A fresh high school year always means much to come, and one of those things is joining a club. Being in a dilemma about which club to join, Yui Hirasawa stumbles upon and applies for the Light Music Club, which she misinterprets to be about playing simple instruments, such as castanets. Unable to play an instrument, she decides to visit to apologize and quit.
Meanwhile, the Light Music Club faces disbandment due to a lack of members. This causes the club members to offer anything, from food to slacking off during club time, in order to convince Yui to join. Despite their efforts, Yui insists on leaving due to her lack of musical experience. As a last resort, they play a piece for Yui, which sparks her fiery passion and finally convinces her to join the club.
From then onward, it is just plain messing around with bits and pieces of practice. The members of the Light Music Club are ready to make their time together a delightful one!
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
UnknownUser-
Mod Edit: Minor Spoilers mentioned. I'm just going to say this straight away: These kind of animes bring out the silly little girl in me. And as I'm a 19-year old guy, it's kind of an unexpected thing, even for me. And I mean this in the most positive way possible. "K-On!" follows the story of Hirasawa Yui, a girl who lives a life similar to your average person on the net, except for the internet part. It's difficult to explain without using the words "carefree" and "lazy". In a way, she probably reflects a majority of people I know, including myself, except for the fact shedoesn't really have any real life issues other than school. This changes however when she decides to join the Light Music Club, where she now has to learn and play guitar. We also got 3 other characters that will be focused on: Ritsu (drummer), Mio (bass), Tsumugi (keyboard), followed by another one half-way through the first season, namely Azusa (guitar). Inbetween their "goal" to reach fame, they have a few concerts and a lot of fun. Quite lovely.
The story itself is memorable, but unoriginal and consisting mostly of filler to build character. However, I myself don't consider this to be a bad thing at all. With animes like this one, filler is what pretty much drives it, and I love every single minute of it. Each episode being just as silly, and if not even sillier than the other. Although it doesn't beat Lucky Star, but if you've seen that, you know that's a difficult thing to do.
The music itself is great and quite catchy, but I'm not a big fan of Yui's singing. I know this might piss some people off, but hey, it's my opinion, and I prefer Mio on the mic anytime. The first ED is in this case also my favorite song in the anime, "Don't Say Lazy". The instrumentals are great, although not that original, but still enjoyable.
The art is cute and silly, and like I said before, combined with cute voices I often find myself randomly squeeing simply because of how cute it is. If it didn't have that factor, I would be far less interested in this anime. There are animes for all kinds of people, be it sci-fi, action, romance, drama, adventure, etc. But for me, comedies are my thing because they distract me from how stupid life can be from time to time.
The characters in this anime are a lot of fun, and very different in personality. We got Yui who, as we know, is carefree and quite lazy, and tends to be awkward on the weirdest of times, but in a cute way. Then, we have Mio, who's pretty much the opposite of Yui, shy and easily scared. Ritsu is energetic and a bit of a devil when it comes to pranks, especially aimed at Mio as they are childhood friends. Tsumugi, who's not as energetic as Ritsu, but still enjoys the little things in life, and she's also the "rich kid" as you may call her, but thankfully you won't notice that in this anime. And later on we get Azusa, a very serious junior girl, but also easily distracted and really silly at times.
All the characters share one thing: They're happy high school students who like to play music. The bond they have is emphasized in the anime, as each episode tries not to leave anyone out. And once again, that's one of the things I love about it.
"K-ON!" is not for everyone, but if you like cute and silly characters with a cute and silly story, then I definitely recommend giving it a shot. Just don't expect any real seriousness, except for when they prepare for concerts. For me, it's a proper balance of a funny story, with funny characters and fun music. It's definitely not original, but as long as it's executed properly, it doesn't have to be, as long as it's fun. And yeah, like I said pretty much a million times... This anime sure is!
thepapercut
This review is going to be broken down into the 5 parts that MAL focuses on with each section getting critiqued. Story: As you know by the description on the anime's page, K-on is suppose to be about Yui Hirasawa and joining of saving of her high school's light music club, with the problem being that Yui has never read music or knows how to play a guitar. Slowly a few of these problems get cleared up but the main bulk of the plot goes no where whatsoever. You can come in at any episode and still get what's going. The anime is heavy on the theme"light and fluffy." to which when watching it you don't have to know anything nor necessarily be there the entire episode to know what is going to happen and that's the main problem, like every other "moe" anime it's generic and predictable in the events category.
Art:
This is probably the biggest problem with the show in my opinion, the art. Seriously I can guarantee you that the studio used a step by step handbook and stencil set to create yui, mio, ristu and mugi, it's what is seriously killing the industry today in my opinion...generic characters. There is nothing that makes any one character in K-on stand out. The backgrounds themselves are nothing to praise about either as they are the standard school, bustling street/shop and from time to time inside one of the girls home scenes. To sum it up the art lacks originality and there is no direction for it.
Sound:
This is probably the only place that K-on climbs up outta the rubbish category. The times that you hear music made by the club it's actually not that bad and can be catchy at times, and with it's suppose plot revolving around music you'd think to hear it a lot but it's quite the opposite, the girls spend more time sitting around being airheads then trying to do anything music related.
Character:
What can I say,all of the characters of K-on have traits that superficial. They all are generic and no one has anything that makes them unique or stand out.
Enjoyment:
After watching 13 episodes, I can say overall the enjoyment was just another thing including original art and characters that the show was missing...I mean it was boring and painful as well as predictable to watch.
Summary:
K-on is a light and fluffy fan service anime to which it hosts no original art and set of characters. If your looking for something to which you don't need to think or understand maybe you'd enjoy k-on but even then your going to have to endure lackluster scenes of boring pointless conversations to which watching windows screen saver can provide more enjoyment.
Dorcas_Aurelia
K-ON! is inconsequential fluff. One might compare it to popcorn or cotton candy: a tasty treat, but if you're looking for a meal, it will leave you looking for something more substantial after it's done. K-ON! follows the tried and true formula of cute girls doing cute things. Based on a 4-koma comic, the series is about several high school girls who form (technically join, but all the previous members graduated) a light music club and follows their activities. The music itself often takes a back seat to the antics of the girls, and audiophiles may find themselves somewhat disappointed if they go in expecting detailedattention to techniques or references to real life bands (there are a couple, but few and far between). There are two concerts in the thirteen episode series, but neither is as impressive as the one from the Live A Live episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (one of Kyoto Animation's earlier shows), but still very enjoyable. The most common scene in the series features the main girls sitting in the club room snacking on tea and cakes while discussing various mundane events, particularly with the more dedicated girls trying to get the rest to practice.
The girls all have their own distinct personality. Yui, the main character, is the some clumsy and adorable airhead. She joined the club hoping to play an easy instrument like the castanets but ends up playing guitar because the club needed a guitarist. Ritsu is the energetic idiot of the show, drummer, and club president because she was the one who dragged everyone else into the club. Mio is Ritsu's long time friend, and the sensible, serious one of the group. She writes the groups songs, and plays the bass. She is also the most moe character, being the prettiest, easily embarrassed, and terrified of ghosts and yucky things. Mugi is the pianist. She comes from a wealthy family, and thus is a source of amusement by displaying the difference in wealth between rich people and normal people. She is also the provider of the tea and sweets that are regularly consumed at the club meetings.
There are a few regular minor characters, too. Ui is Yui's younger, but more mature and reliable sister. Yui has a friend named Nodoka who joins the student council, which means her role is essentially to let everyone know that Ritsu has forgotten something regarding paperwork for the club. Sawako is a music teacher who is recruited as the club adviser in one of the more memorable scenes of the series. Also, a late addition to the cast is Azusa, an underclassman who is much like a miniature version of Mio.
Character designs are generally cute, with the kind of big round faces typical of most Kyoto Animation works. Background art is consistently good, as is the animation, which should come as no surprise. When characters are shown playing their instruments, there is generally more attention to detail than seen in anime to the point where the sound properly matches the characters actions. The singing at the concert features the same style animation as Live A Live, where you can just about lip read the lyrics (if you know Japanese, of course).
The music used in the series can generally be described as light and fluffy, both the background music and the couple of songs the girls play at their concerts, with the exception of the closer, which rocks a little bit harder than rest. The voice acting fits well all around, with Yui being notable for regularly coming off as someone who isn't all there, fitting her character well.
I don't want to close saying this show is like Azumanga Daioh with a music club, but that's about the easiest comparison I can make, and not too far off a description.
kekekeKaj
I picked up "K-On!" envisioning it as some kind of healing, mundane slice of life in the same vein as "Aria the Animation", something nice and gentle that would help soothe my severe withdraw symptoms brought on by finishing "Hikaru no Go". Even though on the surface I mostly got what I was looking for (it is mundane, and it is a slice of life), the end product was a huge disappointment. It's a bit like one of those twisted fairy tales in which some greedy guy makes wishes to the devil or a genie or something. Even though his wishes are all granted,fulfilling all the criteria that he specified, none of the result turns out to be what he wanted - there's always something very wrong with what he ends up with.
It took me a few episodes to figure out what's wrong with "K-On!". First of all, it starts off disappointingly dull. I'm one of the most patient of viewers, but even I found my attention wandering frequently, and I kept having to rewind to see what I'd missed - and usually the answer turned out to be "not very much". It's rare that I get really bored when watch anime, especially given my fondness for the more mundane slice of life shows, but "K-On!" managed to seriously test my patience (it took me half a year to finish).
And then I realised something worse - "K-On!" is MOE. Not as blatant as "Clannad", but still, it's all about cute girls doing cute things for the sake of being cute. It also serves to explain why I found it to be dull, given that I have no interest in watching artificially cute girls doing mundanely cute things, and there isn't much else to be found in the show. I find it interesting to compare "K-On!" with "Aria the Animation", which is also about cute girls doing cute things. I don't know whether it's because I watched "Aria the Animation" before and "K-On!" after "Clannad", a show that is so moe that it's caused me to develop allergic reactions to anything vaguely resembling cute, but with "Aria the Animation", the cuteness seemed more innocent; the natural calming beauty of the settings also made "Aria the Animation" less one dimensional, and it just seems to have a charm about it that's severely lacking in "K-On!".
As much as I was unimpressed by "K-On!", I must admit that towards the mid-series, the slice of life settings began to work its magic, and I found the series growing on me ever so slightly, I even started finding it mildly amusing and enjoyable at times... and that's when the makers of the show decided the time is ripe to give its targeted audience more of what they want - that is to say, the more obnoxious cliches of anime. Unsatisfied with just having cute, clumsy girls procrastinating over homework and cutely drooling over sweets and "cakies", they started rolling out the dreaded maid outfit and the cat ears etc. The already limited quality of the series took a dip and sunk to a new low as the girls started spending a lot of time inflicting these the disturbing costumes and distasteful accessories on one another. Obviously, the shy characters would meow pitifully as they are victimised, but of course at the same time they also show signs that a part of them is secretly enjoying the experience. Yes, of course they like it deep down - they're moe blobs after all! Anyway I'm sure you get the picture, so lets move swiftly on...
Though "K-On!" is about a music club, they do so little music-related activity that it's easy to mistake it for something else (like, a show about a cake eating club, for example). When it comes to the subject of music, the series is the antithesis of "Nodame Cantabile". The latter emphasises the importance of hard work even when the musician is already ridiculously talented. In "K-On!", however, we have Yui, someone who'd never played an instrument before, but who very quickly started reproducing face melting solos she hears with apparent ease, and is able to immediately master the techniques demonstrated to her. And she does all of this with just a small amount of casual and unmethodic practice. As I am also learning to play an instrument, this complete undermining of the effort required really doesn't sit well with me. I know it's not supposed to be very focused on the music, but come on, they could have at least made *some* attempt to make it seem less like a piece of cake!
The final nail in the coffin actually came when "K-On!" tried to do some character development in an episode towards the end of the series. For the first half of that episode, I was bewildered because the characters were acting quite strangely. Then I realised what the episode was trying to achieve - it was going out of its way to create a rift between a couple of characters in order to set up a kiss-and-make-up scenario. Upon realising this, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that they botched up the attempt so badly that it reached a painful level of transparency. Perhaps the makers were better off keeping things simple and sticking to pandering to the moe crowd as they're clearly incapable to doing anything more substantial
All in all, "K-On!" is an interesting specimen for being a slice of life without a soul. Compared to, say, "Azumanga Daioh", which is not a slice of life (yes I know it revolves around mundane things, but it's clearly very comedy inclined and not too concerned about being down to earth), but radiated that pleasant warmth associated with a good slice of life, I can barely feel anything in "K-On!", and I certainly don't have any fondness for any of the characters. Something feels fundamentally wrong with the series - the creepy elements dispels any sense of innocence and charm it might otherwise have had, and once you strip away those elements, what's left is disturbingly hollow. Perhaps I'm being overly harsh on an anime that I consider mediocre, and sure there are anime out there that are a lot worse (like "Clannad"), but I guess I'm feeling rather grumpy that "K-On" shattered my naively comforting delusion that slice of life shows can't be anything short of pleasant.
game8910
Time and time again, Kyoto Animation has gained the hearts of the people and has quickly become a company that seems to turn whatever they animate into an instant cultural frenzy. For K-ON! this is no different. Based on a 4koma manga by Kakifly, K-ON! went from practically unknown to massive super hit in only a matter of days. However, putting aside its massive popularity, how does K-ON the anime fare? Read on and find out. Before I start the review there are some important questions you should ask yourself: 1. Do you hate animes with extreme amounts of moe? 2. Do you hate slice of life animes? 3.Are you looking for an anime with a memorable story?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might as well turn around and ignore K-ON!, and save yourself (and the fans of the anime) some rage.
Story:
+ Even though the synopsis talks about girls trying to keep their light music club alive, allow me to say this now...K-ON'S MAIN FOCUS IS NOT ABOUT THE MUSIC. However, this anime is a laid back slice of life anime about the lives of the girls in the club.
+ Despite being ridden with cliche scenarios and episode themes, K-ON manages to achieve a certain level of entertainment which keeps the viewers coming back to it.
- Like I said before, the episode themes are full of cliched scenarios which might bother some.
- Some episodes repeat the same themes, which can make the show look repetitive at times.
Art:
+ The character designs are absolutely adorable
+ The animation style is easy to digest and simple on the eyes.
- The animation quality however, can sometimes drop significantly and some times look downright bad.
- A lot of the actual music playing scenes are not show and instead we are given shots of still images. Definitely to save some budget on difficult hand movement animation.
- For the standards set by KyoAni in the past, the animation for K-ON! could be considered rather underwhelming.
Sound:
+ Even though music is not the main focus of the anime, the song gives you quite a bit of nice insert songs which are all very catchy and enjoyable.
+ The Opening and Ending songs are both IMO extremely good.
+ For such a relatively new voice cast, K-ON!'s voice acting is superbly done and is sure to put these seiyuu's on the fast line to popularity.
- The actual BGM soundtrack is nothing out of the ordinary.
Character: (don't mind my score...I just love moe and im a fanboy ;_;)
+ Despite being cliched, the characters are just absolutely adorable and loveable.
+ moe, moe, moe, and more moe....thats what these characters are 90% of the time. (and I dont complain)
+ The interactions between the characters provides some very enjoyable comedy and very light and fluffy times. (lol bad joke)
+ Even the supporting cast is extremely likeable and yes....very moe.
- Every character follows a stereotype which has been already overplayed in countless animes.
- If you hate moe, you might DESPISE the characters (most likely lol)
- There is a small unbalance in the amount of screentime and attention given between the main characters.
Enjoyment: I cannot lie, K-ON! is an anime that one enjoys mostly as a guilty pleasure. This is defiinitely not my favourtie anime to have aired on the Spring 2009 season. But its definitely one of the most enjoyable ones i've seen.
Overall K-ON! is an anime which is not meant to break any records or set any standards. The anime is not an epic tale, nor is it a comedy gold mine, this anime is just fun...If you want an anime which is just cute to the extreme and just plain fun to watch, then by all means watch K-ON! I am sure it will not disappoint you.
iamjoe
There are far and few fabulous things in this world. But in the midst of all the moe puke and unfabulous whatever-dere, otaku pandering nonsense comes a series that manages to both please the fanbase and stand on its own two feet. No, I'm not talking about my reality TV show--I mean K-On. Yui, the resident retard-moe, has herself an unfabulous predicament: she needs to join a club. What a coincidence that Moe, the tsundere (i.e. mood swinging bitchy stick in the mud) bassist and her best friend Ritalin the genki drummer have a club that needs members. The light music club. By "light music", thinkof that elevator junk you hear in between waiting to get to your floor and wondering who cut the cheeze. So Mio, Ritsu, Yui and the big-brows rich girl Mugi all get together for moe band sessions. Sounds dumb, right? IT IS. But what makes this anime so good then!?
It does the fabpossible and makes the lives of teenage girls actually INTERESTING. Have you ever been around teenage girls? Gossipy bunch, none as innocent and fun-loving as the keion-bu. Which is why this anime is a work of genius: it's a fantasy! In this fantasy world, it's okay to take the short bus to school like Yui does. It's okay to be a totally frigid buzzkill like Mio because when you got a pair of knockers like those--who cares? This world is full of cake and sparkles...it's almost like the inside of my house.
The characters are a lot to be desired, especially Mio who is undeservedly the most popular girl. If anything, I'd rather chillax with my bro Ritsu or score some preemo you know what from Mugi. Chick's loaded. Only Cuba's finest, from her! Hell, I'd hang out with that Christmas cake teacher because death metal chicks are pretty wild anyway. Azunyan makes a good pet, because really...what else is she good for?
This anime has got it all: blobby cute girls who do all kinds of kyun~. It probably is no better than other exploitative sacks of moe crap when you look at it on a surface level. But K-On does something that makes it commendable: it knocks the competition back by being as pandering as possible in a way that WORKS. For using and abusing the system like that, well, I'm mightily impressed.
It gets a solid nine fabulouses out of ten.
Reckoner
Before I begin this review it must be noted that I am not a moe hater. Shows centralized on moe are fine so long as it succeeds at its task. What is not fine is a show that is completely false advertising. Coming into K-ON! you would expect to see a show about girls getting into a band and watch them enjoy the experience of learning to play music. While we don't exactly expect for them to get all that dramatic or serious all the time, it's still nice to see the struggles of learning to play music, the effort it takes to get good, andto get the overall culture of it as well.
However what I did see was none of this at all. Much like many other poorly made animes on hobbies and sports, K-ON! did an immense disservice in portraying what it means to be in a band. The dedication, hard work, the love for music, the love for the culture of music, and even the simple know-how of instrument playing was completely nonexistent.
As a viewer, I find this very dissatisfying. Are we to sit here and really believe that characters like Yui can sit around slacking, eating cake, and hardly practicing at all with almost no knowledge can suddenly be this guitar genius on a concert stage playing these songs perfectly? Even as far as musical geniuses go, there was a lot of hard work and toil and passion put into their craft.
But fine. Clearly this anime never intended to be BECK with moe, so it's fine to adjust our perception of this anime begrudgingly so. However, even for an anime centralized around moe, or more specifically for this show "cute girls doing cute things," the show was hardly entertaining. Ignoring the fact that the characters for me were just utterly dull or annoying, the activities and antics of the girls were not really amusing.
An anime that is 1 cour does need two cliche "beach" episodes. Eating sweets the entire show was not "cute," and really the characters hardly lended themselves to being likable due to their utter lack of depth. None of them seem to be anything but 2 dimensional the entire show's run.
There is definitely a distinction between moe shows with depth and subtle complexities and shows like this, which is essentially moe blobs without soul or substance. This compounded with the fact that is false advertising created a horrible viewing experience for myself. If you were looking for a show that was in any way supposed to be about a nice group of girls truly learning the experience of a musical band, this is probably not for you. If however you are satisfied with looking at what you see is cute animated moving images of cute girls doing mundane tasks, then enjoy it as you would like.
All I can say that this show neither succeeds at being a being an anime about music nor at being a moe show, which I would call a complete derailment of what this show is both advertised and presented as.
Charliegone
I can write many single words to describe my feelings towards K-on, but I'll try to convey them in a small review. Story Story? What story. There is none. It is a slice of life show and I really mean they just take a slice out of anything they find amusing (which I probably didn't) and put it in the show. A day in the life of a high school girl who happens to be in the light music club. Some of these "slices" though tend to lead to very boring and I mean boring episodes. I think I was asleep half of the season watching thiswhich is good because I had more energy then when I think about it. Then they throw in some moeness. How much of it. Constantly. Yup...I mean every episode is a freaking moe blob. I don't hate or love moe, but geezuz guys can you easy up on it for a bit. I'm not Takanashi from Working! here. So for story? A pathetic 1.
Art
Hmmm. At first I thought it was decent, but when I further look at it was pretty mediocre. That fuzziness effect they try to do when moving around is, in my opinion, just lazy animation. It really takes away from what other wise could be some decent artwork. Not to mention the fact that we are constantly bombarded with chibi and moe images. After a while it just plains get you so pissed off you want to step on some ants.
Sound
There were some catchy songs in this show, which is a nice touch for a band/slice of life type of show, but it just isn't good enough to save it from utter crapness of the rest of the show. I give it a decent 7.
Character
Dreadful. None of them have character. They are so predictable and boring, no wonder no guys are in this show, none of them would like these idiots. Just think of them as Kim Kardashian clones without the hot body, that's what the characters of K-on are like. A give it a 2. At least a couple times I laughed...a couple...
Enjoyment/Overall
When I finished this show, I just kind of stood there and thought to myself. Is that it? Is this what people were raving about how "cool it was. blah blah." I think I need to bang my head against a wall a few times to see what these raving reviews see, because frankly, I don't see it. K-On to put it simply, is stupid. Hell it's even worse than the harem anime types or those old 15 fps animes that bombard you with violence...and to think I thought the 2nd season would be better. It was the same lame jokes, characters, etc. GOD almighty help us. K-On is crap. Let us pray there isn't a 3rd season.
baobin
Having spent most of my summer engulfed in the world of engineering, I figured a series based on music would be a great distraction. Tack on some hyper-energetic high school girls and a slice-of-life setting, and K-On’s light-hearted charm naturally piqued my interest. This premise is undoubtedly what makes K-On so captivating. As a whole, the show never attempts to step beyond its means; it sets itself out to be simple fun and undoubtedly succeeds. Despite operating off a number of base gags and jokes that find themselves revisited from episode to episode, the series never seems to drag. Ultimately, the musical aspect of the show,while central, pales in comparison to the harmonious play of the characters, and serves primarily as a catalyst to move the story along – the music does not shape the girls, but rather the girls shape the music. I admit this might disappoint some viewers, but it provides K-On with more universal appeal; though it refrains from excelling in any one genre, it dabbles in several quite well, and manages to juggle humor, drama, and music without any sign of awkwardness.
From air-headed Yui to feisty Ritsu to feminine Mio to whimsical Tsumugi, the cast certainly can’t make any claims to originality. In fact, the series sticks so hard to the tried-and-true formula of slice-of-life comedy that its sole claim to uniqueness stems from its inclusion of music as a focal point. While the characters feel like largely recycled archetypes, great lengths are taken to flesh them out to be as endearing as possible. In this way, the series seems – in a strange manner – both fresh and vivacious, and manages to fill its thirteen episode span without much tedium. Just as the antics begin to slip into monotony, the anime comes to a close, wrapping up its finale with an expected, but very fitting, encor
K-On certainly branches out from Kyoto Animation’s standard fare, as although the animation works well for a “cutesy” feel, the level of detail is noticeably poorer. A number of menially important scenes feel washed over in quality, and make the visual production seem rushed. Still, as a whole, the animation generally works well in that it aptly captures the girls’ cheery enthusiasm. Motion and framerates are as crisp as ever, so where the show lacks detail, it makes up for it with raw energy.
Japanese bands should really stop writing English lyrics into their songs. Sure “lazy” and “crazy” might rhyme, but rhyming does not a coherent sentence make. Anyway, aside from that little quip, I can’t think of anything much to say about the music other than that it’s catchy. All the band’s insert songs make you bob your head along with the beat, and the opening theme delivers the free-spirited feel that pervades the entire series. With solid voice acting to boot, the audible aspects of the show play out in much the same way as the visuals: they don’t break any new ground, but they do their job well.
As I mentioned in the story section, K-On’s cast is remarkably unremarkable. Though they all do a fantastic job at connecting with the viewer, they fit the archetypal mold too snugly for my liking. While I found their interplay fun and amusing to watch, I could never shake the sensation that I’d seen this material before but with different faces. Unlike the truly successful comedies such as Fumoffu! and Minami-ke their characters flaunt no memorable twists, which leaves them simply as good. Still, the musical premise gives the series enough edge to allow much of this to be overlooked, as the band environment adds sufficient flavor story-wise to draw the viewer into their experience. In the end, the characters are little more than a bunch of ordinary high school girls getting together to do what they enjoy, and perhaps their largely generic feel is what gives them such overarching charm.
Though K-On is certainly not Kyoto Animation’s best work, it passes the acceptability test by a wide margin. While lacking the originality and flair that have defined the studio’s previous works, the series manages to be entertaining regardless and avoids making any glaring faults. At thirteen episodes in length, K-On makes a point not to overstay its welcome; it’s fun, amusing, and enjoyable for its span, and can easily find its way onto the shelves of fans of many different genres.
JKinky88
Some shows have stories that are complex or linear. Some have stories that are downright hilarious. And K-on.......uh......umm.......whats the story again? Does anyone even know the story of this show, anyone?! No, well thats awkward. K-on, the show that has cute ass girl who drink tea, eat and have fun.....and play music. Not really but you could put that in a sense. What is this show about and the point of it? Absolutely nothing, but not in a bad way. This is that type of moe-show thats there in case you wanna sit down and relax, it isn't a show that keeps you on yourfeet, you could close your eyes and still at least enjoy this show.
Story: 5/10
The story as I said, there's none, so these 4 girls have formed a group known as the 'Light Music Club' , their goal is to just have fun and play music I guess. And thats it, we get introduced to a childhood friend, a music teacher with marriage issues and no male character like any where. Only in like one scene, well thats sexist for men.
The whole point here is that K-on dosen't need a story, its cast should keep you going for 13 episodes, the story is just there to tell you whats going on. Its just a show where girls wanna have fun, nothing more than that. And if you don't like that, there's millions of other moe-anime waiting for you.
Art: 8/10
The animation is nice, it suits the show really well, its filled with vibrant and calm colours to let you explore, it shows k-on's world is like a world that has world-peace.....only in an anime world kids!
Sound: 8/10
The OP is pretty damn catchy same with the ED, they really make you hope you get more music like that through the show, but nope, just some tea, well hey at least we have some music here and there....oh wait we get like 2 songs. One generic japanese moe-song and a good attempt at a girly song that does well. Thats all for the music, for a show mainly on the aspect of music, its dissapointing.
Character: 6/10
The chracters are pretty cliche here, you have a light headed girl who's rich (Mugi), the shy-ass girl (Mio), the strong-independent girl (Ritsu), the 'kawaii' girl thats there just to be cute (Azusa) and a retard (Yui).
Each have their own traits but not too much special, its the characters you'd expect in a moe-anime.
Enjoyment: 7/10
Now this is the reason I actually continued this show, the show is so damn cute, and there's downright moments that kill make you either go AWW! or just nosebleed, literally. This is really the point of this show, its fluffy and cute. There's some jokes here and there but they don't make you really laugh, they miight make you chuckle but thats really it.
Overall: 6/10
K-on is a cute and relaxing show in case you need a break after watching something long as hell and terrible, if you're bored or depressed, this show should make you feel all better. Girls just wanna have fun, that is k-on in a nutshell.
Reflex96
A lot of criticism surrounds K-ON! It is usually based on that it supposedly doesn't deliver what it should. Well I'm going to say that's all rubbish. What makes K-ON! stand out is simple: It's refreshing. (A word I will be using a lot in this review) The story is great for providing that breath of fresh air not found in similar programs. The moe aspects are what makes this a really nice watch, and the humour on top is even better. You shouldn't be disappointed because it's going to put a smile to your face. Unless... Unless you were hoping K-ON! was going to bemore music based. Sadly it isn't and I'll be honest I was looking for more of the band playing. There are only 2 real performances in the series comprising of 13 episodes. There should have been more of a focus on the music aspect, but what you get is good enough to keep you happy. The refreshing nature of the story keeps you from wondering if it would have been better if it was more music orientated.
When I started watching K-ON! I was worried that the instruments used would be unliscensed rubbish. How wrong I was. There is so much attention to detail in the guitars, the amps etc. that they make everything look basic. That isn't the case though, character design is fantastic, they all look unique, and the setting used (the school) is refreshing. It really made me happy that Kyoto Animation took the time to make the focal point of K-ON! really eye catching. It is worth watching if you are a music fan to embrace the detail used.
The music used in K-ON! is outstanding. The opening theme is refreshing, the ending theme fun. They are described as the "Light Cusic Club" but this isn't the most accurate western reflection of the term "light." The songs featured in K-ON! is out and out rock and I could not help headbanging a little. It doesn't seem refreshing but when it's all said and done I was very happy at the end of them playing. The voices of the characters suit so well I can't think of anything that matches. The shy but strong Mio who is the most moe of the characters has a voice that really befits how she acts in situations. The bombastic Ritsu has a match made in heaven voice. If it weren't for the voice acting, the relationship between Ritsu and Mio wouldn't seem right. As for the rest of the characters, they have been acted very well on most parts. Some of the minor characters are satisfactory.
The characters are great. I love the contrast between them all. Yui, Mugi, Ritsu, Mio and Asuza all have a uniqueness which is refreshing when they sit around the table while drinking tea and stuffing cake. It enables for varying discussion, which is again, refreshing. (I told I would use it a lot) It's great they paid so much attention to detail to make sure that what each character does reflects not only their personality, but their design. I mean, it would be weird for Mugi to be the dumb one, because she doesn't look dumb, there are other characters for that job. This is something I'm glad of. It makes critics look like they were watching something completely different.
On that note, I'm going to correct the critics. K-ON! DOES deliver what it should! It delivers the refreshing day to day activities of a group of girls, which puts a smile on your face. It is thoroughly enjoyable for it offers unique story, design, and sound which you can enjoy. However I have to look at both sides and agree that a lot will be disappointed by the lack of focus on the music, as some would perceive K-ON! as something that sets out to be purely something dedicated to music. Even so, you'll still enjoy the music that is offered, even if it might not be as much as a lot would want. K-ON! is unique in the slice-of-life/moe genre, and that is what makes it: Refreshing! 9/10
SuiNoByakko
There are anime that build a huge hype around them and turn out below average. Then, there are anime that do the same but they still manage to meet expectations of their fans. Which group does K-On! belong to? In a way, both. While it completely manages to please fans of slice-of-life and comedy manga, even some people that love K-On! admit that nothing actually happens in it. That’s where people that like their anime with plot facewall to oblivion. Story: 1/10 Why such low rating? Because there is nothing to rate. The only signs of story were at the very beginning and even thenit was way below average. Basically, the story is that a new girl, Yui, joins Light music club but can’t do music. Of course, that she is wholeheartly accepted into the club. Why not after all? What would be musicians doing in a music club? Another plot happens, about in the middle, when another girl, Azusa, but this time she can play guitar, joins. That’s it, say bye bye to plot. All they do is drink tea… when they actually do something.
Art: 6/10
Art, the only good thing about K-On! yet it’s probably where people divide into fans and haters. Simple reason, you either love it or hate it. Art, just like everything else, is played for laughs. Deformed characters are in every episode and design is something between a moe loli and Voldemort.
Sound: 1/10
DO NOT go into this expecting an anime based on music. Even though it wants you to believe it is, it isn’t. Practice is very rare to see here and even if it happens most of it is just pointless jamming. Concerts are even rarer (2 in the whole season) and, again, they’re played for laughs so they’re about stage fright (driven into dumb extremes), songs a 5 year old would write (no kidding), the “group” being anything but in-tune, etc.
Characters: 5/10
I hate it when people rage over a show and ignore its good points because they dislike it. Characters were the strongest point of K-On! after art. There aren’t many and while some are similar they still manage to keep their diversity both in nature and looks. However, don’t expect any character development or any characters that would serve other purpose than comic relief. The cast is full of stupid, hypocritical, useless and annoying characters that would be hated until the end of time if they were in a different kind of anime. However, they still have a charm to them and a very strong moe factor.
Enjoyment: 0/10
Even though I have sort of mainstream sense of humour (most of the mainsream anime make me laugh easily), I couldn’t even smile at any of jokes here. Humour is mostly based on a stupidity or awkwardness of a character. Like inteligent jokes? Keep away from this as far as possible. The only reaction I had to these “jokes” was staring at it with my jaw dropped wondering whether it was supposed to be funny or show the characters’ idiocy. I watched this because of boredom and I believed it would get better eventually. It didn’t.
Overall: 1/10
To me, enjoyment, plot and characters make most of the rating, in that order, so art could be perfect and it still would get low rating. (I found the art stupid so it wouldn’t help much anyway) I didn’t enjoy the series but you might. The only thing you should ask yourself if you have a lot of time on your hands and if you enjoy watching moe characters drinking tea. If so, by all means watch this. If not, maybe you should try something else.
qwertyasdf1234
Story: 5 K-ON! is a slice of life anime with no real story. Its about the day to day lives of cliche moe characters that form a band and do everything BUT actually play music.......for the most part. The majority of the time is wasted with the characters eating cake and talking about a bunch of random nonsense that isn't delivered as good as in anime like Lucky Star, neither is it as funny, and it gets old pretty fast. The final episode (12 or 13 doesn't really matter what you consider the final) is pretty anti-climatic (like most slice of life series) and just leaves muchto be desired. What a proper ending for a moe, high school girl, slice-of-life anime be like.....I dunno. A graduation?
Since its KyoAni after the OVA you wont see any more K-ON! for a long time so you know this will never get any real closure. Not that these kinds of animes are about that .....but still...
Art:8
As usual KyoAni does a solid job. The backgrounds looks nice, the food (which gets tons of airtime =P) looks delicious, and all the little things are detailed with extra characters all looking different with actual faces. :O
One thing that is either love or hate is those damn blank eyed gooey faces. I cant really explain but when ever they do or say something stupid there's an equally stupid or ugly face to go along with it. Ive seen it before obviously but they spam them in the anime and it gets a bit disgusting instead of cute.
Sound:6
What I found the most disappointing about K-ON! was that this anime, which is about music,has such a weak soundtrack. This is short and simple. The OP was terrible and cringe worthy. The ED was surprisingly decent I'll admit. But none of the insert songs are memorable. They also come off as korny and cringe worthy. Yes I know moe moe kyun anime or whatever but Haruhi and her God Knows performance was epic and a really good song on its own. The same can't be said for any of the music in K-ON!
The Seiyu were pretty solid throughout but some annoying voices.
Character:5
The cast is all cliche female moe characters. Rather than explain em all all I'll just say none of them are interesting. You have definitely seen them in tons of different anime already. Im not against moe or anything like that I do enjoy it. But this is just overload and rather than be cute its annoying. Yui and her stupidity and clumsiness isn't cute its stupid and annoying. Mio and her scaredy cat attitude isn't cute its annoying.
Enjoyment:6
K-ON! is certainly enjoyable but in small doses. I pretty much rushed through the series to get it over with and move on to something new since I originally planned on watching it during its airing schedule. Its not a good anime but its not a terrible anime. Its just there and if you're hungry for moe this is good to satisfy you as long as you take small bites. (Watch 1, 2 eps a week) Running through it will definitely bore you.
Overall:6 (Fair!)
Pretty much explained in Enjoyment. Not good not terrible.
lastnameEver
While it’s common knowledge that all K-On lovers are Satan-worshipping shoplifters who steal spare change from the homeless, I am not without sympathy. Being an evil person myself who enjoys mugging charity workers working for St. Vincent de Paul in my spare time, I can’t help but see myself in their shoes. If you like K-On, I understand. I will not question the hole in your Mio body-pillow, nor will I question the lipstick on her face, nor the seven kilograms of cocaine hidden in the walls of your home. I am a very accepting person. We live in a very accepting society. The internetis a very accepting place. We only tell you to kill yourself once a month. We’re very nice people. And K-On is a very nice show. It has a great number of very nice made-up people in its made-up world.
Yui Hirasawa is as dumb as bricks, and the main character. Yui is joined by Mio, a responsible, well-meaning, pretty Japanese girl whose innocence is gradually eroded and work ethic ground to dust by the three stooges surrounding her. Mio’s childhood friend Ritsu is the band’s drummer, and she’s energetic and lively and so on. And there’s also Mugi, who is rich. And! Also! She has a lot of money. These cookie-cupcake Christmas characters comprise the main cast of the show, and for the first couple episodes they do various normal things in a supposedly cute way, and then they play a tooth-decaying, ear-castrating melody. Then they’re joined midway through by Azusa, and then they do the same thing again, only this time Azusa is with them, and Yui says ‘Azunyan!’ every few minutes like the 47-chromosome wonderful human being that she is. From time to time, through the revolving door of their Mickey Mouse club-house, their club supervisor does her very best to corrupt their innocence with her cosplaying fetishistic desire to dress up Mio in as many marketable costumes as possible. Moe, apparently.
I liked watching K-On. It’s a very comfortable experience to view these girls, animated lovingly by Kyoto Animation, sit and talk and walk around, and buy guitars and eat cake, and live a kind of life that is out of reach of reality. It’s a very nice story about how picking up a new hobby can help you meet new people and transform your life in a way that you’d never imagined.
-Yukimaru
Another blockbuster from Kyoto Animation studio. Forming a music band that is a pretext to eat cakes and drink tea in nice atmosphere. Enjoyable and positive comedy with big accumulation of moe. Kyoto Animation has at least two recognizable anime series. After Lucky Star and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya we have K-on. This time we don’t have loli student who talks about food or girl who search for aliens. This time the pretext is… a music band. Yes, Kyoto Animation knows how to attract millions of otaku. For K-on has so much fans as adventures of Haruhi or Konata and the amount of bayedguitars during emission has increased markedly. We have another phenomenon.
Yui Hirasawa is a very lazy and irresolute person. She would like to join same club but she doesn’t have any interests or talents. She arrived to the light music club by accident. The activities of this club fits Yui , who don’t like to overwork herself. She meets tree other girls, who also arrived to the club by coincident. Four of them tries to improve their play on the instruments, but after a moment of practice they sit by the table with cakes and tea. Even when a new member appears it don’t change anything.
There are five members in the music band. First guitar is owned by Yui, a sweet and drowsy but cheerful girl. On second guitar plays Azusa, band’s mascot with large avidness and graceful appearance. The bassist is Mio, a quiet a and shy girl, who get scared vary easily. Percussionist Ritsu is a person with thousand ideas and energetic personality. The last member Mugi, who plays the keyboard is the sponsor of all cookies and tea. We also have four tangential heroines. There are non male characters.
Every character movement or sentence fits the fans exceptions. Girls have very cute lifestyle and are very adorable. Yui sleeps in weird places, eating lots of sweets and acting lazy. Azusa as the youngest member have role of bands mascot, obviously with cats ears. Mio blasts everyone with her shyness and scariness. Ritsu capers around all the time. Mugi is a motherly type from rich family.
Persons who want to watch K-on because of music will be disappointed. The club activities are constricted to eating cakes and drinking tea, rather than practicing on instruments. They won’t write many songs or perform concerts every evening. Don’t expect any masterpiece lyrics either. The band plays very light music with trivial contents, singing about rice for example. It can be classified as sweet pop-rock.
All music theme is contained in short conversations about this subject. Problem with hurting fingertips, controlling instrument or catching the right rhythm are one of those enjoyable additions. That can encourage many people to try some instrument practicing. Besides the portrayal of instruments is incredible. The guitars looks so much genuinely that we can recognize their analogue in real life. The character movement while playing and the instruments images from different angles are also fantastic. Though the concert scenes are limited because of time accomplishment.
What else can attract to K-on besides tons of moe? Namely positive energy which bright up this title. Smile don’t disappear even for a moment. Carefree life of our heroines and the atmosphere will build up everyone’s mood. Days in the club are passing slowly, which is very relaxing. K-on don’t kill with laugh. You can find more funny titles. The humor is light and accommodate in characters of club members. We don’t have stupid gags or punching in the head.
Graphics are done very well, as like as the instruments that I previously mentioned. Colors are lively and apparently sloppy drawn outlines are adding some dynamism in the animation. The facial expressions of characters are also very positive. Even though the club members are in high school they look very young, but it can’t be sead that is a typical loli look.
The background music is very positive and don’t disturb on with any frustrating themes. The opening song is characterized by excessive cuteness and portraits perfectly what K-on is. Quick guitar sounds and squeaky voices can get your mind mixed up. Songs that girls are playing in the anime can be counted on one hand. If sweet pop-rock songs happens to fit someone’s taste there are many albums that contains band’s music not featured in anime.
Someone that don’t want to watch anything with moe will doubtlessly avoid this anime. If it doesn’t bother, many spectators will fall in love with the characters and bias positively with this mellowed title. Regardless, I wouldn’t categorize K-on as a music title this much. The designation that fits it more is “About girls who spend their free time in a funny and enjoyable way”.
RenanShima
K-on is an anime that caught my attention I was simply being presented with very bad animes, and when I picked up K-on to see it and thought it was a bad anime, it completely surprised me, and when I completed it it felt like an emptiness inside of me it was filled by some incredible, making it to put like favorite, in this Review I will try to pass on my feelings and some observations about K-on. Now let's talk about something that is very present and even today many memes are made, which is animation, many may say that K-on animation is the worstthing about Kyoani, but I don't think that, quite the opposite, I think the K-on animation is very good and competent at various times, but at times it seems that the line is smoothed to reduce the quality of the animation, but taking isolated frames, complaining and comparing it with works by Kyoani from that decade is a completely meaningless argument and with a completely non-existent basis, but anyway, I want to tell you that the animation of K-on is good, and even manages to give more charm at various times that need it.
The K-on storyline is simple, but it has something that is very good and that a lot can say that it is an anime problem, but it is not that, it is not a problem because it does not cling to this resource and concept to try to fully stabilize itself as a piece of music, and yes I am saying that K-on doesn’t follow like an anime 100% focused on music all the time, basically it’s a slice of life inside the club and sometimes in open places, and this is what is incredible, the narrative form that K-on uses makes it completely pleasing to anyone who sees it, but of course that is not the only quality of the plot, it also has its way of merging music with the episodes, it also has the humor that is silly at various times, but it is well done and quite funny and in keeping with the situation that the protagonists are in, it also has the way that the environments are introduced, all together with a good and charismatic animation make K-on stand out among the anime in their respective studio and also of its genre, and all this is very well mixed and increased, its quality is such that it is still worshiped today because its way of being a very good anime, makes it remembered for many years, even after 12 years after its release, because I think that this concluded the plot part, let's go to the other topics.
And ohh boy, let's talk about the K-on soundtrack, or better the songs, and I love them all, I was able to really appreciate the way they were introduced, and not only that, but on certain occasions the music becomes something more didactic until reaching the explanation of how an instrument works and its harmonic composition, and I want to emphasize the opening that I am one of my favorites, and the ending that I find very stylish and matches perfectly with the style in which it is applied, in addition to the visual that the characters are using it, which is very beautiful, the sound effects of the environment didn’t see any problems or even in the voices of the characters, in my view and hearing they were perfect and well synchronized.
Now I’m going to talk about K-on’s strengths, which are his characters who manage to be extremely functional both individually and as a group.
First is our protagonist Yui Hirasawa, a kind, cute, friendly, and very lazy girl, she is interested in music very much because she wants to be with her friends and be or have something that makes her someone special, but something calls me the attention on this character, which is the fact that she has a learning deficit that is reflected in her school grades and other activities that she participates in, but this is used as a joke, something I don't think is bad, but it is quite interesting to see that despite being a character that appears to be simple and banal, she manages to have her brilliance and I managed to overcome these adversities that are imposed on her because of her problem.
Mio Akiyama is a very fearful and demanding girl, but she is kind, friendly, funny and cute, in addition to being extremely competent and good in her instrument, which makes her a very cool and easy to attach character, and there is something about this character that also catches my attention, which is the fact that she is very shy on the verge of neglecting her own talent, but with the passing of the episodes and with her advancement in her friendships and in her social media, she manages to overcome her a little fear of the public and demonstrate all your ability to sing and play.
Ritsu Tainaka is an extroverted, playful, cheerful, cute, and very friendly with all of them, besides being a great drummer, she was responsible for bringing them all together and was almost also responsible for separating them all, but she shows her sentimentality, only that she also has something that catches my attention, her jealousy of losing her best friend and ending up alone, she even gets sick because of it, and the fact that Mio and she are so friendly makes me reflect that even Ritsu does these pranks with her friend, deep down and abroad she cares and just wants to see her best friend laugh and be happy by her side, and finally Ritsu is one of the funniest.
Tsumugi Kotobuki is a cute, fun girl, and above all someone sweet and always looking out for friendship, but one notable thing is the fact that she does not know some daily chores just because she is rich and has a life of luxury, but I I see that her happiness is more visible when she is with her friends, and this is reflected not only in the character's posture but also in her way of communicating and maintaining a social bond with everyone, besides that she is an excellent keyboard player, already her funny side is also that she is rich, in addition to providing the club with supplies and objects, that is, she is responsible for everything working there.
And lastly Azusa Nakano, a girl who is introduced in a late but perfect way, she is the person who most wants the group to have a direction, because the same snake from her friends more seriously when it comes to training for everyone to improve, her personality is that of a sweet person who acts in a very kind way with people she likes in some way, she is cute and knows how to play like no one else, but in addition everything has something that also catches my attention, the fact that happened to her and the K-on group, (but I'll talk about that later), this determination that your friends are well-tuned instrumentalists, is something to "Blur" the character that makes her pleasant to everyone.
Well, I already talked about all this, but there was something that caught my attention and I didn't see anyone commenting, which is the message that K-on brings to you and consequently for us too, there is an episode where Azusa wants to leave the band due to lack of responsibility and willingness of the other members to train or look for something new that would give back to the band, and so the episode is basically Azusa going from place to place looking for this "up" in her music career, but she starts to realize something different, for some reason all the bands she was looking for were good, extremely good, but it wasn’t what she wanted, she didn’t feel a chemistry in the bands even though they were very good, even superior to the school, so she stays a little thoughtful, then she goes back to school asking for forgiveness for the words she said to the girls, and then they forgive her, only she asks Mio why she didn't give up since she was very talented, then Mio responds by saying that only Despite their group being lazy and average, there was something that caught her attention and made her continue and love her colleagues, which was the fact that each one was complete, they all did incredible chemistry, so Azusa at those words finally realizes what she actually felt for her colleagues, and then the episode ends. Well this moment made me become reflective, and I ended up using it with other works that I don't think are that good, but I like it, so I noticed that it was the chemistry of the characters or how they interacted with each other that caught my attention it made me like them even more, so I came to the following conclusion that "Although the anime you like is bad, it probably has a peculiarity that made you like it, even if it lacks qualities, the chemistry that the characters do was the differential for your evaluation "that was basically what I thought when I saw this episode.
Summing it all up: K-on is a fun anime that will make you laugh at the interaction of the characters and their jokes with music and behavior, combine it with a great soundtrack and a very good animation, we have a fun and very tasty anime to watch , even if you’re not a big fan of Moe, I recommend at least seeing K-on, whatever you like. I hope you enjoyed the Review, it took a while to finish but I finally got it, thank you all who read up here and PUNI PUNI 0/
positiv2
This anime is simply peak of Slice of Life anime. There are very few that even come close. Do you like slice of life? Do you like CGDCT? Do you want to just chill while watching anime? Then watch this. Are you looking for an anime with a complex plot, an anime that has some deeper meaning that can be understood only if you watch Rick and Morty, or are looking for an anime that has MAPPA-tier fight sequences? Then avoid this anime. This review will be looking at K-On! as a slice of life anime, with expectations adjusted to that fact. Story [9] Simply put, there isn'treally any. Nearly all of the story progression is placed in two episodes. But that is fine. CGDCT is not a genre to watch if one cares about plot, and this is no exception. The very little story it provides is still great, however, and gives us some introduction of the characters, as well bringing us into the light music club. The micro-stories that each episode is centered around are generally fantastic, though with two effectively repeating after a year in school.
Art [9]
As expected of Kyoani, the art is goat. Fluid movement, full of details, and well fitting the overall theme and vibe of K-On!. Characters are expressive, change outfits, and look overall fantastic. There is no part of the anime that will make you go "budget moment 🤣", however, there are only a few spots where Kyoani goes all out, creating something beyond human comprehension, and while usually that would be enough to make me place a 10/10 in the art category, it made me only thirst for more. The baseline quality was too grand for its own good.
Sound [9]
The music in this anime will often blue-ball you, playing only a couple seconds of music outside of concerts and such. However, the full songs that they do play, as well as OP and ED are amazing. Nonetheless, if you plan to watch this anime for the music, you may as well find the songs on Spotify because the characters don't play full songs that often.
Characters [10]
Each member of the main cast has a unique personality, with plenty occasions where they show their traits. They have their own struggles, and have their own joys. They fit well with each other when together. Mugi. The characters' interactions are also very enjoyable to watch. Simply put, the characters are incredibly polished, consistent, and enjoyable to watch and listen to speak.
leiferouis
Story: 1/10 What story? There is no significant plot. K-ON only follows the mundane and trivial lives of 4 cute little girls and their friends/family. I don't think anyone really watches this expecting a juicy plot full of unexpected twists or anything like that. If you are looking for a good plot, don't waste your time with this series or reading about this series. Art: 8/10 The animations are crisp, clean and the character designs are exactly what they are supposed to be: moe, shiny, sparkly, etc. I watched the entire series on 1280x720 so the art was definitely one of the best aspects of this series. Sound: 9/10 TheBGM did its job perfectly, subtle but sets the mood and atmosphere to accommodate the show. The light and fluffy intro and insert songs fits the series perfectly. The ending is a nice music video of the girls' band, what more can you ask for?
Character: 7/10
Each of the 4 girls of the K-ON band takes on a typical role of a moe series, exactly what you would be expecting from such a series. No character development, no inter or intra-character conflicts. Again, exactly what you would expect from such a series.
Enjoyment: 7/10
I guess this is the part of the review that actually matters. Before I say anything else, if you are not into Japanese "moe" culture, don't waste your time with this series.
I am not a huge fan of "light and fluffy" but I sometimes find it irresistible in mood swings, especially if I am under great stress or depression and need something to lighten the mood. I guess that's why it took me nearly two months to finish 14 episodes that I already had on my hard drive. So if you are looking for something light and cheerful, this series will do the trick with its extremely cute and childish characters, extremely cute and childish band related episodes, and extremely cute and childish comedy.
Phasar2022
The way I look at things, getting children into music is never a bad thing, it gives them something to focus on, enhances the brain and can be a future for some, be it as a musician or any of the jobs with a musical need. Well at least thats before starting K-On, some ways should't be used to get kids into music, especially when it dumbs it down to the lowest level. Story - 2/10 Even though the show sells itself as a music/band show, a majority of the time it's a slice of life/school show, with just a bit of musical talk in-between. It's not acomplicated story. Girls enter their freshman year of high school, start a music club and become a band, yeah kinda sums up the whole first season. The reason you can sum up the whole season in few words is the lack of detail or story put into it. In twelve episodes two full years pass, most series don't get a full year done in a full twenty four episode run. Because of this they never dwell on much besides the same repeated gags, heck they apparently had so little content they pretty much repeated two episodes and had a semi-recap episode at the end. The only time I felt they cared about the story was the winter break bonus episode.
More than anything the reason I just had to give the series such a low score is the unrealistic take they have on music. Within a few weeks of getting her guitar, Yui can't really play chords, but she can shred like the best metal musicians, not to mention she has no idea of the other basic components of playing or keeping a guitar. Well maybe there can be one genius who picks up the hardest art that quickly (outside the fact it takes time just to build dexterity to allow you to move so fast) but later in the series her sister Ui mention's holding Yui's guitar a couple times and that alone was enough for her to be a great guitarist. It sets a terrible standard for people who watch the show and want to pick up an instrument. If they feel it was supposed to be so easy, but now they can't play after months, they'll just give up, not realizing it can take years to just be decent. Instead of plowing through two years, shorten the time span but add Yui taking lessons, learning different things or at least just make a her an average player until later in the series.
Animation - 4/10
The pilot episode's animation was all over the place. There was a joke, and a liberal attitude towards, the animation in FLCL and I think these guys took it as a serious way of doing things. There's points when within a scene the animation style would change rapidly, not even waiting for a change or a transition of changing rooms. It could be attributed to using many different key animators in order to get the episode finished, but it was just very jarring and throws you off right at the start.
Things settled down in future episodes and everything started to flow much better, so there is a plus in them getting their act together. Throughout you can see an inspiration from shows like FLCL and Excel Saga, but it just didn't work here. The two shows mentioned are comedies, but they are created for a wide audience with elements of actions, drama and comedy. K-On is a comedy but it seems singularly focused on one demographic, particularly ten to fourteen year old females, so the already cutesy look doesn't need to be enhanced with the chibi looks and wacky faces, or at least not to the degree they did.
As a musician I was always going to nitpick the equipment used, but after that train wreck of a first episode I would have been happy with proper shapes for the instruments, boy was i wrong. When they walked in the music store I was shocked how they got so many instruments correct and to a high detail that was amazing. Between the guitars, amps and drum sets seen in the show, you can see they spent months researching and drawing these items alone.
Sound - 5/10
The music for the show is both decent and terrible at the same time. While the music itself isn't that bad, the lyrics to the opening and closing are horrible. They'd probably make anyone who listened to it a feminist, because the lyrics just make girls out to be morons who want to shop and chase boys. I can understand the lyrics to band's songs being this way, as they are suppose to be from the perspective of the young girls, but the opening and closing songs aren't, heck unlike the songs within the series these two songs even have terrible melodies. The songs the girls are suppose to write have a pretty good sound to them, but again terrible lyrics, but I can let that pass as it seems intentional. One shining star in their song catalog is Fuwa Fuwa Time (I believe that's the one i'm thinking of) which sounds like an Andrew W.K. song but with females singing it.
The voices aren't so bad either. They're cutesy, but they match the girls pretty well and never get to the point you want to shut the show off because of them. Out of all the girls I'd have to say the best voice was that of Tsumugi, they picked a voice that sounded very authentic for the character, but somewhat out of the norm for Anime shows, where every voice is so stylized. The actors did a really good job with the range of emotions they had to put in for each character, it would have just been cool to see if they could do the song lyrics in english too, as they did with the show Beck.
There are very few minor characters or even one off characters to rate, but the fact they were able to keep each girl distinctive might have been helped by that, limiting the doubling up on voice actors and leaving out many other characters in an all girls school that would have to sound somewhat similar.
Characters - 5/10
The characters are pretty run of the mill and due to the speed in which the series passes we don't learn much, but still there's room to grow and that counts for something.
For the whole series there are only eight characters and two or three minor characters. The band consists of Yui, the previously mentioned solo prodigy who can't play simple things on the guitar, who's also a bit of an imbecile. They try to cover her playing and out of the blue perfect test by saying "once she sets her mind to it she'll do anything" but it's a cop out. Ritsu plays drums and is also a bit of moron. Her (Ritsu's) friend from grammar school, Mio, plays bass and is afraid of basically everything. Tsumugi shares the spotlight as the pretty girl (along with Mio) who also comes from an enormously rich family, she's oblivious to the real world and a complete stereotype of dumb rich people. Later in the season underclassman Azusa joins the band as a second guitarist, she's pretty normal and just wants to play her best.
Rounding out the main characters are Nodoka, Yui's childhood friend and member of the student council, she's everything Yui isn't. Yui's sister Ui, who is basically the same character as Nodoka but bubbly, she acts like the mother at home and takes care of Yui. FInally theres Ms. Yamanaka, possibly the most fully developed character in the series, we actually learn about her past, her likes and other little things about her life.
Again I would have loved for them to just develop the characters over a year's time instead of two, but instead we just got many many copies of things we've seen before.
Overall - 5/10
I came in having high hopes for the series, I love being a musician and as I said I think shows geared towards kids that push music are great for growing the art form. But instead we got a fourth rate school show with a little bit of the life here and there. I wouldn't have been as disappointed if it was just marketed as a school show, but they pushed the music angle then ran from it. After each episode I did want to get on to the next, but part of me thinks it was in hopes it would be different.
It's a cute show, just not a rewatch type of show.
With a second season and movie still here for the viewing I hope the series gets back to it's intended path, the bonus episode was a good start, but this show easily strays.
