AnimeSuki Forums

Dextro · 2012-10-14, 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Misago

Yen Press are licensing the final two manga volumes, K-On! College and K-On! Highschool. Not that surprising but good news!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/ne...t-k-on-volumes

Hurray! That means I'll be able to get the full collection in english

Forte · 2012-10-15, 03:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaitok

Holy crap! UI'S GUITAR IS SO CUTE!!!! O___O

I hope they release both Uni and HS vols in Chinese too, so I can buy them locally instead of getting the Jap one!

ordered the Jap ver... I can't wait for the local ver since the local publisher in my place would take some time before the College and Highschool edition licensed in my country...

Vexx · 2012-10-15, 14:24

Ordered the japanese release ... I've gotten to where I can't depend on english distributors to *finish* what they start. Downside is my library is about 1.8x shelf space with holes still left for ARIA, Moon Phase, and a few other series.

However, Yen *seems* to be avoiding the stupidity other publishers suffered.

Goggen · 2012-10-15, 15:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexx

Ordered the japanese release ... I've gotten to where I can't depend on english distributors to *finish* what they start.

An unfortunate danger in collecting manga in English, but I don't think it applies in the case of K-ON! now that Yen licensed the final two volumes. 'course, it's always nice to have the original version. (Although, the English version of K-ON! scores extra points for having more color pages than the Japanese version, oddly enough).

Vexx · 2012-10-15, 16:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goggen

An unfortunate danger in collecting manga in English, but I don't think it applies in the case of K-ON! now that Yen licensed the final two volumes. 'course, it's always nice to have the original version. (Although, the English version of K-ON! scores extra points for having more color pages than the Japanese version, oddly enough).

Yen has so far been a shining exception to the history of manga licensing in terms of reliability and quality (e.g. translation and leaving the original material intact). Not perfect but yeah ...

Misago · 2012-10-16, 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexx

Ordered the japanese release ... I've gotten to where I can't depend on english distributors to *finish* what they start. Downside is my library is about 1.8x shelf space with holes still left for ARIA, Moon Phase, and a few other series.

Same here. What is even more frustrating for me is browsing amazon.co.uk and seeing all the stuff available in German/French/Spanish and yet no English version, particularly light novels - damn wish i was at least bilingual >.<

Infinite Zenith · 2012-10-16, 18:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goggen

An unfortunate danger in collecting manga in English, but I don't think it applies in the case of K-ON! now that Yen licensed the final two volumes. 'course, it's always nice to have the original version. (Although, the English version of K-ON! scores extra points for having more color pages than the Japanese version, oddly enough).

The extra colour pages are one of the reasons why I'm holding off until the English versions come out. That, and the fact that it's easier for me to go to my local bookstore and buy a copy

Yui Is My Wife · 2012-10-21, 20:52

On a slightly more serious matter.

Having read the Final University Chapter, one gets the sinking feeling that Kakifly has come to hate his own creations, and is deliberately punishing the fans for pushing him beyond his vision/ability.

Think about it; K-ON was his first mainstream work, an (admittably warm hearted yet) everyday life story about five kids growing up.
Then it was Kyoto Animation that turned it into the Cultural TITAN that it was, pushing the story above and beyond its intended scope; into pop-music stardom and even International Adventure. Something Kakifly could NEVER have done alone.

When all he wanted was a laid back slice of life story.

It must be quite humbling an experience for someone whose previous work was a To Heart 2 Doujinshi, and just wanted to get by.

Spoiler for Speculation on Kakifly's anger at fans:

All this just reeks of a CALCULATED slap-in-the-face for fans who asked too much of one man to do what it took an entire studio to accomplish.

For pushing you too hard, Kakifly, we apologise. We can only hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive us and Hokago Tea Time, and one day in the far future, we can meet again in happier times.

Infinite Zenith · 2012-10-21, 21:17

I don't really get those vibes from the final chapters of the manga myself. I do have some speculation as to why such elements were observed, though, so bear with me while I gather my thoughts and explain what might be an alternative account for some of the things we see.

Things change considerably at the post-secondary level: I considered engineering in high school but my path has since diverged. The same likely holds true for the band and can be seen as a minor allusion to reality: that making a band successful is an endeavour that is out of scope of HTT despite their high school aspirations and have since become more realistic about what they wish to do in the world.

The introduction of Akira (who is my least favourite character in the series) is harder to explain, but I think it has to do with the new cast introduced in university. Depicting a larger number of characters simply means that Mio et al. make fewer appearances. With this in mind, the manga depicted most of the characters evenly for the most part. Kakifly himself stated that Mio was a favourite on the virtue of being left-handed.

Calling back to the idea of changing character maturity, perhaps both Yui and Ui have matured slightly in the year that elapsed since Yui went to University. It is possible to maintain a close, cordial relationship without the degree of intimateness (read "lots of hugs") that was depicted in the TV series.

All in all, I cannot definitively say whether or not Kakifly is giving the fanbase a take-that. Granted, some of the things the fanbase does can be seen as excessive and even somewhat offensive, but I don't believe Kakifly intentionally hates the fanbase. Perhaps, he merely wishes to reinforce his original intent and ideas for the manga over the decidedly more-well known TV series.

GMT · 2012-10-22, 06:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yui Is My Wife

Spoiler for Speculation on Kakifly's anger at fans:

Eh?

None of that reeks of "ZOMG, AUTHOR RAAAAAAGE!!!11" to me. In a way, they've always known that their little high school garage band was something that they were going to have to put down someday. What was it that Yui said? "Houkago Tea Time will always be . . . after school?"

That's a theme that's hammered on over and over again in both the comic and the anime. The girls acknowledge that Death Devil shreds their faces off . . . but where is Death Devil now? The women of Death Devil are all friends, or still acquainted, at least. But their band is something they left in the past; to the extent that Sawako wanted nothing to do with the wedding gig, and had to be shamed into doing it by Yui's deliberately bad performance.

You have to have a certain hunger to make it in the music business. The author seems to paint it as something you have to choose: Music is something you do for fun, so it takes a backseat to having a normal life and normal friends. Or music is the center of your life and you're prepared to do everything you can to make it.

Yui has seen both sides of the coin. She has friends who view music as a hobby (the girls in HTT with the possible exception of Azusa,) and friends who view music an end unto its own (Akira and her friends, and possibly Azusa.) I felt it very mature of her when she makes the pronouncement to the effect that going down Akira's path is not something that's really for her, and that she's just in it for the fun factor.

As ForwardUntoDawn said, things change when you leave high school and get into post-secondary education. In the college series, the girls pick different majors; just as friends tend to do in real life. Your social circles change, often dramatically. When you're first dropped into that big pond known as college, you may stick close to people you knew in high school; but eventually you make friends elsewhere. Not to mention that not even "college prep" courses in high school really prepare you for how much like beating your face into a brick wall college coursework can be. Because of that, your hobbies and interests can change too.

Nothing in the college series came as a real surprise to me, because, having gone through the whole college experience I'd "been there, done that," as it were. Not even the change in Yui and Ui's relationship.

I see it as a mark of Yui's maturity that Yui and Ui's relationship grows past the "co-dependent cuddlebug" phase, because Yui has learned to stop leaning on her sister so heavily (you see hints of this when she pens U&I, when she acknowledges that things won't always be the way they've been.)

So . . . no, I don't see any "take that!" from the author here.

Vexx · 2012-10-22, 08:20

I'm going to admit that some of the expectation that I'd be seeing a band try to "make it big" is from the animated series ED "music videos". It planted a huge notion in my head that this was a path the story might take. That may have been an error on my part but I'm always keen on any story that actually moves into college and into professional life - that is, grows past the high school scene.

There are anime series that do that and I'd like to see more. It seems to me like Kakifly's motivation may have a little of Forward's speculation and more of GMT's speculation -- there's too strong a sense of "yeah, it was fun now get back in the rut of society" in K-On! and a lot of anime.

Stories about the *outliers of society* tend to be more appealing to some of us, though.

Misago · 2012-12-13, 13:06

looks like we might have some release dates for the last two manga volumes in the west
K-On! College on 23rd Jul 2013 and K-On! High School on 29 Oct 2013, according to amazon.co.uk

Goggen · 2012-12-13, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Misago

looks like we might have some release dates for the last two manga volumes in the west
K-On! College on 23rd Jul 2013 and K-On! High School on 29 Oct 2013, according to amazon.co.uk

Sweet! Though that means it'll be close to another year before my K-ON! collection is complete... Or more, depending on how long it takes for the movie to get a NA release. It never ends.

Mokoko · 2012-12-13, 16:10

I don't understand... They are others volumes after the volume 6?

Goggen · 2012-12-13, 16:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mokoko

I don't understand... They are others volumes after the volume 6?

No. But the last two volumes haven't been published (officially) in English yet.

Mokoko · 2012-12-13, 18:35

Oh ! Thanks !

Triple_R · 2012-12-19, 06:32

I decided to read up on this thread since I was interested in seeing how the K-On manga was doing. I was pretty surprised to read that it's apparently completely finished. Some further comments in spoiler space below.

Spoiler for Manga thoughts, some spoilers:

I also was surprised to read that the original four (Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi) never went pro. Much like Vexx, I felt that the various K-On EDs strongly hinted at this high school band eventually going pro.

Nonetheless, if Kakifly really did want to clue this up once and for all, then having the girls go pro would have totally undermined that goal.

"Read about pro music stars Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi!" has a much more appealing ring to it than "Read about Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi live normal adult lives!" As long as the potential for following the pro music careers of HTT is there, the fan demand for the story to continue would never end. By closing off that possibility, Kakifly is more likely to persuade the fans to accept this ending as the ending.

Nonetheless, I am concerned about some of what I've read concerning Yui and Ui. Yui and Ui meet for the first time after a long time apart, and they don't even hug? Wow, that is cold.

I make a point to always share hugs with my sisters when I first meet with them after a long time apart. And there's a seven year age difference between my two younger sisters and I. I'm not as close to them as Yui was to Ui. But to me, this sort of basic warmth and love is what family is all about. For Yui and Ui to go to the point that they don't even hug each other after lengthy absences... Wow, that's disappointing. It especially seems out of character for Yui. It also does make me think there's some underlying issue there between the two sisters, like maybe Ui is glad to be free of Yui and both sisters are aware of this...

Gotta say that it sounds like Kakifly did indeed get tired of writing K-On - That popularity forced him to go deeper than what he ever intended. He certainly wouldn't be the first mangaka to face that.

I'm not surprised, because I felt that the finale of K-On!! was beautifully handled, and had a real sense of finality to it. Yes, you could go beyond it, but the way everything led up to a major emotional crescendo with Azusa saying goodbye to HTT gave me a sense of overarching narrative climax - That nothing within the world of K-On could top this.

Afternoon Tea · 2012-12-19, 06:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I decided to read up on this thread since I was interested in seeing how the K-On manga was doing. I was pretty surprised to read that it's apparently completely finished. Some further comments in spoiler space below.

Spoiler for Manga thoughts, some spoilers:

Maybe not enough panels on the four-panel comic strip, therefor anime adaption so they can fix that （*´▽｀*） lol just kidding.

Triple_R · 2012-12-19, 06:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Afternoon Tea

Maybe not enough panels on the four-panel comic strip, therefor anime adaption so they can fix that （*´▽｀*） lol just kidding.

I would be fully supportive of an anime adaptation fixing this, lol.

Marcus H. · 2013-04-30, 03:45

It's four months too late, and I finally finished the manga series.

After reading the manga and the reactions in this thread, I feel quite confused. What did I just see? The college members of Houkago Tea Time undergoing changes in their personality, or an author whose interest in his work is wilting away like a tree past its prime? I may have been too used with how the production team of the anime handled the story, so I felt that both the story of the high school and college sides are very weak, it's simply the fact that the 4-koma is not an effective way in delivering a well laid-out story.

In the high school side, we see roughly the same formula with new faces. Sumire is a remnant of Mugi's presence, Ui and Jun were mostly there due to Azusa's influence, and Nao is a chance member. Aside from this, there's the same story format that's in the first season. Meanwhile, the college side focuses on how the HTT handle their interests in the midst of college lessons and simply growing up.

It felt that the story after HTT left high school was weak. There's simply too few chapters to expand on the relationships of Wakaba Girls and we have seen too little of the college life of the HTT. On the college side, everything lacked impact, especially how HTT lost to OnnaGumi, while the high school side ended in a very cruel cliffhanger.

I'd really like KyoAni to be given a chance to handle the final stretch of stories as I really loved how they improved the flow of the story. Right now, kakifly may have decided to give K-ON up for good. 'Tis a shame, really.

2012-10-15, 14:24	Link #2103
Vexx Obey the Darkly Cute ... Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ... Age: 66	Ordered the japanese release ... I've gotten to where I can't depend on english distributors to finish what they start. Downside is my library is about 1.8x shelf space with holes still left for ARIA, Moon Phase, and a few other series. However, Yen seems to be avoiding the stupidity other publishers suffered. __________________ "It Really IS Rocket Science", Novel series rough drafts; vol. 1 thru vol. 3 complete Volume 4 in work, Visit the thread for short stories!

2012-10-21, 20:52	Link #2108
Yui Is My Wife Paper-Fan of DOOM!! Join Date: Jul 2010	Has Kakifly come to hate his own creation? On a slightly more serious matter. Having read the Final University Chapter, one gets the sinking feeling that Kakifly has come to hate his own creations, and is deliberately punishing the fans for pushing him beyond his vision/ability. Think about it; K-ON was his first mainstream work, an (admittably warm hearted yet) everyday life story about five kids growing up. Then it was Kyoto Animation that turned it into the Cultural TITAN that it was, pushing the story above and beyond its intended scope; into pop-music stardom and even International Adventure. Something Kakifly could NEVER have done alone. When all he wanted was a laid back slice of life story. It must be quite humbling an experience for someone whose previous work was a To Heart 2 Doujinshi, and just wanted to get by. Spoiler for Speculation on Kakifly's anger at fans: Having HTT LOSE the final battle of the bands and ACCEPT that they'll never make it big, having Mio (a firm fan favourite) fade into the background over the mean-spirited and decidedly UN-Cute Akira, having Yui's idiocy cranked up to incredulous levels by LOVING said mean-spirited bitch..... In fact, the most heartfelt chapter was a reunion with Nodoka back-home, a brief respite to simpler times. And even then, Kakifly admonishes the fans for their obsessive love of the Yui/Ui relationship by having their relationshp grow COLD and NOT having Ui rushing to hug her beloved sister in reunion. All this just reeks of a CALCULATED slap-in-the-face for fans who asked too much of one man to do what it took an entire studio to accomplish. For pushing you too hard, Kakifly, we apologise. We can only hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive us and Hokago Tea Time, and one day in the far future, we can meet again in happier times. __________________

2012-10-21, 21:17	Link #2109
Infinite Zenith Operation sneaky sneaks IT Support Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Hic et ubique	I don't really get those vibes from the final chapters of the manga myself. I do have some speculation as to why such elements were observed, though, so bear with me while I gather my thoughts and explain what might be an alternative account for some of the things we see. Things change considerably at the post-secondary level: I considered engineering in high school but my path has since diverged. The same likely holds true for the band and can be seen as a minor allusion to reality: that making a band successful is an endeavour that is out of scope of HTT despite their high school aspirations and have since become more realistic about what they wish to do in the world. The introduction of Akira (who is my least favourite character in the series) is harder to explain, but I think it has to do with the new cast introduced in university. Depicting a larger number of characters simply means that Mio et al. make fewer appearances. With this in mind, the manga depicted most of the characters evenly for the most part. Kakifly himself stated that Mio was a favourite on the virtue of being left-handed. Calling back to the idea of changing character maturity, perhaps both Yui and Ui have matured slightly in the year that elapsed since Yui went to University. It is possible to maintain a close, cordial relationship without the degree of intimateness (read "lots of hugs") that was depicted in the TV series. All in all, I cannot definitively say whether or not Kakifly is giving the fanbase a take-that. Granted, some of the things the fanbase does can be seen as excessive and even somewhat offensive, but I don't believe Kakifly intentionally hates the fanbase. Perhaps, he merely wishes to reinforce his original intent and ideas for the manga over the decidedly more-well known TV series. __________________

2012-10-22, 08:20	Link #2111
Vexx Obey the Darkly Cute ... Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ... Age: 66	I'm going to admit that some of the expectation that I'd be seeing a band try to "make it big" is from the animated series ED "music videos". It planted a huge notion in my head that this was a path the story might take. That may have been an error on my part but I'm always keen on any story that actually moves into college and into professional life - that is, grows past the high school scene. There are anime series that do that and I'd like to see more. It seems to me like Kakifly's motivation may have a little of Forward's speculation and more of GMT's speculation -- there's too strong a sense of "yeah, it was fun now get back in the rut of society" in K-On! and a lot of anime. Stories about the outliers of society tend to be more appealing to some of us, though. __________________ "It Really IS Rocket Science", Novel series rough drafts; vol. 1 thru vol. 3 complete Volume 4 in work, Visit the thread for short stories!

2012-12-13, 16:10	Link #2114
Mokoko Young Aspergus Eater Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Canada	I don't understand... They are others volumes after the volume 6? __________________ Anime-Planet.com - anime \| manga \| reviews

2012-12-13, 13:06	Link #2112
Misago Member Join Date: Feb 2011	looks like we might have some release dates for the last two manga volumes in the west K-On! College on 23rd Jul 2013 and K-On! High School on 29 Oct 2013, according to amazon.co.uk

2012-12-13, 18:35	Link #2116
Mokoko Young Aspergus Eater Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Canada	Oh ! Thanks ! __________________ Anime-Planet.com - anime \| manga \| reviews

2012-12-19, 06:32	Link #2117
Triple_R Senior Member Author Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Age: 42	I decided to read up on this thread since I was interested in seeing how the K-On manga was doing. I was pretty surprised to read that it's apparently completely finished. Some further comments in spoiler space below. Spoiler for Manga thoughts, some spoilers: I also was surprised to read that the original four (Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi) never went pro. Much like Vexx, I felt that the various K-On EDs strongly hinted at this high school band eventually going pro. Nonetheless, if Kakifly really did want to clue this up once and for all, then having the girls go pro would have totally undermined that goal. "Read about pro music stars Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi!" has a much more appealing ring to it than "Read about Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi live normal adult lives!" As long as the potential for following the pro music careers of HTT is there, the fan demand for the story to continue would never end. By closing off that possibility, Kakifly is more likely to persuade the fans to accept this ending as the ending. Nonetheless, I am concerned about some of what I've read concerning Yui and Ui. Yui and Ui meet for the first time after a long time apart, and they don't even hug? Wow, that is cold. I make a point to always share hugs with my sisters when I first meet with them after a long time apart. And there's a seven year age difference between my two younger sisters and I. I'm not as close to them as Yui was to Ui. But to me, this sort of basic warmth and love is what family is all about. For Yui and Ui to go to the point that they don't even hug each other after lengthy absences... Wow, that's disappointing. It especially seems out of character for Yui. It also does make me think there's some underlying issue there between the two sisters, like maybe Ui is glad to be free of Yui and both sisters are aware of this... Gotta say that it sounds like Kakifly did indeed get tired of writing K-On - That popularity forced him to go deeper than what he ever intended. He certainly wouldn't be the first mangaka to face that. I'm not surprised, because I felt that the finale of K-On!! was beautifully handled, and had a real sense of finality to it. Yes, you could go beyond it, but the way everything led up to a major emotional crescendo with Azusa saying goodbye to HTT gave me a sense of overarching narrative climax - That nothing within the world of K-On could top this. __________________

2013-04-30, 03:45	Link #2120
Marcus H. Princess or Plunderer? Join Date: May 2009 Location: the Philippines	It's four months too late, and I finally finished the manga series. After reading the manga and the reactions in this thread, I feel quite confused. What did I just see? The college members of Houkago Tea Time undergoing changes in their personality, or an author whose interest in his work is wilting away like a tree past its prime? I may have been too used with how the production team of the anime handled the story, so I felt that both the story of the high school and college sides are very weak, it's simply the fact that the 4-koma is not an effective way in delivering a well laid-out story. In the high school side, we see roughly the same formula with new faces. Sumire is a remnant of Mugi's presence, Ui and Jun were mostly there due to Azusa's influence, and Nao is a chance member. Aside from this, there's the same story format that's in the first season. Meanwhile, the college side focuses on how the HTT handle their interests in the midst of college lessons and simply growing up. It felt that the story after HTT left high school was weak. There's simply too few chapters to expand on the relationships of Wakaba Girls and we have seen too little of the college life of the HTT. On the college side, everything lacked impact, especially how HTT lost to OnnaGumi, while the high school side ended in a very cruel cliffhanger. I'd really like KyoAni to be given a chance to handle the final stretch of stories as I really loved how they improved the flow of the story. Right now, kakifly may have decided to give K-ON up for good. 'Tis a shame, really. __________________ Continuing: White Sand Aquatope (6/24) and Vanitas S2 (0/12), The Vampire Dies in No Time S2 and Bofuri S2 (3/12). 2021: Restaurant to Another World S2 (3/12), takt Op. Destiny (1/12) and Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale (1/12). 2022: Yuusha Yamemasu (1/12), Kaguya-sama S3, Mob Psycho 100 III (Oct06), Bleach: 1000 Year Blood War (2/13) and Chainsaw Man (6/12). Spring 2023: Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Punch! (4/12), Skip to Loafer, Tonikaku Kawaii S2 (1/12), Otonari ni Ginga (5/12) and Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia (3/13). Contact me on Wikia and MyAnimeList. Anime List Status ~ Watching: 33. Completed: 468. Plan to watch: 39.