I think slice of life is probably the hardest type of story to write as you have to make something engaging out of a seemingly mundane. But Lucky Star is able to make an intriguing show by making two types of shows a moe show and a podcast series.
Moe Show
On the surface that what Lucky Star seems to be all about, the moe factor. But what the heck is moe and why is it my anime?
There There, It’s alright for an anime to be moe
Moe is sort of an offshoot of cuteness which is the feeling of affection to something based on its actions or appearances. In real life, humans naturally want to protect and emphasize with cute things, like babies. Moe is the anime version of using cuteness to elicit this same form of empathy. To this end characters in moe shows will be given adolescent appearances despite there cannon age. Characters in Moe show will also be given big eyes since when you establish eye contact with someone you feel an emotional connection. Larger eyes also allow for emotions to be communicated more clearly as the eyes usually portray what a person is thinking. So Lucky Star uses this moe factor to manufacture a sense of empathy with the main cast, it also adds to the enjoyment factor too since people like to be around cute things as its comforting. But Lucky Star goes the extra mile outside using moe it also uses other elements of the audio-visual medium.
One is the music of Lucky Star, most of the soundtrack is easy going tones that don’t create a sense of tension. It is essentially a bunch of wallpaper that is supposed to compliment the conversations of the characters, and it only really stops for a punchline. There is also the colors used in Lucky Star where there bright mixed colors that is both maintain a bright image without any individual color becoming distracting. All of these elements are supposed to provide a level of comfort to the viewer, but the comfort factor does not only come from the visuals it also is provided by the dialogue.
Now, what could I mean?
Podcast Series
The conversations that pervade Lucky Star might seem to some views as mundane because that is precisely what they are.
The conversations of Lucky Star range from any topic that a common high schooler or young adult might have. You could be asking, “what the appeal of listing to people talk about mundane stuff?” Well for one you’re reading a WordPress blog about anime and I don’t think there can be anything more mundane than that (thank you for reading) and second there is this whole industry called radio, or podcast for the millennials, that is based around listing people talk about whatever they want.
In podcast, the appeal is not necessarily the conversations, but it’s the people having the conversations. For instance, there is the infamous food conversation in the first episode. While for new viewers that might have been boring as heck, returning viewers who are familiar with the characters understand each speakers perspective and thus are engaged with the opinions of each person. Another appeal is that podcasting is passive, you don’t really need to be fully involved with the conversation to get the gist of it, and that’s the thing about Lucky Star, it just wants you to unwind you don’t have to be fully engaged with it. So at times, Lucky Star is more of an animated podcast than a fully realized TV show, and that is ok because it wants you to unwind and simply relax when watching it.
So I hope I have at least communicated what I like about Lucky Star. What do you think of the show? Where there any specific elements of the series that appeal to you?
Thanks for reading
The Trans-Feminine Gaze 