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"You will not understand until you are a parent yourself." -Every parent on Earth

That phrase has been around since the dawn of parenting. If you are not a parent or guardian, then it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for you to fully appreciate the man known as Oyaji (No, having a pet doesn't count. Seriously.) At first glance, you would think, "Oh, this is just another family drama. Nothing new." or "Oh, this is about a badass, manly man." You are very, VERY wrong. This is NOT about how badass you can be. It is NOT a soap opera. This is an artistic portrayal of EVERY loving ... parent in the world. This is the feeling we all share towards our kids. Oyaji is the embodiment of sacrifice. You will never understand parenting until you have learn to sacrifice for your child, whether it be time, energy or even blood.

This manga utilizes two ways to portray parenthood: The art and the story.
The art is the surface of what people will see and experience day by day. It represents the difficulties, the roughness, the ugliness of raising a child. I once saw countless people berating the author's art style, but perhaps it was the author's intention. Oyaji isn't presented to charm you with flowery art, but lay down bare the reality of life. Both the actions and emotions are exposed. You will see everything. The scrunched up face of a crying mother, the terror of a young man, the joy of a united family, the pride of a father. Hopefully the art doesn't deter you from reading this masterpiece. (Yeah, I said it. It's a masterpiece.) You would regret not reading this, especially if you're a parent or guardian.

Secondly, the story. The story is what we want in the long run. It's moving. It's powerful. It's inspiring. The author doesn't allow the father to be invincible, all knowing nor flawless. Every parent is just like Oyaji. We have flaws and fears. Our worries makes us vulnerable. We hide it and harden ourselves to ease the minds of our children. We all hope that someday, when our kids are old enough to face the world, maybe they can sit down at the table and listen to everything that we've suppressed to not only guide them, but to restore our sanity.

Oyaji is a tragic character. He endured hardships since he was born, but through these hardships, Oyaji, both in childhood and adulthood, have given us a few valuable lessons. My advice will not be the 'be all, end all.' The times will change. The world will change. I might give the wrong advice, my kids probably won't follow my words, or maybe they will be in a situation that I'm not familiar with. But no matter what, they must face their problems with courage. Oyaji has taught me that courage is timeless.

Unconditional love isn't full of kisses, sunshines and rainbows. Sometimes love means you punch someone in the face and wake them up from their delusions, so that they can learn to stand up and face their fears. Sometimes love can be harsh truths rather than comfort lies. Sometimes love means letting yourself become transparent, even just a little, to reach a new understanding. Sometimes love means you have to let go of your children's hands, while other times you chase after them with everything you've got.
Oyaji has taught me that people express love in many ways, but love will always be love.

Years ago, I read and appreciate Oyaji as a man. Now, I've read and respect him as a father.
Please give this a read. I guarantee you that Oyaji will guide you toward a meaningful life, just like the knuckles of his fists.

TL;DR version: Lucky☆Star is the anime equivalent of a white noise machine.

Long version:
I've put off Lucky Star for a very long time.
Honestly speaking, my younger teenage self in the late 2000's would have bashed the crap out of this series and probably rate it a 2 or something, but we're not asking what younger me thinks. Younger me is a dumbass after all.

Present me in his mid to late 20's somewhat enjoyed LS.
The thing about Lucky Star is that it's not supposed to be over-the-top entertaining (in the main show anyways, as opposed to Lucky Channel, but we'll get to that later). Lucky Star is ... very mellow in atmosphere, even the background music is consistent, simple and kept at the minimum to maintain that mellow feeling. There are no major conflicts or fantastical point in a plot. Only about 2 episodes out of 24 does it show a serious tone. It's not necessarily something you binge watch (although I did, but whatever). The layout of each episode can vary, but once again, for approximately three quarters of the show, it's very tranquil and relaxing in nature. So if you're more about adrenaline fueled excitement and burst out laughing, or full on cry or rage, this show isn't for you.

Most of the characters aren't as expressive and entertaining as you might think, contrary to how the opening song has portrayed them. A lot of their conversations revolve around mundane activities, situations and objects. In a way, it makes you, the audience, feel like you are the third wheel amongst a group of friends. You listen to their complaints or thoughts, but don't really input your own, making some episodes extremely hard and boring to watch (most notably, episode 1 and their "food talk"). At least, that's the way it is for me.
The characters barely have much personality. Besides Izumi and a few others, all of the characters are really bland. I was disappointed that new side characters gets introduced RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the series. Sadly, they're a bit more interesting than the main girls we are used to seeing (with the exception of Izumi of course). Izumi unfortunately has the responsibility of pulling the main show together with her geeky personality, but when you have the slightly more interesting of the bland bunch trying to make the show entertaining, you're gonna have a bad time. I like Izumi, but even she isn't that amazing as a character.

Its humor heavily uses references, some of it VERY obscure unless you're well-versed in said reference. The core of their humor is how the topic relates to the audience. LS is too reliant on the audience's understanding of the characters' plight, which doesn't make good entertainment and causes the delivery to be quite weak, although a few did catch me by surprise and I actually laughed. A joke won't unfold itself without a good delivery. However, giving credit where it's due, it's actually quite original in a sense as well. I did enjoy the few running gags that they've installed, like how the nameless side characters all have the same distinctive voice of a middle aged man or an old woman, no matter their actual age. I've also enjoyed how they handle the ending songs and the use of live action. Half of the time they're hits or misses.

Finally, Lucky Channel. The Lucky Channel segments have their ups and downs. It's the complete opposite in atmosphere and the characters are, in my opinion, overly expressive and the transition from Lucky Star to Lucky Channel just ruins the flow of the show. First Lucky Star puts me in a relaxed state, then immediately slaps me with the ostentatious Akira of Lucky Channel is just a terrible transition between scenes. If Lucky Channel was somehow made into a separate side story, then I would be fine with. The only thing I like about Lucky Channel was the interaction between the anchors and their development, but even that can only be tolerated for a certain amount of episodes before you grow tired of it.

All in all, Lucky☆Star is pretty average. It's a 6 at best and a 3 at worst.

TL;DR Version: This anime is SHIT! It's just random for the sake of being random, not for laughs.

Semi-long Version:
First of all, don't listen to the people who say, "if you take so-and-so seriously, you don't understand this show's comedy." They're just trying to justify their pretentious attitude and make you out to look like a fool. For comedy in general, you NEVER take it seriously. You just go in and if the jokes fall under your personal preference, you laugh. If you don't, you don't. THAT is what comedy's about. I don't need to be reminded that the show's a comedy. It's just not MY ... kind of comedy.

Now that that's out of the way, in my opinion, this is one of the worst anime I've ever seen. It has a poor attempt to showcase Japan's bread-and-butter of comedy, Manzai. Manzai doesn't have to have a main plot or buildup to be funny. It can be just as random as the show has tried to do when it was airing. The only problem is that to me, the execution and timing is REALLY off and it just comes in waves that misses more than it hits.

What I've noticed is that when a joke or gag comes up, it's very "in your face" and it has this same feeling as when a waiter comes up and asks if you need anything right when you have food in your mouth. That's exactly how I felt every episode. It's just awkwardly placed and I get irritated more than I smile and that's never a good sign for a comedy show. The high points of the show caused me to chuckle and that's only a FEW times for a full show of 76 episodes. SEVENTY SIX!!! That is PATHETIC! I full on laughed about several hundred times more when I watch Daily Life of High School Boys and it only has 12 episodes total and is just as random! There is no excuse for it to fail like it did the entire run.

The main plot about a guy with hair based fighting style to defeat an evil empire of bald people is ripe with material, but this was a failed opportunity. It's like they're trying to be original by throwing out every possible jokes they could come up with before another anime could attempt it. I'm not saying that I could write better jokes, but this doesn't deserve anything above a 7. Hell, even a rating of 4 is too generous in my opinion.

If you like Bobobo's style of comedy, more power to you because it has 76 episodes of YOUR kind of comedy. I'll just stick to something better.

(Reposted due to the fact that I apparently didn't watch enough of this crap to be allowed to post a review, even though EVERY EPISODE utilizes the same shitty format. That's right, I jumped a few episodes since it's so random that it doesn't matter if I watch it chronologically and I still get that bad taste in my mouth.)