[SummeryDreams]

Originally Posted by ForwardUntoDawn

K-On! is the romanisation of 軽音 (Keion), or light music. Technically, this is supposed to be the working title. Kanij, however, is derived off Chinese glyphs and thus, is more complex. Katakana is used for transcribing foreign words into Japanese, and since "light music" is not of foreign origin, Katakana is not used. Thus, we are left with Kanji and Hiragana to deal with.

Hiragana has had a long history of usage and is also the most commonly used. As such, it is likely the writing system that viewers have the greatest familiarity with; while I'm not totally sure, a study found the Japanese prefer Hiragana over Katakana, citing the former as giving a warmer feeling to the text owing to the curving aesthetics of Hiragana characters. Because Hiragana is the first writing system Japanese children pick up, it is the one that is most familiar and thus, most friendly-looking. Hiragana is also the writing system that introductory Japanese courses teach. Contrast Keion written as (けいおん) with (ケイオン): the latter is more angular and rough, whereas the former is gentler in appearance. Incidentally, kanji is the last writing system taught, being the most complex to master (unless one had previous experience with the writing system). K-On! isn't a complicated anime by any stretch, so using Kanji to represent the title would subtly undermine the anime's atmospherics.

We now apply this logic to K-On!, a simple, heartwarming anime about a group of high school girls and their halcyon life as high school students. Using Hiragana would imply that the anime itself would be simple, laid-back and fun, descriptors that rather fit what we see nicely.

I'm watching K-On and I really like it! and oh my God, I never figured it out.. K-On was actually a romaji word.. I thought it means K - On in English, and that explains why it is in hiragana.. Really cute anime..