K-On! - Character Discussion - Ritsu

[Otaku Guy]

Originally Posted by Tatiana Razajev

It is nice to see her without them on occasion, but at the same time I actually do like her hairband and such. In any case, I think part of is also psychological.

In that because she normally wears the hairband, when she's not wearing it's a special moment. A change of pace. It allows provides a different perspective.

Another example of this is take a character that normally has a hairstyle like twin tails, pony tail, etc. Now have her put her hair down. Watch people say she looks better that way.

It's in part because having her hair down doesn't happen as often that for the character in question, it becomes special.

That actually a good point lol

[Ryonea]

Happy Birthday to our beloved drummer, Ritsu!

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

happy bday ritsu! =)))

[Blazing CobaltX]

Ritsu is epic epic win~ <3

[vansonbee]

Ritsu was the driving force of the band, plus without her existence, there would be no band and no one to poke fun at Mio.

[Triple_R]

On the Ritsu maturity debate from a few pages back... I think Ritsu is perhaps the most practical (in a pragmatic sense) of the girls. A case could be made that there's some degree of overlap between maturity and being practical.

You don't see this a lot in the first season (aside from how Ritsu is the one that pushes the hardest to get the Light Music club off the ground and running), but I think you see it a lot in the second season.

Ritsu is the one most concerned over finances. Now, part of this is her being a bit greedy, honestly, but it's a very practical concern that she keeps focused on, unlike the other HTT members (in fairness to Mugi, she doesn't really need to be concerned over money ).

I also think that Ritsu gets that "all work and no play makes you a dull boy/girl". This is something that Mio and Azusa both had to eventually learn. Yui, of course, swings a bit too much the other way, showing that Risu is probably more mature than Yui.


I do think that Ritsu is the most well-rounded leader for the group. Yui provides energy and spunk and inspiration, but she's perhaps too individualistic and eccentric to handle the organizational issues of group leadership. Azusa and Mio keeps everybody honest and focused on results, but I don't know if they grasp basic morale concerns like Ritsu does. Mugi carefully helps to maintain a pleasant atmosphere which is conducive to good times and good outcomes, but I think she's a natural-born supporter rather than a leader.

Ritsu is the one who brings all these different elements together, and manages to get the best out of all of them. I do think she was the right person to lead the HTT.

[trenton_dawn]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

On the Ritsu maturity debate from a few pages back... I think Ritsu is perhaps the most practical (in a pragmatic sense) of the girls. A case could be made that there's some degree of overlap between maturity and being practical.

You don't see this a lot in the first season (aside from how Ritsu is the one that pushes the hardest to get the Light Music club off the ground and running), but I think you see it a lot in the second season.

Ritsu is the one most concerned over finances. Now, part of this is her being a bit greedy, honestly, but it's a very practical concern that she keeps focused on, unlike the other HTT members (in fairness to Mugi, she doesn't really need to be concerned over money ).

I also think that Ritsu gets that "all work and no play makes you a dull boy/girl". This is something that Mio and Azusa both had to eventually learn. Yui, of course, swings a bit too much the other way, showing that Risu is probably more mature than Yui.


I do think that Ritsu is the most well-rounded leader for the group. Yui provides energy and spunk and inspiration, but she's perhaps too individualistic and eccentric to handle the organizational issues of group leadership. Azusa and Mio keeps everybody honest and focused on results, but I don't know if they grasp basic morale concerns like Ritsu does. Mugi carefully helps to maintain a pleasant atmosphere which is conducive to good times and good outcomes, but I think she's a natural-born supporter rather than a leader.

Ritsu is the one who brings all these different elements together, and manages to get the best out of all of them. I do think she was the right person to lead the HTT.

Except for her always forgetting paperwork :P

[Lord of Fire]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

On the Ritsu maturity debate from a few pages back... I think Ritsu is perhaps the most practical (in a pragmatic sense) of the girls. A case could be made that there's some degree of overlap between maturity and being practical.

You don't see this a lot in the first season (aside from how Ritsu is the one that pushes the hardest to get the Light Music club off the ground and running), but I think you see it a lot in the second season.

Only at the start, when she has to enslave convince people to join her club. In all other cases, her leadership/maturity/sense of responsibility is questionable.

For example, she always forgets to do the paperwork, she never goes to the meeting of club presidents and I don't really recall her making many important decisions in favor of the club. Heck, most of the time, she doesn't want to do all that and wants to goof off with fellow slacker Yui.

Ritsu is the one most concerned over finances. Now, part of this is her being a bit greedy, honestly, but it's a very practical concern that she keeps focused on, unlike the other HTT members (in fairness to Mugi, she doesn't really need to be concerned over money ).

Ritsu, worried over finances? Unless I missed that somewhere, I don't recall her ever even remotely trying to balance the club budget. Heck, a lot of times, it seems like she doesn't even know that it's there.

I also think that Ritsu gets that "all work and no play makes you a dull boy/girl". This is something that Mio and Azusa both had to eventually learn. Yui, of course, swings a bit too much the other way, showing that Risu is probably more mature than Yui.

More mature than Yui? Yui is pretty much her soul mate when it comes to slacking and not doing anything. Just like Yui, she's pretty much allergic to anything that might negatively benefit her.

I do think that Ritsu is the most well-rounded leader for the group. Yui provides energy and spunk and inspiration, but she's perhaps too individualistic and eccentric to handle the organizational issues of group leadership. Azusa and Mio keeps everybody honest and focused on results, but I don't know if they grasp basic morale concerns like Ritsu does. Mugi carefully helps to maintain a pleasant atmosphere which is conducive to good times and good outcomes, but I think she's a natural-born supporter rather than a leader.

Yui is too easily distracted to be a good leader, not to mention that most of it would be too much for her simple mind to handle, and though Mugi has a hidden side to her that we've only caught glimpses of, I doubt she'd use it to seriously persuade the others to get work done. Heck, I think she'd be scared to death that they'd hate her for it if she did. Notice how she never gets mad at them, no matter what. She's always in high spirits, ready to support them in anyway they want. So, for this batch of characters, she's definitely not leadership material.

Mio could be a good club president, though that would require that she'd overcome her social phobia a bit, since it would involve meeting up with the other club presidents and actually put some ideas on the table herself. Azusa would be a good choice, too, though the current manga seems to suggest that even with the new members, she can't really get much work done, so I don't know how well she'd do leading the 'old' LMC.

Ritsu is the one who brings all these different elements together, and manages to get the best out of all of them. I do think she was the right person to lead the HTT.

I disagree. I think Mio is more capable of leading the club and pushing it forward. Ritsu is merely club president because she is the first member and the one who started it all up again, not because she has the perfect qualities for it.

[Ithekro]

I don't think they ever actually used their budget after Mugi joined. I'm fairly certain that the club under Azusa has funds from the Ritsu years to buy instruments simply because Mugi covered just about all their costs.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by trenton_dawn

Except for her always forgetting paperwork :P

That's a fair point, admittedly.

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

Only at the start, when she has to enslave convince people to join her club. In all other cases, her leadership/maturity/sense of responsibility is questionable.

For example, she always forgets to do the paperwork, she never goes to the meeting of club presidents and I don't really recall her making many important decisions in favor of the club.

And how did the club do overall?

If an unorthodox approach works, then what's wrong with it?

Heck, most of the time, she doesn't want to do all that and wants to goof off with fellow slacker Yui.

Nothing wrong with goofing off a bit.

Ritsu, worried over finances?

She was extremely concerned over acquiring and holding on to money for the sake of HTT during an early Season 2 episode, IIRC.

Unless I missed that somewhere, I don't recall her ever even remotely trying to balance the club budget.

Well, like Ithekro said, the budget was rarely (if ever) a pressing concern after Mugi joined.

More mature than Yui?

Yes, I think she's more mature than Yui. Or at least appears more mature than Yui.

Mio could be a good club president, though that would require that she'd overcome her social phobia a bit, since it would involve meeting up with the other club presidents and actually put some ideas on the table herself. Azusa would be a good choice, too, though the current manga seems to suggest that even with the new members, she can't really get much work done, so I don't know how well she'd do leading the 'old' LMC.

Mio and Azusa too often forget that school clubs are in large part there for people to have fun. If it's just a grind, nobody is going to truly like it, and so you won't be able to bring out the best in people.

Ritsu's approach is a mature approach, imo, because she realizes that you can take things too seriously sometimes and lose sight of the reasons why people join school clubs to begin with.


And that's a major part of the reason why I think Ristu made a better HTT club leader than what Mio would have. I think Mio is less capable of leading the club and pushing it forward because her desired approach would too often have been less enjoyable for the membership, thus draining enthusiasm out of the group.

Ritsu doesn't have "perfect" leadership qualities, but she has better leadership qualities for leading a school club than any of the other HTT members, imo.

[Ithekro]

Azusa seems to be handling the club well enough after her seniors leave. Though we've not seen them in concert yet to tell if what she is doing works or not. They seem to be having fun, though that might be more to do with Ui than Azusa.

Ritsu seemed to not take charge until it was something Sawako was doing. This has remained a trend with Azusa, though Azusa is more hands on than Ritsu. She is also more serious than Ritsu, though she's mellowed out since the seniors left, as she has no sempi to deal with anymore.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Azusa seems to be handling the club well enough after her seniors leave. Though we've not seen them in concert yet to tell if what she is doing works or not. They seem to be having fun, though that might be more to do with Ui than Azusa.

Ritsu seemed to not take charge until it was something Sawako was doing. This has remained a trend with Azusa, though Azusa is more hands on than Ritsu. She is also more serious than Ritsu, though she's mellowed out since the seniors left, as she has no sempi to deal with anymore.

Well, I think that Azusa is now a good group leader. Her mellowing out is probably a factor in that, yes.

[Ryonea]

Well, seeing that Ritsu has more serious moments compared to Yui, so, yes. I'd say she's more mature than Yui. We can see that sometimes she plays the tsukkomi role while I don't remember of Yui having one

Ritsu sometimes do sparked the initiative for the club (The most I remember are from S1, though). For example... planning to have a christmas party (which she initially wanted to be held in Mugi's house), then the composing of their lyric for Fuwa-Fuwa time (being the one opposed to Mio's lyrics the most), and also the making of the club's recruitment video (She even smacked both Sawako and Mugi while Mio is stressed and Yui messed around as usual).

IMO, her best quality is her friendliness that's how she could make Mio always tagged with her. (Remember how she helped Mio since they're in elementary school). Mugi also stated this quality clearly after she was helped by Ritsu in her mission to get hit

As for Azusa and Mio, they are both serious type, but I don't think they want to be always like that. They wanted to have fun too. It's just that they want to have more balance between practicing and also having fun. The club is clearly leaning towards more slacking around rather than practicing. Even Yui knew the importance of practicing. See how she always practiced at home and we could hear her talk to Ui about having an upcoming performance.

And the most important thing is... all of them might slack off a lot, but they do what should be done when the time comes. That's the reason how the club is running fine, so it's not necessarily because of Ritsu's leadership alone.

She has the power to keep everyone together (all of the members also obey her and always refer to her when they're going to make a decision), but as a leader, she must have some responsibilitites too in which she lacks. (forgetting the paperwork almost make the club disbanded, that's fatal.) Mio and Azusa could fill that role, but of course, they lack the friendliness that Ritsu has, which is as important as being responsible. (although I'm seeing how Azusa is trying to develop hers right now). Those different qualities fill each other, that's how they make a team.

I'm not saying that she's not a good leader, but I just don't think she's the best one among the club members

[trenton_dawn]

Ritsu's too irresponsible to be called a "good" leader. The most you can say is she was the best leader they could have had, which I don't actually think is true. Mio is a little bit too strict but not as bad as early Azusa and certainly not too strict for normal people; I think she would have done a good job. Mugi seems to have the skillset but not the disposition. Yui might be able to pull through in a pinch but it would be tough going to have her in charge. It's lucky for Ritsu that the members of the Light Music Club were so in tune with each other's pace (for the most part).

[kaitok]

I'd say that Ritsu is the one who can really pull the club in together. If Ritsu wasn't there, it'd be like a balance on both ends with Yui heavily on one slacker side and Mio on the strict side. Its just that nice that Ritsu is best friends with Mio that she could handle Mio being strict, yet at the same time glue together with Yui and slack around. That's how the impt the drummer is in the club!

but as for leader, I got only 1 thing to say is that: Out of the 5, Ritsu is the best -_-

seriously, no one else could scream and shout as loud as she can to bring everyone together.

[Lugia2126]

The person who opens a door like a boss and rolls like a boss. No one else but Ritsu