STORY: 5
K-On! follows the light-music club of Sakura High as the four (later five) members form a band with dreams of national success. That's the overarching plot, and, due to the episodic nature of the series, isn't really much else. I was pretty disappointed with the series coming into it as I expected it to be a music oriented show, but I quickly came to realise that the cast spend the vast majority of their time messing around, drinking tea and eating cake rather than doing anything musical. However, after I accepted the fact that this show was truly about tea-and-cake, I began to ignore the simplicity and predictability of the story and just went with it. This allowed me to get into it a lot than I otherwise would have (I'm more used to a structured plot as I don't often watch slice-of-life anime).
Each episode is really simple with its story and you'll find no real surprises, plus there are no multi-episode arcs, instead every episode has its own story that starts and finishes within the 20 minute time-frame, so you won't out on a whole lot by skipping an episode (although you may miss out on the one or two new characters introduced). Overall, the story is nothing special, and it isn't really the focus of the show, so don't expect anything particularly gripping or solid.
ART: 6
K-On!'s art and animation is generally pretty decent. The backgrounds are alright and the characters are distinguishable from one other (though their face look similarly moe). But, when the camera is sitting at a mid to wide angle, the character art seems to drop in quality, with characters' feet becoming little more than stumps at a certain distance, making the art seem kinda lazy. There are other times when character proportions, particularly hands, are poorly drawn and look very strange. Though, for mid to close range shots, characters are drawn fine. All the characters have the general moe characteristics, sporting big eyes and small...pretty much everything else, but generally the art quality is decent. Nothing to write home about, but you won't feel like ripping out your own eyes or anything.
CHARACTERS: 4
The characters are all pretty flat and (forgive the pun) one-dimensional. You've got:
Yui- The main girl and guitarist who seems to have a case of ADD. Silly, lazy and forgetful with little to no attention span.
Mio-Intelligent and reliable bassist, but far too easily scared (and reduced to a catatonic state of shock). Frequently trolled by her friends who take pleasure messing with her anxiety, though by the end of the show, she's probably got the heart of an eighty year-old smoker.
Mugi-The wealthy and kind keyboardist who seems to have a never-ending supply of tea and snacks for the club to eat instead of actually practicing music. Air-headed and enjoys the simple lives of her commoner friends.
Ritsu-The drummer and probably the most normal one of the group. Mio's best friend, energetic and lazy at the same time. Hates work and loves stuffing around.
And that's about it with the characters. They're likable enough, but you'll see pretty much no development throughout the entire series. Sure another couple of characters are brought in, but they're also pretty shallow. Simple, and once you've met them, you already know them.
SOUND: 4
Now we get to the most important part of the show: sound. For a music show there's not a whole lot of music going on. The modern pop-style opening and closing themes are pretty decent, but the high-pitched singing of Yui's voice actress can get pretty irritating. Mio's VA also does some singing and her voice is a bit nicer to listen to. As for the songs featured in the actual show...well they were pretty disappointing. Featuring great hits such as "Fluffy Time", "My love is a Stapler" and "Brush Pen, Ballpoint Pen", the lyrics put out by the band are quite stupid ('my heart is fluffy like a marshmallow', are you kidding me?). Fluffy Time, the band's go-to anthem for performances starts out like an old-punk rock song (it really reminded me of the Ramones as soon as it started), but then it quickly becomes a stream of inane lyrics spurted out in Yui's high pitched voice. Seriously, she's not a good singer.
At least the show seems pretty self-aware about the poor-quality of its songs, with a few characters thinking the lyrics stupid when first shown them (even Mio, the songwriter thought they were too embarrassingly bad to sing).
ENJOYMENT: 7?!
Despite my low rating for everything else about this show, I did have some fun watching it. Once I got past the non-existent story and simple characters, I began to enjoy some of the comedy presented. It made me laugh a few times and brought a couple of smiles to my face, and I'm pretty sure that's all K-On was really trying to do, just get a few laughs.
Overall, if you want something to watch something after a long, tedious day that will help you chill out and relax a bit, you could do far worse than K-On. Its easy to get into, and you won't be left feeling sad or with a cliffhanger. Any comments/criticism/feedback of my review would be greatly appreciated, so feel free to message me.
Now onto K-On season 2!! (Don't judge me, the cake and tea is pretty addictive).
