Ranked #913

K-On! (Manga)

K-ON is one of the most polarizing series in existence. On one hand you have people that are vigilantly against the series and anything else with a similar cute or "moe" style, and on the other hand you have probably one of the most dedicated otaku fanbases, spending thousands upon thousands of yen on merchandise, CDs, etc. It's impossible to deny how much of a presence K-ON has had in Japan since the first season of the anime aired.

Now, enough of that. Let's talk a little bit about the manga itself.

What you have here is a fairly typical 4-koma manga about a group of highschool girls in a music club and all the resulting shenanigans and fun that they have throughout the years. There's no serious story to be found here, no emotional moments, no deep message, simply comedy and cute girls interacting with eachother. It's what you would typically expect from a gag manga focused around young girls. That might be a good thing for you and it could also be hellspawn depending on your tastes and preferences. Don't read K-ON if you don't want that, it's very simple.

The art is decent enough. It starts out pretty simple and then evolves over the course of the series. The characters you see in chapter one are going to look completely different from how they look in a 2012 chapter. Most of this can be attributed to KyoAni's popular anime adaptation and Kakifly deciding to emulate and portray that a bit more in his work. They look cute and the art gets the job done so there's not much to complain about or mention here.

Jokes, story, all of it, it's very average. Mediocre, even. You aren't going to be laughing to tears every chapter and you aren't going to be very invested in what's going on. Especially if you are coming in from the anime and expecting the manga to be around the same quality, you will be sorely disappointed. KyoAni's adaptation is much improved from the source material and added in many scenes, character development, dialogue, and most importantly, music. It turned an average 4-koma into something amazing. You will not get that level of quality here and you should try to throw away any preconceptions before reading if you want to have any hope of having fun.

For the first three years of highschool and until the time when the original four girls graduate, it's an above average manga and is definitely enjoyable. It's funny, amusing, and it's cute. If you liked the anime then you will definitely enjoy the main portion of the manga.

The new manga that continues after the anime, however, is quite bad.

Why? Because it is being stretched out and continued needlessly after a very satisfying ending that did not need any sort of continuation. In a way, continuing after highschool like this throws away any sort of feeling or tone that it had going for the first 52 chapters. Kakifly is trying very hard to emulate that same tone with the college portions but it's clearly not working. The recent chapters feel almost like they are something else, at times like it's not even K-ON anymore. It just does not work without the girls all in highschool with eachother having fun.

There's not just one new character introduced, not two, but FIVE of them, splitting the focus between the girls even further to the point where nobodyl is able to get a significant amount of time or development anymore. All of the new characters save for Akira are extremely bland, and in the latest chapters, it even feels like Kakifly regrets putting them in. There was really no need to add this many new characters in. It's very contrived and seems like Kakifly's way of trying to freshen things up and make it all different which is not at all what the fans want and it's clearly not something that his writing ability is capable of. Sumire, one of the new girls in Azusa's side of the story, is derivative and almost a complete clone of Mugi, even filling largely the same role as her, looking the same, having the same rich and high social status, and even being revealed as being childhood friends with eachother. It's not just Sumire either, but each new character seems like a blend between one or two other characters' more prominent traits. It's sad, but Kakifly is showing here that he is running out of ideas for new characters and can only create them based on one largely superficial aspect and then playing on that the entire time.

For Azusa's side of the story she is the only interesting or unique character there and it's really a shame. The other four are dull and bland with nothing exciting about them and it makes her entire portion of the manga a bit painful to read at times. I love Azusa more than anything, but even seeing her act cute and watching her struggle as the new leader of the club— growing and growing, being a well-rounded and developed character— isn't enough to make me enjoy reading her chapters. The other four characters and the stale, repetitive situations that they go through each chapter detract from it.

There isn't anything fun about watching the girls go on a beach trip for a third time.

Kakifly fails on originality and he fails at writing. He's damn good at making cute panels and amusing jokes that will make you smile and hnggg, but he can't do a proper story. The new manga is very, very weak and if it was going to be of this quality then it should never have been continued in the first place. It ended nicely and now it is simply being milked and continued to a point where even the most dedicated fans are growing tired.

That's enough ranting now.

As long as you aren't expecting something life-changing and amazing from the manga it should still be worth reading, and especially if you are a fan of the series then you should keep following it weekly. It's bad, but not bad enough for me to stop reading and there are still some great moments scattered here and there. It's mediocre and poorly written but it's still capable of being enjoyed.

If you're a newcomer to the series and want a nice, relaxing slice of life or comedy, please watch the anime instead even if you aren't an anime person. It's much, much better and KyoAni did a fantastic job with the adaptation. read more

A gaggle of high school girls sitting around eating cake and drinking tea sounds like the world's most unbearably dull thing ever, and it probably is, but going through the motions of daily life isn't half bad, but just watching it is pointless none the less to those who want more.

STORY: ...I'm honestly at a loss here, how does one grade a story, when there isn't a story at all. K-ON! is just that, no story, no conflict, no evil organizations to defeat, no romance, nothing. I challenge anyone to think of a better phrase to describe K-ON! than, "Pure sweet pointlessness."
Ending the review right there would be easy, because I described accurately enough, but my joking(?) aside... Umm, actually I'm not joking, K-ON! is pointless to the point of having no point of even existing, I mean there's more than enough daily lifes of who-ever-the-hell to satisfy all life slicers, so why does K-ON! get the most attention? There's some fan pondering once in a while (Yet there's several vacation swimsuit arcs), but less so than (Or more than) Lucky Star, so why K-ON!?
That is where I got an answer: It's simplicity and unpretentious nature is what captivates those who just want to sit and watch something, the way you just want to admire the sunset or something along those lines. K-ON! is the quintessential series to check out in that regard, it doesn't get full of itself, it doesn't bombard you with plot twists or heavy explainations, it's pure enjoyment for those who enjoy watching people just hanging out and do whatever.

That in it's self is the problem with K-ON!, it's nothing, literally. There's nothing it does to grab ahold of your attention, or give a sense of urgency. No plot details to explain other than Yui Hirasawa is looking to join a high school club, of course a series as itself has no need to, as it is meeting a status quo for those enjoy this kind of manga, but there are many who will be turned away for that reason and more. K-ON! is also incredibly sweet and soft on attitude as well, the characters are as followed: Yui Hirasawa the bubbly clumsy guitar player, Ritsu Tainaka the tom boy drummer, Mio Akiyama the mature yet very femine bassist, and Tsumugi Kotobuki the kind rich girl (Literally, she's what I'd like to call an unreallistic not character as her character trait is nothing more than being a wealthy person).
And along the way, another band member joins up, an underclassman Azusa Nakano who goes through what most first time readers of K-ON! go through, discovers the club by their performance (The reader discovers K-ON! through sheer popularity), only to find out they laze about doing nothing (The reader finds out how nothing actually goes on), and gradually goes with the flow of things (Reader excepts its, and just reads for the sake of reading). These characters are not multi faceted people, and are questionably single dimensional (Though towards the later parts, there's a touching moment where the others cheer up a sadden Azusa who reallizes she'll be alone when her friends move on and graduate from high school), but they serve the status quo, they are about as ordinary as slice of life characters can get, nothing more nothing less.

And you know what? That is okay. It's okay to read something without any purpose, it doesn't fail at being entertainment, a specific type of entertainment despite it's popularity, but entertainment none the less. But if you want substance, and not something as soft as a marshmallow, K-ON! just doesn't appeal to that in any way. You're basically looking in the coloring book section for Sigmund Freud in a sense.

ART: Not too detailed, but not poor either. It accomplishes what it sets out to do well, displaying cute girls doing cute stuff. The artwork is just as uninsulting as the subject material, and it is paired with it's simple nature with a simple style: 4 Koma (Panel).

OVERALL:
The Mixed:
+/- Pure and sweet in nature, it doesn't insult or aggravate in any way. / There is no substance, those looking for deep meanings, fasicnating characters and a story for the ages, then you're literally wasting both yours and the manga's time.

Maybe being overrated isn't a bad thing as long as you are doing your genres a good job. The series is having a weird choice though, K-ON! colledge years, where the girls drink tea and eat sweets for their semesters. If finding high schoolers adorable was already a farfetched idea, then finding colledge girls acting like preschoolers adorable is just simply perposterous. read more