As the second season of K-On! (K-On!!) begins airing today, I thought it was only appropriate to ramble on a bit, about the crazy huge franchise K-On! has become, after it’s 13 episode season aired back in June, last year. It has become a HUGE franchise, and I honestly, don’t understand. This is a somewhat in-depth look, at what feats the franchise has been able to pull off, over what I call, an overrated series.
History
K-On! was originally a manga series, written and illustrated by Kakifly. and was published as a four panel comic in “Manga Time Kirara”, in may of 2007. The first volume of manga was published on April 2008. Kyoto Animation (known for producing Anime icons such as Haruhi and Lucky Star) decided to animate the manga, into a 13 series anime, airing from April to June, as part of the Spring season of 2009. Since then, the series has three volumes of manga, 13 episodes of the first season, an original video animation (Jan 20, 2010) and now, a second season, with probably another 13 episodes.
Statistics:
MyAnimeList has more than 40000 entries for K-On! and has a score of 8.13, ranking it as #268 (as of Apr 6)
Won “DVD of the year” in the TV/Anime category for 2009’s Gold Disc awards.
Won Tokyo’s Anime Fair for the Telveision Category.
Sold over 30,000 copies of Volume 1 of K-On! In blu-ray upon week of release, ranking it #2 of all blu-ray discs sold that week.
K-On!’s first volume at the time of release on DVD was the largest number sold of any anime on day of release. Outselling the first DVD of Haruhi by over 9000. (actually)
“Don’t say “lazy”” won “best theme song” category at the 14th Animation Kobe Awards.
“Don’t say “lazy”” ranked #1 single/album of all Japan upon release.
K-On’s Mio and Yui have been ranked #1 choices for “wife” throughout surveys.
Sankaku Complex has “A list of truisms”. On that list, there are many I agree with. “Clannad is life”, “Kanon is a miracle”, “ef is Melody”, “Code Geass is National Discourse”, “Kodomo no Jikan is Discord” but “K-ON! is Our Raison D’être”?!?
The Story
I’m sorry… What story? Yes, I’m one of the “haters”. K-On! truly is, a series that I don’t get. On the viewers choice awards by the fansub group “gg”, K-On! won most votes for “Achievement in High School Bullshit“. The series, if you haven’t seen it, is about this super-un-co sleazeball-ish girl who doesn’t know anything who wants to join a music club, and by chance, happens to have all this “talent” despite never having picked up a guitar before. It makes me feel as though that it’s trying to lighten up the hearts of lazy-hermit like otaku who believe they can’t do anything with their lives, and that one day, they’ll manage to find something they can do perfectly despite not putting any effort to doing so. The music club goes on to do live performances at the School’s festival, as well as go on… mis-adventures. The whole “plot” is more fan-service to “entertain” the viewer rather than place the viewer into a position of deep-thought. Okay, the point is, I think that K-On! is really for the simple-minded who don’t like to think. So, if you’re looking for some psychological thriller like… say… Death Note… I have no idea why you’d even want to watch this… This is for the “Type B” otaku.
The Characters
By far, my biggest gripe with the series, are the characters. I find them to be incredibly generic, and stereotypical. Yui – The lazy, immature dumbo who doesn’t know a thing about anything. Mio – The super-shy, smart and centre of “moe”-dom who leads the group. Ritsu – The tag along who generally sends the shy-one into situations they don’t want to go in, as well as being a bit of a sleazeball. Tsumugi – The super rich one who is more unaware than stupid. (K-On! may as well be some weird messed up romance story…) Azusa – Something the writers added to keep the series going. =P Sawako – More for the fanservice/comic relief when there is no comical part… But she’s not very comical in my opinion. Ui – The super-mature opposite sibling who has crazy high tolerance. Nodoka – The only really “normal” character that actually understands the world… I’m not really at all impressed at the originality of the characters, but for some reason, the world/otaku fanbase loves them… I have no idea why… Except for Mio.
The blogger “Yuribou” has a nice analysis of “the yuri potential” of the series… (Note the link has somewhat explicit images… Don’t click it kiddies!) It’s somewhat scary how true it could be… I mean, there were so many awkward moments that so could have been taken in a yuri-like manner… Especially Tsumugi…
The Mio
Yes, she gets her own category. Mio’s popularity is insane, and really, she’s the only one I can actually understand the reasons for her popularity. She essentially fits the ideal profile for the creation of rivers from otaku nose-bleeds. A smart and talented musician who is also incredibly shy and easily embarrassed. She’s has a somewhat easy-going approach, remaining mature most of the time, centre for light teasing and easy to frighten. Left-handed, nice long black hair, plays bass, wears blue and white stripped underwear? Really… what more could you want in a girl? The only question remaining unanswered is: can she cook? If she can, that’s another moe-characteristic. If she can’t, then that’s also another characteristic… The only way she couldn’t gain more moe-points is if she’s mediocre at cooking…
Kakifly really did make her almost the definition of “moe”. Almost so, that I feel that her “moe” is somewhat forced upon her. More that the writers actually wanted everyone to “love” her than for Mio to earn the rights in otaku hearts. But either way, it worked, and K-On! has become an incredible powerhouse in moe-contests around the world. Really, who wouldn’t want to tell her something weird about barnacles, tease her slightly, and watch her cower in a corner crying? Imagine the POWER you would feel… Making a shy girl cry… Yeah… … …
The Music
I’m not actually what’s more the draw point for the series… The music or the characters? A combination of the both? The ED “Don’t say “lazy””, upon release, was positioned at #1 of all Japan according to Oricon, as well as on Amazon Japan. The OP “Cagayake Girls” also upon release, was positioned at #2 for both Oricon and Amazon as well. The now-somewhat famous “Fuwa Fuwa Time” upon release ranked #3 on Oricon’s national charts on release. “Hōkago Teatime,” a character CD for K-On! also reached #1 position of all Japan’s CD sales upon week of release, selling over 60000 copies, making it the first time an Anime Character CD had taken the top position. Three K-On! Image CDs ranked #3, #5 and #6 simultaneously on Oricon making it the first time that “three releases credited to fictional characters from the same anime” had made it at the same time, into the top 10.
“Haruhi Live episode went down well –> Haruhi music sold well –> let’s animate something about music –> Let’s animate K-ON!” Pretty much…
The Popularity
The series itself is extremely popular, and it’s fanbase is widespread. I imagine it’s very hard not to run into some K-On! at Anime conventions all around the world now. There are many live action takes of K-On!, and a LOT of merchandise. With K-On! raising guitar sales, as well as making people buy some kettles, pens, bags etc featured in K-On!, there are some who just can’t help themselves, ending up buying guitars, mics, merch, dvds and a whole lot of other K-On! stuff. Wow there are some obsessed people out there.
Not to mention the moe contests of last year, and the ones that are currently going this year. Mio had EASILY won the first perioid of voting for ISML 2010, winning the Amethyst necklace, and well on her way to winning ISML altogether. (well, that’s my prediction anyway).
Then there’s that “Moe moe kyun~!” thing that I found… annoying… Geez….
Conclusion
For anyone who was around for the whole “Haruhi is an otaku’s life” sort of phase, this is the new Haruhi.
I don’t fully understand K-On!’s popularity. To me, it was a pointless series, that somehow dragged in a lot of money for Kyo-Ani, Kakifly, Merchandise manufacturers and Pony Canyon. It also gave the seiyuus for K-On! a huge boost in popularity. For me, I see very little value in watching the pointless-ness of the series, having already seen the first, I have no intentions on seeing the second.
“K-ON! is Our Raison D’être”? – Na-ah. No freakin’ way.
東方は宗教
Touhou is Religion
K-on! is good
Yeah, I share your listlessness towards K-on!
The original manga was rather droll as well and the second season is just as average. The only reason it was made was to sell (ridiculously overpriced) CDs.
The one question I’ve always wanted answered (as a Japan resident) is: How the hell can music companies get away with selling singles (2-3 songs) for $20 each and albums (12-15 songs) for $35-40? Especially when you can get them from iTunes store digitally for $0.99!
It just doesn’t make any sense!!
I can understand the dissapointment with the plot, despite the act that I’m a huge an of the show. It did leave quite a bit behind, ecxept in a couple of episodes. I don’t agree with the “raison detre” statement, that sounds like it should be aimed more at something like Lucky Star, (whose sole purpose is the exploration of realistic life situations, with a degree of imagination you would only ind in an otaku, and the pros and cons of otaku-ism itself), than K-On. That sentence eels more at home aimed at the J-Poppers of the world (again, people like me). Because, despite it’s ridiculous pricing, the music is actually much better than what you get from most animes.
[…] related awards, and the fact that one of the largest Japanese Anime Forums has accepted “K-on! as their reason for life” as a ‘truism’, just to name a […]
The show is just not for people like you. Simple really. For the rest of us it’s great. Go watch something else, not every show appeals to everyone.
[…] were also in pretty short supply. What gives gais? I thought folks were naming K-ON as their raison d’etre? Or wait, do those consist mainly of hikkikomori kimoi […]