♥ Anime Reviews - K-ON ♥

 

K-On! (けいおん!, Keion!) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip manga written and illustrated by kakifly. The manga was serialized in Houbunsha's seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara between the May 2007 and October 2010 issues. It was also serialized in Houbunsha's magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat. A 13-episode anime adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation aired in Japan between April and June 2009. An additional Original Video Animation episode was released in January 2010. A 26-episode second season, titled K-On!! (with two exclamation marks), aired in Japan between April and September 2010. An anime film adaptation has been announced. The title of the series comes from the Japanese word for light music, keiongaku (軽音楽), but in the Japanese context is similar to pop music .

( Story Reviews )

K-On!'s story revolves around four Japanese high school girls who join their school's light music club to try to save it from being abolished. However, they are the only members of the club, and at first Yui Hirasawa, the main character, has no experience playing musical instrumen or reading sheet music. Eventually, she learns how to be an excellent guitar player. Since then, Yui, bassist Mio Akiyama, drummer Ritsu Tainaka and keyboardist Tsumugi Kotobuki spend their school days practicing, performing, or just hanging out together. The club is overseen by music teacher Sawako Yamanaka, who eventually becomes their homeroom teacher as well during their final year of high school. In their second year of high school, the club welcomes another guitarist, an underclassman named Azusa Nakano. After Azusa joins, they gain more structure and begin to practice more. The story concludes at the end of the third year for the senior members. They all agree to attend the same university after high school and leave the club to Azusa after graduation. Yui's sister, Ui, and their friend Jun both join the club for Azusa's senior year.

( Chara )

Yui Hirasawa (平沢 唯, Hirasawa Yui) 

Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (Japanese) ,Stephanie Sheh (English )

  Yui is the main character of K-On!. She is one of the members of the light music club and plays a Heritage Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar that she nicknames "Gīta" (ギー太). She does not get good grades in school (though when properly coached, she can achieve astounding results) and is easily distracted by trivialities (mainly those deemed cute and adorable). Yui is clumsy and easily spaces out most of the time. She takes a huge liking for any kind of food (she practically never gains weight, which is greatly envied by Mugi, Mio, and Sawako).She has her younger sister Ui, who is the very mature and down-to-earth opposite of Yui, to take care of her and keep herself in line. Yui works extremely hard to get better at playing guitar, which is shown in later chapters. During performances, Yui plays with amazing energy and joy, which usually results in great response from the audience.Yui is the band's main vocalist and lead guitarist and has absolute-pitch—she can tune her guitar perfectly without a tuner, which greatly impresses Azusa, who has played the guitar much longer than Yui.She has a very easy-going nature, but has incredible focus and retention when she has a clear goal in sight; unfortunately this is limited to only one subject at a time, and her other skills deteriorate quickly (for example, Yui is at one point pressed to make up failing test scores, and she quickly brings her math skills up to par while allowing her guitar skills to deteriorate.)Despite all of this, Yui is still devoted to her band and will always practice hard enough for the club. At school, she has become quite admired for her great voice. However, she is known to forget her lyrics in mid-performance as well as overdoing things, making her unable to perform sometimes.Mio was the lead vocalist at first, since Yui could not play the guitar and sing at the same time.Yui is also known to write childish lyrics as Ui has assisted her in creating them . 

 

Ritsu Tainaka (田井中 律, Tainaka Ritsu) 

 Voiced by: Satomi Sato (Japanese), Cassandra Lee (English) 

 Ritsu (or Ricchan, as nicknamed by Yui) is the self-proclaimed president of the light music club and plays a yellow Rick Marotta Signature Yamaha Hipgig drum kit with an add-on floor tom (in the opening credits only) combined with a cymbal set from Avedis Zildjian, though is shown playing a white Yamaha Absolute Series drumkit in the anime's closing credits. She has an ambiguous yet upbeat personality, much like Yui, but often has trouble remembering important club activities and announcements and gets constantly rebuked by Mio and Nodoka for forgetting to send in important forms concerning the club. Ritsu is cheerful, often likes making jokes and is sarcastic most of the time. She is skilled at brainstorming ideas that earn money for the club. She says she chose to play the drums because they are "cool", but she then admits that she has trouble playing instruments which involve intricate finger movements, such as the bass, guitar and keyboard.She is a childhood friend of Mio and will often have the opportunity to tease her whenever she is cowering from something. She is also known to become easily jealous of Mio's other high school friends, even going as far as spying on her when on outings with them. Ritsu is always on the go and will stop at nothing for the success of the light music club. Despite her rough mannerisms and speech, she gets cast as Juliet by the majority of her classmates in their class play rendition of Romeo and Juliet and, in the end, manages to act like a proper girl.In the anime, she states her favorite drummer is Keith moon of  The who.She is skilled at cooking.She has a younger brother named Satoshi (聡, Voiced by: Mika Ito).

Mio Akiyama (秋山 澪, Akiyama Mio) 
Voiced by: Yoko Hikasa (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)

 Mio is a shy girl who is in the light music club and plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz BAss with a tortoishehell pickguard,though is shown playing a Fender Precision Bass in the first manga volume. She uses D'Addario EXL160M medium bass strings.While she originally intended to join the literary club, she was forced into the light music club by her childhood friend and the club's president/drummer, Ritsu.She gets excellent grades in school and is many times mature and strict especially where Ritsu is involved; her weakness is the macabre and horrific, and she is often incapacitated with fear when stories involving ghosts, blood, injuries, haunted houses, barnacles or other disturbing topics come up. She also has a fear of being in the spotlight and gets embarrassed easily, and is often subject to teasing from Ritsu and Sawako, their club adviser and eventual third-year homeroom teacher. She cites that she chose bass since it is not the center of attention in the band, unlike the guitarist. Mio is more technical when it comes to music, and Yui often comes to her when she is in need of more guitar tutorials.Along with Yui, Mio is one of the band's main vocalists, though given her dislike of being center stage, she tries to avoid taking the lead vocal if possible, generally singing if Yui is unable to.She writes most of the songs, although they usually feature some odd and overly girlish lyrics like "Light and Fluffy Time". As she is left-handed, she becomes entranced whenever she sees left-handed instruments, because of their rarity.After their first live performance, the attractive Mio gained a huge fan following (in no small part due to an unfortunate accident that occurred at the end of the show),led by an infatuated former student council president. Also resulting from her sudden popularity, most of her classmates voted that she portray Romeo in their class play.

Tsumugi Kotobuki (琴吹 紬, Kotobuki Tsumugi)

Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki (Japanese), Shelby Lindley (English)

 Tsumugi, often referred to as 'Mugi' by her friends, is a wealthy girl with a gentle and sweet personality who plays a Korg Triton Extreme 76-key keyboard, though she is also seen playing a Korg RK-100 Keytar in the closing credits of the first season. She originally intended to join the choir club, but joins the light music club instead after receiving an invitation and encouragement from both Mio and Ritsu. Tsumugi is considered a piano prodigy since she has been playing the piano since she was four and has experience in winning various piano contests. She is the daughter of a company president, and her family has several villas in various places around Japan (and even one in Finland). Since her father also owns a maid café, she often brings confectionery and an assortment of sweets and pastries to the club room, and she diligently makes tea with a tea set which is kept in their club room. Despite her wealth, she is fascinated by and finds joy in "normal" activities, such as ordering fast food, sharing french fries with her club mates, holding down part-time jobs and haggling over prices.Tsumugi displays a rebellious streak occasionally, diverting from her normally well-behaved and mature demeanor to the surprise of the others.

Although she is a sweet and gentle girl, she is often weirdly entranced by the sight of two girls interacting closely together, sometimes imagining something more risque in her head (both Mio and Ritsu find this awkward at times). The series sometimes indicates that Mugi has a crush on their teacher, Sawako Yamanaka. While a lot of things do not bother her, she is fairly conscious about her weight (just like Mio), and she gets a bit anxious when her family's staff start spoiling her friends during villa visits.She later begins learning how to play the guitar from Azusa.

 

Azusa Nakano (中野 梓, Nakano Azusa) 

Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu

Azusa is a student in the same year and class as Yui's sister Ui, who joins the light music club and becomes the rhythm guitarist, playing a Fender Mustang electric guitar . She is a self-proclaimed novice guitarist who has been playing the guitar since she was in the fourth grade, and her parents are working in a jazz band. She often finds herself bewildered by the tea parties and cosplaying aspects of the club, when she would rather just practice, and is curious about how the club is able to play so well despite their problems and lack of practice. However, she has a certain weakness for cakes and can be calmed down rather easily, sometimes by just being petted. She is constantly a victim of Yui's skinship and is nicknamed Azu-nyan after trying on a pair of cat ears and meowing ("nyan" being the equivalent of "meow" in the Japanese vocabulary). Despite this, Azusa is not too good with cats^.

In the band, she looks up to Mio the most due to her maturity and the fact that she is an experienced bassist, even trying to give Mio chocolate on Valentine's day. However, she sometimes unintentionally makes remarks concerning Mio's weaknesses, such as her weight. She also finds Mugi very beautiful, and envies her hair and large eyes, and later starts teaching her how to play guitar when the two are alone in the club room. Since joining, Yui comes to her for advice on playing guitar, as well as maintenance. She gets a tan extremely easily, once during their time at the beach and another during a music festival (even after applying sunscreen). As a result, she frequently gets sunburned as well. She gets lonely very easily, and often worries that everyone in the club will leave her, as they are one year older and eventually will graduate. Due to this, the rest of the girls buy her a turtle to look after, naming it Ton. Outside of the band, she often hangs out with Ui and Jun whenever the other girls are busy.When the others graduate, she becomes the new light music club president.  ^{( 2nd Chara )}  Sawako Yamanaka (山中 さわ子, Yamanaka Sawako)  Voiced by:Asami Sanada

 Sawako is the adviser for the wind instrumen club at the girls' school. An alumna of the school and a member of the light music club in her student days, she does not want people to find out that she was formerly a member of not only a heavy metal band, but a death metal band called Death Devil (of which she was both lead guitar and vocalist and went by the stage name of "Katherine"), thus she covers up by being mild and gentle to her coworkers and especially to students. She is forced to be the adviser of the light music club, as Ritsu blackmails her after the girls learn of her past. However, she is able to juggle being the adviser for the wind instrument club as well, even as the story progresses. Though she has a mature and gentle demeanor in the school, Sawako (affectionately addressed as "Sawa-chan" by both Ritsu and Yui) displays a totally different, completely authentic character when she is alone with the light music club. In reality, she is rather wild, lazy, and is quite an irresponsible teacher who enjoys dressing up the light music club in (sometimes embarrassing) cosplay costumes (like French maid uniforms), much to the dismay of Mio.She gets a thrill out of the rare moments where she is praised for her work.

She names the club band "Ho-kago Tea Time" after the members take too long deciding on a name themselves. In the anime, she once pitches in for Yui with her white Epiphone "1958" Korina Flying V electric guitar.She becomes the girls' homeroom teacher in their third year, and puts Nodoka and all the band members (except Azusa, since she is a grade lower) in the same class, so she does not have to remember as many names. An episode in the second anime season reveals that she owned one of the first Gibson SG models (from around 1960 with a custom stoptail bridge) which is later sold. Due to her relation to the club members, the other students in her class start to call her Sawa-chan as well, ruining her image as a mild-mannered teacher. Her image is further ruined after Death Devil is temporarily reunited at a wedding reception for a high school alumnus. Regardless, her popularity with the students remains unchanged. In spite of her laziness, she still proves herself to be an able mentor, as shown by her willingness to coach Yui as the lead singer and attending their performances. Her music abilities apparently have not dulled over the years, as she is able to substitute for Yui at the school festival at almost no notice without the assistance of a music score, even without any prior practicing of the band's song. Sawako is also very perceptive: she immediately sees through Ui's disguise when she impersonates her sister and on several occasions boasts to the club that there is nothing she cannot see.

 

Ui Hirasawa (平沢 憂, Hirasawa Ui)

Voiced by: Madoka Yonezawa

 Ui is Yui's younger sister, who begins the story as a third-year junior high school student, but later enters Yui's high school the following year in the same class as Azusa. Unlike her older sister, Ui is mature, responsible, and handles household chores well, though she still shares a strong relationship with Yui and has a great deal of love and respect for her older sister. Despite being a year younger than Yui, she is nearly identical to her with her hair down and is even once able to fool the club. She plays the organ, and is also a fast learner, able to learn playing the guitar after a few days' practice. She takes particularly good care of Yui and strives to look after her even at the risk of her own health. Ui is actually considered as the ultimate groupie for her sister's band and supports them with all her heart and occasionally provides a narrative to the story. She eventually joins the light music club along with Jun at the end of the series.

 

 Nodoka Manabe (真鍋 和, Manabe Nodoka)

Voiced by: Chika Fujitō

 Nodoka is Yui's childhood friend and confidant who is a member of the school's student council. As a normal, well-mannered and intelligent girl, she is generally taken aback by the light music club's odd behavior, and easily gets annoyed with Ritsu whenever she forgets to fill in the club's application forms. She shares the same class as Mio in their second year, who appreciates her companionship tremendously, she being the only person Mio knows in her class. In her third year, she becomes the student council president and is also in the same class as the other third year club members. She gradually becomes the president of Mio's fan club through unknown circumstances (possibly out of her control), even when she originally turned down the position. Nodoka chooses to go to a national university as opposed to the same college as Yui and the others.

 

 Jun Suzuki (鈴木 純, Suzuki Jun)

Voiced by: Yoriko Nagata

 

 Jun is Azusa's and Ui's classmate who often hangs out with the latter. Ui tries to get her to join the light music club but ultimately fails due to a strange visit to the club room. She instead plays a Yamaha Sbv500 bass in the jazz club and is one of Mio's admirers. However, she starts to regret not joining the light music club when she hears about all the activities they do and eventually joins the light music club at the end of the series. She has a pet cat.

 

Megumi Sokabe (曽我部 恵, Sokabe Megumi)

Voiced by: Asumi Kodama

 Megumi was the president of the student council before Nodoka succeeded her in her third year, and she is also the president of Mio's fan club, who is later succeeded by Nodoka. She stalks Mio during her last few days in high school because she wanted to see Mio one more time. The band offers her a song as a graduation gift. She later becomes friends with Ritsu, mentioning she is at the same university the others intend to go to.