「のーせんきゅう！！」/「ブラック部落」

I was not too crazy about the first season of K-ON!. I mean, sure I was pretty excited when it started in spite of the cries of ‘Lucky Star with Guitars’, but I guess the first season was not quite in line with expectations. It felt repetitive and unambitious.

Looking back at it now, the first sign that the second season wouldn’t fall into the same hole as the first season was the Live House episode. Now that was a great episode that developed the characters in a way that wasn’t dumb and wasn’t entirely pointless gags. I don’t know what it says about me, but the first time I went to a smaller show in a backroom, I thought about how much it was kinda like this episode. It had the bonus similarity of being Japanese.

K-ON!! continued in the same vein as that episode. No, it wasn’t entirely about music, but it was definitely a lot more varied than yet another hanging out at the villa and not practicing or yet another trip to the music store. I’d felt that Azusa’s introduction essentially caused a repeat of the introductory episodes, which I guess ended up being for the best. Since the first season got all of that out of the way, the second season was able to just be good.

And now that I think back on it, they still don’t really show much practicing or playing of instruments, at least not for very long. What they do show is progress. There’s a remarkable difference not only in their skill with their instruments but in how comfortable they are in performing. Yeah, Mio is still afraid of being seen and Yui is still tripping over stuff, but they definitely feel a lot more confident by the end of K-ON!! than they were at the end of K-ON!.

It’s kind of funny how the show dodged my expectations. I wanted the first season to be like the second season and by the end of the first season, I expected the second season to be more of the first season. But, I’m happy that I eventually got the show that I wanted from the start.

When K-ON! first started, it was pretty entertaining until about halfway through the season. At that point, I began to get pretty bored of the whole thing. Usually, slice of life is my thing and music lines up with my interests. The most interesting parts to me were the OP and the ED. I really like Don’t say lazy, and not just because I can kind of play it. What went wrong? What’s different about the slice-of-life formula that K-ON! uses? It’s just cake and moe, right?

I’ve found that K-ON! is crtitcized for being too much cake and not enough music. I’ve come to realize that it does focus on music a lot. What’s surprising about this is that I find that this makes it uninteresting like other slice of life shows. See, the problem is that K-ON!’s music parts aren’t done very well. The most interesting thing about the music is watching them perform and that is rendered boring because of their attempts to avoid animating the playing of their instruments as much as possible. That leaves terrible and boring talks about music.

And since they focus on the music more than people realize and because it’s so boring, it renders the entire show boring. Outside of music, the girls are doing the same thing: eating cake instead of practicing, going on trips, and performing without it being animated. Unless they delve into more specific stuff about music, there’s really nowhere else they can go. I mean, when Azusa was introduced, it was just an excuse to repeat what they’d already done.

The difference between K-ON! and Hidamari or Lucky Star was that they didn’t just do the same stuff. Yeah, Hidamari was about art, but the stuff they did outside of that took up more time and was weirder, like the caterpillar or the box of seafood or Yuno’s acid trip when she had a fever. The same applies to Lucky Star, where Konata’s otakuism gives more room for interesting things to happen, like the cosplay cafe or Comiket.

I also remember someone mentioning Manabi Straight. They both share the band of friends trying to accomplish something against all odds, except Manabi Straight had real conflict as opposed to the manufactured crap that happened in episode 11. The characters had problems and they struggled through them and grew. And dear God, I can’t believe anyone would seriously compare Beck with this. Seriously, guys? Just because they both have gitahs?

I think K-ON! was best not only during the parts where they actually concentrated on performance (as opposed to aborted attempts at practicing), but during the parts where the manga was followed more faithfully. I found the 4-koma pretty fun, and I guess the reason is that it’s quick and doesn’t waste any time at all. The most boring parts were the parts that KyoAni filled in. I know it’s a 4-koma and that they need to interpolate some stuff, but I felt like they didn’t do that great of a job this time around.

I guess I’m more disappointed that I don’t feel like K-ON! has adequately enthralled me than that I think it’s bad. In retrospect, I really am just nitpicking on stuff. It did manage to get on my bass (which I have retroactively named Mio, since its original name has escaped me) a bit more. Maybe I was expecting rabid hilarity like from later episodes of Lucky Star and Hidamari Sketch. Or maybe I was expecting every episode to be Live Alive. I guess all I can say is that it was nice.

So what did it need more of? It needed more performances like in 12, less forced drama like in 11, less pointless training camp stuff, more character development like in 13, less dragging out stuff (Azusa’s introduction didn’t need two episodes). Basically, tightening up some stuff instead of dragging stuff out with cake. Maybe drag stuff out with more performance or better practices? I’m still waiting on their performance of Don’t say lazy.

K-ON!

This is Kyoto Animation’s latest not-Haruhi project. Not much surprising here. Four girls, doing stuff. This time, they’re forming a band. Basically, unless you’re into slice of life, there really isn’t much for you here. I thought it was nice and fun so far. I have read some of the 4-koma and am looking forward to the rest. Interestingly enough, all of the voice actresses are all really new, so it’s nice not to have to hear Hirano Aya or Kugimiya Rie in every show you’re watching.

Asura Cryin’

My gut feeling on this one told me that I wasn’t going to like it, but for whatever reason, I decided to take a look anyway. I wasn’t completely wrong, but it’s kind of different from what I expected. For one thing, mecha? Although, it could be that the group that subbed it wasn’t spectacular. It’ll depend how I’m feeling next week that decides whether this gets another shot.

Hayate no Gotoku!!

I don’t know what people are complaining about, the art and animation looks the same. Actually, just about the only thing I noticed was that the colours seem to be a bit sharper. Of course, with JC Staff, art isn’t the huge issue, it’s the adaptation. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing some more manga stuff and hopefully, the fact that there’s no real overarching grand story means that JC Staff won’t be able to screw it up.