K-On! episode 1 review; An overload of sweet, Moelicious goodness!

     I thought I’d leave this series alone considering how many bloggers are currently covering it. But, K-On! has just too much sticky sweet cuteness to let it go, I’m drawn to A-On  K-On! like a moth to a flame.

        This episode begins with us following a young, cute, schoolgirl (Yui) rushing out of her house to get to school, even though she’s running late, Yui stops to pet a cat, and helps an old lady cross the street. 

        When Yui finally gets to school she figures out that she got the time wrong and isn’t really late after all, so she attends her high school entrance ceremony. Afterwards, as Yui is walking around the campus, she gets bombarded with club recruitment pitches.

        A few days later (?), Yui is sitting at her desk looking at the school’s club enrollment form when one of her friends (Nodoka) is shocked that she hasn’t already enrolled in a club, Nodoka says, so this is how people become NEETs?  

      (Cultural Note : NEET stands for Not currently Engaged in Employment or Training, in Japan being a NEET can led someone towards becoming a  hikikomori-a person chooses to leave everyday, normal, Japanese social life, they tend to be unemployed and separate themselves away from the world.)

     Needless to say, Yui is quite upset about this reference, Nodoka says that she doesn’t think that Yui has ever been in a club. After thinking about what Nodoka said Yui thinks to herself that she really needs to do something, but what?

        Then we see two girls (Ritsu & Mio) finding out that the light music club is suspended.  No, it’s about to be suspended if it doesn’t get at least four members, they find this out from the music teacher. As they’re about to leave her office, Yui comes in and starts talking to the teacher, Ritsu and Mio give Yui the once over, and when Yui notices them looking at her she gets distracted and comes off looking clumsy, silly, and hopeless. Mio tells Ritsu that she’s going to join another club but Ritsu won’t let her off that easy.

     After school, Ritsu and Mio are in the light music club’s room when Ritsu says that they’ll just wait here until students show up wanting to join the club. After a while, Mio wants to head home when a girl looking for the choir club walks in, Ritsu immediately grabs onto her, wanting her to join their club instead. Mio pulls Ritsu off the girl and starts to leave, and Ritsu then pulls out a promise that they made together about being in a band. After a little while, the new girl starts laughing and says that they look like fun people so she’ll join their club, her name is Tsumugi and she can play keyboards. Now, all they need is a lead guitarist.

     Later on, Yui is walking home with Nodoka when she tells her she doesn’t know what to do about the club situation, and Ritsu, Mio, and Tsumugi are eating at a fast-food restaurant (Tsumugi says it her first time). The three girls discuss how they’re going to get a fourth member to join, and the next day we see that they’ve made posters advertising the club. As time passes, no one comes to join their club, but one day Yui sees the poster and has good memories from when she was a kid having fun with music. When Yui tells Nodoka about joining the light music club Nodoka tells her that she think that Yui will be joining a band. When the three girls find out from the teacher that they finally got a membership application they think that they’ve got a skilled member joining up.

      As Yui approaches the light music club’s door, she begins to get second thoughts and is about to walk off when Ritsu grabs her from behind. Ritsu finds out that Yui is the new member and apologises to her for thinking bad thoughts about her, you do know how to play guitar? Soon, Ritsu drags Yui inside the club and Yui gets served tea and cakes, and asked a lot of question like, who is her favorite band, who is your favorite guitarist, Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck? Poor Yui is so overloaded with stress that she sort of goes it to mental shutdown mode. But, after a while, Yui finally gets up the courage to tell them she has to quit the club because she can’t play the guitar. Despite hearing the bad news the other girls have to find a way to keep Yui or the club will be disbanded, they discover that sweets seem work just fine for a while.

      Try as they might, the girls are unable to keep Yui from wanting to quit the club until they ask her to listen to them play before she leaves. The girls play for Yui, and when they finish up, Yui claps for them. They all ask Yui what she thinks? Well, you’re not very good but it looks like a lot of fun, so I’ll join the club. Tsumugi tells Yui that she should take this opportunity to learn to play the guitar, Yui agrees, saying that after hearing them perform, it should be easy. When Yui tells Nodoka that she joined as a full member of the club, Nodoka wonders if that club will really be alright if they need a girl like Yui. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, here’s my review of K-On! episode one. If you’re a fan of slow paced, slice of life shows that are populated by girls who are sweet, cute, and generate feelings of moe, than K-On! is your show. If  I was to compare K-On! to other shows of it’s type I would compare it to Lucky Star, Manabi Straight, Azumanga Daioh, and other anime of that type.

      Being a first episode, we get intro ducted to many characters and we get a insight and understanding of their personalities. Yui, the main girl, is a very cute and sweet girl who is a little air headed and indecisive. In the first few minutes of the episode we see Yui in action, even though she’s running late for school she still stops to pet a cat, and help an old lady to cross the street. Yui likes cute things, and is prone to overreacting  and over thinking  things when she’s under stress. Yui likes cute and fun things, so I think that she’s only joining the club to have a good time. Ritsu, the club president and drummer, is the type of girl who rushes forward to get stuff done without thinking about it before hand. While Ritsu tries to use reason on Tsugumi, Mio, and Yui to get what she wants, she’ll still resort to begging if necessary. Mio, the bassist, seems to be the most normal of the girls, she’s also the quickest of the girls to say this isn’t working or this won’t work, Mio seems to be in the club only because her friend Ritsu is in the club. Tsugumi, the keyboardist, seems to be a nice and kind girl who’s in the club because she thinks that the other girls are friendly and fun, it also seems like her family has money because she’s never eaten fast food before.

      Well, K-On! might not have the most original character types or storylines going for it. But, I feel that this series will be very fun and enjoyable to watch, I’ll just have to constantly check my sugar levels to make sure that I don’t go into a hyperglycaemic coma due to having too much sugar in my blood.