I've made it no secret that I adore this show with every fiber of my being, calling it my favourite piece of media to ever exist multiple times on other sites, giving every piece of animated K-On media a 10/10 (barring the movie) and having my profile picture and banner be K-On themed on this very site. But a few may be wondering, why? Why do I love a simple show about cute girls who share a passion for music and form a band mainly drinking tea in their club room? I guess you'll find out as you read this review.

I guess we can start with the approach the show takes. It mainly just shows events happening, with said events being as grounded to reality as possible aside from the exaggerated expressions showcased for comedic purposes. And as such, if high conflict, stakes and/or drama are what you're looking for in an anime, K-On doesn't particularly have any of that (okay, it did have one attempt at conflict that fell apart, but more on that later), but I'd say it masters what it tries to do. The bigger focus on showcasing daily life allows for a more relaxed vibe and a greater chance of becoming attached to the established world and characters. And one of the show's greatest strengths is that every event that takes place matters, whether it be just showing the characters working towards what they want to do or crucial moments of development, further enhanced by fantastic pacing. It never feels like it drags on to the point of being tedious, and it also doesn't fly by events so quickly for the sake of throwing in fast jokes. Every episode feels perfectly compacted, which makes it an easy watch for pretty much anyone.

And this brings me to the stuff that happens in the show. Many have just painted K-On as "a funny slice of life show where cute girls drink tea and occasionally play music", and while that sentiment is partially true, upon my most recent rewatch, I realised that the show has a somewhat bigger focus on music than I initially thought, because even in episodes where the characters are doing something entirely detached from song practicing, it still comes into play at one point or another, showcasing that being in a band isn't just an excuse to have these characters doing stuff. It's the joy of playing together, enjoying what life has to offer and the strong connection that comes from said passion of music that brings the main cast together. And I think that's the beauty of K-On's overall vibes. We're not just seeing characters living life. They're embracing life and taking advantage of every moment they see, especially in Yui's case, as the friendship between them grows across the series and they work towards wanting to perform together even after high school. On top of this, the high energy that the show has at times with its scenarios and humour makes every mundane situation highly captivating.

Speaking of the show's humour, this also helps compliment the captivation of every mudane event. Whether it be due to funny facial expressions, consistently great running jokes like Ritsu being bonked on the head by Mio or Yui being affectionate towards her guitar, lines of dialogue delivered with impeccable comedic timing, the pure silliness of what's being shown, or the fantastic character dynamics being the source of any of these things, there's rarely ever a joke that fails to be hilarious.

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The animation also serves to add to the incredible vibes present throughout the series. It's expressive enough for a lot of the comedic moments, but never goes overboard on that front to detract from the grounded nature of the series, and the smoothness of the visuals can actually be jaw dropping at times, almost feeling like they had the budget of a theatrical movie, particularly in Season 2 and during concerts. Which are complimented by strong character designs that become more refined as the series goes on, beautiful lighting used to incredible effect to enhance the feel of every scene, and backgrounds that have a lot of great detail to them, but not to the point where they clash with the show's art style.

And the OST is just fucking incredible. Of course, you have the line up of songs played by the in-universe band called Ho-kago Tea TIme, where every single one that is played in the show is a certified banger with the strong instrumentations and phenomenal vocal delivery, but I'd argue that the lyrics being sung tie in brilliantly to the show's themes. Many of their songs like Fuwa Fuwa Time and Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss are prone to having quite silly lyrics, yet are also perfectly believable ones in the sense that they are definitely lyrics that a band like this would put together, but when it comes to the more personal or emotional ones, the silliness is pushed aside in favour of more heartfelt lyrics that can get anyone feeling emotional, plus the more serious lyrics that come with the EDs. However, while the songs are all memorable and go insanely hard, I don't think the BGM gets enough appreciation. Of course, I can also give points for scenes where no music plays at all to enhance the tone of certain scenes, many of the tracks that do play are either energetic or laidback, which fit the show's tone perfectly, depending on the situations taking place. But my favourite ones are easily the softer tracks that can range from really soothing to making emotional scenes even more impactful. Here are links to the show's BGM.. You really need to listen to these tracks for yourself.

But all of this doesn't even hold a candle to what truly makes this show amazing for me. The things that are at the beating heart and soul of the series and carry it to the very end
It's now time for me to explain why K-On's cast of characters is phenomenal.

I guess we'll start off with my favourite character all of time: Yui Hirasawa.

She is a character that, for over a year now, I've adored for her sweetness towards the people around her, relatable quirks like failing to focus on certain things and uncertainty on what she wants to do with her life at the beginning of the series, her overall adorableness with every thing she does, which is enhanced by Aki Toyosaki's amazing voice performance, and her pure innocence that is the embodiment of a soul who can do no wrong. On top of this, the way she grows as a character throughout the series is incredible. She starts off as an airheaded girl who has no focus in her life whatsoever. But upon joining the light music club and forming a connection with her new friends, she finds a new purpose in her life as she now has something to focus on and a goal to achieve. And as a result, she starts putting more effort into things, becoming more emotionally aware of the people around her, and actually somewhat maturing. This served as the emotional core of S1E12, but this development was pushed further in Season 2 as we see Yui coming to things early when we previously saw her as a late sleeper, pushing herself as much as possible when focusing on several things at once, and realising how much the people she's come to love mean to her. I don't think I even have the words to properly express how much I adore Yui's character growth. I became so attached to her that seeing her develop was like seeing my own child grow into someone even more amazing.

Someone who receives almost as much development is Mio Akiyama.

She serves as the more mature and reserved member of the light music club, constantly trying to ensure that the others don't goof off so much. But under that maturity is a nervous wreck who's easily scared by things and can let her shyness overtake her. But her efforts to push through her fears for the sake of people she cares about, whether it be through her own instincts or the encouragement and support she gets from others, is highly admirable, and her efforts to achieve this only get stronger as the series progresses, on top of learning to find a balance between ensuring her fellow band members put their all into song playing, and just taking in the moment and enjoying life. Plus, she also has a few cute quirks, like how she's the one who writes a lot of the silly song lyrics, and her immense joy when it comes to left handed bassists.

Now for the epic drummer known as Ritsu Tainaka.

As one of the more comedic members of HTT, she doesn't get that much development compared to the other characters, but her high energy, tomboyish personality and her overall goofiness in several scenes are what carry a good chunk of this show's humour. And while it would be very easy to just make her the type of character who just fucks everything up for the people around her, they didn't take that route for her. Any moments where she dials back on her teasing towards Mio when she realises she's going overboard or where she shows genuine compassion to her friends are really what stop her from ever falling into the annoying territory. Plus, she actually showcases some moments of maturity and self-reflection, which gives her at least a bit of depth.

Next, we have the based pianist, Tsumugi Kotobuki, nicknamed Mugi by pretty much everyone.

Mugi's just fucking adorable, man. Her desire to experience what common people do in their lives as someone who comes from a rich family will never not be one of the cutest things I've ever seen. And if Yui and Mio had cute quirks, Mugi is fucking loaded with them. Between literally any expression she makes, the fact that she can carry really heavy stuff with ease, her joyous curiosity that pretty much defines her character, her comically large eyebrows especially when they make jokes about them being pickles and her obsession with seeing girl on girl action, she's a really sweet character that almost ranks up to Yui's level of cuteness. Out of all the HTT members, she gets the least amount of development, but at this point, I don't even care.

And for our final HTT member, we have Azusa "Azu-nyan" Nakano.

She is established as someone who is strict and serious, and also feels like an outcast alongside the other club members since the way she acts clashes with the carefree nature of the other members like Yui and Ritsu. She's passionate about music and feels disheartened that she's in a club that slacks off a lot, and at several points in the series, she tries to keep the others in line and not fall into the carefree boat of her fellow club members. However, in spite of all this, she admires all of them for their seemingly incredible music talent, and she especially looks up to Mio, who shares similar traits of wanting to push the other club members to be better. Plus, as she spends more time with her fellow bandmates, she learns that there are times where taking in the moment with them and enjoying the time they have is just as important as getting a lot of music practice done, slowly appreciating their little quirks and finding a solid balance between taking in the moment and asserting hard work and practice. It's similar to Mio's development, but to a bigger extent since unlike Mio, who knows who she is even when she comes to appreciate the sillier sides of being in the light music club, Azusa sometimes feels like she's losing herself being around them and has an entire episode dedicated to her trying her damnedest to assert a more serious demeaner. And as a result of said development, she forms a strong connection with each club member, which comes full circle near the end of the series where she's fully warmed up to them and wants to stay together with them in the coming years.

So yeah, all 5 main characters are fantastic and some of my favourite characters in all of fiction. But there are 4 other characters that have things worth mentioning about them.

Let's start off with the infamous light music club advisor and beloved teacher, Sawako Yamanaka.

When we first see her, she's a lovely teacher who seems to deeply care about all of the students who admire her. But we later get to see another side of her personality upon becoming the club advisor for HTT, where she's more prone to acting insane, acting more frantically around them, and her usual reserved nature being dropped for a loud and somewhat obnoxious demeanor. For a while, I was debating on whether I liked or hated Sawako, but upon my most recent rewatch, while she definitely has her own cringe inducing moments, particularly in Season 1, ~~and especially in episode 7, but I'll cover that in a bit~~ I actually found her to be a pretty fun character. For the most part, her craziness didn't lean towards irritation, and the comedic moments that come as a result of this are great. I also highly appreciate that while she did try to build a sweet, caring and polite personality after some things that happened during her past life, it never ended up being just a facade, since we still see this side of her even when she's just with the other light music club members and when her past life as part of a band named Death Devil is exposed to her class in S2E10.

Is it finally time for me to talk about Ui Hirasawa? Yay!

She's literally the sweetest and most mature character in the entire series, and I love her almost as much as her sister because of this. Also, the two moments where she takes advantage of the fact that she looks exactly like Yui when her hair's down lead to some of the show's funniest moments, and I really admire how well she can learn a certain skill by just seeing someone do it. I'd say these little quirks are enough to make her stand out from Yui while still being on nearly the same level of cuteness as her.

Nodoka Manabe. Yep. She's definitely a character that exists.

I don't really know what to say about her, since there's not much going for her in my opinion. She's a fine enough character, I guess, but compared to the others, I can't really say she has any noteworthy qualities.

And finally, we have Jun Suzuki.

Not much I can say about her either, but unlike Nodoka, I found her to be a really fun character. The way she just says what comes to her mind without thinking leads to a fair amount of funny moments, and I vibed with her energetic nature a lot.

Now for the next thing that I think carries K-On: The friendship between the main group and the amazing character dynamics that come from it and some other characters. One thing I have yet to mention about this show is that it's really sweet and wholesome. And this is mainly due to the strong character relationships and dynamics. Between the shared braincell that Yui and Ritsu seem to have, any dynamic that Mugi has with any of the other light music club members, Azusa's dry reactions to Yui's easygoing nature, the beautifully sweet relationship Yui and Ui have, or the fun group dynamic Ui, Azusa and Jun have, the show is loaded to the brim with entertaining character dynamics that do a great job at showcasing the friendship between the cast on all fronts. And the one showcased between the main band is the beating heart and soul of the series. From the beginning of the series, the lengths that Ritsu, Mio and Mugi went to to not only get Yui to join the light music club and then helping her save up money for the guitar she wanted after finding out that she's not really a skilled guitarist was an amazing tone setter for what was to come of this series, and that then extended to Mio when the others did all they could to help her overcome her fears, and it only becomes stronger from there with several beautiful showcases of how much the girls are willing to do anything for one another.

And last, but definitely not least, we have episodes S2E17 and S2E20, the episode combo that leads to some of my favourite writing in any piece of media ever. There will be major spoilers for both of these episodes and the finale episode listed below, so if you haven't seen this show yet, but want to, I'd recommend watching the series before clicking here. You will not want any of this spoiled for you.

Spoiler, click to view

When the light music club room is not available to use due to pipe leakage, Yui and the others have to find someplace else to practice for the school festival that's coming up soon. After trying and failing to find any suitable places to practice, a few days later, the club room is back in use. This brings Yui to the realization that she had been taking it for granted. She loved being in it, but didn't realise exactly how much she valued it until it was gone for a brief moment. And this comes back up again when later in the episode, Ui comes down with a cold. Throughout the series, we've seen the incredibly close relationship that Yui has with her sister. And we've also seen how much Ui has taken care of her and looked out for her. It was very clear that Yui loved Ui to bits, but seeing Ui come down with a cold brought her to a realization that she may not have her beloved younger sister with her forever. And this is what gives her the inspiration to write a song about appreciating the things she took for granted, with the huge sentimental value coming from the title name: U&I. And this leads to the school festival concert in S2E20. During said concert, Yui interacts with the audience a lot while giving out introductions to her fellow bandmates. Some hilarity ensues as a result, but she also wants to shine the spotlight on all of her friends. This even spreads to Sawako and Nodoka, which was doubly sweet. And then, she starts giving her thanks to not only her fellow bandmates, but also her entire class and school before capping off the concert with U&I. The origin of the song was already fantastic, but the emotions that come with actually hearing the lyrics makes it even better, perfectly encapsulating the lengths Yui is going to for a huge thank you to the person who's been there with her for her entire life. Everything about this performance definitely had me tearing up the first time I heard it, and it served as a exceptionally phenomenal culmination of Yui and Ui's relationship, with U&I still standing as my favourite song in the series. But the emotions didn't even stop there, because after the concert, we cut to HTT thinking about if their performance was great, with them later listing the later concerts they get to do after this, and then, the realization hits them. Once all those concerts are out of the way, the high school life is over for Yui, Ritsu, Mio and Mugi. And as a result, they all start breaking down into tears, with Azusa mentioning that it was an honour to get to play with them, ending off with all of them sleeping next to each other in the club room. If the school festival concert didn't get me crying, then this final moment definitely did. An emotionally moving culmination of the powerful friendship between the main cast that grew over the course of the series. All of this made S2E20 my absolute favourite episode of the series.

And I haven't even gotten to the near perfect way the show was wrapped up.

After 29 episodes of forming a meaningful connection with the other light music club members, the thought of their graduation hits Azusa insanely hard when it gets closer and closer to that day. But in spite of everything, she spends the last few episodes keeping her emotions in check for the sake of her friends. But then, at the point where the others have officially graduated (with the added emotional bonus of Class 3-2 giving their thanks to Sawako in the best way possible), and the realization that this'll be her last day with them at high school, Azusa begs them not to graduate, despite knowing that they already have, and breaks down into tears. This is already emotionally powerful as is, but the tears start forming even more when Yui and the others start handing her sentimental graduation gifts before deciding to play one final song for her to send her off. And the lyrics of the song, alongside the message it sends, and Azusa trying and failing to hold back more tears, all add up to the most emotional song performance in the entire series, and while it may be the end for what we see for these characters in high school, the main driving force of the ending is, "Graduation is not the end." And the knowledge that Azusa will be joining her fellow bandmates in college a year from now is the cherry on top of this emotional rollercoaster. And on top of all this, the way it uses the first episode as a reference for this ending is the best use of a bookend I can think of. The lighting and angles are very similar to what we saw when Ritsu, Mio and Mugi played a piece of music to convince Yui to join the light music club in the first episode, and we can see how much they've improved as a band between then and now, and the way Azusa claps, followed up with her saying "You guys aren't very good, are you?" are exactly like how Yui reacted to seeing the performance the others did all those years ago.
It's an absolutely phenomenal ending to a fantastic series that uses all of its strengths to its best advantages to conclude it in a way that couldn't possibly have been better.

And that wraps up my review of K-On... is what I would say, but for as much as I've praised it in this review, and for as high as a regard as I hold it in, it's not a flawless series, and there were a few things in this show that I didn't really vibe with.

Starting off my list of gripes...

• The ending for S1E6. After the first school festival concert looking like it was a stepping stone for Mio overcoming her shyness and embarrassment over being in the spotlight, as she's walking off the stage she fucking trips on her bass cable and reveals her panties, leading to the most embarrassing moment of her life and scarring her as a result. It was a really discomforting ending to what was otherwise a strong episode. And I didn't like the references to that incident later in the series. Sure, it may have lead to the creation of the Mio Fanclub which allowed the amazing S2E7 to happen, but that doesn't exactly take away from how painful it is to look back on why that episode became a thing in the first place.

• This scene from S1E7. Do I even need to explain why a scene where a grown woman is forcibly taking the clothes off of a teenage girl is the worst one in the entire show? ▶ Video

• Most of S1E9 was really discomforting due to how much the light music club antics were exaggerated to insanely unfunny levels. I get that they were trying to showcase how uncomfortable Azusa felt around them, building up to a point where she nearly quits, and that led to an admittedly nice ending, but I don't think they had to take away the usual fun of the series to do this.

• Remember when I said in the beginning of this review that there was a conflict this show tried to do that fell apart?! Well, time to bring that up. What happens is that Yui and the others are about to leave the music shop after getting Yui's guitar fixed, except Mio who's fixated on a bass for left handed people. Ritsu keeps telling her that they need to go, but she continuously says that she doesn't want to, so Ritsu tries pulling Mio out, and fails as she ends up causing her to fall over, and this makes her genuinely angry at Ritsu, coldly calling her a jerk.

And then you have the factor of Ritsu getting jealous over Mio deciding to spend some time with Nodoka, with both of these eventually leading to a fight between the two of them. Yeah, no, the build up to both of these is so tonally at odds with the rest of the series. If they wanted to have a thing where Mio really gets pissed at Ritsu for doing something to her after several moments of being fucked around with, why pick a moment where RItsu wasn't intentionally messing with her? And where on earth did Ritsu's insane jealousy come from? There's absolutely zero build up to that shit, and the entire conflict is more discomforting than anything that happened in episode 9. Like that episode, though, it did lead to something nice. When Ritsu comes down with a cold and is off school for several days, and eventually, after getting over her grudge with her, Mio decides to visit Ritsu at her house, and they share a really sweet heart to heart that serves as a great bonding moment for the two of them. I'll once again give credit for that, but it doesn't exactly negate the fact that there were better ways to go about setting the conflict up in the first place.

• Azusa getting suntanned in S2E12. Since S1E10 established that Azusa tans easily, do you really expect me to believe that it took until night time for her to finally get one, especially when in the previous scene, the sun had gone down a bit, and she clearly had no tan there?

• And finally, where in the fuck does the first minute and a half of S2E26 fit in between S1E9? Azusa was already on first name basis with Yui on the day she joined the club, and on what day did they manage to do any of the stuff that could have happened during the events of S1E9 that we didn't see until now?

So, overall, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that K-On is a fantastic show that works on pretty much every level you can think of. Its brilliant pacing, the incredibly airtight way it goes about showcasing events of typical daily life, a high sense of energy and humour that enhances even the most mundane events that take place, amazing animation, a phenomenal OST between both its lyrical songs and background music, a cast of characters that are all lovable in one way or another, the engagingly fun character dynamics that lead to a really strong friendship between the main cast and a beautifully effective emotional core all culminate in a near masterpiece of an anime that will always be at the peak of my recommendations for anyone. In spite of all the issues I just listed above, I have no qualms giving this show a perfect score. I love it too much to rate it any lower.