Anime Review: K-on!

I'm back. You know I should really beat Xenoblade Chronicles X. Every time the TV is available, I just have to play it for as long as I can, which is why I'm not as productive on the weekends as I would hope. Fortunately, I seem to have just beaten the game's main story, and rather unexpectedly I might add. I thought that with a game that splits its story up into Chapters that the last chapter in the game would be called "The Final Chapter," but it isn't. Anyway, I'll have a full review up when I have fully collected my thoughts on the game, until then here is an anime about a bunch of high school girls hanging out with each other that ISN'T Lucky Star. This is K-on!

Rock Concert Movement #3: The Up and Down Jumping motion.

Yui is a lazy, unmotivated girl. She never joined any clubs during Junior High and in her free time all she does is laze about doing nothing. But as soon as she joined High School she would change all of that and join her first club, The Light Music Club, thinking that they would just play simple, easy songs all day. Little did she know that the Light Music Club is dead set on forming a band and with club president Ritsu on Drums, Ritsu's best friend Mio on Bass, and their third and only other member Tsumugi on keyboards, they need a fourth member on Guitar not only to form a proper band but also keep the club from being disbanded. The problem: Yui is their only interested student and she doesn't know how to play any instrument. Hilarity ensues as the members of the Light Music Club get their band together and practice their music.... once they are done lazying about the club room drinking tea.

Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid...

K-on! is your typical slice-of-life comedy where the focus of the series is on the daily lives of our main heroines with a lot of the comedy coming from the interplay between each of the cast. Yui is a little dumb and slow and is constantly mistaking one thing for another. Ritsu is hyperactive and forgetful. Tsumugi is naive, easily impressed by mundane things, and frequently wants to try out things that really don't need trying out. And Mio is often the straight man putting an end to the insanity, but is dreadfully shy and afraid of anything that is even remotely considered scary. Later in the series a fifth member joins the band, their underclassman Azusa who like Mio is very serious but can't help getting herself caught up in the antics of her senpai. The interplay between each of the characters is very well done, and the comedy is top notch. It is really hard to review something like this as all I can really say is that it is incredibly funny, and trying to tell the jokes would cause them to lose their appeal. Simply put it is a series you need to see for yourself.

"Where are the Negatives!?" "It's... a... Digital... Camera"

There isn't much to say about the series negatively. The series going on for two seasons, totaling about 39 episodes plus a few OVAs and a Movie, making it a bit lengthy but it never got into a rut of doing the same formula over and over again. No gag repeats itself too often, and even though none of the characters go through any character development over the course of the series, the situations they find themselves in are always new and interesting. Even when we see the second and third culture festival, something different happens so it doesn't tread old ground. In short, I really can't find anything wrong with the series.

K-on! might not be anything ground breaking. It pretty much does what other slice-of-life comedies does. It's the same type of series as Lucky Star. But it is what it is and what it does it does extremely well. All of the characters are fun, the jokes keep coming, and there are a few touching moments here and there just for good measure. If you are not interested in this kind of show, then you can pass it by with no issues. But if you want a light-hearted High School comedy, then K-on! has you covered. It is Highly Recommended.

Until Next Time.

-CRES, But everybody likes maids.