Manga pioneer Hideo Azuma had some harsh criticism for K-ON!, proclaiming memorably "It was empty. It was nothing."
While I hadn't seen K-ON! at the time of Azuma's statement; I was perplexed; what does that mean, anyway? Does he mean the show is empty because it lacks an interesting narrative, or sympathetic characters? Even though I'd already heard tons of complaints about K-ON! (and what the moe phenomenon is allegedly doing to anime as an art form), that particular criticism seemed somehow unfair to me. In part because of Azuma's mystifying comment, and partly because the second season premiere is around the corner- on April 7th, my birthday no less- I figured it was time for me to finally watch this sucker.
So, now I've watched K-ON!. Silly? Yes. Frivolous? Maybe. Empty? Does not compute. Hit the jump for why.
Ritsu is the president- YOU WILL RESPECT HER AUTHORITY
In fairness, Hideo Azuma is entitled to his opinion, and as an accomplished manga artist, his opinion deserves some credence. However, even if no one else has put it quite as succinctly, the idea that K-ON! is devoid of value (aside from the sale of PVC figures) is a popular one in the otakusphere, and I would probably have wanted to address it even if Azuma had never mentioned it. While I'm still a tad puzzled by some of his comments (how do the jokes in K-ON! "make no sense"? They're simple, clean jokes.), Azuma's use of the word "empty" was just a convenient place to start, not an attempt to make this about him.
Girls in a band, and me
Can Mugi really fit a keyboard in that bag? I thought she just kind of, you know...left the thing there.
It's one of the major regrets of my life thus far that I never got into music. As a kid, I didn't have the patience to learn anything that didn't come easily to me, so all of my attempts to learn to play an instrument ended in failure. I can sing, and I still love listening to music, but I feel like I missed out on something really special. Yeah, there's nothing stopping me from walking into a music store right now and buying a guitar, but it still seems like a huge missed opportunity. I sustain myself by thinking that- if the theory of infinite alternate universes is true- somewhere out there, there's a version of me who's cool enough to play guitar and sing at the same time. People who can do that are so cool.
Needless to say, the idea of a kind of aimless, underachieving girl getting hooked up with the right people and learning to be a musician holds a lot of appeal for me. I wish there were a bunch of people at my high school who would have force-fed me delicious sweets until I agreed to join their band (and honestly, that's probably what it would have taken to get me to move my lazy behind.) Like all fiction, sometimes anime is about wish fulfillment, and K-ON! gives me a taste of an experience I wish I'd gotten to have.
It's not empty when you bring yourself
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