It finally happened.

The characters in Lucky Star are finally becoming appealing at a deeper level than “Look, I said Miyuki’s moe, so she is. Plus, glasses!”.

OK, that’s a bit of a lie. Deeper level != Lucky Star.

But I can finally see where the Tsukasa fanpeoples are coming from.

Hit the jump for Tsukasa, Tsukasa with fan, random MMO talk, Tsukasa and Hawaii Blue, blushing Miyuki, depleted uranium Tsukasa, dirty Konata, Tsukasa, and RAKI CHANNELU~

Anyway, the episode begins with a scene that’s not this one. The beginning is actually a mostly forgettable school scene with the teacher begging the students to be studious over break so they don’t have to bug her, or something.

Anyway, it’s a yutaka festival event, also known as ‘cuteness plus plus’. Even Konata notices this with her usual parallel to dating sims from this. Complete CG material here.

But first we go to the second scene, where Tsukasa ponders the paradoxes of fanning herself. It’s cute in that ‘love the Shift+6 Underscore Shift+6 face’ way.

Also, Kagami continues to be what can loosely be describes as a jerk tsundere, not wanting to see Konata any more she has to (which, incidentally, is a lot). Right. Tell that to the horny fanboys, Kagami. Also, for some reason I felt like Tsukasa got some collateral damage in this scene, as I though Kagami was talking to her at first.

The first of N+1 naive clueless Tsukasa looks in this episode, where N is a large number greater than zero that represents the amount of times Konata talks about MMOs. Or when Konata talks about anything really.

Anyway, where were we? Festival scene. Also, OH SHI~ Miyuki doesn’t know things! This goes against all her moe points so far; despite the cuteness from her panicking over the answer, I’d prefer the database-like Nagato-type any day.

Also, I sound like a complete loser now.

We meet Konata’s cousin Yui, better known as ‘meganekko++’. We need more green-haired glasses girls in anime. Oh, and she’s a policeperson also. Pretend you care.

In the sharpshooting game Yui makes an amusing act out of finding the right Action Pose ™ to shoot from. Eventually she gets dragged off by her colleagues to go ‘work’ (which, as we will find out, does not happen either).

Konata starts going all mischievous when she asks if anything behind the counter is fair game, such as the attendant. I’m not sure what she wants to do if she ‘won’ him. You can make up your own dirty reasons but I have a feeling he’d end up in the basement as a level-grinding slave.

I spy with my two eyes two cute girls with blank stares and Kagami. Context: never use Konata as the baseline for guessing people’s age.

Or for that matter relative cup size physical maturity. Note more Yui subtlety. Expecting her to go all Haruhi in a few seconds (c’mon, we need more references, right?).

Konata almost looks wistful in this scene, which is very scary. Afraid to ask what her definition of romance is. (wasn’t she married in a MMO already anyway?)

o_O dot dot dot *shot*

It actually is vaguely close to what you’re thinking, coming after the cotton candy scene where Kagami picks some cotton candy off of Tsukasa’s face. There’s your deredere side. I can see Konata picturing your generic dating sim right now. That would be a total CG moment. The Kagami x Tsukasa moment, that is. Otherwise you’re going to get thrown into a recursive loop.

Kagami, post Konata MMO spiel again. Clearly she has never looked behind the fourth wall. *waves*

I’m sure this scene was more useful in the context of something, but, c’mon, Tsukasa with >.<
And also, Tsukasa who knows something! That she probably shouldn’t, eh? That would explain her blushing expression. By the way, this is an extension of the Miyuki-not-knowing-the-answer gag from way up there. Sign #1 of the Apocalypse: Tsukasa knowing something that Miyuki doesn’t.

OK, I’m going to go take my dirty mind out behind the yard and rape it shoot it. Dot dot dot.

Anyway, we get to a nice Kagami scene (today is clearly Hiiragi Advancement Day), where she fishes for, uh, fish, that are really scared of her (which Konata, as always, takes note of), replete with Pokemon reference.

She finally gets one. What’s really unfortunate is that we don’t get to see it dying 5 minutes later. It would’ve so fit Kagami’s character.

And now for some fanservice. See, fanservice? Heh! Heh? Heh. *shot, again*

Out of context statement #11: Tsukasa does it better.

We flash forward to Konata during break, which she spends glued to her chair, talking to her computer (seriously, how many people read their chat text out loud?). Also, note Konata’s enthusiasm to get away from the real world. In a serious dating sim, this is where we’d get some plot or something showing why Konata is so detached from reality. Taking her character into account, she just might invent a past to fit it XD

Tsukasa cute meter plus plus. I don’t get all the ‘depleted uranium’ and ‘balsamic vinegar’ stuff, but it’s random, and Lucky Star = random, thus ‘balsamic vinegar’ = Lucky Star.

For some reason the first thing I thought of was the Shiori scheming pose (link blatantly stolen from AoMM, a great site for funny blogs), probably since I’ve been rewatching Kanon recently. It could be argued that the two have some similarities, such as the ‘look at me, I’m happy’ face all the time, and the naiveness (Shiori hasn’t experienced a lot, although she is a lot more poetic than Tsukasa).

Eventually Konata ends up with the Hiiragi twins to do homework, and she chooses Kagami as the source of knowledge, bugging her pretty much every 5 (real time) seconds. I wouldn’t trust Kagami, personally, but that’s just a stereotype that given her personality her grades wouldn’t be top notch.

Also, that pause in the screenshot pictured lasts for a TV eternity. I thought my computer had frozen XD

Anyway, back to the Konata household where Yui comes over to score some points with the gamer crowd, sticking with the fashionable DS rather than Konata’s hardcore PC MMO’s. It can be assumed she’s a casual gamer, but that’s a good type too.

Also, I need to learn how to vent steam out my head like Konata when doing homework. Although it would get rather cloudy in the certain classes from all the stress from everyone XD

Finally, Konata plays with her eyes closed while singing the Haruhi OP. How does that work? Level-grinding must be easier than I thought.

RAKI CHANNELLLUUUUUUU~ OHAYLUCKY!! Super genki genki Akira section time!

Oh dear, I appear to be infected. C’mon, it’s so fun to scream!

Akira seems more extreme in this LC segment than usual, both in her hyper form in the beginning and the pissed form in the end.

Also, in more ‘please shoot me’ segments:
Akira: “when I first started, I didn’t know what to do…but I got lots of help from really experienced guys!”

She mentions that only half her audience is going to understand her MMO talk. I think she is severely underestimating her audience – I’d put the odds at 99.8%, and take the over.

Finally, full version of the Something Something Seifuku Super Hyper Crazy Dancing Opening Cherry Pie Full (Super 1000% sparking Engrish Incoherence) Version is here. Go forth, for great insanity! (personally, listening to it, the first part from the OP is still the best)

-CCY