K-ON! as seen by an outlander[]
In this article, I'm trying to summarize for myself (and you who reads it of course) the little knowledge and feelings I have about anime and K-ON!. So don't shoot me if I say something that's not entirely true, or I forget things you find equally important. Just let me know what's wrong or missing, I always want to know more of it.
Anime[]
Anime in general[]
Anime has been around for a long time. Like the US has a McDonalds in every town and Vuvuzela's are associated with South-Africa, when you say anime you say Japan. But anime has taken over the hole world in the last couple of decades.
Every kid around the world who has access to a television has once seen those beautifuly drawn figures with their big colorfull eyes and massive hairstyles. But what does anime mean to someone who lives in the States or in Europe in comparison with Japanese who never knew better than watch anime when they grew up? Do we foreigners have a totally different perspective on anime than they have? Do we even understand anime, as we are suppose to understand by their makers? Those questions may be hard to answer, since we weren't raised in Japan, and they weren't raised outside Japan.
Japan vs. the world[]
As we grew up with comic books as popular as Superman, Spiderman, Tintin,... , they grew up with Manga; the kind of comic that's totally different but yet just the same. As we grew older we were suppose to stop reading comics. "Comics are childish, start reading good books, or even better, start reading your schoolbooks, start reading science magazines, stop goofing around and make something of your life!" Something like that could come from a parent's mouth.
My senses tell me the Japanese mentality is totally different. To me it seems like in Japan, you're never to old to read a good manga, I even think manga is made for adults rather than for children. This contradiction is the same with anime vs. cartoons (the animated series whe normally watch in the 'western world'). When you're an adult you don't watch cartoons, you watch the news, documentaries, crime series and soaps. Anime again seems to be for adults. To give an example (and say the first words about K-ON! you were actually looking for): If you've seen the Blu-ray of the Live event Let's Go!, or you were actually there (good for you), you probably noticed 75% of the audience were men, 20% women and the other 5% children (teenagers if you will). If you would see the audience in theatres for a Spongebob movie, the procentages would be a bit different.
History: Anime taking over the world[]
With the comparison made of manga and anime you can conclude that most of the inspiration for anime comes from manga. Of course manga, and since the invention of television also anime, exsists for a long time. But outside Japan there would be an anime in the late 80's that would succesfully make the leap across the ocean. Little tailed kid Goku would be one of the first Japanese heroes to conquer the world. Dragon Ball and it successors (Z, GT and recently Kai) would become a standard in famous animes. The simplicity and friendship of the characters immediately stole the hearts of millions of people. With every episode giving a moral to its viewers. As Dragon Ball set the tone, others started to follow in the 90's like Sailor Moon.
Though most of the anime comes from manga, strange as it may be, the perhaps biggest anime of all time didn't come from it. in the late 90's one anime would create a massive hype around the world and become one of the most famous franchises of the last decades. Based on Nintendo's succesful Game Boy video game Pocket Monsters, Pokémon was born. Nobody in the entire world would ever forget the face of that cute yellow electromouse. Though Pokémon is loved around the world, it also has Japanese critics who believe Pokémon to be to much commercialised by the States and therefor doesn't have the same heart and soul as manga-based animes have. None the less is it the absolute truth that Pokémon opened the door for the next generation of animes, like Digimon, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh and many others to be distributed in the western world.
K-ON![]
Beginnings[]
Not only the (outside Japan) famous animes are good, there are almost infinite animes in Japan that have the potential of conquering the world if only they had the chance. By accident I stumbled on one called K-ON!, wich leads us to the part of your interest.
When I took a first glare at K-ON! I didn't really find anything 'that' impressive about it. I thought some standard cute looking anime like there are thousands of it. Only I found myself still wanting to see more after the first episode. So why this sudden point of interest in those characters? Why does a guy wants to see more of a childish, girly anime serie?
Before I go on I have to admit I'm kind of a music freak, I can listen to all sorts of genres and my stereo is on almost the whole day. Second of all I always wanted to play the guitar but never had the time (or courage) to learn it, so maybe I kind off felt some sort of bond with Yui as she had to learn it. Besides all that there are still some reasons to keep watching K-ON!
Atmosphere[]
First of all she starts high school. I myself am not in high school anymore, but it's still a fresh memory and brings back some happy moments in my life. In that way I can empathize in the envirement in which the story is told. You can easily remember how you acted when you were that age. But of course this isn't the only anime that takes place in high school. So what is special about K-ON!?
The first real thing that caught my attention in the development of the characters. The first episodes is mainly an introduction of the main characters. You instantly see all of them and get a brief glance at their personalities. After the first episode you know Yui is the clumsy, good-for-nothing kind of person, Ritsu is the tomboyish, enthousiastic girl who wants thing to be done the way she wants it, Mio is your average shy kind of girl who seems to be easily convinced by her best friend Ritsu, Mugi is that sweet, to-good-for-this-world blonde which every parent dreams of and Nodoka is the one who's saddled with Yui and hopes she finally reaches something by her own. They all have different personalities but are still just common teenage girls. None of them is perfect, can fly, has super powers or big boobs. Just normal girls you could bump in to any moment. Also the envirement and atmosphere around the characters has this real easy flow. They're not at the best, most expensive or coolest school. They don't live in the best, biggest or coolest city. Again, it's just some random, normal place. Nothing special, but it seems to work for me.
Realism[]
So I decided to watch the second episode and see if it could keep my interest, could they live up to certain expectations I began to create? I have to say, I never stopped watching K-ON!. The atmosphere and characters slowly attaches to you until you get the feeling you know them (or want to know them). Not in the way like "They're so cool, I wish I was their friend" but more like "They seem nice, I wouldn't mind having friends like that".
An other point that makes this feel-good anime realistic is that there isn't really much adventure. It's not like a soap opera where in some way exciting stuff keep happening to the characters. Unlike American 'teen movies' (where every guy wants to get laid), high school isn't really that interesting. So in K-ON! there will never happen something which normally doesn't happen in high school. Maybe it's less exciting that way, but it's far more realistic.
"So the plot has to be really good if nothing really happens?", you may think. Well I think it does. They always have a certain goal throughout the episodes without exaggerating to much. Forming a band, being able to play at Budokan, getting through exams, getting ready for the school festival. One goal may stay during more episodes than an other. Also it's not like it's one goal at a time. Their goals aren't always that easy or well-thought, which again makes it more realistic. The episodes also have an own story apart from the bigger picture. The storylines have a really good balance between happiness, problems and emotions, never overdoing one of them.
Critisism[]
So making a long story short, K-ON! is a realistic, normal-life, easy-going anime which I think is one of those who deserve the credit. But some find anime like K-ON! a disgrace for the true meaning of anime, like Sato Dai who told the world that anime is reaching it's end. This is a part of the article:
- Sadly, he believes that fans are losing their media literacy – the ability to read narratives and stories and the meanings in the background.
- As a storywriter, Sato had a big axe to grind about the place of the story in Japanese anime. He complained that his works are labeled “difficult-type” (muzukashii-kei), something like the opposite of “atmosphere type” (kuuki-kei) anime. The latter is the type where nothing happens, or there is no significant plot, narrative or development. They tend to focus on cute characters and be very popular with moe fans. Sato said guys like him get no work, even as “Hollywood rips off our ideas.”
- He did not say that he disliked “atmosphere-type” works like “K-On!” – rather he likes the incredible designs. He also did not criticize fan service, because, just as many Japanese film directors came from the “pink movie” industry, many animators are coming from a background in erotic material (doujinshi, eroge or ero-anime/manga). Sexual desire is part of the creative drive. But he sees them as moving towards characters and wasting time seeing just how nice they can make the images and movements look. This undermines the special anime-like movements, the visual vocabulary, that came out limited TV anime in the 1970s. There is also the issue of dumbing anime down.
- “No one wants to hear about NEET [the unemployed],” Sato said. “They’d rather watch a group of high school girls in a band asking, ‘How do I play this note?’” By this point, he was livid and practically spitting in disgust at these fans who “luv anime” (anime daichuki). “If we are always escaping from reality and real problems, when will we face them?”
- The backgrounds based on real places are another similar problem. “It a drug for us” in the anime industry, Sato said. It boosts tourism and pleases fans. “When I see anime today, I realize that we have no pride left.”
Now like I've said in the beginning, I'm not familiar with how anime is experienced in Japan, so I'm not really the person the discuss his statement.
I'll begin by saying that those 'difficult-type' anime are perhaps being forgotten in modern times, and he may be right that nothing really happens in 'atmosphere type' animes. But the latter is just one of the points I've discussed a couple of lines ahead. It's something that builds the realism of the anime in most of the cases. It might be true it's more interesting for moe fans, but I like the anime and I'm the last person that gonna shout "kawaii" in any scene of K-On!. Some thing are cute, that definitly true, but I don't search for cute stuff, I just find it a part of an all-girls anime. Some (and so it appears in Japan mostly all) girls are cute, so what do you expect.
At least he credits the wonderful animation style of K-ON!, which I myself also find very interesting. The way everything looks and moves is so realistic (no, I'm not talking about their boobs or asses). I do agree that some animes are too erotic, just to lure people to watch it, without having any decent story. But luckely K-ON! never intended to do such things. Besides Mio there's no one with big tits, and (besides Sawa-chan in the pool) no one really thinks about such stuff.
Back on topic now, I don't think the anime tries to escape reality. It's true they don't have big problems, but I wasn't a drug addict in my high school days, I wasn't molested by my teacher and no other things like that happened when I was in high school. So why use those things in an anime that reflexes a normal quiet youth. Yes, there have to be such animes to show the people the world istn't all pink, but they don't all have to either.
Only the last sentence I don't really understand so good. I know Japanese are very proud people, and they should. Maybe people use it to boost tourism and show their best side. But if I were proud on something I would't hide it if someone wants to see it. Maybe he just means they show of to much with things instead of keeping it save in their hearts and respect it.
Epilogue[]
Every blog has to end sometime, I guess I'm starting to get boring at this point, so I better do it now.
Despite K-ON!! (yes the second season) will probably be the last, it would be the perfect chance for K-ON! to prove it's a worthy anime. One of the things I admire about anime (and manga) is that you have three dimensions. A bit weird to say, but let me explain. Yes, you only have two dimensions on you paper but the third dimension is time. Animes are (almost) always infected by time. Characters age as the story progresses. Now Yui and her friends come to the end of their high school careers, and thereby to the end of their k-on bu, it would be the perfect chance to show how good the storylines can be. They still have a whole life to live, and now they go to college, where there are more potential stories to tell. They'll become more mature and can get involved with more exciting and different stuff. It's the ideal moment to build on their personalities, how they get effected by new experiences and if they can hold their friendship. This movement of time was one of the things I liked the most about Dragon Ball too.
But maybe this last paragraph is just my heart yelling for K-ON!!! (count the exclamation marks).