Wow, is it me or am I actually blogging on anime again? Wait, I don’t really care. Or maybe you don’t. Whatever.

I’m at episode 5 of K-ON! now and I am starting to think that KyoAni’s doing some shameless advertising with the latest addition to the list – a pair of AKG headphones. All this for what? Boost their show ratings or get Mio-driven otakus to purchase some Fenders and AKG headphones? The latter would probably make me lol really hard.

Anyway, why not we look at the band members and figure out if the plot makes some sense.

Yui Hirasawa (Gu)
The most klutzy girl I have ever seen on any anime series. Looking at this trait, it might seem that she would be the one where decent character development would be good enough to promote the guitarist. But no, being a klutz seems to be able to generate Yui’s latent guitar skillz within her. Just after 3 months of practicing and she can already play a solo and play it by ear too. At episode 2, I would have thought that Yui would still face some difficulty with learning the guitar. However, it would seem the only difficulty that Yui has now is coping school work with the club activities.

Mio Akiyama (Ba)
The bassist of the band and very clearly, the most popular girl in K-ON! as seen from the massive amounts of Mio fanart all over image boards like danbooru. Not only can Mio play the bass, give super tuition, she also has a very high chance of working as a part-time maid! Basically, Mio is a very organised girl who follows her plans meticulously. She is also very shy and can be sensitive to certain things: barnacles and bleeding fingers etc. Somehow, Mio reminds me of Asahina Mikuru from SHnY. I can sense a strong resemblance there. It’s not just the boobs, trust me. MOE MOE KYUN!~

Ritsu Tainaka (Dr)
President of the keion club; her purpose of creating such a club was to perform a live at the Budokan when she and her childhood companion, Mio, decided to form a band one day. Being a very outspoken person, Ritsu is the one who usually makes the most noise and most of the time, she’s the one responsible for Mio’s funny moments. It is interesting to look at how Ritsu interacts with her band mates, especially with Mio. I would call her an entertainer if I must.

Tsumugi Kotobuki (Pf)
Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, aren’t those thick eyebrows something? Tsumugi or Mugi for short, is the keybaordist of the band and she would be the most richest girl in the band. Maybe that’s where all the funding come from. Which also might explain all the instruments in the music room or were they all their own intsruments, except for Yui’s gift? I can’t remember and I am too lazy to rewatch. ^^; Though I wonder what may Mugi’s real reason for joining the club without much hesitation, I might add. Afterall, she did mention that she intended to join the Choir. Perhaps KyoAni just wanted to find someone who could cover plot holes. Pft. Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mugi would be the vocalist in one of the episodes.

And now, I’ll try to make as much sense as possible of the storyline so far.

Once upon a time, a girl named “Yui” didn’t know how to read an analog clock and thought she was late for her first day of high school life, blah blah blah… She was clueless as to what club she should join until she saw a poster that wanted a guitarist for this keion club but she thought the picture of a guitar was actually a pair of castanets. “Un-tan!” she went and she soon found herself with a Gibson and 3 new friends who apparently are quite adept with their own instruments. The pressie, Ritsu wanted the band to perform live at the Budokan but before that, something short-term to aim for – to perform live at the Sakura festival or something. However, with Yui being the weakest link, she made incredible progress with her guitar playing in 3 months, especially during the bikini training camp, considering that she is a total klutz. Blah blah blah… And at the end of episode 5, the girls are left with just 3 days to their debut. Oh and, they have gotten themselves an awesome advisor for their club.

Great summary, eh?

Okay. I think the money/funding issue of the band has been solved thanks to Mugi and her eye brows. Yay! Still, I find the plot somewhat mad even though K-ON! is a “slice of life” anime. Yeah, I do know the bands ultimate goal is to perform at the Budokan one day but I feel the character developments could go a few beats slower. The “tempo” is kind of too fast for my tastes. The comical parts are fine and K-ON! hasn’t gone beyond moe-overload for me, which is good – too many cooks can spoil the broth. I just hope that the role of the vocalist won’t be something interchangable between Yui and Mio. Then it’ll be like something similar to P’unk-en-Ciel, where the members of L’Arc-en-Ciel switch roles to form an alter-ego band.

As for the band itself, do they actually have a band name for their own, you know, like the GazettE or something? I mean they say that they are from the keion club. But that’s just a club right? If more members would’ve joined the club, there would be more bands, am I right to say so? Just wondering.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 am and is filed under Anime, K-ON!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.