ascaloth: a straight forward, mostly descriptive review. He ends with:
And at the end of all things, at the end of the road, it’s finally time to say goodbye to these girls, once and for all. It has been a fun journey, and while this is the last we’ll see of them for a long time to come, the last time that they’ll sing for us After School, we can always take away from this journey the memory of how to enjoy the Light and Fluffy Time of life to its fullest, shedding what worries we may have at the end of the day. And someday, we’ll meet these girls we loved once again.
two commenters say that this episode was a good “send off”.
less blkmage: more opinionated and analytic than ascaloth’s, blkmage states that K-ON
was pretty entertaining until about halfway through the season. At that point, I began to get pretty bored of the whole thing. …What went wrong? What’s different about the slice-of-life formula that K-ON! uses? It’s just cake and moe, right?
It’s easier to quote his comparative section at length:
I’ve found that K-ON! is crtitcized for being too much cake and not enough music. I’ve come to realize that it does focus on music a lot. What’s surprising about this is that I find that this makes it uninteresting like other slice of life shows. See, the problem is that K-ON!’s music parts aren’t done very well. The most interesting thing about the music is watching them perform and that is rendered boring because of their attempts to avoid animating the playing of their instruments as much as possible. That leaves terrible and boring talks about music.
And since they focus on the music more than people realize and because it’s so boring, it renders the entire show boring. Outside of music, the girls are doing the same thing: eating cake instead of practicing, going on trips, and performing without it being animated. Unless they delve into more specific stuff about music, there’s really nowhere else they can go. I mean, when Azusa was introduced, it was just an excuse to repeat what they’d already done.
The difference between K-ON! and Hidamari or Lucky Star was that they didn’t just do the same stuff. Yeah, Hidamari was about art, but the stuff they did outside of that took up more time and was weirder, like the caterpillar or the box of seafood or Yuno’s acid trip when she had a fever. The same applies to Lucky Star, where Konata’s otakuism gives more room for interesting things to happen, like the cosplay cafe or Comiket.
I also remember someone mentioning Manabi Straight. They both share the band of friends trying to accomplish something against all odds, except Manabi Straight had real conflict as opposed to the manufactured crap that happened in episode 11. The characters had problems and they struggled through them and grew. And dear God, I can’t believe anyone would seriously compare Beck with this. Seriously, guys? Just because they both have gitahs?
hanners: delivers a descriptive summary and opinion section:
If nothing else, this episode is masterful at reminding us just how much life has been imbued into the show’s characters over the course of the series – It was actually really quite upsetting to see things going wrong for the girls, before of course they all pull back together in a final scene of abject happiness.
Really, that point is probably the biggest one in favour of K-ON! – Marketing machine it may be at its core, and I know some have felt disenfrachised with it as an actual piece of entertainment as the weeks have drawn on, but if nothing else the series has succeeding in pulling together a group of lovable characters even ignoring those much-discussed “moe elements”. Cute figureheads of that aforementioned marketing machine they may be, but beyond that they also exist as characters that you’d really quite like to spend some time with as genuinely fun characters. It’s that sense of fun that permeates through K-ON! from beginning to end, making it an enjoyable slice of life series in it’s own right – Yes, this show is no Haruhi (and indeed I think the return of that particular franchise has thrown this show’s capabilities into sharp relief in recent weeks), nor is it a study of up and coming musicians as some seemed to expect; it certainly isn’t KyoAni’s best work, but is watching a series just because it leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a handful of good laughs every week such a bad thing? I would suggest that it isn’t, and measured by those terms K-ON! is nothing if not a relative success.
taikutsu remedy: as more incendiary review, said author writes that K-ON is:
tired, uninspired and derivative. [K-ON] relies on its moe appeal to such an extent that any other matter of substance is sacrificed.
[...]
Kyoani, you can do better then this. Whilst I’m not much of a Haruhi fan, I can objectively say that it is a very good show. Even K-On had brief moments of brilliance; from genuinely witty jokes to inspired directing. But these moments were brief and fleeting. For the most part, you were perfectly content to take the easy path and substitute wit for tired jokes such as Mio getting freaked out or Azusa being moe.
Shame on you, Kyoani. You have creativity and talent to be so much more, yet you rather settle for rubbish. You are not some third rate studio, you are Kyoto Animation. You have supperbly talented directors. You have meticulous and skillful animators. Yet despite all these gifts, you’d rather produce derivative crap that does nothing but stiffle creativity in anime.
also helpful is the author’s posting the first impressions post from April.
janette (borderline hikikomori): talks about expectations:
I honestly really enjoyed and loved this series, and am sad to see it end. Which is odd, because it certainity isn’t the most fantastic/moving show I’ve watched or really spectactular in any way. Now let’s hope no one shoots me for saying that.
Overall, I really loved this series. Which is weird, as while it was a stand-out show for the spring season, in the world of anime it wasn’t really that special. Then again, I don’t think the show needed to be special to be successful.
I think my expectations had a lot to do with me developing a love for this show, as I never expected it to be amazing, or to move me. At first I expected this show to suck majorly, and then as I slowly fell in love with it, I expected to watch the adorable antics of these four and later five girls, and be entertained for half a hour. This show fullfilled these expectations and sometimes did a little more. I never expected too much, so it never let me down.
If last week was the spiritual finale to the show, it seems like the writers decided to mail it in for this week. Maybe they were only getting paid for 12 episodes, because I’d want my figurative money back for this episode, which probably shouldn’t have existed and unfortunately ends the show on somewhat of a down note.
All in all, it was a pretty lazy episode, not unlike Haruhi’s Someday in the Rain episode, but unlike that episode, this one didn’t have an awesome end scene to redeem it. When you pull the girls apart, remove their antics and their chemistry, there’s just not much to enjoy. It’s an unfortunate way to end the season, because I loved the show, but could have definitely done without this episode. I’d much rather have had them save their budget making this 13th episode and instead used it to animate more performance scenes throughout the season.
I’m surprised how I liked the final episode so much, considering that it was fairly uneventful. A lot of it has to do with how the girls live their personal lives through the winter, which shows some insights on their character.
Overall, I think of K-On as a decent show. I had fun watching it weekly, and was pretty low-maintenance (meaning you wouldn’t be so pumped to get the latest sub floating around), compared to, say, Eden of the East. Sure, complain that the animation is below normal KyoAni quality, but it still kicks the ass out of many shows. I find it inoffensive, though, to be unfruitful for trolling. This is not Beck, or God Knows drawn out to 13 episodes. Deal with it, because I did, and it saves all of us some grief.
Overall it wasn’t the best series EVAR, but it was enjoyable even if the music did not feature as prominently as I had initially hoped. I suppose as a slice of life thing it works as a tale of a club of four and later five girls and their very talented Teacher Advisor. To be sure there was lots of moe fodder to be had, but in the end it was kind of the point even if it got excessive at times. In the end I can only really recommend it for yuri subtext, moe, and some moments of comedy. On that level it does succeed, but it is hardly ground breaking.
Sigh. Kyoto and their sugar-free, fat-free “extra” episodes. I would have loved for K-On! to end on a high note, like their recent concert or Mio getting trained or Mio getting lesbian stalked, but, no, we’re getting a K-On! re-enactment of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 9. Though I like having more material, I just wish the material was… uh… better.
While this episode wasn’t as big of a tone shift as the Ritsu jealousy episode, I think this episode proves that K-On! is at it’s best when its working in its clever gags that really bring out the personalities of the characters. Kakifly has just been awesome at it in the manga, and I’d rather see more of that goodness than Ritsu going love struck.
wtf KyoAni?! I don’t even know where to begin. The last episode left me absolutely speechless as to how pointless things got. Ever since Haruhi, Kyoto Animation seems have had a licence to put out moe mediocrity and fanboys seem to swallow their shit up with every iteration.
The last episode was the epitome of this shit being dragged out to please the fans. [add vitriol]
See, wasting time on ordinary shit is only acceptable if it’s in Haruhi, because it never is ordinary with her. Nothing is. Plus the characters are too good, except Mikuru. Too moe and well deservedly messed around by Haruhi. Anyways, back to K-On!
For people who want to start watching it, expect nothing more than what you had with Lucky Star. Great characters, nothing happens in the end except whatever they do everyday. Maybe I expect greatness from everything KyoAni does. Whatever, Haruhi season 2 better be good or Ima have to choke a bitch.
and of course, there’s the Kaioshin post.