K-On! Movie

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

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


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

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

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

Now, the regular K-On! show sure is entertaining. The formula that they use works well with a 25-minute timeslot, and it is light and fun. The problem with this movie is that it's basically just a really really long episode, which is completely neglecting the strength of the K-On! series to begin with.
Moreover, this thing is simply a season 2 extension. Most of the senseless rambling the cast does throughout the film is about graduation and Azusa. The premise of the film is exactly the same as it was for season 2. Never mind the terrible execution of the purpose, absolutely nothing was challenging ... the world of K-On. Additionally, the total lack of compelling events, thoughts, or feelings shown on the screen for nearly the entire 2 hours is a serious head-scratcher. This movie was clearly crafted from a careless and lazy vision. The first half of the film was utterly pointless and may as well not have even existed. Hell, they didn't even step foot on a plane to London until 40 minutes in. I would much much preferred the rehashed 'graduation & Azusa drama' chitchat to be 5x more concise, and not the bulk of the movie.

As for why I gave the characters a poor rating: I wasn't ever shown anything different from what I have already seen. Movies are supposed to be an experience unlike all others. There should have been more character development, different tones, and some risks taken. When someone watches this, they need to be able feel that the trip changed both their beloved characters and themself. When the group returned home, their demeanors were identical to before; and everything carried on as usual. I couldn't believe it. It was like the producers are TRYING to tell you that the trip meant nothing to the girls and this was all just filler. You need to bring things to your audience in ways the original TV series never did, otherwise WHY EVEN WATCH THE MOVIE?

The whole thing is boring from front to back, and that's an understatement. The fact that the girls were in London didn't even matter anyway, since they interacted with the city in literally 0 ways. Sure, they had a few snapshots of famous spots, but nothing connected us to the setting nor to the characters. It was all superficial bullshit if we're being honest with ourselves. The film conveyed no emotions or experiences that we couldn't have gotten in any other setting (like Japan for instance lol). Majority of this entire movie was just a time-waster. It was such a blatant bullcrap plot excuse that it's frankly disgusting, and might even be seen as disrespectful to Britain. It seems like Kyoto Animation can't change writing styles if their life depended on it. If they cannot do that, then they shouldn't be making movies. This was a pathetic attempt at an anime film. I'm almost embarrassed for the people who say that they liked it.

And don't even get me started on the ending. Just another song? THAT was the entire purpose of the film? It's gotta be a prank; it really does. They could have shown that in the regular season.. Nope. Instead, they decide to not only drag out this uneventful "movie", but to tarnish the name of K-On! for good measure. And for what? To milk K-On! as hard as possible for a few more drops all the while wrapping the series up in a turd tortilla? This thing's the very definition of a shameless cash-grab. I hope it's not Kyoto Animation's fault; that they were forced to make this film by Production and thus just spit something out. At least then they'd have a shred of dignity left.

Note: I gave the sound a 7/10 because I like majority of the voices and a couple of the tracks. It did fine in that category.