K-On!! 01

I’ve been racking my brain to try and think of a way to post about K-On!! that wouldn’t make me seem like a pure hater, but would at the same time convey what I like and dislike about the series in an understandable way. In the end, it ended up being a rant filled with irritation and a couple of notes on the minor good points. No idea how I’ll do the rest of the series, but hey, might as well give it a try if I’m affected this much by it.

Al right,this is a good start, a nice little re-introduction to the series. If you continue on like this we’ll be fine. The montage of all the characters (sans Yui) walking into school really helps capture the feeling that was in the last (and best) episode of the previous series. All the effort and practising worked – it’s natural, calming, feels like series could go in a much better direction. And there’s also the fact it just sounds pretty good.

And then someone opens their mouth, and  it all comes flooding back. And the other thing is nothing’s even animated when someone starts speaking. I wasn’t sure the first time, but I checked. It’s literally just the 4 girls standing there, staring at Yui, some of them not even having mouths, let alone moving them to speak. I honestly could’ve gone the entire episode just listening to that minute of instrumental on loop and be completely happy rather than having monsters with no mouths speaking telepathically.

Yui’s voice just irritates me so much, I completely forgot what it sounded like since I didn’t touch this show once it had finished. It’s just so cloying  and slurred, like she’s a few seconds behind what’s going on around her at all times.

Then the opening starts with the deceptively good riff, just like the last season and I think to myself  “Hell, at least this should be okay”.

Dear god.

I mean, why would you get Yui’s voice actress to sing even higher than she did before? It was just about bearable before, now it’s just like listening to a hamster. On crack. When all’s said and done, the instrumentals aren’t too bad, but when you’re listening you’re too busy getting her voice drilled into your skull. Why do I keep thinking this show’s about good music? Or even music itself? Even the visuals kind of suck. What’s up with the 360 spinning, the extremely odd blend of CG and animation and the fact that Yui goes “WA!” after the chorus? Damn.

This is supposed to be comedy.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE COMEDY.

And so begins the amazingly dull adventures of the 5 high schoolers and their quest to die drom diabetes.

The best moments in this episode were when everyone shut up and music played in the background. It was nice to be able to appreciate just how much money KyoAni was sinking into this.. thing. Every now and again you see that extra layer of shading and detail that looks beautiful. Of course, this isn’t in any relation to any of the characters, just the background and the scenery. But I love scenery porn, so it didn’t really bother me.

Anyway, the newest DRAMA to hit the clubs is that Azusa’s going to be all alone in like a year’s time. They just decided to jump straight into the hardcore stuff this time, rather than waiting till midway through. This clearly demonstrates the increased maturity of all the characters. You’d think. But then this happens:

This joke wasn’t funny the first time, and it isn’t funny just because more animals have been added. So incredibly pointless. Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the jokes seem to explain themselves. It’s someone  saying something slightly odd or stupid, then the other characters reacting by saying “What did she say?” or “She dodged the subject.” It’s like tsukkomi only… terrible. Like, really bad.

The most cirminal part of this episode was the live perfomance. I thought for a moment they’d try to demonstrate some new songs, or any sort of music longer than a minute, but no. They just skip it.  To be honest, this part’s understandable, as it’d just be re-hashing what they did last year, but as we’ve just seen, KyoAni doesn’t have a problem with rehashing jokes, so why not at least rehash somehting that was good?

And blah blah blah, things are nice the way they are, friendship, power of love, the end.

I don’t know why I’m watching this show. I said a while back I’d probably blog it just for the hell of it, and also out of GIRI, but it seems like it’d be such effort. I’ll do it anyway, though, just because there are things that simultaneously impress me and piss me off about it, and it’s only the shows you really care about (in a good or bad way) that can even do that. Right?

Right?