Lucky Star

DARLIN' DARLIN' PLEASE!

Konata: Okay, let's do this!
Miyuki: Sure, let's go!
Tsukasa: N'gah!
Kagami: Quit screwing around and start!

Imagine Azumanga Daioh meets Seinfeld, on even more sedative with a fair helping of Otaku Bait.

Lucky Star is a Slice of Life manga by Kagami Yoshimizu, featuring four high school girls. The main focus is Konata Izumi, an Otaku Surrogate whose Japanese pop culture knowledge is truly staggering. Drawing on a huge number of Otaku references, Lucky Star is more or less a show about nothing in particular. Notable for being the largest example of the Puni Plush style and its rather eccentric fanbase.

Kyoto Animation used the manga as the basis for a highly successful Anime series, which got acquired for distribution by BANDAI Entertainment, and dubbed with around the same casting as Haruhi... or some of the in-jokes would not be translatable at all. It should be noted that most of the references were Kyo Ani's own additions, in order to cash in on the merchandising of anime in general, mainly from Haruhi. It worked; Lucky Star is currently the studio's most marketable show, with many CDs and video games being made even 3 years after the anime ended. A stage musical adaptation has been green-lit in 2011.

This series also has a character sheet, Memetic Mutations, WMG, Headscratchers, and fanfic recommendation. A Shout Out section is being built to put all the references that Lucky Star makes to other series.

A somewhat bizarre spin-off Manga, Lucky Star Pocket Travelers, was later created and features the four main characters for no discernible reason whatsoever shrunk down to a few inches tall. Cue hilarity.

A different bizarre spin-off Manga, Boo Boo Kagaboo, was made by the creator of Nyoron Churuya-san. It was licensed by BANDAI, but they later cancelled its release.

The anime is now available on Crunchyroll.

Not to be confused with a certain Madonna song, or with the science-fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, or a Paper Mario item, one of the "Chinatown bus" lines operating between Boston and New York City, or anything else named as such.

Tropes used in Lucky Star include:
  • Actor Allusion (Apart from all the Shout-Outs, the voice actors of the primary Five-Man Band in Suzumiya Haruhi voicing themselves at one point or another.)
    • And in the English dub, Patricia Ja Lee as Patty Martin, a character that was designed to be an Affectionate Parody of her.
    • Lampshaded in the second episode with a conversation about how one feels when an anime uses different seiyuu than the drama CDs between two characters whose anime seiyuu differs from their drama CD seiyuu.
  • Adam Westing: Aya Hirano as herself, Daisuke Ono as himself, Yūko Gotō as herself, and many others. Unfortunately, the show only plays with this using famous Japanese actors, so the English dub invariably loses a lot in translation (even though Bandai tries to maintain a pairing of Seiyuu with dubbers).
  • Adaptation Expansion: Although Conversational Troping is the main feature of this series, Shout-Outs are very rare in the manga—twice with Mari Mite, once with Azumanga Daioh, and once with Gundam—and the latter was published in a Gundam magazine.
  • Affectionate Parody: Intended with Patricia. Failed miserably as Americans were not amused.
  • Alertness Blink: Konata has several in a row during the infamous chocolate cornet short.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite / Cheated Angle: When a character faces a different direction even slightly, their hairstyle gets mirror-flipped. A prominent example is Akira's hair in episode 16's Lucky Channel segment.
  • Animal Motifs: Konata (fox), Tsukasa (dog), Kagami (rabbit), Miyuki (sheep/cow), Yui (leopard), Yutaka (squirrel), Minami (hawk).
    • The manga features more sketches: Hiyori (tanuki), Kuroi (cat), Misao (monkey), Ayano (ferret), Yukari (bear).
  • Animated Actors: The cast of Lucky Channel, one is an aspiring anime actor, the other is a fading starlet whose upbeat persona conceals a moody, selfish, cynical side when she stops remembering/caring that she's meant to be acting.
    • In the final episode, they nearly break character outside of the segment.
  • Anime Accent Absence: Although Patricia is stated to be an exchange student rather than someone who has lived in the country for several years, she speaks Japanese just as well as the other girls and with just a slight trace of a foreign accent.)
    • Lampshaded in the last non-Omake episode, when she claims to 'not know those hard Nippon words.' And is subsequently told that she has 'been speaking fluently until now'.
      • In the Manga, the author mentions that Patricia is only fluent on Japanese relevant to her hobbies.
      • The writers for the English dub realized that the joke wouldn't work in English, since Patricia and Kagami are both fluent, so they replaced it with Patricia saying, "I can't hear you! La la la la~"
  • Animeland: Patricia seems to believe in this, Konata is usually just hanging a lampshade on it.
  • Art Evolution: Lampshaded in the Omake of the Manga's second volume, when mangaka Yoshimizu tries to draw the first strip again.
    • Early in the Manga, Konata did not yet have her trademark "lazy," half-closed eyes.
  • Artistic Age
  • Art Shift: The Initial D, Track and Field, and Mariasama ga Miteru parodies, as well as every single time Anime Tenchou shows up.
    • An extreme example of this is when Hiyori falls, and, in an attempt to protect her hand, does a dramatic action roll, changing her appearance to that of a rather manly-looking, highly shaded character.
    • The anime will randomly show transition artwork of highly-detailed characters, completely different from those of the regular show. This is pretty funny when they actually are sitting next to the Puni Plush characters themselves.
    • The Mobile Newtype strips of the manga manage to make the characters even more Puni Plush.
    • The Manga's chapter eye-catches are the characters with the Puni Plush toned down considerably, with more detailed characters to the point of Fan Service.
  • Aside Glance: More frequently, it happens when Konata makes a jab at Kagami.
  • Author Avatar: A spherical cat. It may not be very apparent in the anime, but that's the way Yoshimizu drew himself in the manga omakes.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Taken a step further, in that the girls don't even seem to have buttcracks
  • Beach Episode
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: The similarity of the Konata/Kagami dynamic to this may be a contributing factor to speculations about the real nature of their relationship.
  • Best Beer Ever: Kuroi, during the Beach Episode.
  • Big "Shut Up!": Kagami tends to give only big shut ups to Konata.
  • Blue with Shock: Several times, once notably by Hiyori when Yutaka innocently asked her a ... compromising question.
    • This seems to be one of the standard reactions to nearly everything—many questions and situations throughout the series are reacted to with rage or dread.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: The main series of the Anime ends just as the girls are about to perform their cheerleader routine in front of an audience.
    • But then again, we've seen the same routine rehearsed a few minutes before... It's not like they'd just resort to Stock Footage and add crowd cheer anyway.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Tsukasa is talking with Konata on the phone about something "cute," "stout," "rotund," and that it "looks like a froggie," then cheerfully says "yeah, depleted uranium, that's cool!"
    • This could be a Shout-Out to the Rk-92 Savage from Full Metal Panic!.
    • In episode 24, when they run out of masking tape, Misao says that she'll go buy some. Then she gets told to also buy markers, blades for the cutter, boxes, Playboy, and glue.
  • Breathe on the Fan: Konata and Tsukasa do it. Kagami calls them out on it, but Kagami's father mentions that she does the same.
  • Brick Joke:
    • In the 143rd chapter of the manga, Konata comes to a conclusion to which end of a chocolate cornet is the head, referring to the discussion she had with Tsukasa in the very first episode. Tsukasa points out that it was two years ago.
    • There's another one in manga volumes 6 & 7. In one strip in vol. 6, Konata's graduation prank of putting a love letter in Kagami's desk fails due to Kagami not going anywhere near her desk after the graduation ceremony. In vol. 7, Kou finds it in what is now her desk, and Love Letter Lunacy ensues until Konata happens to mention her graduation prank to Kagami.
    • Early in the anime, Konata decides to give Kagami the nickname Kyou-chan,[1] and Kagami decides that her nickname should be Kagami-sama (Kagami the Great), until Konata abuses it and she asks to just be addressed normally. In Episode 23, Konata uses that nickname again, well after the episode that joke was made in.
  • Butt Monkey (Tsukasa flips between this and the Woobie depending on your sympathy. Konata and even Kagami certainly don't have much issue with pointing out much less academic, athletic and skilled she is.)
  • Captain Ersatz: Tsukasa is arguably an ersatz of Akari Kamigishi from To Heart, which is Lampshaded when Konata gives her Akari's school uniform in episode 4. Another similarity is that between Hiiragi twins and Rin and Sakura from Fate/stay night (lampshaded by Konata's father in episode 10, and by Kagami briefly cosplaying as Rin in the OVA). A further possible example is the similarity of Kagami and Tsukasa to that of Kyou and Ryou, respectively, from Clannad, even including the purple hair. Hell, they practically ARE the same. Tsundere protective, long-haired big sister, and calmer, Always Second Best, short-haired, little sister. These pictures [dead link] testify
    • This is even FURTHER lampshaded in Ep. 16 when, stopping by a bookstore in Akihabara to buy some Manga for Konata, several Otaku start taking pictures of her, forcing her to say, "I'm not Kamigishi." One even asks her to say "Hiroyuki-chan" to further fuel the whole thing. Also, Konata attempts to give Kagami the nickname Kyou.
    • Kuroi-sensei bears a more than suspicious resemblance to Excel Excel, down to the cute little fang, and the suit Excel wore when she was a schoolteacher in Episode 11.
  • Caramelldansen Vid[context?]
  • Cash Cow Franchise: Good grief. For now, let's just talk about the music. Even excluding all the background music (which is packed in with the Japanese DVDs) and the two drama CDs, there are still 31 different CDs out.
    • And with all these songs — like Haruhi — came a concert in 2009.
    • Plus the fact that Satte, Saitama is Konata's house and Washinomiya Shrine is real (with 450,000 people attending the shrine) and that they sell residential certificates of the Izumi and Hiiragi family, wooden cellphone straps, sake, balsamic vinegar, etc.
      • Goes far enough that 1) the city's economy has skyrocketed since Lucky Star aired and 2) the girls are honorary citizens by now. Talk about successful marketing.
  • Cat Smile: Seems to be an actual physical feature for Konata and her cousin Yui. Where she got it from is open to speculation since neither her father nor her mother had it.
    • Been used in more than one Dark Fic as a deformity.
    • Yutaka sports one often enough and Soujiro shows hints of one - it seems to be something from her father's side of the family.
  • Chaste Teens: Four seemingly attractive girls—eight if you include Yutaka and her circle—get no attention from boys. Lampshaded in a Manga Omake where the mangaka flat-out states that there's no romance in this series.
    • Occasionally lampshaded by the characters, perhaps most famously during the Beach Episode.
    • Of all the high school girls in the cast, Ayano is the only one with a boyfriend. And we never see him.
    • And despite pointing out that the dating sim hero always has his pick of about five pretty girls with great personalities that could have anyone they want, they somehow fail to realize this applies to themselves as well.
    • Some of the shallower guys at their school might immediately think: Konata = too geeky, too flat, and too Otaku; Kagami = too bitchy; Tsukasa = too stupid; Miyuki = WE ARE NOT WORTHY!
    • In manga vol. 6 when the 3rd-years graduate, there are two strips focusing on background characters "young man a" and "young man b." Young man a was apparently in love with Miyuki, but Could Not Spit It Out.
  • Cherry Blossoms - A brief scene in episode 15 combines this with Does This Remind You of Anything?.
  • The Chikan: In the manga, Yukata tells Minami no one would attempt to grope her on the subway. Minami, in turn, starts to wonder if it's because of her body.
  • Christmas Cake: Rest assured, Miss Kuroi: you are wanted.
  • Class Trip: To Kyoto, where Konata insists on a visit to the Kyoto Animation studios.
  • Color Failure: Hiyori whites out and slowly dissolves away after staying up all night to beat a deadline.
    • Happens to Shiraishi a lot too. This is also a pun on his name, as the "Shirai" in Shiraishi means white.
  • Comic Book Time: Konata's circle were first-years when the manga started in February 2004, and were promoted to the second year in May 2004 and the third in May 2005, fitting a real-time timeline—and, after that, they were all third-years for the next 4 years or so...
    • Averted in the anime, where they are second-years for the first half and third-years for the second half.
  • Continuity Cameo (The anime has thrice showed the Miyakawa siblings (Omake-only) in episodes 12, 16 and 24, and Hikaru Sakuraba (who was replaced by Shiraishi) in episode 24.)
  • Continuity Nod (The manga acknowledged Shiraishi replaced Hikaru.)
  • Conversational Troping: All the time, normally when Konata compares real life to anime. Here's a progressively less partial list:
  • Corner of Woe (Konata does this when lamenting the cable company's inability to install cable TV, and hence Anime-channels, in her suburb)
  • Cranial Eruption (Generally after Kuroi-sensei hits Konata for sleeping in class.)
  • Credits Jukebox
  • Cross-Popping Veins
  • Cultural Cross-Reference: Minoru Shiraishi: "MIYAGI-SAAAAAAN!"
    • Konata may not know the lyrics to Saiyuki, but most Brits of a Certain Age will know it by heart
  • Cultural Translation: The dub or the manga follows the Japanese text pretty closely (sometimes too closely), but sometimes have this, like translating normal people into "mundanes" in the manga.
  • Cute but Cacophonic: Quite a number of the karaoke endings featuring Konata, but the mauling of the Dragonball Z theme suffers at her hands in the ending to Episode 5 is a particularly illustrative example.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Miss Kuroi's and Misao's best feature.
  • Cuteness Proximity
  • Dancing Theme: Done in full as a cheerleading routine in the final episode.
  • The Danza: Apparently the character of Patricia Martin was originally inspired by her English dub actress Patricia Ja Lee.
  • Darker and Edgier: The normal fluffy nature of the series often provokes this in Fanfic.
  • Data Vampires: Kuroi-sensei's posting of a journal entry.
  • Day in the Life
  • A Day in the Limelight: Episode 19, which focuses on Hiyori Tamura almost exclusively.
    • Cranked Up to Eleven in the OVA, which starts with a chapter told from Minami's dog, Cherry's point of view.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Kagami to Konata.
  • Deep-Immersion Gaming: The OVA.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "Please don't joke when your joke doesn't sound like a joke."
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Go on. Read and analyze the Hurricane of Euphemisms that is the lyrics to "Motteke Sailor Fuku." You will never be able to look at the series in the same way ever again.
    • Also, Konata's attempts to eat her chocolate cornet in the first episode, with it spurting chocolate and her licking the end repeatedly... sheesh, did I just make this page NSFW?
    • In the same episode, Konata's demonstration of the tongue "push and shove" method of getting soft-serve ice cream to go into the cone.
    • In a later episode, Konata lying on her back and pretend-choking on falling Cherry Blossoms. The episode later included a parody on Da Capo.
  • Dojikko: Miyuki. In addition, Kagami asks Konata if she acts out this trope at her job at a Cosplay Cafe, like dropping her drinks (complete with demonstration), but Konata dismisses it as something cute in fiction but just annoying in real life.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • The appearance of many of the extras (Kagami's classmates, Yutaka and her own classmates) at the opening sequence ever since the first episode. Namely, many people wondered what's with the emotionless green-haired girl performing her cheerleading routines along with the other characters before even having any idea of who Minami was.
    • In the show itself, Hiyori's first appearance (see Freeze-Frame Bonus below).
  • Ending Theme: Subverted—the endings for the first half of the series are the characters singing karaoke for the themes to other series. The second half consist of live-action a-cappella karaoke from Minoru (and in episode 16, Hiromi Konno)...
  • Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism
  • Everyone Is Right-Handed: Inverted. Everyone is left-handed in Lucky Star, except for Konata (ambidextrous) and Patty (right-handed). This is noted in Hiyori's character notes where she comments in surprise that Patty is actually right-handed.
  • Expressive Hairpiece: Tsukasa has her bow droop when she's sad and spike up when she's shocked.
  • Expy: Meito "Anime Tenchou" Anisawa may be an expy of Gai Daigoji from Martian Successor Nadesico: both share the love for flamboyant, over-the-top mannerisms and, of course, anime. Not to mention that both a voiced by Tomokazu Seki. The Other Wiki, however, also suggests that he may be related to Domon Kasshu from G Gundam, which is explicitly lampshaded in episode 17, not to mention both of them are created by the same person.
    • Meito is actually the mascot of the An!mate (Animate) store chain.
      • You can tell that he's voiced by Tomokazu Seki just by looking at him, and yes, he looks exactly like Domom Kasshu.
        • Considering that Anime Tenchou was created by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, the god of the humorous hot-bloodness, and that he has participated in G-Gundam's characters creation... Well you can see the relation...
    • The relationship of Minami and Yukata in the show is a straight Expy of Sakaki and Chiyo from Azumanga Daioh.
  • Eye Scream: Hiyori tries out contact lenses, and fellow Meganekko Miyuki is interested... until a breeze blows dust in Hiyori's eyes.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Minoru Shiraishi, at least until after his breakdown.
    • Also briefly during episode 7.
  • Faceless Masses
  • Fan Service: The series is very well known for its sheer abundance of the nonsexual variety. However, there have been complaints that too much of it revolves around Kyo Ani and their associates. The other variety shows up occasionally, but even the requisite Furo Scene is rather clean.
  • Festival Episode
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Konata. A scene from the sports festival episode attests to that.
  • First-Name Basis
  • Flanderization: The Omake in the third volume played with this, trying to flanderize the characters, so Ill Girl Yutaka would spit up blood as she speaks, The Quiet One Minami would only express herself by a piano, Tsundere Kagami would be more aggressive as she one-ups Konata, baseball fan Ms Kuroi would wear baseball suits to school and hits Book Dumb Konata with a baseball bat, The Ditz Tsukasa would have a What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? reaction to food, Yui who Drives Like Crazy would always come with a crashed car, and Gainaxed Miyuki would become Ms. Fanservice. They didn't do this to Konata since they thought she was already flanderized enough!
    • Also a bit of a minor case in the anime, as Kagami sounds angrier in the English dub.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Kagami is Responsible and Tsukasa is Foolish.
  • Foot Focus: One scene has a very strange shot of Konata with her feet right in front of the camera, in a pose that would also qualify as a Panty Shot if she wasn't wearing shorts.
  • Fourth Wall Mail Slot (in the Lucky Channel section)
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Hiyori's first appearance in the anime is actually in episode 12, right before the Animate employees ask Konata what she thinks of their book.
  • Freudian Slip: Hiyori Tamura (yuri Fan Girl) refers to herself as Uke when discussing dodge ball positions before quickly correcting herself to "defender".
    • Innocent Innuendo: Uke is actually the common martial arts term for the defender in sparing. It's use in Yaoi is much more obscure and noticing the innuendo is more revealing then just ignoring it.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: In the Lucky Channel of episode 16, we have seen Akira, supposedly a ninth grader, ordering some "brown stuff" in the karaoke. Although her drinking that was only a sound effect, its effects was unmistakably alcoholic...
  • Funny Background Event: There are tons, but one funny event is in Episode 13, the Valentine episode. A few seconds before cutting to the main characters, we see one boy hand chocolates to another boy, who gets shocked-expression-lines. Later, we see them walking together and talking about it being the chocolate-hander's first time.
  • Furo Scene
  • Gainaxing: Miyuki and Patricia.
  • Generation Xerox: Konata looks almost like her mother's identical twin. Mentioned in-universe.
  • Generic Cuteness: In the manga, the "Tsundere ought to have pigtails" line was, if Kagami cut her pigtails, she would look "utterly forgettable." This explained why Kagami answered "Sorry that I look so boring!"
    • Could apply to the entire case since Kagami and Tsukasa are described as being "plain." Also, most would agree Ms. Kuroi seems to be much more attractive than Narumi, who has a husband, but have trouble finding a husband. This could be explain by 4 things: 1) Her standards are too high, 2) Her personality, 3) The fact that she spends most of her free time playing MMO RPG games, or 4) Her looks are due to Generic Cuteness.
  • Geodesic Cast[context?]
  • Girlish Pigtails: Kagami and Yutaka.
  • Give Him a Normal Life: Of course Soujiro and Kanata were not superheroes, but Kanata said exactly that after she gave birth to Konata. She didn't want Konata to inherit her body and his personality—but, well, we know it turned out to be the opposite of what she wanted.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger (In the opening theme, no less. This has spawned countless parodies. DADADADADA!)
  • Giving Up the Ghost: Konata gives hers up after gaming for 3 days straight in episode 15. In the next scene, Miss Kuroi gives hers up after rushing to class so she wasn't late, then hurriedly telling the class to shift gears out of summer vacation and back to focusing on the start of the school year. She wasn't prepared herself.
    • Hiyori Tamura does this after pulling off an all-nighter to meet her manga submission deadline.
  • The Glomp: Konata imagines glomping a guy one episode.
  • God Never Said That: There's a rumor (which even persists on this wiki) that in a manga omake, Word of God confirmed that Kagami had a one-sided crush on Konata (which of course is prime fuel for the shippers). Except... that this omake doesn't exist, but of course the shippers love to propagate the rumor without ever checking for a source. (The lack of scans online beyond the beginning of Volume 2 contributes to this.)
  • Go Out with a Smile: Kanata in the manga is shown to be bearing an angelically sweet smile as she went to heaven. And right after that...

Soujirou: I wish I can also die this way.
Konata: But what kind of death would come with a smile?
Soujirou: From Moe?
Konata: It's not that you would have a good death anyway...

    • The previous conversation is also unholy Mood Whiplash.
  • Goldfish Scooping Game: In the aforementioned Festival Episode. Kagami apparently pampered and fed the goldfish so much it grew to an unusual size.
  • Gratuitous English: It's used straight sometimes, but more notable is the opening theme, which tends to keep a Gratuitous English-like tone and contents even when, as for most of the lines, it's in Japanese.
  • Greek Chorus: Akira and Minoru in Lucky Channel
  • Hair Colors: Sort of lampshaded in the beach episode: Miyuki explains how the combination of salt and sunlight can bleach hair, turning it light brown. This coming from a pink-haired character addressing blue and purple-haired ones.
  • Hatsuyume: Miyuki points out that the list follows on with a fan, tobacco, and a blind man. Konata wonders who dreams about these sorts of things anyway, what sort of dream will include all these elements, and how many people remember what they dream about that clearly.
  • Heroism Incentive: Konata's father offered her video game systems depending on the rank of school she got into.
    • Patricia pulls this tactic out when dealing with Konata as well. Konata had heard about Patricia's cheerleading request in advance, and was going to politely turn her down. But before Konata could do so, Patricia informs her that she has a rare ticket to see Aya Hirano perform, and what was it that Konata was going to say?
  • Het Is Ew / Everyone Is Gay: In a series with a grand total of four recurring male characters, all who are considerably older than the main cast, this is understandable. Add in copious amounts of Romantic Two-Girl Friendship and Les Yay and this is inevitable.
    • Soujiro × Nanako and Minoru × Akira have a following.
    • One could possibly ship Tsukasa and Minoru, especially after Minoru's ED song "Kaorin no Theme" (Kaori(n) Fukuhara is Tsukasa's seiyuu). Then again, seeing Tsukasa's reaction to "Sebasatian" in one of his few in-show appearances...
      • Then Minoru did a second song called "Emirin no Theme". Emiri(n) Katou is Kagami's seiyuu.
    • Every single character has shown interest in the opposite sex though, in fact the only characters who shown interest in the same sex are the three otaku girls. Kagami and Konata's interactions are played for little more than laughs.
  • Hexagonal Speech Balloon
  • Hot-Blooded: As seen on the page, Anime Tenchou has to be put out with a hose, and even sets Shiraishi on fire.

Shiraishi: This back of mine is burning red!

  • Hot Mom: Yukari Takara, Miki Hiiragi, and Kanata Izumi. (And Miki has had four children, two of them twins.)
  • Human Hummingbird: Yui often greets with the one-arm mode.
  • Hurricane of Euphemisms: The entire opening theme. Essentially, it's an offer for the singer to go home with the person being sung to, and if they both enjoy themselves, she'll let him keep her school uniform.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag
  • Idiot Hair: Konata, although not an idiot by any definition of the word.
    • Akira too, and it'd be suicide to call her an idiot...
    • Yui has a very thin one.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat Konata, played straight and then lampshaded in the same episode.
    • Although it's Street Fighter (Guile, to be precise).
  • Image Song: Only 13 of the singles are actually called character songs, but many others qualify.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: The tour guide (and Shiraishi) from episode 21 is really fond of these.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Voice of the cake restaurant waitress/Comiket vendor/Kyoto tour guide/etc. Sounds odd and a bit unnerving that all these people would have the same husky middle-aged woman's voice. You might recognize that voice as Orochimaru's seiyuu, Kujira. The dub does one better by having most of them be voiced by a male... though it isn't Steve Blum, but Derek Stephen Prince, who does Shino. And even better: at one point, you see six of the very same middle-aged woman at once!
  • Ink Suit Actor: Minoru. Also, Daisuke Ono (better known as Itsuki Koizumi), who replaces him in Lucky Channel while he's off at Mt. Fuji to get water for Akira (and he is still present in the studio when Minoru snaps).
  • Instant Cosplay Surprise (Konata and Kagami in the OVA dream sequence)
  • It's a Small World After All (Said almost word for word in episode 15)
  • Its Raining Salesmen: Anime Tenchou and his employees
  • Joshikousei (Lampshaded in the opening song)
  • Kotatsu: Konata and her Dad asleep, D'AAAWW!
  • Lampshade Hanging (Much of the dialogue discusses various tropes, whether relevant to the show itself or not.)
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Used to absurd extents, in one case intentionally. Other Kyoto Animation properties (and Sunrise's Keroro Gunsou, for some reason) remain unbleeped.
  • Love Letter Lunacy: During the trip to Kyoto, Kagami turns the episode from a comedic to a poignant one when she receives a letter from what she believes is a secret crush. Turns out the guy just wanted a trinket that would be embarrasing to ask for in public. It crushes her spirits, but leads to one of her most heartwarming moments in the show.
  • Lucky Charms Title: Lucky☆Star.
  • Luminescent Blush (especially Kagami in full dere-dere mode)
  • Magic Skirt: Especially during the OP.
    • During the live concert, the camera just happens to switch to a view from behind their backs at the high kick in a cheerleader skirt in the theme song.
  • Measuring Day: The pilot episode.
  • Medium Awareness: In the OVA's Lucky Channel, Akira points out the credits in the middle of the screen.
    • The series theme song is also hummed by Tsukasa during the Beach Episode, and the final scene of the anime is the girls performing the same cheerleader routine they did in the opening, to the theme song.
  • Medley: Behold, Kumikyoku Lucky Star Douga
  • Miko: (Tsukasa, Kagami and their two older sisters. Pretty much inevitable given that their father is a Shinto priest.)
  • Mood Whiplash: While Episode 22 is by far the most notable case of this, this actually happens quite often throughout the series. Konata herself seems to love invoking this trope (it's unclear, perhaps deliberately so, whether or not it's intentional on her part).
  • Mukokuseki: The American girl in the cast is, of course, blue-eyed blonde.
  • N-Word Privileges: The word Otaku is considered degrading in Japan, so in Japanese manga or anime, that word is avoided unless if it's an otaku (Konata, Hiyori etc.) who said it. However, the word is no longer considered degrading outside of Japan, and the Kadokawa-Bandai dub uses the word as much as needed.
  • Name's the Same: in Prototype, one of the Web of Intrigue targets is a Dr. Patricia Martin.
  • Nakama
  • Never Trust a Trailer (The pre-release trailer for the anime was a still shot of Konata's Cat Smile face and her voice actress going "muuUUuu" for thirty seconds. Whether this is playing it straight or a subversion depends on the viewer.)
    • Konata had no neck in that trailer. I think we're all glad that wasn't so in the actual show.
  • New Year, Same Class: Although poor Kagami gets stuck in a different class again.
  • Nice Character, Mean Actor - Akira
  • No Antagonist: There's no evil overlord here, although Konata would like to think of homework, and occasionally her teacher, as one.
  • No Fourth Wall (Konata tends to make asides about Tsukasa to the audience.)
  • Noblewoman's Laugh (Konata in Mari Mite mode.)
  • No Communities Were Harmed: The shows takes place in clearly recognizable locales in Saitama, Kasukabe and Washinoya.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing (This is the best way to describe the romance in this show, as confirmed by Word of God. The Les Yay are very subtle at best and anymore than that is in the heads of the fanboys (or fangirls). The closest thing to hints of romance is the Lap Pillow scene between Yutaka and Minami. On the heterosexual side, there's the tease confession scene between Kagami and a nameless boy, especially considering Kagami's change in behavior after receiving the supposed "love letter" (its not much but that's as far as this show gets).
    • One of the more subtle examples is Kagami worrying that it would be problematic if her pet goldfish came back in human form as a wife-beater, a reference to the anime Angel Tales.
    • Arguably, subverted in the games (at least the PlayStation 2 version).
  • Non-Singing Voice (Everyone in the English dub. For example, during the karaoke box endings, the dialogue was dubbed, but the singing was left in Japanese, so we've got Wendee Lee talking and Aya Hirano singing, and so on.)
  • Noodle Incident: Frequently we hear only the tail end of a humorous story between (usually) Tsukasa and Kagami, usually ending with "It stunk, didn't it?"
    • Probably talking about kuso—literally "shit," but meant parody in East Asian Internet culture.
      • Episode 20 had a scene where Hiyori said "...but I got confused and I was stuck for 3 hours". Stuck where?
  • Noodle Implements: In episode 5 Tsukasa is talking to Konata about something that "kinda looks like a frog." Depleted uranium is then mentioned. See Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick above.
  • Ocular Gushers: Universally applied.
  • Odd Friendship: An unanimated strip in Volume 8 discussed why would Hiyori, "an Otaku in every sense of the word," be friends with "honour students" Minami and Yutaka.
  • Oh Crap:
    • Izumi Wakase's reaction to Hiyori when she spots her at Comiket.
    • The reaction of the people surrounding Patricia Martin as she talks about anime and manga.
    • When Soujirou walked out looking for toilet paper and gets spotted by Yutaka.
    • "Tamura-san! What's yaoi?"
  • Older Than They Look: Puni Plush made every teen and adult to fall in this except Soujiro. And the extreme cases of this fell on the women around Soujiro: his late wife Kanata was 1.43m, his daughter Konata is 1.42m, and his live-in niece Yutaka is 1.38m. Being Genre Savvy, Konata wondered if Soujiro has a case of Lolicon, and knew she and Yutaka would certainly be Fetish Fuel for other lolicon.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: "Look forward to it!"
  • One Head Taller (This is in no small part the reason that Hiyori ships Minami/Yutaka. Minami is 25cm taller than Yutaka.)
  • One We Prepared Earlier (The first episode is essentially as plotless as the rest.)
  • Only Six Faces: One strip lampshades this: Hiyori's uncle read the doujinshi she drew, and while he had no problem on the content, he complained about everyone looking the same. Then Hiyori asked Kou: "Isn't Tsurime Eyes and Tareme Eyes different enough already!?"
  • Ordinary High School Student: All of the main cast.
  • Orwellian Retcon: a minor example: Konata was originally portrayed as a cool Gamer Chick, but was soon changed into a down-to-earth, sort-of-pervy Otaku Surrogate. When the Yonkoma were collected into volumes, Yoshimizu changed Konata's lines to make her image consistent. Because he only changed a few strips very early in the series and Yoshimizu discussed that in the Omake, it is not as unpleasant.
  • Out of Focus: Miyuki slipped out throughout the anime's run (see the Character Sheet). In subsequent manga episodes (the anime only got up to Volume 4), the four main girls themselves have actually gone out, since they have graduated in 2008 and went to separate colleges, with only Konata and Misao going to the same school. The focus in 2010 has more been on a New Generation as well as health teacher Hikaru Sakuraba and school nurse Fuyuki Amahara (Hikaru only made a cameo appearance in the last TV episode of the anime).
  • Parental Hypocrisy: An example with a teacher rather than a parent. Kuroi Sensei plays the same online game as Konata, and has been into MMORPGs since before she was Konata's age, but she tells Konata off for doing that very thing, and uses in-game chat to remind her to do her homework.
  • Personality Blood Types: Discussed. Doesn't seem to be accurate at all, seeing Kagami and Tsukasa are of the same blood type...
    • (Didn't Kagami call back Konata and say something like "Twins can have different bloodtypes and Konata was right", at least in anime version?)
  • Pervert Dad (Though he tends to at least attempt to keep focus on Konata's classmates instead of his own daughter. He does like taking pictures though...)
  • Phenotype Stereotype (Patricia Martin, who has the orange (presumably intended to be reddish-blonde) hair and blue eyes compared to the rainbow spectrum that is the rest of the cast. She's also one of the taller cast members, as well as one of the more, er, prominent.)
    • Curiously enough, Kagami's classmate Ayano has hair a slighty darker shade of orange, and Kuroi-sensei is actually blonde and green-eyed.
  • Playing Sick (Konata used this, among with others, to skip from school.)
    • Which turned into a case of Crying Wolf when she did get sick.
  • Porn Stash: Discussed like everything. Konata said her father does not peek into her communication records since he knew what happened when "people peeps into his D: drive."
    • It's also made fun of in the episode where the Hiiragi twins sleep over at the Izumi residence: Kagami looks at Konata's closet, insinuating that this must be where she keeps hers. Konata responds that since she shares that stuff with her dad, he handles storage.
    • D:
  • Post Episode Trailer
  • Precision F-Strike: On the english dub of the sixth episode, Konata says "BITCHIN'!"
  • Product Placement: Works published by its publisher Kadokawa Shoten kept appearing in the series. The appearance of Animate and Gamers references was not coincidental; some of the series' strips were published in the in-store magazines of the said chains.
  • Puni Plush: Remember, they're 16, not 13 10.
    • The manga tends to have a picture of one of the characters chibified (or almost so) at the beginning and end of each chapter.
    • The manga's Mobile Newtype strips take Puni Plush Up to Eleven.
  • Punny Name: May not be deliberate on the mangaka's part, but Kanata's name means "there," vis-a-vis Konata's "here." This meaning is heavily used in merchandise related to Kanata.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes
  • Quivering Eyes
  • Rapunzel Hair: Everyone with hair that isn't shoulder length has it down to their legs. Lampshaded in episode 8. "But it took FOREVER for you to grow it that long!"
    • "Timotei!"
  • Real Place Background: The most notable case being the use of the Washinomiya shrine for the Hiiragi shrine in the opening credits. It spawned a pilgrimage of fans who traveled to the shrine.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: The ending for the first half of the first season features the four seniors singing karaoke versions of classic anime and idol songs.
  • Recycled in Space: Seinfeld, replacing nasty-and-selfish American adults with sweet and lovable teenage schoolgirls.
    • Konata resembles the Seinfeld characters more than the others.
  • Reference Overdosed
  • Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Hiiragi sisters Inori, Matsuri, Kagami and Tsukasa were all Shinto-related, meaning "prayer," "festival," "mirror" and "priest" respectively. (The mirror's religious significance in Shinto is adequately explained by Kagami herself.) Justified, since their father is a Shinto priest.
  • Retcon: In manga vol. 7, Patricia Martin is introduced as a new character, ignoring all of her previous appearances.
    • Patty had mostly been an Omake-only character before, so Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Returning the Handkerchief: Yutaka and Minami first met through this. However, as Minami was the more masculine one of the pair, this trope was inverted.
  • Running Gag: Whenever Tsukasa gets to do an episode preview, she doesn't get to finish.
    • She always loses her cellphone. And also, "Balsamic Vinegar".
    • The "Doesn't it stink?" conversations.
    • Minami's concern over her lack of... um, growth.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians: Lampshaded, as Hiyori often breaks into a daydream about Minami and Yutaka in such a relationship, and constantly has to remind herself not to think about her friends that way.
    • Also Kagami's dream sequence in the OVA.
      • "I want to gattai with Konata!"
      • It's not clear what she says—she could have been saying "cos-play" instead, which while not as funny, fits the context better.
      • That is, until you see Tsukasa's reaction.
      • Also, she does not mention Konata's name (though the Japanese language tend to leave pronouns and nouns out if they are made obvious in the context). She basically says "I want to co*beep*" or "I want to gat*beep*" (its hard to make out exactly what the beeped word is). Tsukasa's reaction and Kagami's excuses would actually make more sense if she did say "I want to cos-play." "I want to gattai/combine/become one" makes little sense without knowing who its being addressed to so Tsukasa would have little idea of what Kagami is talking about (though saying "gattai" by itself could be considered a sexual innuendo).
  • Schoolgirl Series
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: Fully half the dialogue of the series; the other half is Shout-Outs. In fact, the trope was formerly named Chocolate Cornet.
  • Sensei-chan: Kuroi-sensei.
  • Ship Tease Kagami's dream sequence in the OVA.
  • Shout-Out: Too many to count. One particularly notable one is Konata's gift to Kagami in the fourth episode of the anime: a red armband that reads Brigade Chief. Kagami is confused when she receives it, and says that it would look better on Konata instead; considering Konata's voice actress is none other than Aya Hirano, the same seiyuu who played Haruhi, this little exchange becomes both brilliant and hilarious.
    • ...And guess what Konata's costume is at her cosplay cafe? Haruhi, which again is hilarious since Aya changes her voice to be perfect for the role.
  • Show Within a Show: Lucky Channel
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Konata lampshaded two pairs: Kagami / Tsukasa and Yui / Yutaka in front of Yutaka, saying one sibling "absorbs" attributes from the other. When Yutaka mentioned that to Minami, Minami wondered if Miyuki absorbed something else from her, since the two were pretty close and often acted like siblings...
  • Sitcom Character Archetypes:
    • Konata is the Wisecracker
    • Kagami is the Square
    • Soujirou is the Dork
    • Tsukasa is the Goofball
    • Miyuki is the Precocious
  • Slice of Life: Parodied. Conversations tend to be about ridiculous (yet somehow hilarious) topics such as the proper way to eat a chocolate cornet.
  • Sound Effect Bleep: Played for laughs by Konata and her dad. They censored random words in their conversations about Gund*m, leading to some funny word parfait.
    • Any names of anime, video games, or other media is replaced with a comedic sound effect, like a cowbell or tuba. (Pok*BLAH*on)
  • Spin-Off: Lucky Racer, a live-action sports show organized by Minoru Shiraishi, where he races other fellow Lucky Star staff (and once with Misao's seiyu) in go-carts. Went to a second season.
  • Squeaky Eyes
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix: Something about the cute voices makes this preposterously easy. As such, stupid statement dance mixes amount to roughly 87% of the show's total Memetic Mutation. And it doesn't help that most of the character song singles come with official ones—Kanata and Soujiro's CD avoided this and were given a duet instead.
    • The opening thems song "Motteke Sailor Fuku" itself has about a dozen or so official remix versions ranging in every form of techno, electro, trance, and house music you can think of. Also, Minoru Shiraishi too.
  • Surreal Theme Tune
  • Take Our Word for It:
    • Konata making a funny face in anime ep. 2.
    • Nakatani smiling in manga vol. 7's Akira Nation special.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: The karaoke endings.
  • The Red Stapler: The Hiiragi sisters supposedly work at the Washinomiya Shrine in Washimiya, Japan. It's the oldest shrine in the Tokyo area, and ever since Lucky Star first aired in 2007, otaku have been making "holy pilgrimages" to the shrine during holidays- especially on New Years Day. ALL BECAUSE OF LUCKY STAR. The town's economy has skyrocketed off Lucky Star related merchandise alone.
    • Furthermore, the nearby town of Satte is where the Izumi family lives in the series. The Izumi family: Konata, Sojiro, Kanata, and Yutaka, have been made honorary residents of the town. Kagami Yoshimizu lived in Satte when he created Lucky Star, and after he moved out, the city renovated his home into a recreation of the Izumi household.
  • Thunder Shock[context?]
  • Token Yuri Girls:
    • Hiyori is a Yuri Fangirl / artist, though it's apparently nonsexual for her.
    • Some people assume that Konata and Kagami, despite the personality clash, may secretly be these. Konata playfully flirting with Kagami and Tsukasa after a Marimite session doesn't exactly help her case. Don't forget Kagami's Freudian Slip in the OVA. Word of God says either Konata or Kagami has an unrequited crush on the other, without specifying whom. Konata has said she's not a lesbian, which implies that she might simply be bisexual.
    • Yutaka and Minami are even more blatant, even after you remove all the parts of the show that were viewed through Hiyori's Yuri Goggles. Konata remarked on this a couple times, though it's not entirely clear if she's joking or serious.
  • Two-Teacher School (Actually a One Teacher School in anime. Hikaru from manga's Lucky Channel later ascended to be Kagami's class teacher.)
  • Understatement: In one strip in manga vol. 6, Minami's clothes are scuffed up, and when asked about it states that she "took a notable spill." In the next strip, the "notable spill" turns out to have been saving a little boy from being caught in a traffic accident.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Konata and Kagami can be quite vicious to each other, although they'd probably happily donate every organ in their body to the other if the need arose.
  • Weddings in Japan: One discussion revolves around the religious complexity of a Miko wanting to have a Western-style wedding dress and ceremony.
  • Weight Woe: Kagami.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Anime Tenchou cranks this Up to Eleven.
    • Also Yui's driving and Hiyori's epic Slo Mo midair turnaround so her drawing hand doesn't sustain injury during a fall.
    • And the 24 style presentation of Sou, Yui and Yukata preparing for Konata's birthday.
  • Widget Series: Anybody who has not been an otaku wouldn't understand this show at all.
  • Wishful Projection: Konata assumes a large foreigner is a violent kidnapper.
  • Write Who You Know: Yoshimizu did not designate any particular person as his self-insertion; instead he split many facets of him into different characters. Word of God said the part about Hiyori Writer's Block strips was referring to him.
  • X Meets Y: Azumanga Daioh meets Seinfeld on even more sedative.
    • But since, acording to the Azumanga Daioh page, that show is Peanuts on LSD, that would make Lucky Star actually Peanuts meets LSD meets Seinfeld meets sedatives.
  • Yonkoma: Where it all began.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: All four of the main girls. Lampshaded in the bath scene.
  • You Remind Me of X: Konata's dad makes an, ah, disturbing comment regarding how similar she is to her mother.

Soujirou: "But you know, you feel more and more like Kanata when I hold you. It makes my heart race!"
Kanata and Konata: "Don't just blurt out risque statements!"

    • In the English dub, it becomes this:

Soujirou: You know, when I hold you, it feels like I'm holding Kanata, and I really like it!
Kanata and Konata: You shouldn't say creepy things like that! Ever!

  1. ↑ The reasoning being that both mean "mirror" in Japanese
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