I don’t watch a lot of anime. The main reason is because, well, I don’t care much for television. I don’t really like to watch TV that much. The extent of my TV watching usually consists of finding some background noise while I surf the web or something that feels more productive than watching TV but really isn’t. Keep in mind that anime isn’t exactly widely available on basic cable, either. So in order for me to watch anime, I have to actually put effort into finding it somewhere on the internet and sitting down and watching it. Given my indifference-at-best attitude toward television in general, I’m sure you can start to understand why.
Now, that’s not to say I don’t like anime. I absolutely loved it during the glory days of Cartoon Network, and the few series that I’ve watched in my adult life have been thoroughly enjoyable. When I do manage to force myself to actually sit down and watch something, I usually get hooked right away and can watch it episode after episode for hours on end. It’s just getting started that takes effort.
The same applies to manga. I’d love to read manga, I just don’t want to bother with tracking it down. Furthermore, buying a manga volume or subscribing to a Shonen magazine costs money, which is an even bigger deterrent, considering how much of a cheapskate I am. Unless I want to try to find some free scanlations online or something which, quite frankly, I don’t.
That’s a ridiculously long introduction just to tell you that I don’t usually watch anime, so I apologize. The point I was trying to make is that I’m not writing this review as an otaku or an insider. I’m just a guy who watched an anime and is writing about it. I don’t know that much about Japanese culture or anime or anything like that beyond what is common knowledge or a (possibly misrepresentive) stereotype. So keep that in mind.
So anyway, I first heard about K-On! through iStalk posted on the ScrewAttack blogs. (For those of you reading this on one of my private blogs, ScrewAttack is a video game website and iStalk is a news program about anime, manga, and Japanese culture.) I don’t know why I started watching iStalk. As mentioned, I don’t really watch anime. Most of the time, I have no idea what they’re even talking about. But I digress. When I first started watching iStalk, I noticed they talked a lot about an anime called K-On!. So few days ago, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to watch it.
K-On! started as a four panel manga in some kind of magazine. I’m guessing it would be something akin to comic strips in the back of the daily newspaper that was adapted into a single season anime. It follows the story of group of high school girls who join their school’s keion club (pronounced kay-ohn, hence the name of the show.) In most of the episode I watched, “keion” was translated to “light music,” although it isn’t light music the way I initially thought it was. It’s more like pop-rock, with a lot less suck. And it’s in Japanese.
The show starts with a girl named Yui, a kind, yet airheaded young girl who has just started her high school career. In an attempt to make friends and fit into school, she hastily joins the light music club, a topic which she knows absolutely nothing about. The other three members of the club, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi, convince her stay because they need at least four members to be recognized as an official school club. In exchange, they agree to teach Yui how to play guitar (and give her free food.)
What ensue are the misadventures of the girls as they try to make music, drink tea, and just live their daily lives in general. If asked, I would probably describe the show as a comedy, although I’m not sure that would give you the right idea of what it really is. Most of the humor is character-oriented, rather than raucous slapstick or snooty satire. The Wikipedia article lists it in the “slice-of-life” genre, which probably describes it a lot better than any other label I could slap on it. Each episode is largely an anecdote of a certain off-the-wall event in the girls’ otherwise normal lives. While there is the general plot of the show and there is continuity from episode to episode, there isn’t really an overlying conflict, and smaller conflicts are very much episodic.
Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is largely personal preference. If you’re looking for an engrossing story full of romance, action, and drama, K-On! is not the place to go. Even the self-contained conflicts are often pushed into the background in most episodes. Much of the series consists of the girls just doing stuff. Now that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The characters themselves are all quirky enough to hold your attention in such a way that makes them fun to watch, even without any major plot developments. This isn’t to say that the series is pointless, as there ARE conflicts and major events, they simply take a backseat to character development.
While all the girls get pretty much equal development (with at least one exception), the main “heroin” is Yui. Yui is a spunky young girl who is a tad lacking in the maturity department. Her main hobbies, other than playing guitar, are eating, and doing nothing. Despite this, she is a very caring person. Calling her selfless would be stretching it, because she is shown to be a bit hedonistic at times, taking full advantage of things that are offered to her, especially when her younger sister is involved. She never lets it get to the point of hurting others, however, as she has a big heart and is quite sensitive to other people’s feelings. Yui is very childish in many ways, though her friends seem to appreciate her silliness. She is also the least musically inclined, being completely oblivious to many musical concepts, even after becoming proficient at playing the guitar. She shows a blank expression at the mention of even some of the most basic musical terms. Most of her knack for music seems to stem from natural ability, as demonstrated when she tells another band member that she has never even heard of a guitar tuner and that she tunes hers by “whatever works,” then proceeds to put it in perfect tune completely by ear.
The honor of drummer goes to Ritsu. Yui compares Ritsu’s choice of instrument with her personality. She is loud and loves to have fun, to the point that it distracts her from more important matters at hand. As a result, she is somewhat forgetful and procrastinates on her band duties in favor of more enjoyable activities, despite being the club president and most enthusiastic member. This sometimes puts her at odds with Nodoka and other, more focused members of the group. Although Ritsu doesn’t come off as mean, she is often sarcastic and tends to pick on others for her own amusement, particularly Mio. On her first encounter with Yui, Ritsu silently criticizes her for being clumsy and scatterbrained and having “no tempo.” After getting to know each other, however, the two quickly develop a close friendship, in part due to their mutual immaturity and love of all things childish. Despite her demeanor, Ritsu is very caring underneath. She shares a very close bond with Mio and jokes that Mio would be lost without her, even though in reality it’s more like the other way around. She even begins to feel jealous when Mio starts making new friends.
Mio is the bassist of the group, and seems to be the most technically and musically proficient. She is initially reluctant to join the light music club, but gets ropes into it by her childhood friend, Ritsu. However, she quickly warms up to the idea and soon becomes the most devoted member of the band. She is very mature and serious, taking it upon herself to keep Ritsu and Yui grounded. She seems annoyed by Ritsu’s antics, but puts up with it due to her love for her childhood friend. While taking charge among her friends, she’s very shy around people she doesn’t know, to the point of being a borderline sociopath. Mio explains that this is the reason she chose to play bass, because bass players are not the center of attention, allowing her to happily blend into the background unnoticed (a choice which is counteracted when Yui loses her voice and Mio is forced to stand in as the band’s lead singer, much to her chagrin.) Mio has an intense fear of all things gross or scary, and is quickly rendered into the fetal position by the mere mention of anything of the sort. Such a fear is a frequent teasing point at the hands of Ritsu. When the girls enter their sophomore year, Mio befriends Nodoka, (who is the only person in class that she knows) which sparks a bit a jealousy in Ritsu, showing that the two actually share a very deep connection.
A girl named Tsumugi (Mugi for short) rounds out the band’s original lineup on keyboards. Mugi comes from a very rich family, although she is very much the exact opposite of a spoiled princess type. She is very soft spoken and quiet. She often uses her rich family influence to the band’s advantage, such as getting them discounts at the music store (which her parents own) or renting out one of their vacation houses so the band can practice in private. She also supplies the band with gourmet snacks and treats. Her flaunting of such stuff pretty much ends there, however, as she rarely brings up the subject around her friends and even seems embarrassed when it’s brought up. Being raised in a high class family, Mugi is fascinated with normal middle class culture. She seems absolutely star struck when doing something as simple as ordering fast food. Eventually she gets a part time job at the aforementioned fast food place just because she wants to be like a normal girl.
About halfway through the series, the girls move up a grade and one of the incoming freshmen, a little girl named Azusa, decides to join the light music club. Like Mio, Azusa is also shy and proper, even calling her band mates “Senpai.” She immediately catches Yui’s interested for being cute. She is a very quiet and introverted girl, and often seems uncomfortable or downright depressed. She initially has low self esteem and calls herself a “novice” guitar player, despite being more experienced than anyone else in the band. Azusa takes the band very seriously and is often disappointed by the bands lack of focus and goofy antics. It almost drives her to leave the club, but the others convince her stay. While Azusa never really grows accustomed to the club’s all-play no-work philosophy, she learns to tolerate their odd behavior. The other girls also help her to loosen up and get through her social issues (especially Yui, who constantly dotes on her.) Azusa seems to look up to Mio, due to their similar personalities.
I’ve already spent waaaaaaaay more time outlining the characters than I thought I would, so I’ll try to dish on the other, minor characters more briefly. There aren’t many, only three worth mentioning. The first is Yui’s little sister, Ui. Despite being younger, Ui is much more mature than Yui. She loves cooking and is an excellent hostess. She takes care of her older sister much like in an almost motherly way (their parents never really seem to be around.) She is the club’s biggest fan and hangs out with them a lot. She also has some of her own natural musical talent, even more so than Yui. At one point, Ui impersonates Yui and is able to play alongside the rest of the band, prompting the others to get suspicious because she seems to be too good.
Sawako is a teacher at the school the girls attend who they convince to be their club advisor. She seems like a very quiet and nice lady at first, especially around other teachers and students, but underneath the facade, she turns out to be the complete opposite. Behind the closed doors of the music, she is loud and obnoxious, and rarely contributes anything constructive to the band. As a teenager, Sawako joined a heavy metal band in an attempt to attract a boy who she had a crush on. Because of her experience, she is highly skilled at shredding and other thrash techniques (such as her favorite, picking with her teeth). She has a thing for theatrics, carried over from her from her metal days in which she dressed up as a monster while on stage. She is constantly trying to design “cute” costumes for the light music club in order to go along with their music, although her creations are often more embarrassing or annoying than anything.
Nodoka is a childhood friend of Yui’s. She’s intelligent and down to earth. She often took it upon herself to guide Yui prior to Yui joining the light music club, in much the same way that Mio does with Ritsu. In high school, she becomes a respected member of student council and often uses her influence to help the light music club when they get into trouble with faculty. In their sophomore year, Nodoka also becomes good friends with Mio.
Being that K-On! is a largely character driven anime, personalities of the characters is key. In this aspect, the series absolutely shines. Each of the girls is unique and each has her own different subtleties. Their relationships are realistic and it’s a joy to watch them play out. This is also the main source of the humor. Many of the laughs come in situations like Mio cowering in the corner of a haunted house or Yui grabbing Azusa and petting her like a cat. After a few episodes you’ll find yourself shaking your head and saying, “that’s so Ritsu,” with a smile on your face.
The visual style is great. I don’t really know how to describe it since I don’t have a lot of anime experience to compare it to. It’s very colorful and well drawn. The details can get a little weird when they try to animate finger movements on the closeups of the girls playing their instruments. One thing that I give the artists credit for is that they keep the visuals modest and don’t flood the viewer with eye candy with the character designs. Anime is usually very pretty looking just by it’s own style, making bodies and character designs more “aesthetically pleasing” just by their own merits as an anime. As a result, even the most inherently innocent animes can cause some wandering minds. K-On! manages to look nice and give the girls a nice design without inadvertently (or not) giving the viewer eye candy. There is no fan service or any of that rubbish, leaving us with mostly wholesome experience. It’s not one hundred percent innocent, as there is at least one joke involving a character accidentally flashing her underwear, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. There really isn’t anything here that could be made into something perverted, which is pretty uncommon for an anime in which every character is female. This could be due to the shows original target audience, but I recognize and give props to the makers either way.
This isn’t to say that the show is flawless. As I mentioned before, the conflicts are very episodic. It’s light on plot overall. The show is fun and doesn’t need to be fizzling with electricity to bring out the best in it. However, there is a lot of potential for storylines that never come to fruition. The show is only one season and formula is fine for just thirteen episodes, but I could see it getting repetitive or boring if there were ever to be another season and they didn’t start making the conflicts more interesting.
When I started watching it, I was under the impression that it would be more music-centered. Being a guitar player myself, I was interested watching Yui’s learning process when she took up the instrument. While it is touched on, it’s simply that: touched on. Yui’s guitar, or any other technical aspect of being in a band for that matter, are never really explored as much as they could be.
A couple of the characters aren’t as fleshed out as they could be. Nodoka is forgivable since she doesn’t have a very big role in the anime anyway. It’s harder to overlook Tsumugi’s underdevelopment. While Yui, Ritsu, and Mio are all center stage all the time, while Mugi often falls into the background. This could be said to represent her non-intrusive personality, but all it really does is make her into a somewhat forgettable character. The problem gets even worse once Azusa is introduced. While Azusa quickly becomes a major part of the show, Mugi almost drops into the background completely, only emerging when it’s absolutely necessary for the plot. I can only think of three times in the second half of the series when she did anything relevant to the story, and even a couple of those could have been overlooked. Even Nodoka seems to get more screen time than her. Also, is she supposed to be a lesbian or something? I never quite got that.
There were several other things that I didn’t get. This is probably attributed to me not completely understanding different aspects of Japanese culture. There constant references to maids, and Sawako’s dress-up obsession feels kind of awkward at times. I think this has something to due with cosplay being a big part of otaku subculture, but they still go over my head. The girls also have a remarkable amount of independence. Parent characters are rarely mentioned and never seen. Ui and Yui spend a significant amount of time in their house alone. They do the grocery shopping. Ui takes on all of the motherly duties. They even spend Christmas together by themselves. The band rents out a vacation house on a beach and stays there by themselves for what is implied to be the entire summer, or at least a few weeks. Maybe girls are a lot more responsible in Japan, but in the United States, no parent in their right mind would give a bunch of teenage girls that much unsupervised freedom. It could also be done like that for the convenience of telling the story (notice Dora the Explorer never has to ask permission from her mom to go on an adventure?) With no knowledge of the Japanese custom, I can’t make a call either way.
Keep in mind that most of these gripes are merely nitpicks. Most of them aren’t a big deal, and even the more noticeable flaws are easy to overlook.
What K-On! amounts to is a charming little anime with loveable characters that is a joy to watch. It’s only one season, thirteen episodes, so it won’t take you long to watch through it. In fact, it’s so much fun that you’ll get hooked right away and watching it all the way through will be almost effortless. It will definitely leave you wanting another season. It’s not packed with story like, say, Full Metal Alchemist, but if you want something lighthearted with a touch of humor, I couldn’t recommend it more. If you want a rating, I give it an A-, 8.5 out of 10, 4 out of 5 stars, or two thumbs up. Go check it out.
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