... I feel I must do this anime a greater justice than taking just a few sentences to describe it, but I will still try to keep it relatively short.

To clarify: no, as I may have once said before, K-On! is certainly not the most exciting thing to watch out there. A group of girls recounting their last two years in high school playing in a band? Not exactly the most compelling story.

... But still, I could not help but find the four female protagonists Yui, Mugi, Mio, and Ritsu to be endearing and precious in their innocently wacky hijinks that serve as the focus of the story. But, unlike most high school-centered animes, what I like about K-On! so much is that it is just ... so normal. There's none of the ridiculous harem-centered antics of animes such as - oh, god - kiss x sis, and certainly none of the soul-crushing high school drama of School Days that I in my naive innocence foolishly walked into so long ago (as some of you might remember from my subsequent rant).



Above: The girls whom SK would happily protect, ... much unlike those abominable creatures who call themselves girls in School Days.

So, yeah, that's about it. Yui and her musically-inclined friends go be normal high-school girls for a few episodes, then about every sixth or seventh episodes they bring us a presentation of their music. Rinse, lather, repeat. Again, not exactly compelling stuff; no one is going out on an epic quest to save the world or anything, but it works for me. Again, it is solely because, K-On! just seems entirely laid back; unlike ~98% of the rest of the anime culture, there is nothing about it to make me feel uncomfortable just being in the same room as what is happening onscreen. Besides, although I am sure this stems entirely from my being a typical guy who is attracted to the raging cuteness of most anime girls, it is also just nice to witness the enduring friendship of the five main protagonists in K-On! as they make their journey through their precious high school days (now many of us in America can say that we look back on our own days in high school with similar fondness, right?)

And each girl is endearing and perfectly likable in her own way. Yui (center guitarist) has a bit of a problem with memory and focus - and consequently responsibility - but possesses an admirable devotion to her guitar and passion for music, and is usually the first one to use her cheery personality to raise the spirits of any of her friends when they are brought low. Mugi (on the keyboard) plays the girl of noble bearing and aristocratic background, but can at times suddenly speak up and surprise the other members of the group with her more hidden, wacky nature. Mio (left guitarist) is perhaps the shyest member although not necessarily the most reserved because of her longest-living friend Ritsu's innate ability to draw out Mio's spontaneous desire to wallop her over the head whenever Ritsu attempts to embarrass Mio in some way. Ironically, although not at all surprisingly, Mio is seen as the cutest member of the band to whom many other girls around the school have long devoted an entire fanclub, which only causes Mio to retreat further into her shell and increases her fear of performing music in front of any sort of audience. Ritsu (on the drums) is the tomboyish figure who easily has the most type A personality of the group and perhaps is most likely to be at the center of the more comical moments in the story. And finally there is Azusa (right guitarist), the youngest member who is consistently doted on by Yui (because younger always equals more huggable and cute in anime, of course) but retains, at least in relation to anyone else in the band, a very serious and stoic nature that could only be broken through once by her realization, in a surprisingly tender moment, that all four of her other friends would soon be leaving her and the music club they were all a part of for good once Yui, Mio, Mugi, and Ritsu's final days in school were nearing to a close.

There's even a pretty extensive cast of secondary characters that are all very likable as well and have a surprisingly developed role in the story: such as Nodoka, who is a less-annoying equivalent of the Class Rep girl in Evangelion; Ui, the motherly younger sister of Yui who is quite possibly the most accurate portrayal of the perfect wife (once she reaches the marrying age, of course; please don't take that the wrong way) and my personal favorite aside from Mio; Sawako, the prim and proper music instructor who sometimes gives in to her former, darker image of the hardcore grunge guitarist when subjected to an intense environment saturated with rock music; and a few others.

The humor was light and ... I guess, cute. And I have, since having to begun to view the K-On! series online, also become especially fond of the music that the band as a whole presents in the story, as well as the many songs made to artistically represent the personalities of each individual character, such one of Mio's specific themes here below ->



... And my personal favorite that seems to have, in the story, actually been an entirely original song that was written by the band ->



... Had this been one of the songs written by a real, existing band of female musicians from Japan, heck, I'd willingly attend one of their concerts.


Kind of a few spoilers in the this next paragraph ->
This is really just one of those instances where I cannot possibly convey in words how K-On! with its cuteness and innocence has managed to save me from the dark memories of black, unwanted spots created in my past life/childhood by things such as School Days. (Try not to take this last statement too seriously.) Now, there was one strange episode that held anime's innate powers of making the viewer seriously uncomfortable just to be in the same room as what is showing on screen, when for some weird reason Azusa starts missing her other four music partners so much when they are away on a class trip or something that she utterly starts tripping balls and imagines them appearing everywhere as she spends the day strolling through town with Ui and another girl Jun. It didn't make any sense and I had no reason why even such a boring episode centered around Azusa missing her inner circle of friends had to be done, but again, it was just one in forty or so, so it can easily be forgiven. What I particularly like is that every several episodes or so there is sort of a climax where the girls perform one or more original songs in front of the school during a typical yearly school event and either one of them will make some heartfelt speech before Ritsu cues the playing with her drumsticks, or the girls will subsequently share a tender moment that elevates their humorous and surprisingly endearing friendship further as they reflect on all of their more fond memories throughout the years they have been attending school together. I don't know why - because I am a guy, after all - but there was one such moment int he story towards the conclusion of the second season where somehow you know you aren't actually going to become emotional enough to cry tears of empathy, because no matter what it is still just something you are watching from the other side of the reality barrier and it would be kind of silly, but you still feel that slight burning sensation behind your eyes to at least show that, dammit you still care!

But, thanks, Yui, Mio, and everyone in the K-On! universe, a Protector of the Angels such as myself could certainly do well to have more testaments to perfectly mellow and innocent happiness like you around, in spite of being able to provide only a temporary world of escapism that exists only within the PC monitor. I still owe you for this one. ^_-