K-On!!

Ah K-on!!

I decided to watch this because I had seen the first season and thought I'd watch something I could bash on when it ended, because it's ended now, yes sure, there are two more episodes, but these are just extra helpings of moe for all you fanboys out there.

At first it was everything I'd expected, it was moe, it was silly, nothing substantial about the anime whatsoever, neither storyboard nor any real screenplay, but then something happened, something that started to happen during the first season yet didn't fully evolve into this feeling I felt after having watched the second season; it grew on ... me. At this point in time good slice of life anime are a dying breed, atleast for people who aren't fanboys. Everything's been done, producers search desperately for new original ideas, but they're just not there and to tell you the truth K-on!! is not original in any sense, form or colour. K-on!! shouldn't be good slice of life anime and for me it wasn't exactly good, but it was better than I had expected, it had an atmosphere of coziness, sure sometimes I wanted to smash something when it got excessively moe, but it was cozy, it was homely, the show offers something soothing and if that's what the producers wanted to give their viewers then they've done a pretty good job.

I dislike KyoAni, but they can draw and animate, there is no doubt about it. As for the music, well props to the voice actors and producers for creating an OST it gives a sense of quality and whatever shortcomings K-on!! had, the feeling of quality is tangible. Much like a very, very neatly wrapped present with fancy paper and ribbons and hearts and bunnies and everything else cute you can imagine, yet the content of the present is rather empty. K-on!! will not blow your mind with an innovative storyboard and intriguing screenplay, but it will soothe you, depending on what kind of person you are and for what purpose you watch this show, in one way or another.

To answer any and all questions or comments that come up after reading this review the correct answer would be; no.

You know, I was hoping that a show about 5 girls in a band would feature a little more, I don't know, MUSIC? All these little fuckers do is sit around, eat cake and faff around with the pet turtle. I get that most people's enjoyments comes from these light-hearted interactions but did we really need 39 episodes of this? In those 40 episodes these girls can manage to come up with about 4 different songs over 3 years of being a band. Though you wouldn't know this considering they play the same fucking song any time that god forbid somebody bothers the music club ... to play some actual fucking music! I liked the characters at first but when six episodes in they decided to just redo those same episodes again but with the loli cat girl, I had given up all hopes of this having any interesting development.

Review in brief:

Can a story about nothing wrap itself around a looming end? In K-On!’s case the answer is inconclusive, because despite the approaching finale it continues to fool around as if the sunny high-school days will go on forever. While this season generally improves its utilization of simplicity to give the audience a fun time, it ultimately stretches itself thin, making its build-up to an emotional ending come up short if you couldn’t remain attached to the characters or your own nostalgia.

**This review contains unmarked spoilers. They are extremely predictable outcomes that could be “self-spoiled” with a bit of common sense ... (K-On! isn’t plot-heavy, after all) but be warned nonetheless.**

Review in full:

After the massive commercial success of season 1, it’s no big surprise that this 2nd season would have its episode count doubled from 13 to 26 episodes. That episode count, however, is a double-edged sword. It’s what this season thrives by and suffers from, because while it allows ample time for K-On!’s usual simple fun, it clashes with its inevitable conclusion if you don’t remain completely engrossed. All things considered, 13 episodes would have remained a better fit.

Giving K-On! extra run-time lets it do more of what it always did best: goof off. In this regard, K-On! seeks to hammer down its simplicity. Rather than relying primarily on character tics to deliver jokes, the girls mainly just play off of situations they find themselves in, and the majority of the girls’ antics take place outside of their actual club, often involving other school activities or just a closer look at the girls’ lives in general. This approach creates a numbing duality; while it’s about as down-to-earth as you can get and creates an impressive sense of realism, it also boils much of the show down to the point where it’s pointlessly dull – lessening the charm a fun time with friends naturally contains as it becomes just the girls doing ordinary things and nothing else.

The result is a nigh-surreal experience where the anime gets so relatable that it feels like you’re right there with the Keion-bu. In this anime’s better moments this quality makes it shine, but sometimes the approach goes one step further and also reflects the mundanity of life with all of its delays and idleness. Some will and have found this dreamlike experience amazing, but without a substantial attachment or nostalgia for the anime, the events it portrays, or the characters, the stew of ordinary events is eventually overcooked into a homogeneous slurry of ennui. While not entirely unpalatable, it takes a special enrapture with the dish in its proper state to have built a true desire to consume it like this.

As a comparison, consider that there’s an episode that delves into Sawa-chan-sensei’s backstory by having parts of it she’s fought to keep hidden leech their way back into her life, and an episode that delves into Yui’s backstory by being one big metaphor to Yui being mentally slow (with multiple analogies to turtles to make it extra clear). The loose events that tie together to form each episode still need some hook to pull in those not entranced by the lure. While episodes like Yui’s backstory are silly enough to chuckle at a few times, most of it is as remarkable as a rainy Tuesday evening spent alone. Episodes that provide something more than a simple time-waster or easily foreseeable “developments” are spaced out further and further as the season trudges on. The hook almost completely disappears, and eventually it’s the lure that is ultimately used to try and catch you on its own.

I’ve already sprinkled little hints about how the characters are handled this season. With the narrative focus being placed on the simplest of events, all of the little quirks of the girls are brought to the forefront. It likely couldn’t have simplified itself so much without the girls being as nuanced as they had become. This is what allows for the sense of genuineness that realism requires, as there’s enough of these quirks between the characters to create situations that land a step above the expectation for believability in anime. It’s what leads to a “Yui’s Backstory” or a “Sawa’s Backstory” depending on how’s it’s used, but it’s an appreciable quality nonetheless.

The trade-off is that this approach does little to continue the subtle development they received prior, and unfortunately the writers chose not to do this on their own either. Few noteworthy developments are to be found in the expectable reactions to events that comprise much of the season. What little there is to build the girls up amounts to mostly obvious backstories. Yes, K-On! already had a good cast coming into this season, but when last-moment bullet-point traits start getting tacked on (like Mugi suddenly using a bunch of random Engrish or spurts of national pride coming out of Ritsu) just so that there would be something for this anime to do at those points, it becomes clear that those characters could have been utilized much more effectively than they were. Part of what kept Season 1 fresh was the humor bouncing off of subtly changing traits, after all.

Now, the faults I’ve outlined are not always bad things in the slice-of-life genre; hardly any of it is a real deal-breaker for someone just looking for some more CGDCT, and at its best K-On!! is better than just “some more CGDCT”. However, there is one major fault that this all funnels into, something that makes this overdrawn season all the more tedious should the tedium get the better of you: the way this anime concludes. High-school graduation is going to split up our beloved band, and the anime pours nearly all of its drama into this fact. But K-On!! wants to have its cake and eat it too, choosing to have multiple dramatic climaxes over the same issue while goofing off with the usual CGDCT antics for multiple episodes in between and afterwards.

I’m willing to accept that my perspective is one largely founded on personal experiences. Surely there are plenty of people who were (or will be) blindsided by the end of their high-school days. Maybe I just come to terms with things easily. Still, I know I’m not the only one who was burnt out before the last assembly began. The strong emotions many have experienced throughout their graduations and that of the Keion-bu’s require strong attachments. The biggest flaw in this anime is its major reliance on establishing a strong attachment, one that remains strong when dragged out over a period of time that far exceeds necessity and across the same finish line multiple times. Either you fall in love with K-On! before it stagnates and find a hearty farewell welling within you, or you don’t and you’re just glad that you can exit the ride. I’m genuinely happy for you if you’re the former, and I sincerely hope you can at least see where us in the latter might be coming from.

At least the production values are more difficult to argue over ~ KyoAni rarely disappoints in that regard. The visuals have been enhanced over the last season as a whole. There’s less moeblob moments and more fluidity & stylization goes into those that retain the aesthetic, allowing those scenes to flow better with the rest of the anime. There is also an increase in quality framing, coloring, and animation in general. While the animation in the middle of the season is lacking compared to the early and later portions, it’s still a step above anything the plot of K-On! ever demanded.

Personally, I can find no fault in K-On!’s audio. The masterful use of sound effects and voicework from season 1 came back just as strong and yet again added so much to the presentation. I question if this anime could manage to achieve the realism it does with even slightly less impressive voicework, and K-On!’s realism is the best compliment I can give to it outside of praising the audio directly. Compared to the last season, the music managed to be more varied and better composed despite mostly needing to represent the work of a high-school light music club. Some of the insert songs are more engaging & thoughtful than entire episodes, and the moments spent making those songs are some of the series’ strongest. I know U&I made me wonder what this anime would be like if music really was one of its key elements. Regardless, it’s all quite impressive for a show about girls drinking tea and eating cake.

Verdict:

Pre-established fans of the first season are likely to enjoy K-On!’s lengthy continuation and the way it distills itself closer to its base elements. However, less enthusiastic viewers just looking for another cute slice-of-life could easily find that some of the elements that fans find worthy of praise make the experience tiresome before long. The season was clearly made with heart by people possessing considerable skill, but whether it amounts to a worthwhile amount of fun depends too strongly on personal experiences and attachments for me to recommend it to anyone on the fence about continuing past season 1 who isn’t already a CGDCT enthusiast.

Side Note:

If for whatever reason you care about the sub-scores and wonder what that “Enjoyment 8” is doing there despite what I had to say… it’s because I don’t actually consider enjoyment in my ratings. In my rating system, that number is replaced with a number for cohesion (how well the different elements of an anime come together, if the sum of its parts are greater/lesser/equal to the whole, that sort of thing). Typically, I find it correlates quite well to my in-the-moment enjoyment and so I wordlessly use the enjoyment slot for cohesion. However, this particular season of anime’s parts work so noticeably well to create a whole product that I experienced lacking enjoyment within that I thought it worth mentioning this incredibly specific quirk.

I know it's kind of redundant to complain about "fluff" in a show that centered around fluffy ideas, topics, story lines, characters, and music. To the point it's even ridiculous for me to complain about it considering they literally have a song repeated throughout the series by the name "fluffy fluffy time"... but here I am, unsatisfied with the fluff.

I'm not new to this, I've had my fair share of moe-slice-of-life-cutesy-BS-in-your-face-at-all-times anime. I even love some of those type of shows, some being in my top 10, so trust me when I say I can handle a show who's only aim is to be ... cute, make you feel happy, and laugh here and there. But K-On... got boring... FAAAAAST. By the 8th episode of the second season I was considering dropping it, but stuck through because I wanted to see the ending, not that it was that hard to guess what it turned out to be, but just because this is one of those anime that still gets talked about YEARS after it's release so, I didn't want to be "left out". Yet by the 12th episode I started putting it on 1.5x speed cause the show drags plot points out for so long without adding anything new to it that If I didn't speed it up I would've blown my brains out eventually.

Here's every arc of K-On in a nutshell:
"Oh sh*t, we have a concert coming up"
"We should practice"
*Cute things happen here and there alongside some REALLY boring dialogue*
"Oh f*ck, we didn't practice at all, all we did was sit around and drink tea"
"We better practice just a little though"
*practices a little though*
*concert day comes, very minor inconveniences happen that demotivate the group for a split second, some small thing happens that motivates the group, they start playing*
*everyone in the crowd loves it*
*The End, rinse & repeat*

I thought of editing together only the best parts so I could give anyone who wanted to watch it a slimmed version of the show with only the parts of substance, cuteness, and hilarity, but the show just doesn't work without the fluff. CAUSE THE FLUFF IS 90% OF EACH EPISODE!!

It would have been much better paced if they had wrapped up high school in the first season, then used the second season to explore each of their lives after high school and let the viewer see things like how their personal lives and affected their music careers and relationships with each other. I feel like that could have lead to far more interesting interactions, character arcs, and tearjerker moments.

In conclusion-
Reasons to watch K-On:
1. If you want to watch a show where the biggest inconvenience is someone forgetting their guitar at home, then have that inconvenience not matter 2 minutes later, watch K-On.
2. If you want to watch a show filled with more fluff and boring dialogue than actual moe moments and funny parts, watch K-On.
3. If you want to watch show that almost made you cry but failed every time because they feel the need to drag out every little thing except the things of actual importance, like a heartfelt moment or the ending sequence to an arc, watch K-On.
Reasons not to watch K-On:
1. You could be spending your time watching something far better
2. You're really not missing out on anything if you don't watch it (maybe like three good moments, but I digress)
3. It's about as entertaining as watching paint dry, but every 22 minutes you have a stroke and see something actually entertaining, then the stroke vanishes and it's back to wet paint

TL;DR: K-On too fluff. Very bored. Didn't like.

I couldn't finish this. There hasn't been a single anime I've watched that was as painfully boring as K-On! and/or its second season.

I wanted to like this show. My siblings and my friends love it. I've heard nothing but good things about it. On top of all this, I'm an amateur musician, so I was instantly drawn in by an anime about a small band and I also loved the spotlight on all the character's gear. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

There was a meme I saw prior to watching K-On. It was the famous clip of MoistCr1tikal saying "oh yeah baby" with ... bottom text that read out "K-On fans when nothing happens". What I first saw as a silly joke turned out to be the miserable truth. Nothing happens. Okokok fine, SOME stuff happens. Are any of what happens meaningful for the characters? For the club? For their supposed goal of Budokan or Bust?
I'm not asking for a deep story, I've seen plenty of slice of life anime where technically nothing meaningful happens. But, for the love of all good things on this earth, make it INTERESTING. K-On does nothing to make it stand out from other moe slice of life anime. Not even the musical aspect helps make K-On stand out. They hardly play their instruments. they hardly practice, They hardly perform, and when they do perform we don't even get to see it. The ONE quality that can make this anime different from every other of its genre is completely wasted.

And then there are the characters. I strongly dislike Yui, and feel meh about the rest of the cast. Yui is insufferably stupid. Normally, I don't mind ditsy main characters; in fact, I usually tend to like them. Her entire character revolves around being sleepy, useless, hungry, and braindead. Aside from her outstanding guitar skill, she literally has no redeemable qualities. She exists so that every other character can be like "haha wow Yui-chan you're so silly haha" and I HATE it. She contributes absolutely nothing and they had the gall to say that she had changed so much by the end of Season 1.
Ritsu plays the typical tomboy role, Mio is the shy girl, Mugi is the carefree but sweet girl, and Asusa acts as the kind of serious girl. None of them act or talk like real people do, and it drives me insane. Admittedly, I do have a special affinity for Mugi, but, again, she isn't necessarily a great character.

K-On! isn't terrible. The songs that the club writes are great, the openings and endings are quality (I actually really like the 2nd ending), the animation is pretty solid, and the humor lands pretty well every now and then. It just suffers from being incredibly dull and boring, and, to me, that's worse than just being a terrible F-tier show. Like I said, I wanted to like this show. I trudged through all these episodes hoping for SOMETHING of substance. I really wish I liked this as much as everyone else did, but here I am.

K-on I think should not be as popular as it is. I have not seen all of k-on (you will see why in this review) THIS HAS MINOR SPOILERS For the story there really was no story it was just these girls in a music club messing around at the start I really was enjoying it but then it just got boring. At the start they were trying to find more members so that the music club would not disband when everybody but Azuyan left and so she wouldn't be lonely. So they tried for a while then just gave up? That part really ... made me think "what is going on". For art I really don't know what to say about it. Sound was good the characters made music and the openings and endings were nice to listen to from time to time. Nothing much to say about the characters it was just the same 5 from s1. I didn't have that much enjoyment because they just messed about in the episodes but sometimes it got me kind of interested in it but then it just kept on getting boring. Overall do I wish I watched something else? yes I do Do I hate k-on? no. This is what I thought of K-on I think I should of just watched the first season and then stopped but I have not completed this season either I might come back to K-on one day but for now I have stopped watching

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 ... that there are no serious dramatic moments throughout THE ENTIRE 41 EPISODES. 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. The only thing different about season 2 is the girls are in their last year of high school now, and have added an underclass girl to the band.

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

K-On!!, or as I like to call this season, K-No more please.

I won't be touching the whole series but just this season only in this review, I will leave the first season untouched after watching this as the first season was good enough to be left alone. For this review I won't dwell as much as I have covered much in the first review, I will just point out the flaws and problems I had with this. To start, this season is a good example of quantity over quality. Definitely there is a issue with the pacing parts here and there, I must say at ... times, I just felt bored and uninteresting in what the show had to offer. I'm calling out and using episode 5 and 6 as an example of the studio running out of idea to offer. In these two episodes I was severely disappointed at what was offered, I had lost interest multiple times while watching these two especially. Thankfully it got better with upcoming episodes but still is no where close that of the first season. Another issue I had was the show inconsistency of balancing out the comedy, music and slice of life. For this season I had like, 20% music, 30% comedy and 50% slice of life. The slice of life factor was a huge part in this season and that was a disappointment I had, I was actually expecting the same balance layout it had in the first season. Honestly, I the real reasons this ain't as good as the first season is simple. It's too long, not a lot of creative or interesting ideas to fit it's long run time and lastly, the pacing.

-SCORES-

Character- 7/10: Roughly the same characters as the last season, just wished there was something more to be offered especially after such a long series.

Art- 8/10: Same same, but different, but still same.

Writing- 5/10: Oooowee did they not impress me at all in this season

Sound- 8/10: Got some nice songs, like the farewell one at the last part, however the intros can't surpass the first one.

Overall, Kinda let down but I guess it wasn't super bad. I can't see why people would rate this more over the first, definitely the first season was better. Plus what is with the ending for this season, I expected a good closer for them to go off to college at episode 25, instead we get 2 somewhat head-scratchers to end the series in such a bad manner. To be accurate there is still the movie but I'm just judging this series alone.

Light 6

I dislike how autistic they've made Yui in K-On!! as compared to the first series.

I put that first because honestly it's my biggest gripe, and I figure it will trigger some people. It first hit me six or seven episodes in, like "oh my god, Yui is autistic!" and after that realization I could never get over my shift in perspective. In the first series, Yui was a ditzy, airheaded girl who was still a brilliant musician, and brought the band together. In the second, she's a barely-functioning autist whose friends do nothing but enable her. I mean, this girl clearly needs psychiatric assistance, but ... instead all the supporting characters just let her be without steering her in a healthy manner. The biggest crime with Yui is that she magically still gets good grades and is great at guitar; unfortunately, like other movies/shows that deal with the spectrum, it's not a "savant" plot device, it just comes across as blind luck or even a superpower that isn't explained.

That aside, the tone shift is way too much for me. At least two-thirds of the episodes have some serious melodrama as opposed to the first series' consistent carefree attitude. Honestly, it's depressing. More than that, it's unrelatable. I know I'm a grown adult with almost half my life between high school and where I'm at now, but the way K-On!! mixes up all these feels with the end of high school (which drags out for half a dozen episodes at least) is so alien to me. The high school setting wasn't an issue in the first series because it was simply a canvas for the characters to be painted on; here, it's a large focus much to its detriment.

Last, K-On!! is twice as long as it needs to be. I have no issue with an entire series being devoted to their third year, but it did not need to be 24 episodes + 2 OVAs (and a film that I might get around to). There should have been a third series that dealt with the break between high school and university, or even better just on university. Barring that, it should have just been halved and ended.

All the same and excepting what I mentioned above, the characters are still great, the animation is very addicting, and, obviously, the music is sensational (and very catchy!). I just really wish the producers didn't change so much and instead focused on maintaining a happy, cheerful atmosphere without all the high school drama. Oh well.