Daijoubu

By now it should be obvious that Lucky Star is a comic masterpiece, a work that skillfully combines the elements of moe and slice-of-life comedy to create a distinctly mood-enhancing blend. “Mood-enhancing” is not an overstatement: as one commentator has noted, the series verges on being an iyashikei, or “healing” anime: one that allows viewers to relax and smile, rather than simply stimulate short attention spans with a lol joke a second. The anime blogosphere has featured some dismissive reactions to the show, and clearly it is not suited to every taste, but as Hidoshi has explained, much of the negativity may derive from those who expect something else from it rather than “receiving” it on its own terms for what it is.

But the questions remains, if not lol funny, then what is the nature of Lucky Star’s humor? It has been argued that this anime attempts to please the widest possible audience by featuring a range of jokes covering slice-of-life, Japanese culture, and otaku in-jokes. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, as the variety is not crudely injected into the show just to pander to the audience. And for millions of Japanese, of course, the cultural and otaku references are, in fact, a part of daily life along with what they eat, things that come up when riding on trains, etc. The beauty of the show lies in the way it relates these references to our specific expectations about the characters. This is the main source of Lucky Star’s humor, which I shall investigate further below.

Konata is the otaku, Kagami is studious, Tsukasa is clueless, Miyuki has an answer for everything. This is the base from which a series of character traits is built for each of our beloved moe girls. And I write “beloved” for a reason. To appreciate this show, we must like these characters and the types they represent, because our anticipation, even subconsciously as we watch, of what their reactions to different situations will be is the main source of pleasure in any episode of Lucky Star. Being based on a 4-koma, Lucky Star is not unlike a Peanuts comic strip. Like reading Peanuts, we don’t necessarily have to burst out laughing to get enjoyment from it. Instead, there is fun in the anticipation of how Charlie Brown, Lucy or Snoopy will react to different situations, and the comfort of knowing that they will be true to form.

This comfort in the familiar informs every aspect of Lucky Star and should not be surprising in a series centered on moe characters, as most moe types are usually inherently static objects of fan contemplation and reverence. But to illustrate my point about humor based on what is, basically, a fanboyish joy in favorite moe characters acting in ways that are true to their eastablished types, I’ll use two quick examples from the show, starting with the infamous choco coronet sequence in episode one.

The famous food discussion is really centered on establishing characters. First there’s Tsukasa’s image of the choco coronet as a shell, a perhaps normal reaction, contrasted with Konata’s image of a caterpillar, clearly a disturbing image for poor Tsukasa! Many Konata jokes work like this: we begin to anticipate what strange image or fanish behavior she will reveal. Miyuki soon arrives and has typically detailed answers, in this case on questions of food, so another motif of the series is introduced here. Yuki-chan will get right to the point with the most effective way to eat the foodstuff under consideration, while Konata’s approach will be a typically impractical and messy.

Without going on too much (probably too late for that!) about this scene, note also that their discussion of strawberry shortcake is revelatory of their characters types as well. Miyuki has a detailed explanation of how to eat it, clueless Tsukasa often gets too full and misses the best bits, Konata (with the energy of the otaku collector) will single out her favorites first, and Kagami, who has not even been fully introduced as a character yet, is described (true to her new-style-tsundere image) as not letting any food be taken from her. More banter then takes place, before the punch-line of he sequence is reached: the long discussion has led Konata to forget which end of the coronet is the head, the very question they started with all those minutes before. The show, therefore, self-reflexively comments on the pointlessness of its own discussions-about-nothing.

To conclude, let’s look (briefly, briefly!) at a more recent episode. By ep. 11 we should be well familiar with these characters, so that their reactions being true to form makes helps us enjoy their various slice-of-life encounters with static electricity. Konata, one of those gamer types who one thinks were perhaps was born with a USB cable as an umbilical cord, is unsurprisingly immune to its effects; her father, in his quirkiness, gleefully seeks out static electric shocks; and the twins, true to the tensions and differences between them as quite different types, end up shocking each other.

If you appreciate these character-types and enjoy their antics, then these jokes will satisfy you. If you don’t, then the humor won’t have its intended effect.

And they are so moe after all =)