K-On! Movie

Graduation looms for the founding members of the Light Music Club. With only a few precious weeks of school left, the girls decide to make the most of it and plan a trip abroad. Hawaii, New York, Dubai—many destinations are suggested, but after a little help from the club's precious pet turtle, Ton-chan, London is chosen as the host of their next misadventure!

Yui Hirasawa, Mio Akiyama, Tsumugi Kotobuki, Ritsu Tainaka, and Azusa Nakano will visit famous landmarks, perform live music for Londoners, and eat all sorts of delicious food, all while stumbling clumsily from place to place. But the fun won't last forever, as heartfelt songs and goodbyes will be made as their high school days together come to a close. One thing is for certain though: the undeniable friendships these girls have formed is something that will carry on long after the final scene rolls.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hirasawa, Yui Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Akiyama, Mio Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Nakano, Azusa Main

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Kotobuki, Tsumugi Main

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Tainaka, Ritsu Main

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Hirasawa, Ui Supporting

Yonezawa, Madoka Japanese

Yamanaka, Sawako Supporting

Sanada, Asami Japanese

Manabe, Nodoka Supporting

Fujitou, Chika Japanese

Suzuki, Jun Supporting

Nagata, Yoriko Japanese

Tainaka, Satoshi Supporting

Itou, Mika Japanese

Yamada, Naoko Director, Storyboard

Ishihara, Tatsuya Episode Director, Storyboard

Utsumi, Hiroko Episode Director, Key Animation

Tom-H@ck Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement

Reviews

Jul 20, 2012

Veronin

Recommended

Many people have found themselves wondering what truly qualifies as something exemplary. For some, this kind of quality is attributed to titles with deep themes and complex storytelling, and for others it may be something as subjective as what's "fun". What can be agreed by everybody though, is that no matter what the nature of a title is, when the inherent quality is up there it’s going to shine through in the story. It’s going to make the audience feel something of significance and it’s going to leave them awed and speechless when the credits roll.

And when the credits roll in the K-ON movie, you ... know that you just witnessed something great.

After over a year since the second season of the anime finished its airing, KyoAni has released their final work for their famed K-ON adaptation. A movie with anime-original content or "filler" is something that normally carries a very negative connotation. For a person who doesn't see themselves as a large fan of the series, this may appear to be something pointless, or, in the most severe form, a cash grab for the series. Though KyoAni has always prided themselves in selling based on the quality of their products, it's safe to say that these worries have absolutely no basis in the movie.

This is in many ways the true ending to the series. It’s something that takes the expectations from the brilliant second season and goes above and beyond with what the series is truly capable of. Cute girls, comedy, and other important traits of the series remain prominent here, but it's also something that shows itself to be much more than that.

K-ON is a series that needs no introduction. It’s always had a simple premise – young girls playing in a music club and growing up and having fun along the way. Yui is as ditzy as ever and Azusa is still her strict and mature self, though not without the character growth that came towards the end of the TV series. Taking place a few weeks before their graduation, the girls of the series make one last trip together as a full group in London to end things off with a smile. And just as you would expect, seeing the characters in a completely foreign environment and in a variety of strange and unique situations is a very delightful and amusing thing.

Surprisingly, there's a large amount of exposition and build-up in the beginning as well as a lengthy goodbye at the end when they come back home. This isn't a movie that starts and ends with their trip in London – it begins with a full 30-minutes of introduction and deliberation leading towards the trip. After finally boarding the plane and dealing with Yui’s silly shenanigans along the way, we see them in London making their way around the city sightseeing, having fun, and unfortunately for them, stumbling around and getting into several misunderstandings from their lack of knowledge with the English language.

They travel to many locations within the city that are based on and modeled after the actual locations, which is something that KyoAni has shown themselves to put a lot of work into. For somebody that lives in London or has been there frequently, there’s a lot of familiar sights in the movie which reminds the audience that this isn't a story that takes place in a fictional setting, but our own living and breathing world. Even for people that aren't familiar with the city, it gives a great glimpse at what the life and culture there is like and what the city has to offer. This is the real London, the hotel they stay at and all the locations they visit are very much real and lifelike places. And for a large part of the movie, you will feel like you’re traveling alongside the girls and witnessing all the silly and interesting things that they experience.

A lot of complaints towards K-ON can be directed towards a perceived lack of music which was established as the theme at the very beginning of the series. And while that does carry a small sense of validity in the TV anime, the movie is definitely something that will alleviate those complaints immensely with the amount of music the girls play and the amount of new tracks implemented here. A large portion of the screentime is spent by the girls performing music, both in London and back at home at their school. There aren’t just one or two new songs added in for the movie, but five in total, all performed and sang by the girls and their seiyuu. Two of these songs include a unique opening and ending while two of them are performed by the girls on-stage, and another exists as an insert song while they’re exploring the sights of London.

Background music is also much more varied and includes classical music reminiscent of the England from centuries past while others are more contemporary and involve catchy guitar riffs. While the background music in the TV anime wasn’t something that stood out most of the time, it is quite impossible to deny its presence here in the movie. Each track adds heavily to the emotional value and they also had me close to tearing up just from the music alone during a couple of the more serious scenes. This is a soundtrack that will be found incredibly hard to forget, especially with repeated and future seeings of the movie.

Another thing in particular that KyoAni should be commended for here is the quality of animation and the detail of the scenery. It's honestly breathtaking at times and the characters and environments move so fluidly that it puts even the TV series to shame, which is saying a hell of a lot. Thankfully, many unique outfits are given to each and every character in the movie, rather than falling to the trope of a single outfit for the entire trip like many anime do. It's very evident here that KyoAni put all their efforts into making sure the production quality is high up there, and it's a very pretty anime as a result of that.

A large part of the emotion stems from the audience’s attachment to the characters, but with the direction of the movie itself and especially in the last thirty minutes, it finds a perfect way to end the series and tie it together with the ending of the second season. The story behind the song performed for Azusa during their graduation is easily the largest theme next to the seniors themselves moving on, and the movie goes into full detail with the creative process and emotion put behind that song. It’s what makes their final performance in the clubroom so meaningful and even more emotional than it was in the second season. With all the build-up and cues set before that point, it’s quite difficult to resist shedding a few tears or feeling impacted as the story of the five girls finally reaches its conclusion.

Many people praise previous KyoAni works like "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Clannad After Story" as being some of the best of anime, but now it’s quite safe to say that KyoAni has opened this spot for a third title.

This is our final goodbye to the series, and what a beautiful goodbye it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 24, 2013

AnnoKano

Mixed Feelings

K-ON! was never a series with much direction but for many this wasn’t much of a problem. Thirty minutes of pleasant humour with a simple storyline to tie it together- a formula for success. However, when one attempts to stretch those thirty minutes of heaven into a two hour long movie, its weaknesses become apparent rather quickly. So the question is, will the K-ON! movie be able to overcome it?

On the face of it, it does seem like a possibility. The group are going to take a trip to London, creating ample opportunity for an adventurous storyline that will keep the audience interested throughout the ... running time. Indeed, it seems like an exciting prospect, and so we sit and wait. And we wait.

And after what feels like thirty minutes, we are still waiting for the promised trip to London. Instead we get a lot of dillydallying about what the cast are going to do for Azusa for their graduation; which was also the premise for much of the second series of the TV show, making it not just irritating but quite redundant. Furthermore it is obvious that any such gesture will take place during or at the climax of their trip, so it feels like stalling for time.
Eventually they do start making their trip to London, and things start to look promising again. They are in one of the greatest cities in the world, in another continent. Ample opportunity for cultural exchanges and clashes, you would expect. But rather than watching Yui munch on some fish and chips, instead they go to a sushi restaurant. They do see some of London’s many attractions, but these are only short sequences that feel more like token gestures included to make the setting seem relevant. In truth, the choice of London as a setting seems entirely pointless.

Before too long the girls are back in Tokyo, and we feel a sense of relief that the boredom will subside. Unfortunately this is not the case, and instead we return to the non-problem of what are we going to do for Azusa? No prizes for guessing what that might be. Finally there is a performance in the school, and everything works out hunky dory for everyone.

There are quite a few performances in the movie- one might even go so far as to say there are too many. Much criticism of the television series was that it didn’t feature much music, but frankly I feel this is for the better. After all each performance takes up a few minutes of running time and doesn’t do much to advance the storyline. If you are a fan of the music then it might not be so bad, but if you just want to listen to music then why not do just that?

The animation was pretty good, as you would expect of the Kyoto Animation machine; but unfortunately looks alone will not save a boring and meandering storyline or an abysmal plot from being a disappointing failure.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 15, 2014

thejackal1234

Not Recommended

Funny

When discussing 'moe', k-on is typically the first series that comes to mind for many people. It has represented for many, the pinnacle of 'cute girls doing cute things' and many take comfort in knowing that this is either as bad or as good as it gets for some. I don't like K-on. In fact, I hate it. I think it's one of the worst series in the industry.
K-on got a second season. And a spin off. And a sequel. And to put a cherry on top of the sundae, it got this movie!
And because I'm masochist, I decided to watch it.

The ... plot [if you can call it that]: The girls have completed their university entrance exams and want to celebrate and so organize a trip to England. In most anime, the class trip would be covered in one or two episodes. K-on decides it wants to gut it's fans for every cent and make it into this 2 hour long pile of shit. Now, don't get me wrong, I like slice of life. I understand there are limits to the plot and drama that goes on. However, in the case of K-on there is no plot at all. There's no conflict, there's no character changes during the movie. I can think of a thousand things we can do with this movie. Maybe some of them are nervous about going to college. Maybe they're worried their friendship won't extend outside of high school. Perhaps even they have disagreements about where the band should go -- oh wait they ALMOST do that. Instead that ends up being a 30 second scene where they disagree on what music to play. During PRACTICE. The most 'conflict' that goes on is them trying to get a present for their kohai that their leaving behind.


Art/sound: As much as I would like to say everything about this movie was awful, I'll admit the animation is very fluid and solid. Kyoani, no matter what, your music scenes are always simply amazing. Oh, but where my bitching comes in is for the music. You'd think an anime about a girls in a light music club would have a lot of music scenes right? them playing their instruments showing off their skills. But no. Out of two hours, and I timed this, the amount of time we see them on screen, playing instruments, is 11 minutes, 11 minutes exactly. 11 MINUTES OUT OF A 2 HOUR MOVIE. I understand those scenes probably cost a lot of time and effort, but that doesn't excuse that I'm watching an anime about girls in a band who don't play their fucking instruments. Oh but if you wanna see them eating snacks or drinking tea, don't worry! that takes up 13 MINUTES 25 SECONDS. I timed it, They snack LONGER than they play their music instruments. K-on is not k-on. It's cake and tea club. And the fact that they point it out DOESN'T MAKE IT OKAY.

Characters: You know, in a show like this, there's a lot of potential for characters to evolve and change. You have a group of girls, coming of age, in a tight knit 'band'. There's so much potential for character arcs, personality changes, and so on. Yeah. Too bad we don't get a single moment of that! They stay exactly the same. Don't even try to argue this. From season 1, all the way to this movie, all the characters stay the same, ditsy/airheaded girls that they are. Not to mention how interchangeable and 1 dimensional their personalities are from the start. You'd barely notice of Mugi started acting like Yui. All of them have the IQ of a duck, want to drink tea and eat cake, and make stupid mistakes. I don't get the waifu wars over these girls when they're all pretty much cardboard cut outs. And you know what? This, this is where my problem with K-on lies. It's fine if a slice of life has little plot, it's even okay if they don't play their instruments that often. But, when your characters are created solely because that's how japanese boys want them, cutesy, ditsy, and airheaded, doing nothing but drinking tea and eating cake, that is where it goes wrong. They aren't characters. They're fanservice girls. They exist on the same level as shounen females with large chests.

Overall: This movie is awful and represents very much every issue I have with K-on in one ass-numbing long movie that didn't deserve to be made. They don't play their instruments, the characters are vapid and 1 dimensional, and nothing happens.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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