How I Accepted Myself as an Otaku Through Lucky Star [OWLS Blog Tour August 2019: Believe]

Kyoto Animation. We all have that one anime we enjoyed from Kyoto Animation. Whether it is pain or joy, Kyoto Animation has brought to life stories that can touch our emotions. For the month of August, we will be honoring Kyoto Animation and all it has done for art, storytelling, and popular culture by discussing some of our favorite Kyoto Animation series. We will discuss what we love about these series and what they taught us. 

The fire that happened at the studio is indeed a tragedy. We pray for the lives that were lost in this tragedy and the families that are suffering at this time. Fires may be dangerous, but there are flames that burn within us that spark passion, hope, and belief in ourselves.

Lucky Star has a very special place in my heart. Not only is it one of the first anime that I watched from KyoAni (apart from Haruhi), it is also the show that helped me accept myself as an Otaku and in this OWLS tour I want to talk about the effect Lucky Star has had on my anime journey. For those of you who have never watched or heard about Lucky Star, basically it is a slice-of-life anime about four high school girls: Konata, an otaku, Kagami and Tsukasa, who are twins, and Miyuki, a well-mannered and responsible girl. The show explores the daily lives of these girls and the various oddities they experience along the way.

For those of us who have watched Lucky Star, though, the main character that we can mostly relate to is Konata. Konata is a self-professed otaku and is never shy to share her fandom with her friends, even though Kagami gets annoyed by Konata’s ramblings about anime and gaming at times. Despite this, her friends still love her for who she is – which also forms part of one of KyoAni’s most common themes: acceptance.

That being said, one of the other reasons why I love Lucky Star is because of its comedy and humour. The show doesn’t shy away from making parodies out of other anime or video games, most notably Haruhi (in one episode, Konata cosplays as Haruhi) and Final Fantasy (Konata plays a JRPG called Filna Fatansy). For me, this helps make Konata more relatable to the Otaku audience as most would probably be aware of these references in the show. Apart from that, there are also instances where the humour is very relatable to real life, such as trying to submit an assignment online only for the internet to betray you at the last minute!

As someone who is mostly shy about sharing their fandoms with other people (choosing to often enjoy it by myself), Konata is the type of Otaku I hope to become who is not afraid of sharing her fandom with others, despite those who might tease or look down on her for liking these sorts of things. However, even though I may not be as open as Konata, watching Lucky Star made me realise that there was nothing wrong with me liking the stuff that I like: be that anime, manga, gaming, and so forth. This is because I watched Lucky Star fairly early in my days when I was still getting into anime. The show opened my eyes to some of the joys (and sorrows) of being an Otaku and it made me realise that this was something I would definitely love for a very long time.

If you enjoyed Nichijou (another amazing KyoAni slice-of-life series) then you will definitely enjoy Lucky Star. The characters are wonderful and you won’t help but laugh at some of the random and silly topics and situations the characters end up in. In my opinion, it is an underrated KyoAni gem that definitely should get some love!

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If you enjoyed this OWLS blog post, be sure to check out yesterday’s blog tour by Megan from Nerd Rambles. Also, be sure to check out tomorrow’s blog tour by Lita from Lita Kino Anime Corner. For a full list of this month’s blog tours, please check out the OWLS Bloggers Website.