First Impressions / K-ON!

Semi-new OP Sequence

“Hey guys, the band just scored a new member, but we don’t have enough money to re-do an entirely new OP which already features a huge amount of recycled animation… so how about we just splice her in using the least amount of effort possible? Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s cover up Ritsu’s huge forehead with Azusa’s guitar.”

Watch it HERE
 

Mouse over screenshots for captions
 
Summary
“I’m Azusa, I’d like to join your club.”

In all seriousness, there wasn’t much story to speak of in this episode, more like an Azusa exhibition. Turns out she plays guitar, and is damn good too, which puts some pressure on “Yui-senpai” to step up her game. Except her game consists of 5% skill, 15% talent, and 80% delicious cake juice. Being cute is a state of mind – it can’t be learned, it can’t be manufactured – true moe just is… Azusa has that in bunches. And she can play guitar, which makes her that much more awesome.

Speaking of cake, you’d think a kawaii chibi like Azusa would be a cake-inhaling monster, but apparently she’s only there for the music. Which gets her pretty pissed off, cuz she wants to practice while everyone (sensei included) is too busy wolfing down the latest Mugi confectionaries. Well, they all know Azusa is right, so they try their hardest to practice. But they have to finish their cake first.

Azusa eventually falls into the cake-on club’s honey trap, which only means they can push a bit further now… sensei has just the thing for the job… nekomimi! Apparently her round head is lacking some cute ears. Or rabbit ears, like mahjong demon Amae Koromo, which has been getting hyped up for the past three eps, but we all know she’s just gonna end up losing to Saki after some godly dora dora dora dora move.

Still, Azusa is getting pretty frustrated with the lack of music in the cake-on club (Azusa knows your pain!), but the girls realize she’s important to have around, so they start feeding her ice cream and taiyaki. Single guys: if you want to pick up an underage anime chick, offer her cute edible things like cake, ice cream, and taiyaki. And princess crepes. Works every time.

Is Azusa going to stay in the club? Turns out that live performance really moved her – and even though every other band in existence has more skill than the K-ON band, she didn’t feel the same emotional connection with it. Ah, playing in a band isn’t just about the music, it’s about having fun playing with your bandmates. Which is what this show is all about, apparently. Kind of a cop-out, if you ask me – you could use this premise for just about anything involving a group activity.

Oh well, Azusa is cute, all is forgiven.

 
Preview

Up next on K-ON!: I wonder if there’s more marble beef in the fridge
 
Thoughts
Given Azusa’s character design, I was half expecting her to be this little fiery ball of tsundere, and while she did show some fire and plenty of popped veins, for the most part she was a real quiet and obedient freshman. Introducing a new character this late in the show is usually to revitalize character interactions and freshen up the dynamics, and I’m not sure that was achieved. Kinda like how she was just haphazardly thrown into the semi-new OP sequence, her character was just oddly thrown into this lion’s nest of time wasting and cake eating, and it kinda felt awkward the whole way. That said, that was probably the whole point, as often when making new friends, it takes a few weeks to have the same rhythm and pace in conversation. In the meantime, she’s cute, and makes Yui make cute flustered faces, and gives Mugi a lot of yuri fodder, so it’s fine.

Of course, I’m probably just overthinking what is otherwise a mindless show about girls doing mindless things. Speaking of which, you guys read that new Focal Point by Natron-e? That dude spends way more time thinking about this trivial stuff than I do, but he makes it sound so much more interesting. Ah, Random Curiosity indeed. Except my curiosities usually take me in the direction of perverse fetishes of random body parts on anime girls. I’m still gathering shots for my big hand fetish post, so look forward to that.

Next week looks like they’re going back to Mugi’s villa for another training camp, this time with their newly minted pet/toy/guitarist. One has to wonder if Azusa will get them to finally get some good practice in, or if she’ll just end up pulling a Mio and have more fun than everyone else. Is she gonna show up in a sukumizu?

50 Comments

  2. nyan…
    i was kinda thinking: all the times they switch to some famous guitar player’s picture when they are actually suppose to be playing is kinda annoying. i think it would be cool if they could animate their actual playing rather than switching to random music videos.

    xcswmboy
    Reply

  5. Nice point, about how it takes time to fall into rhythm with new friends. Ritsu and Mio didn’t react well to Yui at first, saying she was an airhead, and stuff – but she fit in as their friend before very long. It’ll probably be the same thing with Azusa.

    Story
    Reply

  6. There is another change in the OP other than the “tacked on” Azusa. If you all haven’t noticed it yet then listen more closely to the OP, there is an additional rythm guitar playing.

    … nyaa~

    Misha
    Reply

  8. although following the manga Azu-nyan does get them more on track playing most of the time its single joke Show Spoiler ▼

    Raso
    Reply

  11. Raso: So far they’ve been padding the anime with more acts and scenes that aren’t in the manga (which is fairly limited by it’s 4-koma strip). Adding more stuff doesn’t necessarily mean bad things will happen… so far, in my humble opinion, it’s been good.

    I was afraid to see how Azusa would come out because she’s constantly complaining in the manga. However Kyoani seemed to have toned that aspect down, and rightfully so, with the extra stuff going on.

    Anyhow, nekomimi on Azu-nyan… priceless!

    Misha
    Reply

  16. Azusa makes me hate everyone in the freacking series suddenly o.o Asuza>Mio, and freaking stupid ritsu and yui are ruining Azusa’s talent! GAAAAAAAAAAAH Asuza you are too good for those weaklings! Azusa is a Mio without all the pimping which made me like her less than the other three (now four) girls. Please don’t pimp Azusa too much otherwise she’ll drop too D;

    Everyone else feeling my vibe? Mugi and Azusa fav’s by far.

    awizarddidit
    Reply

  21. With Yui’s Les Paul, Azusa plays like Jimmy Page who loves that Gibson stuff and twintailed Page shows up on the screen.
    With her own Mustang, she plays like Kurt Kobain who loved smallish Guitars like Mustang and Jaguar and then, twintailed Kobain shows up.

    calde
    Reply

  25. she’s not as tsundere as she was described to me and her “nya” isn’t that moe. well, she’s like a mini mio… in twin tails \m/O_O…

    if there’s one thing, she snaps the same way as mio with the difference of someone not getting hurt and their skills are good since mio and azusa are hard workers (compared to the hirasawa born-geniuses).

    the gods of kyoani indulges jaalin of his foot fetish 😀

    https://randomc.net/image/K-ON/K-ON%20-%2009%20-%20Large%2002.jpg

    i agree with the rest who wished for azusa to be added at the ED sequence ~_~

    baka~
    Reply

  26. I like Azusa already. She plays seems to play the ever-important”Straight guy” on a comedy. That crappy photoshop of her in the intro doesn’t do her justice 🙁

    Other than that I like how they highlighted Yui’s raw talent. Imagine how good she would be if she got formal training.

    fragbet
    Reply

  27. @baka,

    lol, yeah, azusa is like a loli version of mio, and thats definitely not a bad thing 😉

    The photshopped intro didn’t bother me at all, just to throw my two cents in. Also, one of my favorite episode thus far.

    geneva
    Reply

  31. at least Azusa was conveniently tiny so that they didn’t have to redo the op sequence too hard core =.= I thought that kyoto animation was one of the more “high end” animation company’s too

    jellayrei
    Reply

  37. Hey…I’m going to cosplay as Mio soon and I want to ask a stupid question. In the ending sequence, is Mio’s arm warmer on the right side? I’m left handed so it’s so confusing haha! Please let me know, thanks^^

    Laura Guzman
    Reply

  38. I was kinda wondering that myself lol.. I get confused when I look at pictures.. I thought it was on the left but if shes looking at me… her left is my left…and..my right is her right…but..arent you supposed to flip a image of a person on a cam? gahh! *head blows up*

    Someone answer when they can please, again I’m wondering myself now lol.

    chaosdemon06
    Reply

  39. I’ll be honest: I hate the edited opening. Either they redo it properly, or don’t change it at all. I’ll miss the the original members jumping off the school stairs (it has been cut to fit Azusa in.)

    It is a good thing they toned down her tsundere-ness (compared to the manga), but until I watch the episode today I can’t say if they’ve done it enough, or well.

    As for the strongest guitarist, it’s neither Azusa nor Yui nor Sawa-chan.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    plrockerdude
    Reply

  42. Y’know… it’s not just that Azusa was kind of meaninglessly spliced in to the old sequence, it’s that they didn’t even splice her into all that many segments. Just where you see the whole band playing in a head-on camera shot. Where there are so many other sequences featuring the girls together in a group taking part in some completely separate activity, or the flashes of their faces at the end, you still see only the original 4 of them with no Azusa.

    DeadMonkeys
    Reply

  48. After watching this episode I can proudly say that Azusa is my second favourite character in this show ^_^(next to yui)

    To be honest this episode also made me lose some respect for the group (excluding Azusa) as a whole. I mean on previous episodes when you see them dicking around and eating cakes and drinking tea instead of practicing like a real club it was actually quite amusing and cute to watch, but in this episode it was actually irritating.

    Regarding the semi new OP. I wasn’t bothered by it. Actually it was pretty understandable since this show is going to end in 4 episodes, theres no need to waste money into making a completly new Opening.

    Rika
    Reply

  49. @Rika- It was irritating because for once, we have a character besides Mio who is actually serious about the club, only here it’s worse because they insessantly treat her like an object instead of a real person- the fact that she’s a year below them doesn’t make it appear any less racist. It put the other four in a very bad light. I must say this isn’t one of my favorite episodes.

    starss
    Reply

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