I ended up motivating myself to watch K-ON! after Yi's recent post on the topic of side characters. So, here it is.
The Basics
Episodes: 13 Genre: Comedy, Music, Slice of Life Aired: April 2, 2009 to June 25, 2009 Directed by: Naoka Yamada Producers: Kyoto Animation, Pony Canyon, Movic Opening Theme: Cagayake! Girls by Aki Toyosaki Closing Theme: Don't Say “Lazy” by Yoko Hikasa
Review
The Story: K-ON! is very much a slice of life story at its best. A group of girls (Ritsu, Mio, Tsumugi/Mugi and Yui) are just entering high school. Basically, Ritsu can't decide on a club she wants to join and then she ends up figuring the Light Music Club would be a good idea—well, there's a problem with that: all of the members graduated, so unless they can get four members, it's going to be unofficially disbanded. Ritsu decides to take on the challenge of re-forming the club with herself as the president.
Really, it isn't much of a challenge. She recruits her friend Mio, Mugi joins, and Yui kinda wanders in thinking “light music” translates to “easy music”. Well, not quite. But she sticks around anyway even after finding out that's not what it means.
The series follows these four girls and their antics as they practice, hang out, and play their music. Like I said: slice of life at its finest.
The Characters: Other than their membership in the Light Music Club, these girls are pretty different. Ritsu sorta has the Haruhi Suzumiya “do anything!” pumped-up mindset. Mio is a shy girl, easily made to blush. Mugi is a wealthy, sweet girl who has a thing for nice food and sweets. And Yui...Yui is just out of it. That's all there is to be said about that girl.
I'm not going to paint these girls as the most well-developed characters, because really, they aren't. I mean, they aren't underdeveloped, but they are sort of...they have a few aspects to them and that's all you see. It didn't really bug me much though, because honestly, they didn't need to have more than what was there. Sure, it would have been nice, but the characters worked fine as they were.
I suspect that maybe when I watch season 2 in the vaguely near future, I'll see some more sides of the characters.
The Songs: They're the Light Music Club. Now what the heck does that even mean? Honestly, I had no clue when I first got started in watching the series. Tell me they're the Choir Club and yeah, I follow you there, but Light Music Club? Turns out that apparently means band. Like, for real band. With drums and a guitar and a keyboard and singing and all that jazz. (Note: All that jazz is a phrase I do not get to use nearly often enough.)
So along with being a band comes that fun thing where you write your own songs, and these girls do just that. Now let me say: the songs are not very good, comparatively speaking. But for a group of high school girls who are basically in it just to have fun and express their high school-ness, yeah, they're not half-bad. They're basically of the “get up and have fun” variety. I will never complain about that.
Basically, I cannot complain about these songs. I can call them amateurish. But there will be no complaints.
Conclusion?: For basic slice of life, K-ON! isn't bad at all. It's a fun-filled, cheerful series that isn't half-bad when it comes to comedy. I've found that series which aren't specifically labeled as comedy actually tend to make me laugh more than the ones that are, oddly enough...
But anyway. Considering the fact that it's from Studio Key, I expected some serious tears. Because...well, it's Key. They seem to get their jollies (← another phrase I don't get to use nearly enough) going “happy, happy, happy, NOW WE ARE RIPPING OUT YOUR SOUL AND YOU WILL CRY LIKE A BABY”. Just, you know. Something I've noticed from experiences with Air, Clannad and Kanon. So in K-ON! I was sitting there like a paranoid freak (this is what you've done to me, Key!) just waiting for something bad to happen.
I was pleasantly surprised by a lack of tears.
So prettymuch, I recommend K-ON! if you like Key and don't want to cry. Or if you like slice of life and don't want to cry. If you generally just like smiling while watching anime, I recommend K-ON!.
Oh for the love of god, go watch K-ON!.
My rating: 7/10. Okay, so I was singing praises of this anime. Go ahead and question this less-than-epic rating. ...Look. K-ON! had a standard to live up, and that standard is...well, those ones I listed that made me and everyone I know cry. It did not live up. Poor K-ON!.
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