Now that the proper BR release has been fansubbed by a few major groups, I've finally worked up the courage to put an end to my K-On addiction by watching the movie.
Needless to say, it was pretty well done. Even as a K-On fan, I have to admit that the show itself is pretty damn vapid - girls eating cake, dumb teenage girl learns to play guitar, your standard moe fair. Whatever, its a nice cartoon to watch after a day at the office. So I started the movie, expecting a whole lot of adventures in London and thats it, but the movie is much broader than that - when they left London, the movie still had quite a lot of running time left, so I was wondering what they'd fill it with.
Without spoiling too much (Is it even possible to spoil an event-less movie?), they fill in some gaps from the 2nd season, mainly how they came up with Azusa's farewell song (Which had me confused - I thought the movie takes place after they got their graduation papers and are preparing to enter college). Some parts felt rushed as a result though, especially their guest concert in London. Animation was generally good, a slight improvement over the show (Which is already great anyway), though there are some lazy errors on certain frames.
Concert scenes are great, though, and whilst K-On isn't about the music (Strange as it may sound, being a series about a music club), they are definitely moving, especially the final "concert" in their homeroom and Azusa's song Also enjoyed that the girls are portrayed as being part of a class - the show, especially the first season, had the tendency to show them as a separate entity, which hurt the setting. Also, Himeko, swoon~ Whilst Im hoping for a 3rd season (26 episodes please!), Im not very confident of it happening now that the manga is canceled (Plus, new cast is usually a good way to have the current readers drop your manga), and it'd be pretty silly for them not to get in contact with the opposite sex in college (even if its an all-girls institute again). But that's the problem with a yon-koma (gag) manga turned into a serious anime - it wont be able to cope with actual life (Japanese fans tend to react negatively to "their" characters interacting with the opposite sex).
So definitely a must-watch for any K-On fan (As if they wouldn't), and a relaxing movie for people who enjoy anime in general, though it does assume you have seen the prior seasons in order to get some of the jokes and nature of the characters.
Needless to say, it was pretty well done. Even as a K-On fan, I have to admit that the show itself is pretty damn vapid - girls eating cake, dumb teenage girl learns to play guitar, your standard moe fair. Whatever, its a nice cartoon to watch after a day at the office. So I started the movie, expecting a whole lot of adventures in London and thats it, but the movie is much broader than that - when they left London, the movie still had quite a lot of running time left, so I was wondering what they'd fill it with.
Without spoiling too much (Is it even possible to spoil an event-less movie?), they fill in some gaps from the 2nd season, mainly how they came up with Azusa's farewell song (Which had me confused - I thought the movie takes place after they got their graduation papers and are preparing to enter college). Some parts felt rushed as a result though, especially their guest concert in London. Animation was generally good, a slight improvement over the show (Which is already great anyway), though there are some lazy errors on certain frames.
Concert scenes are great, though, and whilst K-On isn't about the music (Strange as it may sound, being a series about a music club), they are definitely moving, especially the final "concert" in their homeroom and Azusa's song Also enjoyed that the girls are portrayed as being part of a class - the show, especially the first season, had the tendency to show them as a separate entity, which hurt the setting. Also, Himeko, swoon~ Whilst Im hoping for a 3rd season (26 episodes please!), Im not very confident of it happening now that the manga is canceled (Plus, new cast is usually a good way to have the current readers drop your manga), and it'd be pretty silly for them not to get in contact with the opposite sex in college (even if its an all-girls institute again). But that's the problem with a yon-koma (gag) manga turned into a serious anime - it wont be able to cope with actual life (Japanese fans tend to react negatively to "their" characters interacting with the opposite sex).
So definitely a must-watch for any K-On fan (As if they wouldn't), and a relaxing movie for people who enjoy anime in general, though it does assume you have seen the prior seasons in order to get some of the jokes and nature of the characters.