Forum - View topicREVIEW: K-ON! Blu-Ray
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Kusachiho
 Posts: 15 |
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Probably the main issue I had with the first season of K-ON was the part where it covered two school years in a single one-cour season - so we didn't just get the expected raft of seasonal school anime cliche episodes (albeit well-executed), we got some of them twice. Ultimately it isn't a huge deal, given the low-key nature of basically everything in the show, but it did make marathoning the show feel like a bit of a slog.
I feel like I might have enjoyed it more if I'd watched it weekly, or at least spaced out the episodes on my own terms. At the time I felt like I had to watch the whole thing ASAP to see what the hype was about, and that wasn't really a viewing technique that worked for me where this show was concerned. In comparison, the second season felt like it had a lot more room to breathe, having double the episode length for a single school year - that meant that sometimes we had full episodes dedicated to Yui deciding how to style her hair, but overall it felt like it was worth it for the atmospheric space it gave the series in which to develop. |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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I don't think I'll ever really "get" K-On!. This was the show that cemented my general antipathy towards slice-of-life shows. I don't hate it, but I just don't see how it's anything above passably decent. Nothing of any importance happens. Ever. The show never approaches anything resembling drama. The jokes are repeated ad nauseum. The characters are cloying and the situations mundane. The fact that they almost never practice and are still somehow good is frustrating, and even though I get the self-awareness in the gag that they complain about never doing any work and just faff about the whole time, it doesn't matter, because all they do is faff about all the time, with no variation. That's not self-aware meta humor, that's just laziness disguised as such if you don't do anything differently or the execution isn't there, and in K-On!'s case, it doesn't and isn't.
To be fair, it has legitimate strengths. The production values are very good, the character interactions are strong for the most part, and there's some good humor every now and then. But it still baffles me how this show became so popular. Guess I'm not the target audience, I guess. |
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A Mystery
 Posts: 1886 Location: Netherlands |
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Me neither, sahmbahdeh. I just found it too boring. I do enjoy slice of life in general and I do enjoy a healthy dose of humor, but the only standout laugh I experienced was when Yui obviously couldn't sing anymore but kept doing it throughout one performance.
I thought the strength fans see might lie somewhere in being enthralled by moe girls doing moe things in general, since there isn't nearly enough humor for me to enjoy the show. Apparently I saw that wrong. The animation and visuals are very good though, as are the songs. |
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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@Kusachiho: Yes, I also preferred the second season for a number of reasons, and that breathing space was one of those. Although if you read the original manga, the first season is pretty faithful to its pacing - Kakifly blew through their second year of high school on the printed page really fast, too. The second season actually did a lot of adaptation expansion and added filler episodes to stretch their senior year out to two cours. And I didn't mind that at all, because a lot of those new or expanded stories (like ep 3, ep 14, the Romeo & Juliet arc, etc.) ended up being some of my favorite episodes of the whole season.
Anyway, I already have Bandai's Anime Legends release of season 1, which actually does have some good extras like interviews with the dub cast, so I'm not going to double-dip this one. K-On is one of my favorite shows to just pop on a random episode or two as something to relax with before I go to sleep, and I don't need a Blu-Ray for that. |
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Foxaika
 Posts: 365 Location: Columbus, Ohio |
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I loved K-ON!, thought it was a lot of fun. It has a certain pleasant, happy feel to it that I just enjoyed, not to mention that it was rather funny as well. Plan on getting this sometime since I don't already own it.
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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Ehhh I'd argue that lucky stars started the cute girl doing cute things genre, but I guess K-ON was the biggest success.
Ultimately what makes K-ON work is that all the character are at the very limit of being believable. There all character that we could meet in real life and hang out with, but there just zany enough to be interesting, without being larger than life character. It's essentially a show that replicate the feeling of hanging out with friend, with the boring part cut out. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5527 |
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More like insanely awkward for me. And this is the #1 reason I think anime with music should never be dubbed. It either ends up with these awful moments that ruin the immersion, or they translate the songs (Haruhi) and are just plain awful. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Anime about "Cute girls doing cute things" without much conflict or any significant male presence date back to at least Azumanga Daioh in 2002 although I still think 2005's Strawberry Marshmallow is the CGDCT standard-bearer. |
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albanian
 Posts: 133 Location: UK |
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I have to admit I didn't find the interlacing of Sawako-sensei's humourous moments quite as jarring as some other appear to think. I felt that her often waspish and sharp-edged intrusions (especially in relation to her membership of a previous death metal version of the club's band) offered a sense of perspective which put the others' characters and activities into some form of relief. But I still find it funny that she succumbed to the lure of tea-and-cakes just as readily as the rest!
And yes: Azumanga Daioh and Strawberry Marshmallow do have a great deal to answer for!! |
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RANGIT
Posts: 80 |
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Or it doesn't turn out awful at all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcF3faTDFhU I'd probably agree if the voices chosen for K-ON!'s English dub were far from the Japanese. But since Bang Zoom likes to voice match and the songs were mostly performed by Yui and Mio, who I think were pretty good voice matches, the switch to Japanese during the songs wasn't too awkward for me. My only issue with the dub is the use of dollars for currency. I guess for the second season and movie, them speaking "English." (I may not totally agree with their localization choice, but I admit that this one got me laughing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKpZvO0j6RI) |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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Again, Slice-of-Life isn't for everyone. It is a genre that requires it's own form of appreciation. Like how you get laughs from comedies and scares from horror flicks, Slice-of-Life is about having fun with the characters - growing, learning and experiencing life with them.
People complain that they aren't complex, or deep, or go though any drama, or develop. That's a fair complaint. But ask yourself this: Do you need to know all about your friend's childhood traumas in order to spend a fun time with him? |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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The problem with this logic is that when one spends time with friends, you're physically there, talking to them, interacting with them, having them talk to you. Watching SoL anime is like standing on the sidelines, watching other people have fun. You're not part of the group. They're completely incomparable experiences. |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 704 Location: New York State |
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Anybody could skip both television series and still watch (and enjoy!) the K-On! Movie.
I'm not saying everyone should watch it, but if the episodic ramblings bore you to sleep, the movie will do anything but. |
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lemurs
Posts: 102 |
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I'd always remembered it was such a light, happy show. But until I'd rewatched K-On recently, I'd forgotten that it not only was very funny but also had some character arcs too.
It's definitely one of the better slice-of-life comedies to this day. |
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Actar
Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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But isn't that true of all media (save for interactive ones like games)? Regardless of the genre, you are a passive spectator, unable to participate in the events that are unfolding on screen. Yet, we are still able to derive enjoyment from the various shows we watch. While I don't have all the answers, one of the reasons could be our ability to emphatize with other human characters. When we see our hero triumph over adversity, we share in that feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. In the same vein, the characters' friends become our friends and we feel included in their interactions regardless of our position outside the narrative. When the girls cry during graduation, we feel sad because we've seen all they've been through together. Not to mention, the character interactions themselves can be a great source of entertainment. Lucky Star was excellent in creating situations that allowed the characters to bounce of one another while making witty observations on daily life. Again, it's all about what you want to get out of anime. |
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