First Impressions / K-ON!

「ロミジュリ！」 (Romi Juri!)
“Romeo and Juliet!”

In case you haven’t heard, the next chapter of the K-ON manga will be the last. This marks the end of series’ three-year run at four volumes and just a bit before the anime, which will likely conclude on a similar note with the girls’ high school graduation. It looks like Budokan will forever remain a distant dream, unless we start seeing some university years of our light music band. Is this the end of a moe era!? It could very well be to some people, but the anime isn’t going out until HTT gives us the long-awaited live performance at their final school festival next episode. If it were up to me, I’d be asking for twenty minutes of non-stop new songs with a huge portion of the budget blown on the animation “God Knows…” style; however, I get the feeling that it may only be one song — the one Mugi wrote with Yui’s lyrics attached. Whatever the case, I’m really looking forward to anything that will fill the void since “Pure Pure Heart” way back in episode seven. There’s been a fair bit of talk about the school festival littered throughout all the episodes up until now, so I’ve been kind of dying to see and hear what Kyoto Animation and Pony Canyon’s been building up towards. I’d be lying if I said my expectations aren’t somewhat high — especially with the recent announcement that the manga’s ending — so hopefully they don’t disappoint. If the anime and manga are both going out, let them go out with a bang!

As a precursor to what will hopefully be an episode to remember, we had class 3-2’s Romeo and Juliet play this time around. In all honesty, it wasn’t all that interesting since it went extremely smoothly, even when they couldn’t find the gravestone prop for the final scene. A frantic run over to the occult club by Mugi and Shizuka to borrow their Rosetta Stone served as some quick improvisation for their misplaced one. The only other scare was Yui almost sneezing in her tree role and ruining one particular scene, because Mio and Ritsu both had their acting and lines down the rest of the way. I wish they showed a bit more of the crowd’s reactions, given how there were quite a lot of people and how many of them were probably members of Mio’s fan club. Unfortunately, that was completely glossed over in favor of Azusa’s tearful one when reminded of how they didn’t practice much at all for the live tomorrow. In short, the play itself wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as the antics leading up it last time, but the fact that we can’t have one without the other made it worthwhile in my eyes. I would’ve liked seeing more of the tea house that Azusa, Ui, and Jun’s class put together with their kimono outfits, but I guess it wouldn’t be all that interesting when all the others were busy with the play.

The plus side is that this episode wasn’t without its lighthearted fun before and after the play, with Yui writing “kabocha” (squash/pumpkin) on her palms and Mio actually trying to swallow her fist after writing “hito” 「人」 on it to try and calm herself. I gather the latter might serve as inspiration to some doujinshi artists if they haven’t visited the idea already, but I’d personally like to keep my image of Mio pure and innocent. The girls staying overnight at school for some extra practice led to some funny moments when they were sleep deprived and started acting dumb, though it was a pretty weak attempt at pulling an all-nighter. Sawa-chan on the other hand is a beast, with the way she made costumes for just about every class and only wanted to be thanked in return. I think the bags she had under her eyes may very well rival my own, but like everyone who stays up to get the job done, it wasn’t for naught! I am a bit disappointed that the outfits she made for their live only looks like HTT t-shirts, but maybe we’ll have the off-the-shoulder look going on at the very least. A t-shirt is never just a t-shirt with the things that girls can do to it after all. We’ll find out next time though, as it’s the long-awaited Houkago Tea Time live! Mio’s die-hard fan Sokabe Megumi is attending too, so it should be good!

 

Preview

50 Comments

  4. No more K-On?… Is that even possible?!

    A thought: Would be really interesting if they took K-On through their college years and made it a slice of life/drama and took out (almost) all of the comedy and made it super serious. Something along the lines of NANA.

    unlisted
    Reply

    4. Yui would really suffer if the anime went super serious. It might be better to keep the series a comedy mixed with a script that follows YUI’s (the singer, not KON’s Yui) rise to being a popular singer. Something along the lines of Skip Beat.

      Zaku Fan
      Reply

      1. Yeah I probably wouldn’t enjoy a series like that either. Though one along the lines of skip beat…Not bad.

        Anyway I agree with crazystudyguy: Why won’t some other endless series (I’m looking at you bleach!) while K-On is destined to end…

        unlisted
        Reply

  7. Hmm, its a bit strange to end such a popular manga and anime rather unfinished. Is there some special reason? Somtimes there is more going on behind the scenes then us viewers/readers know.

    Znail
    Reply

  9. I’ve been saying all along that they ruined the possibility of keeping the show going by starting off in 3rd year. It’s disappointing as a fan who has been there from the beginning to see, since I really think they could have gone for three seasons. But, shows end, even if they’re wildly popular. Reminds me so much of Lucky Star.
    Can’t wait for this concert. I really hope they wow us with a twist or something!

    Innerchihiro
    Reply

  10. Sad to hear that both show and manga will be ending but all great things come to an end. I just hope they do budokan like they’ve wanted before they graduate.

    Is Yui like bush J or something? Oh and yay for screencap 26! Fun to see the classmates get more screentime.

    fall3nbs
    Reply

  11. For a tree, Yui was actually in the scenes a lot, even though she wasn’t the only tree (the other trees must be slacking). Seeing her face coming out of a tree (and bush) does look wierd.

    From the manga, i would have thought the author would continue to university as Yui seems to be drawn more grown up in recent chapters but sadly it seems not (unless he decides to start another one with the same cast without naming it KON)

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

  12. “In case you haven’t heard, the next chapter of the K-ON manga will be the last.”

    I’m thinking it’ll be the last for K-ON! though imminent spinoff would be likely… Which might include the Budokan… Once the girls graduate they’re no longer part of the club. Thus no reason for the title K-ON to be kept…

    If this series comes to a total end. I’m gonna miss it. I don’t know why but Season 2 was enjoyable even though the performance was spaced out so far from each other. When Season 1 was airing I was one of those who bitched about it and nearly dropped it until the 2nd performance.

    Anways watched it live with fellow /a/… Jesus Christ… Someone might’ve spilled the beans on the secret streaming… It lagged like hell.. Both Freshverse and that… Every damn second it stops then buffers!

    Felt like Keyhole all over again!

    Anyway.. Yui posing as a tree then a bush was amusing. Also… I lol’d so hard when the gravestone was missing.. Suddenly… A huge Rosetta Stone! Preview was fantastic in the end where Yui then shouts saying “Afterwards we will eat Cake!”(or something like that); others go “YEEEAaaa” then realized something was wrong with that statement. That’s about all I can remember because of the crappy streaming.

    “… If it were up to me, I’d be asking for twenty minutes of non-stop new songs with a huge portion of the budget blown on the animation “God Knows…” style;”

    I expect that for the last part.. Not to mention they already blown out the budget on the 2nd OP. The budget constraint on the ED was noticeable. Not much was happening. Panning.. Mio’s mouth animation was hidden most of the time. It’d be too much of a wishful thinking
    for them to pull that.

    All in all 7 episodes + 1 bonus episode left. Still a lot of time left.

    megalith
    Reply

      1. I only used Keyhole 3 times. K-ON!!, Occult, then FMA:B.
        Once for each.

        All of which I raged so much! Since Occult aired at TV Tokyo I dunno where to get a streaming of it. Hopefully next week the streaming doesn’t lag like it did last Tuesday. If it does… I’ll just wait for the RAWS.

        megalith
        Reply

      1. From the ending credits of the video (which were funny in their own way), seems like quite a few people were involved. It looks better than the KON 3D game trailers too since that was too pixelated

        Zaku Fan
        Reply

  15. Actually nobody has said there will be no sequel of the manga in the future, and all 4 seniors of the HTT look like going to the same college after all. So there is a hope, I guess.

    U Doh
    Reply

  17. I would like a spin off with the girls pulling HTT in college and keeping Azu-nyan tagged along. It’d be a shame not to have them do some big concert (even if it’s not the Budokan).

    Shinjiro
    Reply

  20. Ritsu looks absolutely gorgeous with her bangs down in her Juliet outfit.

    LMAO at Juliet’s gravestone being “upgraded” to the Rosetta Stone, while the original one got “downgraded” all the way to the Stone Age. Man, I LOL’ed hard at that.

    And wow, Himeko speaks again! So too does many of Yui’s classmates this episode.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  21. HTT’s concert lasts for 30 minutes, assuming they will play at least 3-4 old songs from Season 1 (heard practicing Fuwa Fuwa Time), and as every song is on average 3-4 minutes, that’ll leave 14-18 minutes for new songs.

    There should hopefully be at least one new song for show next week, but I do wonder if Kyo-Ani would push for 2 new songs like Season 1’s finale, as they won’t be playing the full version on TV anyway, so each new song would last 1.5-2 minutes, more than enough time to squeeze in as much drama as they could fit in before and after the show. (As with Season 1, there’ll also be milking us fans with songs which they’ll release on CD only. )

    Then maybe that’ll leave room for yet one last song for the series finale.

    So Kakifly decides to end on a high, and good for him. K-On will end on a good note and many people (bar the lifeless haters) will remember it fondly, just as Lucky Star has been remembered in the same way.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  22. Sorry for the triple post, my posts were just getting long, so I thought it best to divide them up.

    I think it must have been the excessive sugar from eating too many cakes that the girls were all so hyperactive that night that they couldn’t sleep. LOL
    https://randomc.net/image/K-ON/K-ON!!%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

    Besides Yui’s classmates, even the eccentric girls from the Occult Society got the cute girl treatment by Kyo-Ani.
    https://randomc.net/image/K-ON/K-ON!!%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2033.jpg

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

    1. When I see them mentioning how they made friends with the Occult Club, I have a strong urge demanding for a K-on sim game where, other than playing for the band, you play as one of the Keionbu running around the school interacting and forging relationships with the girls of Class 3-2 as well as members of the other clubs ala Persona; the stronger your bond is, the hotter the band’s popularity and spirit will be.

      MaidNiac
      Reply

  23. One of the better parts for me was Jun seeing the whole gang (including Ui and Nodoka) stuff their faces in the club room and then screaming how unfair all that is to her (which seems to indicate that she is SERIOUSLY regretting not having joined the Light Music Club when Azusa did) http://a.imageshack.us/img185/8771/1d82c5ad.jpg

    And even if this is truly the end for K-ON!, Kakifly stopping here, while the series is at the peak of its popularity, is probably better than going on and having it Jump the Shark in the long run. The haters would have a field day if that were to happen.

    Firelord
    Reply

  24. Why is that good series always end and bad ones don’t know when to….,perhaps the anime industry has an unspoken law that there must be a certain proportion of good and bad series. Well this brings in the argument of what is a good series, but I don’t think many people will doubt that K-on is a good series.

    crazystudyguy
    Reply

    1. well the main problem for K-on continuing is that, as a concept, it always had a built in kill date.

      it’s a high school series.

      sure we all love it.
      sure we’d like it to continue and the idea of their college years and possibly going all the way to pro sounds interesting enough.
      but at the end of the day “K-On” as a concept has an end date built into Yui/Mio/Ritsu/Mugi graduating (unless you want it to continue without them), and it would start to approach silliness to drag out their last year of high school into infinity. if nothing else it would ruin any sense of character development.

      plus for those of you complaining about the lack of performances, if they dragged out their last year even longer, you’d get even fewer performances. they still only have those few yearly events.

      hopefully it will continue in the form of a sequel series based on their later life.

      AnonBob
      Reply

  26. wow a nice episode, quite brief on the play, but next episode’s more interesting! yeah next week, next week…

    now even ricchan becomes more attractive in some other feminine aspect…

    kaineng
    Reply

  28. What I’m sad about is that they missed not one, but TWO chances to show Ritsu’s bangs down (Juliet and sleeping bag) in this episode. I’m disappointed. D:

    Other than that, Mio and Ritsu really did a good job acting for the play. Sleeping over at school with friends seems fun… And cramming for a performance at the last minute always works. Nice.

    akani
    Reply

  29. Dang, another WIN episode :3 So it turns out that Himeko really has a thing or sort of a connection on Yui as how the fans and Pixiv artists depicted her since episode 2. KyoAni really did a great job on the girls of Class 3-2 so well that they make any main characters in other series look like total background characters. Sad thing is K-on! can now be situated with the saying “Good men die earlier.” My only positive hope is that Kakifly will eventually decided to continue it or KyoAni will pick it up and make an “unofficial” sequel like how Toei did Dragon Ball GT.

    Also, I’m kinda disappointed on the serious lack of Ichigo and Fuuko this week :<

    Still an awesome episode, nevertheless. Makes me want to be reborn again to redo my highschool life..

    MaidNiac
    Reply

  31. I really liked, and yes, Ritsu was looking really good with Juliet’s outfit, and Ro-mio(XDDD) too in Ro-mio’s(XDD) outfit:3 haha xD

    well Im really lookin forward to the next episode ^^!

    lol
    Reply

  33. “In case you haven’t heard, the next chapter of the K-ON manga will be the last.”

    “Everything that has a beginning has an end. I see the K-On! manga ending. I see the fan dumb raging. I see death… and Kakifly is all that stands in their way.”

    (Sorry, I had a heavy Matrix binge the past week…)

    Well, I respect Kakifly’s decision to end K-On! while he can (and on a good note). I mean, it’s a better alternative than continuing the series without knowing how to end it…and then have the author suffer an existence failure.

    Besides, a short manga series is something I can afford in the near future…as long as Yen Press doesn’t take too damn long with the release of the official translated version (without Americanizations) and seeing it through to the last damn strip.

    That aside, I’m expecting a very musical episode 20…Show Spoiler ▼

    Incognito
    Reply

  34. seriously, as much as i l0ve k-on,i don’t like for it t0 continue forever..having it end with a bang thru a tearful graduati0n makes it m0re mem0rable..a peek to their c0llege life w0uld be g0od alth0ugh i guess just as a 0ne-sh0t..a spin-0ff is a n0-n0 t0 me..since k-0n w/0 the 4 0riginal girls w0uld be just depressing and dull..i can’t picture k-0n w/o them=( well, that’s what i think..

    YAY! A MITSU HUG!! =3 and ritsu’s s0 CUTE as juliet!

    keiOnDaisuki
    Reply

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