K-On!

A fresh high school year always means much to come, and one of those things is joining a club. Being in a dilemma about which club to join, Yui Hirasawa stumbles upon and applies for the Light Music Club, which she misinterprets to be about playing simple instruments, such as castanets. Unable to play an instrument, she decides to visit to apologize and quit.

Meanwhile, the Light Music Club faces disbandment due to a lack of members. This causes the club members to offer anything, from food to slacking off during club time, in order to convince Yui to join. Despite their efforts, Yui insists on leaving due to her lack of musical experience. As a last resort, they play a piece for Yui, which sparks her fiery passion and finally convinces her to join the club.

From then onward, it is just plain messing around with bits and pieces of practice. The members of the Light Music Club are ready to make their time together a delightful one!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hirasawa, Yui Main

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Akiyama, Mio Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Nakano, Azusa Main

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Kotobuki, Tsumugi Main

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Tainaka, Ritsu Main

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Hirasawa, Ui Supporting

Yonezawa, Madoka Japanese

Yamanaka, Sawako Supporting

Sanada, Asami Japanese

Manabe, Nodoka Supporting

Fujitou, Chika Japanese

Suzuki, Jun Supporting

Nagata, Yoriko Japanese

Tainaka, Satoshi Supporting

Itou, Mika Japanese

Hatta, Youko Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Tafu, Naohiro Producer

Sgroi, Victor Assistant Producer

Reviews

Feb 6, 2025

Marine_Virus

Recommended

My favourite anime of all time, and it definitely is never changing, ever.

Of course, we all know Kyoto Animation is just spectacular with their work. To bring a simple 4koma to life and make it such a masterpiece, to me, is one of their greatest deeds.

I think the entire cast is honestly great, they all compliment each other well and have super cute interactions with each other, really nobody you can dislike.

The music, is, of course really good. It's a band anime, so of course.

Honestly, this anime 100% revolutionized band anime and is just so, SO amazing. The moe moments hit, the serious moments hit, ... the sad moments hit.

Thank you K-ON, thank you Ho-kago Tea Time and thank you KyoAni for this masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 25, 2025

Apolitox

Mixed Feelings

K-ON is a popular 'CGDCT' show: “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things”. Some people may think that this kind of shows are like sugar, because it makes you feel nice and is easy to digest: Then it could be like 'sugar'…? Of course, everyone likes sugar… but i’m comparing sugar with art, with anime. The anime is not sugar. Watching CGDCT is still better than sugar: eating sugar deteriorate your system, but the CGDCT only makes your heart happy. Still, the mere fact of putting cute girls in anime doesn´t mean it’s a quality work. Saying this… is K- ON a good or bad CGDCT? It ... deserves the popularity it has?

In 'K-ON', a group of girls makes a band at their school because they like music as a 'hobby'. The girls doesn´t take too seriously the matter: sometimes they do music, but other times they are doing anything. Therefore, we can assume the production wants to do the show likeable by the moe… but this show has an extra element: the “priming effects”. Many productions uses them to their favor, in order to create an effect of positive or negative reactions, depending of the intentions.

The story and plot of K-ON isn´t so special: as i said, girls spending time together and enjoying life. Possibly, you could feel a boredom just by seeing this, but the priming effects play and important role here… and i still felt bored sometimes, lol. Regardless of that, the characters are simple but i found Ritsu especially funny in personality, she is cheerful and makes the environment enjoyable. She has good chemistry with Yui. They have a nice synergy: Yui shines when Ritsu shines and viceversa. Yui also has some good jokes individually. The interactions and some jokes can do the show enjoyable, but the entire anime is just the girls wasting their time together.

The priming effects can´t determine the quality of a show overall, but the subjective perception of the show. Being aware of this, i recognize that K-ON isn´t just an entirely typical anime moe, but it doesn´t bring something special to the media. Except for…?


---THIS IS SPOILER (BE AWARE)---

K-ON is the anime that defines the term “CGDCT” in its fullest. In the show, the 'Fuwa Fuwa Time' is a reference to those moments that seems like nothing relevant it’s happening, but the relevant things are actually happening in your subconscious and chest: a heart-warmth feeling. These are the “soft and fluffy” feelings.

Those soft and fluffy moments of the Fuwa Fuwa Time ' explode' in chapter “6”, min. 18:22 (6 = Heart, 18 = 666, 22 = the most powerful master number). The anime is going directly to your heart more than you rational perception: it’s the definition of the CGDCT in all rule. Also, the ending song "Don't say lazy" has a meaning: it justifies the laziness of the girls, doing a statement about what the series can offer on the simple things.

(Six episodes later: chapter 12 – min. 19:22, the girls are playing another “Fuwa Fuwa Time”. 19 is meaningful because is when Yui do the double signal of “love and peace” in chapter 6, min – 19:19… and when Yui says “Fuwa Fuwa Time” in chapter 12, min 19:19).

So, this anime isn´t just popular for no reason or just because it’s an anime of moe girls: The priming effects are like a booster that helps a show. Those priming effects are “neutral”, because even when they can manage your mind or feelings, they aren´t doing it for a “dark” purpose… except until chapter 11 arrives.

Yes, chapter “11”… the most important/relevant episode in plot terms… i don´t like this episode. The episode is mixed with priming effects but in a “negative” way. The negative effect has the dark purpose i was talking about: The episode almost makes me hate Ritsu… but why?

The word “10GIA” (LOGIA = Masonic lodge, min. – 6:27… 6 + 27 = 33) and “COBRA” (min. – 9:50… 9 + 5 = 14) appears here, and Ritsu starts to have rude and annoying behaviors, opposed to her previous cheerful and joyful personality, it’s disgusting. The drama in chapter 11 is forced, and the “mature” climax plot twist is deceiving. The deceiving moment happens when Ritsu shows and eye (min - 17:51… 1 + 7 + 5 + 1 = 14) and we see a pyramid above her. The emotional scene starts on “18:22”… here is the trap: the spectator can be surprised by the plot twist, but the disease is the deviated attention of the problem, instead of the real nature of the plot device, which was originated when Ritsu feels depressed and had a friction with her friend: this is a manipulative technique and the resolution isn´t honest.

If you´re somehow confused, read the next post for more information... "K-ON! episode 11 – Ritsu, why so serious?": https://rabbitpoets.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/k-on-episode-11-ritsu-why-so-serious/

For some reason, Yui suffers the same disease in the next chapter, when she is going to sing the Fuwa Fuwa song. Remember that scene in chapter 6, when Ritsu is doing a performance presentation with the band? That happens in min. “14:00”… and in min. “14:11”, Ritsu starts with Yui. That cognitive dissonance can affect the perception of the plot, alienated with the priming effects. Ritsu actions seems contradictory: she is no more the cheerful and charismatic girl, she is now the annoying and rude girl… then, here is a question: why Ritsu is the least favorite character for the fans of the five girls in “MyAnimeList”, even when she is the leader of the band? A simple coincidence...?

The anime doesn´t try to overdramatize another chapter before or later. The episode 11 is like a rock in the shoe... but at least, the anime doesn´t take too seriously the rest of episodes.

---END OF THE SPOILER---


My enjoyment for this anime was relative: nothing special, but nothing bad (except for that chapter). I like when the girls are playing music, but they are very laaaaazzzzzzyyyyyy… but not crazy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 3, 2023

Phasar2022

Not Recommended

Funny

The way I look at things, getting children into music is never a bad thing, it gives them something to focus on, enhances the brain and can be a future for some, be it as a musician or any of the jobs with a musical need. Well at least thats before starting K-On, some ways should't be used to get kids into music, especially when it dumbs it down to the lowest level.

Story - 2/10

Even though the show sells itself as a music/band show, a majority of the time it's a slice of life/school show, with just a bit of musical talk in-between.

It's not a ... complicated story. Girls enter their freshman year of high school, start a music club and become a band, yeah kinda sums up the whole first season. The reason you can sum up the whole season in few words is the lack of detail or story put into it. In twelve episodes two full years pass, most series don't get a full year done in a full twenty four episode run. Because of this they never dwell on much besides the same repeated gags, heck they apparently had so little content they pretty much repeated two episodes and had a semi-recap episode at the end. The only time I felt they cared about the story was the winter break bonus episode.

More than anything the reason I just had to give the series such a low score is the unrealistic take they have on music. Within a few weeks of getting her guitar, Yui can't really play chords, but she can shred like the best metal musicians, not to mention she has no idea of the other basic components of playing or keeping a guitar. Well maybe there can be one genius who picks up the hardest art that quickly (outside the fact it takes time just to build dexterity to allow you to move so fast) but later in the series her sister Ui mention's holding Yui's guitar a couple times and that alone was enough for her to be a great guitarist. It sets a terrible standard for people who watch the show and want to pick up an instrument. If they feel it was supposed to be so easy, but now they can't play after months, they'll just give up, not realizing it can take years to just be decent. Instead of plowing through two years, shorten the time span but add Yui taking lessons, learning different things or at least just make a her an average player until later in the series.

Animation - 4/10

The pilot episode's animation was all over the place. There was a joke, and a liberal attitude towards, the animation in FLCL and I think these guys took it as a serious way of doing things. There's points when within a scene the animation style would change rapidly, not even waiting for a change or a transition of changing rooms. It could be attributed to using many different key animators in order to get the episode finished, but it was just very jarring and throws you off right at the start.

Things settled down in future episodes and everything started to flow much better, so there is a plus in them getting their act together. Throughout you can see an inspiration from shows like FLCL and Excel Saga, but it just didn't work here. The two shows mentioned are comedies, but they are created for a wide audience with elements of actions, drama and comedy. K-On is a comedy but it seems singularly focused on one demographic, particularly ten to fourteen year old females, so the already cutesy look doesn't need to be enhanced with the chibi looks and wacky faces, or at least not to the degree they did.

As a musician I was always going to nitpick the equipment used, but after that train wreck of a first episode I would have been happy with proper shapes for the instruments, boy was i wrong. When they walked in the music store I was shocked how they got so many instruments correct and to a high detail that was amazing. Between the guitars, amps and drum sets seen in the show, you can see they spent months researching and drawing these items alone.

Sound - 5/10

The music for the show is both decent and terrible at the same time. While the music itself isn't that bad, the lyrics to the opening and closing are horrible. They'd probably make anyone who listened to it a feminist, because the lyrics just make girls out to be morons who want to shop and chase boys. I can understand the lyrics to band's songs being this way, as they are suppose to be from the perspective of the young girls, but the opening and closing songs aren't, heck unlike the songs within the series these two songs even have terrible melodies. The songs the girls are suppose to write have a pretty good sound to them, but again terrible lyrics, but I can let that pass as it seems intentional. One shining star in their song catalog is Fuwa Fuwa Time (I believe that's the one i'm thinking of) which sounds like an Andrew W.K. song but with females singing it.

The voices aren't so bad either. They're cutesy, but they match the girls pretty well and never get to the point you want to shut the show off because of them. Out of all the girls I'd have to say the best voice was that of Tsumugi, they picked a voice that sounded very authentic for the character, but somewhat out of the norm for Anime shows, where every voice is so stylized. The actors did a really good job with the range of emotions they had to put in for each character, it would have just been cool to see if they could do the song lyrics in english too, as they did with the show Beck.

There are very few minor characters or even one off characters to rate, but the fact they were able to keep each girl distinctive might have been helped by that, limiting the doubling up on voice actors and leaving out many other characters in an all girls school that would have to sound somewhat similar.

Characters - 5/10

The characters are pretty run of the mill and due to the speed in which the series passes we don't learn much, but still there's room to grow and that counts for something.

For the whole series there are only eight characters and two or three minor characters. The band consists of Yui, the previously mentioned solo prodigy who can't play simple things on the guitar, who's also a bit of an imbecile. They try to cover her playing and out of the blue perfect test by saying "once she sets her mind to it she'll do anything" but it's a cop out. Ritsu plays drums and is also a bit of moron. Her (Ritsu's) friend from grammar school, Mio, plays bass and is afraid of basically everything. Tsumugi shares the spotlight as the pretty girl (along with Mio) who also comes from an enormously rich family, she's oblivious to the real world and a complete stereotype of dumb rich people. Later in the season underclassman Azusa joins the band as a second guitarist, she's pretty normal and just wants to play her best.

Rounding out the main characters are Nodoka, Yui's childhood friend and member of the student council, she's everything Yui isn't. Yui's sister Ui, who is basically the same character as Nodoka but bubbly, she acts like the mother at home and takes care of Yui. FInally theres Ms. Yamanaka, possibly the most fully developed character in the series, we actually learn about her past, her likes and other little things about her life.

Again I would have loved for them to just develop the characters over a year's time instead of two, but instead we just got many many copies of things we've seen before.

Overall - 5/10

I came in having high hopes for the series, I love being a musician and as I said I think shows geared towards kids that push music are great for growing the art form. But instead we got a fourth rate school show with a little bit of the life here and there. I wouldn't have been as disappointed if it was just marketed as a school show, but they pushed the music angle then ran from it. After each episode I did want to get on to the next, but part of me thinks it was in hopes it would be different.

It's a cute show, just not a rewatch type of show.

With a second season and movie still here for the viewing I hope the series gets back to it's intended path, the bonus episode was a good start, but this show easily strays.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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