Slice of life is a genre that isn’t for everyone. Not everybody can appreciate a story that mainly deals with a person’s mundane everyday life and I get that. There is nothing wrong if you don’t like slice of life- I hate to admit it but I can’t seem to get into sports anime. But anyway that’s not what I am here to talk about.
K-On is an anime that is popular and beloved beyond belief, despite being mainly slice of life. However, it is also infamous for influencing this whole heated debate on moe. But, despite all that bullshit, how is K-On as a standalone series? Well, let’s find out today.
K-On starts of telling the story of five different girls starting of high school. They are part of the school’s light music club where they constantly slack off and do nothing but drink fancy tea and eat delicious cake. That’s it- that is basically the show in a nutshell . You can’t get more slice of life than that, can you?
Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations for K-On- but at the same time I didn’t think I was going to end up agreeing completely with the people who bash it just because it’s cute girls doing cute things. However, I personally believe there is indeed more to K-on than people give it credit for. I have watched a lot of slice of life and I guarantee that K-On is some of the best slice of life I have ever watched.
There isn’t anything unique or interesting about K-On’s story because I can name a dozen anime from the top of my head that features high schoolers in a club. Half of them I am pretty sure are also done by KyoAni. K-On had a relatively weak start, and I just couldn’t get into the story. But, after forcing myself for four episodes- I finally reached the part where the show became something I looked forward to watching. I think that was because it started off as basic as possible and so I ended up finding the earlier episodes bland.
However, as the characters started to grow on me and also with the addition of great supporting characters is when- K-On started being quite refreshing. One thing that constantly kept me interested was the show’s comedy. The comedy of the show despite being nothing gut busting like Gintama or School Rumble- still managed to keep me thoroughly entertained. You will notice that there are several running gags which works really well throughout the long run of the show. Which proves how GIFs and memes that this show generated.
K-On has a great cast characters which is mainly female, and some characters do stand out from the others. And those that don’t, still manage to be very pleasant. The main characters mainly consist of the incredibly dumb Yui Hirasawa, sweet and shy Mio Akiyama, tomboyish and mischievous Ritsu Tainaka, the wealthy and weird Tsumugi Kotobuki and finally the serious but still adorable Azusa Nakano- who happens to be their kouhai.
Despite, all the characters having some sort of stereotype- I feel like they end up becoming more than just what I described them to be. These characters are frankly really charming, likable, and relatable and honestly there wasn’t a single character that I disliked. I actually shared a lot of characteristics with a lot of these characters- making me love them more than I expected them to. '
We see these girls grow over the course of this this anime, little by little. They do somewhat still feel unchanged in terms of behavior and personality by the end, but I feel like that’s alright. K-On is a pretty light hearted series where hardly anything dramatic happens- so to have them go through major character development is out of the question. It wouldn’t work for this type of show and I am glad that wasn’t the case. It was a bit unrealistic- how their high school lives seemed like so much fun- when in real life that is far from the truth. Well, from my experience I can guarantee that.
K-On did attempt at some dramatic moments that I feel actually harmed the story rather than helping it. But, that only happened once during season 1 after which the show didn’t have any which was good in my opinion.
The characters however did change in the sense that they grow to care deeply for each other and of course for their small club. The friendships in this anime were highly engaging and memorable and it didn’t feel forced or incredibly saccharin. These girls had great chemistry with each other, as just friends that is. Seeing their bonds becoming stronger throughout the series was one of the highlights of the series. They also had a great relationship with their teacher Ms Namako, who is also a hilarious and epic character might I add.
Speaking of great relationships, Yui and her younger sister the sophisticated and mature Ui had one of the best sibling relationships in anime period. It isn’t just adorable how much they love and cherish each other- but the moments they shared felt genuine too. When Yui wrote a song about how she appreciates Ui, I almost got teary eyed.
As for other cons of the series, the story dragged towards end making me feel as if it was three episodes too long. Yes, there were some emotional and heartfelt moments- but the show could have still concluded in a better way in my opinion. But, it still ended thank god for that. I didn’t have to deal with the same BS presented to me by both Hyouka or the Haruhi franchise.
Also, out of all the characters, I would say that Tsumugi’s personality kind of felt underwhelming compared to the others. But, with time she too becomes really likeable despite how plain she might be in comparison. That was mainly due to her curiosity and desire to break free from her life as a rich girl and do something normal like joining the light music club. Also, let’s not forget her desperate need for some yakisoba. Oddly, enough she might not the most interesting but she is still one of my favourites. We also don’t learn much about her and Asuza which I felt like was an injustice- because we got to know a lot about Mio, Ritsu, Yui. Given how they too are the main characters, I felt that was unfair- even a just a little would have been good.
The moe on the other hand, wasn’t bad in my opinion. I have seen shows in the past with unnecessary and cringy moe- but K-On doesn’t fall in that category in my opinion. Yes, I did feel sometimes they overdid the cute Mio moments where she gets scared or nervous- but that even stopped being excessive as the show progressed. So, the moe wasn’t a problem for me in this show. It didn’t make me go ‘aww’ or anything- but I didn’t mind it at all honestly. What was excessive however was the gag of how dumb Yui is- it was funny at first- but then I just got tired with it.
The soundtrack for K-On is pretty kickass, despite being songs with weird titles and often sung with cutesy moe voices . The main song the band plays Fuwa Fuwa Time is one of my favourites and I personally love both the versions. The first opening of K-on is something I wish I could include in my Top 50 Anime Openings List. If I do update that list in the future, then expect this one there. All the ending songs are excellent too, but the first one Don’t Say Lazy is my absolute favourite and is probably in my Top 5 now when it comes to favourite anime ending themes. So, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed K-On’s music- because for this type of anime it not only suits, it but adds a lot of greatness too.
Since, it’s KyoAni I don’t need to go into detail how good it is. Granted not as stunning as its recent works- but still pretty good even compared to most airing anime nowadays- with them paying special importance to small details which I have always loved about KyoAni.
I really also liked the character designs despite it being what you come to expect from KyoAni- but I felt that they made Azusa and Mio look too similar. Like I am okay with the Yui and Ui thing cause I find it funny- but the Mio and Asuza one bugged me. Not only that but there was this other background character that looked exactly like Mio with glasses. I swear KyoAni, be a bit more creative with your character designs- I doubt it’s confusing only me.
The English dub is actually pretty good too, thanks to the very talented cast. My personal favourite was Stephanie Sheh who gave an excellent performance as our lord and savior Yui Hirasawa- making sure to bring out the cuteness and hilarious personality of the character. But, if you want the full moe effect then the sub is great too, but I watched it mainly in dub being the cringy weeboo I am.
K-On is an anime that I feel got consistently got better, as you get more invested into these characters. If you like them, which isn’t that hard of a thing to do then you will you feel as if you too have grown up and experienced all the fun times that the Houkago Tea Time club did for the course of three years. You see them grow and bond with one another- which can be really touching at times.
The show has a weak start and finish but everything in between is just oh so good and never failed to make me happy inside with a goofy smile on my face. So, I am going to award K-On with an 8 and that it is WORTH THE WATCH.
It’s a series, that I didn’t think I was going to enjoy and basically checked out because it was one those popular series I hardly touched. Little did I know, that I would end up loving the show and that I would end up cherishing all the characters. I should make it perfectly clear for once and for all this isn’t an anime for everyone- especially if you can’t appreciate the presence of these characters or enjoy slice of life in general. In fact, you’ll love this show as much as I did maybe even more if you saw these girls as the best friends you always wanted. So, if you need five waifus to ruin your life, then look no further than K-On.
