K-ON. What can I say about this one...for one, I have known about it since long ago, but only just recently watched it last month. The style, the way they do everything; it feels DIFFERENT from most anime and I can think up a few solid reasons:
1) The animation style. Unlike most anime that always aims for detail, some doing it flawlessly; K-ON sacrificed the detail, slightly, in order to give more fluid movement to the characters. This includes their realistic tripping on things, the other characters' reactions to that incident and much more. Truly, their animation style is unique; K-ON ALWAYS feels like a movie due to its atmosphere. Also, I rarely see the characters on a standstill where they only move when they are talking or pulling comedy routines; like they always move around whenever someone is speaking. If they were aiming for realism, they have it spot on.
2) The humor itself. They really tried to go for the most simple approach, and nailed it. They do not try to add drama often at all, and its mostly ALL comedy. It gets a tad boring at times, you would think; but really it DOESN'T. I can not describe why, but it always feels fresh every episode. I am pretty certain they studied real high school girls, or a girl was a writer; because they just make the humor feel as though you are watching a real group of high school girls in their every day life.
3) Finally, the music. Well most anime do have memorable soundtracks, this one took on a musical approach to its story and that is what turned me off the most from watching it when I first saw it: I like the characters, but I thought it was all gonna be about the music. In reality, it's the COMPLETE opposite: they do jack (...) on the music most of the time, it is hilarious! They all have natural talent of writing songs, and none of them practice whatsoever. They do still sing full songs in some episodes, but it's not annoying where it's every single episode or there are like two to four songs per episode. What I mean is, it's not a musical anime; it's mostly comedy and all of the characters that play in their band have natural talent. Perhaps, Mugi has the most since she practiced since she was young, same could be said with the others too. Come to think of it, I guess Yui is the only one with natural talent given she reached professional guitar level in just a few episodes!
But yeah, K-ON is really good. After watching all of it, I mean ALL of it I even saw the OVAs and the movie; I can safely say it is a great recommendation if you just want comedy and none of the drama. When they do have drama, it's usually in the most calm way possible: a sad scene. Like when a character is leaving, or when they are having a heartwarming moment; usually nothing ever happens where a character gets injured, someone is being a bully or anything.
So again, don't be fooled. It is true it is all about music and some episodes even dedicate it to such, but most of the time they mock the idea of practicing and it's just basic high school comedy in its rawest form. Give it a watch if you have the time, it is one of those rare shows where you won't ask for more because it delivers a hefty thirty-nine episodes, two OVAs and a movie. It ends well, and does not need any more productions. Even learned a piano song from the anime, and it gives me goosebumps every time I play it
especially on a grand piano.