Lucky Star, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Kagami Yoshimizu (Author, Artist)

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (June 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604961120
• ISBN-13: 978-1604961126
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cute "new" series!, July 28, 2010

By 

ChibiNeko "Sooo many books, so little time!" (Whereever I go, here I am.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lucky Star, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I put new in quotation marks because while it is new to me, the series has been around for quite a while already. Even before the manga & anime hit the US shores commercially, there was already a big fan base for this series.

Detailing the plot for this series is a little difficult, as there's really no huge story to unwind or events to expect. The series follows a group of high school girls, all of whom have wonderfully distinct personalities. The most notable of the group is Konata, one of the main characters of the series. She's 100% otaku through & through, having been raised from an early age in an otaku-rich environment.

I'd heard so much hype from various fans of the series that I figured that it was time to pick up the series to check it out. I loved the 4 panel format of the series. If you are going to make a gag series, it is better to use a brief format in order to keep from overwhelming the audience. I also loved the artwork- it's incredibly cute & makes many of the actions of the group pretty endearing.

The only negative thing I will really say about the series is that I wasn't able to finish the volume in one sitting. While I enjoyed & appreciated the humor in the series, after a while the slapstick & humor sort of grated on me. This is something I'd recommend to people, but it isn't something that I recommend downing in one gulp. The series was initially intended to be read as a weekly strip, so stretching the book out over a few days is recommended. (Then you can go back & read it all in one gulp!)

I'm going to be collecting the rest of the series, but I recommend that if you aren't familiar with the series then you should probably read it in the store before making a final decision.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unworried, Carefree, and Relaxed Series, June 23, 2010

By 

GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lucky Star, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Lucky Star is pretty different from a lot of the manga out there. Instead of having a central plot or nail-biting predicaments, it's about the laid-back life of four high-school girls as they go about their lackadaisical lives. Much of the appeal lies in the quirky characters and their love for otaku things like anime, manga, and video games. (Otaku refers to someone obsessed with these things.) Otaku is usually used as a badge of self-pride, though sometimes it can be used as an insult, but, in the case of Lucky Star, it's shown more as easygoing humor.

The very first page starts with Konata showing off her amazing sports abilities, then insisting she can't join a sports team because she'll miss her anime shows. She's very matter-of-fact in this. It moves on to a semiheated discussion on how it's best to eat a choco-cornet. Which side is the starting side? Lucky Star revels in pointlessness and making humor out of pointlessness. The back of the first volume describes it as a "leisure" read, and that's a good way of putting it. It's an unworried, carefree, and relaxed series.

Someone wanting a plot probably won't find much use in this series. However, its success, and the success of the anime version, shows that many people find it charming. This seems to be especially true with people who consider themselves otaku. While otakudom is poked fun at, it's also shown as an important way of life. More than once, Konata's friends remark to her that if she put her concentration into studying instead of anime, manga, and video games, she'd really shine in school. That doesn't mean she listens, and even if her study habits aren't recommendable, they're relatable to many people.

Each page consists of eight panels neatly lined up. They're read downward, not sideways, and titles above each column make that easy to figure out. This is an unusual, though not unheard of, way to format a manga. While mostly in black and white, each volume gets a few colored pages mixed in there. The girls very much look like a stereotype of manga--huge eyes, unrealistic hair colors, and absolutely cartoony. They don't look like real girls at all, and this seems to be the point. They look like the very anime and manga characters they can be so into.


Lucky Star has been a fairly big name in manga and anime the last few years. It offers up otaku jokes and accessible light reading as it travels along with four high-school girls and all their foibles and high jinks.
-- Danica Davidson

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Azumanga Daioh..., April 6, 2010

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lucky Star, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Lucky Star reminds me of Azumanga Daioh. School girl life. Teachers and adults who are not anywhere as mature as they should be. Four panel comic stripe. Funny and mostly clean humor about daily life, with some adult jokes. Maybe not as funny as Azumanga Daioh, but it also has a hit anime out there, so it must be doing something right. If you have no idea what Azumanga Daioh means, you should check it out also. See Azumanga Daioh Volume 1 for details.