Yui Hirasawa, Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka and Mugi
Kotobuki have graduated from High School.
As they head off to college, time returns to the days before their
momentous exit. Just what other silly
adventures did these four get up to along with their beloved younger sister
Azusa Nanako, their perfect ally Nadoka Manabe and their beautiful teacher and
mentor Sawako Yamanaka? And has the next
generation of the Light Music Club begun to take form with Ui Hirasawa and Jun
Suzuki working side by side with Azusa?
While these are important tales…there might be one more adventure
waiting in the wings that will take place far from home.
Huh, I cant believe for a while I thought about just
skipping over these and just going straight to the movie. Then again, these three bonus episodes of
K-ON!! are strange in that they both feel like prolonging the inevitable, aka
the end, but the end came and it was beautiful.
And I feel like they all could have easily been slotted into Season 2 at
various points and taken the place of some of the not so great episodes I
watched. However you look at it, these
bonus chapters are the last of the TV Series adventures and they reinforce what
has always been fact: you never want this journey with Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi
and Azusa to end.
The three extra episodes do a good job of delivering
classic K-ON fun while doing a great job of highlighting some of the more
special aspects of Season Two one more time.
One episode feels like a lighter episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi
Suzumiya, except instead of making Haruhi’s version of The Room, the LMC works
on a new recruitment video featuring slice of life moments and random blurbs
from various students who either aren’t aware of the LMC or are it’s biggest
fans. As great as the final product was,
I wish we could see more extended versions of the action and murder mystery
versions Ritsu and Mugi came up with.
I’m extra glad Sawako got an episode for herself, or rather an episode
to show not just how much the girls love their teacher and mentor, but how much
she truly cares about them. Sawako might
tease the girls with scandalous outfits and feel pressured to deliver as a
teacher, but she loves these girls like little sisters and the look on her face
as she watched them do her house chores while she was sick was a beautiful
image. As a bonus, we did get to see
Sawako with her Death Devil bandmates for one more second and in the same room
as the current LMC roster. We might
never see them play together but still, seeing the two generations interacting
even for a brief moment is always welcome.
Oh and best of all, we got confirmation that Azusa has successfully
recruited Ui and Jun into the next generation of the Light Music Club and we
get to hear them play a drumless, acoustic rendition of Fuwa Fuwa Time, no
doubt K-ON’s signature song by this point.
If there is any moment deserving of a “HELL YEAH” it’s this one, as it’s
the perfect capstone to Azusa’s personal mission and a sign that Yui and the
others can leave knowing their club is in good hands.
The first two extra episodes take place in between episodes
leading to the finale but the final, FINAL episode takes us back to summer and
shows us that the events that will be K-ON! The Movie! were being planned by
the girls well in advance. This does
make sense as I couldn’t see them just jetting off anywhere on the fly. Certain preparations had to be made and I
like that even at the end, no one could settle on a destination. True, if you know the basic premise of The
Movie, you know that where the girls are heading was mentioned in their list of
options. And yet, like K-ON always does,
it made an episode about getting ready for a trip months down the line feel
like an adventure in and of itself. I do
wonder if any of this is going to be covered again once we get to The Movie, or
if we’re just gonna jump right into the trip itself. Either way, you’ll be able to check out that
review on Wednesday.
Well, even though I gave my final thoughts and score on
Monday, I don’t think these three bonus episodes of K-ON!! changed my mind
about the score or my thoughts on the series as a whole. If nothing else, my only complaint is that at
least two of these episodes could’ve been subbed for others and reinforced the
ending before the ending while cutting out some slower episodes from the summer
arc. At the end of the day, these bonus
tales are one last little hurrah with Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, Azusa and their
friends on the small screen before their big screen final chapter…but really
you’ll probs just wanna start K-ON all over again and let the journey play on
repeat a couple more times because…yeah…the series may be over, but K-ON is
forever.
Alright…misty eyes dried, it’s time for that last
adventure. My review of K-ON! The Movie!
should be live in just a second. Head on
over to check it out and see if it continues the high note streak that Season
Two has concluded on: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/k-on-movie.html
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