K-On! - Reviews

This review is about the first season of K-on.

Story

The story is about Yui, a girl who recently entered highschool. She is ver lazy and doesn't to do anything that requires the least bit of effort. The problem is ... she needs to join a club. After a while she's forced by tea and snacks into the light music club. This club consists of 3 other members. Mugi a keyboard player, Mio who plays the bass and Ritsu who plays the drums. They needed 1 more member to join their club otherwise it'd be shut down. So they let Yui join them, although Yui can't play guitar. They end up buying Yui a guitar and teach her to play. The anime follows the clubs everyday activity, which consist of drinking tea, having cake and cookies and once in while a litle bit of practising. 

After a year when new students enter the school they get a new member. The name of the new member is Azuna, a girl who's a very good guitar player. With their new member they go on training camps and have their occasional tea with cake gatherings, all in preporation for thier proformance at the school festival.

Animation:

As expected from Kyouto-animetion the character design are very cute and moe. In this show however they really take cute-ness to the next level. With everything the characters do they always look adorable. The aniamtion in the show is very good, through out the regular episodes it is very consistent in quality. In the more important moments, like when they're playing music, the animation is top notch. They animate the characters as they were actually playing the instruments and (I'm not an expert and dont play instruments) it actually looks like they're playing the notes.

Sound:

The sound in the show is very nice. The music in the background is always nice and fitting for the whitty things that are going on. The music when they're practising is also very good. However, the opening and ending are where the sound shines. 

Characters:

The characters in K-on are all super adorbale and cute. Yui is the most noteble, she is very very clumsy and clueless about everything. This makes her a great comedy relief character. The rest of the characters are all also cute and funny. The interaction between them when they're having some tea is great.

Overall:

Overall i think this is a great anime. If you're looking for something light and funny this is the thing you're looking for. 

 

This is a review about both seasons. They are the same thing to the most part.

K-On belongs to the after effects Haruhi had on the industry and it’s the next big moe title to hit the streets after Lucky Star. It is hard not to compare these shows, since they are made by the same people, chronologically very close to one another, and even have the same target audience. At the same time, there is no other way to show how even such a genre can slowly evolve its mold and slowly become an entirely different experience.

Compared to Lucky Star, K-On is more elaborate and less of a farce. It focuses more on moe and less on product placement, which automatically makes it superior. Otaku references and Haruhi advertisements were only managing to turn that show into an in-joke that couldn’t stand on its own two feet. Unlike Lucky Star, K-On is NOT making anime promotions and is still successful without being directly related to an older superior source. I mean, ok, it is not the first moe show with schoolgirls (that title goes to Azumanga Daioh) but it definitely is not using titles to make itself seem better than it is with cheap tricks. It is still of course a show running on fan service of the cute type but it does it with its own strength.

Not that it’s completely innocent. It still does some indirect product placement with the type of guitars the girls use in their band (they are an existing brand) and thanks to its success that firm had a huge raise in sales. In fact, thanks to its success all of a sudden the world was filled with boy and girl bands, all inspired by the anime to have a shot at music; which is another indirect thing that makes it better. While Lucky Star was practically whispering in your ear to go buy Haruhi merchandise and other not-so-proud-to-admit-in-public anime affiliated material, K-On told you to get a few friends, buy some music instruments, and start making your own music, leave your own mark in the world, have fun with friends in public places. Get out of your room and do something dammit! That is a very positive influence a show can have on you, compared to the other one, which is basically telling you to shut yourself in a room and stare ronery at the screen. It is also ironic how other strictly-about-music anime like Beck, had far less influence on the community for being not-moe. Man, the power of cuteness is frightening!

Many would of course claim that the above trait was a result of Haruhi and not K-On (it had a band too) but that show was too many things at once and thus too blurry to draw a line at WHAT its influence exactly was. I mean, it even created its own pseudo-religion for God’s sake! Being motivated is one thing but turning to an ass who worships a 2D moe chick is plain lame. YOU ARE MAKING AN ASS OF YOURSELVES YOU E8 FREAKS! K-on is hardly like that; it is far more subtle in the way it affects you, calmer and more sophisticated.

If I stretch it a bit, there is another trend it promoted, which is none other than the love for sweets. WE HAVE CAKE! Sure, the other moe shows had that too but it was all mingled along with otaku jokes and pseudo-religions and the feeling of love for sugar was lost in all that. Being free of all those extras, the show made it far more clear how they LOOOOVE sweets. In fact, I have a sweet tooth for pastries as well and seeing that along with cute girls (another sweet tooth for those, hehe) had all the feeling of joy one would ever want from such a series. No otaku jokes, no aliens and espers and time travellers and WHO CARES WHAT OTHER UNNECESSARY STUFF. This is moe in its “almost” purest form. And I say almost because guitars and sweets (accompanied by tea) are still elements that are dressing the show in a rather overkill way. Azumanga Daioh didn’t have all that and was still fine for its time, thus even more successful at being purely about moe without promoting anything else. Of course, many would rush to say that for the same reason it doesn’t inspire you to do anything meta-series and that makes it inferior. I on the other hand say WHY WOULD IT??? Do you so much want to pick up a hobby that you need an anime show to choose? Find it yourself damn you! Geez, people love being manipulated so much, it is disturbing…

Anyways, mishaps aside K-On is still successful at what it was made to be. Its production values are great for being rather simple in artwork yet very successful in aesthetics. True brilliance is to show as much as possible with less as possible, and this is a good example where simply drawn characters and stories can make you feel a lot more than most other, more complicating and elaborate shows. I consider them almost perfect, not because of their detail but because of their effect on the audience.

The story part is still unimportant as ever but at least here you feel like there is a simple objective of sorts. The girls want to have a concert. And that’s all of it… Better than nothing but still not something you would be looking forward to or be anxious to see what will happen next; it is still just some simple girls eating cake, drinking tea, and playing guitars, as cute as possible.

The characters don’t develop in any significant way but at least the second season changed the way they interact with each other, based on the experiences they had before. So you are given a vague impression that they remember what happened before and won’t fall for the same tricks. They also added an extra girl to the party for flavour which meant a shift in behaviours, as means to adjust to her. Other than that they are archetypes with simple but vivid personality but the idea of acting a bit differently sounds like a lot for a genre that is not in favour of change and progress.

The value of the show is definitely high, as it is yet another cornerstone in moe history. Kyoto Animation managed to once again win this round as none of the various other moe shows that popped up to get a piece of the pie managed to fare as well. It also has a lot of meta-value, since it also affected the very lives of so many people to the point they bought guitars and created their own music bands. I don’t fancy that sort of influence but it’s a fact that further proves its importance.

My enjoyment of the series used to be high for awhile but after a point on started to lower more and more to the point I now don’t exactly love it anymore. It is still a mostly aimless show about cute girls eating cake and drinking tea and I am in favour of action and mystery. Some alteration in the second season helped to get some of the excitement back but even that was eventually not working out very well. But besides me, it definitely feels nice if each new season has something different to show as it prevents the boredom from the repetitive structure of moe to kick in. I hear if they ever make a third season, it will be about the girls going to university. That will again be a nice way to keep things fresh for awhile and possibly making their challenges a bit hard for a change. Anyways, as long as the creators are willing to experiment on the formula instead of going for one of the same is enough to keep this moe franchise at the top.

It is still not the best moe; especially after the same company made Hyouka later on, which has far more elaborate character interactions. But it still deserves a good pat in the back and it’s a good recommendation for moe fans.

It's Yui Hirasawa's first year in high school, and she's eagerly searching for a club to join. At the same time, Ritsu Tainaka, a drummer, and her friend Mio Akiyama, a bassist, are desperately trying to save the school's light music club, which is about to be disbanded due to lack of members. They manage to recruit Tsumugi Kotobuki to play the keyboard, meaning they only need one more member to get the club running again. Yui joins, thinking it will be an easy experience for her to play the castanets, the only instrument she knows. However, the other members think their new addition is actually a guitar prodigy...

After getting thoroughly addicted to this anime and sharing it with anyone who has ears, I have personally decided to make this one a permanent part of my collection. I absolutely loved K-ON and would watch it again and again. The songs were astounding if you are into J-Pop (I downloaded the soundtrack as soon as I finished season 01).

K-ON is a real slice of life anime and is not too serious. You laugh and join in the fun on a huge scale. It's a giggle a minute. We see the members of the band meet, grow, live and laugh together. As Houkago Tea Time grows musically and the characters grow personally you start to get that familliar attached feeling.

I know this sounds like a real Otaku's perspective but do yourself a favour and check this one out, seriously!! I have been through so many series, OVA and movies and this is definately in my top 5 to watch.

K-ON litarally topped Bakemongatari, a revered anime on September 21, 2010.

The music is done beautifully and the voice cast is spot on!

Lastly, I know I have been hammering on this fact recently but please, please just try it out and if it is not for you, fine, ust give these girls a chance. I'll even include a few download links below:

The Pirate Bay:  http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/4989368/

Bleachexile:       http://www.anime-access.com/anime/K/K-ON!_%28TV%29

Reviewed by ScoobyDoo!

It was a fun, pointless show. It really didn't have much of a story, but I thought the characters were great. It had so many cute moments. I don't have much to say about it really. It entertained me, and that is what really matters to me.

anime of deacde 2020 winer waht to say just watch the anime its good