K-ON! / Miscellaneous


 

Astute user SierraEdge sent me an email pointing out an particularly odd soundbite from Jason Mraz’s Try Try Try, which can be heard in the above video at 0:08 and again at 1:07. About 100% of all anime fans will instantly recognize it to be the eyecatch audio clip from moe blob Akiyama Mio showcasing anime K-ON.

The song itself is pretty good, but having Yui’s mono-ized voice chime in doesn’t fit with the song at all, which naturally begs the question – what the hell? Could it be some huge fan-made troll that has somehow pervaded itself in every single Youtube clip and mp3 found online? Could someone at Atlantic Records be on Kadokawa’s payroll? Or is Jason Mraz every bit of the crazy otaku as those guys who celebrated Ritsu’s birthday? The only other mention of this I could find is on the ZOMG Forums, where people seem to be just as confused…

While Mraz does communicate to his fans via traditional means like Twitter, perhaps, if we are trusting and optimistic enough to believe the addition was completely intentional, he’s showing a bit of his closet otaku self as a big wink to those who would understand…

66 Comments

  3. First time I’ve ever heard of him, or his music. The song is actually decent, the odd soundbite inclusion is a slight wink to those who would understand it, its going to fly past the head of anyone unfamiliar with K-ON. 🙂

    Ashan
    Reply

  5. Well…if you watch his “Geek in the Pink” video, he’s got a pink shirt on that says “Otaku” on it. So I would assume he knows something of anime. At the -very- least.

    Kuya
    Reply

  8. As much as the K-on bits doesnt fit into the song, i am hoping this is not a fan made troll. If a celeb is a closet otaku that could change the sterotype of geeks and otaku, bits by bit ^-^

    brianleung8912
    Reply

  14. This doesn’t sound like troll-work. It’s on several of the other videos of this song, for starters.

    Even if you ignore Mr. A-Z being or not being an anime fan, this just doesn’t seem like enough to qualify. Only adding two sound bites from K-On? If the guy really wanted to troll, there’s so many things he could add. If this is a troll, it’s pretty weak.

    Kuya
    Reply

  28. knowing it’s k-on kinda brings the song down a bit, but i wonder what it’d sound like to someone who has no idea that there’s anime audio in the song. would anime even come to mind?

    fishies
    Reply

  30. Eh, not 100% fans would recognize this. Maybe everyone who’s watch K-ON, but not hundred percent of all fans. The show didn’t interest me at all, hence I never bothered to watch it.
    The part in the song doesn’t fit will. =/ Almost made me cringe first time I heard it.

    Lauren
    Reply

  39. Dude has toured in Japan, so if anything this is a brilliant marketing strategy. Snag some of that K-On dough while still raking it in from his other single.

    He’ll probably rock a Mio shirt and play to sold-out venues next time he goes.

    Freeter
    Reply

  46. I find it a little suspicious, though, that practically 98% of the results on Google for “Jason Mraz Try Try Try” are download links , with about 1% of lyrics and 1% blog posts about the confusion…Also suspicious: like handsomehwang said, there would need to be some sort of licensing agreement between Mraz and KyoAni, plus, it’s extremely odd for a single/EP by an American musician to be released in China before all the other countries, and this song seems to only exist within a couple message boards, Youtube, some lyric sites, and a few blogs. No music info sites have any sort of reference to this song. And finally, like others have said, these clips just don’t fit in with the song. Not in a “this doesn’t fit the mood” sense, but rather they just sound like one song with a sound being played over it at the same time (which is something very, very easy to do with pretty much any audio editing program.)

    I think it’s possible that Try Try Try really is a legit Jason Mraz song, somehow leaked, and someone got their hands on it, edited in the K-ON! clips, and released it to the Internet. Or perhaps it’s just a guy with a real talent for emulating others’ voices…I’m gonna say troll, for now…but we’ll see.

    Tumbrils
    Reply

  49. Here’s my little guess on that k-on soundbite… It might have been put there because mr a-z wanted us to know that the source of inspiration for this song was… k-on. And more precisely the chorus part of ‘Don’t say lazy’.
    Both song’s chorus roughly follow this chord progression :
    C – D – Bm – Em
    C – D – Em (or G for ‘Try, try, try’)
    Same key and almost the same chords for the chorus, though the tempo is much slower for mraz’s song. If you don’t understand anything about music, just try to sing the chorus of ‘Don’t say lazy’ over the chorus of ‘Try, try, try’ and you’ll see that it fits pretty well. The verse’s chords are totally different though…
    Anyway, for someone wearing a pink otaku t-shirt in one of his videoclip (even if the clip was about geeks) that doesn’t surprise me.

    Mr Penguin
    Reply

  51. If Mraz is actually behind this, it’s a clever bit of viral marketing. The thing about the anonymous internet is that it easily allows stunts like this happen to generate fan buzz for practically nothing. Maybe someone in Mraz’s camp did this, maybe it was a fan that edited a leaked copy of the song for poops and giggles, or maybe it was even someone at KyoAni trying to generate buzz for K-ON. There’s no way to know unless someone comes forward. One thing for sure is that it succeeded in generating discussion.

    Noirsword
    Reply

  52. …… did I just read someone consider Mio a moeblob?! She’s WAY more tsukkomi/kagami clone than moeblob (Yui’s the resident one even then she’s not up to Tsukasa’s level, let alone Mei or Yutaka’s)

    Duran
    Reply

  55. anyone else notice the massive misname in the post?
    its not “moe blob Akiyama Mio” its “moe blob Hirasawa Yui”
    Yui is named “moe blob” for her blob-like-fat cheeks when she hugs people.
    plus that is Yui’s voice in the sound bite, not Mio.
    makes me wonder if RC even watched K-ON!, a mistake like that is pretty heavy mix up.
    —
    in regards to Jason Mraz..people are drawing WAY to much speculation over this and jumping to conclusions like a dog in heat. there is so much to consider before he could ever put a soundbite like this in one of his sounds.

    since the origin of the song appears to be from a Chinese EP/website, and this song is STILL unavailable from iTunes or even Amazon, i would say this is either a fake or a promotion from something in Asia. probably this song was used in a K-On promo video and the soundbites would probably make more sense in said video.

    milkmandan
    Reply

  57. So Ka

    and are this song is Fake?
    Cause not official come with Studio or chinese hack some future single jason mraz?
    I very confused,
    search in google but nothing only Download links,Lyric and not good info.
    Someone tell me the truth
    Jason Mraz Single Try Try Try Chinese Ep Version
    >o< d

    ryukaiser
    Reply

  58. Okay, so I’m assuming the K-ON bits are just to prevent people from taking the song and claiming it as their own. (For instance, in most Techno songs, you’ll hear a voice saying “DJ such and such”) And since Jason seems like he’s an anime fan, he decided to use K-ON.

    Also:
    http://www.box.net/shared/qynot2xvp7

    Mixed by me, because it had to be done.

    Desho
    Reply

  59. srsly guys, stop making more out of this than it should be.
    the chords are ridiculously popular. dear god, what guitar song DOESN’T HAVE C – D – and Em.
    this is like a sad attempt for otakus to find similarity and common ground with someone popular to better justify their own existence.

    milkmandan
    Reply

  66. Oh please, this could have been made by anyone. If not, and was planned in accordance to Jason Mraz, well then. I’m not the only musician who would incorporate Anime elements in my music.

    But still, 1 in a 9999 chance that Jason Mraz actually had anything to do in this.

    Lucky Pentagram
    Reply

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