One show that earned a fervent following in the blogosphere was Lucky Star, the one show that I’ll forever remember as The One That I Was Surprised To Enjoy. By rights I should have hated it but for a number of reasons (which I’ve outlined not once but twice and concerning a matter I’ll examine in more detail later) it turned out to be funnier, more moving and generally miles more entertaining than I ever expected it to be.

Aw hell, don’t start THAT again!

Because I’ve already reviewed the show as thoroughly as I ever intend to, all that’s left is to pick a Memorable Moment…the problem is, because the series portrays a lot of stuff happening and nothing happening at the same time, that’s well-nigh impossible. Instead, I’ll pick out my favourite bits featuring the four leads and invite the rest of you to share your own; reminiscing about fun times is after all one of the best things about the festive season! And no, I haven’t deliberately left the supporting cast out. I don’t want you to experience a tl;dr moment so the borderline shoujo-ai overtones of the Yutaka/Minami relationship, Hiyori’s obsession with including friends in her doujinshi, Yui’s Initial D-standard 1337 driving skills or the mayhem fourth wall wrecking of the Lucky Channel won’t make much of an appearance here, for shame.

Kagami and Tsukasa

The token tsundere never makes for the most engaging of the bunch but for all that Kagami gets a few quality moments, some of which stem from her up-front, no-bull exterior. She’s usually a ‘voice of reason’ of sorts, reining in Konata and generally acting as the straight half of their comedic double act so is every bit as essential to the mix as the others; besides, tomboys are cool. My favourite scene of hers was during the field trip to Kyoto, in which she discovers that one of her classmates appears to have a crush on her. Although it’s all a false alarm, it is also fascinating to see that brash façade fall away, even just for a moment.

Tsukasa’s obsession with her mobile cellphone was a great running gag and sums up that fixation many of us have on various gadgets, regardless of age. This fixation was all the more comical when she left it in her pocket and sent the thing through the wash…as someone who has lost a number of things that way (and let’s face it, who HASN’T frantically tried to find loose change or dry out a soggy, soapy railcard with a hairdryer after a little ‘accident’ with the laundry?) I can sympathise. Maybe I just want to draw a little more attention to Tsukasa, because she seemed to be so shy that she was all too often overlooked.

I’m listing the two Hiiragi sisters together because they are at their best when hanging out together. The family meal scene in which the two of them fall out, make up and prepare a dinner for their parents is a touching reminder that, even when our siblings drive us nuts, home really is where the heart is.

Miyuki

She hates eye drops. Hell, who doesn’t? She also inherits her mother’s absent-mindedness, which is something I have to confess to. When she makes a hot drink, forgets, reheats it and forgets she reheated it, I was nodding in agreement thinking “I’ve done exactly the same thing so many times that…aw crap, there’s a cup of cold coffee right next to me…” I’ve said this a zillion times already, but many of the times when Lucky Star does well is when it’s being an observational piece. For sure, such incidents are trivial and not serving any useful purpose beyond highlighting the fact that they do in fact happen, but bringing irrelevant quirks of the humdrum and everyday is what the series does best. Miyuki was especially good at reminding me of that.

Konata

The following brought on by everyone’s favourite otaku baffled me a bit since I wasn’t sure why anyone would want a girlfriend who would, in all probability, spend more time on a games console than paying attention to you (imagine Kousaka and Kasukabe from Genshiken, but with gender reversal). In truth though, Konata IS the otaku viewer, only with the physical appearance of Lucky Star‘s cutesy schoolgirl character aesthetic so it’s no surprise that viewers can relate to her and declare her to be their favourite. My favourite Konata moment? Timotei~! Yeah, I remember those old TV ads too…I think shops around here still sell it. That was more than just product placement: it was comedy gold.

Maybe it’s a bit unfair to mention Konata twice but the finest moment of the whole series has to be not a piece of comedy or cheeky reference to another show: it’s that episode in which her absent mother watches over her family in spiritual form, along with a sequence of flashbacks that catches the viewer completely off-guard. Up to this point the series didn’t really ‘do’ serious, but after almost a whole season of getting to know the characters as, well, characters, its significance is very much evident when we truly understand the dynamic between the impish Konata and her so-uncool-he’s-cool dad. At the end of it all, Lucky Star was all about the age-old themes of family, friends and growing up with them; this genuinely tearjerking scene firmly made the point with a deft touch that I think left us all surprised.

Other ABC bloggers’ posts for the Twelve Days of Christmas

• JRoxas
• CCYoshi
• Orion
• Owen S
• Quinn
• Xerox
• Nekoron
• Michael Huang
• Moogy
• DS
• CJ Blackwing
• IKnight

Drop your url into the comments section below if I’ve inadvertantly left you out. ^_^