|
All right so dig it, here's the deal. First the good, the parts with Yui and her quirky behaviour were honestly quite funny in a weird sort of way, especially those with "Mugi" at the beginning. The animation was also back to the level of the first episode, which to me comes as no surprise as this is the finale and they at least want to make it look presentable.
Now the not so good. Honestly it seemed like they were trying with the concert parts to make it all seem like it meant something...trying so hard, but here's the deal, it just rang hollow to me and nothing felt like it mattered when I reflected on the rest of the series as I saw it and ignored the shows limp-wristed attempt to lead me into feeling that it was all somehow a huge character growth story for Yui and friends and that it all warranted the 5 minute plus flashback/recollection from Yui that it was given. To that idea I say nay nay.
Firstly, let me be frank(er), none of the characters I can say really changed or evolved over the course of the show, they just took on their initial moe traits and followed them through right to the end. Secondly, the idea of the K-On group as a close and a that the characters share a strong bond that was built over time just never came through either. Sure now they want it to seem that way, but honestly there was no real progressive growth that I could see and the relationships just aren't there. If they were going to go for this kind of finale then they should have planned for it in the earlier episodes by working to make the bond feel real rather than just a sequence of barely connected gags and one liners. Whatever happened to Ritsu and Mio being childhood friends, why did that hardly come up after it was introduced. What about Mugi, talk about just being there as a pair of eyebrows. Azusa also just came in way to late to make a real impact and really just came across as a walking source of melodrama in the end, always finding something small to make into a "crisis", that would then be resolved in less then a paragraphs worth of dialogue. If they were going to do drama and have Azusa be that driving force for it I really wish they would have put some effort into making it feel like it mattered. Honestly the only relationship that felt real to me was that of Yui and Ui, and even then thanks only to all of those flashbacks of kids. What does it add to the overall K-On club story and the idea that they share a strong bond built over time though? Nothing. The idea of aiming for Budokan.....can't say I've been reason to care as these characters are just to shallow for me to root for in any meaningful way as a viewer. I feel no deep attachment to these characters, let alone any.
And at the end of the day that's the overall biggest problem I can say this series had. It all felt so hollow, perhaps as a result of commercialization of the characters and the clear emphasis that was put on their moe appeal above all else, perhaps because it was based off of 4Koma, or perhaps just because I was looking for more than it could be bothered to give I don't know (even as I constantly readjusted my expectations they could never go low enough, and judging by this endings attempted reflective nature they actually were apparently trying to aim high, which is throwing me for a loop even as I write this), but it just never felt like it all mattered. It seems like an Oxymoron, but the end of this series felt like it came way too soon and like it was all compressed in a way that makes it unsatisfactory on a number of fronts (never mind the inconsistent comedy and repetitive character gags that dominated the shows middle portion), but it also felt like the ending couldn't come soon enough.
The show was clearly out of steam and had painted itself into a bit of a corner with it's honest to god lazy (I'm not supposed to say it according to the ending, but it's the only word I can come up with) nature. The ending scenario was also a been there done that affair for this kind of show even still and won't be memorable either. The key here is that they needed to have shown and not told this reflective backstory, because it might as well just come across as another one of Yui's silly fantasy's that is all in her head.
Like Master Chibi said, I'll probably have forgotten about this show in a couple of weeks and when the discussion dies down. It just won't have mattered to me......
|
Author
and 
My Anime desktop, 
