This week's Anime Calamity focuses on the comedy "K-On!"
“K-On!” follows Yui, a clumsy student who just started high school. She is out looking for a club to join, but so far nothing seems to be of interest to her. Meanwhile two friends named Mio and Ritsu decide to join the light music club; but sadly they are the only members in it. If they don’t get two more people to join, then the club will be abolished. Enter Tsumugi, who stumbles into the club looking for choir practice. After hearing Mio & Ritsu’s problem she joins the club as a keyboardist. With only one member needed, the three decide to post around the school for the missing link. Yui discovers the posting, and goes to check the club out. After much begging from the other club members, and seeing how fun it is to be in a rock band, Yui decides to become the final piece in the music club’s puzzle; but will the four be able to rock out, or will their dreams become dust in the wind?
What started out as a show with loads of promise turned into yet another lame-ass excuse for moé-laden shenanigans. There is no character development remotely recognizable, and when it came to showing the girls playing the instruments the animators took the easy way out and either cut to random shots around the campus or just skipped the scene entirely. Those who watch the first episode were given hope that the girls would make a good hard-rocking band, due in part to their references to Hendrix and Jimmy Page. Instead, we’re “treated” to songs that even the Jonas Brothers would wipe their asses with. (Believe me: it’s that bad.) And this is from Kyoto Animation: the geniuses behind “Lucky Star” and “Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu.” How they can go from doing grade-A anime to a show that makes Joe Cartoon look like Miyazaki is baffling. The plot is weak, and the writing is bad. (I recently read a reply on Anime News Network that said the reason why “K-On!” was this bad was because it was bases on a 4koma [a four-panel comic]. This person obviously didn’t watch the brilliant “Azumanga Daioh!” or “Hetalia.”) I’ve been waiting for another great music-based anime since “BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad” went off the air, and this is what I’m treated with?! No thanks.
“K-On!” receives a D-. It started out as a great concept, but it quickly turned into a show that catered to the ignorant. If you want to see a music series done right, watch “BECK,” and pray to God that they make a second series of that soon.
Labels: Anime, K-On, King Baby Duck
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