I like slice of life (/anime/21776/kobayashisan-chi-no-maidragon /anime/10495/yuru-yuri /anime/21878/gabriel-dropout ). I like cuteness and don't mind if nothing happens in anime (/anime/16732/kiniro-mosaic to some extent just mentioned titles). I like the director's works and artstyle (/anime/16417/tamako-market /anime/20519/tamako-love-story ). I like music anime (/anime/20912/hibike-euphonium /anime/15051/love-live-school-idol-project ). I like KyoAni. But I can't stand K-ON!
The title of this review is how my friend asked me to watch this important, for making a moe genre, show. My expectations were that I won't like this and it turns out I feel the same as her.
I watched K-ON! 1.5 years before posting this review. Also, yes, I know many people think K-ON!! is better, but I got "angry" accidentally watching an out-of-context scene from the movie in one of the PewDiePie's videos, so I'll never know that for sure.
Let's start with something I liked and that was OST. OP is good, ED is straight-up a banger and I sometimes listen to it on YT. There was also a song during the concert in the last episode (why it's the last in the moment), it's not bad, but I heard it only during the show, so I don't remember much about it. I probably forgot about some other songs, but I can say none of them were irritating.
I can't say the same about the scenario. I heard that's because the manga wasn't that great to begin with, but I haven't read it, so I can't tell that for certain.
The events in show take place during 2 years of high school, which is quite a bit for a 13-episode SoL anime series. Despite this, the last episode actually feels like an OVA, taking place a few months after the main plot and being disconnected from such.
That leaves us with 12 episodes and somehow, we had two beach episodes… I mean, music practice sessions in Mugi's place that just happens to be next to the beach. Totally.
That leaves us with 10 episodes in which absolutely nothing happens. Sure, they eat cake, they sometimes practice, Yui buys a guitar and, a year later, strings for them, but it's nothing really interesting. The only significant plot points are characters joining the club, the concert… and for me, teacher talking about her rock/punk group back when she was a student. I really wish I followed her teenage life, they seem to have some kind of a character. I checked my backlog from when I watched the show and apparently I completely forgot about Ritsu shenanigans regarding being at their concert, but I was totally uninterested in what will happen to the club. Sometimes I even thought "yes, I'd like this bad thing to happen to them."
Speaking of characters, that's where the show is the worst in my opinion. I'll cover only the main 5 here, I don't think there's much point in describing the others. All characters have one trait in common: they aren't cute for me.
I started disliking Yui in the very first scene, when she's late for school and, in her clumsiness, drops on the floor in her house. It doesn't get better later, because she's absolutely clueless about anything surrounding her. As an example, I honestly cannot believe how she hadn't realized for an entire year that strings in a guitar are to be replaced after some time and nobody had ever told her that (Mio also has a guitar, had she never said she had been going to or had bought them?). I know, it's just one scene, but that's simply unrealistic connected with "maybe I'm stupid" vibe.
Next up is Ritsu, which is the worst character in the entire show. I don't know, maybe that's because I'm an introvert, but she's so over-reactive that every time I see her online, I think "I want to punch her so badly."
Tsumugi is very forgettable and if it wasn't for that one meme "Mugi strong" that I've seen thousands of times, I would probably not even remember her name.
The remaining members of the club are Mio and Azusa. They feel out-of-place and in this case, it's actually a compliment. When I watched the show, I actually felt bad for them they need to be in that environment. Somehow, my friend only liked Mugi and no one else, but I'm not judging her.
Art style is okay, I had only one really minor complain about one of the backgrounds, but that's because I'm a perfectionist. I didn't have any complains about voice acting. I like that mid-break is changing a side of a cassette, pretty clever.
K-ON! is an important show, which revolutionized the anime industry, and I don't regret watching it. However, that doesn't mean it's a good series. The main problem is that, while many people love the characters (and you'll probably see that in like ratio), I couldn't stand the majority of them and I actually wished them bad. Sure, I also said that nothing happens, but that could be ignored if it wasn't for Yui and Ritsu. It definitely had a potential, because, on paper, it could be a cute 13-ep anime, but it didn't click for me.
112.5 out of 196 users liked this review
