K-ON!! First Impressions

After a successful first season, pumping out catchy songs, and spawning what seems to be an army of moe-loving fans, K-ON!! parades it's way onto the Spring Anime line-up with it's sophomore season. Having had such an impacting first round, fans were setting their standards high as they witnessed season two of their beloved series.

So far, K-ON!! has not failed to deliver!

K-ON!!, if you don't know, is a light and fluffy anime that revolves around five high school girls as they play music, eat cakes and drink tea, all amidst their cute, funny and crazy antics. There is no real plot as each episode progresses, but it's still enjoyable to watch, if you want to get away from complicated story lines.

We first join Yui scrambling around campus as the first episode begins, for some reason, seemingly confused as to where she's supposed to be (or where everyone else is). She finally finds her way to the music room where she plugs in her sunburst Les Paul and plays the chords for her band's song "My Love Is A Stapler". The music is accompanied by shots of the rest of the band making their way to school, meeting up with one another, progressively getting closer to Yui, until finally, right in the middle of the chorus, the band reaches the music room, and Yui stands up abruptly to perform a Pete Townshend inspired windmill. Continually. After a small period of vocal silence, Yui exclaims "I LOOK SO COOL!"

Yup, this is K-ON!!

This episode definitely feels like K-ON!, which is a very good thing, because each character delivers a certain uniqueness (as cliché as that may seem) to the show. I'm sure as this season progresses, we'll see more of that!

An example of this is when Yui sifts her way through a crowd to see the class listings. She juts out her hands as if she's about to swim to part the crowd as she makes her way to the front. After assessing the listing, she walks backwards, returning to the rear, and tripping over herself after clearing the crowd, falling to the floor, only to realize seconds later, that she did, indeed, fall over. Que the moe waterworks!

Yui wasn't the only one crying. Mio, the band's bassist and song writer, was moved to tears at hearing the news that the four seniors would be in a class together. After dealing with two years being alone in class, she deserved a break, right?

This episode mainly revolved around trying to recruit members for the light music club, because once the seniors graduate, they'll be leaving behind Junior Azusa (whom shall now be referred to as "Azu-nyan") to take care of the club. So members of the light music club scope out other clubs to see how they recruit members, as well as garbing themselves in giant animal costumes to promote themselves. After several gags, the band finally get to do what they do best; play a show!

I expected the band's set list to look a little different since this is the second season, but we get a glimpse of the songs they were to play, and see that it's the same four songs from the first season. That's okay, though, since we have brand new opening and ending songs, both of which are excellent (in my humble opinion), but I'll get to those later.

The only thing I didn't really like about this episode, was that a good minute or two went to the girls singing the school's anthem, but not the band's set! As many times as I've seen the scenes from the first season, I still wish I could have seen those songs being played on the show. Oh well, I can dream, right?

Even after their successful performance, no members join, and Azu-nyan steps in and says that she's fine with the way things are right now, with just the five of them...but she then states she's going to become more strict with the band! Azu-nyan, you really are a club president, aren't you?

The episode ends with the closing song "Listen", which is accompanied by an interesting animation of the band, revolving around 80's glam and strawberries...for some reason that sounds ridiculous after seeing it typed out. The song itself is very catchy, though, but not as hard rock as Don't Say Lazy was from the first season, but that's okay! Different can be good, right?

Before I forget, allow me to mention the opening song, GO! GO! MANIAC! which is probably, by far, the most catchiest song I have ever heard from this anime. The opening animation is well animated and fits the mood of the music near perfectly. I got a little sick seeing the band spin around in circles, though, but other than that, it's all fun!

Something I need to mention before I wrap this up is the animation of the show itself. The first thing I noticed walking into this season was that the art and animation was slick, smooth, clean, and every other word used to describe the same thing. Yui's guitar playing made me smile because each stroke of the strings was quite believable. Even her windmill had a fluid animation!

In closing, I thoroughly enjoyed this first episode of K-ON!! and I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the season. I highly recommend this anime for those just wanting to sit back, relax and have fun without the need to think to much. It also adds if you're a musician and/or a fan of music, because this anime may be mostly fun and games, but in the end, I'm almost certain there is something special you'll take away from watching this anime.