K-On

[Chedney Honks]

I know little of this except that it's beloved by madhair60 and Pedro_Bear, both of whom also championed Haruhi which I absolutely loved. I understand it's about a high school band of teenage girls and is heartwarming and funny, etc.

Serious question: Is it, though? Is it, though?

I ask because the complete collection is coming out on Blu-ray in a week or so and it's got a decent pre-order discount on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Collection-Blu-ray-Limited-Season/dp/B0932JC9HD/ref=pd_ybh_a_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CDJAREMVP7P902C2MQSH

I don't really watch anime series. I love Berserk, loved Haruhi (although didn't stick the rewatch) and I love plenty of anime movies but I'm really not sure about this.

Is it actually good even if you don't have an anime avatar?

[Thursday]

I watched about two minutes and thought "nah"

Might give it a proper chance, but I guess you'd really need to adjust to the fact this is a show aimed at children before you proceed.

[chveik]

deffo heart-warming. only watched the first series though so maybe i didn't care for it that much

[MoreauVasz]

I have never been able to get past the fact that the band makes really, really shit music. Just utterly generic J-pop bullshit that is invariably written by middle-aged men and performed by young women recruited directly from specialised stage schools.

There's a film called We are the Best about a bunch of teenage girls starting a punk band and it is amazing. Go watch that instead.

[Consignia]

It's OK, I guess. I can't believe it has an appeal to anyone outside the deep fandom. But it is pretty well made, and does have that Studio KyoAni quality that are quite famous for.

Frankly if you're even questioning whether you'd like it, chances are you won't. On the other hand, famous YouTuber and very online person Shaun loves it, so if he's your arbiter of quality  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Lemming]

It's very sedated, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you want. I don't think I was able to finish it - same for other "iyashikei"[nb]i dunno if K-On actually qualifies as one of these, but if it doesn't, it SHOULD[/nb] shows like Aria. Just kept falling asleep. Which, to be fair, is exactly what they're meant to make you do.

There's also a rape-y teacher who keeps showing up and forcing the kids into ridiculous costumes against their will, but you know, it's an anime set in a high school, you've just got to bite the bullet and accept that there's going to be moments that would get you put on some kind of registry if anyone walked in on you watching it.

[madhair60]

It's the best thing ever produced for television.

As Lemming says, yes, it has moments that will make you go "christ", but comfortably few of them.

Anime, specifically SOL anime, seems to have a knack for tapping into thoughts/feelings that I've never seen expressed in entertainment before - see the likes of Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh (which has a far, far worse offender of a teacher character) and Hidamari Sketch, which are also about schoolgirls and therefore difficult to recommend to anyone.

I dunno, if you can tune into it, if you can put aside the cynicism of the moe-blob character designs and just enjoy them at face value, maybe you'll end up sat in front of the television in floods of tears like I did at the end of S1E12, or the last few episodes of S2.

[Chedney Honks]

How come? Serious question and a serious thread.

I could have absolutely ripped it but I'm open minded and pretty mellow now.

[madhair60]

I edited my post. Thank you for alerting me to the Blu-Ray, though. I have bought it.

[Space ghost]

I also bought that Blu-ray.

Thank you. Perfect excuse to rewatch the whole thing once again.

[Chedney Honks]

No worries, dudes. Cheers for all the impressions. I'll probably check out a couple of eps to dip my toe and may get the boxset anyway at that price. Can always flog it for about the same, I imagine.

[madhair60]

I want to go into more detail but I'm not sure I have the presence of mind. The conflict in K-On is almost entirely insular, I don't know if that's the right term, but the first season is mostly about self-confidence and the second is about time. That is, it's no spoiler to say that the main character, Yui, is the quintessential bumbling imbecile who projects a lack of faith in herself, in her ability to find and make friends, or achieve anything in any field, and of course it's presented as duhhhh comedy idiot to some extent but it's also crushingly sad and sobering when it wants to be, and then of course the triumph that does come is marvellous and presented so beautifully despite being - when you really think about it - so incredibly minor. Then you get this afterglow and the happiness that comes from Yui finding her place in the world and then at the back of her head (and yours) you know it's fleeting, it's necessarily fleeting, it's all going to end sooner than any of them think, and when that inevitability can't be ignored any longer it sneaks up on you, and on her, and everyone else in one of the most devastating scenes I've seen in anything, ever. It's beautiful, and tragic and evocative, gorgeously drawn and animated, life-affirming, heart-rending, and fucking hilarious, so fucking funny in places. There are no villains besides the passage of time, and the understanding that halcyon days of childhood cannot last forever.

[Consignia]

I mean I said it's kind of OK, I do appear to have the entire series on Blu-ray, including the one of Japanese series BDs with a pink case and the super limited edition of the movie, as well as the PSP game and a collection of the songs on vinyl.

見てください：


I must have liked something in it...

Not sure I could really be doing with accumulating all this tat these days, though.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

There are no villains besides the passage of time, and the understanding that halcyon days of childhood cannot last forever

K's are G-On