Released in the U.S. early last year, it’s only through the magic of Netflix that I’ve finally had an opportunity to sit down and see what all the fuss is about. After three discs and roughly twelve episodes of content, Lucky Star seems to have all the right ingredients in place to make it a classic for the ages. Unfortunately, much of its potential is squandered on boring stories and vapid dialogue.

Based on the Japanese manga by the same name, Lucky Star is a slice-of-life show that follows the day-to-day adventures of four high school girls. Despite efforts to create a lovable and balanced cast, the only real standout among the four main characters is the blue-haired otaku, Konata Izumi. Konata’s addiction to all things otaku and her compulsive collectors’ mentality instantly endears her as a kindred spirit to anyone who’s ever felt sting of being labeled a nerd. Next to her, the other three characters are like dim light bulbs trying to outshine the sun.

Yes, I have indeed hoped on the Konata love train. I’ll admit that but it’s only because there’s not much else for me to latch onto in the series other then maybe the Lucky Channel segments at the end of every episode. Although the antics of the bitter and cynical child star turned idol, Akira Kogami, can be quite entertaining, they only make up about three to five minutes out of every episode. The majority of the show is bland at best and mind numbingly boring at worst. In fact, the first four episodes were so incredibly bad, that the producers had to fire the original director and hired a new one to replace him. The change definitely improved the overall quality of the show, but it still remains a slow series that just sort of pokes along without any real purpose.

Visually, the show is delightfully animated using a warm palette of colors and adorable character designs that I just find soothing to watch for some reason. I was surprised at just how bad the DVD encoding was when I began watching episodes on my new HDTV. Pixilation and jaggies are much more noticeable on a high definition setup with the opening credits being the worst offender.

Overall, the show has a subtle charm about it that really has me hooked; I just find it frustrating that I cannot find more good things to say about it do to its poor story structure and lack of compelling character development. Although it does a hilarious job parodying the otaku lifestyle and lampooning other popular shows, without these gag moments, the majority of the show has so far proven to be incapable of standing on its own merits. I am hoping that things will improve as I begin to work my way through the second half of the series.

-LC1