Lucky Star OVA

Lucky Star is well and truly one of those "Marmite" anime series - You either absolutely loathe it and anything to do with it, or you're the kind of guy who'll buy all the DVDs and even make up his own Konata t-shirt in homage to the series. Thankfully, I fall into the latter category (quite literally, for my sins) and thus I've been impatiently waiting for the release of the Lucky Star OVA ever since it was announced.

While it would be easy for me to sit here and say that in a nutshell this OVA is about thirty-five minutes of more of the same compared to the series that preceded it, that isn't strictly true. Okay, it is true in regard to the vast majority of the OVA, which brings us plenty of excellent moments: From a rather cute section centred around Minami's dog Cherry (in particular said canine's amusing greeting to Miyuki, to some brilliant moments with some of the main characters playing a MMORPG including shields sponsored by a pizza firm and Tsukasa's bizarre and accidental choice of actions in the middle of a heated battle. This is then topped off by a hilarious game of volleyball with some Tsukasa slapstick moments that had me crying with laughter.


However, away from that normal fare we also get two highly bizarre dream sequences - While the first is simply random, the second is just straight-up weird (although it does somehow manage to reference Code Geass out of nowhere, which I got a kick out of). Indeed, even that initial random dream sequence has a pretty funny conclusion, so even though they weren't really the best parts of the OVA they still worked for me.

If you don't like Lucky Star, then this OVA won't convert you, that much is a given. While I can see the arguments against this series compared to say Azumanga Daioh or Hidamari Sketch (which are both excellent series in their own right, and why does this have to be a competition anyway?), when Lucky Star hits its stride it still gets me laughing at least as loud and as hard as those series, whether it's making fun of otaku culture via Konata or simply watching Tsukasa trying to beat her sister at volleyball. It's almost enough for me to say there's something for everyone humour-wise, but I think the show's Marmite-esque status that I've already mentioned disproves that. All I can say is that I can't get enough of this series - Bring me more!