Lucky Star & Air

I've been watching between work, reading blogs, websites and listening to more music the following two animes:-

I'll be finished watching this one by Saturday.

Issued by Bandai in the States in their budget Anime Legends series, it hasn't seen a R2 issue although Beez have expressed a bit of interest in putting it out.

It's in part a examination of high school recollections that must of us can easily identify with coupled with a great parody of the whole otaku take on life, that never ending dash to be be first with the new manga, collecting points at the store, cosplay, obsessing over RPG's that you play overnight when you're meant to be sleeping.

Much of that is shown through Konata the anime and video game obsessed character who is older than the other three schoolgirls who can put so much into that devising grand plans to get around the comiccons and yet completely mess up with exam revision and homework. On the other hand Kagami is the shy, more seriously mined who has a younger sister Tsukasa who is very much the sweet but ultimately air headed one. For moe appeal it's Miyuki, the cute bespectacled friend with an almost encyclopedic memory for the key facts of all subjects

Heck every episode ends with the Lucky Channel segments of hyper presenters and the shows characters doing karaoke style singing to songs from tv shows and animes, all of which served with loads of side-splitting humour and uber-cuteness.

I mean they even reference Haruhi for crying out loud!!!

Here's Lucky Star's very own otaku herself, Konata.

Now this is the opposite and strongly recommended for Kanon and Clannad fans and is issued in Funimations S.A.V.E budget series.The story arcs revolve around Yukito Kunisaki and three girls all of whom are connected.

Air is the sad tale of Misuzu a child who is ill, desperately lonely and abandoned by her real Mom, She takes a shine to Yukito,a travelling children's entertainer with only the clothes on his back as possessions who lifts her spirits and we witness her aunt Haruko who in the end quite movingly makes that step from being an Aunt to being her Mom just as sadly she has only a couple of days left to live.
The day after being taken in by Misuzu and Haruko, Yukito meets a girl named Kano Kirishima and a stray dog named Potato; Kano and Misuzu go to the same high school. Later that day, Yukito meets a third girl named Minagi Tohno, Misuzu's classmate, and her friend Michiru.
Kano and Minagi like Misuzu, both have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. Before long, a legend of "one thousand summers" begins to unfold where the mysteries of the past are framed primarily by the relationship between Yukito and Misuzu.

Misuzu's offer of food and shelter to the destitute and close to starving Yukito causes the lifes of both to change as they grow ever closer sharing dreams of a life lived beyond the clouds. It is obviously that what drives Yukito chasing the story of "The Girl in the Sky". Not knowing when or if he will find her he clings on for hope. His need to find her is so strong and the answers floating in the breeze unfold as the story progresses.
The story arc comes in three parts; Dream (episodes one through seven), Summer (episodes eight and nine), and Air (episodes ten through twelve), with the recap episode (episode thirteen) following. As ADV didn't licence the recap episode for North America originally this dvd misses it off but it's no great loss.

We see hope in the face of adversity, trust even when badly let down and preparedness to do your very best even if it may not be enough.
The dvd adds the Air in summer OVA's issued separately in Japan on disc three.