K-ON!! (TV 2)

The car Sawa-chan owns, is a 2nd-generation ('98 - '03) Suzuki Wagon R, most likely the 2002 version (MC22S chassis).

The top-3 Oricon song 'No, Thank You!' has an odd link to the characters in the series: (NO)doka, (T)ainaka, (H)irasawa, (A)kiyama, (N)akano, (K)otobuki, (Y)amanaka, (U)i = NO THANK YU, with Houkago Tea Time (HTT)'s members, the main members of the series, in the middle word, surrounded by the secondary cast (as of 1st season) on either side. These are also all of the characters whose seiyuu appeared at the Let's Go! Live concert in December 2009. Additionally, in the ED, one sequence shows the girls are lined up to spell THANK backwards... or forwards, if you're Japanese and read right-to-left.

Some interesting trivia about K-ON!'s characters' names: Hirasawa Yui (平沢 唯,) means 'ordinary mountain stream simply'; Akiyama Mio (秋山 澪) means 'autumn mountain waterway'; Tainaka Ritsu (田井中 律) means 'in the paddy [singing a] melody'; Kotobuki Tsumugi (琴吹 紬) means 'koto-playing silk cloth'; Nakano Azusa (中野 梓) means 'in the meadow [stands an] azusa tree'; Hirasawa Ui (平沢 憂,) means 'ordinary mountain stream worry'; Manabe Nodoka (真鍋 和) means 'vessel for truth [and] harmony'.

The ending themes for the two seasons, 'Don't Say Lazy' and 'No, Thank You!', are musically interchangeable; the vocals and instrumentals for the chorus especially can be swapped and sound as if intended that way.

All 34 classmates in the HTT Senior's homeroom class (3-2, total of 38) have distinct character designs and names -- if not the first time in anime history, then extremely rare. The standard in anime had been to deemphasize anyone that wasn't the main characters, even to point of making them bowling-pin silhouettes at the peak of this (see Lucky Star).

HTT's pet turtle mascot and Azusa's kohai (junior) Ton-chan, is a pig-nosed turtle, Carettochelys insculpta. There are instances of Ton-chan being misidentified as Pelodiscus sinensis, which is the Chinese soft-shelled turtle, totally different from Ton-chan. In fact, Yui calls it 'suppon modoki' in the anime -- which translated means' pseudo-suppon' ('suppon' is the Japanese term for a Chinese soft-shelled turtle).

There are two story mini-arcs from S1-EP01, that are repeated/alluded to in the second season: the first is Nodoka's NEET lecture to Yui, which is done almost exactly the same in EP08, except the subject is Yui's shinro chousa (進路調査 - career survey) rather than choosing a club. The second is when the HTT seniors play for Azusa in EP24, which echoes when Ritsu, Mio and Mugi played for Yui to get her to join. They both even use the same thought to describe the performance: "Ammari umakunai desu ne?" (余り旨くないですね - It's not all that good, is it?) This is significant, as when we see this the first time, it was to celebrate the creation of HTT, and the second, to commemorate the end of the HTT 5.

Season 2 contains only three male roles that are both recurring (in more than one episode) and voiced -- Ritsu's little brother Satoshi, the principal of the school, and the newscaster, who is voiced by Shiraishi Minoru, of Lucky Star's Lucky Channel.

HTT's keitai (cellphone) straps: Yui's is a bear head; Mio's is a ring of round purple and pink beads; Ritsu's is a little man made of beads; Mugi's is a strawberry; Azusa's is a musical note; Ui's is two smaller versions of Yui's bears.

In an album for K-ON!! Season 2, Ho-kago Tea Time II, the song "Fuyu no Hi" was the mistaken love letter, which are actually lyrics, that Ritsu received from Mio in Season 1-EP13.

In the opening video of episodes 1 to 6, you will see that the bass guitar (supposedly left-handed) is a right-hand bass rotated when the instruments of HTT were displayed in neon colors.

In episode 1, at around 8:39, there's a picture of Monalisa on the wall

In episode 1, the song Yui is playing at the very beginning of the Episode is "Watashi no Koi wa Hocchikisu" (My Love is like Staples), an insert song played on Season 1 Episode 8.

In episode 2, the old guitar that Sawa-chan gives to HTT to sell for club funds, is a Gibson SG.

In Episode 3, Mio told that Ritsu have watch a DVD of the band "The Who" late night that's why they are late at school. Ritsu has an admiration to the band's drummer named Keith Moon who is well known for his recklessness like blowing up his own home with cherry bombs.

In episode 3, Mio called Ritsu "Cozy Powell" who is a famous English rock drummer.

In episode 4, while the HTT seniors are on their school field trip to Kyoto, while at Iwatayama Monkey Park, we see Yui with a bear-head-shaped purse. This is an inside joke, as Yui's seiyuu Toyosaki Aki actually has a purse just like that to protect her PSP from accidentally turning on in her big work purse. We see this when she appeared on a famous otaku talk show called 'Mantora' hosted by manzai duo Yoiko's Arino Shinya, in December 2007.

In episode 4, the HTT seniors make a prayer plaque at Kitano Tenman-gu, a shrine in Kyoto, writing wishes in brush and ink. Clockwise from the top: Ritsu wishes "Budoukan shinshutsu" (武道館 進出 - progress towards Budoukan); Yui wishes "Shougai manpuku" (生涯 満腹 - eat your fill of life); Mio wishes "Shiboukou goukaku" (志望校 合格 - to pass the college entrance exam); Mugi wishes "Shiboukou ni ukarimasu you ni" (志望校に受かりますように - also to pass the college entrance exam, but in a more formal way).

In episode 6, Yui used D'Addario XL electric guitar strings to change the set on her guitar.

In episode 6, Mio and Azusa both name their instruments a la Yui. Mio's Fender Jazz Bass becomes 'Elizabeth' (named by Yui), and Azusa names her Fender Mustang 'Muttan' in kind.

In episode 7, we see HTT's senpai Sokabe Megumi as a college student, getting a text message from Azusa while seated before a huge statue. This statue is of the scientist William S. Clark, founder and former president of what is now Hokkaido University. His famous motto is 'Boys, Be Ambitious!', and all HU campuses have a copy of this statue on the grounds. This means Sokabe-senpai was accepted to a national university, very fortunate indeed.

In episode 7, the poem that Mio wrote was actually the song "Tokimeki Sugar." The song is found in the K-ON! Album "HO-KAGO TEA TIME II."

In episode 8, just before Mio meets Ritsu for the first time as as kids, Mio is reading a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen.

In episode 9 as Yui is studying in her bedroom, the open page of the English text book on her desk has an article about the Australian athlete Cathy Freeman.

In episode 10, the guitar Christina plays, is a B.C. Rich WMD Son of Beast Onyx (a much better death metal guitar than either of Sawako's past lead guitars, the Gibson SG and Flying V, in part due to its extraordinary fretboard while still being affordable for a student).

In episode 13 in the sequence where Azusa brought a watermelon over to Ui & Yui, Azusa screams not to eat the watermelon after finding out Yui just ate tempura for lunch. This is because tempura and watermelon is said to give you stomach aches when eaten together. This is part of east asian medicine, called "kuiawase" - food that should never be eaten together. Eating eel (unagi) and plum, which happened to be flavors of what Azusa is eating at the movie house, would give you food poisoning.

In episode 13, Jun texts Ui from her grandmother's town in the country. She texts: "やっぱり田舎は退屈 ('~')`` 何もないよ~~~~~!!" (I knew it! The countryside is so boring! There's nothing here!).

In episode 13, there are chibi versions of the HTT seniors hidden in the animation -- Mio, Mugi, Ritsu and Yui are visible for a few frames in the yakisoba that Ritsu places on Azusa's head as she takes off down the waterslide. All of them except Yui are riding/eating pieces of cabbage -- Yui is riding on red pickled ginger and reading a comic book.

In episode 14, Yui and Ritsu eat Mugi's eyebrows, which become takuan slices. When they remove them an alarm sounds. This alarm is a parody of the Color Timer on Ultraman's chest, which chimes and blinks when he's low on power; if he doesn't get recharged, he dies -- which is the situation with Mugi.

In episode 14, Ritsu takes Mugi to see a dagashiya (駄菓子屋 - old-time bargain candy store), getting several kinds of treats. The one Ritsu shows Mugi how to pop open on her thigh, is called fugashi (風菓子). The pink one on two chopsticks that Mugi pops into her mouth, is called neri-ame (練り飴 - kneading candy).

In episode 15, as Sawako was explaining the marathon route to Yui and Ui, Sawako mentioned a portion of the route as "Heartbreak Hill." This is most likely a reference to the Boston Marathon.

In episode 16, Mio tunes her Fender Jazz Bass with a Korg AW-2 tuner. Azusa also has a Korg tuner, an AW-1, but it's labeled a Yamaha by KyoAni (S1, EP10 @ 11:30)... it's not obvious, but this is actually partially accurate. Only in the JDM was the Korg AW-1 sold under OEM license, as the Yamaha TD-30M... otherwise, they're identical. The only inaccuracy KyoAni made, was that the 'YAMAHA' name does not appear on the TD-30M as it does in the anime -- it has the triple tuning fork on the clip instead, where the AW-1 has 'KORG'. This was probably to insure a brand plug was made without having to show the clip jaws.

In episode 17, Yui creates the lyrics for what would become later in the series, the top-3 Oricon song 'Gohan Wa Okazu'. Gohan Wa Okazu was written by Bice, a 38-yr-old female singer/songwriter. On 24 July 2010, she mentioned writing a song for a ninki (popular) anime on her blog, now known to be Gohan Wa Okazu. On 26 July 2010, she died tragically of a heart attack, one day before episode 17 aired.

In Episode 19, Yui Hirasawa refers to Sawako Yamanaka as "Tsuru no Ongaeshi" when she leaves to prepare more festival costumes, admonishing them to not look in on her. This is a reference to the Japanese folklore tale of the same name (鶴の恩返し). In that tale, an injured crane helped by a man magically returns as a woman to aid him as repayment. The spell is broken when the overly curious man looks in on her as she weaves cloth and learns her true form. In typical fashion, Hirasawa later in the episode proceeds to confuse this with another story from folklore, "Kaguya Hime" (かぐや姫).

In episode 22, Ui wears a scarf adorned with two fish. This is the same scarf (muffler) she received from Yui at the Xmas party in episode 7 of K-ON! (1st season).

In Episode 22 @ 4:25, the rhythm guitar part Azunyan plays unplugged on her Mustang while the seniors try to study, is for Gohan wa Okazu (Rice is a Main Dish).

In episode 24, we see cars go by the characters that definitely have US models -- a current Honda Civic, a last-generation Mitsubishi Lancer, and a Nissan Cima (Infiniti Q45 in the US). This is the only episode where you see them all together -- all the rest are scattered around the episodes.., most are JDM-only, or Japan/Europe-only models. However, in OAV14 in Season 1, a yellow VW New Beetle passes behind HTT as they look at a live poster they'll be performing at later. This is the only instance of the Beetle in the series. A Honda CR-V, Nissan Fuga (Infiniti M35/45), and VW Eurovan also make appearances.

In episode 26, Ritsu is caught messing up the class picture by putting her hand on Yui's shoulder (as if to ape a spirit photograph). Mio tries to make Ritsu look at the evidence, but they end up briefly playing a Japanese game resembling 'Atchi Muite Hoi'. Atchi Muite Hoi (あっち向いてホイ - Look Over *There*) is where after 'janken po' (じゃんけんぽ - rock, paper, scissors) the loser is given a chance to stay in the game. The winner of the 'janken' points their index finger at the loser's face and says 'atchi muite hoi'... on 'hoi', they move their finger up, down, left or right, at the same time the loser moves their head in one of the four directions as well. If they both go in the same direction, the loser truly loses and the game is over. If they don't match, the loser gets to 'janken' once more. It's a familiar game with schoolchildren in Japan.

In episode 27, Mio told everybody that she wants to go to England and then she imagined that she is walking across a road crossing in London. This scene is depicting the album cover of the Beatles "Abbey Road".