This OVA is about Hōkago Tea Time planning for the overseas trip they take in the movie. The focus on this leaves the episode a tad light on comedy, but it’s still K-On! at heart.
Review in full:
Released roughly a month after the K-On! Movie was announced, Keikaku! could be seen as a prequel episode for it. It didn’t need to be an episode, but this is K-On!, so a simple story isn’t really an issue. Not much happens, not just because it’s K-On!, but because the setup of “planning an overseas trip” is actually what this is about rather than being the backdrop for a bunch of goofy moments with the Keion-bu. There’s still goofing around to be had of course, but with what is effectively an actual plot focus that lacks drama it leaves less than K-On’s optimal amount of room for tomfoolery. Like a fair amount of K-On!’s 2nd season, it’s more mundane than it needs to be.
That’s not to say it’s a worthless watch. K-On’s colorful cast of characters are still very much themselves, and there’s even little sprinkles of minor development for some of them through their dialogues. Plus, the comedy that is present is of good quality, even doing a better job with some jokes than season 2’s versions of them. While the episode’s conclusion isn’t very solid in the context of why it was made, loose endings are little more than a nitpick in slice of life stories as standard as this.
Though this OVA certainly hits KyoAni’s above-average standard for production quality, it is a step down from season 2. Sure, there wasn’t very much to animate in this episode, but even then, the imagery was a little more static than normal. Perhaps it was the framing; there are a few noticeably odd choices with it, and K-On! usually has excellent framing. Still, the visuals overall are colorful and highly detailed. This episode is rather quiet in the background, and calming background noise with a lack of K-On!’s usual pop is a tad odd. Plus, the Keion-bu does not so much as set foot inside the club room, so there’s no real place for insert songs either. The important thing is that the ever-talented seiyuus still found ways to be creative, this time with the Engrish portions of the OVA.
Verdict:
Keikaku! Is hardly a necessary watch, but fans will appreciate getting an extra episode out of what could have been just a movie preview, and that’s what matters in the end, not whether it’s the best K-On! episode ever or not. If you ask me, it’s not the worst episode of K-On! either.
