K-ON!! 11

Besieged by the scorching summer heat, the light music club girls are exhausted from practice, especially Yui for the guitar player near melts away.

Seeing Azusa brought her some water, Yui energetically hugs her treasured junior which both has them lament the sticky, oppressive feeling the embrace brings about due to the heat.

Worried about their pet turtle’s skin peeling, Azusa is relieved to hear that it’s just shedding skin. Hearing this, Yui suggests they too should shed and promptly dons her school swimsuit, much to Mio and Azusa’s chagrin.

Observing that sweating this much will no doubt cause them to loose weight, Azusa’s optimistic remark soon has Mio and Tsumugi don the thick animal costumes in the hopes to loose more weight. Of course, they are unable to play their instruments when clad in those costumes.

Retrieving an old electric fan from the storage room, the girls hope the breeze it creates will cool them down. Unfortunately, the worn out fan soon spins out of control and fizzles out with a puff of smoke after Ritsu sets it to blow full speed.

Having brought a cooler box filled with ice planning on making everyone some shaved ice, Tsumugi alas forgot to bring the machine itself, much to Yui and Azusa’s disappointment. Filling a bucket with some of the ice, Yui and Ritsu cool themselves down by dipping their feet in it. Unsurprisingly, the two girls’ usual childish antics soon have the bucket spill all over the floor.

Reading that turtles will grow larger if placed in a bigger aquarium, Azusa wonders if they shouldn’t get their pet turtle a bigger water tank now that it’s shedding anyway. When Tsumugi offers to give them a large aquarium she’s not using anyway, the girls head to the teacher’s lounge to ask Sawako if she can drive them to collect the tank.

Appalled by the fact Sawako is sitting comfortably in the teacher’s lounge thanks to air conditioning, Yui and Ritsu drag her out to the music room where under the bribe of sugary sweets, Sawako soon agrees to the drive.

Arguing over who gets to ride along to Tsumugi’s house, Sawako ultimately only takes Tsumugi along in her car for the piano player warns thinks the aquarium will take up all of the remaining space. Ecstatic to ride along in Sawako’s car, Tsumugi’s enthusiasm gets the better of her when she starts playing with the passenger seat handle and face-plants against the dashboard.

Immediately filling the huge aquarium that Tsumugi brings back, the girls are glad to see their pet turtle happily swim about in its new habitat.

Begging their teacher to get them an air conditioning unit for the music room, the girls soon appear before Nodoka after Sawako suggests they ask the student council. Putting up a silly charade, Ritsu and Yui are brought back in line by Mio who brings their plea to the student council president.

When Nodoka retorts she already explained at the previous club chairmen meeting that the school offered to install air conditioning in the rooms of the clubs that requested one, Mio knows enough and swiftly smacks Ritsu for not attending the meeting.

Hoping the other club leaders will accept their late plea for an air conditioning at the next meeting, Ritsu has the other girls practice with her so she can adequately defend their request. Lucky for Ritsu, things go unexpectedly smooth and her request is approved by the other clubs without objection.

Enjoying the newly installed air conditioning, the club members are soon exasperated when Yui withers away, the aloof guitar player having forgotten all about the fact she can’t handle air conditioning either.

Thoughts on this episode~

Although it can be described as a filler episode where nothing much of substance happened, and one where the comedy and antics of the girls while present where more subdued, the more relaxed pace of this episode somehow fit very well with its main theme.

The episodic plot of the light music club girls practicing in the music room during such a hot summer day and their braving of the intense heat and beads of sweat dripping along their bodies was both nicely in juxtaposition to the slower pace but also meshed with it well.

Liked how each of the five girls also got some scenes that emphasized her typical character traits and behavior.
One could really imagine the smoldering heat in the music room and the girls’ thirst for refreshment, their envy of the cool air in the teachers’ lounge or student council room equipped with air conditioning.

Having such a slow pace, filler-like episode so far along only affirms that this season of “K-ON!!” will indeed go past the 12 episode mark and span 26 episodes as sites have stated.
Thus far, “K-ON!!” has been a terrific, solid anime and a worthy sequel, but will it continue to be as entertaining for the fifteen or so remaining episodes? Can Kyoto Animation keep up this level of excellent animation quality or will errors , simpler animated scenes risk slipping in?

Can only hope the series remains as good as it currently is!