Earlier posts from this series can be found here:

• Midori no Hibi Episodes Review I: Episode 1 – 4
  

Midori no Hibi

Episode 5: The Power of Love

Rating: 7/10

Seiji was late for school. The gym teacher was already closing the gate when Seiji was approaching. Seiji jumped over the gates and landed one of his foot on the gym teacher’s face before running off to class.

While Seiji was taking a leak in the toilet, the gym teacher knocked the door open and pulled him out so that he could use the toilet instead. Angered, Seiji gave the door a kick, knocking the door off its hinges, falling directly on to the teacher.

During gym class, the students were playing volleyball. One of the smashes hit Takamizawa on the face, and he somewhat faintly recalled about Midori.

Since Seiji couldn’t use his right hand, he had to skip gym classes. The gym teacher, clearly unhappy, made Seiji do push-ups with only his left hand. Back home, Seiji ordered for pizza and took a drink from the fridge. He mistakenly took a bottle of his sister’s sake, got drunk and was knocked out. Midori decided that he would help Seiji with housework while he was unconscious. However, things got out of hand as various people arrived at his house. I seriously pity how Midori drags him around the house lol

Seiji woke up feeling all fine and rested the next morning but Midori fell sick instead. Seiji skipped school to stay at home and take care of Midori the whole day. It seemed that Seiji skipped the next day as well.

Seiji went back to school after Midori recovered and the gym teacher made Seiji do 100 chin-ups on the poll if he wanted to get credits for that class. Seiji managed to do 99 chin-ups with only his left hand but slipped on as he tried to do his hundredth. Luckily for him, Midori went up and grabbed the poll to help him do the final chin-up.

Episode 6: Shiori’s Love Love Battle!

Rating: 7/10

Shiori’s father and step-mother is going on a family outing, but Shiori says she doesn’t want to go because he wants his father, with his newly wed wife, to have some quality time together. And so she went and got Seiji to keep her company for the day instead. It’s quite obvious that the real reason she didn’t want to go along with her parents is because she was being stubborn about her new step-mother.

Ayase caught glimpse of Seiji and Shiori together and started following them from behind, fantasizing about how Seiji might prefer younger girls and getting all worried and flushed. After taking pictures together, Shiori pulled Seiji into the arcade, where Rin happened to be playing a game of mah jong.

Shiori challenged Seiji to a versus game that looked a lot like Street Fighter. Seiji lost easily since he could no longer use his right hand. However, he started giving instructions to Midori that helped level the playing grounds a little, but it wasn’t enough. Just as Shiori was about to give Seiji the finishing blow, Seiji’s character suddenly began attacking ferociously and defeated Shiori. Shiori jumped up to congratulate Seiji, only to find that he was flat on the floor and Rin had taken over his place.

Rin took the opportunity to torture Seiji to coach Shiori on how she can win Seiji’s affection. What surprised me wasn’t the fact that she had a little girl doing all those weird stuffs, but the fact that Shiori actually went along with it! She even got Shiori waiting for Seiji in the bath!

Midori suggested that Rin might be behind it and Seiji immediately went to confront his sister. In a drunken state, she revealed Midori to Shiori, who then fainted. Fortunately, Seiji managed to convince Shiori that she fell unconscious in the bath and she had dreamed the whole thing up.

Shiori’s step-mom came to pick her up but she refused to go back at first. They got into an argument and Shiori finally let out her true feelings. Her step-mom couldn’t take it anymore and gave her a slap for spouting nonsense, and explaining that she really only wanted to get along with Shiori. Shiori finally realized the truth and became much more friendlier with her step-mom.

Ayase finally picked up her courage to invite Seiji for a movie date. Seiji, being oblivious as he is, fell for the oldest trick in the book about her friend who couldn’t make it for the movie.

Episode 7: First Date

Rating: 7/10

Ayase spent the entire night devising a plan for the date that would help her win over Seiji. Seriously, who is she trying to kid?

Her first plan, the “dress well” plan, failed almost immediately.

Her second plan was the “doki-doki cling” plan, where they would go through an extremely crowded street. Ayase would pretend to trip and fall right into Seiji’s arms. Instead someone bumped into her, and she ended up hugging a Colonel Sanders lookalike statue.

Third plan – “Get his heart by clinging” plan. Ayase had memorized all the best times for the 4 screaming opportunities, but apparently Seiji had better timing. The first chance failed because Midori screamed and startled Ayase. The second chance failed too as Seiji bent down to pick up his falling bottle. The third time was another miss with Seiji stretching back yawning. The fourth and final chance was a no-go as well with Seiji sneezing. Even Midori was beginning to feel pity for Ayase.

Ayase tried to touch Seiji’s hands but instead she was touching Midori instead. Seiji began to panic and quickly pulled over the hand of the old man sleeping on Seiji’s left side and put it over Ayase’s hand so he could pull Midori out.

After the movie, Ayase invited Seiji for dinner and he agreed. But before they head to Ayase’s place, she wanted to do some shopping first – for some new swimming suits. Too bad for her that Seiji rather fill his stomach first rather than watching Ayase putting on different swimsuits.

They were walking through the park on the way to her house when she turned around just in time for the lights to come on, a truly romantic scene indeed… if she didn’t freak out when Seiji pointed out a bug on her shoulder.

In the end, she decided to use her final strategy. Her “You must take responsibility” plan is to tempt Seiji to peek while she’s taking a bath and having him to “take responsibility” over what he’s done. Seiji walked up to the bathroom door as she hoped, but instead of opening it, he told Ayase that he’s smelt something burning. Ayase had completely forgotten about the dinner on the stove and quickly ran out of the bathroom without putting anything on, saw Seiji outside and fainted.

By the time she regained consciousness, Seiji had already left. He left a note saying he’s eaten and left, and told Ayase not to overwork herself. Ayase went all red when she realized she wasn’t wearing anything before and now she’s wearing her clothes. HmMmMm…

On the way back, Midori asked Seiji to bring her to a place that’s special to her. Seiji refused at first but after Midori promised to make him some burger when they got back he totally went for it. After all, even Seiji couldn’t eat burnt stew it seems

Episode 8: Right Hand Seiji

Rating: 8/10

Seiji woke up after being called by Midori a few times and when he opened his eyes he saw a giant Midori staring down at him. He had become Midori’s right hand!

Okay, something obviously wasn’t right here. First of all, Midori’s real body should be at her own home. And where was Seiji’s real body if he had become Midori’s right hand? Anyone could easily guess that this was all part of a dream sequence, especially when the same scenario repeated itself later on, but from Midori’s point of view, doing what she feels like instead of what Seiji would rather do like in the previous scenario.

Seiji’s POV:

On their way to buy clothes for Seiji realized how much Midori must have suffered hiding in bandages. At the doll shop, Midori started to have fun by putting on many different costumes on Seiji. While Midori was busy finding new costumes for Seiji, he noticed another guy slipping his phone under Midori’s skirt and taking pictures. He was about to lose it when Takamizawa caught the guy instead. He then realized how helpless and inconvenient it must have been for Midori as his right hand before.

Midori’s POV:

Midori got second thoughts as the door to the shop slide open and she saw it full of guys checking out the dolls and accessories. She started walking away and told Seiji that she would buy some materials and make new clothes for him instead. While they were talking, Iwasaki, a classmate of Midori, came up and literally pulled Midori away for a drink. While Iwasaki was talking about what has been happening lately, Midori realized that time continued to move for everyone even while she was stuck being Seiji’s hand (not that she would really complain actually) and started to cry. Seiji told Midori to go after her friend after she’s left and when Midori ran out of the cafe doors, the alarm rang and both Seiji and Midori woke up.

Back in reality, they both went about the morning as usual, washing up and having breakfast. That night, Midori was acting a bit weird and when Seiji asked about it she mentioned the dream she had. Seiji said he has the same dream, that he also knew some of Midori’s feelings and told her to not be bothered by it.

After Seiji had fell asleep, Midori wondered to herself why she had cried and what she planned on doing by going after Iwasaki. I would probably guess that she subconsciously realized that she can’t stay on as Seiji’s right hand forever and that she actually yearns to return to her normal life, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to leave Seiji’s side.

Click here to get Midori no Hibi DVD

As I’ve mentioned in my Midori no Hibi Review and Weekly Review #10, here’s my Midori no Hibi review for each and every episode of the series. I’m doing this in the same format as a regular weekly review.

Originally I had intended to squeeze all 13 episodes review into a single post, but I wasn’t happy with how it turned out when I was about halfway done. So I’ve re-done them to be more in-depth, but because of that the length also increased a lot. Therefore, the reviews will be split into 4 separate posts; it will become a series article instead.

So here’s part 1.

Midori no Hibi

Episode 1: Right-Hand Girlfriend

Rating: 8/10

The episode starts off showing a girl, Midori, looking across the train station platform, or more particularly, at Seiji. The next scene shows Seiji in his delinquent mode, taking out an entire gang all by himself with his “Devil’s Right Hand”. It was then revealed that Seiji never has any luck with girls, having been dumped at least 20 times. As he was being frustrated in his room for not having a girlfriend, a girl suddenly appeared on his right hand.

Midori then introduces herself as someone who has had a crush on Seiji for the last 3 years. But neither could come up with how Midori ended up as Seiji’s right hand. Seiji brought Midori to her place and was shocked at her huge mansion. Seiji rang the bell, pretending to be a friend of Midori but was quickly turned away by the maid, saying that the young mistress had left on urgent business.

Two girls approached Miyahara claiming to be Seiji’s fans. Miyahara called and told Seiji about the two girls, and Seiji immediately rushed home. Excited, he quickly wrapped Midori in bandage and told her to keep quiet.

Seiji thought he had it made and invited the two girls in when they arrived, without Miyahara. One of the girls asked to be excused to go to the washroom, and while the other girl distracted Seiji, the first girl tried to attack him from behind. Midori saw this and jumped out to block the attack, smashing the wooden sword in the process. Reality hit Seiji as he frantically tries to remove the bandage to see if Midori was ok, totally ignoring the two girls, who were actually the girlfriends of the gang that Seiji beat up earlier.

Seiji picked up a knife, looking all scary, and scared the girls away. Seiji used the knife to remove the bandage and was glad that Midori was alright, telling her to speak up the next time something happens instead of keeping quiet.

Episode 2: Our Memory

Rating: 8/10

Midori wakes up early next morning and decided to make breakfast for Seiji while he’s still sleeping, completely forgetting that she’s attached to Seiji and drags him around the house. Midori seems to be pretty accustomed to being Seiji’s right hand as she helps him put on his right shoe.

As Seiji makes his way to school, Midori pops out with a brand new dress that reads “I love Seiji” out of thin air. Seriously, where does she have the space to hide all these.

At school, a rumor had spread that Seiji injured his Devil’s Right Hand when he punched through an incoming Yakuza car. Seiji screamed at Miyahara for spreading such rumors which led to a minor confrontation between a Seiji and Ayase.

During recess, a group of delinquents from another school came trying to pick a fight with Seiji. Since he is unable to use his right hand, Seiji decides to avoid the delinquents. Ayase stepped up against the delinquents thinking she could handle them like how she handled Seiji earlier, but was dragged away by the delinquents instead. They were just about to reach the school gates when Seiji came to Ayase’s rescue.

After school, Seiji had planned to try going to Midori’s house again, but instead found himself heading off to save Miyahara who was kidnapped by a bunch of delinquents. Ayase saw what Seiji was up and decided to chase up to give him a piece of her mind about fighting. Seiji arrived at the designated place, but did not fight back as the gang bashed him up, eventually boring them away. When Miyahara asked why he didn’t fight back, Seiji replied that its so that the delinquents would no longer go to their school and bother anyone. Ayase overheard this and was touched.

Seiji and Midori ended going to Midori’s mansion after school the next day. The maid was about to turn Seiji away again but Midori’s mother recognized Seiji from the many pictures Midori kept in her music box and invited him in. Turns out Midori’s real body was in a coma.

Seiji suggested that Midori try and make contact with her real body and see if she would return to normal, but when he pulled back the blanket they both realized that Midori’s real body wasn’t wearing any clothes. Embarrassed, Seiji closed his eyes and stretch his right arm out so Midori is range of her body. As Midori bumps into her boobs, her mother and maid returned and saw what appears to be Seiji taking advantage of a comatose Midori. It was really funny watching an army of maids chasing after Seiji.

Episode 3: The Day of Discoveries

Rating: 9/10

Seiji received his allowance and was counting his money very happily when Midori realized something was burning in the kitchen and pulled Seiji away. And guess who appeared while Seiji was having breakfast… his older sister, Rin. She’s a true horror alright, she managed to sniff out a woman.

Seiji asked what she was doing there and she quickly responded by grabbing the envelope full of Seiji’s allowance. Seiji tried to get it back but was easily pinned down by Rin. She pulled back Seiji’s right hand to mock him about his Devil’s Right Hand, but turned all white when Midori greeted her. Seiji quickly grabbed the envelope which slipped from Rin’s hand and declared his first win against his sister.

Despite saying that it’s unbelievable, she quickly accepted the fact that Midori had become Seiji’s right hand. If Rin could easily take on Seiji who can take out an entire gang, I’m seriously afraid to think of her true strength… Rin locked Seiji in another wrestling move and Seiji would have probably died if they didn’t get interrupted by Rin’s old gang.

Rin then declared that Seiji would be treating everyone to the hot springs and before Seiji could object, she landed a kick flat on his face, which effectively KO’ed him. Seiji woke up sitting behind one of Rin’s gang member’s bike on their way to the hot springs. After seeing how happy Midori was with the trip, Seiji decided that it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

During dinner at the hot springs, Rin and her gang went crazy on the alcohol while Seiji struggles to eat using chopsticks with his left hand, all the while hoping that the night would end without any incidents. Unfortunately for him, the gang members started performing, but it wasn’t satisfactory enough for a drunken Rin. That’s when all hell broke loose as she revealed Midori to everyone.

Everyone thought Midori was a doll and began poking and touching her. Midori tried her best to endure the situation, but Seiji snapped and the entire gang started fighting amongst themselves as Rin snores away.

Early next morning while Seiji was washing himself in the bath, Midori volunteered to help him wash his back. As she did so, the sponge fell from her hands and she used the towel wrapped around her body as the sponge instead (the lucky bastard!).

Rin showed up much to Seiji’s surprised. They happened to be at a mixed bath so both males and females share the use of the hot springs. Midori asked Rin about Seiji when he was a child, and she revealed that he used to be a pacifist, always avoiding fights and conflicts. It was then that Rin trained Seiji to be a fighter even to the point of hypnotizing him to make him believe that he was the man with the Devil’s Right Hand. She seemed rather good at what she does, it only took a week to completely transform Seiji. Although he lost his first fight, he was never bullied ever again.

Midori was extremely happy that she had learned more about her beloved Seiji, although the same can’t be said for Seiji himself.

Episode 4: Secrets Exposure!?

Rating: 7/10

Seiji and Midori was eating banana-chocolate ice cream when the ice-cream fell on Midori and dirtied her clothes. Seiji brought Midori to find new clothes at a dolls shop. It was like heaven for Midori, with all the cute dolls clothes but it was hell for Seiji with all the guys in the shop. Afraid that he might meet someone he knows, he ushered Midori to be quick, but Midori was more interested in playing around and trying out the many different costumes in the shop.

A voice called out Seiji’s name from behind and when he turned around he saw someone who was a complete stranger to him. His nightmare came true when the stranger introduces himself as Takamizawa, who is actually Seiji’s classmate.

Midori continued enjoying herself behind Seiji. When Seiji told Midori to stop it and keep quiet, a curious Takamizawa crept closer and closer, urging Seiji to show him what it is he was hiding. Seiji panicked when he recalled the many bad scenarios he thought up just a few moments earlier and knocked Takamizawa out cold.

The next day in school, Takamizawa slipped a note to Seiji, telling him to meet at the roof during lunch to talk about his right hand. Seiji was certain that he knew about Midori’s secret and was ready to take Takamizawa out on the roof, but it turns out that he just wanted to see the “doll” on his right hand.

Midori agreed and they tried to fool Takamizawa by having Midori pretending to be a doll. And Midori sneezed, sending Takamizawa into a frenzy. Luckily for the duo, Takamizawa believes that it is part of the gimmicks of a foreign made doll and immediately asked for its maker. Seiji refused to answer and took off, leaving Takamizawa on the roof.

That didn’t hamper Takamizawa’s spirit though, and he came up with different tricks to find out and stalked Seiji wherever he went. When Seiji realized they were being followed, he quickly took a corner. Midori insisted on taking a peek beside the corner and came face to face with Takamizawa. It wasn’t long before Takamizawa realized there wasn’t any seams on the Midori puppet and blackmailed Seiji to do as he says.

Takamizawa got Seiji to meet up with him after school the following day. He brought custom made outfits for Midori and has her wear them as he took pictures of her among some flowers. Takamizawa tried to convince Midori to become his right hand instead, but she said that it was impossible, and that she already loves Seiji. However, she still considers Takamizawa as her friend.

Then Takamizawa took out some embarrassing and revealing costumes for Midori to wear, scaring her away. Takamizawa continued to approach Midori and Seiji, who could no longer take it, gave Takamizawa a backdrop, which apparently gave him amnesia and he no longer remembered anything about Midori.

Click here to get Midori no Hibi

I watched this series from start to finish in a single sitting (with breaks for “refueling” my snacks and for toilet of course) yesterday as I’ve mentioned in my previous post, Midori no Hibi Marathon.

There are only 13 episodes in Midori no Hibi, so it was rather short but sweet. I might go for the manga next. But anyway, on with the review for the anime.

What is it about?

Sawamura Seiji is a well known delinquent with his famous “Devil’s Right Hand”. At 17 years old, he has never had a girlfriend before in his life and had been rejected at least 20 times. Most people feared him for his reputation as “Mad Dog Suwamura”. While he was being frustrated about not having a girlfriend in his room, he shouted out that anyone would do as long as he can get one. That was when a girl’s voice was suddenly heard, happy to hear Seiji’s words.

Seiji was panicking badly when he heard the voices and was almost shocked silly when he discovered a girl had replaced his right hand. The girl was none other than Kasugano Midori, a 16 year old girl from another school who has had a crush on Seiji for 3 years.

Although she was very shy and had no self confidence in her real body, she became quite open and upbeat while being Seiji’s right hand. She sometimes pulls of crazy stunts for Seiji’s sake, such as helping him fight other delinquents who were after Seiji.

Midori’s real body suddenly fell into a coma and when she woke up she found herself as Seiji’s right hand. However, she seemed less surprised as Seiji as she quickly adapted and happily accepted the fact that she was now a part of Seiji.

The plot…

Midori no Hibi is a romance comedy as Seiji goes through his daily life with Midori as his new right hand. Because he could no longer fight with his “Devil’s Right Hand”, he tried to avoid unnecessary fights not just because he couldn’t use his right hand anymore but also to keep Midori safe.

Even though Seiji often acts as if he doesn’t care about Midori, deep inside he actually does care and often look out for her especially when she’s sick or when she’s troubled. However, much to Midori’s dismay, he can be quite oblivious to the fact that Midori is really a girl who likes him even though she had become Seiji’s right hand.

Midori likes Seiji because she says that Seiji is really a kind person who has a big heart. While the other students sees Seiji as just a delinquent, she understood that Seiji doesn’t pick his fights just because he wants to, but rather because he has to in order to protect others. Midori also personally witnessed some of these events as she was together with him.

Throughout the series, Midori also discovered that Seiji wasn’t as unpopular with the girls as he thought. There were a few others who liked Seiji but he just never took notice. Midori often gets uptight and frustrated as she watches the other girls trying to make a move on Seiji although he continues to be clueless.

The characters…

The anime put a lot of emphasis on Seiji and Midori with other characters making very little appearances except for maybe Ayase, who has a crush on Seiji as well after he saved her from a bunch of delinquents. Another memorable character was Seiji’s older sister, Rin, although she only appeared in 2 episodes. From what I’ve gathered, the manga gave a lot more emphasis on side characters compared to the anime. But it’s not really a bad thing as it allows the relationship between Seiji and Midori to grow at its own pace and drawing in the other characters only when they need to be there to further move their relationship.

Conclusion

I really should have watched Midori no Hibi sooner. Maybe it’s because no one has really recommended the series to me before so I never really bothered, but it would have been such a waste if I hadn’t decided to pick it up suddenly.

The ending was awesome as well. There are really only a few anime where I feel that the ending is good, and Midori no Hibi is one of them. It leaves the viewer satisfied and content. I wouldn’t spoil it here but I would rate the final episode 9/10.

It’s not as crazy as Ranma 1/2 or Love Hina, even though the idea of having a girl becoming a part of your body is crazy in itself, but it’s still full of entertainment and laughter. If you’re into sweet, romance-comedy, Midori no Hibi is definitely for you.

I would probably be doing a single post review of every episode of the series instead of putting them into a Weekly Review. It might take a bit longer to do since I’m way behind on my reviews after my week long vacation and I wouldn’t want to pack too much into a single weekly review as well. Not to mention it would be much more fun this way since I did finish the series in a single marathon. Watch out for it!

If you’re interested, you can grab Midori no Hibi here.

** Update – You can now read up on my Midori no Hibi episodes review here.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso was held on the 18th of March 2007 in Japan and the DVD recording of the live event was recently released on the 27th of July. Until last week, I didn’t even realize such event had taken place and I kicked myself for it. It didn’t take long to search for it and after watching it last night I immediately made a post about it here.

The Host and Co-Host of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso

The MC for the event was none other than Shiraishi Minoru aka Taniguchi. Yes, he’s also the same Shiraishi Minoru from Lucky Star. The co-host is Megumi Matsumoto aka Kunikida.

The show is divided into 2 parts. In the first part of the show, the entire cast of Suzumiya Haruhi was brought on stage and introduced. Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon) appeared on-stage cosplaying as Char Aznable.

Kyon is… Char Aznable!

The best entrance belongs to Matsuoka Yuki aka Tsuruya, who started to laugh in her trademark (note: evil) laughter from all the way behind the stage until she appears.

“HA HA HA HA! Nyoron! Tsuruyan des~u!”

Even if you don’t know what the seiyuu looked like, it is very possible to guess who is who simply by looking at their actions. The hyper-active Aya (Haruhi), the calm and collected Minori (Yuki) and the bubbly Yuuko (Mikuru). Sugita, on the other hand, did the unexpected and came out as Char Aznable.

It’s Yuki, Kyon, Haruhi, Mikuru and Koizumi on stage!

The director, Tatsuya Ishihara and character designer Shoko Ikeda was also called on stage. Some of the most memorable scenes for each character is then shown and discussed. You would need to be able to understand Japanese to fully understand what’s going on here, but even with my limited knowledge, I was still able to pick up the gist of things.

After that the cast did a skit.

Is it just me, or does Sugita seems to be hiding something under the Char wig and the hat he’s wearing now? Hmm…

And there’s even Mikuru Beam…

The Actual Concert…

Is where the real fun begins. The concert portion of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso started off with Mikuru with Koi no Mikuru Densetsu. I’m not sure if she’s doing it on purpose, but she can’t really sing. But if she’s doing that deliberately, then she’s a real good actor. Otherwise, it’s still good, because we’re talking about Mikuru after all

Mikuru complete with a maid uniform…

I’ve seen many of Hirano Aya’s pictures and videos, but she has never been so hot before.

Hirano Aya as Suzumiya Haruhi doing the Bouken Desho Desho

“DID YOU CUM TWICE?”

Yes, you probably read that right… It said “Did you cum twice too? Feel so dirty!!! I need a tongue bath!”

And just look at the back of her shirt…

While I can’t make out the exact sentence, the final word is definitely “F*CK!!!” Seriously, what was she thinking!?

Minori’s performance was one of my favourite in the entire concert portion of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso, especially with her Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite.

Minori has an awesome voice and she’s gorgeous to boot!

Then Hirano Aya returned on stage… in what at first appeared to be lingerie…

Actually… it might really be lingerie…

Yuki surprised me with a great performance. Natsuko, on the other hand, was great with her voice as Ryoko but her singing was only so-so. But the song was kinda catchy, though. Still, no complains here it was still fun

ENOZ – God Knows

You know what would have made this scene perfect? A pair of bunny ears…

Like so…

A comparison between the performance of God Knows in Suzumiya Haruhi, and the Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso that was portrayed in Lucky Star -

After performing God Knows, Aya goes on to introduce the band members, just as Haruhi did in the anime, before performing their next song, Lost My Music.

The Guys…

Ono Daisuke wowed the crowd with his flashy moves. Granted, he’s not a great singer, but he has great moves!

And we finally get to see why Sugita has been hiding his head under wigs and hats…

OMG! It’s… KYON!

The fans went nuts when he first appeared, chanting his character name in unison. I’m not sure if he’s playing some part of his character, but Sugita seems pretty stiff and uncomfortable during this performance. Aya, on the other hand, was a natural.

And IT happened… The Hentai Trio

Minoru cosplayed Haruhi…

I think I may be traumatized…

Self-declared, the Hentai Trio…

Introducing the Hentai Trio:

• Hentai #1 – Sugita
• Hentai #2 – Minoru
• Hentai #3 – Daisuke

I have no idea what they were trying to do, nor do I think I would want to know…

Hare Hare Yukai

The girls came out for another song before the finale.

The finale, the epitome of Haruhiism, the moment all devout Haruhiist present had been waiting for… The Hare Hare Yukai…

The Hare Hare Yukai

Watching the dance performed in real life by the cast… priceless…

And the final part of the dance…

Pure satisfaction.

Encore! Encore! Encore!

The fans screamed for an encore, and an encore they get. The encore was the TV version of the Hare Hare Yukai, with Sugita and Daisuke joining the girls. The giant screen also showed the full animated dance as well.

Everyone was now in more casual clothing as well.

Everyone getting comfy in casual clothes

You can see the animated version of the dance on the giant screen

… and FINISH!

End of Show

It actually got quite emotional towards the end of the show.

A job well done!

Minori asked for silence as she delivered a special message from Yuki… “Daisuki…”

Hirano Aya got over emotional and broke out in tears.

Aya was so moved, she broke into tears…

When it’s her turn to speak, she once again gets emotional and sobbed through her thank you speech. I think she tried to put the blame on Kyon for teasing her too

Aya’s speech is easily the most touching moment in the entire event. I felt moved as well even though I only understood about 70% of her speech. A truly great end to a truly great event. I seriously hope the event would repeat in the future and maybe to attend it in person if possible as well.

Backstage…

Tears are still flowing… Sobs could still be heard… Aya was really in an emotional fit.

… and Sugita/Kyon continues to tease…

I’ve said before, I would rate this 12 out of 10. A must have for any Suzumiya Haruhi or Hirano Aya fan. Wait, let me rephrase that. You cannot call yourself a fan unless you have this! This receives my highest recommendations!

If for some reason you have not gotten your hands on this, do it now! Grab Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso!

First Impression

I expected Lucky Star to be a load of pure randomness, somewhat like Azumanga Daioh, and was pleased to find out I was right. Azumanga was ranked in my top 10 list of funniest anime, and of course I hoped that Lucky Star would be just as good, if not better.

First thing I noticed was how I find the opening song and sequence to be rather annoying. Not as much as Azumanga’s, but still annoying. However, that annoying op would soon be very catchy and I find myself listening to it over and over by the 3rd episode. Damn…

There’s plenty of food talk in the first episode. Plenty of it. It’s so random, yet unlike Azumanga, isn’t exactly pure nonsense. In fact, I begin to realize that that’s how we would usually end up talking about when a few friends get together for fun – random talks about anything and everything.

Going a little further, Konata is revealed to be an anime fan and a gamer, playing both consoles and MMORPGs. I’m not sure how true is this, but based on my own observation, majority of anime fans are also gamers, and many people I know are both fans of anime and MMOs (me included). If you’ve checked out my weekly review #6 here, you would have realized that I find many scenes, behaviors and responses in Lucky Star to be very familiar. It was at this point that I told myself, “Yes, I know I’m going to like Lucky Star…”

Thoughts

Lucky Star is definitely for fans of both anime and games, with many references and parodies, whether direct or indirect, to other popular titles such as Suzumiya Haruhi (both Suzumiya Haruhi and Konata are voiced by Hirano Aya), Full Metal Panic, Newtype magazine and games such as Street Fighter and MMOs. And how often do you have a teacher who plays the same MMO as you do and is even part of your party?

The episode is usually only about 20 minutes long, with the last 3-5 minutes showing the Lucky Channel show, some sort of an after-show for Lucky Star. The first time you watch this you would be greeted by a typical “I’m so cute” character who later on shows her true personality, which is anything but cute.

You will also never hear the same ending theme twice. For the first 12 episodes, the ending theme would be a random anime song being sung in Karaoke mode by one or more of the 4 main characters. Some of the more notable songs are Dragonball’s opening, Doraemon’s theme and Monkey Magic.

The Characters

The four main cast are Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki. Konata is the main character of Lucky Star and the crazed anime/game fan who apparently picked up her habits from her father… who actually plays age-restricted dating sim games in front of his young daughter. Konata is portrayed as very “under-developed”, being short and … flat… and stuff…

Next we have the fraternal twins, Kagami and Tsukasa. Despite being twins, their personalities could not be any more different then they are right now.

Kagami is your typical tsundere (check here if you don’t know what tsundere means) who also acts as the tsukkomi (a serious character). Kagami, also sometimes referred to as Kagamin, is very hardworking and usually excels in her academics. Even though she constantly complains about Konata, she does try to look out for her and even offered to help Konata with homework. She also likes to play games but is often frustrated because she could never win Konata. Kagami is my favourite character in Lucky Star so far

Then we have her younger twin, Tsukasa, which is the complete opposite. Friendly, clumsy and lazy, she probably fits in better as Konata’s sister. Tsukasa is also very gullible and ends up as the joke on many occasions.

The last of the main 4 character is Miyuki. Miyuki is pretty, smart, good natured, friendly, thoughtful and very polite. She’s also clumsy, has terrible vision, bad at cooking, and many other weaknesses which Konata considers as “moe points”.

Parodies

So far I have seen 2 major parodies of other anime being played out in Lucky Star. There are actually plenty of parodies, but these 2 are the ones that stood out the most for me:

• Suzumiya Haruhi
• Initial D

While there are plenty of Suzumiya Haruhi references throughout Lucky Star, there is one particular episode where Konata cosplays as Haruhi at work. This was especially interesting to watch since both Konata and Haruhi are voiced by the same seiyuu, Hirano Aya, and during that episode she kept switching her voice between Konata mode and Haruhi mode. They also got the same seiyuus for the entire Suzumiya Haruhi cosplay cast for that one episode.

During one of the earlier episodes, there is a short scene that is a parody of Initial D. The cup of water, the track, the script and the character design of the spectators were similar to Initial D. The group that did some of the opening songs for Initial D, Noisy Tribe, also performed the background song that was being played during the scene.

Recommendations

Watch this if you like -

• Anime
• Games
• MMORPGs
• Suzumiya Haruhi
• Full Metal Panic Fumoffu!
• Hirano Aya
• Laughing
• Azumanga Daioh

I can only think of good things for Lucky Star and don’t see how anyone could not like it. You might not get addicted to it like I did, but I’m quite sure everyone would enjoy the style of randomness that somehow can relate to all of us.

Grab Lucky Star