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K-On!
alt title(s): K-ON; Keion
Ritsu, Yui (with Les Paul Standard Gitah), Mugi & Mio
When their school's Light Music Club (keiongaku-bu) is about to be disbanded with all of its members graduating, Ritsu (a drummer) seizes her chance to become a club president without actually being elected and drags her friend Mio (a bassist) along with her. They recruit two more students in order to meet the minimum member requirement: Tsumugi, a keyboard player who was looking for another club, and Yui, a spacey girl who they tempt with numerous sweet things until she agrees to play guitar. With a new band formed, the four come to a sudden realization: aside from Tsumugi, none of them can actually play an instrument well. The group sets off to improve their musical skills, with plenty of Slice Of Life cuteness along the way.

The yonkoma manga by Kakifly, serialized in the same magazine as Hidamari Sketch, was turned into an anime by Kyoto Animation in the spring season of 2009. The show proved to be a runaway success, with the opening and ending themes topping out at #1 and #2 in the Japanese music charts as well. The manga has been licensed for a future English release by Yen Press.

Note that this has nothing to do with a certain possessed teddy bear.

Confirmed for a second season at the end of a recent K-On concert event (starring the voice actresses) in Tokyo, due to be released in April 2010.

All characterization tropes are listed on the character sheet subpage. There is also a Wild Mass Guessing page.

This series provides examples of:

  • The Abridged Series — Here ya go!
  • Adaptation Expansion — Compare any anime plot to the manga segment it was based on. Definitely for the better, though, and produces more than one Crowning Moment Of Funny.
  • Art Shift — A distinctive Chiaroscuro lighting scheme is used whenever a character is being dramatic (or just pretending to be). Also when Mugi gets ideas. Moreover, during the School Festival there is a Music Video within a show that has a noticeably different style.
  • Beach Episode — Two of them. Held at Mugi's vacation house, which also includes a Hot Spring.
  • Beware The Nice Ones — Manga Mugi is this a little.
  • Big Eater — The enormous amounts of sweets, cake and other desserts the girls eat every day during band practice don't seem to affect their waistlines at all. Especially Yui appears to have an extremely high metabolism.
  • Big Fancy House — Unknown, since you need an appointment to visit Mugi's house. Her summer villas on the other hand are humongous.
  • Big No — after the Panty Shot below, Mio has a Big No that can be heard outside the auditorium.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows — Tsumugi (seems like a family trait, given that one of the music store's clerks realized she was the owner's daughter simply by looking at her eyebrows).
    • Lampshaded in the last episode: in Yui's fever-dream, Mugi's eyebrows are actually slices of pickled radish.
  • Bishoujo
  • Bland Name Product — Both straight and averted. While Mio uses a "Pony" cassette player and the girls eat at "Max Burger" (complete with golden "M", and unrelated to the Real Life Swedish hamburger chain), the musical instruments and equipment are shown as they are: Fender, Gibson, KORG, Yamaha, Marshall, Peavey, and VOX.
    • The name "Max" has more to do with the Japanese burger chain Mos Burger, while the shop design is derived from another Japanese chain Freshness Burger.
  • Blank White Eyes — Everyone. Free triangle-shaped mouths included.
  • Blush Sticker — Pretty much everyone at some point or another.
  • Boke And Tsukkomi Routine — Mio and Ritsu.
  • Brick Joke — "Your bangs are really long..."
  • Sister-Sister Incest?: One of Ui's Image Songs is titled "Lovely Sister Love" and contains the line "Onee-san Daisuki" ("I love my big sister").
    • Ui's infatuation with her onee-chan is rather clearly shown in the anime. It's just that it hasn't reached critical romantic intentions.
  • Call Back — Yui's rush to school at the beginning of the show is mirrored in the last episode. She gives a touching reassurance to her past self and it's all set to Mio's rendition of Fude Pen Boru Pen~
  • Captain Obvious
    Yui: What's that?
    Azusa: It's a tuner. It's used for tuning.
  • Chase Scene — When Yamanaka-sensei runs towards the music room in episode 5. No actual Sheet Of Glass or fruit carts used, but they may as well have been.
  • Chekhovs Gun — When Yui nearly trips over the cord before the concert in Episode 6. Mio ends up tripping over the cord after the concert.
  • Christmas Episode
  • Club President — Subverted by Ritsu being no more or less important than any of the other girls. She is not particularly driven and often needs "positive reinforcement" from Mio, whom she is more interested in dressing up in a maid outfit. Not that we mind~
    • The beginning of both the anime and manga versions have this post as one of Ritsu's goals for restarting the club. Since it's nearing dissolution she doesn't need to run for the post and can obtain it by default.
  • Color Failure — Yui and Mio.
  • Companion Cube — Bordering on Cargo Ship at times with Yui and her guitar. She bought it because it was "cute", gives it a name (Les Paul Gitah!), sleeps with it, and apparently dresses it up(!).
    • Of course, she dresses the Les Paul like a girl. So this Cargo Ship is Les Yay.
    • Which is not that much weirder that the attitude of most guitarists toward their Gibson Les Paul. You simply want to pamper it.
    • Her Image Song, Gitah ni Kubittake is pretty much a love letter to Gitah.
  • Cooldown Hug — Yui performs one on Azusa. It works like a charm.
  • Corner Of Woe — More like a corner of fear and denial, which Mio goes into regularly. In episode 5, Yamanaka-sensei heads into one, only to discover that Mio is already there.
  • Cosplay — Sawako-sensei has a thing for dressing up the other girls. Possibly also counts as Cosplay Otaku Girl, but Sawa-chan hasn't shown any otaku tendencies so this area is a little gray.
  • Cranial Eruption — Poor Ritsu.
    • Most of the time it's her own fault anyway.
  • Cross Popping Veins (Mostly Mio, but it's seen in many of the main cast.)
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny — Mugi "bargaining" with the music store clerk - who, by the way, recognizes her immediately as the daughter of the shop's owner - to get a discount on the guitar. Lower!
    • Another one: Mio finally giving in to Sawa-chan's hobby.
    • Yamanaka-sensei briefly fantasizes about a masked Ritsu playing epic death metal beats at the foot of the TOWER OF BABEL.
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming
    • End of episode 9 "New Club Member!"
    • A lot of episode 12 "Finale K-ON!" as well.
    • The manga has the girls performing in celebration of the graduation of the student council president.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome — The theme song "Cagayake GIRLS!" shot up to the top of the charts right after the pilot episode aired.
    • Pretty much the entire soundtrack qualifies
  • Cuteness Proximity — Azusa provokes this reaction regularly from the older club-members.
  • Delayed Reaction — Usually involving Ritsu or Yui. (Especially Yui.)
  • Did Not Do The Research
    • There is no feedback when you unplug an electric guitar. You at most get a loud thump if you unplug it from the guitar end, which is nasty in its own right.
      • There is, however, some nasty feedback when you plug it into the guitar while the amp is on, but that's an entirely different story.
    • Guitar strings generally don't rust, but simply wear down and become dirty after a while.
      • Unless Yui mysteriously custom ordered/bought steel strings. And even then, the guitar would fall apart before the strings would rust.
    • Very nitpicky perhaps, but where Yui's guitar is clearly a Gibson Les Paul Standard, Azusa's guitar doesn't sound anything like the Fender Mustang she's supposedly playing.
  • Dreadful Musician — The band, at first, is quite lacking in the musical talent department.
  • Ear Worm — Don't Say Lazy, the shows ending theme
    • The opening theme, "Cagayake! GIRLS", is very catchy as well.
  • Early Bird Cameo — Yui passes Mugi, Ritsu, and Mio on the way to school in the first episode.
  • Elegant Gothic Lolita — The outfits of the girls in the ED are highly influenced by this.
    • Even more so the outfits they wear while singing Fuwa Fuwa Time.
  • Evolving Credits — Azusa is added to the opening after she joins the club. If you listen closely, you can also hear an extra guitar part added to the song.
    • The extra guitar part was already present in the single-release of the OP.
  • Eye Catch — The cassette and reversing cassette animation in each episode.
  • Fandom Rivalry - Whatever you do, do NOT mention both K-On and Suzumiya Haruhi in one sentence at websites where fans of those shows are. (Since they're mostly infested with trolls.) The odd thing is: While the creators for the manga/light novels are different, they were both made as animes by the same company, Kyoto Animation. The rivalry stems mainly from the fact that both K-On! and the second season of Haruhi were produced around the same time, and both (supposedly) suffered for it in terms of quality storytelling. Plus, there are moments in Haruhi where the characters resembled K-On!'s characters.
  • Flashback — Occasionally with Flash Back Back Back.
  • Four Girl Ensemble — Later on, it becomes a Five Man Band (sorta) once Azusa Nakano joins the club.
  • Four Temperament Ensemble — Yui and Ritsu are sanguine, Mio is either melancholic or choleric, Azusa is somewhat choleric, and Mugi is phlegmatic.
  • Freudian Slip — Mio, about Nodoka. This troper can't tell if Mio thinks that Nodoka acts too much like Yui's mom or if she has mommy issues.
  • Fridge Logic — Why doesn't anybody talk to Mio after she changes class? Hadn't she become very popular, fanclub and all?
    • Fridge Brilliance — When the president of the fan club is also the student council president, you do expect the members to be more... secretive.
    • We're talking about the first two minutes of the new school year here. Even without Nodoka, there's a good chance people would have started to talk with her before the end of the day, but Mio being Mio, she starts panicking straight away...
    • Also, bands don't decide who will do the vocals the minute before a concert.
      • A possible explanation might be the Genius Ditz nature of everyone in the club.
    • Generally, one should avoid sprinting home and back to school after having a brain-frying fever. Couldn't someone else have gone?
      • But with anyone but Yui out of the picture, who could've played? Yui clearly can't play any guitar outside her own Les Yay— Les Paul.
  • A Good Name For A Rock Band — The band-naming session goes nowhere fast, but it does include Yui suggesting "Hirasawa Yui and Her Happy Friends". Sawa-sensei is annoyed that the debate is delaying her tea-time and forces the band to adopt the name "After School Tea Time".
  • The Glomp —Azusa is a regular recipient of this from Yui.
  • Happily Married — Yui's parents.
  • Holding Hands — Possibly Intertwined Fingers: Yui and Ui during the Christmas Episode.
  • I Am Not Shazam — The name of the band is Afterschool Teatime, not K-On!.
  • I Call It Vera — Yui nicknames her guitar "Gitah".
    • In a recent chapter of the manga, Yui has taken to calling Mio's bass "Elizabeth/Erizabesu" (which Mio inadvertently does as well, to the amusement of Mugi, Ritsu, and Yui) while Azusa subconsciously considered naming her Fender Mustang "Muttan."
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming — Every episode title is a noun (or noun phrase) followed by an exclamation point.
  • Image Song
  • Instant Fanclub — Mio gets hers right after the performance at the culture festival.
  • Japanese Honorifics — These get a real workout in the show.
    • Yui refers to all her friends by -chan.
    • Mio is embarrassed when asked to use Yui's name without honorifics.
    • The music store employees all use -sama and -ojousama when they talk to Mugi, while her correct and proper butler refers to her with the formal mouthful "Tsumugi-ojousama".
    • Ui gets found out when she uses -san instead of -chan for Yui's friends.
    • Azusa always uses -sempai for the other girls in the club.
    • While everyone uses -sensei for Yamanaka, they use different emphases for when she's being admirable, perverted, or just friggin' awesome.
      • Yui calls her Sawa-chan-sensei.
    • Azu-nyan is less of an honorific and more of a reference to Cat Girls or Verbal Tics.
  • Kansai Regional Accent — During a school trip to Kyoto in the manga, Ritsu suggests that they should all talk like this while they're there.
  • Late For School — Yui, in the first episode. Ends up being subverted when it turns out she was actually an hour early.
  • Lens Flare — Mostly in beach shots.
  • Les Yay
    • Rather subtle, but Mio sometimes seems to have a thing for pretty ladies.
    • Yamanaka-sensei also at times seems ... rather interested in the girls. Especially Mio.
      • More like she likes to force them into cosplay. They end up liking it (even Mio).
    • And Mugi, in turn, seems to like Yamanaka-sensei quite a bit.
      • It's not specifically Sawako; she just likes when "two girls bond together" (in her own words). Also, she doesn't disagree with Girls Love as long as both "express interest".
    • After Azusa joins the band, Yui seems to become extremely fond of her and hugs her a lot. It's an affectionate bunch, all right.
      • Yui is just like that, no sexual implications here... until ep. 12, when she tries to kiss Azusa.
    • Don't forget that when Azusa looks at their past performance in chapter 10 of volume 2; she even gets a Nosebleed from Mio's Panty Shot
    • The girls also seem to get sensual pleasure from Mio and Azusa's moe responses, so they often try to provoke them.
      • Concerning those two. For Valentine's day, Azusa thought about giving Mio some chocolate before giving a Suspiciously Specific Denial to Ui. Note that in Japan, Valentine's Day is a day reserved for girls to give chocolates to the boys they like.
    • Ui and Yui may also take their admiration for each other a bit far, especially in the Christmas Episode. Since it's between sisters it is likely innocent, but that won't stop the yuri fan boys/girls.
    • And then there's the way that Ritsu acts over Mio having lunch with Nodoka...
      • That's rather typical in Japanese girls' friendships.
    • In the manga, the student council president turns out to be very smitten with Mio.
    • Does it count that Sawako-sensei has nothing better to do than distinguish Ui and Yui by their breast size?
      • Not necessarily. Sawako's hobby is to make clothes for the girls, so she needs to pay attention to their figures.
    • The Romeo and Juliet chapter of the manga. Or rather, the Romio and Jurietsu chapter.
    • Then there's the chapter where Azusa and Mugi are alone in the clubroom which just dripped with UST well... some kind of tension.
  • Look What I Can Do Now — Subverted. Yamanaka-sensei takes Yui away for vocal training... except that they trained too hard and Yui loses her voice.
  • Love Letter Lunacy — Ritsu gets a love letter at one point, which distresses her highly—until it turns out to be song-lyrics written by Mio.
  • Luminescent Blush — Yui's in response to Mio's cuteness is especially endearing.
  • Meido — Ritsu suggests dressing Mio up as one for the school festival, spawning "Moe Moe~Kyun!" She gets a bump on the head for the suggestion.
  • Memetic Mutation
  • Moe — All four five girls. Yui's sister Ui qualifies too. Mio, however, deserves special mention, her Moe-ness being over-the-top even by the standards of this show, spawning a Running Gag.
    • And when Azusa arrives, the show causes a huge moe explosion that obliterates everything within a 100-mile radius.
  • My Skull Runneth Over — Yui forgets all the chords she learned after cramming for an exam.
  • Noblewomans Laugh — Ritsu, oddly enough, when she puts on airs over her test-taking skills.
  • Now Thats Using Your Teeth — Yamanaka-sensei, when demonstrating her old skills.
  • Odd Couple — The shy and fearful Mio and the energetic (and slightly Jerkass) Ritsu. They've been friends since at least elementary school, but one wonders how Mio put up with her all that time since Ritsu constantly plays on Mio's phobias and shyness.
  • Painting The Fourth Wall — The exposition about the girls' music teacher/club sponsor is revealed to be Ritsu talking the whole time.
  • Panty Shot — There's a rather gratuitous panty-shot of Mio after their performance at the school cultural festival. Except the viewer doesn't get to see it, as KyoAni replaced that with a bowl of rice. Everybody in the auditorium, on the other hand....
  • Parental Abandonment — None of the girls seem to deal with their parents a lot, even though they are only 15 years old at the start of the series.
    • While Yui specifically says her parents like to travel a lot, she seems to be the only one with actual abandonment going on. Mugi mentions spending time with her parents all the time, Mio talks to her off-screen or off-panel mother a few times, and so on. Like Peanuts, most adults in K-On are apparently He Who Must Not Be Seen.
  • Picture Drama — The DVD specials.
  • Pink Bishoujo Ghetto — The series is virtually devoid of males.
    • Justified in that they attend an all-girl school.
  • Pinky Swear — Ritsu and Mio, when they decided to form a band. At least, according to Ritsu...
  • Pose Of Supplication
  • Puni Plush — Very noticeable, in some scenes more than others. Listen to Yui exclaiming "Puni! Puni!" as she squeezes Mio's callused fingers.
  • Recycled INSPACE — It's Lucky Star...with musical instruments!
  • The Red Stapler — Sales of Fender instruments rose thanks to the show.
    • Yui plays a Gibson, but those are a lot more expensive.
  • Romantic Two Girl Friendship — By the latter half of the series, it's hard to find any friendship among the main cast and supporting characters that hasn't been romantic (or at least loaded with a planet's worth of Les Yay) in some way.
  • School Festival — Two of them, both including concerts.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot — Done when Mio stumbles and bares her panties. Only in the anime, though.
  • Shaped Like Itself/ Captain Obvious — From Yui: "Fun things are fun."
  • Shout Out
    • Johannes Krauser II. from Detroit Metal City makes an appearance in one of Yui's delusions in Episode 1.
    • "Jimi Hendrix?" "Jimmy Page?" "Jeff Beck?!"
      • (Are there really that many guitarists that start with "J"?!)
    • The Music Video that plays during the school festival concert suggests an outlaw concert like The Beatles Rooftop concert, with a little Thelma And Louise thrown in as well.
    • Yui hugging Azusa to calm her down has a high resemblance to Kyou's glomp on Kotomi in CLANNAD (another show by the same studio), especially with the the "good girl" part◊. It also occurs in the manga, which might be mere coincidence, but Kyoto Animation sure picked up on it.
    • A cheeky homage to the "I'm flying!!" scene (complete with Gratuitous English) from Titanic
  • Shown Their Work — The instruments played by the girls are all existing models in the real world:
    • Yui plays a Heritage Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard Classic—not bad at all for a first guitar.
    • Mio provides the low frequencies on a left-handed 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz Bass (likely Japanese) in the anime, and a Fender Precision in the manga, both four-string. The bass she swoons over in the anime is a five-string left-handed Music Man Stingray—good taste there!
    • Mugi's keyboard is a Korg Triton Extreme (likely the 76-key version since she mentions it in her Image Song). Its built-in valve circuit features prominently in the opening credits.
    • Ritsu bangs around on what looks like a Yamaha Hipgig drum kit.
    • Azusa made a fine choice with her Cherry-red Fender Mustang, since its short scale is a nice fit for her small hands.
    • Several of the random items (such as the tea sets or Mio's headphones) are also recognizable (and very expensive) real world products. Mio's headphones are the AKG K 701, for example.
    • One Youtube poster realized that many of Yui's printed tees referenced RealLife songs, none of which are Japanese. The production team must be real music buffs.
  • Sick Episode
  • Sickeningly Sweet — Mio's lyrics. Assuming she continues to write them after the School Festival we are treated to more of her saccharine creations in Episode 8 with "My Love is a Stapler".
  • Silly Me Gesture — Combined with Hand Behind Head by Yui and Sawako-sensei in episode 5.
  • Sleep Cute — In the manga, all the girls of the band to this together after their last concert.
  • Stupid Statement Dance Mix — Moe moeeeeee~KYUN!
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial — Azusa, when Ui asks her what she was pondering about: "I wasn't thinking about Valentines or anything like that"
  • Sweat Drop
  • The Tortoise And The Hare — There are two small sculptures for these animals attached to the stair railing that leads up to the light music club's music room. Any symbolism is not clear but can be interpreted.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes — Seemingly the entire Hirasawa family. The parents are Sickeningly Sweethearts, the older sister is a lovable oaf and the younger sister is a doting Yamato Nadeshiko who is utterly obssessed with her Onee-chan (not in that kind of way, at least not in canon).
  • Tareme / Tsurime — The art style has everyone (yes, even Yui) toggling between these two types of eyes, but it's most noticeable with Sawako, showing how wild she's currently being.
  • Twelve Episode Anime — The series' main Story Arc spans twelve episodes. Episode 12 was labeled as the "finale," causing some people to think it would actually be the last one. There is an Episode 13, but it lies outside the story arc.
  • Twin Switch — When Yui gets sick before the concert, Ui lets her hair down and goes in her place. She fools everyone for a while, but Sawako-sensei eventually sees through her disguise as she is better "endowed" than her OLDER sister.
    • Subverted in that they aren't actually twins.
      • Unless you want to take the Wild Mass Guessing into account.
    • A similar event occurs in the manga where you see Yui packing things for her Kyoto trip and declaring that everything is all set...and then she ties up her hair. Ui was packing for her sister, and in the next panel Ui goes to wake up Yui, who is sacked in her bed...
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome — Ritsu dive-rolling into the room in Episode 3. Repeated three times from three different angles. Neither characters nor audience is impressed, though the latter is generally amused. One fan decided to make the scene even more over-the-top awesome.
  • With Friends Like These - One wonders why Mio still considers Ritsu her friend, with the teasing, humiliations and blackmailing and all...
  • X Meets Y — Lucky Star meets BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad
    • In which case, it would be Peanuts on LSD with even more crack meets Beck.
  • Yonkoma
  • Your Door Was Open — Occasionally, Sawako-sensei suddenly drops in unnoticed when it should be logically impossible for someone not to realize she came in.
    • Usually when she was neither invited or informed of the get-together beforehand.

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