neko’s thinkbox

Yes, Ritsu. They are guitars. You deserve a cookie.

After hearing all this whoop-la about K-ON!, I broke down and actually waste some time watching. I went into this session with some sad misconception that this was a show about a J-pop girl group, all emotional and over-dramatized, and their struggles to be accepted as real people, find love etc… not actual musicians trying to form a coherent act and to not suck.

I was quite into K-ON by about the second episode, and fanboy obsessed couldn’t stop watching by the fifth (quite much so that I spent 2 DAYS watching the series over and over, just so all that is K-ON would permeate my skill). A great OP (albeit a bit too… moe) and an even better ED (loved the music video idea) made sure that by the end, Don’t say Lazy and Cagayake! GIRLS were stuck in my head (sadly enough, I learned both on guitar). The story is was very cute, and OMG Azu-nyan.Too… cute…

Now, here’s where I go off into the deeper parts of my brain. As I watched the show, I started recollecting my days in high school when I spent all my time playing in bands., and how, with a mix of sadness, melancholy and humor, how the gloriousness of K-ON paralleled all of it.

First, I can remember trying to actually form a coherent band, and much like Ritsu and Mio (mostly Ritsu), went about it in almost terrifying ways (black mail, bribery, press-gangs, etc). Trust me when I say this: trying to form a band at 14 or 15 is NOT easy.

Oh wait. I suppose now would be a good time to put myself into K-ON, if K-ON was my High School band. Take Ritsu. Make her a 6-foot-1, 215 pound male with blond hair, blue eyes and instead of a Yamaha Hip-Gig, Sit her behind either a Tama Swingstar or another, lesser knownWhatever works. brand… either way, I only play Yamaha when the situation calls for it.. But you have to keep the attitude, approach to practice and love (and ability to eat large quantities) of food the same. That’s Me.Me. At Christmas. I’ll sign your autographs later. I really don’t play drums much now (unless the money is good), but I can still play just as good as I could in my heyday… wait. before tl;dr kicks in, I’ll continue.

Much like After School Tea Time, the composition in my school band (named Hard to Think) was very similar.
-Make Mugi a rhythm guitarist and a dude. Same hair, attitude, everything, as my rhythm guitarist. Even down to loving the Les Yay things of life ^[1]
-Mio as a man, and bass player is done. Hair and all. Even the underwear. This guy was a freak.
-Yui… make her 6-foot-4, male and short curly black hair. Keep the wight the same, and that was our lead guitar/singer. Much the same singing voice too.
-I was me.

So, there we were. Practicing in the school’s music room after school almost every day. And by practicing, I mean playing 2 songs and then dicking around/skateboarding/chasing girls until we went home. That was life in high school for me. Although, we had modest success (Local shows at clubs, a small tour), we went nowheres fast as a group, and went our separate ways.

So, if K-ON was all men, that’s us.
—

What really got me about K-ON, outside of the connection I got between them and my old band was how every little detail (fights over band name, lyrical content, shows etc) are very true to life. I’m sure that if any of you were in a band, you can remember the first show, or the first set of original lyrics. I can. And yes, choosing a band name is that hard, and comical.

I do wish that the series could have continued, showing the rest of high school, maybe even a recording session, a real public performance, maybe even fame. I can only cross my fingers for a continuation of this awesome show. ^[2]

Now, the other side of the fence.

As a CD producer ^[3], and having seen many bands in my day (from fruition to failure), I’ll say this: It is IMPOSSIBLE for someone as clueless as Yui to just buy a guitar and that good in months. I don’t care about arguments; I’ve been playing guitar for almost 15 years, and believe me, it took me more than 5-6 months to get where she is implied to be at (on stage anyways). Also, Hip-Gigs never sound that good.

I also love how in depth the instrument animations are. I’ve owned (acually, own) A Les Paul and a Jazz Bass (and have owned a Mustang) and can say that I instantly knew what they where, and never had to guess. Kudos to whomever animated the drum sequences. They were actually convincing.

In order from left to right: Nodoka (LP), Shizune (Jazz Bass), and Gyoza (Acoustic).

In terms of the music in the show… damn. I have never wanted an anime soundtrack more than the K-ON soundtrack. Excellent musicianship on all songs, great mixes… and the vocals are so cute. Animation wise, this seemed to be a Kyoto Animation production (can’t quite remember), and it shows. Character development was quite well thought out, and although some stereotypes were way overdone (Over-energetic drummer, over-airheaded guitarist, low-key bass player, low-noticed keyboard player), they were portrayed in a respectable manner.

Another good point was the inclusion of non K-ON members. Mainly, Ui (who adds stark contrast to Yui) and Nodoka (who adds maturity). Of course, they aren’t really THAT important, so we could do with out. But, I degress, and there is one point I must bring up. It’s a disease thats spreading, and infecting more anime every year:

The moe factor.

Too much, too fast is all I’ll say. Neko said it before ^[4], and I’ll say it again. Too much moe is not a good thing. All it does is helps the viewer get through the slower parts of the show, and over used, turns the show into doujin fodder ^[5] .

And so, I give K-ON 8 Dunlop picks out of 10 Dunlop picks ^[6].
Also, if I had to choose, Mio would be my Waifu.

I also realize there are a great number of RL pics on here. I apologize for that.

1. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HoYay?from=Main.LesYay [↩]
2. As long as I don’t get another Endless Eight [↩]
3. Yes, I’m a producer as well as a musician and engineer [↩]
4. Go find the post yourselves, I’m busy [↩]
5. and judging by the number of K-On doujins… most of which are H… [↩]
6. .73-mil, not that weak .33 stuff [↩]