Lucky Star (manga)

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Lucky ☆ Star

らき☆すた (Raki ☆ Suta)
Genre	Comedy, Seinen
Manga
Authored by	Kagami Yoshimizu
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in	Comptiq
Original run	January 2004 –
No. of volumes	3 (currently)
Game: Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill
Developer
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre
Rating	CERO: All Ages
Platform	Nintendo DS
Released	December 1, 2005
TV anime
Directed by	Hiroshi Yamamoto
Studio	Kyoto Animation
Network	Chiba TV
Original run	April 8, 2007 –
No. of episodes	24
Game: Shin Lucky ☆ Star
Developer
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Genre
Rating	CERO: All ages
Platform	Nintendo DS
Released	May 24, 2007

Lucky ☆ Star (らき☆すた, Raki ☆ Suta^?) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip by Kagami Yoshimizu. The strip has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq magazine since January 2004. Cameo strips were published in other magazines such as Shonen Ace and others.

It wasn't originally meant to be serialized, but when Comptiq suddenly had pages to fill, Lucky ☆ Star was there. As it was popular, it was decided that the strip was to be serialized. Like many yonkoma comic strips, it has no real plot, and typically focuses on the daily lives of the characters. However, the strip has become much more popular than expected. On August 24, 2005, a drama CD was released, and on December 1, 2005, a Nintendo DS video game entitled Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill, was released. A sequel, with the title of Shin Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill is planned for a Nintendo DS release on May 24, 2007. In September 2006, it was released to the press that Kyoto Animation will be animating the anime based on the series; it will contain twenty-four episodes. The first episode aired on April 8, 2007.

1 Plot
2 Principal characters
3 Adaptations
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lucky ☆ Star's story portrays the lives of several school girls attending a Japanese high school with a very loose humor tone. The main heroine is Konata Izumi, an athletic and intelligent girl who, despite these attributes, is not in a sports club, and her grades remain low. Her laziness at school is due to her love for anime and video games, and is not interested in much else. The serialization began with the four main characters in their first year of high school: Konata Izumi, Kagami Hiiragi, Tsukasa Hiiragi, and Miyuki Takara. As the story progresses, they move onto their second and third year.

[edit] Principal characters

Main article: List of Lucky Star characters
Konata Izumi (泉こなた, Izumi Konata^?): Voiced by: Ryo Hirohashi (drama CD), Aya Hirano (anime); Konata, nicknamed "Kona-chan" by her friends, gets bored easily when something doesn't interest her. She can be smart, but she hates studying so her grades are a bit uneasy. However, she is an expert in pulling an "all-nighter". In contrast to her studying habits, she loves video games to the extent that she can compete against Kagami on knowledge of games. In addition to video games, she loves anime which is also due to her father's influence along with the games. Her father also buys adult games for himself, so she is able to play and enjoy them as well. In fact, when she became eighteen, Konata was overjoyed since she could now go buy and play adult games legally.

The main characters of Lucky ☆ Star (from left to right): Tsukasa, Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki.

Since she spends quite a large sum of money into video games and dōjinshi, Konata was lucky enough to get a part-time job at a cosplay cafe. Continuing with her theme of playing video games, Konata plays the role of a male character in an online game and is married in that world. Her significant other in the game is ironically a male gamer using a female character. She often plays online games late into the night hence why she tends to fall asleep in class, which makes her a frequent victim to Nanako's fists.

Tsukasa Hiiragi (柊つかさ, Hiiragi Tsukasa^?): Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (drama CD), Kaori Fukuhara (anime); Tsukasa is the younger fraternal twin sister of Kagami and lives in a six-member family household with her parents. She is in the same class as Konata though isn't good at studying or at sports, but excels in cooking.

She is portrayed as a stereotypical klutz and as a "healing-type" character. Tsukasa once received a mobile phone for her birthday, however she hasn't had much luck with it as she had her phone taken away by using it in class and mistakenly ruined it by putting it in the laundry along with her skirt. Also, one time, she left the instant yakisoba alone after pouring hot water in it, only to come back later discovering there was no water left to drain.

Kagami Hiiragi (柊かがみ, Hiiragi Kagami^?): Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (drama CD), Emiri Katou (anime); Kagami is the older fraternal twin sister of Tsukasa. In school, her grades are excellent as studies very hard. She was even the class president of her class in her first year. She is in a different class than Konata and Tsukasa, but she frequently comes to their class during lunch time to eat with them. Additionally, Kagami chose the humanities course in her second year so that she could be with her friends, but she was the only one separated into a different classroom; the same occurred in her third year. Kagami, seldomly referred to as "Kagamin", is a bit egotistic, but is somewhat weak in cooking.

Kagami is the stereotypical "tsukkomi" character, however, she is prone to become shy at times, hence being a tsundere character as well. Much like Konata, Kagami likes video games, but plays a different genre than Konata: Kagami likes to play scroll-shooting games. She loves to read light novels, but she is lonely that no one around her has the same interest as her.

Miyuki Takara (高良みゆき, Takara Miyuki^?): Voiced by: Erina Nakayama (drama CD), Aya Endo (anime); Miyuki is a "young lady" from a wealthy family whom is also beautiful, smart, and well-mannered. She was the president for her grade level in her first year when she became great friends with Kagami. Now Miyuki is the same class as Konata and Tsukasa. She seldom is a victim of Nanako fists for going along with Konata (in sharp contrast to the large bump on the head that Konata received from Nanako). Miyuki is more relied on by her classmates in helping their studies than Nanako.

She is a stereotypical "healing-type" meganekko. Her vision is less than 0.1, though used to be good until elementary school when she started reading books in the dark after her mother dozed off in the midst of reading them to her in her bed. She likes to read books, but does not read light novels. Miyuki loves to sleep, and she always goes to sleep at eleven. She used to go to sleep much earlier at ten before her second year. However, she hates going to the dentist, but she frequently has to go there to fix a loose crown or because of a tooth decays. On the rare occasion that she plays video games, her personality seems to change.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Adaptations

Lucky ☆ Star manga volume 1.

[edit] Manga

The manga version of Lucky ☆ Star started serialization in the Japanese magazine Comptiq on January 2004 and is still currently running. There are currently three bound volumes of the manga, published by Kadokawa Shoten. Volume one was released on January 8, 2005, volume two on August 10, 2005, and volume three on July 10, 2006. The latest volume will be released on April 10, 2007.

[edit] Video games

A video game, entitled Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill (らき☆すた萌えドリル, Raki ☆ Suta Moe Doriru^?), was released on December 1, 2005 on the Nintendo DS. A limited edition game with many extras was sold called the "DX Pack" along with the regular version. A sequel, with the title of Shin Lucky ☆ Star Moe Drill ~Tabidachi~ (真・らき☆すた萌えドリル~旅立ち~, Shin Raki ☆ Suta Moe Doriru ~Tabidachi~^?) is planned for a Nintendo DS release on May 24, 2007.

The genre of the first game is homework drills. It tests the player on various subjects and memorizations. The player's main opponent is beating other characters in quizzes. There is also a "Drama ☆ Mode" where the game plays like a mini-adventure game as you make your way to Akihabara. Math quizzes and mini games (about five in all) pop up as you play along.

[edit] Characteristics

There are two different types of one-person games: "Hitasura ☆ Drill" and "Drama ☆ Mode". The player can also link the game with another person. When this occurs, the player can use the character that is built up in Drama ☆ Mode as a choosable character. Additionally, if the player wants to use a special battle skill against his or her opponent while in link mode, the player must shout out the name of the skill into the microphone.
In Drama ☆ Mode, the player partners with one of the characters, and tries to increase her parameters and have her learn new battle skills.
There are five different types of "drills". One of the quizzes called "Ondoku" requires the player to shout out the answer into the microphone.
Several mascot characters of large anime and doujin shops (like Broccoli's Di Gi Charat, Animate's Anime Tencho and Toranoana's Miko-chan make cameo appearances.

[edit] Anime

See also: List of Lucky Star episodes

The Lucky ☆ Star anime will be produced by the animation studio Kyoto Animation and is set to air on April 8, 2007; it will contain twenty-four episodes.^[1]