K-ON! First Episode Review
K-ON! ~First Episode Review
(Light Music!)
13 Episodes
Comedy, Slice-of-Life, Music
Rating: 6.5 – 7 / 10 – give it a chance, then see.
Summary:
Hisawara Yui starts her first day in high school with her friend Manabe Nodoka, who advises her to join a club. Yui is and has always been an easy-going girl, so she has some trouble deciding on a club. Meanwhile, Tainaka Ritsu decides to join the Light Music club and drags her friend Akiyama Mio, which is going to be closed because there is not enough members in the club.
As the episode progresses, Ritsu and Mio manage to make Kotobuki Tsumugi join the club, and now they only need one more person to join. Yui sees a colourful poster promoting the Light Music Club and decides to go to the club. The other girls misunderstand her to be a guitar player, which leads Yui to join the club. The four girls now practice hard for their future goal to play at a major Japanese concert.
Review:
At first, I was worried. Worried that K-ON was going to be exactly like Hyakko (shoujo-ai type show), mostly because of the (almost?) all-girls cast. As well, Yui, the main character, has a very nonchalant personality that annoyed me to the brim. I can say that as the episode progresses (depending on how much patience you have) the show does improve. The characters become more believable, the animation style becomes more endurable and the story line develops. After really pushing myself on to watch the rest of the episodes, I really found myself enjoying the story, the jokes and even the characters. Yui still is the same “air-head” type girl, but as a character, she does become a whole lot more enjoyable to watch. What really makes her easier to watch is because of the whole package: the other 3 girls she is with in the light music club. Ristu is similar to Yui and so they get along swimingly. Mio looks like a serious girl, but she does have her faults. Tsumugi (aka “Mugi”) is a sweet girl with a surprising background. We meet more characters as the episode progresses that do become more important later on in the show.
Something interesting, and semi-unique, is that the ending and opening songs are sung by the 4 voice actresses that play the 4 girls in the light music in the anime. For me personally, the OP and ED do play a part in if I enjoy an anime or not, but it isn’t critical, because you can always skip over those horrible engrish songs if you can’t stand them. So, just a note about the OP and ED, I don’t really like the OP, way too cheesy for me, but that is really personal, and as for the ED, it did grow on me. The engrish does bug me (pet peeve-ishly) but overall the ED song is catchy. As for the visuals, nothing really to note. Only in the ED, I did like most of the outfits that the girls wore, except for Mugi’s hair… (what the…?)…. But really, it doesn’t even matter. (^.^)
All I can say is that if you already like this type of comedy setting, then you will like K-ON! If you never have enjoyed comedy shows like this, but are willing to take a chance then this isn’t too bad a place to start. If you’re just looking to see what anime to give a chance by watching the first episode and to then decide if you will continue watching or not, then just beware that K-ON! doesn’t make a great first impression, but what can I tell ya’, it got me to continue watching!
Another random note.
So I read on some other blogger’s review about K-ON, and related stuff and I can see how people can hate this show (or at least groan once in a while at its stupidities). It is somewhat ridiculous in every aspect, and the cheesiness sometimes overflows my whole body, but what kept me interested was the overall “lightness” that is the core of K-ON. It doesn’t take anything seriously, and every moment is just another reason to laugh. So, if you’re looking for a show that you want to watch just for the “random lulz”, as my short asian friend would say, then, why not. K-ON will definitely serve in that area.
[...] K-ON! First Episode Review Created! May 8, 2009 Posted by suzushii-chan in Anime Review, First Glance Review. Tags: anime, Anime Review, K-ON trackback Our very first review! Well, almost. It isn’t finished, but there is a synopsis and details about the show. Plus there is a very short review. I am going to finish it, but I don’t feel like writing it right now. Anyways here’s the link! -> reaaaaaad ittt (; [...]