k-on!! 1
Categories: episodic review, k-on
Tagged: k-on
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“I like anything cute or tasty.”
I, for one, welcome the return of our barnacle-hating bassist overlord.
I never felt so robbed and disappointed. I mean since K-On! 6. I mean since 15,532. Frilly meido outfits with a mini-skirt upgrade? The Sawa-chan Meido Mk II would have definitely gotten a few new members… and even more if this weren’t an all-girl’s school.
(I’m still disappointed that Asread and not Kyoto got Mirai Nikki. The only thing more disappointing is if Studio Deen got The World God Only Knows over Brains Base. Damn right, I’m throwing my support for TWGOK over to Brains Base only because I want an OVA special where Keima has to score Celty. And you know Brains Base would do that. Kyoto would never let Mio or Mikuru make a cameo like that.)
(Basically, K-On!! is just more of K-On! except with an extra exclamation mark and with Azu-nyan properly integrated into the OP rather than half-assedly tossed in at the last minute. Which is not a bad thing considering K-On! scored #3 in Best of 2010 and scored Best Anime in the Tokyo Anime Awards, and sold a shit-ton of Blu-Ray. I’ll be honest. I just want to see more moe~ moe~ kyun~ Mio.)
Wait, Yui ran to school with a mouthful of toast and didn’t collide with anyone (especially Azu-nyan)? Hun? And she’s practicing? Is this the same Yui that we all know and love growing up and being more responsible? Nope, she just screwed up her daylight savings time. Ahh… our good old naive Yui. Just the way we like it. Except we’re all clamoring for Mio. Not enough Mio in this episode! This is like having an episode of Eden of the East that doesn’t focus on Taki’s Johnny.
I enjoyed that look on Azu-nyan’s face. Also enjoy her cup. Kyoto has the moe mode down like how TNT knows drama.
I’m not kidding Kyoto is as good at manipulating Azu-nyan’s moe as Dwayne Wade is at manipulating NBA refs.
16:9?! ZOMG! The first season’s 4:3 was an atrocity… though I wonder if it caused more people to purchase the optical media. K-On! ended up being one of the best selling Blu-Ray releases ever. In this day and age, there’s no excuse for not being widescreen. We’re in the 10s, mofos!
Awful. I haven’t seen such a poorly run campaign since John Edwards in 2008. You put your star in a horse’s outfit instead of the Sawa-chan Meido Mk II? Horrible. Though I’m convinced now that Yui was the voice of Button in Clannad. Puhi-puhi!
All hail our new (in 365 days) cat-like, costume rapeable Light Music Club President!
(I just hope that when it is time for the original four to graduate, they all go to the same all-women’s college and spin-off in a Genshiken-like series. Only with music instead of anime. And a Ritsu x Mio relationship instead of the Kousaka x Saki one. With plenty of Ohno-class cosplay. Azu-nyan would then reform the Light Music Club with help from Ui and carry on the original manga storyline. You know this could work.)
First impression of Listen!!… why are Afternoon Tea Time dressed like they came back from the 1970s in the Hot Tub Time Machine?! What’s up with Mio’s baggy tee? Or Yui’s wristbands? Or Mugi’s literal sailor suit? No way is any of this from the mind of Sawa-chan. Good news is that I always wanted to see what the genderswapped anime equivalent of Journey’s Separate Ways was… and it’s this. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a great thing.
(Is Mugi playing on a classic piano instead of her Korg keyboard? I was hoping to see her rock out on a piano app for the iPad.)
Of course, trapped-in-a-cake Mio helps. If they did more with the licking of the frosting move, I would have put it closer (but not on par) with Don’t say “lazy”.
Kyoto took all the glamour shots from the manga and used them for Go! Go! Maniac. I swiftly approve of Azu-nyan on an inner tube.
(Yui always sounds like she just loaded up on Red Bulls. She would be the perfect Alvin for a Japanese version of Alvin and the Chipmunks.)
(Not sure of the decision to not show the concert… on one hand, we’ve heard Fuwa Fuwa Time quite enough… on the other hand, Ky-oton! always does a good job with the concert scenes. We need to get Mio going on writing Houkago Tea Time’s next hit, Staple Stable…)
Delicious Mugi cakes! So much better than Mako-cakes. Andohbytheway, I would have ranked (1) chocolate (2) banana (3) strawberry.
When they were going around to all the clubs, I was very disappointed that they weren’t greeted by Nagato at the Literature Club. That would have been a perfect tie-in! Brains Base would have done it and tossed in Issac and Mirai somehow.
(If they showed Mikuru at the Japanese Tea Club, it would have caused a riot in my living room. I’m not kidding. A riot.)
20 Responses to “k-on!! 1”
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I’m surprised Haruhi wasn’t leading the UFO club. Nor was there an SOS-dan flier that I could see on the desk (though one of the drawing could have been Haruhi).
I think I saw the Student Council President lurking at the back of the auditorium during the concert.
Wow the production values have really increased, I can’t remember that season 1 was looking so go good as this episode. And yes the widescreen helps A LOT.
Funny you didn’t mention how Mio scared herself with her imagination about the azunyan ghost. That cracked me up.
The detail work on the scenery and props was amazingly good I really hope the rest of the episodes keep par. Judging by this first episode the series deserved the extra !
> Is Mugi playing on a classic piano instead of her Korg keyboard?
It’s a Hammond B3 organ, complete with a Leslie speaker.
I agree that the art is a lot crisper. The ending was a bit lacking, but with Don’t Be Lazy setting the bar so high, I wasn’t expecting anything with the same incredible MOE value. Although I did almost have a heart attack and die when Mio snuck in the wink near the end ^.^
Important thing to mention is this time K-on is schedule for 26(-ish) episodes, so I assume it’s gonna be a lot slower or we are going to have K-on college…..or just Azu-nyan :O
… Except, y’know, Baccano! and Durarara! are set in the same universe, so cross-series cameos are possible.
Does K-On share a world with any of the other KyoAni series? Nope.
Totally loved it.
Also, during the school anthem singing, there was someone just behind Mio who looked like she could’ve been her long lost sister. Pic: http://i241.photobucket.com/al.....277bbd.jpg
I swiftly approve of this innuendo.
Loved ’80s band HTT. (I like the HTT abbreviation for Houkago Tea Time as well, though I imagine it will be hard to google.) Very Bangles/Cyndi Lauper/Early Madonna.
I found it funny that one of Azu-nyan’s classmates actually takes a juice box that had just been in their mouth and fed it to Azusa, and she drinks it like it’s an everyday thing. Has Yui done it so many times that Azu-nyan insist that her normal everyday classmates do the same?
When I saw Azu-nyan on an inner tube, I instinctively smile. What does that say about me?
mY BRAIN is melting from sheer idiocy….
With 26 episodes, I’m a little concerned about pacing- not that K-ON has ever been concerned with pacing. Looking forward to whatever a song titled “Can’t stop eating strawberry parfaits” would sound like.
Could you post a full ress screen cap of Azusa in her inner tube? Please? Ok, pretty please?
Best part IMO was Yui going all Pete Townshend (though can’t see her smashing Guiath over an amp)
Recon 26 episodes will be a bit much unless they do something like after story and show the girls post graduation trying to make it in the music biz- and failing. My bets for each girls fate:
Yui- chocking to death on vomit
Mio- Heroin OD
Azusa- Gunned down by police during a botched liquor store hold-up
Mugi- obesity followed by detox then new career as a slim fast spokesperson
Ritsu- Spontaneously combusted live on stage
Would Kyoani have the ballls to do this though?
I just realized how big of a vacuum the past season was due to the lack of anything good from KyoAni. this is gonna be another season of light, fluffy but high-def awesomeness.
Needless to say, I am so fired up for the next season. GO TO HTT! GO TO HTT!!!
So they start with the beginning of senior year? This is bad for one reason–no Mio stalking episode (chapter 29)! The school president before Nodoka has already graduated since she was their senior. Unless they do some kind of flashback scene, we’re not going to see this animated. There is also the Valentines day chapter with some funny Ui moments (30) and the HTT working at a meido cafe to try to get Mio over her shyness (28). I am hoping for the meido cafe since it can happen whenever but I don’t have much hope for the other two.
Also, not having Azu-nyan unconsciously put on the Meido Mk II and scream how it’s now the norm and she hates it is another missed funny moment.
It’s obvious that Kyoto is leaning pretty heavily on CG animation here, but when I saw the 360-degree dolly shot in the OP I imagined some poor animator getting a first look at the storyboard for that sequence, jumping up out of his chair, and letting out a Darth-Vader-esqe “NoooOOOOOoOO!” in the middle of the office. It’s the stuff like that that makes me marvel at how far production values have come.
Jounin: Actually, that story did take place in their third year. Graduation at Sakurakou is apparently a little later than the start of the new term — that’s why Sogabe was still hanging around.
I didn’t see her in the auditorium crowd, but I think the Go club president just might have been her. She has the right look, and Go would fit with her image. All she’s missing is the hair clip.