K-ON! 1

The alarm clock rings to signal the start of Yui’s first day as a high school student. Struggling to awaken, Yui’s heart nearly stops when she sees the time, she’s going to be late!

Rushing into her school uniform and grabbing a piece of toast on the way out, Yui rushes to school… but not before stopping along the way to pet a cat or help an old lady cross.

Out of breath, Yui arrives at the school gates to find the school plaza nearly empty. Looking at the main building’s clock she realizes why, she’s actually too early, for her own clock was an hour ahead.

Enthusiastic about her new life as a high school student, one challenge Yui soon faces is deciding which school club to enlist in. Much to her friend Nodoka’s despair, two weeks later Yui still hasn’t chosen a club.

Ritsu faces a different challenge, wanting to enroll into the ‘keion’ club (けいおん from ‘karui ongaku’ 軽い音楽 or light music) she drags her friend Mio along but soon learns that the club is to be disbanded because all members have graduated and a minimum of 4 members is needed to keep the club.

While Ritsu and Mio hear this devastating news from the music teacher, they spot Yui, who came to the teacher’s lounge to help carry documents. Noticing the girls are looking back at her, Yui becomes nervous, clumsily dropping the papers and even hitting her head when she tries to pick them up.

Remembering the clumsy girl’s antics, Ritsu and Mio head to the keion club room, hoping other potential members will show up. Having waited for hours, Mio gives up and as she’s about to leave, another girl enters wanting to visit the club, Tsumugi.

It looks like Ritsu got her hopes up for nothing because Tsumugi actually wants to join the choir club, her defeat seems complete when Mio announces she’s not sticking around either.
When Ritsu reminds Mio of the promise they made one day to start a band together, Mio cuts her off, revealing what really happened which isn’t an idyllic tale like Ritsu let it out to be.
Witnessing the playful banter between the two girls, Tsugumi bursts out in laughter and says she’ll join the club since they seem like such a fun bunch.

While Yui heads home, lamenting to Nodoka how she hasn’t found any club to join, the three keion members hop into a fast food restaurant, trying to come up with ideas on how to attract more members.
Eventually the girls decide on putting up posters around the school to advertise the club.

Seeing one of the posters while walking around the school grounds, Yui absentmindedly signs up for the keion club, much to Nodoka’s shock, who tries to dissuade Yui, knowing the girl can’t play any instrument at all and just signed up on a whim.

When the music teacher hands Yui’s entry form to Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi, they’re ecstatic the club will be able to survive. Little do the three girls know Yui is on her way to announce she won’t join after all.
Standing outside the club room, Yui’s mind races with scary thoughts on how she will have to face frightening and angry club members, her knees soon buckle.
When Ritsu taps on her shoulder, the poor girl is scared stiff.

Ritsu drags Yui inside, wrongly assuming she’s a world class guitar player who will be the club’s savior. Frantically trying to explain, Yui’s attempts fall short as she’s offered tea, pastry, and fawned over by the other three girls.
Mustering enough courage, Yui begs to be excused and confesses she wants to quit the club right away because she can’t play any instrument at all.

First unsure what to do, Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi quickly realize they need Yui for the club to continue existing, so they try and persuade her to stay.

Their attempts alas seem futile, so before Yui makes her leave they at least want to play a tune for her. Seeing the girls play, Yui is wowed and though she honestly admits their performance was mediocre, she’s touched and wants to remain in the club to live that same sensation.
And so the keion club embarks for an adventurous school year!

Bubbly, cute, fluffy, innocent… pure sugarcoated fun are but a few fitting words to describe “K-ON!”. If it keeps up along this route, then it may be become one of my personal favorites of this anime season.

Though I’ve read many find the series over-hyped as well as being a mixture of elements solely aimed to please and cater the audience with a sure hit recipe that lacks any depth or originality, even if such remarks could be true I personally do not care.

From the first second on “K-ON!” provided a slice-of-life full of color, joy, light comedy with sweet as honey girls, all topped of with terrific animation by Kyoto Animation and a solid soundtrack.

The opening and ending themes are nice pop/rock tracks.

The opener “Cagayake! Girls” is a bubbly, catchy pop tune song by the voice actresses of the four keion club girls, Aki Toyosaki (Yui), Yoko Hikasa (Mio), Satomi Satou (Ritsu) and Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi).

Also sung by the same four voice actresses as the opening track, the ending sequence “Don’t say ‘lazy'” especially shows sublime animation, a great imitation of modern day music videos.

Series as these I adore because they overflow with life, radiating bubbly, cute characters with a positive atmosphere that brighten your day. It’s all about love for life, laughter, enjoying yourself.
Which is what people should do, throw away your negative thoughts, free yourself of such sour, vinegar infested ramblings that we see gush forth too much these days… let yourself be infected with this virus of happiness and joy, learn again to smile, laugh!

Let “K-ON!” put a smile on your face because that is what this series really is all about.

The characters may be a bit two dimensional or generic, but it’s the first episode only and let’s be honest, they are adorable! From the clumsy Yui, bossy Ritsu, lovely Mio and elegant Tsumugi, the four keion club girls need but a second to steal your heart and you know you’ll adore seeing more of their antics each and every episode.

Definitely will keep on watching this series, it shows great promise!

Plus… Mio is such a cutie… 新しい愛?!?