K-ON! – 01
OP: “Cagayake! GIRLS” by Aki Toyosaki with Yoko Hikasa, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki – Huh…..cute high school girls and a really bad, yet slightly catchy song by the voice actresses. Where have I seen this formula before?
Summary:
On the first day of high school, Hirasawa Yui rushes to campus despite all obstacles. Upon reaching it, she is shrouded with several offers for her to join various clubs. As her friend Nodoka discovers, however, Yui cannot decide on any of them. Elsewhere, a girl named Tainaka Ritsu convinces her friend Akiyama Mio to help her form the light music club. When the two bring this up to the teacher Yamanaka Sawako, they discover that they need four members before they can start a club. Upon waiting for quite some time, the two girls coincidentally find a third member named Kotobuki Tsumugi.
Meanwhile, Yui decides to join the light music club upon hearing about it from Sawako. As she finally starts to approach the club though, she begins to fear that the club will not be what she initially imagined it to be. Yui is greeted by Ritsu all the same, and while the three current K-on members express their enthusiasm, Yui cannot bring herself to admit that she knows nothing about music. Yui eventually comes around to doing so, but the other girls refuse to give up hope. With Mio on bass, Ritsu on drums, and Tsumugi on keyboard, the girls perform a short piece for Yui. Touched by this, Yui decides to officially join the K-on club. Of course, as Nodoka soon observes, Yui still has no idea what she has gotten herself into.
ED: “Don’t say ”lazy”” by Yoko Hikasa with Aki Toyosaki, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki – I like the ED a lot better than the OP, both song-wise and visually. The style reminds me a lot of Paradise Kiss, or even Red Garden, type stuff.
Preview: Getting started.
Impression:
Hyakko, Manabi Straight, Haruhi, Lucky Star….there are too many shows I could compare this one to. Yamada Hisako, animator gone director, had a part in both Lucky Star and Haruhi in the past, so I can’t call that a coincidence. And while I can agree with Aroduc’s saying that this looks more like an A-1 style production, I certainly didn’t think it looked as terrible as he described ( I love A-1 though; more so than Kyoani. *cough*). Despite feeling like I have seen so much of it before, the first episode of K-ON! was absolutely hilarious. There’s just something irresistible about girls as ridiculous as Yui, and I’ve always been a fan of light slice of life humor.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I could feel a lot of Beck vibes coming from the show as well. While this series is nothing like the said anime, aside from the focus on music, I felt all kinds of nostalgia coming to me as soon as Mio started playing her bass. The guitarist jokes were a nice plus too, as a special bonus to those who are familiar with the ones mentioned. I can already see this series going into a Linda Linda Linda direction, and I’m ready for the ride. Just keep me away from those rabid Kyoani fans. No, Haruhi 2 is not out yet.
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MMMMM YESSS, CHEEESSE!!!
I especially loved that early scene where Yui be like, tripin’ balls when she wakes up, and that wax-on/wax-off sound effect and we totally got to see her panties when she busted her ass (okay, we didn’t… but it should have happened D:).
I can definitely see all the similarities and the “OH I’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE BLAH-BLAH”, but who cares!? For one, the slice-of-life category “totali” needs to be spammed! The ratio of slice-of-life to big-boob-vixens (I’m looking at you Queen’s Blade… not that I mind ;3) is just too big! We need to fill in that gap! And plus, ITS KYOANI!!! HURR HURR!!! HARUHI TWO HERE I COME!!! *fapfapfappafpapfapfapfpaf*
Mio is cute. :3
Are you going to blog anymore shows for the Spring this season. You didn’t even tell us what shows you were going to post. :/ Well I guess i’m going to have to find out soon this week. I hope you will be able to blog Sengoku BASARA, Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou, Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen on television, Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica crimson S, Senjou no Valkyria, Cross Game, Fullmetal Alchemist, Shangri-la, Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity-, Natsu no Arashi!, Saki, 07-GHOST, Souten Kouro, Eden of the East and Hatsukoi Limited. Well good luck on the posting this season. Bye!
Mio is cute. :3
Seconded! aurobolt
Also, will this Spring be Totali, <em?Shouta in Full Bloom or what? /returns to stalking someone’s, not going to mention any names HERE, twitter
Are you trying to imply something here!
Mio is my wife :3
Yes, too many shows to compare to, but other than for the crossover fanart, I’d want this show to stand on its own two feet, however unlikely that would be.
Yeah, I just love school comedies. The character interactions, minimum plot development, random comedy… It’s just what anyone needs if they’re bored or down.
And wow, the animation looks extremely like Kannagi’s. Not that it’s a bad thing, just kind of ironic how a KyoAni production looks like the production of one of their fired employees.
Looking forward to this season’s list of animes, including K-ON!!
I may watch this simply because of the Krauser cameo….
Did anyone see what I type in?
[...] to bother writing a summary, since so many others have already done a mighty fine job of doing so (subculture, randomc, fukazenna!, Tenka Seiha et al.), so I’m just focusing on my general [...]
Note for the ED, there is a very short face shot of Mio after the shots of the four of them with what seems to be no cloths. In this close face shot (right before you see her singing again with the whole band: A: she’s smiling a little in her little hat. B: That is definately a Fender as the closeup has the top of the neck and strings clearly in view with the logo big right up front.
Haruhi 2 may not be out, but can’t you stop the trolling?
Yui go to DMC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaawGNNKsVc
I omg, even though I found myself not really being able to get into the manga, I can sense my new profound love for this anime!! Although does one of the voice actors, the same as in Suzumiya Haruhi?
If anyone look closely, when Yui is heading to the music room, there a ‘female ghost’ behind her as she make her way through those ‘weird’ clubs.
XD
Scared of hot and cold. Wtf?
Mio isn’t really tsundere, surprisingly. She’s just extremely shy, and has this bully-me aura that makes you want to tease and protect her
That said, it’s the contrast between her atypically shy personality and her appearance of being a cool level-headed tsundere that makes her unique imo.