It has been nearly one year ago since the first season K-ON!. When I first watched it, I actually enjoyed it and more so since in 2009, I was already in college and graduated from High School. I still enjoy the second season of K-ON! as much I did with the first season. So, how come I still enjoy this moeblob, music slice-of-life anime? For several reasons.
First, It brought back past memories on how my high school life wasn’t great compared the girls in K-ON and how they are enjoying school. I have attended a public high school where some or most of the students are from higher class families. The school I used to attend didn’t have a good environment because there were some students who do drugs, going out drinking, and obsessed about relationships for example. I was one of those teenagers that don’t do these activities. I had friends, but gradually I stopped talking them when college started. I was a minority in the school and the school was not a multiracial school. As a result, I was picked on and bullied in high school. These were the reasons I didn’t like my high school years compared to college years. Now looking back at K-ON!, they don’t suffer the problems and it seem that the girls actually enjoyed going to school and having fun after school and eating cake and drinking tea. I wished my high school years was like this… less teenage rage and more on enjoying school and having fun with after school activities.
Second thing I can relate to K-ON! is the music aspect. Yes, half the time spent on the whole season is watching them drink tea, eat cake, socialize, and etc, but they actually play. In middle school, I enrolled into concert band since 7th grade up to the last year of high school. I played Clarinet back then and gradually, I started to get better with the lack of practice since I spend time on the computer. Although I never got first chair in my high school years, I did enjoyed playing music. The same happened with Piano. Ever since I started when I’m young, I hardly ever practiced. However, I managed to play those pieces with some minor mistakes. I am talented like the girls in K-ON! who manages to play the songs perfectly without any practice. It was quite amazing. Since college however, I haven’t really touched the Clarinet and the Piano, but I should start playing again with Anime Music of some sort.
Lastly, K-ON! is not all about the moe factor or moeblobs. There is always going to be moe-haters, mecha-haters, action-haters, romance-haters, you name it! Deep down from the shallow perception of moe, K-ON! has what all the qualities slice of life anime have. Slice of life stories relates back to your or anyone’s life and past experiences. Although K-ON! may not a masterpiece, it is still a pretty good and well balanced slice of life Anime that most who can enjoy that enjoys the genre. Then again, isn’t a slice of life story supposed to be a mere image of everyday life? We may not see a person like Yui in real life, the character personalities can be a possibility.
Life experiences and the music is what makes me watch K-ON! like I do with the slice of life genre. While some people may not like this genre because of the lack of plot, I think most people would enjoy it as there is other elements in slice of life such as comedy, drama, romance, etc.
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Fanart used in this post is made by 眼鏡虫
Except for the music thingy -I was never much into music- I really agree. I was delighted with that scene in Kyoto when Ritsu started saying weird words and the girls started giggling. I could relate so much to it.
Since I don’t like to rant, I won’t delve too much into why some people hate K-ON, but they should reflect on why they don’t like the life and attitudes portrayed in it.
And I wasn’t into, how to say, the “modern” stuff either – drinking, drugs, discos, all of that, although I don’t have very bad memories of school, but anyway all the more reason to enjoy K-ON, seeing it as what would have been an ideal school life
Considering that the cultural ideals in Eastern Asia is vastly different from the ideals on the west. I would have fit in easily since my cultural values are pretty much the same, although I’m Chinese (native-born in the US), not Japanese. Eastern Asian Culture is very rich and there is pretty much a lot to explore from it. I haven’t got the chance to visit, but maybe in the future…
There is always going to be a milage may vary with these kind of series, especially when moe comes in the equation… It is like with Sora no Woto with people accusing it as a moeblob show from the look of the animation style. If you look closer, it is a very interesting slice of life anime comparable to Aria. Sora no Woto simply have a stronger story line compared to K-ON!, although I enjoyed and laughed more in K-ON than Sora no Woto.
I still enjoy K-ON!! a year later, too. The second season is pretty much the same as the first, so it’s something where you should know already whether you’d like it or not.
I was finishing up my last year of college when the first season of K-ON! came out. My high school years weren’t too bad, but not as fun as theirs seem to be. I think there’s such an abundance of slice-of-life anime that take place in high school because that’s the last place where people have fond memories, or if they didn’t, they wanted to, before the pressures of college and adult life kick in.
.-= Yumeka´s last blog ..Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu review =-.
I’m pretty much open minded and care less about the plot on these type of shows as they are meant as entertainment without getting into complicated plot. Most comedies are like this, not just K-ON!, which is a main reason I review them differently to other genres that are more plot oriented like visual novel adaptations for example.
I think my high school years would have been better if I attended a multicultural school as most people will accept my nationality. Then I wouldn’t have been bullied/picked on since I wouldn’t be the minority. I’m pretty much glad college isn’t like this since it’s a multi-cultural university and college students are usually more tolerant to different races.
Heh, I’m probably marked as a hater by this point, but the reason that K-ON never drew me in unlike other SoL shows is that the gimmicks just got to me, what with the first season really only having 6 episodes of new material and the second half was pretty much a rehash. That, and the characters. Hidamari Sketch and Sketchbook just had more appealing characters and scenarios in general. The seeming pointlessness is there if you take a step back to look at it, but when you watch it, it all seems more significant, the way they explore life, than is done in K-ON.
.-= zzeroparticle´s last blog ..Baka to Test to Shokanjuu – Perfect-area Complete! – Review =-.
K-ON! is pretty shallow on the Slice of Life genre… I have seen better shows in the Slice of Life genre. The main problem I can see is probably the lack of originality in the later episodes… especially with the beach episodes in the first season as they were pretty much similar on what activities they done with a few differences. So far in the Second Season, I haven’t seen this yet, but hopefully they won’t fall in the holes that the former.
Ok, you may love K-on but I don’t. I never got that show. I do like slice of life shows. I like shows with lessons behind them but pray tell, what does K-on teach?
It’s not funny. (I notice the weird suzumiya humor at times..but it’s epic fail for this show.)
It has no lessons….(Honestly, what does it teaches?)
The characters are all so lame…(No one there that is actually worth watching)
It’s not original (Suzumiya haruhi influence…alot!)
It’s not relevant to me.
So yea, it’s a pretty shallow show and I don’t know why people love it.
The only thing I like about K-on is the music. The OP and ED are awesome!
I haven’t watch season 2 so I really don’t know. But I watched season 1 and to me, it sucked.
That may not be the question to ask to me, but yeah… if you don’t like slice of life anime, you aren’t going to like this. end of story.