:Lucky Star Manga Review: Volume 1

The anticipation of arrival:

My heart was set out for excitement, glee and so many other emotions to come with the special time of the morning. Two months had come and passed and now I was finally at the end of half a year wait (the wait as you may guess quite clearly is related to the title in question). The little stroke of amusement had come to mind on the “What If’s” of Amazon failing to finally put its end of the bargain; the two month wait had been annoying (Annoying would be a massive understatement of how I actually felt towards them, but I’m not one to hold a grudge…..except Amazon was part of a short list of entities to bare the mark of my dissatisfaction towards them), but it was finally over as the doorbell rang and it was finally in my hands, to rip apart and find the jewel that was “Lucky Star Volume 1” was now firmly in my possession; it was another four days before I got myself round to reading it, but it was now mine to read and Amazon to thank their Lucky Star’s (Hilarious joke no one laughs) I didn’t go postal for one book.

Storyline:

Here’s a basic rundown of the plot…..It’s a “Slice of life” type stuff. So if you’re expecting a epic plot involving the misadventures of a Sentai team based around the premise of finding the Lucky Star’s of time and space (This being my own anticipation for it after my half a year wait for it) you’ll be disappointed to find out it isn’t, but only be overly pleased to find out it’s something much, much better.

So it’s “Slice of Life” stuff, sounds boring right; well no, it isn’t. What it is and always shall be is a nice collection of amusing events that never feel out of place. “How can it not feel out of place if it’s random?” You ask. Well life is random and we all end up into some conversation edging into amusement and that’s what Lucky Star is about; no plot just stuff happening……but if you want me to give you an idea, here you go.

The manga follows the day to day lives of four high school girls who go about their day discussing the little wonders of life (The cast of characters increases, but not enough to make mention of). The impression of this Slice of Life manga is that it reflects the subtle elements of how amusing life can be.

Characters present:

Ok, time for Wiki to give me the names of the big (Or small, Ha ha ha) four.

Konata Izumi:

She’s pretty much the main, main character to grace this manga and makes for the ideal girl you want to exist in real life, but doesn’t. She is an otaku type character.

http://www.thewordcloud.org/members/profile/1069/pictures/1888/49

The only image I could find of her secret passion.

Kagami Hiiragi:

The angry one and always used in most fan-fiction’s falling in love with Konata or somehow sleeping with her own twin sister below.

http://www.thewordcloud.org/members/profile/1069/pictures/1888/49#/members/profile/1069/pictures/1887/49

If you pretend now, you can put anything in the speech bubble for your own amusement.

Tsukasa Hiiragi:

The shy one……what else do you people want from me?!!!

http://www.thewordcloud.org/members/profile/1069/pictures/1888/49#/members/profile/1069/pictures/1886/49

You can call her the potential idiot of the four.

Miyuki Takara:

The one to remind us all that they’re 17 and not 12; from the simple fact of everyone else lacking a chest while she’s more endowed then a Dead or Alive beach volley ball fighter. So we’re ok to read the doujinshi or fan-fiction to grace the Internet without the nagging feeling in our minds screaming “Lolicon freak!” at us continually, but since they’re 17. We’re all good to get the gentle words of “We’re totally ok if anyone asks”. Her character embodies Moe.

http://www.thewordcloud.org/members/profile/1069/pictures/1885/49

I could be cynical about how this image does not represent her in any shape or form…..there right behind her hands if you were wondering.

Other characters:

There are a few more characters to appear, but they don’t appear enough to have any chance to be mentioned until the next volume is out to buy…..or I could just say I don’t want to ruin the surprise of the other characters.

The artwork:

I could twitter away about how it could have a complex meaning of existence that only few can ever hope to comprehend or I could just call the artwork pure and simple. Don’t assume I mean as being bad simple or pure childish work; I know some will assume before reading on from how I started this part of the review. I can’t fault the artwork in any way from beginning to end; it was a treat to see how it progressed with each page to see the characters design gain subtle hints of progress.

The character design’s in my opinion are pure and simply enjoyable to look at from how easily identifiable they each are in the use of hair style and height.

Humour:

As mentioned the humour is more to do with conversations; so if I told you right now, I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. So I’ll leave that to you “The Reader” to find the manga and read it. And when I say find and read I mean BUY IT NOW!!!

The overall read:

The thing about this manga that makes it different from the rest (And this is based on how I read, which is a lot) comes from how it’s four-panels per chapter. So you may be thinking “Oh so it’s a short read?” well it isn’t from how it has a nice flow about it; in that you want it to last a little longer, so you try reading a bit at a time instead of just one reading to end it. For that reason I recommend this series to anyone looking for something decent (I should use fantastic or amazing, but I don’t want to disappoint anyone who buys Lucky Star based on this review). So to anyone out there interested…..BUY IT!!!!!

“Kagami Yoshimizu” The author of the Lucky Star Manga.