K-On! Review (Anime)

K-On! is kind of like Beck, but instead of a serious band of dudes making seriously good rock music, K-On! is about cute high school girls playing light, fluffy, saccharine sweet pop-rock.  But you know what?  It is still pretty awesome even though it is so sweet and cute it'll make you want to barf. 


Currently, K-On! is not licensed for an American release.  There is an English dub available, but it was easier for me to track down (as in download) the first season of fan subs.  Normally, I hate fan subs, and I also hate downloading anime (especially anime I'm more than willing to pay for), but K-On! doesn't have a U.S. release on the horizon so I don't feel all that bad about downloading it.  There is a second season of K-On! currently running on Japanese TV, but subtitled episodes have proven difficult to find on a consistent basis so I haven't watched season 2 yet.  Got it?

K-On! is about a group of girls who join the Light Music Club at their high school.  Yui, the main character, doesn't even know how to play an instrument at the beginning of the show and thinks that "light music" is simply music that doesn't require much work.  Boy, she was wrong.  Once she figures that out, she has to buy a guitar as the other members of the club already include a bassist, drummer, and keyboardist.

The guitar she picks is a Gibson Les Paul that she luckily was able to buy for $500 instead of $2500 because her band mates family owned the music shop.  Lucky bitch.  One of my favorite parts of the show is just how madly in love she is with her guitar.  She spends every waking second with it practicing.  She sleeps with it.  She names it.  It is just a really awesome and relateable feeling that I can completely connect with.  By the end of the first season, she can play remarkably well.

Music, unfortunately, makes up very little of the actual content of K-On!.  Most of the time is spent watching the girls spending most of their club meetings drinking tea and eating cakes and goofing off.  Or meeting at each others house to practice but they just end up goofing off.  Generally the series is about goofing off.  But it is very funny most of the time, so it isn't all that bad.  Don't expect a serious music show like Beck and you'll be fine.

One high point I want to make note of is the club's teacher.  She was a member of the club when she was in that high school and was quite a rebel back in the day.  She was also a great musician and performer, and had a bit of a dark side that led her down the path of heavy metal in her younger days.  When that dark side comes out is some of the most entertaining moments of K-On!. 

The handful of songs the band does play are goofy and cuddly soft and sweet rock.  The lyrics will make you sick, but the music is pretty catchy.  Plus, if you watch the show in Japanese you don't really hear how retarded the lyrics are anyway.  You just hear catchy J-Pop music.  The best song is easily the ending song.  I'll link to the ending and another song or two below.

Also, Mio, the bass player, is crazy gorgeous.  Yeah.

All in all, I like K-On!.  The art style is nice and clean (and notably improved in season 2) and the music is catchy and decent overall even if the lyrics are awful.  This is a show more about the girls than the actual music they play, and in that way it is a definite success.  I'm a fan of "slice of life" shows like this, so that helps.  I give K-On! a 7/10, or one Diabeetus Cat (cause this show will give you diabetes) -