Recently released was the extra K-On episode that came out with the DVDs. While the episode has been floating around for a wee bit, the subs that had been released were questionable at best, so I waited for the Coalguys release. Now with that release, I can finally get one more taste of the adventures of the five girls before saying good-bye forev-

Oh, who am I kidding? With recent announcements of not just one, but two sequel mangas, it should be obvious by now that the adventures of the girls with continue on forever, or at least as long as the fans demand it. We’ll eventually end up with a Crankshaft version of K-On with the girls in old age. That’s one thing you can bet on.

But there’s nothing wrong with more episodes of these cute girls in action. Fyi, check out the new writers and say hi while you’re here reading this, if you haven’t already.

In summery, some gifts from Mugi’s last oversea trip inspire the girls to take an oversea trip after graduation. They debate over where to go, and then without reaching a conclusion, start to prepare for their trip. The cover some basic concerns, such as self defense, and the language barrier. From there, the girls go on to get passports and start to pack. By the end of the episode, the girls still haven’t decided where to go, but they’re excited to have something to look forward to.

As an extra episode, I felt that this was excellent. The pacing was consistent through the episode and it felt complete, which are some of the most important things for me regarding an episode. That and it just hit all the right keys with me, being funny at points yet touching at others. If you’re going to tell a complete story in one episode, this is how it should be done. It was disappointing that the girls never decided where to go and we never got to see the trip but unfortunately it makes sense. The 4-koma ended when the girls graduated and the trip would have happened post graduation. Other high points include the high quality of animation. It was top notch in this episode.

One part of interest to me was seeing the differences between getting a passport in Japan and here in America.When I ended up getting a passport picture taken, I don’t remember it too clearly, but I do remember I had to get a picture taken just for the passport, and that submitting a photo wasn’t an option.

Sawako deserves a mention. Poor Sawako also appeared in this episode, who ends up with the fantasy that she’ll go overseas for her honeymoon. Don’t worry Sawako, I believe you’ll be married someday! Gay marriage will be legal, and then you can marry your bff from your former band days!

And now the second season of the unexpected hit, K-On! draws to a close. It was a mostly low-key episode with the girls being concerned about yearbook photos and taking care of their sick teacher. Yet there were many subtle touching moments.

One of those was the girls standing on Sawako’s balcony watching the sunset. There was the obvious double meaning to this, what with the sunset being when the day ends, the girls’ high school year being over, and this being the last episode. Yet at the same time, it was a beautiful scene, seeing the four of them standing there staring out at the sky.

Then there was Yui not opening the door to the music room. This happened right after Sawako told the girls that the light music club would continue. Yui starts to open the door, and hearing Azusa giving directions, doesn’t open the door. Yui has come to the realization that this is no longer her club, but now is in the hands of Azusa, and she can’t just barge in like she use be able to. What adds to the moment is the fact is this is a very mature recognition on the end of Yui, who is the least mature member of the group. In the end, she turns and leaves the light music club behind along with the rest of the girls without ever opening the door.

The ending moment of doing one last thing that they did in the past and then flashing back to that was cute, and a good note to end K-On on.

Thus, the series draws to an end. K-On!! is and isn’t over, as there is a movie in the works. Thank-you with sticking with me for blogging both this and Heroman this season. For the fall season, I will be doing Psychic Detective Yakumo.

With the story of K-On over, we’re into the extra episodes. This episode of K-On was flat out silly, and really, a lot of fun. I ended up laughing a lot. I’m not quite sure when it takes place, but looking at Yui’s haircut, it must be between the yearbook photos and graduation

Ouch

After Azusa comes across a promotion video from the light music club’s first year, the girls immediately decide to make another one for the next year. Hence the girls and Sawako start coming up with ridiculous ideas for the videos.

My personal favorite was the movie trailer. There were some fabulous images in there.

Sexy Sawako

I also liked the mystery trailer and doing it from Ton-chan’s point of view. Although, I do admit, I had no idea what they referencing with the Ton-chan one.

Finally, Azusa comes up with the idea of a mix of interviews, their performances, and just going about every day life. My favorite part of this half was when all the other characters of K-On were interviewed for the video. We got to see the Occult club again, as well all sorts of appearances and fun little jokes.

I just realized. Her hair reminds me of the archers in Disgaea.

In the end, it was all good fun. Having such a simple silly episode I feel worked very well after the very emotional finale.

I keep thinking John Lennon...

And here is where the story the K-On!! ends, although the show has two more bonus episodes. The day has come for the girls to graduate and leave high school forever. Usually this is a good thing, as high school means grueling classes and bullshit drama. It’s still a good thing in the world of K-On!!, as the girls are growing up and moving forward. Still, their version of high school makes me think of spending a lot with friends, rocking out, and just a never ending happiness, and it’s sad to see them leave it behind.

Still, this episode was handled well. Rather then being overdramatic all the way through, most of it was treated like a normal episode with the girls little adventures as they get prepared to and get through graduation, complete with an outrageous fantasy thanks to Sawako wondering what Yui was hiding.

I also appreciated that Sawako had a part in this episode, and was really happy that her class gave her gift. She was a great character, and did really care about her students, so the way the handled her final scenes I thought was very fitting. I loved her last line to her students, after trying so hard to be nice and polite, “I’ll be waiting for you to get your asses back here!”

Even though I was expecting it, when Azusa starting crying after trying to be happy, and essentially has a bit of a breakdown, I thought that was the saddest thing. Poor Azusa, she finally cracked. I think the she’ll be okay in the end, even if the transition is hard is what this episode showed us regarding her.

Although the song they played…it was so touching. I know Azusa said it was bad, but I liked it. Ending the series with a farewell song worked to tie everything off.

And I didn’t cry. Okay, I teared up a little bit…

Why can't Yui put hose on by herself?

The story of K-On!! is quickly approaching it’s end (although it seems there will be two bonus episodes) with this episode featuring on the day of graduation. I watched with a heavy heart, as they went through one activity after another, getting closer to the end that’s going to come. Yes, I am sad to see it coming to end, I’m not ashamed to say.

So first the girls starts off by doing nothing, then the go to clean out their desks. At least Yui and Ritsu do, as they haven’t already.

Bother Nodoka and Sawako.

Have lunch with Azusa.

Clean up the music room, something the poor place has needed for a long time.

Then, when school is over, and Azusa joins them, they perform one last time. This time, the girls record all their songs to leave behind a piece of themselves. Doing so takes them into the evening. With that, and all too soon, the episode is over.

These tears? Uh, my dorm room is dusty. Really really dusty. That’s all, I swear.  I’m not suppose to cry until the next episode, after all.

I wonder how many Valentine’s Day episodes I’ve ended up blogging. Heck, I wonder how many I’ve ended up watching. Each time I watch one, I just feel more and more tired of these episode. While they have their own slight differences, in the end, they’re all the same plotline of person making chocolates, person hesitating to give chocolates, eventually gives them, receiver loves them regardless of whether they are good or bad. This Valentine’s Day episode of K-On!! wasn’t exactly like that that, but I felt pretty bored by a lot of the episode.

What I did like was seeing the girls preparing for and taking an exam. To be fair, a whole episode focusing on the girls preparing for the exam would have probably been boring, although I’m not sure Valentine’s Day was much better. The episode always flows better when the main four are in focus.

I did also enjoy the scenes of the Azusa shopping for and baking the cake. This Valentine’s episode was a little more detailed then most about how the process works. I’m honestly curious about how hard it is to make a cake or even chocolates from scratch. I’d like to try someday, and probably will.

Also, I’m enough of a softie that I was touched by the end of the episode were the girls were watching the snow fall, and also by the girls finding out if they were accepted or not. Beautifully executed and very emotional.

This had the potential to be a good episode. I’m sure a lot of people thought it was. At this point, I’m just really biased against Valentine’s Day episodes, and don’t enjoy them. For some reason I can still stomach Christmas though…

The episode opens with a very cute sequence for anyone that’s a Yui fan of Yui posing in the mirror, trying out new hairstyles. It seems that senior photos are coming up, and she’s rather anxious about them. Well, they are a big deal. When I was a senior, we had to go to an actual studio, and get professional portraits done for the yearbook. I don’t know if the go that far out in Japan, but it seems they’re still important.

She's so cute...don't you just want to put her in your pocket?

Azusa is spacey, probably upset and preoccupied with her club mates impeding graduation. That, or KyoAni has a personal vendetta against me, and know the best way to get on my nerves is mopey Azusa.

However, for the other four, their musical career seems to be over with the end of the festival. That’s really sad. They’re going to use the club room now to study for tests and what not.

There was a portion of the show that had Yui with a couple different hairstyles.

It’s time for Ritsu and Yui to figure out what they’re doing with their futures as well. I keep wondering if Yui really is going to turn out to be a teacher…this is the second time she’s said she wanted to be one.

Though maybe she wants to be one for the wrong reasons...

Oh, who am I kidding? Futures? They’re more interested in yearbook photos.

Yui’s haircut disaster was just painful though. What an awful thing to do to your hair. So close to photos too. I wanted to find it funny, but I was too busy feeling really bad for Yui.

I really liked this episode. It flowed really well, with the girls being themselves. It’d be a nice (though tad unrealistic) resolution to have the four of them go to the same college. Let’s see if it happens.

All right guys, it’s been 20 episodes of blogging, but here we are at the school festival! The school festival performances were some of my favorite parts of last seasons, I hope this is amazing as well! After all, you always save the last for best, right?

The Side Dish is the Whole Meal was absolutely adorable. Nothing amazing, but still a lot of fun. Seeing the rest of the school get into the song, it’s easy to see that the girls have come a very long way. U & I was a little more serious, and I felt was really touching.

Mugi~

This is probably the closest the show will ever get to producing a full out concert episode, and it did okay. To be my dream K-On episode, it’d need more music, but there was a lot else that was spot on. I think that the closest I could feel to actually being at a concert while watching at an anime. The caught the joy and euphoria of such events spot on.

Nothing prepared for the emotion ending, even with my boyfriend’s prior warning where the girls started crying, realizing that was their last concert. High school is such a hard thing to move on from. I’m in my third week of college, and still having dreams about saying goodbye to my high school friends. We still have six more episodes with the girls though. I’m not going to cry at the last episode. I swear!

I can’t evaluate this episode…I’m too busy still sniffling and trying not to cry…

In the world of K-On!!, the festival is has come! Azusa, Ui, and what’s her name Jun are working in the café, the other four are preparing for the play, and Sawako is fulfilled, having had made costumes, for, well, everyone. For once, people are willing to wear them!

Mio looks incredibly handsome as Romeo, what with that blue and gold outfit. Juliet still doesn’t work with Ritsu at all, and the fact that her outfit would look hideous on anyone doesn’t help one iota. The costume that works the best is strangely Yui in her tree costume. It just fits her…and she looks so happy in it!

The actual performance of Romeo and Juliet was pretty disappointing. We never get to see any of the real romantic or cool scenes in the play, and all we see them do is hug. Come on guys, in Romeo and Juliet there’s suppose to be more then hugging. I don’t say this as someone who wanted some yuri action, I say this as someone how’s a fan of Romeo and Juliet.

She also does a great job as a shrub.

Of course, it would be a true episode of K-On if we didn’t have to reassure Azusa again! I do really like Azusa, but not when she’s whining.

And stop whining.

The all nighter was really cute, especially with Yui loving all over Azusa. Then there were the caterpillar sleeping bag. Those things were awesome, and the girls were adorable in them.

The episode was so-so, the ending portion with the sleepover had to be my favorite part.

I love these girls. I don't know why. They should get their own spin-off.

I had a blog post set up for episode 18 all ready to go, and made the mistake of going to bed without saving, hoping to post it in the morning. Of course Windows chose that night to do an update, restart, and wipe my entry. This is disappointing to me, especially as the plan was to have caught up to 21 before I went to college. Now it’s the night before I leave, and I’m rewriting 18.

Anyway, 18, Mio gets asked to play Romeo, Ritsu is suppose to play Juliet, as the class is apparently a bunch of hardcore Mio x Ritsu shippers. The two initially have some difficulty with their parts, but Ritsu gets over it, however Mio struggles with stage fright, blah blah blah.

This is Nightmare Fuel.

Who am I kidding? There’s only one part of this that anyone really cares about, well, if the general K-On watching population has the same weakness for maids that I do. Mugi’s idea to deal with Mio’s stage fright leads the girls to working at a maid café.

This is really one of the cutest scenes I’ve seen of the girls all season. The outfits look great on each and every one of the girls, and everything just seemed to fall in place to make the scene work with the different antics of the girls.

Mio honestly took the scene with her stage fright and nervousness, which somehow made her more entertaining. From hiding from serving, to fumbling to take an order, it was all adorable, although I felt bad for her.

Ritsu and Yui definitely had there fabulous moments with Ritsu’s smile, and Yui and her cheese pen.

Sadly, as quickly as the maid café came, it went, but I think it’ll easily be one of the non-musical highlights of the season.