One episode in, however, I was already having my doubts, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I probably shouldn't have, because things didn't pick up from there. K-On! is the moe genre stripped of all extraneous parts, watching it is like mainlining moe. It literally has no qualities, but its moe-ness, and if that isn't enough for you as a viewer to subsist on, this is going to be a spectacularly disappointing experience.
Let me put it another way. Have you ever gone to a fast food joint with a post-mix soft drink machine that has malfunctioned? When you go to fill your cup it shoots a steady stream of syrup into your cup, but not the other component. You end up this revolting, sticky and undrinkable substance. Well that is the essence of K-On! I think by the end of watching it I hadn't only contracted diabetes, but my diabetes had diabetes.
This is, of course, KyoAni, so the animation is impressively fluid and never looks cheap or like corners have been cut. That isn't to say there's anything outstanding about the animation - rather there's a high-level of technical sophistication bereft of any particular artistry.
There's also less music in this show than you might expect, given its subject matter. What there is is once again perfectly competent, but largely uninspired. You're not going to see these girls performing anything as memorable as Haruhi's 'God Knows'.
Finally we have the characters. The MC, Yui, is utterly insufferable. She is so miserably incompetent at the most basic tasks that watching her bumble through even a few hours of her life is a grating, enraging-ly frustrating experience. The other characters are not significantly better. They're all so mind-numbingly naive, saccharine and just straight up pathetic as to be utterly insufferable. Anything that this show does have to offer is completely drowned out by its failure right out of the gates - these horrible, horrible characters.
Look, I'm not gonna say don't watch it. It's a landmark work of the moe revolution and at least you'll know what people are on about once you've let this glutinous mass ooze over you. But just... have the insulin ready.
