{"id":7524,"date":"2011-11-04T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=7524"},"modified":"2011-11-05T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T15:55:09","slug":"lucky-star-volume-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2011\/11\/04\/lucky-star-volume-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Star volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Kagami Yoshimizu<\/strong> translated by Rika Takahashi (BANDAI Entertainment)
\nISBN: 978-1-60496-112-6<\/p>\n

Japanese four-panel strips are very similar in terms and construction to modern Western newspaper strips, with a fixed cast of characters acting in brief complete gag tales, often building upon previous episodes to comprise a greater mosaic, but often the similarity ends there.<\/p>\n

This rather peculiar (to a fat, finicky fifty-something British bloke at least) compilation confuses, delights, confounds, charms but mostly baffles as it describes the day to day to day trials and tribulations of a small group of small Japanese schoolgirls, their less than completely proper teacher and a few other older – if no wiser – influences who regularly intersect with the all-encompassing world of TV, manga, comics games, homework and dawning social advancement that is Lucky Star.<\/p>\n

Kagami Yoshimizu’s Raki\u00e2\u02dc\u2020Suta <\/em>debuted in the January 2004 issue of Japanese computer magazine Comptiq<\/em><\/strong> as a floating graphic end-piece and page-filler for the articles and features, but proved so popular that a reprint collection was released a year later. The strip soon began guesting in other magazines such as Sh\u00c5\u008dnen Ace<\/em><\/strong>, Dragon Magazine<\/em><\/strong>, Mobile Newtype<\/em><\/strong> and Kadokawa Hotline<\/em><\/strong> and quickly spun off into video games, a drams CD, visual novels, light novels and an anime TV series, and even made the jump to American screens.<\/p>\n

Set in Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture, the individual episodes are in the mild and timeless, unchallenging, nothing-ever-changes mould of Hagar<\/strong> or Garfield<\/strong> – but with far less of their stripped-down artistic and stylistic economy – and follow the daily doings and musings of young High School girls. Sporty \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Otaku\u00e2\u20ac\u009d games addict Konata Izumi<\/em>, cute, bespectacled and dutiful know-it-all Miyuki Takara<\/em>, tough-girl Kagami Hiiragi<\/em> and her kind, adorable bimbo-in-training fraternal twin Tsukasa<\/em> are all brought together under the second-rate, whimsical, but not-so efficient tutelage of beer-drinking history teacher Ms. Nanoko Kuroi.<\/em><\/p>\n

This initial translated tome collects the first 25 instalments (averaging between 4 and 9 four-panel strips reading down, not across, the page, right to left and, since it’s manga, back to front), mostly in black and white but with a few full-colour examples too.<\/p>\n

As you’d expect most of the material centres around the playing of electronic games; dutifully paying lip-service to the absorption and distraction of such upon girls who should be preparing for life and doing their homework, but as the series progressed wider issues (such as dealing with boys), interests (like films, magazine competitions and travelling on trains) and more mature characters are introduced, – most notably\u00c2\u00a0 grown-up and freshly newlywed cousin Yui Narumi<\/em>; a strong-willed but amiably good-hearted police woman in the Traffic Rules Division who might perhaps be quite the wrong sort of role-model for the already slacking Konata.<\/p>\n

The chapters are designated ‘Begin Activity’<\/em>, ‘Older Sister’<\/em>, ‘Unchanging Everyday Life’<\/em>, ‘The Other Side of the Lens’<\/em>, ‘Footsteps of Spring’<\/em>, ‘A Season of New Beginnings\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Maybe’<\/em>, ‘Ideals’<\/em>, ‘Various Appearances, but Contents are Still the Same’<\/em>, ‘A Clever Way to Do It’<\/em>, ‘The Rowdiness Before Battle’<\/em>, ‘Do Your Best, Young Ones’<\/em>, ‘Beginner’<\/em>, ‘Relatives, No Doubt’<\/em>, ‘Play, Play’<\/em>, ‘Bright Season’<\/em>, ‘Full of Memories’<\/em>, ‘When Time Passes, Even Things you Don’t Like’<\/em>, ‘The Other Side, Without the Lens’<\/em>, ‘Preparations for the Cultural Festival!’<\/em>, ‘The Days Until the Athletics Festival!’<\/em>, ‘Personality’<\/em>, ‘Game’<\/em>, ‘Home Visitation’<\/em>, ‘Conditions Don’t Change’<\/em> and ‘Season For Sleep’<\/em>: covering a plethora of topics and situations inadvertently delivering intriguing insights into modern attitudes to school, work, women’s roles and\u00c2\u00a0 the culture and concerns of the nation. For example, Konata is a second-generation addict; working after school at a cosplay<\/em> caf\u00c3\u00a9, staying up all night and sharing all the games her equally electronically-enslaved single parent dad buys – even the adult ones. Kagami is a traditional swot: diligent, diffident and most concerned with best efforts and propriety at all times, but is sweet, forgiving and understanding\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 whilst her sister is an airhead but an excellent cook.<\/p>\n

The strips themselves range from clever and charming to dry and witty to devastatingly funny to bittersweet to, quite often, utterly incomprehensible (at least to a fat old English bloke who doesn’t play video games) but the craft and quality of the storytelling, whilst not perhaps everyone’s cup of tea, is exceptional and indisputable.<\/p>\n

With lots of sketches, illustrated character studies and a handy and informative annotated Translators Notes section, Lucky Star might be just the thing to spark interest from that stubborn holdout in the house who just won’t read any comics at all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n