Slice of life is probably one of the most divisive genres in the anime medium. Not only is there debate over whether the genre itself is worth anybodys time what with the general plotlessness and lack of direction these shows tend to feature but it goes even deeper. Show me any slice of life genre Ill show you one person who thinks its boring as fuck and another who loves it with all their heart. One of the most iconic of these titles is a 2007 anime called Lucky Star a show that owes at least part of its fame to the close connections it shares to a certain cultural phenomenon named The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Like countless anime both before and since Lucky Star was a series about four girls navigating high school while trying to survive both everyday life and each other but the gimmick for this series was that it made constant nods to otaku culture. Ive already reviewed the series proper and while Im not too fond of how that review turned out... Im probably going to rewrite it and several other old reviews at some point... Ive decided to start by reviewing the OVA miniseries first. Believe it or not its pretty uncommon for an OVA special to look the same as its main series counterpart. I wouldnt go as far as to call it outright rare as some shows will have one or two OVA episodes that were never shown during broadcast but fit into the series so well that they just slot right in with the other episodes on the DVD release... Spice and Wolf and 0091 come to mind... But when an OVA is so far removed from the series that its mainly referred to AS an OVA and you can only really find it as a special feature then it gets pretty rare. Normally episodes like this one would either take a different art style... Chibi super deformed the odd CG... And act out superfluous little noncanon skits that really only appeal to hardcore fans of the series proper. Sometimes theyll retain the main art style but explore a new ministory thats usually geared towards fanserviceespecially if the animators had previously been held back by TV standards but they can also just explore new concepts from the mundane to the surreal albeit with a huge budget drop. The Lucky Star OVA... Which the BluRay refers to as JK which usually means Just Kidding in the west Im honestly not sure if it means that here... Is unique in the fact that it looks exactly like the series proper. It was produced and directed by the same people and it was released less than a year after the series ended so I guess it shouldnt be too surprising but Ive seen similar circumstances yield far less attractive results. I cant even compare it to its cousin Haruhi Suzumiya as that shows OVAs were all chibiform. If you squint hard enough you might be able to notice some budget disparities in comparison to the series but even thats being extremely nitpicky. Lucky Stars art style was always simple and aesthetically pleasing enough that it never really had to throw money around to impress people unless it wanted to and that translates here. Kyoto Animation didnt always hit the nail on the head with the series it had its rough moments but by the time the OVA was in production they had long since figured out how to make the franchise look its best and the result is a diamond in the rough compared to similar OVAs. Much like the series itself this OVA has a couple of skits featuring the cast playing an MMORPG together and Im gonna be honest I have no idea how they animated this. Part of me wants to believe they animated from scratch but it looks pretty convincing so did they just pull a Machinima and record a scripted gaming session? Ive seen people online point to a couple of different Japanexclusive games that could be the culprit and while I guess its possible they featured the game for promotional purposes none of the leads Ive found really match the aesthetic of their game. Two reasons I believe they animated it from scratch are that ingame movements are heavily limited and tend to repeat themselves in the background of the main casts talking heads and because everyones avatars look exactly like them. That is not how MMORPGs work. Id like to see at least one series get this right aside from just South Park in their Warcraft episode. In any case it looks just as amazing as it did in the series. Also Ill get into this more later but they change direction style in the final segment and it also works really well. The music is largely the same once again using familiar background tracks that are as repetitive as anything else youd find in the genre but still pleasant to listen to and pretty much entirely distinct. Lucky Star is one of few shows along with Azumanga Daioh whose soundtrack is instantly recognizable. Theres no opening which will either be a disappointment or a godsend depending on whether you find the original Lucky Star theme annoying or notI like it instead they put together a cute intro sequence out of one of the background tracks and its fine. Theres no English dub probably because a couple of characters the studio doesnt own make a cameo towards the end but Ive seen similar situations resolved by recasting before so Im sure theres some other reason. In any case this is one of the few titles I have extensive experience with in both languages so its not a big deal most of the cast is pretty much equal anyway. The only character whos noticeably superior in English is Akira KogamiStephanie Sheh was amazing in this role and the only character who sounds noticeably superior in Japanese is Konata as Wendee Lee did a great jobshe actually sounds much better as Konata than she did as Haruhi but Ive honestly never seen a western voice actor measure up to any character ever played by seiyuu Aya Hirano. She adds a spark of insanity to most of her roles that make even the weirdest concepts sound sincere and thanks to that she plays Konata as a selfindulgent otaku with nothing short of one hundred percent selfawareness. She sounds like shes long since become comfortable with her lazy and unproductive lifestyle and unless shes called out by an authority figure or roasted by Kagami she never feels ashamed of it. There are actors in the dubbing community I think could replicate her performances well but Ive yet to hear Brittney Karbowski Jessica Calvello or Emily Neves voice any of her characters so we continue to wait. Ill admit I kind of miss Kari Wahlgren as Kagami as she and Emiri Kato do approach the character differently but theyre still equally good. Other than that the lack of a dub doesnt bother me one bit. This is usually the part of the review where Ill move away from the technical and production aspects and discuss an anime on a deeper level... Well as deep as I can. The problem is there isnt a whole lot to dissect here. Materialwise this OVA is even more plotless than the series itself and theres nothing profound or intriguing about it not even on a comedic level. I dont want to pull a bunch of pretentious slosh out of my ass but I also dont want to post one of those Golden Goose Egg reviews that spend the minimum word count lumping vacuous praise on a title with no actual criticisms. That leaves me with two options I can either skip this title and review something more meaty or I can get creative and take a new route from what Im used to. Well as it turns out Im a creative person so lets fucking go. Im just going to look at each segment on its own and give my thoughts on them in order. Granted I havent done a sequential review since Oblivion Island and that review kinda sucked but Im feeling a lot more confidant this time. Our opening segment takes place in the home of Minami Iwasaki and primarily stars the Bcast. Ive gone on record in the past saying that in my opinion the core of Lucky Stars comedy is in the dynamic between Konata and Kagami and that the farther you branch out from the core the less funny the series gets. Thus Im not a huge fan of the Bcast they dont usually do anything for me and in the series proper I honestly find them kind of boring. In this OVA however they only get about five minutes as a whole and thankfully the absolute best of them was condensed into that slot. The plot of the segment sees Minami lamenting how little affection her lazy dog gives her which is quickly compared to the reactions Cherry has to all of her closest friends... These interactions are nothing short of cute and/or funny and the segment overall is the perfect way to set the tone for the rest of the OVA. The main cast do get cameos here but Miyuki is the only one who features strongly most likely due to her absence in some of the segments to come. Following this is one of the three most infamous segments an MMORPG gaming session between Konata Kagami Tsukasa and their teacher. Ive already talked about the animation in this segment so for the segment itself its pretty fun. Im not into MMOs myself but Im assuming if you were youd get a kick out of some of the everyday gaming struggles they reference here. All four characters are here for a reason they each contribute to the segment with their own comedic moments throughout and its just a funny segment overall. Following it immediately is the second infamous moment Kagamis dream sequence... Can I call it that? Im trying to avoid spoilers but Im pretty sure you can tell more or less right off the bat that this isnt really happening. Anyway Konata invades Kagamis dream in a twisted retelling of Cinderella that involves boxing marriage proposals and Kagami being forced to cosplay a bunch of different twintailed characters. This is probably the funniest segment overall. So Im noticing at this point that out of the six main segments each of the central four offer a starring role to a different girl... Well somewhat. Even in the series proper Miyuki was always floating just between the main cast and the supporting cast. In our fourth segment we have Tsukasa struggling through a volleyball game with several other characters... Including Konata whos on her team and Kagami whos on the other team and is kind of unintentionally kicking the crap out of her. The weird thing about this segment is that while most of it doesnt do much for me it all builds up to a pretty hilarious conclusion and that does kind of describe a lot of the comedy involving Tsukasas character... Patience is key. In the fifth segment the girls get lost on a field trip and since this is kind of Miyukis segment she has a few noteworthy moments to shine... Sure shes overshadowed at times by the other girls interactions but shes revealed to be the narrator at the end so take that? Ill be honest she deserved better from this OVA. And Im a Kagami stan so I shouldnt care. In the final segment the third infamous one... Well this is what people talk about when they say the Lucky Star OVA is really trippy. Yeah I guess its possible that theyre talking about Kagamis dream but theyre not just trust me. They use a lot of eerie cinematography in this segment... Lots of tilted frames wide angle lens cutaways to dialogue on the screen silentfilm style... Building up to a bizarre cameo and an even more bizarre twist and yeah Im not a fan of this one. Nothing about it specifically bothers me but it really only works on first viewing and any subsequent viewing is just going to raise a bunch of awkward questions. Theres a reprise of the MMO segment and we end on the first ever live action Lucky Channel segment... Which is fine. I never really got into these and when I initially watched the show in Japanese before the whole thing was dubbed Id usually skip them. The only thing that ever made them consistently enjoyable for me was Stephanie Shehs portrayal of Akira. Im not going to pretend like seeing one of these in live action isnt interesting and it did get a couple of chuckles out of me the first time I saw it but it got pretty skippable afterwards. So the OVA on the whole? I really like it. Nearly the entire cast was given a chance to shine with the exceptions of Konatas dad Yui Narumi and... MAYBE Ayano Minegishi? I dont know she might have had a cameo but I didnt notice her. Their absences are felt but considering the fact that were condensing the cast of a 26 episode anime into a 45 minute short its impressive they got as many characters as they did. I actually feel like this OVA was way more efficient with its comedy than the series was but thats also largely due to the fact that its shorter and didnt have as much space to fill. If you like Lucky Star youll really dig this OVA. Even if you have mixed to positive feelings about Lucky Star and think its kind of hitormiss like I do youll still dig it. The few segments I didnt care for were by no means bad they all definitely have something to offer and Id recommend checking it out. Its included as a special feature in most releases of the series or you can easily find the whole OVA online and on Youtube. I give the Lucky Star OVA a 7/10.