K-ON Season 2 – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: It's a new school year, and the members of the light music club are busy with preparations for their performance for incoming freshmen.  Also in the back of everyone's minds is the knowledge that four of the five members of "After School Tea Time," the band formed from light music club members, are graduating soon.  Their top priority is to try and get some new students into the club, otherwise Azusa will be the only member left once the others graduate.

The girls try many different things to try and drum up interest.  They hand out fliers while dressed up in mascot costumes.  They try joining up with other clubs temporarily in order to discern their recruiting tactics.  And they try to perform their very best at the concert for new students so that they might inspire some of them to join the club.  Unfortunately, nothing really works out and they're left with no new prospects.  Eventually, Yui comes to the conclusion that, despite the fact that the club might end up disbanding due to lack of members, it might not be so bad if the membership stays at just five people.  Even Azusa eventually agrees, though she promises to be very strict with Yui.

Thoughts: The original K-ON was a series that I passed on and which subsequently exploded in popularity.  My reason for not watching was simple: the first episode bored me to death and I found little joy in watching other girls spend their days acting silly and not really doing much of anything besides (eventually) making music.  Despite not having much motivation to do so, I decided to eventually watch the first season because, much like Toradora before it, I assumed that there must be something that I was missing, and my curiosity eventually led me to acquire season 1 with the intention to watch it and ponder its popularity.

Unfortunately, I never got around to watching the show before the first episode of this new season fell into my lap, but in spite of that I think I have a better handle on what people find so charming about these characters and their lives.  Since the show is mostly plotless, doesn't feature a lot of action, and its sense of humor isn't what I would call "biting," the compelling aspect of the series really boils down to its characters.  The characters really fit snugly into the "moe" category.  Before I'm accused of using that divisive term as an insult, I'd like to note that, in my opinion, this series avoids somewhat the source of my disdain for most moe entertainment, which is the tendency for characters to be created for the express purpose of eliciting moe feelings in the audience by drawing from a set of very iconic, obvious moe traits.  This show doesn't avoid that altogether, but the characters express these traits more subtly than in most series so it becomes more tolerable.  There's still an airhead, a shy girl and a sweet motherly type, but these traits aren't shoved in the viewers' faces or (from what I can tell) used as replacements for character development.

Another aspect of the charm is the expressive movements the characters have, thanks to the quality and fluidity of the animation.  I think that praising Kyoto Animation has gone a little bit overboard as of late, especially since they seem to be stuck in a rut lately of producing more "cute" stuff rather than more action-oriented material (hey, I'd stay in a rut too if it was making me the big bucks).  However, it's clear to me that, even though I don't have the skill to name all the key animation staff, I can tell that they're very talented and have a great eye for the subtlety of character movement.  Especially notable is the fact that characters are distinguished from each-other in the way that they move, in addition to their character designs.  Yui seems to be the most cutely portrayed and is often shown walking with her knees facing inward (not something I find very charming but it's certainly notable).  The others have differences in the way that they walk and how they carry themselves that makes the show fun to watch just from the point of view of someone interested in the technique and art of animation.

I'm not going to lie, though, I still find the show essentially boring when taken as a whole.  While slice-of-life isn't a genre that I actively avoid, I'm realizing more and more just how difficult it is to make series of this type entertaining.  In my case, the characters have to feel extremely real, full of depth, and interesting for me to be fully-invested.  In the case of, say, Ristorante Paradiso, the characters all seemed to possess a sense of dignity and maturity that caused me to want to know more about them.  In Azumanga Daioh, I felt like the quirks specific to the characters and the humor that sprung forth from that were balanced out well by their shared experiences together and the moments of simple beauty that happened from time-to-time.  With K-ON, I don't feel much of a connection to the characters, nor do I feel like they're people I'd like to know.  There's just enough of a hint of falseness in how they act that I feel as if the illusion is spoiled.  Whether or not a full viewing of season 1 would help to dispel this feeling this isn't clear to me.

This series has served as something of a scapegoat for the moe/anti-moe debate, and while I agree that I wish there were more balance in the type of shows being produced, I don't feel like it's fair to pin pin the blame entirely on this show, which is otherwise of decent quality in comparison to the glut of what most people consider to be "moe" entertainment.  It's clear that, even though the characters don't have that spark of life that I would really like to see and the story isn't incredibly inspired, it's clear that the production staff put a lot of care into the series' production.  It's got some quality animation work and it's nothing if not very pleasant to watch.  But I still have trouble seeing why it has such a passionate fan following, because I just can't forge a connection with the "cute girls doing cute things" brand of entertainment.  Perhaps it's just something with which I'll never quite be able to sympathize.

Pros:

• The animation is high-quality and the characters all have different nuances to their body movement.
• Overall the show is pleasant to watch.

Cons:

• "Cute girls doing cute things" is essentially the extent of the plot, not necessarily a terrible thing but...
• ...The characters just come across as a bit shallow. Not slaves to moe traits but not quite disconnected from them either.

Recommended? As a whole, I don't think I truly can.  Certain aspects, like the character animation, are worth checking out, and I may end up still watching more of the show because of it.  But beyond that there doesn't seem to be much of anything to really grab hold of.