Nice to see a peek at Nao's home. I imagine that Nodoka's would be quite the same since I felt they have many similarities, especially the number of their siblings :D

Honestly I kinda forgot that this is their last festival :heh: the festival should be around the same date with the end of 1st season of the anime, right?

And... what's the point of the sleepover then? I don't get it :heh:

Nao-chan's so cute without her hairclips!!! :eyespin:

Anyways, Nao was probably trying to show Sue-MEE-ray her score and how it should sound like.

I'm quite surprised that Kakifly decided to show the Okuda family at all, considering that the only other family he had shown is the Hirasawa family (and to a lesser extent, Jun's brother). I'm betting that Nao would be the protagonist should Kakifly do a spinoff. I do have to admit though that *ahem*cloning*ahem* is quite a lazy way to draw most of Nao's family. :D

So, are we going to have Azusa turn Yui 2.0 and Nao ending up being the lead singer? Should this happen, this will end up like the spectacular 2nd Cultural Festival in the manga (and not the anime)! :heh:

omg this is really the best chapter so far. I love it so much!! This and the previous high school one. I can't bare to let go of Nao and Sumire yet, NOOOOOOO. ; A ;

Nao's family, yes. Sleep over, yes. Totally shipping SumiNao. XDD

>The point of the sleep over?
To show fans that Okuda-mama has approved Sumire. LOOOOL. (sorry, too much yuri-goggles on. I blame Mugi for inventing them.)

Fingers, not hands.

Ui could probably do it if it called for six hands as well.

And she's claim Yui is better.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/51343173.html

Heres an interesting article; an interview with Shinohara, long time supervising editor of the K-On! manga. My translation is very bad, but here are the key points:


- Shinohara first discovered Kakifly when on one occasion, he read one of Kakifly's doujinshi at a store specialised in selling doujins. He checked out Kakifly's website, saw potential in his/her works and soon contacted him/her.

- As it was Kakifly's first original work, Shinohara just asked him/her to draw about whatever s/he liked. While discussing what kind of manga to draw, Kakifly mentioned stuff about his/her club activities in high school. When s/he recalled that s/he belonged to the light music club at his/her university, Shinohara thought, "yes, that's it!".

- While they were excited about this, Kakifly did raise the concern of "a manga about light music club may be interesting to people who played music, but wouldn't it be boring to people who have no interest in the subject?" To counter this problem, they made sure to not put in too much specialist music material in the manga. During the discussions Kakifly said, "While the performances were fun, I think I had the most fun while just hanging out, passing time with friends in the club room". This element became the pillar of what direction the manga took. It was mentioned that a lot of the manga content was based on Kakifly's own experiences as a light music club member.

- Shinohara admitted that the slack attitudes of the light music club members in the manga meant that the story hardly develops. Kakifly him/herself was a bit worried about this. So they added Azusa into the group. Initially what they planned to do with Azusa was that she would be the catalyst for the light music club to actually focus on club activities. Though apparently they never followed through with this plan.

- Shinohara never thought K-On! would become a hit, and that the songs in the manga becoming popular was a pipe dream. He credits the anime staff that such a manga about lax everyday life with no dramatic developments would become such a big hit. When the anime first launched, Shinohara recalled someone said "If we were missing anybody here, K-On! would never be where it is today."

- From Shinohara, as a last word to everyone:
"For K-On! to have become such a huge hit, it wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of you fans out there. Although the curtains for the manga fall here, the time that we have spent and shared together through and with this manga is an irreplaceable experience. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this miraculous experience. Thanks for your support! Thank you very much!"

Dynamic tag cannot be rendered. (PrintableThread) Picture: Sneak preview of cover of Manga Time Kirara Magazine July issue.

--------------

2nd edit:
http://yaraon.blog109.fc2.com/blog-entry-10014.html
K-On! manga collected volumes will release in September and October.

Thank you winhlp32, that was a very interesting read indeed.

Somehow, this doesn't sound like a real ending to me. It's more they're just taking a long break to release vol. 5 and 6. Well, that is just my impression from reading the article. Now, all that's left is waiting for s3 anime then after that we may or may not be getting another restart. Anyway thanks again winhip32 for always keeping us informed.

So K-On! *is* where it is at today -- a huge multi-media franchise with oodles of crossover breakthroughs.

So the question from the fanbase is "what the heck is going on?" :)

My question is, where will it go from here? Is this truly the end, or will we eventually see more, but in a different form?

I guess only time will tell. Either way, it's been one heck of a ride, which was relatively short-lived, compared to other, more longer running manga, but made an enormous impact nonetheless.

Kakifly still needs to tell more of the University side of the Light Music Club (as that was one of the personal experiances mentioned).

But with success, means that the girls could go on to bigger things. As Yui says, "it is HTT forever".

I'm curious now... what doujinshis did kakifly draw before he/she started K-On?

Well...

His first doujinshi (of Utawarerumono) from 2003: Steel Leaf

Dynamic tag cannot be rendered. (PrintableThread)
After that:

Dynamic tag cannot be rendered. (PrintableThread)
This is Kakifly's last recorded doujinshi, published in summer 2007.
Dynamic tag cannot be rendered. (PrintableThread) Remember K-On! started serializing in Mangatime Kirara May 2007.

Thanks for the translation - they did nail the 'hanging around' part. It's quite a pity that the manga is ending, I was looking forward to where kakifly was going to take it.

Woah the eyes! Those haruhi characters look like Ritsu and Yui suddenly! O_O

now now...

Mannnnn... Can kakifly release doujins for k-on after the main series is gone? XDDD

He probably could.. but I'm getting the weird feeling that *he* is the one backing away from what is a lucrative franchise. I've watched this happen several time in the anime/manga industry both by mangaka and the publishing/production decision makers -- and no, I have no pretense of understanding the thought processes involved.

When something is so successful that it gets to be larger than the creator. In this case to the point were at least half of the success had nothing to do with the creator (animation, voices, and especially the music). Backing away means "he" might be able to start something else without having to focus on K-On.

Though I wonder. An HTT manga would do fairly well I'd think. One that follows the girls (including Azusa) during and maybe after college.

I have no idea what Nao and Sumire will do once Azusa leaves. But I am curious about it because both characters were well made.