40 Fun Facts About Lucky Star

Which pastry does Lucky Star's Konata Izumi usually eat for lunch in place of a normal Japanese meal?

Chocolate cornet is often the only thing Konata eats at midday, and the girls' first conversation about the pastry comes in the opening episode.

Konata leads her Lucky Star friends on a school-trip detour to the offices of which real anime studio?

Kyoto Animation, the company that made the anime, draws itself into episode 21 when the third-years' trip passes its own offices.

Aya Hirano and Wendee Lee, the Japanese and English voices of Lucky Star's Konata, also share which earlier role?

Haruhi Suzumiya was voiced by both actresses, a match the English dub made on purpose so the show's many in-jokes about that earlier series would still land.

In which Tokyo district does Lucky Star's Konata Izumi work part-time at a cosplay café?

Akihabara, Tokyo's otaku hotspot, is where Konata takes the job to pay for her anime, manga and game habit.

Lucky Star's fifth episode closes with Konata's cover of Cha-La Head-Cha-La, the first opening theme of which anime?

Dragon Ball Z's anthem is one of a dozen well-known songs that the girls take turns singing karaoke-style over the early closing credits.

Kagami Hiiragi of Lucky Star, who bickers with Konata yet secretly dotes on her, typifies which anime archetype?

Tsundere is the label fans give Kagami, though in one Lucky Channel segment Minoru Shiraishi objects that she doesn't fit the word's original meaning.

Which real Saitama landmark drew crowds of fan pilgrims after its torii gate appeared in Lucky Star's opening?

Washinomiya Shrine, one of the oldest in the Kantō region, filled with cosplayers and photographers once a magazine printed directions to the anime's real locations.

Lucky Channel assistant Minoru Shiraishi is sent to fetch spring water from which Japanese peak in Lucky Star?

Mount Fuji's forests leave him torn up and clawed, and when his co-host spits the water out for being warm he finally snaps and wrecks the set.

Weight-conscious Kagami Hiiragi of Lucky Star is often seen snacking late at night on which Japanese treat?

Pocky is Kagami's weakness: she counts every kilogram she gains, then eats sweets anyway and frets about it afterwards.

What is the title of Lucky Star's opening theme, which reached number two on Japan's Oricon singles chart?

Motteke! Sailor Fuku is sung by the four lead actresses in character, and its animated dance sequence became a widely parodied internet hit.

Lucky Star's Tsukasa Hiiragi is forgetful at school but outshines her twin Kagami at which practical skill?

Cooking is where the younger twin shines, although she once left instant yakisoba soaking so long that there was no water left to drain.

Miyuki Takara, the tallest of Lucky Star's four leads, wears glasses because she is scared of what?

Contact lenses frighten her too much to put in, and her eyesight only failed because she read in the dark as a child after her mother dozed off mid-story.

What is the job of Yui Narumi, Konata's easy-going older cousin in Lucky Star, who is prone to road rage?

Police officer Yui serves with the Saitama prefectural force, yet she turns into a reckless speed demon the moment she gets behind the wheel.

Yui Narumi's breakneck drive to the beach in Lucky Star parodies which street-racing manga and anime?

Initial D gets its nod in episode six, when Yui, who drives a blue Subaru Vivio, races the girls towards the seaside.

Which Lucky Star homeroom teacher plays the same online role-playing game as her student Konata?

Nanako Kuroi scolds Konata online for slacking and then keeps playing herself, logging in even on Christmas and New Year's Day.

Lucky Star transfer student Patricia Martin, who works at Konata's café, comes from which country?

United States native Patty learned all her Japanese from anime and manga, which leaves her with a very odd vocabulary.

In Lucky Star, what is the name of Minami Iwasaki's big white dog, shared with the creator's own family pet?

Cherry is the dog Minami secretly coaches to stand on its hind legs, and the same pet later terrifies animal-shy Hiyori in the OVA.

Konata nicknames her Lucky Star classmate Minoru Shiraishi what, because he reminds her of a butler?

Sebastian sticks after Konata sees him collecting homework for their teacher like a manservant, and soon the rest of the cast call him that too.

Which pink-haired teenage idol hosts the Lucky Channel segment near the end of each Lucky Star episode?

Akira Kogami greets viewers in a sugary voice, then drops the act for a deep-voiced, chain-smoking cynic whenever she feels upstaged.

From episode thirteen onward, Lucky Star's ending credits show Minoru Shiraishi singing in which visual format?

Live action puts the voice actor himself on screen, singing and hamming it up in place of the girls' karaoke covers.

Lucky Star began serialization in which Kadokawa Shoten magazine, originally launched to cover computer games?

Comptiq owes its mascot, Comp-chan, to the same artist: Kagami Yoshimizu designed her as well as the series.

Lucky Star creator Kagami Yoshimizu draws the manga in which format, which he says suits his personality?

Four-panel comic strips, known in Japan as yonkoma, stack equal-sized frames from top to bottom and usually finish the joke within one column.

Which Saitama city, the hometown of Lucky Star creator Kagami Yoshimizu, is the setting for Konata Izumi's house?

Satte is where the artist's former home was turned into a Lucky Star museum in 2009, made to resemble Konata's house.

Lucky Star's Ryōō High School is modelled on a school in which Saitama city, also home to Crayon Shin-chan?

Kasukabe is where creator Kagami Yoshimizu attended a private high school, and it was in a school club there that he began drawing manga in earnest.

Which prayer items did visiting Lucky Star fans famously cover with anime drawings at a Saitama pilgrimage site?

Ema plaques are small wooden boards for writing wishes, and the fans' illustrated ones carried prayers so odd that the anime itself brought them up in episode 21.

The fictional Hiiragi family of Lucky Star received which honour from a real Saitama town?

Official resident status put the Hiiragis on the town register, an honour that other Saitama communities had given Astro Boy and Crayon Shin-chan's family.

Lucky Star's voice cast staged a concert lasting over four hours at which famous Tokyo arena?

Nippon Budokan, an arena built for Olympic judo, hosted the cast for a show that ran four hours and forty minutes.

What happened to Yutaka Yamamoto, the first director of the Lucky Star anime, after only four episodes?

He was fired by the studio, which announced that he had not yet reached the standard of a director, and Yasuhiro Takemoto took over from episode five.

Which actress, who began in anime as Haruko in FLCL, voices Kagami Hiiragi in Lucky Star's English dub?

Kari Wahlgren's deadpan Kagami was praised by one review site as sarcastic perfection, and it named her its Best Overlooked Actress for 2008.

In the Lucky Star spin-off manga Pocket Travelers, the four main girls wake up one morning to find what?

They shrank to doll size, and the miniature adventure ran in Comp Ace's January to August 2008 issues before being collected in a single volume.

How does Konata's late mother, Kanata Izumi, return to the family home in the Lucky Star anime?

As a spirit, Kanata slips into a family photo, and the shadow she leaves in the picture spooks Konata and her father, who fear they are cursed.

The single upright strand on the head of Lucky Star's Konata Izumi is known by which Japanese term?

Ahoge literally means foolish hair, and Konata's springs from very long blue locks that reach all the way down to her calves.

Most of Lucky Star's main cast, including both Hiiragi twins, share which unusual physical trait?

Being left-handed runs through the Hiiragi household, where the girls' father is the lone right-hander, while Konata can use either hand.

Lucky Star's Kagami Hiiragi is called Kagami after what from the past of creator Yoshimizu?

His old pen name was Kagami, used back in his student days, and he says he had worked out the character's personality long before the series.

Lucky Star first-year Hiyori Tamura is forever hunting for plots for which kind of creation?

Dōjinshi are self-published fan works, and Hiyori's range from boys' love to yuri, often sparked by picturing classmates Yutaka and Minami as a couple.

Konata Izumi neglects her homework in Lucky Star, yet she is an expert at which way of getting through exams?

Pulling all-nighters once earned her an above-average score after a holiday week in which she had not studied at all.

In Lucky Star, Konata takes the Hiiragi twins to which enormous twice-yearly fan convention in Tokyo?

Comiket overwhelms first-timer Tsukasa, who fails to pick up what Konata sent her to buy, while Kagami copes with the crowds.

On the third-years' school trip in Lucky Star, Tsukasa Hiiragi is trampled by which animals after feeding them?

Deer mob Tsukasa on the same trip that sees Kagami spend a whole day brooding over what she takes to be a love letter.

For the school festival in Lucky Star's final episode, the girls rehearse what, set to the opening theme?

A cheerleading routine is Patricia's idea, and she wins Konata over with a ticket to a handshake event for the actress who voices her.

What does Tadao Hiiragi, father of Lucky Star's twins Kagami and Tsukasa, do for a living?

Shinto priest Tadao serves at the family's Takanomiya sanctuary, where his two eldest daughters, Inori and Matsuri, work as miko.