K-On! is one of those shows that gets tossed around a lot as a great example of a slice of life comedy, being one of the more popular examples of one. It's also one of the most mentioned entry tier slice of life shows, pretty much one of those must watch shows due to sheer popularity factor and inertia on the internet. It was one of the first entries in the "cute girls doing cute things" genres that I sat down and watched, mostly on recommendations from folks and the sheer popularity of it. I was hoping to see what the slice of life genre was all about and this was obviously the place to start from what everyone was saying and my own limited experience in the genre.

The first time that I watched K-On!, I didn't quite know what to expect from these types slice of life shows. I grew up watching things like Hokuto no Ken and Cowboy Bebop. I admit to a bit of a bias as to what I expected animated entertainment to be. This wasn't going to be shounen action, mecha, or deep science fiction/fantasy, this was going to be about high school girls working to put together their band, and they were going to be adorable and drink tea while doing it.

With regards to the technical, the art fully commits to its style. Nothing spectacular, but familiar looking. Animation can feel a bit wonky at times. The sounds are done pretty well, the music that is performed does actually sound like J-pop, and the voice acting doesn’t give me any right to complain. The opening and closing credits are catchy, and the other songs that are performed work as well. I still occasionally find myself humming the tunes from the show when I think back on it. This is the high-water mark of the show in my opinion. K-On!’s major stumbles are story and character development.

I wanted to give the show a full season of viewing to make sure that I was seeing what everyone else was seeing. Going in with high expectations was a bit of a mistake in this case. I struggled to figure out what everyone was seeing in this show, even after a full viewing, even if on balance, I found myself enjoying the show.

I was hoping to see more about the struggles of putting together a musical performance and how a light music club would operate, but was a bit disappointed that each episode seemed to be more about tea and dessert time and screwing around than actual Light Music. This could be interesting if it was a couple episodes before the story got a bit more serious/urgent, but that was the story in just about every episode.

To be fair, the story does have somewhat of a progression of time in it, with various activities happening more or less due to the needs of a light music club. Instruments are acquired, the girls work on the theory of practicing or song writing for a few minutes, and then they are back to doing pretty much what they were doing earlier, which is having a tea party and reacting to their situation in a clichéd way based on their character tropes.

The characters in K-On! are not very deep or complex, and they pretty much have their one or two shticks that become a punchline repeatedly throughout the series. I watched the entire first season and past the first two or three episodes, I had figured out what the characters were going to do in most of the situations they were presented with.

The lazy characters were going to be lazy, the timid, serious one was going to freak out about something when she tried to get things back to serious, the refined one was going to make tea to calm everyone down, and the adult in the room was going to try to get the club into cosplay. That’s basically each episode in total, with perhaps a school festival, beach, or holiday setting to break things up once every couple episodes or vary the weather a little.

I understand that cute girls doing cute things is a part of anime these days, and in that, I suppose that the show delivers, as for the most part, they all play their cute reactions to the situations well, and things comfortably meander along, same as they ever were in each episode. This is what slice of life typically does, although the good slice of life does generally wander towards some character growth and resolution.

However, outside of the opening and closing credits, the Light Music Club seems to do precious little actual music composition and practice, which left me thoroughly confused, somewhat frustrated, and wondering if I was totally missing the point as people seem to love this show and recommend it as a must watch.

The big question that I’ve had a hard time answering after watching the first season is if the whole music club is really necessary to tell this high school story. I’m not sure it added much to be honest, and it could have been any club at all if we're being fair. One can sympathize with the poor kouhai of the show wondering why they're even in the club and despairing that no actual musical practice or anything is being done. One would think that there would be a bit more musical passion from the main cast if the show was going to be about a music club, and not just stumble towards the big concert or what have you. The music itself always seemed like a bit of a distraction from the next scene of the girls doing something that was exaggeratedly cute.

To take example of another slice of life show about a high school club from the same year or so, Saki, the mahjong oriented high school anime, actually felt like a more compelling show to watch, even if it was technically weaker in art, animations, sound, etc. It was also full of somewhat unnecessary fan service, somewhat exaggerated mahjong super powers, and trope heavy characters. However, they went hard on the mahjong angle, and the story arc worked as the characters worked together to play and get better and the slice of life and character development occurred through the act of enjoying their club activities. While I don't think Saki was a masterpiece, I look back on K-On! and wonder why they didn't take a similar approach towards making the music the focus instead of the cute stuff. I think it would have worked for the better.

All said, I didn’t get too much out of K-On!, as perhaps I was looking for something a little more substantial (I realize that may be misguided with a show like this). When a song is actually played by the group, it’s decent enough to watch. The problem is that this happens so rarely that it’s just not enough to really make up for the problem of it being the same thing over and over each episode.

There are shows with characters that are interesting enough to make you want to see them interact in various situations and the comedy or drama involved will make it entertain you. I watched Azumanga Daioh some time after K-On! and discovered what slice of life really should be when trying to show high school girls life where nothing of grand import happens. There was a charm to Azumanga that K-On! was trying to replicate, but didn't quite get there in my opinion.

In fairness to the show, I recently re-watched K-On!'s first season to see if I got anything else out of it after watching quite a few more slice of life shows. I would say that my opinion of K-On! has improved a bit from my initial reaction, but I still prefer other shows in the genre with a bit more character development and stronger personalities. I did find a reasonable amount of entertainment (or maybe relaxation is a better word) in the show after completely turning the mind off and just floating along with it, but this isn't something that I can do for more than a couple episodes at a time.

I highly recommend that you avoid my mistakes in the slice of life genre and start with something like Azumanga Daioh to see what slice of life and cute girl shows do well. Then watch K-On! afterward. It helps to have some perspective to compare this one to.

While this review probably comes across as a bit negative, I still enjoyed K-On! quite a bit. But, it's not as high on my list of favorite slice of comedies for the reasons mentioned. When the group of girls actually play music, it's done pretty well. I would have liked to have seen more of it, and consider the show a bit of a wasted opportunity.

It's still worth a watch, it's had a large enough impact on anime culture that it is worth your time. It's also worth noting that sometimes, "fun things are fun" and you shouldn't take anything too seriously anyway. That is worth something in my book.