I have not kept up with episodic blogs re: K-ON!! but a series of posts on Fuzakenna! got me to organize a lot of the thinking I’ve been doing on the show, to the point that I’m breaking my usual publishing schedule to do this post.
One of the big areas of conflict facing the Light Music Club is the threat of discontinuity, that is, the lack of new members. This is most acutely felt by Azusa. Naturally, because she will inherit an empty club and find herself without a band. The first episode of this ‘season’ is titled “Abolition of the club!”
This is serious because it is direct and powerful: from Light Music Club to no Light Music Club; it almost goes without saying that HTT will disband.
There was a lot of ineffective effort to get new members, but these were unsuccessful.
Yui got a fake soft-shelled turtle, Ton-chan, as a surrogate for new club members for Azusa. Then Ui wins a fake (stuffed toy) version of the pseudo soft-shelled turtle. This is dark comedy gold: a fake something to fake another thing altogether, when that thing being faked is of real significance and utter importance to someone. Who knew this show can offer such a cruel joke on its cast?
Ton-chan isn’t some kind of throwaway detail too! Azusa grows into her relationship with the turtle, struggling to understand how others find it cute. When confronted with the responsibility (or her lack of it) when it comes to feeding and caring for it, she pulls through and goes to the club room on a Sunday. On that same day, Ui wins a prize in the batting cage: a giant stuffed version of Ton-chan — another layer of (fake) reference to the theme of the problem that Ton-chan was meant to, but is horribly miscast to address.
The members of the Light Music Club are consistently half-assed about doing music, and are irresponsible about club administration and ‘pursuing their dreams’ altogether. This to me is a very interesting detail. It shows in their preference to while away their time goofing off rather than confronting the threat of the club being discontinued, and Azusa’s own feelings and concerns about this. Teenagers aren’t good at confronting reality. To make an analogy, adolescents eat junk food without much thought, only to feel the consequences of poor nutrition once their metabolisms normalize upon adulthood.
It speaks to the human condition of the show’s viewers. What are we doing, watching shows like this? We think we can get away with gratifying simple desires without confronting complexity?
Yes, it is very easy to reduce K-ON!! into gross simplifications:
- Cute girls being cute
- Moeblobs doing nothing
- A show not about music, and nothing else at all
- Plotless (pandering drivel)
etc.
This is what I would say how the plot of this show goes: girls who aren’t all that into music form a music club up until the end of high school. The plot becomes so because of the conflict – that the club may cease to exist – the way it was before Ritsu and Mio revived it. It’s nice and symmetric too, it’s just not obvious. The conflict doesn’t seem important enough for the main cast.
And this is what makes it delicious! Many viewers, and many more from the ranks who enjoy the show are said to be ‘database animals’ – that are, viewers who don’t require media to possess plot or complex narratives as long as certain desires are fulfilled from a database of items and tropes:
- Yuri (with sub-categori siscon/sister-sister incest) subtext
- Moe elements (many variations as sub-categories)
- Young / school-age characters
- Very few males per scene
- Beach episodes (implies swimsuits)
- Bath house/hot springs episodes (implies nudity)
etc.
The subject doesn’t have to mean anything. The subject need not say anything important or even interesting. The ‘animals’ instinctively consume it for the gratification. It’s as if the subject show is a unit of food that has empty calories. While there is nothing inherently, objectively, or morally wrong about this, these viewers are missing an opportunity.
Yes, an opportunity to appreciate complexity. Beneath the sheen of superlative production values, the complexity lies: these girls will meet their reckoning. Do they value the club as much as they think they do? Do they really expect they can buy Azusa off with a supposedly ‘cute’ turtle? With smothering attention? Azusa is stated to need underclassmen to take care of, just as the graduating class took care of Azusa. I say that in the past tense, because it is questionable how they’re taking care of her now.
If the club is indeed as valuable, it isn’t evident in their actions. Music may not be as important as idling their time, but the cost of that idling is critical to the succession of the club.
What are the possible resolutions to this conflict?
- From within the show we see a possibility that Suzuki Jun and Hirasawa Ui may join Azusa. The pretext is that they played music in episode 05 inside the Light Music Club’s room. Ui can play the guitar as well as the organ, as shown in episode 13 of the 2009 season.
- From outside the show (as the ending credits exist not within the continuity of the narrative) we see a dark-haired girl who looks younger than the band members. She could be a future band member.
Depending on how you feel about the club continuing on (I can appreciate a tragic ending where Azusa is absorbed by the Jazz Club after the Light Music Club is abolished and HTT disbands) during her time.
The narrative tells us that things work out in the end, and it ends quite simply. But to reach it, and to perhaps take a larger satisfaction from it, we could appreciate some complexity and relish the conflict in the story.
Further Reading
The database expands by putting more music-related elements in the show without actually adding new music (lelangir 05/13/2010)
Azuma Hiroki’s lecture on otaku and database postmodernity.
The constructs of appreciating K-ON! (pontifus 04/29/2010)
Round Two, Match 3 I’m up vs. Hanners Anime Blog; last chance to help me out: Vote now! Poll is closing by the end of today.
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I never did get the plot-less argument from people. I’m sure everyone has narratives that form in their own lives, and you’ve done a pretty good job of showcasing the narratives here. As such, any resolution is unlikely to be as definitive as your 2 possibilities for Azusa. New people come in, other leave never to be heard from again and circumstances dictate what some people have to do, just like real life.
On second thought, did I finally get slice-of-life anime in just those few sentences?
>>I never did get the plot-less argument from people.
People will not see what they don’t want to see. Because K-On! was so popular on arrival, much like Lucky Star, a lot of people who ordinarily would not be at all predisposed to enjoying it ended up watching it just because of the hype, some out of genuine curiosity, which can lead to A. actually liking and getting the show or B. not understanding the show due to sheer lack of experience with it’s ilk, and others would have watched the show just to try and disprove it’s goodness by striking out against it’s popularity. These people will not see what makes the show great because they don’t want to.
I can understand what you are saying in a way. Like my own experience reading the Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou manga, which was sold to me as the ultimate slice-of-life experience. That kind of buildup ultimately led to a disappointing time reading through all of it, and while I do get tempted to try to strike out against its cult popularity there would be no gain from it.
Any chance you can talk about these experiences in a post? As someone who loves the series, it would be cool to see a contrasting viewpoint on the series, as well as try to find out how you were looking at the series compared to me. 😛
I am all too familiar with it’s “ilk” and that’s part of the problem. As ghostlightning said the show works by fulfilling a specified list of desires for it’s audience. Basically the simplest way to build a media franchise, give the people what they want.
The obvious drawback here is that when something is so simple and yet popular so there get to be other shows trying to immitate it that they all start to suffer from a “seen one seen them all” list. Also it keeps one tight-knit group in, but pretty much everyone else out. It’s the quintessential love it or hate it experience.
Those are the reasons why I personally am so dismissive of it. Can’t say if other people have thought about it or just all jumped aboard on the “grrrr me hate moe” bandwagon. Me, I get the show believe me, but unfortunately that’s exactly the reason why it barely interests me beyond the whole controversy discussions. Call me option C, please…..
Thank you.
The resolution you describe points toward a melancholy end, which IIRC the first season kind of did anti-climatically with its bonus episode.
The narrative becomes a plot due to the existence of conflict. Otherwise, it’s really just a news story.
This is interesting to hear – I put the first season on hold indefinitely because it was fairly plotless, and even though I was enjoying it I had other things I wanted to watch. I do want to pick it up again~ Also, another J above me, hi. xD
Be warned – if you do not look for it, you probably will not find any more plot than you did before. The show has not changed, but merely the perception of it among individuals, both myself and Ghostlightning included.
There is a plot, objectively speaking. There are intentions and tensions in the narrative that require resolution. It’s easier to spot in the second season, but the way I read or view narratives is to place them in a single continuity (especially if it is the case; this show occurred the school year after the last).
Ur doin it very right 😀
Lovely post. Though I for one have, as I have almost never before, actually built myself into a corner with expectations. Unless the band continues to play together after graduation, i will not be satisfied.
Similar to the foreshadowing that it won’t happen because the girls don’t seem to care enough, I think that !! has shown foreshadowing that it WILL happen, in that the series has put much more focus on the music and increasingly made it clear that music may be more important to the girls than first thought. Ritsu came to terms in episode 3 with the fact that she cannot leave behind the drums. In that same episode, Mio gave a stirring speech about her love for the bass. Yui’s love for Giitah might be a little (a lot) misplaced, but her love for staying with her friends overrides it.
Graduation doesn’t mean they have to break up. Think back to Nana when the group took on Shin even though he was only 15. K-On!! isn’t Nana of course, but the show has a lot of sense – I think it can figure out how to keep the group together after high school. And if it can’t figure that out, I will be disappointed.
The band could still play together I suppose, but the story is about the Light Music Club (see title) and not H0-Kago Tea Time. The band will remain secondary, more a focal point for their friendship than anything else.
Three ads to beat one opponent. Are you that desperate to face me?
You’re the only one allowed to defeat me.
…assuming I even get past this round orz
Well I lost to Hanners, have fun with him next round.
It’s just tiring try to say that not having a plot doesn’t make a show inherently inferior. I mean, the same logic that underpins racism and other irrational things is the same thing here. It has no plot. Who cares? Highbrow art my ass. There’s a lot of thought put into this show.
This also means that I’m averse to reading k-on as if it had a plot. The ‘conflict resolution’ part you describe doesn’t have to mean it has a ‘plot’. Not sure…that’s a question for cuchlann/pontifus.
If I imply that lacking plot is inferior, then I’m wrong to do so. I don’t mean to invalidate database animals, I only mean to show that there’s an opportunity to appreciate the complexity offered by plot, and that a plot indeed exists.
K-ON! is just a really [really] slow-motion version of Nana.
You’ll have to substantiate your claim bro!
Nana is one of my favorite manga and I trust myself to know it fairly well.
Non-literal. Girls, music, plot. Girls, music, plot… K-ON!’s pace serves the illusion of a non-existing plot.
Although, I’m afraid to claim this is a hero’s plot.
You can’t even use that broad brush.
Nana is a story of 2 Nanas through mostly their love affairs and their bond with each other. Only one Nana has a band, and her band-mates are dudes.
And Kamina couldn’t acquire Gurren.
“K-ON! is a story of five girls through mostly their daily affairs and their bond with each other.”
I’m kidding with you, but I do have a reason why I made this comparison. K-ON! is progressive, no doubt, and recalling the episode where Ritsu thinks she found a love letter dabbles in the existence of that possibility. Extrapolate K-ON! and it’s generally real packaging and the possibility of more complex situations for these girls, especially those dealing with relationships, isn’t too far fetched imo.
Fundamentally, they are completely different stock, and my extrapolation is a pipe dream; a genre restructuring is highly unlikely, even if tapered. So when I say “K-ON! is a slowed down Nana,” I am not of serious tongue. 🙂
well while y’all pontificate about the ramifications of girls playing music, I’ll be over here ruminating on the intricacies of a boy failing to give a man his coffee, a man in a bartender suit punching stuff, and a halfboiled detective and his google partner beating up guys in suits
i think that’s probably why I’m so disinterested in K-On, the underlying concept of LOL GURLZ PLAYIN MUZAK doesn’t sound appealing to me, the only thing close that I liked was the episode of Haruhi where she got roped into playing music for some school stuff
i mean, right now I’m watching/have on backlog BIGASS SPACE OPERA (LOGH), CHICKS DIG GIANT ROBOTS (megas xlr), COCKROACH FRENZY (heroman), PHILIPPEDIA (kamen rider w), RENTON THURSTON’S MAGICAL FAIRY ADVENTURE, THE PIMP ADVENTURES OF J.U. TYLOR, FLATTER THAN BATSHIT CHILDSUCKING VAMPIRE (DtB S1), A MA ZOOOON (kamen rider amazon), “case of the disappearing kamen rider 1 and 2” (kamen rider v3), “takemura animal antics” (ippo), last two MSG movies, megazone 23, LINA INVERSE HAS A CHEST INFERIORITY COMPLEX, mazinkaiser, and THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF NOZOMU AND KAFUKA, and kamen rider den-0
not much room in my value system/whatever for KAWAII GURLZ WITH GUITARS, ya know?
(longass commentsssssss)
What motivates you to go out of your way to not participate in a discussion and say how much better you’re spending your time?
Seriously not everyone will be interested in this show, but what makes your particular disinterest important for us to know?
And btw I’ve seen a number of the shows you’ve mentioned and like them too. So what?
Pft, as if you’re not used to non-contributing replies by now. 😛
Like you’ve mentioned yourself, the genre that K-On is part of will not be liked by everyone, in much the same way that ARIA will not be liked by everyone (except perhaps by increasingly old maids like yours truly).
Well, yes; it doesn’t mean that I can’t attempt to turn the conversation into something contributory.
Aria is awesome, my wife and I like it very, very much.
it’s more of a “you and 21stDB can make me see the merits of watching it, but I still don’t want to” than anything else
Merits if it was my thing, specifically.
K-On is a rough point for me because I’ve heard enough goddamned drama surrounding it that hearing about it even now gives me a subconscious knee-jerk reaction.
Did this guy just have an adrenaline rush partway through typing whatever it was he said? Like he just completely lost it, it was great. Good post buddy.
I was really frustrated with the first season of K-On, when nothing much really happened. Gradually it started to grow on me, and I still find it a very enjoyable series now. I’ve come to like the laid back slice-of-life moe atmosphere it has going on; some more music would be nice, but I like the show as a whole.
Azusa, Ui and Jun are very cool characters, but I’m still not sure if the club could continue on. The girl in the ED seemed like a sort of alternate Mio to me, but it’d be interesting if they somehow incorporated her into the show… K-On seems like a very simple series to me, and I can’t help but think that they’ll resolve their problem in a simple manner as well. Who knows x3
It grew on me faster than it did for you, though I felt like I needed to apologize for liking the show back then. Silly, but it happened.
The uncertainty of the club’s future is interesting, yes. There’s no solid indication that it will go on, and there may be a kind of ending that is perhaps not tragic, but is melancholy.
I think I can enjoy that a lot as well.
Ghostlightning: The girl in the ED is just Mio dolled up and wearing an alternate costume.
Given how the 4koma of K-On (much like Lucky Star) is still ongoing, there’s still a lot of places the story (or lack thereof) can go. In the most recent chapter, for example, we slowly see how the normally listless Ritsu and Yui seem to be genuinely interested in keeping the band together after high school, to the point that they joined Mio in applying for the university Mugi is going to, despite the fact that their grades aren’t that good.
The seniors graduating would also open the door for the Sophomore Trio to take the spotlight. Although this might cause a divided ‘narrative’, as the comic will have to devote its scenes between Yui and her friends, and Azusa, Ui, and Jun. Has that been done in a slice-of-life 4koma before?
Interesting stuff. I don’t regularly read 4koma so I’ve no answer for you.
The post-high school continuity is a plot line, consistent with the stay-together motivation of the characters, and they could still be HTT that way. The Light Music Club can then continue with the new members.
Re: Alternate Mio, I don’t know, I spent a lot of time looking at the ED prior to writing the post, the unnamed girl is objectively shorter, and the eyes look different (not to mention the curly hair).
Yeah I’m not sure about ED girl myself. From the perspective of having seen lots of music videos, I at first thought it might be an alternate Mio, justified by the fact that the lead singer often gets the lead role in a music video, but the harder I looked, the less it looked like her, and in K-On the whole band is equal. It also doesn’t go against my music video knowledge for the band to meet someone entirely different, so my final verdict is that it is not Mio.
They could still be part of the Light Music Club when they get to college, as there’s nothing also preventing the existence of such an organization in Japan’s Women’s University (good times, as it reminds me of PWU). Providing that Yui and Ritsu actually pass the entrance exam, of course, but that can easily happen via writer’s fiat.
In that light, it seems that the longevity of the ‘Light Music Club’ isn’t in question, at least with the main quartet. The issue now lies with Azusa, as she’d have to attract new blood for the club in high school.
That would be like a different branch of the light music club, like club for Sakura High Alumni. But it wouldn’t be the same, not yet.
It could be though.
Great, now I’m looking at the ED with a magnifying glass. 🙂
In that series of screenshots of Yui’s exchange with Nodoka, I believe you forgot the most important part: The realization that we see dawn on Yui’s face when she comprehends what’s going to happen to Azusa next year. It was remarkably subtle, but I think that was the first time we ever saw something like sadness (real sadness, not quite what we got at the end of the first season) in the show.
Yui is particularly fond of Azusa though.
Yes, which is my point. We’ve known Yui’s fond of her, but this seems to be the first time it’s made an impact on the themes of the show and the way it proceeds. And that’s in episode one, to boot.
Just to show how much I hate the Death of the Author theory, I’ll reference the comic dealing with the start of the Light Music Club’s third year:
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/k_on/v03/c005/5.html
As you can see, that moment with Yui coming to grips with Azusa being left alone is not in the original, meaning it’s pretty much an expansion by the studio.
I took consideration of the end of the episode, wherein it was Yui herself authentically says that she’s fine with just five of them (ambiguously not specifying if it was Sawako or Azusa is the fifth). Yui makes a statement, all serious.
When Azusa enters the room, everyone acted as if caught red-handed. This prompted Azusa to say that it’s quite okay (as referenced by Myssa’s link).
In subsequent episodes, Yui gets Azusa Ton-chan.
All those details I think, are far more relevant than what Yui showed Nodoka.
Do note that the turtle is *also* something KyoAni threw in. It’s one of those additions that work however, much like how Ai-chan was completely absorbed into the ARIA anime, instead of popping up ON THE VERY LAST PAGE of the ARIA manga.
Compare to, oh, Konoe Fumina from Shana 2nd, who *was* an intrusive addition.
I haven’t seen Shana, but I agree with your observation on Ai-chan and the pseudo soft-shelled turtle.
That’s why I find it funny how people dismiss K-On as an example of a lazy production with little creativity involved, when in fact the scenario writers have their work cut out for them since they have to fill in details not seen in the source material. Okay, it’s filler, but it’s good filler in that it expands ideas already inherent in the source (unlike some shounen series I shall not name).
Hmm, I’m reminded of Sasada from Natsume’s Book of Friends, a character who, in the comic, moved out as soon as her particular supernatural issue was resolved, but stuck around not only through the whole of the first season, but into the second season as well. In any other production it might have been a bad idea, but much like Ai in ARIA, her continued presence wasn’t so out-of-place at all (although it gave Shippers something to focus on).
I am equally amused (not sure if want) at people who insist that there is no fruitful thing to get out of serious analysis of the show; as if there is a single proper way of appreciating it.
Serious analysis, as far as I’m concerned isn’t ‘better’ or superior to any other approach. To me it is all about fun, only because I’m inclined to take pleasure at thinking, not because I want to prove that I am superior.
The three juniors playing in episode 5 is a really good omen. I mean, WITH SUCH A SIMPLE SONG THEY HAVE DEMONSTRATED THEIR WEATHER-ALTERING ABILITIES WHEREIN THE RAIN STOPPED AND THE SUN SHINED THROUGH.
Such power is last seen on those bugle and trumpet players in Sora no Woto. Yeah, those characters who could stop a war.
Yeah, stop a war like Macross idols.
Now all we need is some mecha in K-ON!!
You speak the truth.
/thread over.
References to people like Azuma Hiroki remind me why I read this blog.
There are a few others who did it first, but I do work hard. Thank you.
When you over analyse anime like K-ON!, it just becomes pointlessly inane. While it is true that K-ON! lacks substance and plot, people like it just the way it is; fluffy, cute and an exemption of relaxation, the feeling of your stress washing away after a long day. I would think only a small number of people watch it because of it’s suggestful nature, there are alot of decent people out there who dislike fanservice, they aren’t gay either.
When you under-read a blogpost like this and make broad dismissals the way you just did, you don’t avoid inanity. There is nothing wrong about enjoying lightness and fluffiness and I am an advocate of that. There is nothing here that says that approach is wrong. What you can’t do is prescribe only one proper way to enjoy this show, or anything for that matter.
Your dismissive stance of the fun, yes fun that some people have when thinking about stuff takes away from your authority to pronounce anything as inane. So I respectfully disagree and invite you to consider that what we do here is not to try to impress you or ‘sound intelligent.’ This is as fun for me as it would be for those who enjoy it for its suggestive nature or for fanservice; which is not bad or wrong.
Neither is being gay.
I didn’t say fanservice was wrong, I said looking so carefully for it in an anime like K-ON! just makes it seem stupid, there was nothing wrong with using the word Inane either, you summarised K-ON! into 4 points how does that not imply inanity???
Quote from your post:
Yes, it is very easy to reduce K-ON!! into gross simplifications:
■Cute girls being cute
■Moeblobs doing nothing
■A show not about music, and nothing else at all
■Plotless (pandering drivel)
Correct me if I’m wrong but that is what you were trying to get across right?
or does it require some sort of hardcore interpretation not to “under-read” your ideals O.O
Yes it is easy but it is not wrong. The misconception is that the show is plot-less. While it can be enjoyed without the plot (as I am perfectly able to enjoy shows with bad plots for other reasons), it doesn’t mean that the plot doesn’t exist.
Do you get what I’m sharing here?
There is an alternative way of having fun with this show, but is merely an opportunity, and this post is an invitation.
I seek not to invalidate you, but you attempt to invalidate me by insinuating what I did here is inane. It is unnecessary, this conflict, because you don’t have to accept the invitation.
Can I rephrase what I said earlier? I meant when over analyse it, YOU MAKE IT (the Anime) seem inane. NOT your post, your post has plenty of good AND valid arguements, and I’ve definitely have taken them into account, I just mildly disagree with your complete confidence in them.
I mean I’ve even stated myself that: “K-ON! lacks substance and plot”, I didn’t say anything bad about your post either…to me it seems like your just looking for the insults or “conflict” in my comments yourself.
If so then kindly accept my apologies. Thank you for clarifying.
It is foolish trying to determine the plot for K-ON because they are non-existence since the very beginning. People either watch this because they are moe-addict, lolicon or simply because they feel obligated to watch this, so that he/she can rant with the others when they said how crappy this shit it (me).
Surely you have the weight of statistics and airtight logic to back up this totalizing claim, but you may be just attempting humor.
Pft. It’s obviously baiting you there, GL. 😀
What about people like me who don’t like moe, is definitely not a lolicon (you’d have to be a male for that), and is not obligated in any way, but like Slice-of-Life shenanigans? 😀
I’ll give people the benefit of the doubt that they actually intend to contribute to the discussion.
I totally agree with your outlier-of-outliers case in point. Me? I’m hardly the target market either: I like my anime violent and with lots of robots. Having other things to enjoy is good too, is what I’ve learned.
“While there is nothing inherently, objectively, or morally wrong about this, these viewers are missing an opportunity.”
You know, most people would say that that missed opportunity would pertain to the band playing more music. And to that, I’d say that doing that would fulfill another part of the ideas and tropes that fans enjoy.
And while I agree about the idea that with this new season, there’s been a increased “focus” or drive as we try to figure out what’s going to happen with the band, I don’t agree with how you interpret things are going on. Maybe that’s because it seems like you’re spreading out feelers on how things would be here, whereas I’m “living in the moment” with the light music club while watching?
Dammit, you might just be getting me started here. >_<
You’re talking about a different thing here: the opportunities for the narrative to feature more of a certain thing or go into a certain direction. I’m talking about us viewers appreciating something that we may not be requiring the show to have.
It would be like say, appreciating slice of life elements, or moe elements in a mecha show. It’s not something I’d require the show to have or is central to my appreciation to it, but if it’s there and done well (i.e. Turn-A Gundam), there’s an added pleasure.
Missing out on this isn’t a knock on the viewer, but knowing something exists and is of potential value — we’d be interested in it at least wouldn’t we?
—
Living in the moment.
That’s what Yui and co. would rather do; Yui made that statement just before Azusa entered the club room in the first episode. They, being inclined to agree with Yui at least in this ep, would rather not worry about the future and instead enjoy what time they have. They have a year left after all, Yui says.
Sawako then said, a year is a short time.
In the episode following this week’s, the subject is the future. In this case, Yui’s reticence to face it. I would say that this is very consistent with the things I’ve presented in this post.
No
Too dismissive, and the answer only applies if you’re an adherent of the so-called Aristotelian Plot structure (where the narrative goes forward in a definite direction). However, when looked at using a Proustian view, you’ll find that K-On’s narrative style fits.
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