K-On! Movie (K-ON! The 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]

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Background

The series won the 2012 Newtype Anime Awards for Best Anime Film.

Preview Manga

Manga Store

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	K-On!
Parent story:	K-On!!

Itou, Mika
Japanese

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Staff

Yamada, Naoko

Director, Storyboard

Ishihara, Tatsuya

Episode Director, Storyboard

Utsumi, Hiroko

Episode Director, Key Animation

Houkago Tea Time

Theme Song Performance, Inserted Song Performance

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Opening Theme

"Ichiban Ippai (いちばんいっぱい)" by HTT (Houkago Tea Time)

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Ending Theme

"Singing!" by HTT (Houkago Tea Time)

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Reviews

Jul 20, 2012

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Veronin (All reviews)

552 people found this review helpful

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.

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Jul 20, 2012

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

mister_deaf (All reviews)

422 people found this review helpful

Foreword:

“But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!”
– Shakespeare, As You Like It

Dear Reader,

By the end of this humble review, the case may be that I will find myself skewered by countless pitchforks and torched at the stake by those who bear disdain towards K-ON! for forging what is igniting the burning passion in my heart for all to see. In spite of this inevitable dreary destiny, I shall boldly write on and write on I shall ‘till kingdom come for friend or foe to witness. So without further ado, before I enrage the angry mob read more

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Feb 17, 2013

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

NonOtaku (All reviews)

42 people found this review helpful

K-ON may be a controversial series, and some may think anything to do with K-ON is nothing but overrated. Subjectively, I love the series. The daily school lives of the light music club and the live gigs, are never tiring to watch. Throughout season one and two, the series had shown us a simple, fun, relaxing and heart-warming ambiance through and through. As soon as the movie’s subs was out, it doesn’t take long for me to pop up my video player, and enjoy another near two hours of cuteness and fluffiness.

The school year is drawing to a close at Sakuragaoka Girls' High School, and with it will come the graduation of four of the five girls in the school's light music club. The girls have already spent plenty of time together during and after school having fun, making music, and drinking tea, but what better way to cap it all off than with a graduation trip? After some serious deliberation and a little outside help, the five girls decide to go to London, guitars and bass in tow. Between visiting Abbey Road, seeing palace guards, drinking afternoon tea, and more, they've got plenty to do on their schedules, but how much of the trip will go as planned? While these sorts of questions have a tendency to sort themselves out, one more question is weighing heavily on the minds of the four seniors, Yui's in particular: what kind of song will the four write as their goodbye to Azusa, the one junior they'll be leaving behind?

Fans may insist that it is impossible to grasp all the qualities of K-ON! without being intimately familiar with the franchise, and to a degree, they would not be wrong in saying this. However, the film still succeeds in its attempt to please fans across the spectrum, drawing even the most unfamiliar viewers into its world through its minutely detailed characters and fun, thoughtful story while also providing more than enough to keep hardcore fans happy.

Our heroines do arrive in the promised land, but much of the stereotypical sightseeing the girls do is summarized fairly quickly in a montage of short moments at famous locations. The speed at which this all goes by may be a let down to some, but on the converse, this approach does an excellent job of capturing how a highly-planned overseas vacation in an unfamiliar land might feel, as rather than actively engaging in their sightseeing, the girls' experience seems to passively happen to them as they whisk themselves off from one spot to the next.

While the film's first two acts are well-paced and easy to follow, the third and final act may prove to be the most divisive between hardcore fans of the K-ON! franchise and those who aren't. Not only have the girls returned from a lengthy and conclusive trip by this point, but viewers will also have grown accustomed to the film's technical aspects, meaning that the significantly lengthy end segment hinges around the emotional drama between the girls as all but one of them spends their final days in high school.

The production quality for the movie is insanely high. I love KyoAni’s realistic rendition of the city of London, which looks exotically breathtaking. The detailed and vibrant background is noteworthy, and it exactly highlights London’s busy streets and beautiful scenery. The animations and some of the carefully chosen angles make them as comparable as most of K-ON’s high-quality ending sequences. Also, the several number of food scenes expressed and reinforced the cultural opposites of the girls’ usual obsessions; teas and cakes, which was pretty refreshing.

As for the music in the film, all of the girls' catchy, fluffy power-pop songs heard in the various performance scenes will be familiar to those who have seen the television series, as the three new songs by the K-ON! girls are used are all heard outside of the context of the story.

While this probably goes without saying, you're looking for a theatrical anime experience that will blow you out of your seat, K-ON! is probably not the movie for you. What it is, however, is a very well-crafted and whimsical look into the lives of the movie's five heroines, with each of its constituent parts supporting and creating a polished final product. Its story might just be about a group of girls who go on a school trip, but they're are quickly made into characters who you develop emotional connections with and naturally want to watch as they go about their lives. While it may seem like a light message delivered in a sugar-coated package, K-ON! does a brilliant job of reminding us that sometimes who you choose to spend your time with is more important than what you do with that time.

All in all, the movie shows us the five good friends doing what they do best; messing and playing around, relaxing, trying to come up with new songs and procrastinating; all the way in London.

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Nov 24, 2013

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

AnnoKano (All reviews)

29 people found this review helpful

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.

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