(L) K-On! Manga discussion

[Procrastinator_CA]

Originally Posted by Stefkov

I'm interested in whether Kakifly will introduce a new character who'll join up with Azusa and co. I think it'd be pretty cool if a new first year joined the Light music club after seeing Yui and Azusa's performance at that festival way back when.

Unless Sakuragakaoka changed the rules about the clubs the past two years (or Kakifly forgets about it), we should be seeing a fourth member of the K-ON-bu either in April or in May.

As for my personal speculation (fantasy) about the new character, I'm guessing she'd be a blue-ribboned first year student who's parents owned a small musical-instrument store which recently got bankrupted. Talent-wise, she would be the total opposite of Yui: getting the technical details down to the nail, yet lacking that artistic flair in playing instruments (being jaded perhaps due to spending too much time testing out and repairing instruments in her store). And it would be Azusa's personal mission to spark this artistic passion out of their new club member.

Originally Posted by Sparvid

Nodoka seems to be the one with least potential screen time, since she's not in either school. Depends on how much focus there'll be on weekends and school breaks, I guess.

Waaaa...no more Nodoka-chan . Why did you have to pick Kyoto or Kyushu? I hope she pays the girls a visit in May, August, or December (or vice versa).

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

thus the slow decline of k-on has begun. *is being pessimistic*

anyhow, NO and NO, I DON'T welcome the idea of them getting BOYFRIENDS (Grrrr) NEVER!!

as for the HS manga length of ran,again,
I don't think it'd take long since that'd mean kakifly would have the 4 stay long during their 1st year in college. I say, that's off for my taste because i very much like him to focus longer when azusa finally gets reunited w/ them,meaning: 2nd-3rd yearXD

[Vexx]

This seems to apply here as well, so I'll make my rare repetition of comment:

There are quite a number of all-girls colleges, both in Japan and still in the US.
Examples:
USA - http://www.womenscolleges.org/colleges/byname
Japan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...leges_in_Japan

As you can see... there's an armful.
And the manga and anime both explicitly state that all 4 of the seniors are attending an all-girl's college that caught Mugi's eye early in the process.

Storywise and dramatically... I think it'd be *interesting* to follow the gang as they grow up, enter relationships, and how that might impact their musical aspirations. But there's too much of a component of otaku fantasyland in the readership for this route to be likely.

Frankly, I'd be happy just to see the collection of stories end with them going through college, getting a professional contract and fade out on the peak of their careers. Of course, I'd also like a Rock Band package of their characters and their tunes but I don't see any flying pigs around. __________________

[omimon]

It wouldn't make sense for them to not have boyfriends by the time they graduate.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by omimon

It wouldn't make sense for them to not have boyfriends by the time they graduate.

It does. With Mugivision™ to provide all the love they need, that is entirely possible.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by omimon

It wouldn't make sense for them to not have boyfriends by the time they graduate.

Actually, if you know something about Japanese culture it does. Having a steady boyfriend is a precursor to marriage and it is STILL the norm for women to "retire to being housewives" after marriage. If they have career aspirations, they pretty much have to keep the "boy" option off on the backburner. Ritsu is about the only personality I can visualize being strong enough to buck the "norm".

Yes, its still the 1950s for much of Japan.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

i agree that Ritsu is likely to get one first amongst them. (but Jealousy and Rage is kindof unavoidable here. Mio won't let this happen. XDDD) *AND* i won't as well.XD

[Lord of Fire]

Introduction of male Love Interests would probably kill the franchise faster than seeing the story repeat itself to infinity.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

Originally Posted by Lord of Fire

Introduction of male Love Interests would probably kill the franchise faster than seeing the story repeat itself to infinity.

this.

and i suppose, kakifly isn't a fan of boyfriends for the girls as well. XDD mugi's mere existence would be a proof. LOL. it'd be just like commiting suicide on his part if he ever does that. XD

[krko]

We're taking sankaku complex's snark seriously now? What's next, ANN reviews?

[GMT]

Originally Posted by Stefkov

Fantastic news to wake up to!
HTT was a band without Azusa so it's going to be interesting seeing what happens. They can clearly carry on in College (College is American like University is for the UK right?) because they started out with just the 4 of them, but I'm not sure they'll like not having Azusa play with them.

I'm interested in whether Kakifly will introduce a new character who'll join up with Azusa and co. I think it'd be pretty cool if a new first year joined the Light music club after seeing Yui and Azusa's performance at that festival way back when.

They're actually taking a risk, which is practically unprecedented in this franchise. Plenty of good storytelling potential with a parallel K-On!!! - The Next Generation / HTT - The College Years mangas.

For example: Will Azusa's keion-bu ever emerge from the shadow of Houkago Tea Time? Will she be able to save her own club from extinction and find new members? How will she deal with Jun's expectations (which have been hopelessly colored by her fangirlish obsession over Mio and hearing about how 'cool' HTT was)? Will super utility-player Ui finally get her chance to shine, and emerge from the shadow of her evil genius sister? Will the power of music and friendship enable her to get past her crippling siscon? Can the new keion-bu keep the advisorship of Sawako?

And now that the four have made it to the same university, will they be able to preserve their music sisterhood? Will sarcastic slacker Ritsu be able to keep up in the academic world? Will the drive to succeed split Mio from her bandmates, or the expectation of success do the same for Mugi? Will Yui become an evil rock god and bring about the apocalypse of moe? Can the power of friendship triumph over sex, drugs, and rocks that roll? And what happens when childhood aspirations meet the cold, hard, reality of traditional Japanese society?

Finally, what happens when Azusa's band gets close to their own graduation? Will she develop the sort of bond with K-On!!! - TNG that she did with HTT? Will there be a rivalry? Even an epic (though good-natured) Battle of the Bands?

~~~

Of course, they could just as easily go with the "pander to the otaku and take no real risks, at all" route and make it so that Azusa's keion-bu will quickly become a carbon copy of the HTT keion-bu . . . I can see it now, the obligatory fourth club member will turn out to be sheltered rich girl with an unhealthy fascination with cocaine cake. They may even get a fifth member who will turn out to be a charmingly simple-minded musical genius. In college, the girls of HTT will, miraculously, continue to be sweet-scarfing slackers; blithely unaware that the human race is going extinct due to a pointed lack of men.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

hmm.. seems like crankiness of some is unavoidable...XDD

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by GMT

Of course, they could just as easily go with the "pander to the otaku and take no real risks, at all" route and make it so that Azusa's keion-bu will quickly become a carbon copy of the HTT keion-bu . . .

Frankly, I don't expect any real "risks" be taken (well, aside from the premise of sending the original four off to college, I suppose) but I can't really see Azusa and co. becoming a carbon copy of HTT either. Their personalities don't match it. Azusa, Ui and Jun are all to some extent "straight men" to the wackyness of the original four. So now that we're left with a trio of "straight men", I'm curious to see how Kakifly will make that work.

[Stefkov]

Originally Posted by GMT

Of course, they could just as easily go with the "pander to the otaku and take no real risks, at all" route and make it so that Azusa's keion-bu will quickly become a carbon copy of the HTT keion-bu . . . I can see it now, the obligatory fourth club member will turn out to be sheltered rich girl with an unhealthy fascination with cocaine cake. They may even get a fifth member who will turn out to be a charmingly simple-minded musical genius. In college, the girls of HTT will, miraculously, continue to be sweet-scarfing slackers; blithely unaware that the human race is going extinct due to a pointed lack of men.

This is most likely what will happen. I would love to see what you mentioned but I think this series isn't about that. It's too 'light and fluffy' (see what I did tharr *cheeky wink* ) to contain anything more serious than the girls nearly breaking up going to different Universities or one of them getting a boyfriend.

However isn't Kakifly already taking a risk?

I can't remember the last time I saw a series where the main cast of characters attended University. Love Hina is the only one that comes to mind, and that's years old, but it was full of romance and ecchi. All series nowadays take place in High School, Kakifly still has that link with Azusa and co so it's OK in a sense.

I can't see this turning into a drama where the girls are all growing up mentally, especially Yui, becoming self sufficient, lol Yui again, and their friendship suffering a little as a result. You know, where really close friends start to drift apart and they all wonder what happened. I don't see this doing that.
With them attending an all girls University I can see HTT continuing. All the girls at their High School loved them, Kakifly might aswell make it so that the University students like them aswell. They play in front of crowds even larger than in High School. He could include a rival of sorts, another band forms, or one that came from a different High School, that competes with HTT.

What I think is a given though is after a year Azusa comes to the same University and joins them again. They spend another 3 years together with a great ending being them performing at Budokan, capturing the hearts of millions of young girls becoming a nationwide success. With Sawako designing their costumes.

[Vexx]

http://twitpic.com/46zlf4

I think unless Kakifly is an utter slacker or easily distracted that *two* storylines which consist of a total of 8 PANELS a week shouldn't be hard to muster. The high school thread is the easy one as its just 4 personalities with remixes of the same attributes doing the same seasonal events. The college one is mostly untested ground for this type of genre -- I hope Kakifly watches Honey&Clover and perhaps Love*Complex to get a feel for the *ambience* of college (did Kakifly attend college? lets hope so).

I suppose this is the best of both worlds and might increase the subscriptions of both magazines.

Actually, I'm a bit more interested to see which or both series are picked up for animation.

[Bikerider]

OOH OOH !! New K-On member could be American raised Rocker Chick with a rebellious attitude sent back to Japan to "grow up" under some strict guidance of her grandparents.

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Actually, I'm a bit more interested to see which or both series are picked up for animation.

Do you really think there's any chance at all that future K-On! anime won't follow both sides of the story?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Goggen

Do you really think there's any chance at all that future K-On! anime won't follow both sides of the story?

I've seen too many stellar popular series over the years never get that chance for more animation to be optimistic, even when there was excellent source material to work with.

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I've seen too many stellar popular series over the years never get that chance for more animation to be optimistic, even when there was excellent source material to work with.

That's a fair point. Although, I want to point at that as far as we know, K-On! is still one manga. At least, we haven't been given any title for a new series, the announcement still only refers to it as "K-On!" from what I can tell. The whole splitting up the storylines thing could very well be just for the magazine publications. I wouldn't be surprised if the tankoubon will alternate chapters between storylines and an eventual anime to follow suit.

[BaKaBaKaOtaKu]

XDD KYOANI would be utterly crazy if they won't pick both. if they'd choose one, i believe they'd go with the 4 main girls. XDD

anyhow, as mentioned, since the two releases are likely to be actually one(they did separate them since hs and college wouldn't fit in a single chapter), that'd mean kyoani would combine both in one series (i like it that way if ever bec. if not, i'll be reluctant to follow the HS one. i prefer seeing the 4 Seniors xDD)