Turns out, K-On! is a slice-of-life disguised as a music anime. The musical aspect is only a vehicle to deliver moe anime-stuff. All things considered, this “music” anime doesn’t really have much to do with music. It’s not for musicians by any stretch, and contrarily, it’s probably better suited for non-musicians.
This might simply be a misalignment of expectations. But even on a moe-anime level, the show isn’t doing too well either. To summarize, the plot is bland, uncompelling, and uninspired. The comedy is as well. And this is coming from a guy whose only experience with this sort of stuff is Doki Doki Literature Club. That game made fun of this genre, yet it wouldn’t be surprising if it was exclusively making fun of K-On!, specifically.
Diving into musical territory would seemingly offer many fresh opportunities for humor and scenarios, yet the band’s members still decided to go to the beach, celebrate Christmas, and go to school festivals. And when that was over, they went to the beach. Again. There was nothing compelling that drove the episodes forward. While moe anime isn’t designed for its conflicts and heavy emotions, it certainly requires some of it in order to establish compelling characters in the first place. Knowledge about all the characters is pretty surface-level, each confined to their own quirks.
Episodes are standard length, but they certainly didn’t feel that way. Counter-intuitively, each episode felt longer due to its lack of content. Thus, the episodes felt stretched-out and empty. We’ve seen everything before. We’ve seen characters go to the beach, celebrate holidays, and attending school events. And when those things happen, there’s no twist on them whatsoever. It’s all filler, no killer.
There are some redeeming qualities here and there. Most noticeably, the music is quite nice (when it’s played for longer than 3 seconds, that is). The characters are all serviceable but I found everyone undeveloped, though Yui and Ritsu received a little more attention.
K-On! is about music as much as going to the movie theater is about food. One episode perfectly illustrates the essence of the show: During practice, Ritsu counts to four, the camera cuts away, and then it cuts back to the band playing the last chord. It has the appearance of a music anime and is nominally one, but when it sheds its skin, it’s a bland slice-of-life that’s too scared to touch its central premise.
