Lucky Star 20
Posted by 0rion on August 27th, 2007 - 9:50 pm
“You are already dead!”
Fist of the North Star reference…I laughed, I cried, I drank copious amounts of tea.
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What’s funny is that I do this all the time. If you wait until the mosquito is almost done, and then flex really suddenly, the mosquito can’t control the flow and the sudden increase in pressure makes them explode spectacularly.
If you’ve never tried it before I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s more than worth the minor itching.
Well, it’s festivals and insect bites for Lucky Star this week. While I was in Japan the miserable vampire bugs left me alone for the most part. On the other hand, the cacophonous drone of the cicadas could be heard from miles away.
Heh, if you’ve never been in Japan during the summer (or some other country that has an immense cicada population) , you can’t fully appreciate how amazingly LOUD these tiny critters can be. They put Harleys to shame in the volume department, not even kidding, and there’s roughly a truckload of them in every tree during August. But I digress…
When you walk into stores selling various otaku themed merchandise, you invariably stumble upon these types of figurines. While in Nakano Broadway I actually purchased a fair number of said trinkets (mostly Gundam figures and one slightly poseable Tachikoma) . I can imagine that if you have a keen enough interest, or brooding obsession as in Konata’s case, you could develop the sort of “skill” necessary to gauge this kind of thing. I myself am far too inept to actually succeed in such an endeavor.
Ever since Densha Otoko made it big, the whole otaku culture has come more and more under the media spotlight. These days it’s actually considered kinda trendy to visit “Akihabara Electric Town” to look for a rare electronic goodies and gawk at the maids and other cosplayers.
Spend any amount of time there and you’ll even see flag-toting, megaphone waving tour guides leading around groups of tourists, gaijin and Japanese alike.
To those who call it “Akiba”, the real otaku, this has been perceived as everything from an annoyance to a violation of their holy sanctuary of nerdiness. In fact, these days many of the real otaku have migrated over to hanging out at Nakano Broadway or, to a lesser degree, Tachikawa.
God yes…don’t we all to some degree?
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…
No comment.
My parents would offer assistance on my homework, but if it was something that was beyond their field of expertise that would usually just revel in the fact that they were adults and no longer had to labor over such tedious things as school projects.
Needless to say, there were many times that they derived a great deal of pleasure from my academic misery.
The people on these shows always have the most over the top, ridiculous reactions when they take a bite. Not quite Yakitate Japan ridiculous, but more so than you might think.
This is especially true of the cooking segments on SMAPXSMAP , where the guest idols invariably go through this whole melodramatic routine. You know, where they take a bite, then open the eyes really wide, hold the one hand over the mouth, look emphatically at the camera and go, “OISHIII~!!”
Now with 30% more shameless Haruhi advertisement!
Seriously, Haruhi’s an awesome anime and all, but…c’mon. Konata’s cosplay was funny. Hare Hare cafe dance was funny. This, though…this is just ridiculous.
Naruhodo.
This also provided a great deal of amusement for me. If you have friends that mimic various gestures and phrases of their parents or siblings, you can occasionally catch them in this act. My friend has a habit of negating things incessantly to make a point. For example, “No no no no no no no no… it’s not that, it’s this…”
At one point he and his sibling did this simultaneously. More “no’s” were spoken in that 10 second period than most human beings shall utter in their whole existence.
Lucky star once again succeeds in its down-to-earth musings and everyday humor. I am getting a bit bored with Shiraishi and his antics, though. I need more infuriated Akira-san. Pink haired bipolar madness FTW.
Hau~! Omochikaeriii~! >:3
Man, I’ll take a yukata fanservice episode over a beach fanservice episode any day of the week.
Love Patricia’s “Domo desu!” I gotta say, all the voice acting in Lucky Star is top notch (with the possible exception of Kujira) , but I especially like Patricia’s voice. Normally in anime, foreigners are portrayed as having either thickly accented broken Japanese, or obnoxiously loud and emphatic speech, but with nearly perfect grammar (think Kaere from SZS, or Lala from School Rumble).
Patricia’s lilting intonation and noticeably gaijin R’s convey that she’s not a native Japanese speaker, but also lends a certain cuteness to her speech. Hmmm…is gaijin the next new moe mode?
Nah…I imagine real otaku not only lack the social skills, they also lack the requisite language ability needed to pick up foreign chicks.
Nanja korya?!
Oh man, I about laughed up a lung at this! Partly because of Tsukasa’s reaction, but also because this totally happens to me all the time.
When I first got one of those regular commuter fast swipe cards, it took me a while before I could consistently swipe it across the sensor the right way. Nothing’s worse than being in a hurry to catch a train, passing your wallet over the machine and trying to dash through…only to have it slam shut in front of you. Then you get to sit helplessly, looking stupid while your train pulls away. >_<
Tsukasa’s predicament with the turnstile gate was priceless. Those things will attack you periodically, it’s like some kind of feral cat waiting to pounce. It can be scary.
And speaking of cats…the first time I saw fireworks in Japan, I was amused to note that they really do have neko fireworks, much like the “smiley face” ones you occasionally see here in the U.S.
Once again I’m impressed at KyoAni’s attention to detail. Even if they’re not colored, all of the extras are well-drawn and distinct looking.
Hehe, and the baby’s waving at you.
As those who have seen Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou already know, Ono Daisuke, who voices Itsuki, is in fact pretty gay looking in real life as well.
Cheerleader Shiraishi = Do Not Want.
Fortunately Kaorin saves the day.
So now is this something that normal humans can do, or are you built like a character from FotNS?
Agreed! Her voice work is right behind Konata’s (in my mind) in terms of unique and skillful potrayals.
BTW, you know those swipe card gates have a manual override from a remote station? It’s a game that security guards play where they place bets on being able to stop a certain commuter, and seeing if their twitch reflexes are good enough to trap just that person at the last second. Ok, I made that up, but doesn’t it make you wonder?
[...] Lucky Star: Pretty much more of the same, but with increased Haruhi infomercials. As time goes on, I am sorely tempted to completely skip both Lucky Channel and the ED. I know that some people think Shiraishi and Akira are awesome, but to me they are 1-trick ponies that were barely even funny the first time I saw them. On the plus side, I like the new characters more than I thought I would, and Patricia’s accent is awesome. [...]
Oh man! My brother keeps telling me this, but I’ve never seen it in action. Mosquitoes never bite me, so I never get the chance to try it out myself *sad*. I tried youtubing it (I think that’s a word), but all I could find was a Tobasco sauce commercial. I recently found out that only female mosquitoes bite… I guess this reconfirms that I’m not popular with the ladies *sad*!
Lmao, my brother used to do this when he bought yugioh cards. The heavier booster packs usually come with holographic cards, or they would be slightly fatter than the rest. He’d stay there for awhile though…
Ah, how I long for more School Rumble! Too bad a comedy like that wouldn’t survive this day and age (I think)
I don’t mean to be a “player-hater”, but Shiraishi can dance a lot better than Kaori. I’m surprised he can shake his goods better than her. Maybe she was scared to see a Cheerleading Shiraishi? Oh yea, Patty’s voice rocks! I loved when she first said her name and “Otome Road” XD
I really like your format of blogging! Its sort of like…er… a sporting event! Its very refreshing to read about episodes this way! In time, I think your blog can (cmon! Can I say it?! JUST THIS ONCE??!!) become “Epic Win”!
(I know this is unrelated but I have to say it! I LOVE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS!!!… as in, highlighting the words in your blog! I’m diggin the orange color! It reminds me that October is coming, and so is ZELDA FOR DS!!! I’m not sure if it matches with anything on your blog (perhaps my new antivirus security suite is blocking something), but of course, I have terrible fashion sense, so its best not to take fashion tips from me! Definitely a nice touch to the site!)
lol, i almost believed you there! It does make me wonder though… I remember using one of those subway cards for those swiping things. It made me feel like I was going to work or something! Haha, what I’m trying to say is that it made me feel really COOL!!!… yea, I don’t go out too often.
I think I can almost recall you actually doing that. I can at least remember you mentioning that it could be done.
…If I had any muscles at all to flex, I might try it.
I second that motion!
I loved the kitty fireworks. They made me squee inside.
And I was wondering what was up with that Daisuke person! Figures that it’d be another Haruhi cameo. The commercial mid-episode was just plain scary. *shudder*
@Kabitzin
“So now is this something that normal humans can do, or are you built like a character from FotNS?”
Hehe, I wish. I think you do have to be at least moderately muscular for it to work well, but theoretically it’s possible for anyone to do it.
The main problem is that it just takes a long time, since you have to keep the mosquito trapped until they reach the bursting point. If they bit into a pretty small blood vessel, sometimes it can be a while.
“It’s a game that security guards play…”
With the number of times that’s happened to me, I could almost believe that. “Hey, it’s have fun with the gaijin time! Quick, close the gate before he gets away!”
@Jesus159159159
“I don’t mean to be a “player-hater”, but Shiraishi can dance a lot better than Kaori. I’m surprised he can shake his goods better than her.”
This is true, but it still doesn’t mean it’s something I’m interested in seeing, knowwhattamean?