XCVIII: "K-ON!"

I heard of this title via a friend on DeviantArt, and sometime later saw a video copying its opening sequence using "Vocaloid" characters (courtesy of NicoNico Douga). K-ON! is an anime revolving around music, in the way Beck Mongolian Chop Squad did, this time focusing on girls.

K-ON! centers on 4 girls, one of which was drastic about saving the light music club from being terminated. Ritsu, alongside Mio, seeks out members to join the club before the termination date. The 3rd member of the group is Tsumugi, who joins after seeing a humorous moment with the other two. The last to join in is the anime's main character, Yui. Eventually, a group is formed, with Yui as lead guitarist, Ritsu as the drummer, Tsumugi, or Mugi, on keyboard, and Mio as bassist. Eventually a 5th member, Azusa, shows up to join as well. It's not all music, while it does focus on their student lives as well, albeit comical moments.

Originally a 4 panel comic known as a 4-koma, or yonkoma, it eventually spawned a 13 episode series in 2009. Attached to this was an OVA, though there are 4 after it titled Ura-On!, which are essentially mini-series episodes. Only one of those is a recap episode. In addition, a second season was released a year later, bearing 26 episodes, twice as long as the previous season. Fitting for it, the title got an extra exclamation mark, becoming K-ON!! This time around, all 5 members are a year higher, with Azusa being a second year student, and the rest third years. All the animated works were done under the Kyoto Animation studio, with Bandai localizing only the first anime for English. Apart from games dealing with this title, there is an animated movie in the works, set to release in early December. Stephany Sheh is the English voice of Yui, who not only did roles such as Eureka from Eureka Seven, but also helped with scripts for titles like Ah! My Goddess and Romeo X Juliet.

K-ON! is a slice of life anime that deals with music. Still, it has a spot in my mind as a title to come back to. K-ON! gets a 8.1 of 10, and I'm curious as to how the movie will turn out. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.