Things are heating up for the Light Music Club. Not only is it the middle of Summer, Finals
are on the horizon as well. Scatter
brained Yui finds herself torn between studying and paying back a debt to a
kind neighbor but can she accomplish both of these tasks AND pass finals
too? Meanwhile Sawako’s past catches up
with her when her old bandmates come to recruit her for a reunion gig at a
wedding. Will the beautiful homeroom
teacher return to her dark rocker ways one more time? And when the going gets rough and even the
club room offers no comfort from the summer heat, there’s only one answer…a
trip to a summer rock concert festival.
There’s a moment in Tenchi Universe when Ryoko tells
Tenchi that she wishes the fun times she has with him and the rest of the
Masaki household could last forever.
Hearing that same sentiment voiced by every single member of the Light
Music Club definitely made me tear up a little this week. Even when things were kind of slow burn (and
at times maybe a little unnecessary), I don’t want the end times to come for
these girls. I want to see them playing music together forever. But rather than make this sound like the end
is here, how about I talk about this weeks set of adventures instead?
This week we got four stand alone and unique stories for
the LMC (Yeah how about I just go with that shortening for the rest of these
reviews). In most of them, the pacing in
the beginning was kind of off again.
Maybe I was overly excited to see what would happen with Yui during her
Talent Show competition or if the girls would get the AC unit for their club
room or what the big reveal would be at Sawako’s friends wedding
reception. I suppose that goes against
the “enjoy the journey, not the destination” mantra of K-On and I should be
mindful of that. In any case, cudos to
Kyo Ani for animating the heck out of Episode 11, man did I feel the heat that
was pounding everyone. How is this
studio so good at making real life in Anime feel more real than real life?
Thankfully, my eager anticipation for the climax of every
episode was more than well met. Yui and
Azusa doing an acoustic version of Fudapen Ballpen was excellent. Yui has come so far since her bumbling
beginnings in the club and she sounds better than ever, even if “Guita” isn’t
plugged into an amp. Same goes for
Azusa, who has both been mentor and mentee to Yui throughout the series. Seeing them play together felt right and
earned and made me want to hear some more of After School Tea Time’s songs
played in this manner. And WOW Sawako
upped the ante and her level of hotness when she took to the stage and
resurrected Death Devil. Frak she sounds
awesome…though now I’m wishing we could see a spin off prequel about her time
in school with the LMC cause those flashbacks looked so cool. As for the band getting AC in the club
room…well that episode wasn’t the best but as I said, the heated atmosphere of
a Japanese summer was well replicated by Kyoto Animation so props there one more.
The second season did take a chance to break the norm and
forgo another training camp episode.
Instead, Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, Azusa and (a hungover) Sawako, journeyed
to the Natsu Summer Music Festival. I
once again remembered why Mio has been my favorite character throughout
K-On. This time, it was because her
excitement and wanting to visit every music act on the schedule mirrored my own
experiences at Anime Conventions, right down to the friends reminding me that I
couldn’t attend every single event, much like Ritsu had to remind Mio. I feel like this could have been a two part
episode (one part even replacing the hunt for an AC unit episode) and shown off
more of the many bands that played throughout the festival. What we got was good though and ending the
episode on the image of the girls watching the festival from far off while
under the stars was one of the most perfect moments in K-On to date. Like they all agreed, memories and moments
like this make them want to play music together forever…how can I even begin to
argue with that? (I cant).
And what new adventures await our fearless quintet as the
winds of change begin to pick up speed?
We’ll find out next week as we kick off the second half of K-ON!! See ya
then everyone.
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