K-On: After School Tea Time rocks!: Review

Ah!  The joys of being young,  Of having a passion.  Of working hard to fulfill your dreams.  Long nights of grinding hours of practice to reach the skill level to achieve your goals.  What more could an anime about 5 high school girls that create a pop band teach us?  Well... Anything but that actually.

K-on is about four friends that do indeed resurrect a dying rock band club from near extinction at their school.  Later to be joined by a fifth student,  Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, and Azusa meet every day after school for club activies.  You would think these would involve writing music, practicing their craft, and generally rock out in their sugary j-pop ways. But alas, mostly they just... drink tea and eat snacks.

So how can you possibly create a show about tea and snacks?  By adding in some mischief, friendship, and comedy routines of course.  There is a plot - albeit a meandering one- that does involve problems that need to be solved, and yes the occaisonal gig.  The plot and themes of this one mostly revolve around what its like getting through school with close friends and savoring each and every moment, not matter what you may be doing.

The characters themselves are simple, but avoid cliche.  I mean if meyers brigg is to be believed there are only 16 base personality types anyways.  The typical anime tropes are cleanly avoided; what you have instead are 5 girls each with very distinct personalities, dreams, hopes and fears. This is a good thing. There isn't much growth, as this isn't a coming of age story, and therefore doens't leave one disappointed.  The characters ultimatly stand on their own and keep the show moving along with their antics and responses.

I think my favorite part of the show was the opening and closing credits.  The opening credits were poppy and fun, while the ending credits were a little more rock and edgy.  All four tracks were good in their own ways. 

If you are looking for an epic rock story, than this anime isn't for you.  Its about girls being girls in cutesy ways that make you chuckle. There is no fan service, no male to trip and fall on these lasses, BUT there is a turtle. And that makes everything alllll right. 

Personally, I like a little more plot and drama in my high school anime.  I've seen my fair share of the "slice of life", but this one was hard to get through.  Each episode was enjoyable - not really fulfilling but enjoyable.  It certainly didn't keep me up wanting to watch the next episode though, and I think that is where this one leaves much to be demanded...  I also have the feeling that K-on was never meant to be a page turner.  Like the girls of After Noon Tea Time, the name of the band, you are meant to just sit back, relax, and enjoy.