Lucky☆Star

Lucky☆Star (らき☆すた, Raki☆Suta) is an anime television series produced by Kyoto Animation and is based on the namesake Japanese four-panel comic strip manga by Kagami Yoshimizu. The strip has been serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comptiq magazine since December 2003. Cameo strips were published in other magazines such as Shōnen Ace and others. It has no ongoing plot and typically focuses on the daily lives of the characters.

Plot
Lucky☆Star follows the daily lives of four cute high school girls—Konata Izumi, the lazy otaku; the Hiiragi twins, Tsukasa and Kagami (sugar and spice, respectively); and the smart and well-mannered Miyuki Takara.

As they go about their lives at school and beyond, they develop their eccentric and lively friendship and making humorous observations about the world around them. Be it Japanese tradition, the intricacies of otaku culture, academics, or the correct way of preparing and eating various foods—no subject is safe from their musings.

Why It's a Lucky Star

 * 1) For an anime with no plot or lore, it's really enjoyable and it sometimes perfectly captures everyday life.
 * 2) It stays almost completely faithful to its original source material which was the manga.
 * 3) Catchy opening theme song that runs on through the entire series which also gain popular attention from internet users later on.
 * 4) Four cute and lovable characters: Konata, who's a lazy otaku, but a funny and clever one, Kagami, a responsible tsundere twin sister, Tsukasa, an air-headed twin sister, and Miyuki, a beautiful, but a clumsy student.
 * 5) Awesome animation, even after a decade and a half, the animation has aged well along with the CGI animation even for 2007 standards.
 * 6) It parodies other animes, from Initial D, to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
 * 7) *Fun Fact: In one of the episodes, Konata cosplays as Haruhi and what's even more interesting is that both characters in the English and Japanese dubs both share the same actors!
 * 8) Along side with parodies, there are many pop culture references to technology, video games, and other media.
 * 9) It spawned a decent, short spin-off successor titled Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku.
 * 10) Cute and good cheerleading scenes.
 * 11) Very adorable character designs, as it gives the series a nice chibi-esque art style.
 * 12) Even the side characters are just as memorable as well, from the aloof Minami, the young and loving teacher Kuroi-sensei, the innocent Yutaka, the clumsy cop Yui, Konata's dad, Sojiro as well as her late mother, Kanata.
 * 13) Awesome voice acting in the both English and Japanese versions of the show as well as Wendee Lee giving out an amazing performance as Konata.
 * 14) Features many enjoyable and hilarious scenes and moments.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Lasted only 24 episodes, which sucks because this show was very popular when it first came out. The manga lasted longer, though, up until 2014.
 * 2) *Speaking of lasting only 24 episodes, the anime did not include the manga characters such as Izumi Wakase, Miku Busujima, Kou Yasaka, and Tamaki Yamanobe. However, the Lucky Star manga Volume 4 where it introduced Fuyuki Amahara and Kou Yasaka was released during the same year the anime was airing. Izumi Wakase, Miku Busujima, Tamaki Yamanobe were introduced in Volume 7 in 2009, making it somewhat excusable that the show was unable to include these characters, but still a shame.
 * 3) The parody scenes can feel like commercials to anime fans as well as some product placements in the show such as Konata with her mh:awesomegames: PlayStation 2, mh:awesomegames: Wii, and mh:awesomegames: Nintendo DS (though this can be somewhat excused due to the fact that it did receive a PS2 and a DS game at the time) as well as some manga advertised for different anime. Anime fans watch anime for the characters and stories, not to sit through ads. Thankfully, the advertisements, like the Haruhi Suzumiya ones, don't appear in the manga version.
 * 4) mh:loathsomecharacters: Akira Kogami and Sojiro (though not as bad as Kogami) are unlikable. Akira likes to torment and torture Minoru (her assistant) for no reason (although she is likable in her alternate persona). Sojiro, on the other hand, intends to stalk and take pictures of schoolgirls without their consent.
 * 5) The OVA (while great) did not receive an English dub like the rest of the show did, and as well as its 2016 Blu-Ray release from Funimation, there is still no English dub available.
 * 6) Patricia Martin's voice in the English dub is just awful. She's supposed to be a stereotypical American, but her English voice is somehow even HIGHER-PITCHED than Minnie Mouse.
 * 7) The 2016 Blu-ray release from Funimation had significantly barely any improvements, which being the resolution as it was falsely advertised as 1080p but as it says in the back of the box art it’s 1080i.
 * 8) * Another problem with the Blu-ray is that the image quality is partially blurry. While since Lucky Star was produced in an SD format and is still watchable, there are many episodes on YouTube that are AI upscaled that are supposed to match the quality standards on modern displays compared to the Blu-ray release.
 * 9) * It was on Crunchyroll once, but it was removed due to Bandai Entertainment losing the rights to the series and was eventually picked up by Funimation.
 * 10) It faded into obscurity sometime during the 2010s and hasn't aged very well since then (except for the animation standards).