review provided by Katie and Andrew
Title: Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series
Director: Yoichi Fujita
Studio: Sunrise
Author: Taketo Shimoyama
U.S. Distributor: Funimation Entertainment
U.S. Release Date: November 19, 2013
Format and Length: DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack / 13 Episodes / 325 Minutes
Genre: Comedy, Parody, Shounen, Supernatural
Industry Age Rating: 17 and up
Overall Personal Rating: B+
Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Lucky Star or Ranma ½
Synopsis:
Ichiko Sakura is a 16-year-old high school student who has always been pretty lucky throughout her life. This is due to her body possessing an extraordinary amount of Happiness energy, which draws from its surroundings, causing the world to fall out of balance. To rectify this, a God of Misfortune or poverty god named Momiji is sent into the human world to target Ichiko and steal her Happiness energy by any means necessary in order to rebalance the world. Will Momiji steal all of Ichiko’s Happiness energy and make her life very unfortunate or will Ichiko grow a sympathy gland and stop hogging all the good fortune in the world? You will have to watch Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series and laugh at the hilarity that ensues.
Commentary:
Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series is a hilarious ride, so make sure you buckle your seatbelts and hang on. It took me a few episodes to actually get into Good Luck Girl! but I am very glad that I gave it some time. I absolutely loved the cat and mouse game between Ichiko and Momiji. Momiji had to realize that any plan she hatches against Ichiko would likely fail and that is where most of the parody and comedy come into play.
The characters in Good Luck Girl! were amazing. There was not a lot of character development; however you are given enough information about each character so that the plot makes sense. Ichiko Sakura is a high school girl who has the power to absorb Happiness energy that gives her beauty, brains, and health. She is very lonely because of her self-centered ego and envies those who are happy despite of having little in life. Momiji is a poverty god who wishes to restore the energy balance and give the Happiness energy back to all the places and people Ichiko took it from. Momiji is very lazy and usually barges into Ichiko’s apartment to eat and sleep. Eventually Ichiko realizes that having Momiji in her life actually makes her happy. I thought the plot really picked up once Ranmaru Rindou was introduced. She is a butch girl who transfers into Ichiko’s class. Ranmaru pushes herself into the lives of Ichiko and Momiji and really makes things interesting. My favorite character of the series has to be Momiji because of how she is drawn. She is one part homeless person and one part country farmer. As I said above, she is the biggest source of the parody and comedy in Good Luck Girl! due to her plans to steal Ichiko’s Happiness energy. Watch out for the huge needles!
There are some ecchi moments in Good Luck Girl! but they are mostly jokes about flat chests and things like that. There was not a lot of fan-service but there was some. The escalation from chase to battle was quick and made Good Luck Girl! more enjoyable to watch. I did not care for the opening or closing songs at all. They seemed very “bubblegum pop” and while it fits with the anime, I just do not care for it. The voice acting was spot on, for the Japanese audio and for the English audio. The ending really breaks out of the formula that Good Luck Girl! has set into play and is very satisfying. While I hope there is a Season 2, I will not be too upset if there is not because the ending was wrapped up pretty well.
Extras:
Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series includes audio commentaries for select episodes, U.S. Trailer and Funimation trailers as special features. The audio is available in English or Japanese with English Subtitles.
Overall Grade: B+
Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series had strong characters and a funny plot. I really enjoyed the parody and the comedy; however I could only watch a few episodes at a time before it got to be too much. But that made the anime last a little but longer.
“In The Radius”:
I would recommend watching Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series if you enjoyed Lucky Star or any other parody anime, such as Ranma 1/2.
