Disband the Club!

"Disband the Club!"
	廃部!; Haibu!
Season	1
Episode	1
Japanese air date	April 3, 2009
English air date	March 16, 2010
Next	Instrument!

K-ON! episode #1

Summary

Yui Hirasawa, a new high school student, wonders if she should join a club or not. Meanwhile, Ritsu Tainaka is trying to revive the school's Light Music Club. Ritsu's childhood friend, Mio Akiyama wonders what club to join. Tsumugi Kotobuki runs into Ritsu while looking for the choir club and Ritsu finds that she must get at least four members to join in order to save the club from being disbanded.

Plot

Yui's first day of school — Yui's first day at high school

Yui is woken up by her younger sister Ui and believes that she overslept on her first day of high school. She rushes towards the school, but realizes she just got the time wrong after arriving. Sitting in the auditorium with the other first-year students, she is elated by the reality that she's now a high school student.

Yui wondering about the future — Yui is clueless about what to do.

During the following weeks, Yui considers joining a school club but doesn't actually commit to one. When she tells her childhood friend and classmate Nodoka about it, she got scolded by her more responsible friend since two weeks had passed without a decision from Yui. Clueless, Yui worries that she won't be able to find something she wants to do.

First encounter — Mio's, Ritsu's and Yui's first encounter.

At the same time, Ritsu and Mio ask their teacher Sawako Yamanaka about the Light Music Club they are about to re-establish, just to learn that they need at least two more members to save the club from being disbanded. The pair happens to meet Yui for the first time as she enters the teacher's office to pick up some papers. Her clumsiness quickly causes Ritsu and Mio to develop a low opinion of her.

Tsumugi joining — Tsumugi joins the club.

Visiting the music room, Ritsu and Mio wait for a third member to join. After some time, just when Mio is about to give up, Tsumugi shows up searching for the chorus club. Ritsu, excited about a possible member, tries to drag Tsumugi into their club, just to be stopped by Mio. Telling Ritsu off, Mio prepares to leave, but Ritsu reminds her about the promise they made to form a band together after seeing a live concert. Her flashback turns out to be false however, since they made their promise in front of a TV and Mio was never actually very committed to the idea in the first place. Surprisingly, Tsumugi starts laughing, saying that Ritsu and Mio are interesting people and that she'd like to be in a club with them.

Mio, ritsu and mugi french fries — Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi discussing methods to get more members.

All the three now need is a fourth member and they come up with several methods to gather new members, like a recruitment poster. Yui sees the poster and mistakenly assumes that light music equates to easy music like playing castanets. That in mind, she joins the club. It's only after Yui applies that Nodoka explains her mistake to her.

The LMC tries to keep Yui — Mio, Ritsu and Mugi trying to convince Yui to stay.

On her way to the clubroom for the first time, Yui gets very nervous since she has no experience with playing an instrument and decides to officially leave the club right away. However, seeing the other member's relief over her saving the club's existence complicates things for her and end in her tearing up over wanting to leave. Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi feel bad about their selfish methods and apologize to Yui by playing "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" for her. Overwhelmed by the performance, Yui joins the club for real.

Mio, Ritsu and Mugi play Tsubasa wo Kudasai — The club playing for Yui

In the last scene, Yui talks with Nodoka about joining, leading the latter to be very worried about the club's future.

Trivia

Debut appearance of:
This episode was adapted from Chapter 0 and Chapter 1 from the manga.
Differences from the Manga:
- A couple of scenes in this episode are original to the anime and not adapted from the manga:
  - Ui waking Yui up and rushing to school
  - Yui coming to get Sawako from the faculty and meeting both Mio and Ritsu for the first time.
  - Ritsu's imagination of the concert she and Mio supposedly went to when they made the promise.
  - Yui being swarmed by numerous different club recruiters.
  - Ritsu taking a picture of their entire club members, at that time.
- Tsumugi's inquiry about the choir club is done later in this episode, taking place at the Light Music Club's clubroom. In the manga, she inquires about it much earlier, but at the School Faculty.
- Yui's first ever meeting of Mio and Ritsu is done straight at the school faculty when she goes to get Sawako, compared to the manga where her first meeting of them was when she went to the clubroom.
- The girl who calls for Sawako in the manga is replaced with Yui in this episode instead.
- Mio does not have her bag with her when telling Ritsu about her intention on joining the literature club.
- When first finding out about the Light Music Club, Nodoka was with Yui in the manga. In this episode, she was alone when she first learned of them.
  
  The mysterious girl
When Yui is walking all by herself in the hallway next to the "supernatural" clubs, a mysterious looking girl appears in the open door behind her for a split second.
In the scene where the Light Music Club preforms for Yui, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" is replaced with part of the song "Love Me Tender" in the dub.
Yui runs past a tram station in her first day mad dash to school, where Mugi is in the background. In the next scene, when Yui is running down the road, Mio and Ritsu are in the background, and it shows Ritsu posing while Mio is taking a photo of her.