Lucky Star is a time capsule of anime fandom circa 2007. The series proved divisive upon its release, in part due to how episodes consisted of Seinfeldian conversations that lacked conflict -- the first episode spends half its run-time talking how to eat a certain dessert. However, it drew attention for how it unabashedly celebrated anime fan culture in Japan -- as well as poked fun at some of the tropes.

Revisiting Lucky Star as a piece of anime history showcases the trends that were popular back in 2007 that have fallen out of favor, for better or worse. It's greatest value today is as an encapsulation of fandom at that time.

Slice of Life Craze

Thanks to the success of Azumanga Daioh, anime in the 2000s descended further and further into casual slice-of-life comedy. No real conflict, no real issues, no romantic subplots. These anime just featured friends -- often cute girls -- hanging out. Lucky Star took this to the extreme by featuring so little conflict that episodes centered around individual conversations around common fears and anime fandom.

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The characters were immediately identifiable to the show's audience. Several early internet memes can be traced back to Lucky Star. Its star, Konata, became an icon on image boards like 2chan and 4chan for good reason: she was exactly the trolling gremlin nerd anime fans saw themselves as. She's awkward and blurts out whatever she's thinking, plays MMOs and arrives at Comiket with a war plan to get as many pervy doujinshi as she wants. In a sense, she's a precursor to characters like Tomoko from WataMote -- only far more well-adjusted.

While there were many shows before or after following formula of cute girls doing cute things, Lucky Star satirized the formula, which, for many fans either in love with the genre or tired of it, felt refreshing. While these self-referential mentions of tropes and cliches might not age well with a modern audience, they were incredibly relevant at the time.

More Than Moe Dancing Girls

motteke sailor fuku from lucky star

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya clearly had an impact on Lucky Star's development. Looking back, influences become even more blatant. Both Haruhi and Konata share the same voices in both Japanese and English (Aya Hirano and Wendee Lee), both have memetic dances associated with them and Konata even cosplays as Haruhi, but the influences go deeper than that.

Haruhi Suzumiya was a verifiable icon of 2000s anime, helping herald in both the popularity of moe anime while also being a self-aware parody thereof. Moe is a term that's fallen out of favor in recent years, but essentially refers to a style of adorable characters who are vulnerable and sweet.

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Lucky Star built itself around both embracing and parodying moe. Hardly a moment goes by without Konata referencing an anime trope while her friends and supporting cast either subvert or enact that trope -- or, just as often, engage in discussion around that trope. One of the more overt examples of this takes place in the epilogue segment of Lucky Star, "Lucky Channel," where the two hosts debate on whether or not the character Kagami is a tsundere or not, based on the modern and classic definitions of the word.

On top of general trope discussions, Lucky Star constantly referenced specific games and anime, including Ultraman, Sgt. Frog, Initial D, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon -- and, of course, Haruhi Suzumiya. We see characters re-enacting scenes and singing songs from these shows, as well as just reading manga from them or buying merchandise related to them.

The particular Haruhi connections can be attributed to the fact both shows were animated by Kyoto Animation, so KyoAni was probably capitalizing off the success of Haruhi Suzumiya with Lucky Star. KyoAni would be one of the most influential studios going forward throughout the 2000s and into the early 2010s. Lucky Star would help establish this foundation for anime fandom going forward... even if it feels downright ancient today.

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