K-ON

When my officemate and fellow anime otaku ,Vince, told me he has an anime about a highschool band, I told him I want to borrow. But since it wasn't finished back then, I told him I'll wait for it to finish. Little did I know that the anime he told me about was K-ON, the series I read about in Hanner's anime blog (I read that blog to know about animes that I didn't get to hear about, I'm quite out of the loop recently because of work).

K-ON (derived from 'kei ongaku bu' which means light music club) is about the air headed and indesicive high school student Yui Hirasawa as she struggles to find anything to do worthwhile in school. Eventhough she doesn't know anything about instruments and music, she enters the club under the impression that they are going to use light instruments (like castanets or recorders).

In there she is accepted by the current members; the boyish and hyper drummer Ritsu Tainaka, the cute but serious bassist Mio Akiyama and the gentle and mellow keyboardist Tsumugi Kotobuki. And in order to be officially recognized, they blackmailed their music teacher, Sawako, a former guitarist of a heavy metal band, to be their advisor.

The stories centers around the friendship and their adventure as members of the 'kei on bu' more than their musical exploits. Enjoying their after school tea time and goofing around more than practicing, to the dismay of Mio.

The anime is quite entertaining. You won't find love stories here or plot twists. Its straight up story about friendship and trying thieir best to attain their goals.

What I like about this anime is their accurate animation of instruments playing. And the hardships of setting up a band, like what I went through in highschool. Although I identify more with Yui because back in highschool, me and my cousin decided to form a band because we wanted to make music but don't know how to play instruments.

This anime is very good watch for a light viewing pick and has a very catchy ending theme.