So it’s been awhile since I lasted posted something and figured that since my latest anime package just arrived I’d do a write up on 1 of the main things I bought. So here is my write up of the Lucky Star Limited Edition DVD 1 pack.

So no doubt many, if not most, of you have at least heard about Lucky Star. Many loved the show and an equal amount of people disliked it for it’s slow, pointless episodes. Being one of the former, when I heard that this show was getting an english dub I was straight away worried. It may be just me, but Lucky Star always seemed to be a show that is only good if you understood the many abundant culture refrences. If you are new to anime and hear characters talking about Otaku, Moe and “Flags” you would be very confused and miss many of the shows jokes; mainly made by Konata. However I will not go further into this as I am mainly concerned with the package itself and not the content of the show. Onward we go

Collectors Box
Straight away when I opened my package I saw the collectors box that this show comes in. While it isn’t excatly as big as I expect it to be, It is still as impressive. The box is covered, inside and out, with many colourful images of the characters of the show and is visualy extremely pleasent to look at. If you had this on display with other DVDs it is likely to be the first to grab your attention which is a great thing. 1 picture seems a bit out of place though. On the underside of the box (what I presure is the underside) is a picture of Kagami and Tsukasa in rather… interesting… poses with Konata off in the distance looking shocked. This picture wouldn’t be out of place in a form of H-manga which I think is odd for the box art. Still, for some this isn’t a bad thing so i’m surely not complaining about it. Opening the magnetic flaps at the top of the box reveals even more of the wonderful artwork that went into this. Both flaps have artwork on them (including a very nice picture of Konata in a maid outfit. Service anyone?) and the inside of the box itself has pictures of the character’s faces in it which is rather fitting. This box is ment to eventualy house the 6 DVDs that will be released so right now it may seem a bit oversized but that will be fixed soon enough.

Shirt
Now that the box is out of the way, the first thing I noticed was the shirt that comes with this. A white, XL shirt with the winter school outfit (known as Sailor Fuku) printed/swen into on the front. Personly I think that this shirt is something you would only wear around the house or when you are alone as being seen in public with this… well it just doesn’t seem right to me haha. The shirt seems well made so quality wise they did well with this as too. So far that is 2 good grades for this. Next up would be the 2 CDs that come with the set.

CDs
Included is the opening theme, Motteke! Sailor-fuku, and Lucky Star Character Song Vol.001 Konata Izumi. Each CD has 2 songs, and 2 instrumental version of those songs, making 4 songs in total on each CD. Since these CDs proved so popular in japan, it’s very nice that they added these into our boxed set. If you have seen any of the Haruhi Character Song albums then you can expect about the same type of artwork on the CDs that come with this. Motteke! Sailor-fuku is a great song with a very addictive and recognizable beat so this song automaticly gets a pass for me. I havn’t listened to the 2nd song on the album yet so I can’t comment on that. As for the Konata album, it is very unfortunate that the most popular character in the entire show (arguably) has such a standard album. Her songs are decent but no where near as good as what Kagami’s are, which is a shame. Still though they aren’t BAD so this also gets a pass from me. This should provide you with about 30 min of music give or take a bit if you listen to them both back to back.

Screen Wipe
Quite an odd little item burried underneath the Shirt inside the box. This item is a furry little chocolate cornet which I thought was going to be a lot bigger than what it actualy is. At first this was disapointing but what I didn’t expect was that this only houses the actual screen wipe. If you pull on the bit of cloth inside the cornet a bigger, but still small, cloth comes out that you can use to clean your screen or glasses I expect. Just dont pull on the cloth too much as I just did then because the cloth can actualy come completely out of the Cornet housing and then you are stuck with the annoying task of feeding the small thread back through it. Since i’m lazy i’m just going to leave it as it is. Despite it being small and semi-useless (unless you live in a dust filled room and why would you be?) I still think it was neat to add this so again another passing grade.

DVD
So the last part of this goodie filled box is the actual DVD itself. I guess I dont really have to mention anything about the show itself because if your buying this boxed set, you already like the show and know what you are going to get. The box art is very basic and when compaired to the collecters case and CD art, it seems very basic and flat. On the front is a big (and bad) picture of Kagami in a shrine maiden outfit who looks very angry to boot. No doubt this was supposidly drawn by Konata is she is always making fun of Kagami. On the back of the case we have a bit more to show off. The standard DVD seatures menu, episode list (4 per DVD) and DVD extras menu. All basic stuff you would find on any dvd. Incase you have forgotten in the few moments since you saw them last, is also a little bubble telling you what is contained in the special edition boxed set. Quite a pointless thing to add if you ask me but oh well. Inside we have a very nicely printed dvd and a fold out insert that has a bunch of show notes from the translaters about jokes you may not understand, random objects placed in the show and other things such as “Episode 4 – When Kagami can’t sleep, she is reading the novel Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo”. Mostly this is just full of useless info but it is very pleasent to have incase you dont get something. Yet again I give this a passing grade.

Overall
All in all, if you liked the Lucky Star show when you should invest in this because it is well worth it. It may seem a bit expensive but when you consider you are getting a shirt, 2 CDs (which sell for around $15 AUD each) and a screen wipe in addition to the dvd and a special box to keep everything in it is quite the bargin. I don’t regret paying for this awesome show at all and glad to support it. Now if we can only convince more companies to make special editions like this.

I have seen many posts proclaiming distaste for Lucky Star calling it all sorts of colourful names. I personaly loved this show as it poked fun at anime lovers and other culture aspects. For those who don’t already know, Lucky Star was produced by Kyoto Animation which was responsible for the massive hit, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya. Due to this, there are many Haruhi refrences throughout Lucky Star often as a result of Konata, 1 of the characters in the show. Both Haruhi and Konata even have the same voice actor, Aya Hirano, so it should come as little shock when Konata’s friends show up to her work in a cosplay cafe to find her dressed as Haruhi.

While undoubtibly 1 of the best moments of the show, figure designers Max Factory have taken this moment to design what I believe to be the best cross-over item ever. Konata dressed as Haruhi in their Figma range. If that wasn’t enough, they thought it would be fun or something to only make 5000 of these and release them only at Wonderfest ’08. As to be expected of such a popular and rare item, many poped up on ebay and I watched them sell for over $200 US each. Pretty crazy considering that the actual cost of these figures at the festivel was only around $25 US.

Perhaps I was just lucky (no pun intended) but last night I was able to snatch 1 of these for under $100. Still expensive for a figure but being an otaku isn’t cheap as every collector knows all too well. So as the title of this post says, Best. Item. Ever.