First Impressions / K-ON!

Mouse over screenshots for captions
 
Summary
W-wait, first live already? Oh man, these huge time gaps between episodes getting me more confused than time warps and alternate realities in Star Trek. Speaking of Star Trek, I saw it on Friday and it was pretty sweet. Those that would be quick to point out that my two hours spent in the theater would have been better spent writing up this post would do well to realize that since cell phones aren’t allowed in theaters, laptops with ultra bright LED panels probably wouldn’t be as well.

So the school festival is finally already here – and all the girls are busy with their duties to their class, except for Mio, who is either a pro at sneaking out, or her class isn’t doing anything. The former seems less likely considering her good-girl image, but one would have to wonder what Mio’s class is actually doing that would not require her presence or attention. Perhaps they’re putting on a pro-wrestling show and she was the one on call to treat any actual injuries that may result. At any rate, Mio tries to round up the other three to get some last minute practice in before their big event later in the day.

No such luck. Yui is serving some poorly made yakisoba with all the water you can drink, Ritsu is undercutting Zange-chan, and Mugi is… well, playing dead. Eventually Mio’s dedication gets everyone to show up at the clubroom, but then sensei shows up with some homemade cosplay outfits, much to my delight. Well, they don’t really get much practice in, instead opting to spend that time allowing Ritsu to prance around talking stupid. There’s some moments in this show that make me cringe.

Skip ahead and they’re on stage – after a little shiver session from Mio they start playing, as the video cuts to some pseudo-music video of the girls in the wild west wearing go-go spacegirl type outfits and being chased by big men with helicopters. Yui almost flips them off, much to my eager anticipation and eventual aww disappointment.

A rousing applause concludes their performance, followed by Mio tripping over the amp cable and exposing her white and periwinkle colored pantsu to the world. Just when her childhood trauma was about to be put behind her, her behind brought forth her new adolescent trauma, as I eagerly await the widescreen version.
 
Preview

Up next on K-ON!: Christmas comes early for K-ON! fans
 
Thoughts
That was quick. Maybe they really will make it to Budokan by the end of the show.

Couple things stood out in this episode:

– Yui’s voice, or lack thereof – pretty hilarious, and big props to her voice actress for not only being able to talk in that half hoarse still moe voice the whole episode, but being able to sing it as well. Makes me wonder why can’t Mugi or Ritsu take the job of backup vocals.
– I should point out that one of my favorite songs now is the B-track on K-ON!’s ED single, called ‘Sweet Bitter Beauty Song’. The lead singer is Mio’s seiyuu, and I think it’s much better than the ED itself, which is also sung by Mio. She’s got quite an appealing voice and hits her notes very well, and shes got that extra bit of attitude in her voice that doesn’t come through in the actual show yet – maybe it’s something she picks up by the end of the show when they do another one of these performances.
– Which brings me back to an earlier question: what’s left in the show? They’ve done their big live performance, now all that’s left is for them to transcend into a closed space and start kissing each other to get rid of the big monsters?
– There was something extremely appealing about Yui in that school swimsuit. I can’t quite put my finger on it, which is a damn shame, because I bet she feels real puni puni all over.
– The music video was pretty cool in that it had that western grungy saturated filter feel to it, and at the same time the girls were outfitted in some space-age garb with cosmic hair that looked like it came out of Code Geass. It was odd, however, that not much of the actual performance was shown. Perhaps they are saving it for some super-animated scene at the end?
– What’s up with bands with two lead singers? In BECK that Chiba guy was the lead until the pussy guy showed up (his name Yuki?), but even then Chiba still had his songs. Seems like that’s what will happen with the K-ON! band. Which brings up another point – what is their band name? K-ON can’t be it, that’s just an abbreviation of the club name. Any guesses?
– The “rice bowl” was probably the classiest thing they could have done, and fit very well with the spirit of the show. Very impressive, though I must say, that is quite an odd pattern for a rice bowl. Business opportunity: slap a Mio logo to the bottom of a bowl like that and sell them for 2000 yen each.
– Where can I sign up to join Mio’s fan club?

edit: uhh dunno how i forgot enoz had a bass player. late night lol

62 Comments

  6. i was wondering, am i the only one that thinks the animation looks somewhat like Kannagi? i had a ridiculous argument with some friends saying that the 2 animes are NOTHING alike. (also tried pointing out that Maria Holic/Zetsubou Sensei were similar imo)

    cking543
    Reply

  7. That wasn’t their big goal, but a minor one; or am I the only one who bothers to watch the fine details of the who and not just staring at Mio?

    Their big goal is to perform at Budokai (a big music place) by graduation.

    Duran
    Reply

  8. cking: kannagi was directed by the guy who directed the first four eps of lucky star, which was done by the same studio that did k-on

    maria holic and zetsubou are from the same guy – so yea, you are quite perceptive and your friends are newbs and should rightly be told so

    there’s likely more specifics that you can look up at animenewsnetwork.com or some of the other readers here can recite to you off the top of their overly informed heads.

    jaalin
    Reply

  16. I was kinda impressed with their debut performance song. Was hoping that it would be average so they’ll put more effort next time (after seeing them waste away majority of their training trip at the beach). But dam, that was good…not EZON ‘good’, but still much better than what I expected.

    Side note: Yui is definitely the guitar genius.

    Yyi
    Reply

  17. Two lead singers? Hmmmm. The Beatles perhaps? John and Paul tended to switch off who was singing lead in the songs. Though they would stay consistent on who was singing which song. Then sometimes you get a song by George (usually one per album) and even more rare a song sung by Ringo.

    ithekro
    Reply

  18. haha maybe selling those ‘bowls with stripes’ would hab some business…

    anyways, the post here was late leh, and looking 4ward to budokan. their band name? well according to many sources of the theme songs, they are somehow called ‘sakurakou k-on bu’ leh…

    my anticipation is trying to kill moe, but still impossible…

    Kaineng
    Reply

  21. you can hear ritsu’s voice in the ED don’t say lazy but only faint compared with yui and mio’s.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    im really betting that having the fans hear the “fuwa fuwa time” accompanied by yui’s crap voice is a marketing strategy to drive fans mad into buying the song release early… resulting in another oricon domination and probably a run for miku hatsune and megurine luca’s throne at nico charts… that or they’re simply consistent in what they do which isn’t a bad thing.

    btw, what’s your comment on mio when she said “now i’ll never be married” after having her panties exposed ;p

    baka~
    Reply

  22. best ep of the season so far! most side splitting part for me was when the sensei took out her old outfit with the mask. I definitely hope they play in Budokan! and hope the anime actually shows the playing instead of ending when they start =X something that i foresee album sellers pushing for.

    anyw about Mio I think she’s in the same class as Ritsu and Mugi. Ritsu said something about not charging her for entrance into the haunted house cos she’s from the same class.

    p.s. chibi Mio FTW! funny how they have the same haircut all the way from elementary sch.

    phish
    Reply

  25. I didn’t like the show they gave, too bad the animation studio couldn’t make the “real” show interesting enough and decided for some videoclip story. I’d rather see the girls trying their bestest on stage.

    outcast
    Reply

  27. The manga has more fanservice than the show. Mio Sutoraipu.

    Anyways, now mugi=mio > ui=sawaka > ritsu=yui >>>>> the guitar shop guy

    gonna grab any k-on figmas or figurines when they do get released, especially mugi

    Mugi-sistable
    Reply

  28. i think the whole point of not doing the concert is to work us up until the real concert episode at the end!! still, i’d much rather have seen them doing kinda so-so in this performance and then improving loads in a concert on the last episode..

    animekritik
    Reply

  30. I am lead to believe that the group name of the OP/ED (桜高軽音部, Sakurakou K-ON Bu) is the same one that’s used as their band name in the series. Not 100% sure though.

    Rin
    Reply

  32. Koyuki was his name. The BECK main character. And he only started out as a pussy, the fact that he isn’t a pussy anymore at the end actually makes him all the way less pussy than most other main characters (self-change and overcoming oneself is the least pussy-esque thing that someone can do).

    tokugawa
    Reply

  34. @Rasu

    I agree with you, Mio isn’t the tsundere type in the current group… ^^

    OMG!!!… Stripes!!!… lol
    As for the song, it’s really cute…

    MIO FOR-E-VAH!!!… I’ll be joining that Mio-Fanclub if ever possible… XD

    bloodread
    Reply

  37. If you read on far enough in the manga, they finally have to come up with a name:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    sarcastic_weasel
    Reply

  44. About the episode, yeah I also think it’s repeating too much of Mio’s moe modes.

    And as for the new member, she will probably come in episode 9, since the title for episode 9 is “Newly-entered member” ( and no, it’s not episode 8, which is “New member”)

    Maximilian
    Reply

  45. didnt find this episode that funny.. infact the only bit that remotely got me close to a single giggle was the odd camera click when mio falls over.. still enjoyed it tho 😀

    brianleung8912
    Reply

  48. Writers: Oh noes! Mio is maturing and getting character development! We can’t have that! Press the reset button!

    Stupid status quo >_>

    Still overall I liked the episode since it actually focuses on the music. And the rice bowl joke was pretty clever.

    fragbet
    Reply

  50. The band has no name at this moment but eventually it will have one.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Episode 8’s title should be Welcome freshmen meeting or something like that. It should be next April(Did anybody talk about time leap already?) when a school year starts in Japan. And in the next episode they will have the 5th member, a freshman, naturally.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    calde
    Reply

  52. Agreed to Sweet Bitter Beauty Song. Should have been the ED. It’s more catchier than the ED. Meanwhile the ED’s short version was cool, but the full version felt lacking.. Repetitive I guess.

    megalith
    Reply

  55. hey guys what is the name of that device they use in the eps 2 to count the number of cars that pass by, the clicking thing. I noticed that used this in Beck as well, to measure the number of people coming to see the rock band concerts. Is there a name for this device? Please tell me, the curiosity is killing me lol

    clicking thing
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *