YMMV / K-On!

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• Adaptation Displacement: The manga the anime is based on isn't as popular as the anime. Being a Naoko Yamada directed show by Kyoto Animation, a lot of extra scenes and expanded characterization were added to the anime to make it more memorable than the original manga.
• Adorkable: This series is called a moe series because the Light Music club is full of adorable girls who each have some odd or quirky trait that makes them endearing.
• Americans Hate Tingle: In Japan, the anime is very popular, having generated 15 billion yen worth of merchandising and breaking chart records at the height of its popularity. In the West, while still very much popular, it is also much more divisive for its Moe artstyle, only becoming a beloved classic in the eyes of most western anime fans long after it ended.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: When checking out the other clubs, the girls visit the Occult Club, which consists of a big, blinking UFO sitting in the middle of the club room. They consequently close the door and never talk about it again.
• Cargo Ship:
  • The first thing Yui did after buying "Giita" was taking it to bed "as if they were married", as her sister put it.
  • Mio is also very concerned about her bass guitar and starts to treat it like Yui (using the name Yui gave it, Elizabass) does her "Giita" .
• Common Knowledge: The show is about girls who slack off and drink tea instead of playing music while KyoAni avoids animating instruments as much as possible. Actually, the first season crammed two years of high school into fourteen episodes, including four separate concerts, with reasonably-detailed animation of the performances, and every episode save the Christmas one revolved in some way around practicing or playing music. "Let's drink tea instead of practicing" was a single-episode gag to provoke tension with newcomer Azusa. The popular conception of the show came into effect with season 2, after it became a Cash-Cow Franchise that had to fill double the runtime of season one with only one year of chronological time passing.
• Covered Up: This doesn't apply to any Japanese person since it's a classic pop standard and children's song, but face it—the only reason you know about "Tsubasa o Kudasai" is either because of this show, Rebuild of Evangelion, Nichijou, or Danganronpa 3. The dub replaces it with "Love Me Tender".^note This is still in keeping with Covered Up, since the tune of "Love Me Tender" was based on a Civil War-era song called "Aura Lea", but the Elvis version is much more famous.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Along the same lines as Figwit, an unnamed background character in season 2 has caught the audience's eyes, and was dubbed Himeko Tachibana.
  • It's not just the aforementioned girl (who has also been dubbed "Girl who sits next to Yui"), many nameless background girls are garnering attention.
  • There's Ichigo in Episode 18 who, despite appearing in only a few shots in the season, is gaining fan art.
  • K-On! is one of the only, if not the only, anime whose entire 38-student HS homeroom class has been fleshed out, with names and full character designs. Some of the classmates: right of Yui is of course Tachibana Himeko, and in front of Mio is Wakaouji Ichigo, but behind Mio is Nakajima Nobuyo, to the right of Mio is Miyamoto Akiyo, to the left of Mio is Takahashi Fuuko. Behind Ritsu is Endou Michiko, to her right is Wajima Maki, to her left Chikada Haruko. In front of Mugi is Sano Keiko, behind is Kinoshita Shizuka, to the right is Sunahara Yoshimi, to the left is Taki Eri. ALL of them have names, designs, and for several, even several lines of dialogue.
• Even Better Sequel: The second season of the anime is often considered this due to Character Development, the episodes being more eventful and of course the emotional catharsis of the ending. Having twice as many episodes to cover a shorter timeframe (K-On! covered the first two years of the girls' high school life across 14 episodes while K-On!! only covered the final year in 27 episodes) certainly helps. In hindsight, had the studio known how big the series was going to be, they probably would have done a season for each year.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Around the time that both K-On! and Haruhi Suzumiya were airing, it was a bad idea to mention both of them in one sentence at websites where fans of those shows were. The odd thing is: While the creators for the manga/light novels are different, they were both adapted into an anime by the same company, Kyoto Animation. The rivalry stemmed 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 were moments in Haruhi where the characters resembled K-On!'s characters. This rivalry has cooled down over time however, as fans of Kyoto Animation as a whole usually enjoy both for different reasons nowadays.
  • Fans of Mecha anime loathe K-On!. They blame it for starting a Moe boom which saturated the anime industry and also criticize the show's lack of plot and art style. While fans of K-On! tend to ignore mecha fans, they do contest that K-On! benefitted the anime market and that mecha fans are merely blinded by nostalgia.
  • A small one between it and fans of BECK. Both are music anime that follow the exploits of bands formed by teenagers but fans of Beck tend to dislike K-On! for not focusing on the music. Fans of K-On! don't necessarily dislike Beck but do point out that the detractors miss the point of the show when complaining about the lack of music.
• I Am Not Shazam: "K-On" is a contraction of the Japanese word for "light music" (keiongaku). So while the girls are introduced as part of the "K-On" club, it's not the name of their band. That's "Houkago^note After school Tea Time", though that name only becomes official in episode 12.
• I Knew It!: Because the final bonus episode had the girls getting their passport pictures taken, fans predicted that the film would be about the girls going on a trip to another country. ...guess what!
• Memetic Badass: Mugi-chan. Since she has shown to be very strong for a teenage girl, it brought upon the idea of Mugi being someone who could smack anyone up (which she actually did with Akira).
• Memetic Molester: The store clerk at the beginning of season 2 episode 19, due to his strange behavior, which many people seemed to misunderstand.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Mugi holding a sign became an universal reaction macro, with literally whatever being put on the sign.
  • Smugi^ExplanationAs part of "smug anime girl" reaction macros, this one has Mugi with a particularly smug grin
  • Un-tan! Un-tan! Un-tan!
  • Moe Moe~ Kyun!^Explanation"Moe Moe Kyun" actually predates the series, as it's a common phrase said by waitresses at maid cafes as a "magic spell" to make the food more delicious for the customers. However, its use in K-On! made the phrase memetic, especially to anime fans outside Japan who had never heard it before.
  • Moefist!^ExplanationThe permeation to Yui's "brofist" in the attached image was predictable.
  • "Sup, Mugi."
  • GITAH?
  • Mugi's eyebrows and Ritsu's forehead are practically characters of their own right now.
  • Joint meme with Lucky Star: "Asobitai!"
  • "Fun things are fun!"
    • "Will I become an adult when I grow up?"
  • A scene from episode 2 of season 2 where Ritsu showcases a huge amount of money to Azusa has become widely popular in the anime community.
  • X is canon^ExplanationThanks to the very Les Yay-happy nature of the series, any moment or interaction between two characters (mainly Mio/Ritsu and Yui/Azusa) automatically makes a ship "canon" in the fanon's eyes.
  • MY MIND IS FULL OF FUCK ^ExplanationAn image macro of Ritsu that is used as a popular response for mind-blowing-related content.
  • A fanart of Ui punching the wall while browsing on a computer has become a reaction image.
  • Borgar ^ExplanationA very brief still taken from the anime of Yui eating a hamburger with a deformed expression.
  • Mugi's act of cruelty ^Explanation A scene where Mugi steals Mio's strawberry off her cake slice, leading to her breaking down in tears. Many fans treated this as if Mugi crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
  • Mugi's Yuri Goggles ^ExplanationIn episode five of the first season, resident Yuri Fan Mugi is seen looking at Ritsu and the teacher through two rolled up magazines like binoculars, and blushing. The fandom immediately assumed she thought yuri was afoot
  • Racist K-On! fans ^explanationThere are disturbingly numerous instances of people with K-On!! profile pictures spouting racist, antisemitic, and homophobic rants on social media. Due to this, people have semi-ironically started a generalization that all K-On! fans are racist, ranging from the fandom functioning as a hate group to the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan losing the "most racist person" award to a K-On! fan.
  • Rice Bowl ^ExplanationIn Episode 6 of Season 1, Mio trips on stage after a performance which lets the whole audience see her panties, but the actual scene cuts to a rice bowl that has the same striped pattern as her panties. Naturally, any mention of "rice bowls" among the K-On fandom brings to mind this scene.
    • There are several Chinese variants such as Blue-White Bowl (referring to the stripes) and Nice Bowl!.
  • Due to both of them having blonde hair and prominent eyebrows, it has become popular for fans to compare Mugi to Erwin Smith from Attack on Titan, with some even joking that Mugi is either Erwin's daughter or his reincarnation after his death.
  • Brazil mentioned^ExplanationAn image macro depicting Yui with a liquor glass, a bottle of beer, a Brazil-themed hoodie, and a "Please Be Patient I Have Autism" cap celebrating atop a stock image of a group of urban teens in Brazil. While the image was initially created as a way of mocking Brazilian people as Attention Whores, it was embraced by actual Brazilians as a way of expressing tongue-in-cheek gratitude towards their country being acknowledged. This resulted in Latine netizens from other parts of Latin America creating similar photoshops themed around their own countries.
  • COCK^ExplanationIn Episode 9 of Season 2, Ritsu wears a hat with the word "rock" on it. It was edited to say "cock" and quickly spread outside of the K-ON fandom.
  • Azunyan going to buy soy sauce^{Explanation (Warning: NSFW)}An Unusual Euphemism that references Azus@ttack, an infamous series of NSFW doujins that opens with Azusa accidentally hitting Satoshi with her bike while on the way to buy some soy sauce. The euphemism is more popular in the Chinese-speaking fandom, and can also refer to her performance in the Saimoe Tournaments (participating but missing out on the Emerald Necklace for several consecutive years).
• Moe: All of Houkago Tea Time's members. Yui's sister Ui qualifies too. Mio, however, deserves special mention for her Moe-ness being over-the-top even by the standards of this show, spawning a Running Gag. When Azusa arrives, the show causes a huge moe explosion that obliterates everything within a 100-mile radius.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Nobody will ever let Mio forget the time she tripped on the stage during the light music club's first festival performance and exposed her panties to the whole audience, even spawning a fanclub.
  • To regulars on r/anime, Mugi will always be remembered for that one time she stole Mio's strawberry.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • During the sequence in the first episode of the anime, when Yui is walking down a hall with the "paranormal" clubs, a very dark and sinister-looking girl (looking similar to Enma Ai from Hell Girl) pokes her head out of a door on the left.
  • In Season 2, Episode 13, one of Azusa's dreams features Mio with Blank White Eyes while watching a horror movie.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: K-On! Houkago Live!! for PSP and remastered PS3 version.
• Older Than They Think: After the Imagine Spot of Mio wearing a maid outfit and saying "Moe Moe Kyun!" became memetic, most fans outside of Japan tend to associate that phrase with the series, with some even believing K-On! invented it. The phrase actually originated in maid cafes some time before the anime came out; it's supposed to be a "magic spell" said by waitresses at these cafes to make food and/or drinks more delicious for the customers.
• The Producer Thinks of Everything:
  • In episode 12 season 1, when Ui dressed as Yui enters the club room, there is a brief moment where you can see that her Inside Shoes are red, not blue.
  • And in episode 21 season 2, Ui can be briefly seen wearing her sister's hairpins when greeting Azusa, paving the way for the very next scene.
  • In one of the final episodes the band decides to record a cassette of their songs for posterity. The mix is included with the second album, and it includes everything that was shown to be recorded in the episode, including Ritsu talking about "rock spirit", Azusa yelling, and Tsumugi sneezing.
• Signature Line:
  • "Fun things are fun."
  • "Un-tan! Un-tan!"
• So Bad, It's Good: Depending on the person, the Animax dub is this.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The BGM tracks "Virtual Love" and "Pinch Daisuki!" sound suspiciously similar to "Das Model" by Kraftwerk and "Popcorn" by Hot Butter respectively. Not that that's a bad thing, mind.
  • Some parts of the music in K-On! are not too dissimilar to those in certain Metallica songs. For example, the solo in "Fuel" and Yui's solo in "Fuwa Fuwa Time", amongst others.
  • The opening riff in "Cagayake GIRLS!" sounds oddly similar to the melody that occurs 20 seconds into a piece of music from the unreleased Sega Genesis version of the game Time Trax.
  • Azusa's guitar solo in "Don't Say "Lazy" (5 People Ver.)" starts very similarly to the main riff of "Runnin' Down A Dream" by Tom Petty.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Nodoka Manabe. She's Yui's childhood friend, and...um... While she would likely have not moved past supporting character even if her role was expanded, there were quite a few possibilities to use her to show how the club gets along with the student body and the other clubs (in a throwaway line in season 2, she mentions that she had become the Student Council President, which would normally be a big freakin' deal). Instead, she doesn't get much relevance apart from always being there when the girls need an extra body for many of the Slice of Life elements. It's even more noticeable when she's compared to Ui, who has quite a bit more to her character than just being Azusa's Designated Outside-the-Club Friend.
  • And then there's Jun, who somehow gets even less character development than Nodoka, even though she's promoted to a main character in one of the two reboot manga.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite how clear the show is about putting the comedic slice of life elements at the forefront, the most frequent criticism of the anime is that it doesn't focus enough on Houkago Tea Time's musical progress or their music in general. Only four songs are introduced in the body of the show, and the band doesn't get popular beyond their own school. This is ultimately an effect of the original manga, which only introduced these same four songs, of which only "Fuwa Fuwa Time" and "U&I" had lyrics.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Mio in episode 11 of season one. She's called out by her friends and Sawako for causing Ritsu to catch a fever right before the school festival, never mind the fact that Ritsu's treatment of Mio was probably at its worst earlier in the episode and that Mio was just trying to hang out with Nodoka.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: It's a very light, comedic slice-of-life series focused on a group of high school girls who tend to act more like preteens, but it's actually aimed at adult men, since the manga ran in the seinen magazine Manga Time Kirara. That said, the anime tones down the more risque aspects of the original manga (including Mio's infamous Panty Shot), and it even aired on the Japanese Disney Channel with some minor censorship, which led to preteen and teenage girls enjoying it as well.
• The Woobie:
  • You really can't help but feel bad for Mio, what with her extreme shyness, her painfully adorable crying moments, and the fact that Sawako and Ritsu often make her do embarrassing things. The poor girl really needs a hug sometimes.
  • Azusa, especially in season 2. She's at first weirded out by the members of the Light Music Club, which causes her to have doubts about pursuing music during high school. After becoming friends with them, she's confronted with the fact that they're all leaving for college a year before she does, which causes a lot of Tear Jerker moments when their graduation finally arrives.
• Woolseyism:
  • How the French dubbed "Un-tan! Un-tan!" (Hint: Instead of going for cute noises like the other dubs, they took a glance at the animation and ran with it.)
  • For the "moe moe kyun" mantra, the English dub avoids Japanese sounds and instead goes for a spoof from The Exorcist, of all things: "The adorable power of Cute compels you!"

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