K-On! - Episode 12 [FINALE] Discussion / Poll

[suguru]

Originally Posted by Vexx

A sweet, charming end for a sweet charming "days in the life of" little series. Not a blockbuster, but an example of a relaxed little portrayal of a group of people coming together as a team. Just the thing for an exhausted salaryman to blob out with after a hard day at the office.

I had the same thought watching this - will definitely miss my K-On fix each week, it's just a fun show to watch at the end of the day to relax with, and it always managed to put a smile on my face. I was hoping for a "Live A Live" level performance, which is the only reason I gave this episode a 9 instead of a 10, but I thought it was a solid ending overall. Looking forward to the "Extra" episode now...

[Vexx]

I find it interesting that I'm not *really* that much of a fan of the show but I end up feeling compelled to say something because the negativity hurled at it is such hyperbole.

I'm speculating that the DVD releases will have a "Live a Live" rendition - either of this episode or of a collection of "music videos".

[Tamad]

First half, I'm really glad they kept in the Ui replacement gag... that was always something I got a good chuckle out of everytime I read the 4koma. Apart from that, I was digging all the drama in the first half of the episode, and was quite surprised that it didn't feel so forced, over the top, or melodramatic as the other attempts of drama in the previous episodes. I guess Yui is the one to thank for it, her being the center piece of the drama I really couldn't but feel a light and fluffly air around it.

So as for the overall episode, I suppose I was just expecting too much from this episode... exactly as I have been expecting too much from this whole series from the very beginning. That doesn't mean that I didn't like the episode though, I found this episode to be above average of what some of the older episodes were able to churn out. The big highlight of the episode was of course their live performance at the end, which I have both positives and negatives about. First off, at least they attempted to show off some instrument playing, but to think they would still go for the still frames shows just how low Kyoani prioritized this show; however, that's all pointless nitpicking on my part... as that never really bothered me as much as it did other members. The song choices weren't too bad... I highly enjoyed Brush and Ballpoint Pen, but was slightly confused when they decided to go with Fuwa Fuwa Time again for the grand finale. I was coming in to the episode expecting a live Cagayake Girls!! or Don't Say Lazy, but I just shrugged it off in the end since Fuwa Fuwa Time is just as enjoyable... albeit rehashed song.

All that aside, the biggest thing for me in this episode was Yui's running flashback sequence. I won't lie, it gave me goosebumps. Why? Not only was it caused light and fluffiness to consume my body at an alarming rate, but it really did make something click in my head, and made me realize what this show was all about in the end. I don't want to go into to much detail until the overall impressions topic next week, but my cold and cynical heart has been blocking the truth from me all this time. Yes... the running flashback wasn't exactly necessary, and it sure as hell could have meant a lot more if there wasn't so much doodie in between episodes 1 and 12, but it got the job done in my book.

I can also do nothing but laugh that Sawako finally got out her ass and stopped being a pointless character. Now if only Mugi was able to do the same, but alas it is too late...

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I find it interesting that I'm not *really* that much of a fan of the show but I end up feeling compelled to say something because the negativity hurled at it is such hyperbole.

I'm speculating that the DVD releases will have a "Live a Live" rendition - either of this episode or of a collection of "music videos".

Talk about "Live a live", i have recently rewatched "ENOZ" performance there, and to say the truth: After School Teatime's performances at this stage still so far behind that it can not even be compared....


It's a real pity, but i understand that's all K-on can offer at this point. Let's hope for more in the furture (next EP perhaps)

[Noe]

I found it satisfying. 8/10

[Patriot's Blade]

hey guys!!, atleast this episode showed us on how Yui would have looked like if she was a Mature & a Serious-type character!!!
*points at Ui cosplaying as her sister!!* XD

[ScorpiusDX]

Originally Posted by slayer545-sama

I wonder how many will be depressed and commit suicide after this season ends....based on Sankaku opinions lots of NEETS and anime freaks have all their life into this.

My suggestion.....buy a dakimakura of this and infatuate yourself with it. On a different note glad this show is over....too much MOE AND NOT WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY NOT ENOUGH MUSIC! Who cares about the wait. Who cares about Yui MOE AND ALL OTHER CRAP! Music is music and nothing more.

Man going back to VAN HALEN! PANAMA! YEAH!

Right... because Sankaku is an excellent source for actual information. Obviously.

[suguru]

Originally Posted by DRAGUN H.E.X.

hey guys!!, atleast this episode showed us on how Yui would have looked like if she was a Mature & a Serious-type character!!!
*points at Ui cosplaying as her sister!!* XD

It's funny how Ui and Yui almost have a mother-daughter relationship, just looking at Ui making sure Yui doesn't eat ice cream before dinner, straightening Yui's hair, taking care of her when she's sick, and worrying about her in general. It's scary Ui was able to nail Yui's part though - maybe she's the real musical genius in the family...

[DJLowrider]

Cute ending to a cute show. I'll be sure to check out the "extra" episode but I don't foresee myself bothering to re-watch this series. Instead I'll just sit back and wait for the inevitable announcement of a second season. You guys don't actually believe this is the last of K-ON! we'll ever see, right?

[Tamad]

I've never actually actually seen someone who doesn't believe there will be a second season. It's so painfully obviously I can barely breathe.

[Sidestep]

I get the feeling they were just "testing out" K-ON!

It turned out really popular. Not Haruhi level, obviously.

I don't wanna get my hopes up, but I wouldn't be surprised by a season 2. Probably after the manga gets some more room to breathe.

[kyosak]

That was a surprisingly satisfying final episode!

Man everything Yui does is so damn cute, lol.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Tamad

I've never actually actually seen someone who doesn't believe there will be a second season. It's so painfully obviously I can barely breathe.

It depends entirely on the monetary response of the fans *in* Japan. Forum buzz is worthless Overseas buzz is worthless except as a minor negotiating point for licensing the first season.

So if you really want more seasons -- you need to fire up your favorite japan export site and buy the manga, DVDs, CDs, merchandise, swag, figures, etc.

[Tamad]

Originally Posted by Vexx

It depends entirely on the monetary response of the fans *in* Japan. Forum buzz is worthless Overseas buzz is worthless except as a minor negotiating point for licensing the first season.

So if you really want more seasons -- you need to fire up your favorite japan export site and buy the manga, DVDs, CDs, merchandise, swag, figures, etc.

I wasn't using the forums to back up my claim of a guaranteed second season, but I suppose it's still pretty baseless in the end since I'm just assuming it's getting well received in Japan.

Not that I would lose any sleep over it if doesn't get another season, I don't think I enjoyed the series enough to really import some goodies.

[Vexx]

I know Kyo-Ani is giving it the usual cross-spectrum marketing buzz (K-on! splashed on the buses, posters on the buildings, etc) -- but I haven't yet gotten a feel for whether the fan reaction comes close to that for SHnY or L*S. I should check the initial DVD sales figures and compare them - that's often a fair indicator.

Sorry if I sounded brusque there... I've just gotten a bit more cynical after watching too many very fine deserving series forever languish in limbo after a great first season, very popular, much more material available, etc.

I tend to think we're simply getting more sequels lately simply because its a "safer bet" in the rough economic climate.

[Change of Pace]

Nice ending episode for K-On. It delivered what a finale for this series should have done, and kyoAni put more effort into the concert than usual. So, hey, it's fine, I guess! Sure, it'll never live up to Haruhi's comparative concert, but seriously, did anyone expect K-On to? We're comparing a 4Koma that KyoAni picked up to the show that's become an internet movement. It's obvious where the budget cutting goes, so it's not like the fact that this concert, even though it was K-On's "peak", so to say, was still far cry from Live A Live. If I (and I'm assuming most others do this, too) wasn't always subconsciously comparing K-On! to Haruhi's concert level, I probably could have gotten through the series with a lot less criticism. But well, it's a done deal now - excluding the 13th extra episode, so all in all, I'll say it was a good series. I won't call it astounding. It was a fair 4Koma adaption (and let's face it, even the source material for 4Koma is good but not brilliantly smashing. I still consider Lucky Star far, far above K-On, for one because I could relate to the content a lot better, and secondly because I think that Yoshimizu Kagami original Lucky Star 4Koma was just funnier over all, so KyoAni had more to go on.) In any case, it was a nice, relaxing watch, which is expected of a good 4Koma adaption. Personally, I do think if it wasn't KyoAni animting this, K-On would not have gotten this popular and recieved as much attention as it has but hey, that's a privelage that KyoAni has developped for themself, so it's not like it's unfair or anything. People have higher standard when it comes to KyoAni, which isn't false, and I know that I was probably initially more eager to see K-On! than if it were by another company, again because of KyoAni's prestigious label. Well, that's just how it is.

On the subject of the actual episode, I only have two things to say; one, I was delighted that Sawa-chan got a nice role in this episode! She's my favourite character, just because I love the crazy-single-teach-archetype, and I did feel that she had a lot more unused potential. Also, Sanada Asami. She might be making me biased into loving Sawa-chan's character, but I can't help it; her voice is just perfect.

And, on a more negative note, did anyone else feel that in this episode, Mio and Yui's mouths looked terribly awkward as they sang?! I don't like blatantly saying such comments, but this just stuck out at me like a sore thumb. They weren't even lips anymore; they were... round... facial extrusions, and they kinda killed some of the hype for the concert for me. Ugh. :/

Anyways, despite that, like I mentioned, it was an enjoyable episode, even though I still think K-On can never measure up to Lucky Star's standard.

[Mecha_Trueno]

How come no one has mentioned Mugi-chan with ponytail yet?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by DRAGUN H.E.X.

how about studio Sunrise?,
i thought they were doing "magic" with by doing both Code Geass & Gundam 00 at the same time with Tales of the Abyss & Gintama?

Add on to that Keroro Gunsou, MS Igloo 2 and Sora Kake Girl. It's a lot to manage, but when you consider that they are broken down into several seperate sub companies that work seperately and distinctly on a given project that you can see how it works. As far as Kyoani goes though I do not know if they have organized themselves into seperate and distinct departments that can then be managed on their own.

And yes indeed my feeling is that K-On suffers this episode for what it lacked in earlier ones, but here's the other thing, I can't really say something this episode like, "Well if I go for the idea of what K-On is, moe, gags etc. then it's all good", because this episode they actually tried to go for that extra serious heartfelt reflection feel that the preceeding content just could not afford it, let alonewarrant it really. The last couple of episodes felt like there was a competition going on between sticking to the light and fluffy that the series had defined itself as vs. trying to take it to the next stage of character bonding, which is what I thought it was going to be as the prospect of the K-On club arose, gave up on and substituted for light and fluffy when the series appeared to find that as a groove, and now am seemingly expected to pick back up on. It is of course easily possible to have both, but K-On did not manage it in a way in which it actually works out in my viewpoint. Too much light and fluffy in the end is what ultimately sinks K-On at these exit polls.

P.S: Yes I realize that I used the word oxymoron in an earlier post. Disregard that please as I meant to say contradiction.

[Reckoner]

I'm not going to be as nice as Kaoshin in my rating of this episode. It definitely earned a rating of bad (3/10) because it was just simply bad.

On my first watch of this episode, I fell asleep because it was so boring and hollow (As Kaoshin put it). My second watch of this episode consisted of me fastfowarding through certain scenes because they gave nothing to the overall enjoyment of this anime. I finally got myself to watch through it, but this episode defintely goes down as a failure pretty much for A) Having to actually make myself watch it (Only K-ON! episode so far to do this to me), and B) Being the ending of the series, which usually dictates that it leaves the audience with something a bit more special than the previous episodes.

There weren't any positives to grasp at this episode, so I'll hit all the negative points of it...

• The drama just left me scratching my head. Asuza gets all emotional because her "senpai" has a minor cold, the band does not look so happy because they want Yui to come peform with them, and Yui goes on her epically long sprint from her house and talks about her previous fears and how her friends helped her.
  
  Asuza comes off as little more than a simple plot device. I did not feel any empathy for her, especially considering that she was just recently introduced into the show.
  
  The band being upset because one of their members isn't there peforming with them was really overdramatic. This is something that would have been executed more properly using subtley rather than easy bake cookie style.
  
  Yui is just a mush character... To really try in the last episode to convince the audience that she has any emotional angst is really laughable. Sorry KyoAni, a monologue is not going to cut it for me.
  
• My second gripe with this episode is more something that has to do with the show as a whole, but was ever more critical in an episode considered to be the "finale." What ever happened to the character development? Mugi's existence served nothing. The childhood relationshap of Mio and Ritsu was never really ventured into. Yui, dear lord, I don't even want to get into her supposed character development ("I thought I would be stuck doing nothing meaningful, but I found K-ON!)... Asuza was not even there long enough to do anything with her...
  
  Funny enough, the only character that even got what I would consider to be any development was the teacher (Sawakawa-sensei?) And that is quite sad considering that she is just a side character.
  
• My third problem is the overload of moe in this show. Yes, this is KyoAni and I do expect them to include moe in whatever show they make. However, I do not expect it to take precedent over the entire thing as if the show's purpose is moe. Once again, in this episode, the moe took centerstge for almost 40-50% of the entire thing. The worst possibly being Ui's visits to Yui's room, and Yui hugging Asuza.
  
• While there are other things I would love to point out, I'll mention just one last thing. The concert scenes have been extremely dissapointing the whole series, and the finale was no different. It makes me extremely sad that the best song of the entire show (Supposed to be a show with music as a huge focus no?) was the ED. The OP had the only animation worth talking about of the member's actually playing their instrument.

Now, the reason I am so critical of this show, as are others, is that I did see potential in it. It was fudged up though and now I am left dissapointed. Defintely something to toss into the garbage and be forgotten.

[Vexx]

The biggest issue I have with this episode is that K-On! really was about:
1) moe fluff (check)
2) slice of life, friends coming together as a team (check)
3) the musical ka-blam ..... (not so check)

Unfortunately, ep 12 stumbled a bit on item 3 in terms of animating it - actually the whole series came up a bit short in most of the musical moments. I'm hoping the DVDs go for a higher framerate and a few other things during the actual musical numbers. I still think I understand what they were trying to do with the profile facial expressions... but it seems to be a bit too weird for many.

I'm wondering if we're going to see some OVAs that are mostly a music video collection with a quality ramp up. One of the points I line up with Reckoner a bit on is that the ED set a bar that I expected the series content to match and really... the other musical elements should have at least been *somewhat* closer to that. I watch a fair amount of japanese music video and concert films so I have an idea of what is considered "expected" for such things.