than perfect when you got these three different vocals together so it sounds awkward. When I read the title, I almost thought this would be parodying Mojipittan not just by title, but by song too. Oh well.

6.0/10.0

Lolita Teikoku Bisho-jo Taitei

Haha, another funny title. It sounds slightly better than the first song and has a cute tune. I think Soujirou would like this song a lot. It’s still not that different overall though, since I can’t really get used to hearing Aya, Shizuka, and Minori singing together and making it sound really good.

6.5/10.0

kona-yuta-mina-tangs be Altered Scale

They at least know how to make these tracks worthwhile. It has parts from Minami’s 3rd track plus some dialogue from Konata.

3.5/5.0

Overall: 6.4/10.0
Another mediocre one. Sorry, not much else to say.

Character CD Vol.011 – Kanata & Soujirou

Shiawase Negai Kanata Kara

What I love about this song is that it’s a vocal version of Kanata’s theme that we hear during that beautiful, beautiful scene in Episode 22. Kanata’s seiyuu, Shimamoto Sumi, has a lovely singing voice. That with a lovely song makes a great listen.

8.0/10.0

Onna wa Yome to Musume Dake

This time it’s a song from Soujirou. Who knew the guy could sing? It’s pretty hilarious when I think about it. Sounds like he’s singing about his wife and daughter, his most beloved people, who conveniently share similar appearances to each other.

7.0/10.0

Sekai ga Kiete mo Ai Shiteru

Well instead of one of those special third tracks with a bunch of mixes and mashes, it’s the actual duet featuring Kanata and Soujirou together. It sounds a little bit romantic, as the title means roughly, “I’ll still love you even if the world disappears”

7.0/10.0

Overall: 7.3/10.0
I honestly didn’t see Kanata coming, but hey, if they can make a character CD for Emiri, I guess that’s not so surprising. I wonder if they ever plan on giving the other families character songs of their own, but that might be a little too much, right? Well, if they knew they weren’t gonna continue this forever, they wouldn’t be using three digits for the volume numbers, huh?

Character CD Vol.012 – Kuroi Nanako & Narumi Yui

Kekkon Nante sa Pappaya-

I was wondering when these two gals would ever get a CD. The perfect duo IMO. This first song about marriage is pretty funny. Nanako still doesn’t know about Yui’s marriage, does she? Well, if it makes her feel better, what you don’t know can’t hurt you. It almost sounds like they’re karaoke-ing themselves, but I like the chorus.

7.5/10.0

Tekireiki na Lady

I really love this one a lot for some reason. The tune, the instruments, the lyrics… they all flow nicely into one great song about ladies fit to marry at the age they’re at. They even rap! How cool is that? You know, for a long time I’ve wanted to take the vocalless version and add in vocals from another song too but I’m just so amateurish that I can’t really work it right.

10.0/10.0

yui’s_Hundred_Days_Nana’s_Bells

A nice, groovy sound to it, but it ends a bit fast, clocking in at about 10 seconds after a minute.

3.0/5.0

Overall: 8.2/10.0
Out of all the combos out there, these two definitely take the cake. Why is it that the b-sides sound so much better? Tekireiki na Lady is worth it alone probably. Well, that’s it for now. Next entry will review Shiraishi’s manly lullabies, and then some. Stay tuned!

[ Episode 23: A Delicate Line ]

The episode starts off on a hilarious note, as Kagami is trying to type something up on Konata’s computer, but her settings have been modified so that any typing done is adjusted accordingly and converted into otaku language. I never heard of changing the text settings like that before but that sure was hilarious how everything went totally out of context. I think it would’ve been slightly better had Kagami pressed the space bar for every word, instead of a whole sentence.

Konata’s computer seems to be the center of focus for this first part of the episode. In the next scene, Konata and Yui are talking about spam mail. The junk she gets have the most interesting subject titles I ever seen. Right after this, Konata is seen transferring her files in a folder called “Tsundere” into her “Images” folder. Haha, wow. Looking closely she also has the folders “Ahoge,” “Elf,” “Sisters,” “Twin Tails,” “Ponytails,” “Maids,” “Yandere,” . Well at least we know she organizes her D drive. I love it when she’s transferring the files over and the estimated time drops but suddenly blazes up to one hour left. I’ve been there many times before, but man, she must have a million tsundere pics in there if it takes THAT long. Oh yes, you can clearly see she has a Haruhi desktop wallpaper too. It’s actually a scan from the issue that talks about another Haruhi season, IIRC. Way to tease.

So the girls in the Izumi house are sick. Minami, Hiyori, and Patty come over to visit Yutaka while she rests up. I’m not sure if Yui was doing this on purpose, but she was totally neglecting Hiyori and Patty as if they weren’t even there, all the while praising Minami. Not only once, but twice did she did that, with the same exact lines to boot. Konata was sick too but gaming kept her mind fresh. Usually I’d do the same thing because it helps make me forget that I’m sick.

Whatever show Miyuki and her mom were watching, it sure confused the heck outta me. It sure convinced Miyuki to take some Xylitol to help her teeth. Unfortunately it did more harm then good. She would’ve had less stress had her dentist not notice another cavity showing up. Miyuki made me laugh when she said she was gonna use Miyuki’s trouble as material for her creations. It looks like Konata showed Hiyori’s doujin to Yutaka after all but Yutaka didn’t seem to notice the real meaning of it.

I wonder who Kagami is talking to on the phone. It’s, I think, the third time we’ve seen it. Could it be someone close to her? She shows off the cutest emotions ever whenever it happens. This time she was mad about what she heard and suddenly her signal got cut off, so she calls back and apologizes for acting immature. Aww, so cute.

At the Izumi residence, the family watches a dog show. While Yutaka is flustered by the cute dogs, Konata and Soujirou have their eyes on the dogs’ owners. They comment about the zettai ryouiki and the thighhighs, and how they find it so moé when they see a girl with twin tails, labeling her as a tsundere based on that. Good thing Yutaka doesn’t seem to get what they’re talking about. At the Kusakabe front, Kagami, Misao, and Ayano play video games. Misao doesn’t seem to mind losing, as long as she’s having fun, which is hilarious because Kagami feels like a loser trying to win against someone that doesn’t care.

Patty shares her refined cultured mind of Japan, although with a typical gaijin otaku mind, giving off the wrong impression of Japan as a whole, which irritates Kagami to no end. Patty does have a nice selection of music she listens to, but only artists that did anime songs? Not only that, but she only listens to the anime songs! Do otaku really do that too? I’d never look away at the other songs on singles or albums. In fact, there are a lot of songs that are better than the anime songs most of the time. I did like how she complained about wanting a maid so bad though, hahaha.

Minami gets the big highlight this episode. Miyuki tells her mother how every one of the girls praise her so much. Yukari sees what they mean as, while Miyuki explains what the girls said about her, she pictures the time she saw Minami at the store buying some things. How refined she is, eh Yukari?

Konata drags Kagami into going to Gamers, so while at the store, Konata purchases Kahlua Majoram’s character CD from Galaxy Angel Rune. She says it called out to her as she saw it, or something like that. You know, as if they were connected by fate. The seiyuu joke continues as Kagami spots PPGZ and wonders if it was a fateful encounter.

It smells good again! Well that’s what Misao says. Anyhoo, Kagami wonders if Misao and Ayano ever fought each other before. Misao says that they have, and that Ayano can get really really scary. On one hand, I’d love to see just how different she acts when she’s mad. On the other hand, it might be really ugly to see. Misao pulls a fast one and frankly tells Kagami she’s always without a mad face. Kagami rage…

We’re back at Konata’s comp again, only this time, she and Patty are looking at most likely some ecchi CG art. Yui pops in and catches them in the act as she wears an evil grin on her face. To top it off, Yutaka enters the room. Yui then jumps to the other girls’ side and tries to cover up the screen. The episode ends on a funny note where we see Nanako on her own comp, prepared to post on her blog: page error! Oh noes, hit the Back button! Page expired. Well, that’s just prime. All that hard work. Poor Kuroi-sensei…

On the ruined Lucky Channel, the last of the Haruhi seiyuu shows up to fix things up between Shiraishi and Akira. It’s none other than Gotou Yuuko, or Gotouza-sama. She’s a real badass in here. Easily intimidating and ready for a can of whoop-ass with that bokken of hers. She convinces them to do one last show together and leaves them with that as she rides off on her motorcycle. This episode’s ED shows Hiromi and Minoru in an epic lightsaber duel as we hear Minoru hums to the tune Mikuru Henshin! Soshite Sentou! from Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00. Qipao-clad Hiromi ends in victory! Good fight.

In the next episode preview, there’s a lot of commotion going on so Kagami announces it herself and then realizes the title of the last episode is untitled. What, the title hasn’t been decided yet?!

[ Episode 22: The Yonder Here ]

Pan koujou!

This was a five-star episode, hands down. I’m really glad how each episode just keeps getting better and better. In the first half I chuckled and pondered while in the second half I was moved and astounded. They’ve been upping the drama for the final episodes, I see.

In class, Konata mentions how once someone recommends you something, you seem to turn into a much huger fan than them once you get hooked. Self explanatory here. Once you’re hooked on something, you can help but want to know anything and everything there is to know about it, just to rub it in other people’s face and be claim you’re the biggest fan there is, acting snobby. Sounds kinda like when Tsukasa became such a keitai nerd eh?

Konata concludes, after examining Miyuki, that sleeping early helps better build… for the chest. Well, I do hear that sleeping more helps you grow, but is that true for the breasts too? Couldn’t you stick to the milk myth? Anyways, Konata tells this to Yutaka and from her she tells Minami, who proceeds to sleep in early now. Man, she really wants them bad. I guess implants is out of the question? Yutaka calls Minami but finds out she already went to sleep. Well to kill time, Yutaka listens to Namco’s Mojipittan song. Really addictive little thing. Seeing her move side to side listening to them on her earphones was darn cute. If that wasn’t cute enough, Kagami is speaking on her phone with someone. Not only is she speaking quite softly, but she’s making cute, embarrassing gestures at the same time too!

Tsukasa gets another scene, yay! She’s once again having a hard time sleeping. Once she gets into bed though, she suddenly becomes wide awake. I have a similar situation where I get sleepy with the lights on and whatnot but with the lights off I’m more awake. Even with the lights off, playing games would make me drowsy but once I turn that DS off, I’m awake a bit.

Kagami and Konata discuss about anime and how a lot of light novels are getting the adaptation treatment. Konata still thinks reading a lot of text is a drag, but Kagami points out that she plays dating sims all the time and that has a whole lot of text as well. So what’s the difference? According to her, it’s much better if they do it in a visual novel format. I kind of agree with her there, it’s more fun that way. But light novels do have some illustrations too. Besides, it give you a broader range of imagination when reading light novels. One light novel they’re speaking of in particular is obviously FMP, and how it turned into three anime adaptations. KyoAni shatters more hearts by having Konata comment on when a fourth season will pop up.

First half is done, and now the dramatic second half! Konata asks her dad about her mother Kanata since she never knew much about her. Turns out Konata did in fact inherit Kanata’s height and Soujirou’s personality (and mole), despite Kanata’s wishes not to. In the midst of talking, Kanata’s spirit appears as she walks in the living room where she sees her two most beloved people taking pictures and having fun, including Konata giving pops a foot to the face.

Konata asks her dad why her mom chose him, which Soujirou comments that the one thing he was sure of was that he loved her the most. The two really shared a wonderful life together, and those memories proved that much. Having Kanata’s theme playing in the background makes this the most beautiful scene in all of Lucky☆Star. Konata and Soujirou take one more shot together, this time with Kanata entering the photo as well, but as they take a look, they find a “shadow” figure instead and panic, wondering if they’re cursed or something, and perhaps maybe if they should delete it. If that weren’t enough, burn it too! Kanata promptly yells out not to do either. A great way to end the episode. Who says you need comedy to make a good episode? Well, that’s what I hoped KyoAni did, but they can’t ever leave episodes without being the least bit comical.

Lucky Channel is basically f’d in the a, though the camera is accidentally rolling. The ED was pretty funny this time. Kaorin and Hiromi each blow a whistle signaling Shiraishi to switch between five songs. He does it swift at first but then screws up and continues to finish Shikaidaa for some reason.