Lucky Star 24, as the curtain falls, it also rises

 

     Well, this is the last Lucky Star  episode. The final episode starts off with the two groups of girls (Konata & friends, Yu-chan & friends) looking over the school’s bulletin board. The flier on the board makes the announcement for the school’s upcoming cultural festival. Patty decides that she wants to do a cheer-leading act for the cultural festivals’ opening ceremony, she manages to talk Yu-chan and her friends into helping but she’s a few girls short. So Patty uses a special event ticket to bribe Konata in to helping, and Konata talks her friends into helping too. 

     So as the cultural festival draws nearer Kagami asks Konata about the practice schedule, and Konata says that Patty hasn’t told her anything yet. Then Kagami jumps all over Patty telling her to get her shit together. While preparing for the festival the girls and their parents reflect on what they did for their cultural festivals, and the girls find out that most of the stuff their parents did is the same kind of stuff they still do today. The next day the girls continue to get ready for the festival, Akira shows up for a rehearsal of her appearance at the school’s festival, and Shiraishi and her get into it again. The girls continue to practice until the day before the festival.

     Then the show ends with the girls up on the school stage right as the curtain rises, the girls are very nervous about their performance, and then the episode finishes on a light hearted moment right as the curtain rises. Below are some screen shots from the final episode.

     Well Lucky Star  ended the same way the it started, the series began as a light hearted comedic romp filled with small skits sent out with love to anime otaku everywhere, and that’s the way the show ended. The last episode showcased all quaky character traits of the girls that made them so endearing to hardcore anime fans, including me. No graduation ceremony, no tearful goodbyes, no walking off into the sunset, the show ended on a laugh with a wink and a nod to the fans. I think that the two screen shots below sums up entire vibe of the Lucky Star  series in a nutshell. 

  

 

Lucky Star 23, The end is almost here.

 

     Well here we are, only one episode of Lucky Star  remains, so here’s the review of episode 23. Well the episode starts off slowly with little skits about other peoples’ computers, Spam mail, and downloading files. Then Yui stops over to visit Yu-chan and Konata, both of them being sick. Then Yu-chan’s friends come over to visit her, and Konata makes comments about moe to Tamura. Also the subject of Manami small breast insecurities turn up, leading to some pretty vivid yuri thoughts by Tamura. The ongoing Miyuki dentist saga continues at full force, poor Miyuki her dental work is never done. Then Konata, her dad, and Yu-chan, watch a dog show, with Yu-chan making comments on how cute the dogs are, and Konata and her dad making otaku remarks about the handlers. Then the rest of the episode is about the relationship’s between the two groups of girls, Yu-chan and her friends, the main group of girls, and Kagami and her classmates. A lot of discussion of moe takes place within all the groups of girls. Then at the end of the episode Akira and Shiraishi must deal with the aftermath of the destruction of the Lucky Channel  television set. Well that’s all, below are some screenshots from the episode.

 

 

     With only one last shot of Luck Star  remaining it’s almost like the feeling I get when I find out that I only have one smoke left in my pack and it’s too late to stop at the store. This episode of Lucky Star surprised me in many ways, first I thought that it would have continued on with the more emotional and melancholy feel of the previous episodes. But, instead the show returned to the feel of the early episodes. The topics of this episode were many and varied, manga, anime, dentists, computers, and of course moe. The concept of moe permeated this entire episode completely. The only clue to this being the last episode was is the viewing of the real and symbolic destruction of the Lucky Channel  television set by Akira and Shiraishi. I haven’t got a clue on how they’ll end the series. I would like the series to end with the girls walking off into the sunset with the same endearing good natured qualities that made this show so enjoyable. No sad ending please, after all there has to be life after high school in anime.  

 

Lucky Star 22, Remembrance’s of love.

     Lucky Star 22  starts off with little skits about gas prices, otaku buying habits, and baseball, then a lot of smaller gags follow. Then there is a pretty funny gag involving Yu-chan and Konata that has do do with opening jars and bags of chips. Then Konata asks her dad if she or Yu-chan were approached by a guy from the same grade would that make him a lolicon, and her dad replies, no that would probably OK, but because of Konata’s appearance it might be suspect. Then Konata asks her dad what about him? He fell in love with someone like her mother (Kanata), and she did look very young. Then Konata tells her dad that she can see why he fell in love with her mother, but why did she marry him? This question leads to Konata’s dad explaining his relationship with Kanata to Konata, all the while Kanata’s ghost watches. Well That’s all, below are some screen shots.

Below are some screen shots of the Kanata part of the anime.

     I found this episode of Lucky Star  to be very fulfilling and touching. It seems that the whole issue of why Konata’s mother (Kanata) would have married her dad has been bothering her for some time, It was even said jokingly that she might have been forced. But seeing the flashbacks of their relationships really fleshed out the the whole story nicely. He truly did love her, and Kanata truly loved him, flaws and all. As the end of Lucky Star  approaches it definitely has taken on a more melancholy, and somber mood. Last episode Kagami thought she had a chance at romance, and this episode dealt with Konata’s mother and father’s love for each other. For all the deadpan humor and in-jokes this series, in the end, has been a sweet and loving  look at all main characters and their relationships with each other.