K-ON!! 15

Absentmindedly listening to the headmaster’s speech, Yui and her friends aren’t very enthusiastic about classes starting again and are surprised when Azusa runs up to them, excited about the new school term and upcoming festival.

But first there is the school marathon, much to Yui’s despair for the aloof guitar player isn’t keen on such physical effort. Her classmates show more enthusiasm though, Tsumugi seeks prepares everyone desserts with seaweed to increase their iron intake.

Stopping at a shoe story after school to check out running shoes, Yui and Ui spot Sawako and hitch a ride in their teacher’s car.

Having been shopping to gather the needed supplies for the marathon, Sawako reveals this year’s route which will be full of irresistible distractions, such a bakery and clothing stores to then lead the students on a long, steep incline up the hill to the final checkpoint.

Already feeling defeated by the prospect of such a harsh route, Yui slumps down on the couch at home while Ui notices one of the rice cakes from the boxes in Sawako’s car fell into her purse.

Discussing the upcoming marathon at lunch, Yui laments the fact they’re not allowed to bring snacks and gets berated by her friends for seeing it as a carefree excursion. Hearing Tsumugi reveal the marathon will be canceled if it should rain, Yui prepares dozens of teru teru bozu dolls that evening and hangs them upside down, wishing for rain.

Disappointed to see clear blue skies on the day of the marathon, Yui half-heatedly runs at leisurely pace, accompanied by Tsumugi and Ritsu. Frightened by the prospect of finishing dead last and be the center of attention, Mio speeds up, leaving her friends behind.

Unable to keep Azusa and Ui’s pace, Jun takes a breather but soon changes her attitude around when she spots Mio, hoping to impress the upperclassman with her enthusiasm. Meanwhile Tsumugi and Ritsu barely make any progress thanks to Yui who’s distracted by anything and everything. Ultimately waiting for her friends, Mio joins up with them again.

Heading up the steep hill, Yui is exhausted, subsequent ideas by the girls to sing out loud or think happy thoughts as they run fail. As Yui falls behind, the tired girl suddenly trips without her friends noticing.

Catching up with Jun, the three girls only notice then that Yui is missing and go in search of the guitar player after alerting Sawako. Arriving at the school, Jun warns Ui and Azusa about Yui gone missing and Ui immediately sets out to join the search.

Catching up with Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi, Ui tells the girls she has an idea where her sister could be. Heading to their neighbor’s house, Ui discover Yui is there, having sidetracked to have her knee bandaged because she scraped it while falling.

Continuing the marathon to school, the four girls are among the last to arrive, much to Mio’s embarrassment. When Yui suddenly fears there won’t be enough rice cakes left for everyone since one of them fell in Ui’s purse earlier all four girls set into a desperate sprint. Alas for Mio, her fears of catching the many onlookers’ attention comes true when she trips at the finish line and barrel rolls several meters into a kneeling position, much to everyone’s awe.

Thoughts on this episode~

For the first time this season it looked as if the animation quality wasn’t as good as in previous episodes, felt as if Kyoto Animation cut some corners and kept the animation details rather plain.

While the scenery was animated in the same style as before, there were less gorgeously animated or well cared for close-ups, many scenes consisted of more soberly animated medium distance shots. While this may not be visible in the screencap collages, when viewing the episode fullscreen it was apparent in several scenes. Do hope this is only a one time occurrence.

Unfortunately, that feeling of animation quality dip came accompanied by an impression this episode was all about a short filler story that was drawn out to last the entire episode. While I definitely did enjoy this “K-ON!!” episode and adored its funny slice-of-life story of the girls’ school marathon day, can’t shake the feeling it was a bit too stretched out, instead of condensed into half an episode length, which would have been doable.

Nonetheless it was a fun episode filled with the girls’ usual antics and a second time watching it, appreciated it more than the first time round.
Though, what was with Mio’s sudden ninja roll? Does the bass player have hidden talents?