Popular Opinions You Hold About Anime

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm surprised that this review exists. Is this now a popular opinion to hold? The comments mostly agree with it, too.

Lucky Star was one of those interminable anime from the mid-00s that everyone hailed as brilliant from the first wave of Azumanga Daioh clones that still refuse to die nearly a decade later. The show was just as lousy then, as it is now.

Moe gets way too many passes by otaku who paint over its flaws. Even this review does it. Entertainment has to entertain first and foremost. There is nothing inherently entertaining about "atmosphere" if the story has nothing to engage the viewer like action, drama, or comedy. Some series in this genre actually realizes this weakness moe has and tries to build on the hollow base. Shirobako even has an honest to goodness plot! But moe as a whole, including the popular shows, have severe flaws that are never properly addressed or pointed out.

Here's the money quote:

Lucky Star is almost impressive in its insistence on jokes not needing punchlines. Most of its conversations don't result in clear setups and endings; they just continue for a while and then end, or the show cuts to an unrelated scene at some undefined later point. Watching Lucky Star often feels like being trapped in an elevator as a group of strangers have a bland conversation around you - you can completely understand what they're talking about, but you already know this conversation is going nowhere, and you really just want your floor to arrive.

This was my exact experience when I wrote my review of K-On! a few years back. There are no jokes, just generic characters saying random phrases. There is no proper story, and nothing that happens really matters at all.

This is moe. There is nothing underneath its "cute" shell at all. It's empty.

We speak about this in the shonen thread every now and then, but most shonen fans are aware of the problems their favorite series can be saddled with. Moe is treated with kid gloves, and has been for a decade. So while MHA gets attacked for being "generic" and overly simplistic (criticisms that are surface-level at best), series like Lucky Star get passes for having no characterization, story, comedy, or any real writing at all. It's a bit ridiculous.

You'll have people saying "it's supposed to be like that!" in one breath while criticizing G-Gundam for being an over-the-top, cheesy, and loud shonen in the next. It's such a giant disconnect that it's almost embarrassing.

But it's been like this since Lucky Star first raised its empty head to popularity back in the mid-00s, and its one of the main reasons I have stayed away from the anime world for a long time. I'll probably keep doing that, but reviews like this are still surprising.

The only quote in the review I would fully disagree with is this:

Lucky Star may have been influential, but it has been surpassed by the shows it originally inspired.

In what way? They are just as unfunny, stilted, and utterly vacuous as Lucky Star is. The genre hasn't changed one iota. There might be better ones, like Shirobako, but they are the exception. The average moe being made today is no different from Lucky Star.

Nonetheless, I found this review funny, and surprisingly honest. Here's hoping we don't need another decade for K-On! to merit an honest look-back like this one.