Storyline
Good Luck Girl! (Binbogami Ga!) follows 16 year old High School student Ichiko Sakura who during her life has been blessed with good fortune from having good looks and good grades to being able to avoid most unfortunate situations. Ultimately her luck is due to her possessing a high amount of “Happiness Energy” and having the ability to unintentionally steal it from those around her. Unaware of this, she still remains a cold, self-centred person due to events explored later in the series, and this draws ire from certain characters.
Her unique ability comes under threat when Poverty God Momiji forces their way into her life, with the sole purpose of extracting all her “Happiness Energy” in order to keep the balance of happiness and unhappiness in the world. With neither party willing to back down, this forms a bitter and comical rivalry between the girl and god duo. While there are attempts at delivering some degree of backstory and development between the characters, this series is primarily about delivering comedy in excess of what you would usually find in an anime. After watching some rather bland comedies as of late, surprisingly Good Luck Girl! was rather good.
Fourth wall breaking, transcending the limitations of reality, comical characters and direct anime parodies are just few of the tools included in Good Luck Girl!’s repertoire, with each episode generally consisting of another (Often failed) scheme initiated by Momiji in order to extract Ichiko’s luck. While often episodic in nature there are also a few half-episodes and double-episodes strewn across the thirteen episode series.
The relationship between the two main characters is a real hoot, and both are developed reasonably well given their roles and the type of series this is. They are joined by a wealth of additional characters who also add some degree of hilarity or contrast to the series. Some examples of these characters include: a dog-human hybrid into S&M, a perverted monk, a female classmate dressed very masculine and the potential “love interest” who spends all day sleeping among others, the latter two being more characters of reason than the others. Unfortunately they also take to introducing several “character of the episodes” who receive very little development and subsequently don’t appear again for the entire season.
If you are into the over-the-top comedy then there should be plenty on offer in Good Luck Girl! But what made the show something more unique was that they held back at times and focused on the development of Ichiko Sakura. More specifically, some of the episodes see her either willingly or forced to break out of the cold and self-centred shell and gain appreciation and understanding for other people. One episode sees her regressed into the form of a child and left turning to a family whom the episode before she had mocked for being poor while another sees her make friends with a fellow classmate – something she had not done for years. It is these developmental milestones that serve as icing on the metaphorical cake, rather than leaving the series to be nothing but comedy.
All that being said, I do have a rather quirky sense of humour, so this may very well not appeal to your preferences.
Design / Music / Voice Acting
First impressions and past experience left me surprised when Madman Entertainment decided to publish this on Blu-ray format, but it was a move that after watching Good Luck Girl! seemed logical and more importantly, warranted. Matching the more casual and upbeat tone of the series, the visuals were vivid and colourful. In particular the character designs were a highlight, with strong detailing and being able to adapt to any situation that the series threw at it. However the true charm was where the character and environment designs were used as or to compliment a particular gag taking place. Overall, the design quality was of a good standard, but there was still nothing that special to set itself apart from a market that is making huge strides in visual quality each year.
Good Luck Girl! features single opening and ending sequences titled “Make My Day!” by Piko and “Love Riot” by Happy Birthday respectively. Both themes and their respective sequences were of a good quality, however while enjoyable the first couple of times around lacked the appeal that makes me want to watch them each and every episode. The remainder of the background music was nothing special, but did a decent job of complementing the scenes they were used in.
While everyone will most probably have their own personal preferences on what dub they prefer to watch, those who like myself choose to watch the English dub shouldn’t be left disappointed. Brina Palencia (Ciel Phantomhive – Black Butler) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (Margery Daw – Shakugan no Shana II – III) voice Ichiko and Momiji respectively and manage to deliver a high level of enthusiasm across all thirteen episodes. Other voice cast highlights include Patrick Seitz as Bobby, Clifford Chapin as Keita Tsuwabuki and Martha Harms as Ranmaru Rindou.
Extra Content
A number of extra content has been included on both discs within the Good Luck Girl! collection. Some of these are more general such as the US trailer for the show and textless opening and closing sequences, however the true value of this collection lies in the commentaries. There are a total of two audio commentaries in this collection, although Funimation decided to do something different with them. While the conversational element is still there, they are interrupted by questions posed by fans or from characters in other licenses held by the publisher. There is also a video commentary provided for Episode 8 featuring ADR Director Joel McDonald, Brina Palencia, Colleen Clinkenbeard and Marth Harms – however this didn’t seem to be as interesting as the audio commentary.
Final Words on Good Luck Girl (Binbogami Ga!)
When on the box a series is advertised as an “over the top anime parody in the tradition of Excel Saga“, you are initially left expecting a high degree of spontaneous zaniness and insanity. Good Luck Girl! is be more conserved in that department, allowing the writers to worm a more serious storyline into the mix. However with every episode filled with direct anime parodies, comical characters, fourth wall breaking and many other things, it still manages to hold its own as a very enjoyable anime series. I tend to be very picky with comedy anime’s, and this has been one of the better ones I have watched in the last year.
Good Luck Girl! was released today on DVD and Blu-ray by Madman Entertainment within Australia.
