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Kyoto Animation released the Lucky Star OVA on the 26^th September in Japan. I am aware this episode has been much anticipated by many an anime fan after it’s announcement earlier in the year. I myself included couldn’t wait to finally see this 42 minute installment of Lucky Star and it was a welcome return for the Otaku parody based anime.

In typical slice of life Lucky Star style with several very different segments, the OVA opened with the girls for some reason having discussions Minami’s with pet dog Cherry. Hilarity of course ensures as it appears the dog herself is as taken aback by the general oddities of the girls as probably the rest of the general public would be. We are also treated to several MMORPG (Massive multiplayer online role playing game) segments, where we finally get to see the game Konata plays many a night throughout the original series, which are particularly funny, I think it really showcases how well the girls interact with each other within this series. Also any MMO player would appreciate most of the humour in this parody. I won’t give too much away but the Haruhi jokes are out in force again. The cosplaying Kagami, you have to love the Fate/Stay Night tsundere reference, not to mention seeing Kagami as the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku was a treat to see or at least for me. This is followed by a very moe volleyball match, poor Tsukasa, I’ll avoid going into too much detail but you will know what I mean when after you’ve seen the OVA. The girls then appeared to get very lost in the woods thanks to Konata no less who then proceedes to scare the others with her stories and antics in typical Konata style. The horror section of the ova I really liked, I found the whole idea pretty impressive but then again I do love early surrealist horror. So this was probably my favorite segment of the whole OVA, possibly because it was so different but also due to after watching it actually wondering did they really just show that. Following is the last segment which is a Live action Lucky Channel no less and it goes to show Hiromi Konno is Akira’s Seiyuu is really quite adorable.

I adored seeing Lucky Star again and the one thing the OVA achieved at least for me was in making me realise quite how much I actually missed the show. Lucky Star is one of the few slice of life comedy shows that really manages to pull off the anime references/jokes without making anything seem overly forced or incredibly out of place. The animation as always from Kyoto Animation was flawless although I do personally prefer the animation quality of their other projects, again this is a personal preference as I know the Lucky Star animation is based very closely on the original illustrations for the manga. The use of 3D animation for the MMORPG sections was particularly good and they really managed to capture the true likeness’s of the characters in 3D without losing any of the charm of the original designs. The one place Lucky Star always shined for me was how well it portrays the interaction between the different members of the cast, while still being flawlessly funny and at times really quite witty. This OVA is completely jam packed with parodies and anime references it will probably take me several viewings to just pick up on half of them, I personally won’t list them as I think it will take the fun out of it for those watching it.

A very worthwhile OVA and I really wish there was more than one, hopefully KyoAni may treat us to a second season of Lucky Star at some point, after they’ve worked through their massive workload of CLANNAD and Haruhi sequels. If you loved the original series rest assured you’ll love this also, my final message to KyoAni more of this please.

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