sammie04 - 2014-04-27 03:37:22

alize.west - 2014-02-12 03:14:50

Musical instruments + Cute girls = BEST ANIME EVER?

Ah, the moe genre, how I love you so. What better anime to explore the moe style than with K-On. In the glorious Hall of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, this anime stands, among others, pretty much at the top. However, is K-On all moe, or does it have a little extra to it that makes it stand out? Welcome, people of the inter-webs, to DividebyZer0’s review of the Kyoto Animation moe spectacle: K-On.

K-On aired in 2009 and was done by the animation studio Kyoto Animation. An anime under the moe, music, and slice-of-life genres, K-On had 13 episodes, an OVA episode, and a 26-episode second season (which I’ll be reviewing in the future). One of KyoAni’s more popular anime, K-On has achieved the pinnacle of the moe genre in terms of how adorable the characters and the show are. However, the anime is more than that. Shall we begin?

As far as plot goes, well…there isn’t really much to talk about. K-On follows the adventures of 4 high school girls, all of which are members of their school’s light music club, as they aspire to become a top-notch band, among other things. This is where the show needs to improve on, first and foremost. K-On doesn’t really focus on the music aspect as much as you would expect them to for an anime under the music genre. Certain bits and pieces of musical talk are used throughout each episode, but some episodes just don’t really seem to concentrate on that one aspect of music. This can be disappointing for a lot of people with high expectations of the show.

However, to its credit, K-On does make for a pretty solid slice-of-life show. Its episodic enough that you can enjoy it if you’re looking for something light to munch on. The show is also amusing for the most part, and I say “for the most part” because some of the jokes and the comedic effects may just fly over some people’s heads, but amusing nonetheless.

Coming from Kyoto Animation, K-On’s animation is definitely top-notch. Its easy-on-the-eyes color pallets and fluid animation compliments the series’ light-hearted tone, another thing KyoAni does well. KyoAni also introduces us to a variety of character designs and very detailed sceneries, all of which fit the show’s moe style to a T.

Let’s not forget about them concert scenes. The animation for the 3 concert scenes in K-On were all superbly crafted, with free-flowing gestures and pretty much spot-on synchronization with the songs the band plays. Oh, and I almost forgot about THEM OPENING AND ENDING SONGS! Seriously, if you need an example of how good KyoAni can animate, look no further than K-On’s opening and ending themes.

Just look at that stylish art style!

The cast for K-On includes your average character tropes. We have Yui, the cutesy, ditzy, but musically talented guitarist; Mio, the mature but shy bassist; Ritsu, the energetic and mischievous drummer; and Mugi, the rich and lady-like pianist. What makes these characters shine is how they aren’t restricted by their tropes all the time. They may be all goofy but there are also moments where we see a different side to them. Also, seeing how the characters interact with each other also compliments the light and fluffy theme of the show.

On the down side, all the varieties we get from K-On’s characters are just regular tropes nonetheless. Not much development happens, and, therefore, we are left with just our usual band that stays stagnant throughout the entire series (not that it’s entirely a bad thing though).

Let the annual Best Girl Olympics begin!

Let’s start with the negatives about K-On’s soundtrack: it doesn’t have a lot for a music anime. Over the course of 12 episodes, only about 4 songs were played, 2 of them being the same songs. What’s more is that the soundtracks used throughout the series are average, although they do set the light and fluffy tone of the show rather well.

On the plus side, the songs that are played are all really good and catchy. Everything, from “Fuwa Fuwa Time” to “Brush and Ballpoint Pen” (cheesy titles, I know), were addicting in their own degrees. On top of which, the opening song (sung by the lead voice actress) was rather amazing and really makes the show stand out. Finally, the strawberry on top of K-On’s musical cheesecake: THAT. ENDING. THEME. With a combination of flavorful music and a gorgeous art style, “Don’t Say Lazy” is the perfect ED song for K-On and is probably one of the best parts of the show.

Being a person who thoroughly enjoyed the K-On manga, I was kinda scared when I first went into the anime. I was afraid that it wouldn’t be as good as I thought it would, and that it might change my opinion on the series as a whole. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. For the most part. The anime, although a bit boring at times, was really fun to watch. Its simplicity is actually a relaxing factor, while the various antics of the light music club never failed to make me smile (not a pedo-ish way, mind you). Finally, the concert scenes were the icing on the top, with fluid animation to match the addicting songs, adding to my overall enjoyment of the show. Also, I’m a sucker for cute girls doing cute things.

Now, if only they focused more on the music //I said, with a posed look//.

K-On is one of the examples of anime where you might wanna have to turn off your brain in order to enjoy it. It had promising potential plot-wise, yet it deviated from its musical path and opted to be more slice-of-life-ish instead. The animation and the music that they DO have in the show (including the OP and ED theme), however, are immensely stylish and are certified eye-candy. Overall, if cutesy moe slice-of-life anime are your thing, or if you just want a relaxing series to watch, then try this show. If not, then I suggest that you stay clear from this show until you feel like watching it, as there isn’t enough musical content in it (in my opinion) for music-genre-loving fans to enjoy. Regardless, K-On is funny, cute, and entertaining for me.

Seriously, these fellas are just adorable...especially Mio....oh, Mio....

ankunding.stone - 2013-09-11 15:02:39

Before reading this Review, please note, that humor is entirely subjective and as is it is such, it fully depends on the viewer, if he is enjoying the humorous parts, that the show has included. As this show is a show that heavily relies on humor and similarly objective things, please remember that this is MY opinion on how I liked these subjective topics! Thanks!

The moe genre has been widely spread within the last few years, slowly creeping more and more into the seasonal charts before actually taking them over, as there have been many shows of this kind in there lately. One production company in particular has gotten their hands on many shows of that kind, being, as you may have guessed, Kyoto Animation. They were the ones that actually started the hype with Lucky Star and have ever since been able to receive more money just from releasing shows of this kind, such as Tamako Market in some ways Chuunibyou and most notably K-On!

Story: K-On! is a 2009 Anime, done by Kyoto Animation and has been well known ever since. The story follows Yui a clumsy air headed girl that has just got into High school. As she never really was productive in any year earlier, she decides that this year she wants to join a club but doesn't know which one, since nothing that other clubs are doing really is to her liking. That is until she finds out about a club called the "Light Music Club". Thinking they are only playing easy songs and she won't have to do anything but play the castanets she joins them, but it isn't long until she sees, that underneath the big "Light Music Club" sign it says, that they want to form a band. Too late for Yui though as she already handed in her application sheet and she now has to at least tell the club that she wants to do so, since she can't play any instrument. She tries to do so, but the club members are begging her to stay, since otherwise the club would have to disband. They show her a song and Yui decides that she wants to learn the guitar and so they start playing music...or maybe not!

The story of K-On! for the most part actually is pretty non existent as this is a moe show and moe shows are dependent on things like cuteness and humor most of the time. It is rather rare that a moe show has an actual overarching plot instead of just having a motivation that makes them do whatever they are doing (in this situation being the band). However there are a few points that kind of show something like Drama, even though it is nothing really worth mentioning, but that is really all there is, as everything else is just cute girls doing cute things. The thing about that though, is that it doesn't make huge difference, since having a good plot obviously never was this show's goal.5.3/10

Characters: The characters presented in K-On! are all rather generic, as everyone seems to represent a certain cliche that they fulfill.
We have Yui, a clumsy, air headed girl that is playing the guitar. She originally joined the Light Music Club, thinking that she wouldn't have to do anything but playing the castanets and even now she'd rather be somewhere playing around than actually doing something productive. Nevertheless she gets quite good at playing the guitar pretty fast (which makes me kinda jealous...I always had to practice!)
The second character is Ritsu, the Band's leader and drummer. She is an energetic girl, that is just as lazy is Yui is, when it comes to actually practicing or similar things and loves to make fun of others, Her dream is to form a band and go to Budokan (which is a huge concert hall in Tokyo) to hold a concert there. Thus she decides to form the Light Music Club and puts quite some efforts into it, even though she forgets things really easily which makes some situations really hard for the band.
The next Club member is Mio. She is a really hard-working girl that plays the base in the band. She is really easy to embarrass though and gets easily scared, which often is used as the comedy relieve as it is quite funny to see for both Ritsu and the viewer.
The last band member is Migu, a really kind and well mannered girl. She plays the keyboarder for the band and actually wanted to join the choir club at first, but ended up in the Light Music Club as they seemed to look a lot more fun to her. She is the daughter of a rich father, who seems to own several stores, often helping the group out quite a bit.
The Supporting Cast in K-On! is just as the main cast nothing really special as they are for the most part just a bunch of moe cliches. We have the really crazy one, the caring one, the best friend and so on. Something that really stands out though, is that the supporting cast is really small, leading to them getting shown rather often and better understanding of the viewer, which really helps a lot to relate to them.

In total the characters of K-On! really are nothing out of the ordinary. Every single of them is as I mentioned earlier just a Representative of a cliche and none of them is written really complex. On the other hand though, every single one of them is likeable and I could perfectly relate to everyone, not that this was really necessary, as there was no point where I actually felt bad for any of them, since this is a moe show and moe is really well known for actually not having any Drama in there. Nonetheless I really enjoyed watching them.
Character Development in this show is just as nonexistent, as the originality in the characters. Almost every single one stays the same for the whole show and while there are a few things that change, the change rarely gets significant and really visible.

The thing about this section though is, that it doesn't really matter, whether they are cliche or not. It doesn't matter, whether the characters develop or not, since this is a show that neither wants any complicated plot nor any amazingly well written characters. K-On! totally works without anything that way. This show never even intended to be taken seriously which already gets obvious from the first episode on and doesn't really change throughout the course of the show. This is supposed to be a comedy Anime and as such we have to treat it that way. The thing that matters a lot more than the actual characters themselves, is the character interaction which in this Anime seems to be done really well. It is more than one time that I just had to laugh out loud, at just how cool the interactions between the band members were and that surely is nothing that you achieve by having great characters, but by making just letting them interact in a way that is cute and funny enough for the viewer to watch.
6.4/10

Animation: I don't think I actually have to say a lot about this, as this was done by the Animation Studio known as Kyoto Animation. For those unfamiliar with them, they have done amazingly well animated shows such as Chuunibyou or the recent free (comparison on the right). To keep it short, the Animation looks just as amazing as in other shows by KyoAni. The character designs look really damn cute and I think it is worth mentioning, that they actually influenced every single following KyoAni-Anime, as those always seem to copy the style that K-On! had.
9.4/10

Sound: As K-On! is an Anime about music, you might figure that the music is really well done and that if the girls are playing the songs are done really well. The Soundtrack of K-On! though, only consist of way too few actual songs the band plays itself. The majority of the Soundtrack is the background music, which is rather boring and not really exciting to listen to. The songs that they actually play on concerts though, which happens rarely, are pretty well done and catchy. They are nothing that stands out due to it's complexity, but going into a moe show about music I actually was thinking it'd be a lot worse than it was. The ending and Opening though, both were amazing. Especially the ending, featuring a style that is really cool to look at and a really cool song.
8.1/10

In total K-On! has been something that I was kind of cautious to start, since I heard mixed opinions about this, ranging from absolute love to hate. I didn't know what to think of it until I actually watched it myself and I really have to be honest and say that I actually really enjoyed this. The humor was fantastic and I caught myself several times going "awwww...this is cute!", an exclamation that I wouldn't have thought I'd ever hear myself saying And while this is all there is to it, with it being really funny and really cute, the show really doesn't need anything but this. It is enjoyable the way it is and I myself wouldn't have changed anything about it. It doesn't try to be something deep or anything that makes a lot of sense, but just wants to entertain the masses and that's what it does really well!

Now as I calculated the scores I gave K-On! (being Story, Characters, Animation, Sound and my personal enjoyment), I came to a score of 7,66/10! It is really good for what it is supposed to be, but nothing beyond that!
As it is now, K-On! has been licensed by Bandai Entertainment, but since Bandai actually has gone broke, this is out of print. You can quite easily get a new one though, as this show still is rather new and there are quite some left to sale. If you happen to live in Australia this show has been picked up by Madman and by Manga in UK and if you live in the same country as me (being Germany), you are able to get this by Kazé entertainment.
With that I hope I could help you and see you next time!

ndoyle - 2013-08-06 05:10:09

K-ON Review

Sound- You can't really talk about K-ON without talking about its music. It is a band anime after all. The only thing I would actually ask for is more of it. The insert songs are great, as well as the actual performance music. After hearing them a few times though I felt like I had heard all the show had to offer. The openings and endings though were great as well and held me over to the end, as "No, Thank You" is probably my favorite song from the series. 8/10

Characters- Now even though K-ON is often given flak for its characters, and I won't argue that the show had its fair share of stereotypes, the characters fit their roles well and were indeed pretty damn cute. My complaint is that nothing incredibly drastic happens to the characters along the course of the show. Sure they all have their own little dilemmas and quirks but I wouldn't call it anything drastic. Because of this, a lot of the characters do not change throughout the course of the show although they are the ones that drive the show forward. They're at least fun to watch though, and if you're into the moe stuff you won't be disappointed here. 6.5/10

Story- Here is where the show falls really short for me. While it is true that it is a slice of life show where the four girls of the series make a band together, and have adventures with it, I found the lack of anything interesting other than the concerts kind of dull. Unless you think the addition of a fifth band member is incredibly exciting. The show wasn't stupid though. It definitely knew what it was doing. K-ON definitely shows us what might happen if four moe girls start a band at school, but that was as much as I got out of it. 5.5/10

Enjoyment- Now despite what I said about the story and characters, I actually enjoyed watching this show. It was a lot of fun and there were moments where the characters would do something cute and I would go "Awwww." I also loved every time there was a concert just so I could watch the great animation and listen to the music. I mean K-ON is not the most special show in the world but I still had a good time. 7/10

Might as well consider this my first review... so averaging the scores awards K-ON with a good score of 7/10

floy.cassin - 2013-07-27 05:04:59

K-on! is lighthearted fun with lots of cute thrown in. Though the story plods along and not much really happens, the characters are cute enough to provide some lighthearted fun. Sound is great at first, but really does't focus on band music later on. It's a shame because the music is fun, cute, and decently good. Animation style is sharp and well thought out but doesn't push the story, sound, or characters forward. The show is quite relaxed and tries to have its fun. Good, fun while it lasted, but not that great.

smitham.alene - 2013-07-07 03:41:57

If you've only heard one thing about K-ON! that isn't "it's about a music club", then it's probably "this show is about nothing". While that can be considered to be true, that doesn't mean it's boring. K-ON! has some of the greatest characterization of any show I've seen in recent memory, it makes you care about the characters, and it has wit and charm to keep you entertained time and time again.

I can't write a wholly objective review of K-ON! because I'm very much of the mind that it is an amazing show with few faults. This is, however, strictly opinion. However, I will list off what the show has to offer and why I loved watching it so much.

This show is essentially the embodiment of the "cute girls doing cute things" label given to so many slice-of-life comedies, particularly the ones produced by KyoAni. The show centers around the main character, Yui Hirasawa, and her friends/clubmates in the Light Music Club (Keionbu, from which the name of the series originates). Yui herself ends up joining because she takes "light" to mean easy, and thinks she'll be playing the castanets. It takes a little suspension of disbelief to actually grasp how she becomes the lead guitarist, especially within the span of 2 episodes, but if you can get past that, you're in for quite a ride.

With that out of the way, very little of the actual subject matter is about the club's musical endeavors. This originally bothered me, but I believe that this was due in part to the fact that no one warned me. If you're watching this show to see a group of girls tirelessly pursuing musical greatness, you might want to look elsewhere. Not that the show is without its musical sections, but that aspect definitely takes a back seat to the day-to-day activities of 4 (and later 5) high school girls, most of which consists of drinking tea and eating baked goods.

If you still want to watch the show after reading the last paragraph, then you will absolutely love it. The characters are almost immediately lovable, and in this type of show, that's of the utmost importance. Yui is an adorable airhead who rarely fails to bring a smile to your face. Mio is a headstrong, focused student with a bit of a shyness problem, but a huge heart. Ritsu is a brash hotheaded tomboy. Mugi is a spoiled, carefree rich girl with a tendency to forget the plights of those without wealth. And later, Azusa is the younger member who tries to get the older girls to actually practice, and wears cat ears more than she would like. Watching these girls do... again, nothing, is nothing short of a genuine pleasure, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the series. The cast is also filled with lovable side characters. I won't go into detail, but they each add something unique to the show. To sum up, without me even noticing, these characters had stolen my heart. It wasn't until I was left without more episodes to watch that I was able to realize just how much I had grown to enjoy them, and how well-written they are.

Of course, in a show about a music club, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shoutout to the soundtrack. The songs are typical J-Pop affairs, but they'll make you want to bob your head and sing along... providing you can speak Japanese. I even put some of them on my iPod for later listening. The background music helps the pacing, and helps to make some of the more mundane scenes more engaging.

The animation is fantastic. They put a lot of love and care not only into making things look pretty, but there are a number of alternate animation sequences that add a lot of comedic value to the series. Yui is hilarious on her own, and seeing her in chibi style is almost too much to bear.

I could go on and on about the wonders of this show, but the longer this goes on, the less likely some of you are to read the whole thing, and I respect that. If you're looking for a show with heart up to its proverbial eyes, that makes you feel like everything in the world is good and pure, and that will make you laugh time and time again, K-ON! is for you. I usually go into my anime-watching for quantity. I want to watch a lot of different series and experience them in all their fullness. That doesn't leave a lot of room for rewatches. I don't know a lot for certain in this world, but I do know this: I will set aside some time at some point in the future and rewatch K-ON!. The experience was so endearing and enjoyable the first time around, that I can not wait to do it all over again.

gianni30 - 2013-06-21 18:00:57

----This review contain mid spoilers and very harsh opinions, skip if you please----"MUTHA F*ING TEA!"-GiggukK-on was a typical moe / slice of life. End of review. Just kidding.Story : 2Why such a low score? Because this anime doesn't even have a story, or just very little even I can't see it. The anime's events of arks, and the arks aren't even good neither, here's an example "Oh no! We need a new guitar for Yui, let's work all day and find out later that Tsumugi's farther owns the shop and we could just get it for free!" Just mentioning ONE.Also they think that EATING CAKE AND DRINKING TEA SOLVES EVERY F*ING PROBLEMS, need a new guitar? CAKE!!! TEAAA! Need to practice? MORE CAKE AND F*ING TEA!! Need to eat cake or tea? MORE CAKEE!!!! MOREEEE TEEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! So 2/10, boring and predictable plot.Art : 6Despite the bad story and boring character, the animation was actually good and matches the movement of the instrument very well, when they're actually playing them.Sound : 5After I've seen the opening I had high hopes for the soundtracks, and then I saw their first concert, or should I say major let down? The songs they make are so mediocre, too mediocre.Character : 4Enjoyment : 2Let's just say that K-on was a disappointment. Overall : 3K-on was good for what it is, a moe, so sweet it'll turn your brains into candy AND EAT IT.If you're a moe fan, go ahead watch it. If not, stay away from this anime.

manuela.aufderhar - 2013-05-18 10:39:36

I picked up "K-On!" envisioning it as some kind of healing, mundane slice of life in the same vein as "Aria the Animation". I was hoping it would help alleviate my severe withdraw symptoms that came from finishing "Hikaru no Go". Even though I got most of what I was looking for (it is mundane, and it is a slice of life), I'm reminded of one of those twisted fairy tales where some greedy guy gets the chance to make a wish to the devil or a genie or something. And although he does get his wish granted, there's something subtly wrong with what he ends up with. Obviously, the similarity between the aforementioned greedy guy and someone as generous and as easy going as myself is limited, but the parallels between the flawed result and "K-On!" are striking.It took me a few episodes to figure out what's wrong. First of all, it starts off disappointingly dull. I'm one of the most patient of viewers, but even I found my attention wandering frequently, and I ended up keep having to rewind to see what I'd missed. It's rare that I get really bored when watch anime, especially given my fondness for the more mundane slice of life shows, but "K-On!" managed to seriously bore me (and in fact it took me half a year to finish it).And then I realised something worse - "K-On!" is MOE. Not as blatant as "Clannad", but still, it's all about cute girls doing cute things for the sake of being cute. It also serves to explain why I found it to be dull, given that I have no interest in watching artificially cute girls doing mundanely cute things, and there isn't much else to be found in the show. I find it interesting to compare "K-On!" with "Aria the Animation", which is also about cute girls doing cute things. I don't know whether it's because I watched "Aria the Animation" before and "K-On!" after "Clannad", a show that is so moe that it's caused me to develop allergic reactions to anything vaguely resembling cute, but with "Aria the Animation", the cuteness seems more innocent and less creepy; the natural calming beauty of its settings also made it less one dimensional, and it just seems to have a charm that's severely lacking in "K-On!" in general.As mediocre as "K-On!" is, I must admit that towards the middle of the series, the slice of life settings began to work its magic, and I found the series growing on me ever so slightly, I even started finding it mildly amusing and enjoyable at times... and that's when they decided the time is ripe to give its targeted audience more of what they want - that is to say, the more obnoxious cliches of anime fandom. Unsatisfied with just having cute, clumsy girls procrastinating over homework and cutely drooling over sweets and "cakies", they started rolling out the dreaded maid outfit and the cat ears etc. The already limited quality of the series takes a dip and sinks to a new low as the girls started spending a lot of time inflicting these the disturbing costumes and distasteful accessories on one another. Obviously, the shy characters would meowing pitifully as they are victimised, but of course at the same time they also show signs that a part of them is secretly enjoying the experience. Anyway I'm sure you get the picture, so lets move swiftly on...Musically, "K-On!" is the antithesis of "Nodame Cantabile". The latter emphasises the importance of hard work even when the musician in question is already ridiculously talented. In "K-On!", however, we have Yui, someone who's never played an instrument before, but after a very short period of casual and unmethodic practicing, starts reproducing face melting solos she hears with apparent ease, and is able to immediately master the techniques demonstrated to her. As someone who's also learning to play an instrument, this complete undermining of the effort required in this learning process really doesn't sit well with me. I know it's not supposed to be very focused on the music, but come on, they could have at least made *some* attempt to make it seem less like a piece of cake!The final nail in the coffin actually comes when "K-On!" tries to do some character development in an episode towards the end of the series. For the first half of that episode, I was bewildered because the characters were acting quite strangely. Then I realised what the episode is trying to achieve - it's going out of its way to create a rift between a couple of characters in order to set up a kiss-and-make-up scenario. Upon realising this, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that they botched up the attempt so badly it's managed to reach a painful level of transparency. Perhaps they're better off just keeping things simple and sticking with the shallow otaku pandering material as they're clearly incapable to doing anything substantial like character development. All in all, "K-On!" is an interesting specimen for being a slice of life without a soul. Compared to, say, "Azumanga Daioh", which is not a slice of life (yes I know it revolves around mundane things, but it's clearly very comedy inclined and not too concerned about being down to earth), but radiated that pleasant warmth associated with a good slice of life, I can barely feel anything in "K-On!", and I certainly don't have any fondness for any of the characters. Something feels fundamentally wrong with the series - you can tell that just from the school which barely has any boys in it despite not being an all girls school as far as I can tell - the moe and other creepy elements dispels any sense of innocence and charm it might otherwise have had, and once you strip away those elements, what's left is disturbingly hollow. Perhaps I'm being overly harsh on an anime that I'm rating a 5, and sure there are anime out there that are a lot worse (like "Clannad"), but I guess I'm feeling rather grumpy that "K-On" shattered my naively comforting delusion that slice of life shows can't be anything short of pleasant. I'm beginning to develop a real hatred for Kyoto Animation. Considering how they have been able to mass produce superficial shows that are wildly popular of late, they appear to have mastered the art of fanboy pandering and are shamelessly applying it to everything they do, and in the process of this helping to set a bad trend that's catching like the plague. Is there nothing they can't ruin?! -_-

meagan.watsica - 2013-03-30 19:25:57

K-ON! is about a group of girls who try, and succeed, to save their high school's musical club from suspension. The story starts with two of them, Ritsu Tainaka (a drummer) and Mio Akiyama (a bassist), joining the empty, member-less light music club; later on the first episode, Tsumugi Kotobuki, a wealthy girl, joins as a tecladist, and Yui Hirasawa joins as a guitarist who has never touched a guitar, doesn't even owns one, and can't even read music.Story: 7Even though the plot is nothing unusual, the general ongoing of the show is very enjoyable. The story line, though simple, looks promising (and by "promising" I mean capable of being developed a lot and taken to more complex settings, like, for example, a huge concert, or the club disbanding).Art: 9Both the drawing style of the characters and the animation style of the OP and ED are very well done, as expected of Kyoto Animation (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu) and Pony Canyon (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, CLANNAD).Sound: 10Given the fact that the story revolves around a music club, it can be expected of K-ON! to have above average music. And it does. Both the OP and the ED (and of course the musical pieces in between the show) are not only brilliant and very, very catchy, but also excel at building up the mood of the series.Character: 7The main character (Yui) scores high on the moe level due to her general clumsiness, a bit of shyness, and general kyewtness. Except for her, the other three main charcters (Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi) are fairly average.Enjoyment: 10I enjoyed watching the first episode of K-ON! very much. Even though almost the only laughing source of the show is Yui, I still laughed many times while watching it. Also, I should give a special mention to the soundtrack - as I said before, it makes the show a lot more catchy.Overall = (7+9+10+7+10)/5 = 8.6 ≈ 8 (or 9, if you wish; I think it sticks more to an 8.)If you like comedy anime, K-ON! is definitely a must watch this season. ^-^

vkoepp - 2013-03-16 20:48:56

"I love K-On!"-Hirasawa, YuiK-On, what to say about it. Well, first of all this has probably been on my on-hold list since the time I joined MAL, back in April. I tried several times to start it again and watch it, but time and time again, it didn't really hold my interest. A few days ago, I decided that I should just get it over with and finish it, so I sat down at my computer, went to my favorite streaming site, yes I don't download anime onto my computer, and began to watch, and I have to say, this has to be one of the best comedies I've ever watched in my short anime lifetime.Let's start with the story. If you are looking for a compelling story that follows it's events then this is not for you because time often changes in large stretches of time, although for me I didn't really notice it. Also, if you think this will be like NANA (does it really look like NANA, people?) or Nodame Cantabile (again does this even look like Nodame Cantabile), this series isn't for you either. However, if you are looking for something fun, interesting, and cute to watch this series [i]is[/i] for you. K-on basically follows 4, eventually 5, girls around as they establish the Light Music Club and the friendship that follows. Whether it's going to training camps at Mugi's "small" summer villas, hanging out in the music room eating Mugi's sweets, or actually practicing these girls are always having fun. There really isn't any drama in this series and it is throughout it's 13 episodes, a fun and fluffy show with really now plot.Yay, the music. The music in here really depends on your personal preferences. This music isn't classical, or punk rock, but a bouncy, kind of peppy, upbeat music that I found myself thoroughly enjoying. I, personally LOVED the OP and ED themes. I liked the upbeat tone to them and just thought that they were awesome. The songs performed by the girls are great too, and I found myself tapping my fingers to the beat and wishing it would go on. The background music and such isn't very memorable, but it's good all the same.The art, was something that I liked and thought was very eye appealing. K-on is from KyoAni, which we all know for Clannad, Air, and Kanon 2006, at for me, at least, I thought that they did a very good job with the art. Yes, the art was choppy in some places, but for the most part it was very nice and I thought if was nice. The characters' eyes, I especially liked. The backgrounds were very nice, eye catching, although probably not as much as Clannad for instance.Now for the characters. We have clumsy, forgetful, but overall very lovable Yui, shy, mature, scaredy-cat Mio, provider of sweets and all around good person Mugi, the club's headstrong and confident "leader" Ritsu, and the newest addition Azusa. Before I got into K-on I noticed that Mio had a huge fan-base, and I had always wondered what was so great about this character. Well, I have to say that I have found myself apart of that very fan base as the series went on and we got to know Mio better. She is Ritsu's best friend, an extremely shy person and a major scardy-cat, which Ritsu plays on constantly. Mio was sucked into joining the Light Music Club by Ritsu, originally intending to join the Literature Club. She is the one of the most mature people in the band, unsuccessfully trying to get the members to play more often and more seriously. She serves as the song writer, occasional vocalist, and bass player on the band.Yui is probably my favorite character in the whole show. Now this show does not have much character growth at all. Yui is probably one, if not the only character to go through some sort of growth. At the beginning, Yui is lazy, and doesn't really know what she is going to do with herself in high school. She is clumsy and doesn't understand many things. She also has a tendency to forget something she's learned when she's learned something new, causing some grief for the other members of the Light Music club. Yui enters high school and goes in determined to join a club, the one problem being that she has no idea what club she should join. She eventually happens upon a flier for the Light Music Club and decides to join thinking that Light meant castanets. Described by Ritsu as clumsy and a girl with no rhythm, Yui has it had the first few weeks having to learn how to play the guitar from scratch and actually having to buy a guitar, although Mugi's sweets and tea were a constant gift to her and something she looked forward to everyday. Eventually she progresses greatly for someone who was just leaning and the Light Music Club has it's guitarist, and eventually a main vocalist. Yui's sister and her friend Nodoka notice the changes that Yui goes through and are amazed at her transformation after joining the Light Music Club. Yui becomes confident and mentions herself that she was unsure of what she was going to do with herself at the beginning of high school, but now knows that she can do it whatever it may be. I love Yui because she was sweet and was clumsy in a cute sort of way. She went about her merry ways and tried to make everyone as happy as she possibly could. I thought she was a great character and really added to the story.Mugi, the sweet and all around good person, that you can't help but like. Although she comes from a rich family, she is very modest and doesn't flaunt her wealth around. Her family owns multiple villas, which the club members visit twice for their summer training camps. Mugi, was another member who didn't intend to join the Light Music Club. Originally intending to join the choir, she mistook the Music Room for the Choir Room and was convinced to join by Ritsu's "tragic story" of the band that she and Mio had promised to make. Mugi is the provider of sweets for the band members, bringing tea sets, cakes, cookies, and other sweets that the band members, especially Yui enjoy. She plays the keyboard in the band.Ritsu, the one that started it all. Ritsu serves as the club leader and often forgets to fill out important papers, leading to the wrath of Mio. She and Mio were the first members for the Light Music Club. Probably one of the funniest characters in the series, Ritsu is loud and outgoing, often playing tricks on her best friend Mio. She gets along extremely well with Yui and when I first started the series I had a hard time telling them apart sometimes. I love Ritsu because she is a funny person, and radiates confidence. She plays the drums in the band. Last, but not least, the newest member Azusa. Azusa entered high school with Yui's younger sister and is in the same class. She joined the Light Music Club after seeing them perform and was shocked at the way that they spent their afternoons in the clubroom. She often pushes for more practice and a more serious attitude towards their music. However, she eventually lets it go as she becomes more adjusted. There isn't a lot mentioned about Azusa, other than she plays the guitar (pretty well too) and that her parents are jazz players. The supporting characters in K-on were very nice and added a lot to the story. From Yui's responsible and loving sister, to the eccentric club adviser "Sawa-chan" who loves to dress the girls up, they all had an important role and K-on wouldn't have been K-on without them. Now,I will not deny that I am a complete and utter amateur when it comes to telling a good voice acting from a bad one, but to me all the voices were nice and I thought that the people behind them did a good job. Overall the characters were great and played their roles wonderfully in the story.Overall, I enjoyed this show a lot. From the characters to the music, I thought it was all great and that KyoAni did another good job with an anime. When I started this show again, I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was and how much I enjoyed it. I think that this was a fantastic show and that if you like cute characters, a comedy that doesn't have much of a plot, or you're simply just looking for something fun to watch, then K-on is definitely an anime that you should watch.~By the way, this is my first review, so constructive criticism and comments are much appreciated. ^^ ~