K-ON! 4

Summer vacation has arrived and the keion-bu girls are at the beach to have fun under the summer sun! But how did they get there?

Shortly before the summer holidays began, Mio found a box stored in the clubroom containing things from the prior generation of music club members, including a cassette recording of their performance at the school festival.

Impressed by the level of the past generation’s performance, Mio is unable to let go of her desire to surpass them.

The next day, she declares to Yui and Ritsu that they will hold a training camp during summer vacation so they will be ready to perform live at the school festival scheduled to be held after summer.

Unable to afford any expensive lodging, the three girls turn to Tsumugi, wondering if her family might not have a countryside villa.
Not only does her family have a villa, but Tusumugi’s dream is to make such a holiday trip with her friends so the keion-bu soon sets off for the seaside.

The day of the training camp trip arrives but Yui is still in bed, having overslept since she couldn’t fall asleep the evening before from sheer excitement. She soon gets a call from Mio and rushes to the station, in the nick of time to catch up.
Though it looks like Yui wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep from excitement, as Tsumugi quickly dozes off on the train ride to the seaside.

Arriving at the seaside villa, the other girls are amazed at it’s sheer size and luxury, though to their shock it turns out to be the smallest villa Tsumugi’s family owns.
Stoked they will be able to practice all day, Mio’s hopes are shattered when hyper Yui and Ritsu immediately don their bathing suits and head out to the beach to play. When even Tsumugi joins in, Mio herself can’t resists and heads out with them to play.

Noticing Mio’s stylish black bikini which she fills rather well, especially with her shapely bosom, Ritsu and Yui are green with envy.

The girls all have a fun filled day playing at the beach, building sand castles, playing in the water or just goofing off.

When the sun starts to set Mio suddenly recalls they are there to practice and spurs everyone on, but Yui and Ritsu are tuckered out after playing so much, forcing Mio to give up on practice for the day.

Downcast, Mio sits on the patio watching Ritsu and Tsumugi prepare some fireworks. Her sorrowful gaze quickly turns to admiration when she sees Yui playing a guitar solo in front of the wall of fireworks as if she were playing at some huge rock concert.

Having enjoyed the show, Mio plays the cassette again for her friends, saying she wants to be able to outdo the previous keion-bu generation. When the tape unexpectedly switches to the B side and plays a scary voice, Mio cowers away in fear.
As the girls see Mio’s really frightened, they apologize for having teased her even more about it and are soon struck down by Mio’s irresistible moe expression.

The girls do end up playing a bit of music after all, and when Yui does a nice guitar solo, Mio, Tsumugi and Ritsu are impressed at her progress.
Mio goes on to teach Yui how to do a vibrato before the girls finally call it a day and relax in a soothing bath.

What an awesome episode, really love this one to bits, it was full of positive energy and while in the typical style of summer beach episodes, it had that great mix of comedy, cuteness, music and slice of life. “K-ON!” is really striking a great balance there.

I can imagine music enthusiasts are finding the series lacking a bit in terms of real music content, but it seems clear now “K-ON!” isn’t all about music but more about the girls having a great time together in the music club.

Seems like the creators of “K-ON!” closely feel the pulse of the otakusphere. Having probably seen Mio’s immense popularity, they miss no chance to show off Mio’s moe side or prove Mio fanservice.
They really hammed it up for all its worth this episode, showing off Mio’s sensual bikini clad body with her delicious bosom, having Ritsu imagine Mio in a maid outfit or gifting us with Mio’s teary face when scared.

Seeing all those Mio fanservice scenes, my body expelled every drop of blood at supersonic speed through my nose.

Mio is definitely my favorite so far, but I loved what we saw of Tsumugi and Yui in this episode too, they’re such cute characters.

What I really appreciated was that they didn’t take it all too seriously nor dumped the fanservice on screen as such, but showed they do realize the irony of it all by having Ritsu and Yui exclaim the moeness of Mio’s cute mannerisms.
Such self humor is a nice touch.
Much like “Hayate No Gotoku!” also often takes jabs at their own series and doesn’t take itself too seriously, something which always provides good laughs.

Can’t wait for next week’s episode and so far this is the season’s hit show for me! Though I must confess I’m easily wooed by such hilarious slice-of-life series.

Also, while I did previously say I wasn’t much impressed by the second song on the opening single “Cagayake! Girls”, after listening to it some more, the track “Happy! Sorry!!” has grown on me, its instrumental version as well.