The Shredder

The Shredder: Good Luck Girl!


Good Luck Girl boxartGoing into Good Luck Girl!, I had little clue about what to expect. I knew it was a comedy from Sunrise, and that was generally well-received by those who watched it. The premise showed promise: An unnaturally-lucky girl is visited by a spirit of poverty that seeks to even the balance of luck. Hilarity supposedly ensues, people laugh, and I either adore the show or just feel like I’ve wasted a few precious hours of my life.

Much of the show’s appeal stems from the characters which, I must admit, are handled well. Female lead Sakura is the stereotypical genius girl: she’s smart, athletic, gorgeous, rich, and, well, you get the picture. She’s basically Japanese Barbie, and she’s painfully aware of the fact. In public, she’s pure sugar, spice, and polyvinyl chloride, which enchants the guys and draws ire from the school’s female population. Once the eyes are off of her, though, she’s a conceited, spoiled brat that seems to feed off of the anger of those around her.

Momiji, on the other hand, is a cynical, laid-back dealer of misfortune. When Moarrives on the scene, she approaches Sakura with the enthusiasm of an aging salaryman. She just wants to do her job, and do it while inflicting a healthy amount of pain in the process. Like any employee, she does what she can to have fun in her job. Momiji cracks silly jokes, and makes random parodies to keep her job lively, and to screw with Sakura’s head in the process. The chemistry between the two characters is fabulous, as they seem to feed off one another. Momiji and Sakura trade insults and jabs, they make jokes with one another, and really leverage their differences in the name of a good laugh. Much of the comedy between the two is well-written and genuinely enjoyable.

I wish I could say the same about the supporting cast. In the first four episodes, the viewer is exposed to four key secondary characters: Sakura’s butler Suwano, a traveling African-American monk named Bobby (who’s a dead ringer for Bob Sapp), less-fortunate yet gorgeous classmate Keita Tsuwabuki, and Momiji’s dog-god companion Momo’o. Each seems to exist to run a concept into the ground. For example, Bobby is a perverted monk that lusts after large-breasted women, while Keita is a strait-laced guy that’s dead-set on doing everything himself. While these may seem cute, funny, or even admirable at first, by the time the show reiterates these traits for the millionth time, I was just rolling my eyes.

The weak secondary cast unfortunately exposes the glaring weakness of the show’s plot itself. Basically, each episode fell into one of two revolves around finding ways to make Sakura give up her banked happiness energy. Ideally, in the process, the balance of happiness will be restored and Sakura will (possibly) become less of a conniving bitch. Well, that or she winds up dead in a gutter. Either works for Momiji. Usually, shows of this nature can mask the simple setup with the supporting roles. Good Luck Girl!, though, falters in this regard to the point that viewers will be able to look past the character of the week to see the weak plot for what it is.

While it certainly won’t win any awards, Good Luck Girl! is an entertaining show. The dialogue is strong, the parodies are legitimately funny, and the characters share a wonderful chemistry that one just doesn’t see very often these days. While there may better ways to spend an anime night, I certainly wouldn’t mind delving further into Good Luck Girl!

Thanks to FUNimation for providing a review copy!

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About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

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