K-On! Introduction

Even though I wasn't interested in watching this anime when it was released, I now consider it the best of all the anime I've watched this spring. It is a story about four schoolgirls trying to reestablish the Keionbu (hence the name K-On), which basically means light music club. They face all sorts of trouble establishing the club, maintaining the club and also the challenges of everyday life. It's basically a slice of life themed anime.

The K-On Club is basically a band that plays anything from pop to light rock to hard rock. No jazz so far, but in a nutshell, it's a modern band.

Now let's do some character intro.

The main character is Yui Hirasawa. She has been a slacker all her life and, now that she's entered high school, is determined to do something other than roll around the house (literally) all day. And she chose the K-On group because she felt like trying out music (and because she felt like she could do it considering how the other members performed). But she can't play any instruments except castanets and she's being expected to play the guitar! Well, there's a start for her. She kinda (actually, really) reminds me of Ibuki Fuko from Clannad. She holds the role of guitarist in the band.

Next is Ritsu Tainaka. She is the self-appointed club president (since there wee no other members). She's the classic overly-energetic girl who's actually as lazy and almost as dimwitted as Yui. Her dream is to reestablish the club and play at the Budoukan (some famous rock band competition). Of course, she does get the club into a whole bunch of messes due to her rash and forgetful (she forgot to fill in the club application form after 2 months!) nature. She plays the drums in the band because she hates fingerwork.

Then, there's Mio Akiyama. She's the typical smart, serious girl. Picture Kagami from Lucky Star and you'll get a pretty close idea of her character. Despite her rational behaviour, she has many fears involving the most ridiculous things, e.g. rock band screaming with hoarse voices, blood, insects etc. Normally, she curls up in a corner and chants "I can't see it. I can't hear it." to herself. Ritsu always takes this chance to bully her. She plays bass because she has stage fright (expected). She also writes lyrics and will soon be vocalist (so much for stage fright) since Yui lost her voice due to excessive practice.

Finally, there's Tsumugi "Mugi" Kotobuki. She's the daughter of the president of a huge instruments company. She at first wanted to join the choir, but joined the K-On Club since she found Ritsu and Mio interesting (Finding interesting people was her whole reason for joining clubs). She always brings desserts for the club members to share. She is a very innocent person who has obviously lived a sheltered, comfortable life. It is now hinted that she's homosexual as she seems to blush whenever Sawako Yamanaka-sensei (a woman) is nearby. She plays the keyboard in the club but refused to be vocalist because she needs to fully focus on the keys.

Phew... that's the four main characters. The side characters so far are Ui Hirasawa (Yui's responsible, smart, hardworking, kind YOUNGER sister), Sawako Yamanaka (A teacher who was once the wild radical guitarist of the K-On Club) and Nodoka Manabe (Yui's childhood friend who is pretty much the same as Ui but less bubbly and smily).

For an anime based on music, the opening and ending aren't impressive. The pieces the club plays are pretty good but there have been no lyrics so far. The next episode will probably feature their first song.

To finish, I will now use Imprinting to influence you people to start watching the anime. (Note: Imprinting is the technique of inserting a word or phrase into a person's thoughts and causes the person to centralise his/her thoughts around the word/phrase. This technique comes from Square-Enix's highly-acclaimed title "The World Ends With You")