Hidoshi suddenly resurfaced (was on a hiatus since October) with these observations:

Lucky Star presented itself in such a way that I often felt that I was only seeing snippets from a full set of lives. However caricatured the cast became, they still had ambitions and goals which fell outside the scope of their more fleshed-out discussions. At the best of times, you could see into their souls through the subtlest moments, never to be talked about again, which summarised relationships and personalities with few, if any words.

Consider the moment when, in episode 15, Konata and the girls go to the concert. The look on Konata’s face when Kagami switches spots with her and the real effect of the show sinks in is timeless. It’s emotionally engaging, and all it took was a director realising that an expression can write the whole book for a character. What’s more, it made me feel like my love for the series was valid, and I enjoyed writing about that.

Not sure why he thought it necessary to wrap the content into paragraphs of LiveJournal emo, but on the topic I happen to think that Hidoshi was on to something. He was especially astute about the hints of other life outside the anime itself. Seening tantalizing hints of Mucchi's life of sports in Manabi was even better done, but LS is fine too. The emotional egagement is what many series do, it's not that special, although always welcome. BTW, LS 15 is the post-Yamakan direction.