(You'll have to forgive me for not providing any images to compliment my musings but I don't fully understand how to link images into the forum. I suggesting looking for them yourself with a simple search on Google images but I also warn to turn on the "block explicit content" button on your search. >.> )
The Kyoto Animation studio seems to be unable to do no wrong (well, except for the Endless Eight period of Haruhi Suzumiya's second season but that's another discussion) as almost every anime TV show since 2003 has been a smash hit. The studio seems to have found a niche, however, by playing with the "slice of life" genre with three of the most popular shows of the last decade of that genre. I'm of course talking about the three series of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and K-On! Now, on the surface all three series have key differences, mostly in the story and its direction of comedic effect. Haruhi's story of an eccentric, energetic and on occasion seemingly bi-polar teenage girl who takes part in crazy adventures of her own desire with a group that includes an esper, a time traveler and an alien that just so happens to be a goddess is as far away from the lunch room chats between the four normal girls of Lucky Star yet the two series seem to openly admit to be intertwined. With Aya Hirano and Windee Lee playing both the two main protagonists of both stories, coupled with Konata at one time cosplaying as Haruhi, it seems that they both compliment each other in the eyes of their fandom and was embraced as much as their newest series, K-On!, that share similarities with Lucky Star as well, such as sharing many of the same voice actors.
But getting to the point, the actions of fandom for both Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star have influenced a change in how the fans can effectively create a story within the same universe, starting with Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya first and that more then likely began within the pages of 2chan, an image sharing website with a slant for anime and video game culture. A theory one day within the fandom was suggested that if Haruhi's subconscious could actively change the world around her, what if one day she decided that she was sick of being a girl? Or even, wonder what it would be like if everyone around her was of the opposite gender? Whatever that case may be, the theory exploded into dojinshi-making, image-drawing mayhem that's resulted in quite a few fan made comics of the story involving every character being reversed in their gender. However, the biggest factor of this was the creation of "Kyonko", Kyon's gender-swapped doppelganger. This isn't to say that they just stuffed Kyon into a girl's seifuku and said that's that but complimented various parts of Kyon's personality into her design. Some things are more obvious then others, such as adding the black sweatshirt that Yuki wears and hinting at the shipping pairing of KyonXYuki or even the addition of the long ponytail which during the series Kyon admits that he likes girls with ponytails, suggesting that he'd have one as a girl.
However, it seems that the same process is beginning to appear in the Lucky Star fandom but in a whole new direction. While the whole "Genderbending of Haruki Suzumiya" for the most part leaves the general storyline of the original intact, Kurokona's creation is of much darker conception. It's not unheard of for an anime fandom to make a fan-fiction or two... dozen that takes a relatively lighthearted story in a different direction but this one seems to be starting to grow to the point of being accepted by all of the Lucky Star fandom. Two different directions were taken for the creation of Kurokona, one a more dramatic change while the other more an attempt to make the series "real". The "real" version seems to be more of a palette change then anything else, in which every character no longer sports their Day-Glow, pastel colored hair and eyes but changing them to various shades of black and dark brown (except for American transfer student Patricia Martin who retains her blue eyes and blond hair). The addition of the big glasses on Konata seem to be a case of explaining that her eyes would be bad due to years of playing video games, watching anime and reading manga.
The darker backstory for Kurokona's creation as I said before was mostly due to fan-fiction, specifically being either a story taking place after high school was over or even a deconstruction of the Lucky Star universe. Konata herself is an idealized concept of what an otaku would want to (and could) be, smart, funny, slightly mischievous but surrounded by good friends and, while only having above average grades, it's only because she'd rather play MMOs then study for her tests, resulting in her cramming for one night and acing the test the next day. Kurokona, however, is the exact opposite of the original creation and represents the evils of the otaku lifestyle.
A fan-fiction favorite that would feature a Kurokona like caricature involves the girls after high school seperating for various reasons. Miyuki is now working for her wealthy family business, Tsukasa and Kagami are either off to collage or going into other areas of business that befits their personality. The four of them keep in touch but begin to be pulled away by work, family matters and even love life then to meet up. One day, Kagami decides that it's best to drum up a girl's night out to learn about each other's lives and how they're doing... except Konata doesn't show up. So Kagami the next day goes to see the Izumi household to see what's going on to find the friend she once knew changed dramatically.
Kurokona appearance is disheveled, her body frail, skin pale from lack of sunlight and that regular mischivous playfulness is replaced with a mix of boredom, depression. She's dropped out of collage due to bad grades and her room looks like an avalanche waiting to happen from the number of anime, manga and games that are piling up. In the end, as explained by Kona's father, it seemed that her friends were the only thing that were keeping her from becoming an Hikikomori, a phenomenon of people who limit themselves socially, often shutting themselves away from the world for long periods of time, often related to various forms of psychological problems like Asperger's syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), common Autism and just depression in general. And while I'm just going to gloss over the fact that it's usually an excuse for the writer to get Kagami and Konata to "admit their feeling for one another" and get to the slash/lemon/porn of the story, one has to wonder where the idea came from.
I suppose the whole point of this observation is why such a happy-go-lucky series would create such a differing version of a character? Is it because the character of Konata such an unrealistic persona of an otaku and Kurokona was suppose to be the real repesentation? Or was the Lucky Star fandom just seeking to find an identity of creating something like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya fandom? Your thoughts?
The Kyoto Animation studio seems to be unable to do no wrong (well, except for the Endless Eight period of Haruhi Suzumiya's second season but that's another discussion) as almost every anime TV show since 2003 has been a smash hit. The studio seems to have found a niche, however, by playing with the "slice of life" genre with three of the most popular shows of the last decade of that genre. I'm of course talking about the three series of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and K-On! Now, on the surface all three series have key differences, mostly in the story and its direction of comedic effect. Haruhi's story of an eccentric, energetic and on occasion seemingly bi-polar teenage girl who takes part in crazy adventures of her own desire with a group that includes an esper, a time traveler and an alien that just so happens to be a goddess is as far away from the lunch room chats between the four normal girls of Lucky Star yet the two series seem to openly admit to be intertwined. With Aya Hirano and Windee Lee playing both the two main protagonists of both stories, coupled with Konata at one time cosplaying as Haruhi, it seems that they both compliment each other in the eyes of their fandom and was embraced as much as their newest series, K-On!, that share similarities with Lucky Star as well, such as sharing many of the same voice actors.
But getting to the point, the actions of fandom for both Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star have influenced a change in how the fans can effectively create a story within the same universe, starting with Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya first and that more then likely began within the pages of 2chan, an image sharing website with a slant for anime and video game culture. A theory one day within the fandom was suggested that if Haruhi's subconscious could actively change the world around her, what if one day she decided that she was sick of being a girl? Or even, wonder what it would be like if everyone around her was of the opposite gender? Whatever that case may be, the theory exploded into dojinshi-making, image-drawing mayhem that's resulted in quite a few fan made comics of the story involving every character being reversed in their gender. However, the biggest factor of this was the creation of "Kyonko", Kyon's gender-swapped doppelganger. This isn't to say that they just stuffed Kyon into a girl's seifuku and said that's that but complimented various parts of Kyon's personality into her design. Some things are more obvious then others, such as adding the black sweatshirt that Yuki wears and hinting at the shipping pairing of KyonXYuki or even the addition of the long ponytail which during the series Kyon admits that he likes girls with ponytails, suggesting that he'd have one as a girl.
However, it seems that the same process is beginning to appear in the Lucky Star fandom but in a whole new direction. While the whole "Genderbending of Haruki Suzumiya" for the most part leaves the general storyline of the original intact, Kurokona's creation is of much darker conception. It's not unheard of for an anime fandom to make a fan-fiction or two... dozen that takes a relatively lighthearted story in a different direction but this one seems to be starting to grow to the point of being accepted by all of the Lucky Star fandom. Two different directions were taken for the creation of Kurokona, one a more dramatic change while the other more an attempt to make the series "real". The "real" version seems to be more of a palette change then anything else, in which every character no longer sports their Day-Glow, pastel colored hair and eyes but changing them to various shades of black and dark brown (except for American transfer student Patricia Martin who retains her blue eyes and blond hair). The addition of the big glasses on Konata seem to be a case of explaining that her eyes would be bad due to years of playing video games, watching anime and reading manga.
The darker backstory for Kurokona's creation as I said before was mostly due to fan-fiction, specifically being either a story taking place after high school was over or even a deconstruction of the Lucky Star universe. Konata herself is an idealized concept of what an otaku would want to (and could) be, smart, funny, slightly mischievous but surrounded by good friends and, while only having above average grades, it's only because she'd rather play MMOs then study for her tests, resulting in her cramming for one night and acing the test the next day. Kurokona, however, is the exact opposite of the original creation and represents the evils of the otaku lifestyle.
A fan-fiction favorite that would feature a Kurokona like caricature involves the girls after high school seperating for various reasons. Miyuki is now working for her wealthy family business, Tsukasa and Kagami are either off to collage or going into other areas of business that befits their personality. The four of them keep in touch but begin to be pulled away by work, family matters and even love life then to meet up. One day, Kagami decides that it's best to drum up a girl's night out to learn about each other's lives and how they're doing... except Konata doesn't show up. So Kagami the next day goes to see the Izumi household to see what's going on to find the friend she once knew changed dramatically.
Kurokona appearance is disheveled, her body frail, skin pale from lack of sunlight and that regular mischivous playfulness is replaced with a mix of boredom, depression. She's dropped out of collage due to bad grades and her room looks like an avalanche waiting to happen from the number of anime, manga and games that are piling up. In the end, as explained by Kona's father, it seemed that her friends were the only thing that were keeping her from becoming an Hikikomori, a phenomenon of people who limit themselves socially, often shutting themselves away from the world for long periods of time, often related to various forms of psychological problems like Asperger's syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), common Autism and just depression in general. And while I'm just going to gloss over the fact that it's usually an excuse for the writer to get Kagami and Konata to "admit their feeling for one another" and get to the slash/lemon/porn of the story, one has to wonder where the idea came from.
I suppose the whole point of this observation is why such a happy-go-lucky series would create such a differing version of a character? Is it because the character of Konata such an unrealistic persona of an otaku and Kurokona was suppose to be the real repesentation? Or was the Lucky Star fandom just seeking to find an identity of creating something like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya fandom? Your thoughts?
