First Impressions / K-ON!

Mouse over screenshots for captions
 
Summary
Yui finally starts practicing her two-point-five-thousand dollar guitar… but stops because the guitar strings are too hard and hurt her delicate fingers. Mio offers her own delicate fingers to Yui, who massage them like it’s some ketchup packet. I told you this was a hand fetish anime, but noooo you had to miss my point and link to some unflattering pics.

Wait, what did I say about practice? It’s time for midterms! Naturally, Yui bombs the test and has to retake it – with one caveat – if she doesn’t pass the retake, she can’t participate in club activities – which means the K-ON club will be down to 3 people – which isn’t enough to meet the 4-person minimum. Oh no!

Elsewhere, Ritsu gets an 89 (?!), and Mio and Mugi get such gaudy scores that they’re not even shown.

At home, Yui needs to study! After she cleans her room, of course. Then messes around on the guitar. Oh crap, look at the time! Gotta go to sleep.

The next time, K-ON no minnasan sends Yui some encouraging text messages.

And the next night, Yui gets herself a 5-minute concentration book. Which she loses concentration in reading after 5 seconds. Mio-sensei, save us!

Which sounds like a good excuse to finally get some quality imouto pimping in. Turns out the imouto’s name is “Ui” – which was actually said in the previous ep, but I thought it was just Yui making some of her moe utterings. What’s up with these weird KyoAni names lately? Ui? Ushio?

Anyways, Ui completely blows everyone away with her awesome responsibleness. Soon afterwards, they get to working! Ritsu gets bored instantly, and after her attempts at getting attention fail (including a poke at Yui’s kawaii feet), she’s kicked out by Mio.

Yui finally finishes for the time being, and while eating delicious caek, Nodoka shows up with delicious sandwihces, which is more of an excuse to get six girls around the table and talk about girly shit. Kinda surprised they didn’t play truth or dare or start hitting each other with pillows.

In the final nighttime study session, Yui drifts off to sleep as Mio is jabbering on about x’s and y’s – and dreams about esikmos. Which is actually an excuse to hear Yui’s muttering cries. Awkward.

And somehow, Yui finishes. The next day, she takes her test…

And gets… 100?!
 
Preview

Up next on K-ON!: Is Yui finally going to practice?
 
Thoughts
In all seriousness, this was a pretty boring episode that burned a lot of the momentum built up in the first two eps. I’ve even relegated myself to talking about Lucky Star again, which is probably a pretty good indicator of the ho-hum status of this one. I might make a lot of excuses for something I like, but there’s no blind fanboying here, bitches!

At any rate, I guess it was still a necessary ep in terms of plot development, but so far the show has the slow-paced feel of a 26 epper, not one slated for 13. One wonders if they will have time to fit in the beach ep, the onsen ep, the ohnodrama! ep AND the inevitable concert ep all in one season.

My main complaint about this episode is that there were a lot of extraneous things done seemingly for the sole reason of inciting a “omg that’s so moe” response. Sure, the first two eps did it a lot too, but it’s not like they were going out of their way to do it. Pacing and flow – it just didn’t quite work as well in this one for some reason.

And what’s with the shimai dichotomy? Seems like with ever set of sisters in the KyoAni canon, one is useless and super cute while the other one is amazingly responsible and super hot. You’d think if you have twins the attraction is that they’re exactly the same, but somehow by making them polar opposites and equally awesome is even better.

Mio or Ui? Clear choice for me is still Mio – Ui is too perfect to be appreciated.

note: Haruhi-chan and Nyoron are dropped! – got a full time job

Guitar tabs to OP/ED for Guitar Pro 5 HERE – thanks pakxenon!

64 Comments

  5. It was the best out of the 3 so far (agree with Hallyo), and I normally never watch a show like this. It was funny and you got a bit more development. Pacing was fine and the story didn’t stray.

    Sent
    Reply

  6. Just for the record, Yui and Ui are not twins. Ui is one year younger than Yui.

    Anyway, I think KyoAni has really overplayed Yui’s brainlessness. They seem to be trying to stretch things out to one chapter an episode, perhaps so they can culminate in the concert, but it’s requiring them to throw in a lot of extra stuff. And it’s making Yui come off a lot stupider than she does in the manga.

    Wanderer
    Reply

  10. It was enjoyable. Nothing deep and the only real character moments were found in the way that Yui has a one-track mind. Hilarious because I know someone in real life who can’t hold more than one idea in their head at once, but when they hold that idea, they become really good at it.

    zzeroparticle
    Reply

  11. “My main complaint about this episode is that there were a lot of extraneous things done seemingly for the sole reason of inciting a “omg that’s so moe” response. Sure, the first two eps did it a lot too, but it’s not like they were going out of their way to do it.”

    AHAHAH

    Name (required)
    Reply

  13. Not that I didn’t enjoy the ep, but I felt it was less interesting than the first two, myself. Still love all the characters, though. Mio’s fear that Yui will fail makes her testy, then gets her to buckle down and tutor her. Yui’s silliness almost ruins things, but she buckles down in time and shows others and herself her true ability.

    hashi
    Reply

  16. Yui and Ui remind me of Tenma and Yakumo from School Rumble – one-year-apart, the older sister a ditz, the younger the responsible one who’s good at games.

    I can’t wait for the concert episode, already. I don’t even have a clue how it’ll be excecuted, but I can feel in my heart that it’ll be epic…and can see the comparisons to the concert scene in Haruhi already…

    Also, “it’s not like they were going out of their way” with the moe stuff? Are you SERIOUS? This show is 100-percent blatant, in-your-face-and-down-your-throat moe and nothing but it. I knew it would be like that just from watching the OP. Anyone who has watched one minute, any minute of it knows it. The writers know it. It’s intentional. It’s the show’s gimmick.

    And it works for me; everyone is so cuuute. ♥

    Story
    Reply

  19. “My main complaint about this episode is that there were a lot of extraneous things done seemingly for the sole reason of inciting a “omg that’s so moe” response.”

    That pretty much sums the series up for me. If you take away the moe element that people are going gaga over, you’re left with a bog standard slice of life show, IMO.
    Obviously there are people who love that sort of stuff, but that genre doesn’t really appeal to me unless it has something other to offer.
    Haruhi and Lucky Star had that, but this show seems to lack that part from Mio, who you can’t help but love. If it wasn’t for her caharacter than I probably would have dropped the show by now, but I’m still chugging along waiting something series defining to happen.

    blinx01
    Reply

  30. first all names in this were in the manga not Kyoani’s fault, second they went though 2 chapters of the manga in this one (the first 2 eps were only 1 chapter) so I think they are going to start moving slightly faster, the next couple chapters they will really start to practice and get a club adviser so it should be good.

    Raso
    Reply

  31. Although there were some references that I didn’t understand I really really liked this episode. I try not to think too far into things when watching a series like this. It was just plain enjoyable.

    Samurai Pumpkin
    Reply

  32. Since this is slice of life comedy show of girls, it’s natural to look like Lucky Star, because girls are always like that.

    I guess when the ongoing re-broadcasting of Haruhi gets new episodes, they should be covered(I heard broadcaster said they would get 20-something episodes this time so there will be new ones, a lot of them).

    calde
    Reply

  34. Hmm… Although the episode did seem to move things along slowly, it did all at least make sense all things considered… well, all except that eskimo thing which was just totally random. I mean, it was amusing and all, but amusing in a “WTH?!?” kind of way. The finger squeezing “puni-puniii!!” thing was at least random in a way that you just think “yep, that’s so like Yui.”

    Hm… Ritsu doing judo? She charged into the room with that mae ukemi (though not a full mae kaiten ukemi)…

    DeadMonkeys
    Reply

  36. That pretty much sums the series up for me. If you take away the moe element that people are going gaga over, you’re left with a bog standard slice of life show, IMO.

    PUNI! PUNI!

    Roy Mustang
    Reply

  38. I probably can understand why Jaalin would dropped blogging Churuya and Haruhi-chan. To blog on a 5 min short episode, the effort and time taken just seem excessive when it can be better used to improve your thoughts on a standard 30 min show. I would think it takes almost the same time to blog an episode of one 5 min show as a 30min show, trying to find screenshots or writing uo your thoughts and summaries.

    Anime Junkie
    Reply

  44. I personally love this show more than Lucky Star by leaps and bounds. Lucky Star was TOO 4-coma. It was more so that it didn’t even really have a main story. Don’t get me wrong, I like 4-coma but in an anime I would rather it be something like Minami-ke where there’s actually some story-line per ep. I especially like K-ON! because I have a Yamaha keyboard as well as a Fender mini strat. I put down the guitar many years ago because of money problems. But after watching this I remembered why I had picked it up in the first place, to make a band and to just jam. And though I’m out of my High School years I still have college. I also found out my child hood friend is coming from LA to attend the university here, and shes a sick drummer. Now I’m saving up to buy a new guitar (mini strat is too rusty and the necks of a mini are too damn thin and the frets have even smaller spacing) so I can practice and get better.

    So this anime is not only fun to watch but it also made me get back into playing the guitar (as well as my keyboard). So really I have to thank KyoAni for making such a wonderful series (haven’t read the manga, what’s so good about a manga about music if there isn’t any?)

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
    Reply

  49. hrm… I actually liked this episode :P, puni puni fingers got me xD, never seen that before EVER…

    also it’s easy to relate to Yui if your a procrastinator (NO WAY O_O!)

    oh oh but the biggest disappointment I have right now is the lack of…

    eyebrows… they should focus more on THOSE CERTAIN EYEBROWS O_O… bushy bushy… bushy……. bushy….

    @pooper
    em thats normal… lots of people have toes like that, not all but lots…

    Putang
    Reply

  51. Honestly, I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the others. At least I laughed a lot more than in the others. Especially when Yui keeps breaking concentration to play the guitar. The way they showed it was just so random. ^_^

    masamune111
    Reply

  52. puni puni~ :3
    i was entertained and therefore there is nothing big to complain about.
    thought, it’s difficult to talk oder discuss something, if there is nothing to complain about, that’s why most of us make up some random stuff…meh

    tomtom
    Reply

  53. i liked this episode as well, and i found that foot thing real funny for some reason, maybe because no one ever does that. when your foot falls asleep, and it gets all ‘tingly’ i guess. i really really hate that. but it is funny when other people exploit that for no reason whatsoever.

    GGear0323
    Reply

  57. OMG First of let me say i read this blog every now and then for some udates on my anime.

    Now for the main purpose of this post.

    OMG THANK YOU FOR THE TABS T^T I’ve been searching for nearly a week >..<

    thanks once again

    Ex14
    Reply

  58. The fulls to the OP/ED are awethome! Listening to them, I’m beginning to prefer “Cagayake!”, as a song, over “Lazy”. Sweet Bitter Beauty Song is pretty cool, too.

    Meery
    Reply

  64. OH MAN.
    This show is awesome. Every time when I watch it I’m thinking: Mio-Kagami, Yui-Tsukasa, Mugi-Miyuki, Ritsu-Konata. It brings back memories!

    Oh, and the “PIIII!” and “Kramer” captions made me ROFL.

    :D
    Reply

Leave a Reply

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