K-ON!! 13

Besieged by the summer heat, Azusa is snacking on a refreshing watermelon ice while mulling over a text message to send to her upperclassmen. Rewriting it time and again, Azusa ultimately receives a message first from Yui who reveals how they are all busy studying.

Bored, Azusa soon dozes off but her dream of visiting Yui’s house turns into a nightmare when Yui gets food poisoning from eating the watermelon Azusa had brought.

Startled awake when the doorbell rings, Azusa welcomes Ui who jokingly asks her who she is due to the dark suntan the twin tailed girl is sporting after the summer music festival. Unamused, Azusa slumps down, tired from having stayed up late.

Visiting the school with some sweets to treat their friend Jun, Ui and Azusa discover the entire school is pretty much deserted due to the Obon festival, save for Sawako who’s the lone teacher on duty. Ui promptly offers Sawako one of the puddings in gratitude for the teacher always taking care of Yui.

Dejectedly lounging in the music room, the girls eat the remaining pudding while pondering how to entertain themselves. Dozing off, Azusa has another odd dream, this time of visiting the cinema and finding Mio has come as well to watch a horror movie.

Awakened when Ui’s mobile rings, the girls head out to the cinema but Azusa’s dream made her reluctant to choose a horror film. Having earlier discussed getting a part time job since she’s strapped for cash, Azusa falls asleep during the movie and dreams of working at a mall lottery stand.

With only two prizes left in the lottery, including the main prize which is a trip to Finland, Azusa is surprised to see Tsumugi appear. Revealing she’s come home early from her holiday in Finland especially to participate in the lottery, Tsumugi wishes to win one of the consolation tissue pack prizes.

Glad to see her upperclassman win the prize she coveted, Azusa isn’t sure what to think when she herself wins the grand prize trip to Finland. Startled awake as the final scenes of the movie flash onscreen, the guitar player realizes it was a dream.

Heading out to the pool, Jun and Ui soon burst out laughing when they notice Azusa’s blatantly apparent tan lines that totally mismatch with her swimsuit. Embarrassed, Azusa decides to stay behind on the pool side to get an even tan first.

Enjoying playing around in the refreshing water, Ui and Jun feel sorry for their friend. Little do the girls know Azusa dozed off and has a near psychedelic dream of her light music club friends visiting the pool with her. Jolted awake, the guitar player sees Ui and Jun join her for lunch, having bought some yakisoba. Enjoying the food, the three girls talk about the light music club and Azusa is trying to motivate Jun into joining.

On their way home, the three girls meet their four upperclassmen who were about to visit a summer festival nearby. Enjoying the evening festival, the girls wander along the many stands. Taking a breather while they all eat some shaved ice, Azusa watches her friends and thinks how much fun it is to spend time with them.

Spotting some fireworks being set off nearby, Mio, Tsumugi, Ritsu and Yui run off to watch, however Yui soon reaches out to Azusa, urging her along. Lost in thought, Azusa hesitates but Yui soon grabs onto her hand and takes her along.

Back at home, Azusa feels melancholic, afraid she’ll be all alone once her treasured upperclassmen graduate. Refusing to be downcast, Azusa decides to focus on the upcoming school festival.

Thoughts on this episode~

Absolutely loved this episode for it was really all about Azusa who is by far my favorite “K-ON!” character!
While the episode focusing on how the three juniors their days while the older girls were in Kyoto also spent quite some screentime on Ui and Jun, this time these two definitely got relegated to the background along with the rest of the cast while everything centered on Azusa.

“K-ON!!” shows that even when focusing so heavily on a single character, it can add the necessary character depth and still produce an episode with enough plot and different scenes that mark what a slice-of-life series truly is all about.

Showcasing Azusa’s summer days, it provided some laughs but mostly boasted terrific slice-of-life moments, most poignantly when Azusa thinks of how much she loves hanging out with her light music club friends and how they will some day soon graduate away. In that the series also does drive home that the girls’ time in high school will near its end.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing more episodes focused solely on the lovely Azunyan~