Tottemo! Luckyman is a 50 episode anime based on the manga series. The anime follows Tsuitenai Yoichi, who is the world's unluckiest person. This is not an exaggeration and it is a miracle that he remains alive at all. He might wake up and in the process of turning off the alarm, will electrocute himself at the power socket, or walk along the street when he accidentally breaks the chain of a rabid dog that starts chasing him.
Yoichi has a crush on the prettiest girl at school, Kireida Miyo, and a lot of the focus is on Yoichi trying to deliver a love letter to her. Unfortunately for him, with his luck, he attracts the attention of the ugliest girl at school, Busaiku Desuyo. Desuyo loves Yoichi, but she is big, brutish and everything that Yoichi doesn't want. Their one-sided relationship is a massive running gag on Yoichi's bad luck.
Of course, Yoichi isn't the main focus here but Luckyman is. For what seems like Yoichi's only piece of luck, he attains the power to become Luckyman, the luckiest superhero in the universe. It's actually really funny how Luckyman boasts that he isn't good at anything, nor have any special powers, except for his extreme good luck. Luckyman's punches are slow, the aim of his lasers is terrible and goes wide, and despite having the ability to summon anything at all, he summons useless stuff. Even with all this, thanks to his luck, something random always happens to his advantage and he wins the day.
Luckyman's luck potentially makes him the most powerful superhero ever. He'll summon a bottle opener and his opponent will take it, and coincidentally lightning will strike them thanks to the bottle opener acting as a lightning rod. It's ridiculous and contrived these events could be but that is a massive part of Luckyman's charm and one of the funniest thing of the anime. Luckyman's tactics is usually stumbling his way towards an enemy. His clueless attempts always work thanks to his luck and Miyo constantly misinterprets as if Luckyman intentionally did it.
The best part about each battle is that no matter how illogical the sequence of events are, or how contrived, Luckyman gets a free pass. That's because it's his unbelievable luck. There are random seemingly pointless details or events that eventually become the reason the villain is defeated. It feels like the anime is having so much fun just throwing random stuff at you. Lucky Star will frequently turn up to explain just how Luckyman's luck got him out of the tricky situation he was in.
Luckyman isn't portrayed as the perfect superhero either. He's selfish and cowardly, but just thanks to his luck that he manages to get through and have a good image with the populace. He's a parody of Ultraman, looking very similar in appearance but his happy-go-lucky attitude makes him an extremely charismatic character that you can't help but cheer for and love.
The anime at first takes on an episodic villain of the week format and while this is good for the first few episodes, it gets boring real quick. This is because the structure for each encounter of the alients invading Earth remains the same. The alien will turn up, kidnap or involve Miyo in some way, Yoichi becomes Luckyman, some slapstick humor occurs and then Luckyman wins the day with his luck. There are some changes to a few episodes and we find out Luckyman's source of power and his greatest weakness, the Lucky Star. He only gets his luck when the Star shines upon him so on cloudy and rainy days, he loses all luck and becomes extremely unlucky.
As the anime takes place in a universe filled with superheroes, it was only a matter of time before we see more pop up. They end up being sidekicks to Luckyman and complement him well. First up is Doryokuman who values hard work and effort above all else. He tends to overthink things and believes that with enough hard work, anything is achievable. The other superhero to join is Superstarman who is a gag character. He is useless with no powers whatsoever but loves to steal the spotlight and pretend that he is the best. He can be a bit annoying but he gets his just desserts every single time.
A recurring gag are three onlookers that always seem to be in the vicinity (or manage to arrive within seconds) whenever Luckyman appears. They often call out Luckyman for his exaggerations and the best part of their humor is that they voice exactly what the viewer is thinking. It works really well and they end up being endearing characters that you'd expect to show up in every episode.
As expected from anime of the era, it frequently utilizes stock footage. It's mainly the transformation sequence of Luckyman but it's a really well done segment. The animators are also aware of how repetitive stock footage could be so there are times where there might be some slight variations in the dialogue or shortening of it. No character is safe from the gags. While Desuyo and Superstarman are the usual ones to be at the butt of jokes, Miyo shows her true personality at times being a lot more violent despite her prettiness.
The episodic nature of the anime comes to an end at around episode 30. It starts to build up a massive arc that lasts to the end of the series. The characters experience heavy character development and we're given an engaging tournament arc that showcases the characters' abilities (even the ever annoying Superstarman!). At the same time with the introduction of Shoriman ("Victory"-man) and Yujoman ("Friendship"-man) and their fights against the enemy, we finally see some skill in battles rather than sheer luck. While Shoriman may be petty, he has some ingenious plans.
There's a fair bit of retconning but the final art of the anime has some surprisingly emotional scenes that gives excellent characterizations. The music also seems to improve and really ignites the excitement that the arc brings. Unfortunately, there is a tendency for the animators to drag out episodes with short recaps that reuses animation. After the exciting first few rounds, the final round is disappointing especially when Luckyman's usual antics just doesn't fly anymore. This is the part where it feels bogged down with the nonsense but does pick up for the climactic finale to the series. The ending really feels like a culmination of all the heroes joining up for one final attack against the big boss. It gives a sense of satisfaction after the long arc but sadly results in an open ending. Given that the anime aired a year before the manga ended, this is to be expected but still disappointing to see such an unresolved ending.
Overall, Tottemo! Luckyman is a funny and surprisingly deep anime at times. Despite the childish humor and Luckyman's descent into more and more cowardly actions as the series goes on, he remains charismatic and has one of the best superhero powers ever. The villain of the week structure of the earlier episodes can get old before you're halfway there but the final third is excellent and carries enough momentum to get you addicted. If you have the means, then Tottemo! Luckyman is highly worth a watch that managed to not age too badly.
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