K-ON! 7

Christmas is near and Ui recalls a memorable Christmas Eve many years ago, when she and Yui were mere toddlers.

Decorating the Christmas tree together, Yui wondered if Santa Claus would visit their house since she hadn’t been on her best behavior, forgetting homework, not eating all of her lunch.

Asking Ui what she wants for Christmas, Yui’s little sister answers she would love a white Christmas, to see everything covered in snow.

The next morning, an enthusiastic Yui wakes her little sister and leads Ui outside to show her a white Christmas. Opening the door, a bright smile appears on Ui’s face when she sees the tree in their yard is covered in white snow.

Walking outside, Ui notices the rest of their garden isn’t snowed in at all, approaching the tree, she picks some snow of it and it isn’t snow at all but a soft and fluffy fabric.
To give her sister a white Christmas, Yui had taken out the filling from her pillow and thrown it over the tree which brought a smile to Ui’s face but also got Yui a good scolding from her parents.

Walking to school while cold gusts of winter air chill them to the bone, Yui notices Ui lost her muffler and she shares her own with her younger sister.
In turn, Ui sees that Yui only has one glove and she takes her sister’s bare hand in between her gloved hands to warm it up.

In the club room, Ritsu reveals she plans to hold a Christmas party for the keion-bu. The energetic drummer had hoped to host it at Tsumugi’s house, but it is alas already occupied for another party.
Yui offers to hold it at her place since her parents are away on a voyage. To Mio, Tsumugi and Ritsu’s relief, Yui will ask her more capable sister to handle the cooking. They even invite Nodoka along and decide to have a Christmas gift exchange.

The day of the Christmas party Yui and Ui are both thrilled, Ui is working hard on preparing a true feast while Yui is goofing off making some decorations.

Soon, Mio, Tsumugi and Ritsu arrive and the party starts. Proposing a toast, the girls are startled when they notice none other than their teacher Sawako has joined them.
Surprised that Sawako has crashed their party, Yui confesses they didn’t invite her since they figured she’d spend Christmas with her boyfriend anyway. Her remark is dead on as Sawako was indeed going to be out with her boyfriend but it alas seemed not meant to be.

As a result, Sawako’s crushed heart casts a shadow over the party but it’s still offset by her often eccentric behavior. She dresses Yui up in a revealing Santa outfit, but as she’s unknown to such shame, it suits Yui like a glove.
Sawako quickly switches target to the shy to a fault Mio and the bass player is soon being stripped of her clothes and her dignity.
Lamenting she will never be a bride, the poor girl is hauled into the embarrassing outfit again later on when the girls have a talent show to liven up their party. Having taken the talent show too seriously, Ui even prepared a doll ventriloquist act, showing her serious nature, an opposite of her goofy air headed sister Yui.

Even with Sawako’s lamentations, the party is still a success and the girls have a great time.
While most girls end up with gimmicky gifts, by incredible chance of fate, Yui and Ui each end up with the gift the other had bought, Yui receives a pair of gloves and Ui a muffler.

On New Year’s Day, Mio, Yui, Tsumugi and Ritsu meet up at the local shrine and the keion-bu girls hope this new year will bring them as much music laden fun as the previous one.

Which it no doubt will as they’re immediately off with their usual antics. Mio is stunning in her classic kimino, much to the entertainment of Ritsu who had taunted her into wearing it. Hearing Yui lazed around as usual, but didn’t even gain a single pound with all the snacks she devoured, Mio and Tsumugi are scorned for they lost that fierce battle against the candy induced kilos.

Looks like it’ll be another lively year for the keion-bu girls!

Even if you fear you’ll no longer be a bride, I’ll still marry you Mio! Plenty of room in my heart for you to join my harem of dokidoki love maidens.
A dream… no rather disillusion I most likely share with millions of otaku out there… orz

Well it was another great episode, loved the mix of humor, heartwarming scenes and seeing all the girls have fun together.
Liked that even though Yui has changed, grown into her new hobby where she made new friends, we see the bond with her sister Ui runs deep, remaining strong as ever.

Some of the cute scenes like the one where they walk to school together and share the muffler nearly drove my wandering thoughts into “Candy☆Boy” mode, wanting to see more than there really was….
How dare you KyoAni, playing with my frail yuri desires like that?

One element which did actually disappoint me quite a bit, even though it provided plenty of funny scenes, was how they portrayed Sawako’s character.
Quite liked how they had previously taken her image of gentle, caring, near perfect lady teacher to spice it up with that realistic zest of having a dark, rocker streak since she got into hard rock during her high school years.

But instead of just continuing on with that more original characterization, they degenerated her into the all too typical and bland young teacher who’s full of bitterness over her lost youth and the fact she can’t find a stable relationship.

A chance is missed of having a more original character by erasing her for this cliché. Really sad actually, her character deserved better and I feel the path of easy jokes was chosen here even if it meant totally altering a character.

Speaking of which, having re-watched the first episode recently, I noticed that when Yui first meets Mio and Ritsu, it’s actually Yui who becomes shy when stared at even drops all the papers she’s holding.
While the clumsiness is still spot on, the shyness doesn’t fit with how her character is portrayed afterwards. One could wonder if they changed the characterization of Yui after those early chapters or if it was all simply for the sake of humor in that specific scene.