K-On!

Let me clearly state before the start of this review, that me giving this show a 5/10 is me being generous. K-On is one of the most overrated Anime in recent years, beloved by 4chan users and incels everywhere. Just like the low-class rabid fan-base, K-On is a mediocre, shallow show with very poor editing and screenplay and is only loved due to the fact that a lot of its viewers adore the cute girls in it. Basically, K-On is a superficial, vapid and shallow piece of media that is poorly constructed and executed. The only saving grace being that for the most part ... the art and animation are fine, and that occasionally the show manages to actually produce a decent scene every once in a while.

I feel numerous people who dislike this show, dislike it for the wrong reasons. The show is bad not due to its reliance of the "Moe" genre in Anime, it is mediocre due to simply poor pacing and screenplay. Over the years "Moe" has been blamed for the downfall of the industry, I thoroughly disagree, the industry has been going down since the early 2000's, due to a lack of good ideas and actual solid writing. Anime has always relied on its cuteness ever since the 1980's, a lot of individuals watch Anime for the pleasing art style and cuteness it exhibits. There is nothing wrong with liking cutesy shows where that is the main attraction, the problem with K-On isn't that its a show about cute girls playing in a band, the issue is that besides that premise the show is below-average in every technical department. If K-On had even just average writing, screenplay and directing, I would have no issues with it, but its not average in any of those important categories. In some its downright abysmal.

The biggest offender to the show's mediocrity is the pacing, besides Sword Art Online I have never witnessed any other popular Anime with such nonsensical pacing. The show runs through a whole year in the lives of these high school students, but good luck trying to figure that out in any natural way, the only reason the viewer knows that a considerable amount of time has passed is because the characters just flat out say it. It is utterly jarring, when going from one episode to the next, all of a sudden without any proper indication, the viewer is notified that months have passed between episodes. There was no use of various film techniques to indicate time passage, no montages, no use of interesting editing tricks, nothing, just that at the beginning of an episode one of the characters state months have passed, with the audience not getting to see what they did during that time, which is brutal considering this is suppose to be about a newly formed band with a complete beginner guitarist, any rational person would think they would at least show a montage of them practicing together intensely so they can actually produce a competent song together.

Which brings me to the other biggest issue, the progression of the characters in relation to their band. These four (later five) girls form this new band, one of the members never even having touched a guitar before, you would think considering that they have essentially a useless member, they would be practicing a whole lot to get in-sync with one another, and trying their best to teach the novice how to play guitar. Well, they barely practice for the majority of the show, instead lazying around and eating sweets. Our novice guitarist does practice a bit at home, but even if one is naturally gifted at music, there is a very unlikely chance they are able to play anything impressive well in just a short period of time even with intense training and practice. Well, this is K-On, so instead of something reasonable happening, like the main character learning to play simple notes on the guitar in time for their festival performance, and the rest of the group adjusting to that by making a song that caters to her level. Nope, with no montage or really any screen-time showcasing the gradual improvement of the band and as they get used to one another and learn to play together. Instead, all of a sudden due to lazy time-skipping, the main girl knows how to play guitar pretty well despite not knowing basic terminology and techniques for playing guitar, and the band is able to pull of a good first show out of their asses. Teaching them, that they only need to work a little bit, and that they can eat sweets and lay around, magically it will all work out.

This is in contrast to practically every other "Slice of Life" Anime out there, while the genre is usually a very peaceful and cutesy type of show, there is actual proper development of characters and their goals. The best example is "Aria", where the main characters can be seen consistently practicing in various episodes in order to become better, and at first they are not that great but by the end of "Aria The Origination" their hard work pays off with achieving their goals, becoming Undine Primas. Along the way, they also learn various important life lessons that better them, every episode has a message and meaning to decipher. Characters grow, change and become better, that is the essence of the "Slice of Life" genre, and no Anime does it better than "Aria". Now take all that "Aria" did, and not apply any of that to K-On, as K-On does absolutely none of that. None of the characters grow, none of them learn anything from their mistakes or behavior, its fine that they barely practice, its fine that they just goof around and take music, the supposed thing they love, with no seriousness what so ever. Nope, why would they?, when they will always pull a good performance out of their asses anyway?

The animation and art is fine for the most part, however I did notice a lot of bad proportions on the characters during various scenes, especially when it comes to hands, feet and legs. The music which gets praised quite a bit, to me was nothing more than standard modern day muddled mediocre JPOP, not helping the fact was the laughable lyrics. It is far from a really bad Anime, but its also very far from being actually good, another overrated popular Anime loved by individuals who are not able to dissect and analyze
Anime in regards to its competency in the construction and execution department. I am not even surprised anymore when popular Anime that has been deemed great, is really nothing more than overrated mediocrity. Well at least this show seems to distract incels so I mean, that is a positive.

Quite frankly i can sum this anime up in two words. Tea Party.

The concept of tea is supposed to generate a feeling of relaxation or something that's laid back. This anime accomplishes this in a refreshing way but does not really astound appealing more to the niche moe genre than trying to actually do anything with the material they have.

The characters are nice and cute and the art is nice and cute..... hell i think this entire show is based around nice and cute. It's an enjoyable watch but don't expect too much story. This anime is ultimately about the characters and whether ... or not you like this anime hinges on whether or not you like the characters. Most of the archetypes are there so this shouldn't be anything too painful to watch, just expect less music than they would lead you to believe.

This show is all about girls in high school. It is mildly humorous, in fact just enough so to keep me watching through both seasons 1 and 2 -- 41 episodes in all. It is mostly light drama about relationships and funny anecdotes from high school days. The story is entirely about a group of girls and their friends; there are no male characters other than an incidental teacher or shop-keeper throughout the entire series. There is no romance whatsoever either, and it has no ecchi or fan service at all.

I liked the characters, but the story was very weak, in ... the sense that there were no serious dramatic moments at any point. It was almost entirely slice-of-life. If you want something very light to watch to fall asleep to, this one is not half-bad, but it won't be winning any dramatic achievement awards.

Finally, there is an OVA movie, that movie takes place after the end of the second season. Watch it last.

•Intro•

K-ON! was undoubtedly one of Kyoto Animation's biggest hit, and it's safe to say that this is the show that pretty much started the sudden CGDCT, moe trend within SoL animes. To explain the premise of K-ON! in simplest way possible, it's about 'daily lifes of the light music club members.' That's it, practically no narrative structure, no objective, no character development, just a bunch of cute girls doing cute things after school.

•Moe and CGDCT•

It's not easy to review this anime, since the word "cute" itself is subjective. Its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness depending on the eyes of the viewers. The issue ... with cute or moe shows is they are "manipulative", they don’t require good writing or any writing at all, they only need to design characters in such way that people would find appealing, thus tricking their minds to think it is a good show since they keep coming back to see and enjoy big foreheads, small noses, and big eyes. This isn’t character design, it’s a proven formula that forces our brains to release dopamine/happiness at the sight of shows like this. This is the reason why SoL, or any anime with CGDCT aspect in it is so common these days, because studios realize that those kind of shows are all about the characters, they can entertain their demographic by simply designing characters in a specific way and attaching to them a voice actress who can make cute noises with her mouth and breath.

I am not in any way saying this is objectively bad or wrong, for this is only what I see, you can think of it however you want. Keep in mind that there are many shows that does this technique of cute design to draw you in, but still have decent writing and plenty of substance to make it worth the watch, for instance, Madoka Magica, Chuunibyou, and Flip Flappers.

•Thoughts on different aspects•

One thing that makes K-ON! fun to watch is its simplicity. K-ON does not try to be anything spectacular, it has very simple goals and rarely if ever steps out of the small box that it creates for itself to operate in. However, there is a beauty in that simplicity. When you turn on K-ON!, you don’t have to think about anything except what is right in front of your face, you just have to sit there and enjoy.

-In terms of plot, we have no plot.

-The comedy is okay, the casts' silly actions did make me smile and chuckle every now and then, but it's not the funniest show that makes me die of laughter.

-I also think it's a cute show but nothing special I haven't seen fifty times before.

-In terms of animation and audio quality, Kyoto Animation did a damn solid job with K-ON!. The characters have enough individual details to make them likable and memorable although they won’t win awards for complexity or realism. The cuteness feels natural and everybody is very "expressive". You can get a sense of each character’s personality through even their simplest actions, like how they walk, so the characters are conveyed nicely not only through words but also the animation. K-ON!'s original source material is a yonkoma (a manga with four panels) that often involves repetitive jokes and scenes that are designed to fit in one page, which can be a challenge to adapt. KyoAni took a lot of creative liberties with the material, extending six volumes of jokes into 39 episodes without it being boring. The openings, endings, OSTs, and musics are mostly catchy and fun.

-Voice Actors did good job in representing the moeness (yes that's a word now).

-I didn't have much to say about the characters in this show other than that they're just decent. They are likable of course, otherwise it'd be a complete failure of a genre that's 99% character-driven. I could go through what I like and dislike about Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, and Azusa, but there's really nothing special about them. HOWEVER after rewatching the show I realized that there's a reason for why they don't stand out, and that's because viewers are supposed to project their own lifes onto them. Each of these characters is designed to portray a type of person that you either were or knew in highschool. Were you a shy kid in highschool with an out-going and loud friend, or vice versa? Then you will most likely relate to Mio and Ritsu. Did you know a person who messed up anything they did but you liked them anyway? That’s Yui. Were you an underclassman who always felt a little left out of your group? That’s Azusa. The group dynamic of K-ON is designed to mirror dynamics that the viewers likely experienced in high school themselves so that they can more easily relate.
And this leads nicely to my next point, easily the true strength of K-ON! as a series for me.

•Nostalgia Power•

We would only think back to something we have fond memories of if we were at least a little bit sad that those days are gone. Nostalgia is not pure happiness, it is bittersweet, and K-ON! understands this perfectly.

Yes it's fun to think back to your younger days, when you didn't have a care in the world, when you have little to no responsibilities and can do whatever you so desire. But isn't it also sad in a way? The life you once really looked forward to has arrived and it's likely not as amazing as, if not way shittier than you pictured it when you were younger.

When we see the girls of K-ON! hanging around talking about pointless stuff, playing on the beach and lighting firecrackers, giggling happily before bed, or going on a trip overseas and having a sleepover together, we aren’t just watching them, we are reliving our own. We are not only feeling the love and happiness that we once felt all over again, but we are lamenting that those days are gone, and that range of emotions can be intense. When you're done watching, you feel like you just went on a journey, one that you went through in the past.

A lot of other SoL anime have attempted to induce this same feeling of nostalgia, but the atmosphere can often not feel properly recreated, causing viewers to struggle to relate to them, unlike K-ON!. Many shows misunderstand nostalgia to be a purely happy thing, but K-ON!’s slow descent into a high school graduation that marks the point where everything will end, creating a looming feeling of dread, demonstrates how well it understands this concept.

Again, obviously this is not the case for everyone. You may not be able to relate with anyone in this show and couldn't feel the sense of nostalgia that I did at all, making it hard for you to agree with my statements. And that's completely fine.

•Conclusion•

Yes it's shallow, uninnovative, and not particularly memorable as a story. I'd like to think of K-ON! not as a story, but as a piece of work that's purely made to concentrate on the nostalgia aspect and to relive my past memories. It's a 6.5/10 for me, definitely check it out if you feel like taking a trip down the memory lane. To everyone who made it to the end, thanks for reading.

What can you say about a show that seemed to be really popular at the time of release, but in reality only works cause the characters can sell well.
From the get go the Art felt incredibly sloppy. The 1st couple episodes where the studio should really be putting a lot of time and money into making it look as pristine as possible felt rushed.
The sound track was a let down as well the Background noise and music wasn't bad. But for a Anime centered more or less around music ... (Despite what Yui thinks) I was quite disappointed. I would probably listen to almost any other anime's music track before i go to this one.
The Characters did grow on me despite my best efforts to hate the seemingly endless Cliches.
The biggest problem that i had with K-on was the pacing, Time skips are abound and you will have your head spinning from the 1st episode. I won't go into much detail, but be forewarned.

K-on is an anime about four girls who start a light music band witch i don't get why they call it light music when they play some metal but anyway. The story line was not all that great the one girl was always shy and the one was sort of mentally challenged the other was self centered.The other was a girl who's related to the music store owners. For the art i gave it a six because the people actually took there time and didn't use machines for most of the work like in lost animes. The sound quality was not all that great it ... was in japanese to start off but also there was the problem with it skipping out every once in a while. The characters were outstanding it is amazing that japanese artists can make girls look so awsome. Enjoyment is different for everyone i didn't really like it. Overall i gave it a six if you like to see girls play guitar then this is the anime for you.

K-On! is one of those shows that gets tossed around a lot as a great example of a slice of life comedy, being one of the more popular examples of one. I wanted to branch out and try some more modern anime so I took a chance on this as it is mentioned as a good starting point.

Full Disclosure: I recently got back into watching anime after a very long hiatus. Cowboy Bebop was the last more or less contemporary show that I watched, so that probably colors my opinion somewhat.

I was hoping to see more about the struggles of putting ... together a musical performance and how a light music club would operate, but was a bit disappointed that each episode seemed to be more about tea and dessert time and screwing around than actual Light Music. This could be interesting if it was a couple episodes before the story got a bit more serious/urgent, but it was the story in just about every episode.

To be fair, the story does have somewhat of a progression of time in it, with various activities happening more or less due to the needs of a light music club. Instruments are acquired, the girls work on the theory of practicing or song writing for a few minutes, and then they are back to doing pretty much what they were doing earlier, which is having a tea party and reacting to their situation in a clichéd way based on their character tropes.

With regards to the technical, the art is ok. Nothing spectacular. Animation feels a bit wonky at times. The sounds are done pretty well, the music that is performed does actually sound like J-pop, and the voice acting doesn’t give me any right to complain. The opening and closing credits are catchy, and the other songs that are performed work as well. This is the high-water mark of the show in my opinion. K-On!’s major stumbles are story and character development.

The characters in K-On! are not very deep or complex, and they pretty much have their one or two shticks that become a punchline repeatedly throughout the series. I watched the entire first season and past the first two or three episodes, I had figured out what the characters were going to do in most of the situations they were presented with.

The lazy characters were going to be lazy, the timid, serious one was going to freak out about something when she tried to get things back to serious, the refined one was going to make tea to calm everyone down, and the adult in the room was going to try to get the club into cosplay. That’s basically each episode in total, with perhaps a school festival, beach, or holiday setting to break things up once every couple episodes to vary the weather a little.

I understand that cute girls doing cute things is a part of anime these days, and in that, I suppose that the show delivers, as for the most part, they all play their cute reactions to the situations well, and things comfortably meander along, same as they ever were in each episode. However, outside of the opening and closing credits, the Light Music Club seems to do precious little actual music composition and practice, which left me thoroughly confused, somewhat frustrated, and wondering if I was totally missing the point as people seem to love this show and recommend it as a must watch. The whole show left me a bit mind numbed watching it.

The big question that I’ve had a hard time answering after watching the first season is if the whole music club is really necessary to tell this story. I’m not sure it added much. I haven't watched the second season, and don't feel compelled to so I can't say if it gets better in that regard.

All said, I didn’t get too much out of K-On!, as perhaps I was looking for something a little more substantial (I realize that may be misguided with a show like this). When a song is actually played by the group, it’s decent enough to watch. The problem is that this happens so rarely that it’s just not enough to really make up for the problem of it being the same thing over and over each episode.

There are shows with characters that are interesting enough to make you want to see them interact in various situations and the comedy or drama involved will make it entertain you. This show did not make me like or care about the characters enough to have that same reaction, but I could potentially see how some types fans could really enjoy it. There are people who really like the cute character archetypes and the one trick thing, and this could end up working for them. We all have guilty pleasure shows that aren't amazing, but they're comfortable and make us feel good. Perhaps this is that for some people.

Outside of watching K-On! because it’s well known, I can’t really say that there’s much to recommend here to someone who isn’t a fan of the slice of life genre. It’s probably inoffensive enough to watch with just about any audience I guess so it could probably be something to watch in a club or something.

Bottom line is that I think there are more compelling things to spend your limited viewing time watching. I’m not going to recommend anything specific, but I’ve seen better more recent slice of life shows that left a stronger impression on me.

It's not totally devoid of entertainment value, but I can't recommend this over other stronger shows. You aren't missing much here.

Story:
The main plot of the story sounds cool in theory but overall just doesn't really work and moves really slow. The first few episodes I thought were pretty alright story wise but the the characters just get off track. They'll also just throw shit out of nowhere and never expand on it.
Art:
The art is pretty generic, I'm pretty sure if you removed Yui and Ritsu's hairstyle I could not tell the difference between them.
Sound:
I feel like the voice actors were going for too much of a cutesy anime girl vibe. Yui's voice is so high pitched I kinda want to bang my head against the ... wall when I hear it, but the rest of the cast did pretty alright voicing the characters.
Characters:
The characters are pretty lackluster. Mio's personality is almost exclusively based on being sensitive to things that frighten her, Ritsu will say something slightly daunting and she'll just fucking have PTSD in the corner. Yui is your average generic slice of life protagonist. Mugi pretty much does not have a personality. Ritsu is the only character I find slightly likable, but even then she's your generic tough girl.
Overall:
I think this show is very flawed but I just thought fuck it it's only 13 episodes. But if you like generic shows like this give it a shot, after all I'm just some guy on the internet and it's up to you to make up your own opinions.

This anime made me realize moe may not be for me.

There is plenty that this anime does okay and i think that is the nicest thing i could say about it. This is probably the first anime where the main girl ended up being my favorite. Yui is an airheaded lazy uninspired girl who floated on through life and finally joined a club. This is great her antics and overall personality makes me click but how thorough they were making not just her but all of the characters ended up causing them to be stagnant. None of the girls really go through any ... problems and when they do, the problems are generally small issues caused by them. If anything the girls are practically thrown into being mediocre rockers just by them having such an easy time. The entire show is just what it seems: girls just being girls. There is little to no character development for some rather bland one dimensional characters.

The art is something you would see out of the weeb girl that draws all day in class next to you in middle school rather than doing her work. It isn't bad but it doesn't leave an impression. Ill sum up and just say it is generic.

I love music anime and that is the reason i thought a music moe anime would be the perfect way to dip my toes. I was wrong. Fuwa fuwa time leaves little to be desired after hearing it any time they practice, do a show, accidentally bump into a car, humming it in their heads. It is okay sounding but they did 3 separate shows and i maybe remember 2 songs?... even though they beat it into your head that they have 4 songs throughout the anime.

Story? none. This is a more episode approach you can pretty much pick up this show at any episode and be okay. Like mentioned previously any challenges are pretty minor and either resolved through bs or just forgotten. specifically in a jealousy scene its just bulldozed over with another scene and never closes. I could see the appeal so i don't really demote the anime on that, just not my style at least with such one dimensional characters.

Overall, I will try again with another moe but just given that this anime was pretty much how people have described moe anime to me I think its just not for me. The show managed to keep me watching and yui is cute and dense enough to make me try season 2 but i will never rewatch, recommend, or look back at this anime. If this describes the kind of stuff you like though I believe you will enjoy the cast plenty.

I was looking forward to watching K-On, I really was. It's very well known, so I thought it had to be great. Well, instead I found it greatly disappointing.

So story: 3/10

I play guitar. I don't know if I'm just really slow or bad, but the rate at which Yui improved seemed insultingly quick considering she is clearly shown to be somebody who hardly ever practises properly unless she is made to. If I could be good enough to perform in a band in one year with only that amount of practise, I would be overjoyed. But I can't.

Overall, I just feel like the ... story is very rushed. I understand that this is a slice-of-life, so it's nothing serious, but I also felt none of the episodes particularly excited me much either. It all felt rather the same, to me.

Art: 8/10

I don't know, really. I'm not an expert artist. I thought the art was cute, and I quite liked the outro. So yeah, that's what I think of the art.

Sound: 8/10

This was an anime about a music club. The music has to be good. None of the background songs really stuck out to me as being exceptionally good though, I must say. The music the band made was good though, I think.

Character: 3/10

The characters were dull, I think. Very little character development. Yui's character was 'stupid'. I'm sorry to say it, but I can't think of anything else to describe her. Maybe over-excitable, clingy? But overall she's just kind of stupid. And there's no development or improvement.

Ritsu was alright. She was fun. But again, not much character development.

Spoilers for Mugi part

Mugi was possibly the only one with proper character development, though it is small and largely unrelated to the actual plot. She's a rich kid, we know that. At the beginning, she's never been to a fast food place. In the end, she got a part-time job at a fast food place. She clearly has enough money to not need to, she's possibly even supported for life, but she branches out and tries to experience things in her life. I quite liked this part.

Mio. Mio had slight character development. She absolutely would not sing at the start, but she ends up being the main vocalist. But we don't really see the development here - it's more just that she doesn't want to do it, but she has to. She's forced to, and that causes the development. Aside from that, not really much character development. She's the adult of the group, yet also the scaredy-cat. She's also very shy. Aside from the singing thing, she makes no developments with any of these.

Azuya. I'm not even sure I've gotten her name right because I heard Azunyan so much haha. I've got to say, I don't know much about her. She was only in it for a few episodes, so there wasn't much room for development for her, to be fair.

Enjoyment: 4/10

As I said before, story was far too rushed for me. Spoiled a large amount of my enjoyment. Other than that, there was one HUGE thing which made me really uncomfortable.

The treatment of Mio.

She is shy. We know that. It's not uncommon for anime to exploit shy characters by embarrassing them, but this just does it in a way which makes me extremely uncomfortable. She is forced into clothes she does not want to wear, even clothes which are too revealing for her comfort. Not only is she forced to wear them, she is literally FORCED to wear them. The TEACHER, emphasis on that, because this is the adult, actually starts undressing Mio on multiple occasions, pulling things off and not letting her go. This is sexual harassment, no question about it. It made me unbearably uncomfortable and I hated watching these scenes. It was disgusting honestly.

Overall score: 5/10.

For all the reasons above.

It's safe to say I will not be watching season 2.

My overall scoring for K-On! is a 6, or better: it's fine. I feel like this is important to state since number scores often are only high and low scores and pretty much nothing in the middle.

I only watched this anime recently (January 2022) and this is far from being my first anime. I heard many positive things about it, but also some voices which were not as happy as the others, but also did not hate it outright. I tried to go in with no special expectations, the only thing I knew was that there is music in this anime and tea, a lot ... of tea.

After the first two episodes, I thought: okay so this is a moe show with a focus on music and the character relationship between the main cast.
After watching this first season I would say that this is kinda true, but also wrong. There is a focus on the music, but it is minor. If you expect something like Carole & Tuesday with pretty much one new song to listen to every episode then this will feel pretty bad in comparison. So it's more about their internal relationships? I guess. I would say yes if there was something deep going on here, but the whole show feels super shallow and without another spoiler of one of the later episodes it's hard to describe, but I will try anyway. So in one of the later episodes, there seems to be a problem between two characters coming up, one which would be really good in my opinion, not because I like problems, but to give this show a little more substance and meaning. When you expect the problem to erupt and the characters to develop as well as their relationship by solving this problem the anime subverts this expectation. But it does so in a very very bad way. So you could see up until this point that two characters had a problem, you could basically touch it because it was so clear. But then without any comment, the problem between the two characters is made to a "problem" of a single character and not even a real problem. However, as I just stated there was an obvious problem previously shown between these two characters and now the anime pretends it never happened and it will never be resolved.

This one example is basically my whole problem with the show and the reason the score is so "low" with "only" a 6. The story is super shallow and nothing serious really ever happens. That's why I rated the story with 3 - poor.

The art is okay it's fair, nothing special compared to some of the gems, but also not bad. The only thing I actively disliked are the profile shots of someone singing. It looks so weird somehow, but maybe that's just me.
Would have been cool if there were more details on the playing of the instruments, but oh well, it's fine.

The sound is good (7). I don't like the opening, but the ending was okay and the music that happens in the show is also good, but this is pretty much personal taste. If you don't like pop music with high female voices this is not for you.

The characters get a 5 for mediocre from me. Thanks to the poor story I feel like I can't give them a much higher rating because there just is not any big development happening. And Ui, Yui's sister exists as an over-exaggerated perfect human being. Many tropes, but whatever, I don't have a problem with tropes unless it gets in an unnecessary creepy way like Kuroko from Index.

Enjoyment - 7, so good. Now at this point, one might ask: we have a poor story and mediocre story, how can the enjoyment be a good (a 7)?
Well despite everything, the show made me laugh a good amount. It might not have a story I would like, not the amount of music I hoped for, but it was still able to entertain me.

So overall I give K-On! a 6 - fine.
Don't expect a deep story and characters, or a musical level we had with Carole & Tuesday and you will find an enjoyable anime here. Any higher expectations and you might get disappointed.
If you need a deeper or heavier story because you feel like you wasted your time otherwise stay away from this.

( Guitar Riff ) K-on!

As a quick description of the show is perfection un-perfected. Shows exactly how important progression is to a pretty stagnant genre. In the moments where the show shines it shines bright but in its slow areas it noticeable.

Story: 4

If such a thing as a "slow start" exists, it is present in the 1st season of K-on. Apart from the fact that the last main character isn't introduced until the sixth episode, there is very little progression until Azusa shows up.

Art: 5

A little disappointing to say the least. Inconsistencies in facial expressions and overall medium quality of the show make for a ... forgettable setting and atmosphere.

Sound: 9

Cagayake Girls, My love is a Stapler, Fuwa Fuwa Time, and Don't Say Lazy; They are some of the best anime songs ever. Cagayake Girls is an okay introduction that is a bit too energetic for the show. Don't Say Lazy on the hand is a better closer as it slower and feels a bit powerful witch is suited for Mio who is the character who sings it. The OST fits like a glove in almost every scene as it captures the mood of the scene. (on a separate note: if you can the best song that is from the fictional band is calles "Happy!? Sorry!" but does not show up on the show)

Character: 9

The lifeblood of any slice of life story is its characters and K-on! does not disappointment. Although a little cliche with adding an energetic character(Ritsu) and a tsundere(Mio), K-on does well to make the interactions between them as realistic as they are entertaining. Each character is easily likable for certain perks that the show doesn't completely overexpose.

Enjoyment: 7

It will be very worth if you can get passed the first six episodes, which can feel like a chore and could've been done in three episodes. However afterwards the show is A-maze-ing.

Overall the show is divided almost in half. The first half is inert and has little moments of merit. The second half is constantly moving and shines like diamonds. If you aren't patient enough to watch the first 6 episodes than you'd only need to watch episodes 1, 2, and 6 and fill in the blanks in between and you'll be good to go.

Just it tries to be, K-On! is a fun, lighthearted watch. The art, story, and characters are full of color in every which direction. Unfortunately, no one was there to tie them all together.

Without question, the strongest point of this series is its artwork. Despite it being over 10 years old, the animation is lively and vibrant beyond compare, and singlehandedly breathes life into the season's cutesy and carefree atmosphere. Some of the facial expressions are somewhat awkward at times, but I otherwise have no reservations about singing praise for K-On!'s visuals.

The rest of the show's components are quite mediocre; nothing is done poorly, but ... there is nothing creative or new, either. Despite the series' namesake in music, the soundtrack is painfully average, with only its ending being a weird simultaneous standout and sore thumb among the cutesy tracks (Fuwa fuwa...) The characters are cute and likable but not memorable by any means.

Don't get me wrong: it's still a very enjoyable show to this point. But as we begin to read into the story, the weaknesses begin to show. Normally, I wouldn't judge a day-to-day slice of life too harshly on this criteria, but the difference is that K-On! *does* try to hold on to a linear narrative - and its attempt at doing so needs so much improvement. Any time a plot point spans multiple episodes (the recruiting Azusa "arc"!) the story becomes dragged down by repetitive humor, with unresolved tensions becoming sources of anxiety in an otherwise carefree show. I pull up K-On! with the expectation of turning off my brain and winding down, not to get frustrated at kids who I know will never seriously confront a problem. In general, this season just feels incredibly disorganized, and is confused on whether it is working toward a narrative climax or completely discrete slice of life. Though it has many elements of the former, I saw a lot of melodramatic potential in the themes of musicality, being in a band, and playing concerts, simply being pushed to the side or forgotten about.

Though I think it's not a bad anime, per se, I would hesitate to actively recommend this show to most people unless you're somewhat bored, you're a musician (the references are quite fun), or you're looking for a brain-number (in a good way, though). I will admit the refreshing happy-go-luckiness was quite therapeutic when my head was in a darker place. Really, regarding any of these aspects, though, you're actually looking the second season: everything that K-On! has but almost universally better and more refined. I would say it's not a bad idea to watch this season if only to have context for K-On!!, but one could also argue that it's not entirely necessary seeing that the story doesn't take any massive strides in these 13 episodes.

Either way, final verdict? Lots of potential, disappointingly underserved by organization. However, situationally still worth a watch, and definitely do check out the second season regardless. 6/10.

I finished watching the K-ON series (even including the ura-on specials).

It was alright. To my surprise, the most enjoyable aspect was the comedy. This is unusual for me. A lot of the gags were frequently quite funny.

Azusa was my favourite character and I honestly feel like she was the writer's intended 'actual' main character, as opposed to Yui.

Production quality was solid, as one would expect. Although I can't stand the colour palette. I don't really like any form of rock music (so I'm biased in this respect) but some of the songs (i.e. character songs) were nice and I actually put a few ... on my music playing device.

Okay, having stated the above, I found the series mediocre overall. I try to ignore expectations going into anything, but despite that I couldn't help but feel mildly disappointed. K-ON was not the timeless classic I had been lead to expect. It wasn't any better than your average seasonal SOL. I am bewildered by how it has received so much praise.

For a series as long as K-ON it's amazing how little character development actually took place. Every character felt so bland and lacked any depth and nuance.

Consistent 6/10 and totally forgettable. It was comfy I guess.

After I dropped this anime I looked into what more people said and found a lot of people hated it. I found the anime boring I tried watching it in English dub and sub but still couldn't get into it. K-on is one of those animes that should be one season or a movie and no more than that because then it just feels like you're watching the same thing over and over again. It honestly just got watered out and I couldn't even remember the girl's names not to mention the main character was super annoying and kept ticking me off how she couldn't ... focus on her school work or studying. The only good character was Mugi since I found her nice and funny but everyone else felt bland like with Mio who was way too shy and we never really got to see more of as a better character.

But if you like watching girls just having fun and bonding over snacks and music you would like this anime.