History Manga / KOn

* CatSmile: Ritsu displays a prominent one in the opening of Season 1.

* {{Flanderization}}: In the non-canon Anthology guest strips, Ui's infatuation with her sister and Mugi's love of GirlsLove are often all there is to their respective characterization.

* BellyDancer: Couple of examples:
** In the second season's extras, "Ura-On!!", the first episode shows Azusa's attempts at fortune-telling by interpreting the dreams of the rest of the Light Music Club. In the intermissions between the shorts, we're treated to a crudely-drawn Azusa trying to dance to a drum beat.
** In one of the many chapters of the fan manga "K-ON! Anthology", Yui inexplicably ends up in Iceland. In her efforts to find a way back home, she ends up meeting the Icelandic dopplegangers of Mio and Ritsu, whose special talents are belly dancing and playing a harp, respectively. The ''real'' Mio and Ritsu travel to Iceland, only to find their Icelandic versions and Yui putting on a spectacle of [[ItMakesSenseInContext dancing, harp-playing and sheep singing.]]

* BloodBrothers: The girls of Afterschool Tea Time eventually form a friendship that's closer than most sisters ''ever'' will be in RealLife, and nowhere is this more evident than the tearful embrace they share in Season 2 Episode 20 and [[spoiler: Episode 22, when they realize that their determination and dedication helped them all pass the entrance exams for the ''same'' university, '''''meaning that they won't have to break up the band'''''.]]

* LicensedGame - ''K-On! Houkago Live!!'', for [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]]. It's a RhythmGame, and it {{Averted}} TheProblemWithLicensedGames by being developed by the company that made ''[[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Project Diva]]''. [[ThatOneLevel And yes, some songs are PD-level difficult.]]

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** [[http://frostii.com/2010/09/20/k-on-24/ Evidently]] Nodoka is a [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]], not the biggest surprise with her unflappable demeanor.

* AdaptationalModesty: The manga has a fair amount of fanservice, but the anime greatly tones those elements down.
** There are two notable moments in the anime that only allude to the fanservice through clever use of imagery: Mio's infamous PantyShot gets replaced by a bowl of rice with the same striped design as the panties and Azusa's reaction (a {{Nosebleed}}) to it is alluded to by a paper tissue dispenser box.

''K-On!'' (short for ''Keiongaku'', or "Light Music") is a {{yonkoma}} manga written and illustrated by Kakifly, which was serialized in the seinen magazine ''Magazine/MangaTimeKirara'' from 2007 to 2012 and compiled into six volumes. The manga is licensed in English by Creator/YenPress.

The manga was adapted into an anime by Creator/KyotoAnimation in the spring season of 2009. The show was directed by Naoko Yamada (making her directorial debut), with Reiko Yoshida serving as series composer, and Yukiko Horiguchi serving as character designer and chief animation director. The show proved to be a runaway success, with the [[AnimeThemeSong opening]] and [[EndingTheme ending themes]] topping out at #1 and #2 in the Japanese music charts as well. The manga has been released in English by Creator/YenPress. The second season, ''K-On!!'' (note the two exclamation points), aired in the spring of 2010 for 26 more episodes. [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-09-28/k-on-gets-film-green-lit A film]] was announced after the second season ended; it was released on December 3, 2011.

When Sakuragaoka High School's Light Music Club (''keiongaku-bu'') is about to be disbanded with all of its members graduating, Ritsu Tainaka seizes her chance to become a club president without actually being elected and drags her shy friend Mio Akiyama along for the ride. They recruit two more students in order to meet the minimum member requirement: Tsumugi Kotobuki, a wealthy blonde who was looking for another club, and Yui Hirasawa, an airheaded girl whom they tempt with numerous sweet things until she agrees to join.

The show follows their progress as they get a club adviser (Sawako Yamanaka, an alumna of the Light Music Club), decide on a band name (''Houkago''[[note]]after-school[[/note]] ''Tea Time''), write their first original songs and finally perform on stage. Later, they recruit [[SixthRanger an additional guitarist]]: Azusa Nakano, a hard-working musician bewildered by the eccentric and relaxed attitudes of the other members.

The {{yonkoma}} manga by Kakifly, serialized in ''Magazine/MangaTimeKirara'' from 2007 to 2012, was turned into an anime by Creator/KyotoAnimation in the spring season of 2009. The show was directed by Naoko Yamada (making her directorial debut), with Reiko Yoshida serving as series composer, and Yukiko Horiguchi serving as character designer and chief animation director. The show proved to be a runaway success, with the [[AnimeThemeSong opening]] and [[EndingTheme ending themes]] topping out at #1 and #2 in the Japanese music charts as well. The manga has been released in English by Creator/YenPress. The second season, ''K-On!!'' (note the two exclamation points), aired in the spring of 2010 for 26 more episodes. [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-09-28/k-on-gets-film-green-lit A film]] was announced after the second season ended; it was released on December 3, 2011.

** "Don't say "lazy"" has two. "Please don't say "You are lazy" datte honto wa crazy"

** "Don't say lazy" has two. "Please don't say you are lazy, datte honto wa crazy"

->''"Chatting Now Super boisterious, our never ending girls talk\\

->''"(Chatting Now) Really noisy, never ending girls talk!\\
Can't wait until the ending bell!\\
Even if I'm late, I'll never leave early, non non non!\\
With all my heart, I'll study after school!"''

->''"Really noisy, never ending girls talk!\\

* SecretlyWealthy: Invoked with Mugi; none of the other girls realize just ''how'' rich she is until she casually buys Yui a brand-new Gibson Les Paul Standard (which as of December 2014, lists for Y313,000(about $3,000.00 US).

* PictureDrama: The [=DVD=] [[{{Omake}} specials]].

Even if I'm late, I'll never leave early, no no no!\\

In 2010, Creator/BandaiEntertainment [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-07-01/bandai-entertainment-adds-k-on-anime announced]] that they had licensed the first season in the US and Canada. In August of that year, they announced they would dub it with Creator/BangZoomEntertainment. The first volume of the English dub was released on April 26, 2011. In early 2012, Creator/SentaiFilmworks licensed the second season, complete with the same dub cast. The first season is licensed to Creator/MangaEntertainment in the UK, and both seasons (as well as the movie) are distributed by Creator/MadmanEntertainment in Australia and New Zealand. In 2012, Creator/SentaiFilmworks announced they acquired the movie and will also dub it. They did so, releasing it on May 21, 2013. They would later re-acquire the rights to Season 1 in 2014. The dub airs in Australia on Creator/{{ABC3}} starting 19 June 2015.

* {{Bishonen}}: There are actually [[http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1558/guy4.png some]] [[http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5178/teachery.png fairly]] [[http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/628/guy1y.png good]] [[http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/7607/guy3.png looking]] [[http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3541/guy2.png male background characters]] considering the cute art style

* IdiotBall: Azusa is quite the guitar player, most likely trained by her Jazz Musician parents and probably the most down-to-earth member of the Light Music Club. She can teach Yui and dispense tips to the 1st graders at Jazz Club. But she's less successful when teaching total noobs to play guitar. Cases in point:
** When Ritsu wants to learn to play the guitar, Azusa tries to teach Ritsu to play "Fuwa Fuwa Time", by showing her the (surprisingly accurate) musical notation for the '''vocal''' part, rather than starting with something simpler, such as correct posture and maybe a simple riff, such as the intro to "Fude Pen, Ball Pen". This is despite the fact that Ritsu, being a drummer, has never had the need to be able to read musical notation in the past, but Azusa just assumes that Ritsu can read it perfectly. Understandably, Ritsu gives up within minutes.
*** That's a "lead (a.k.a. fake) sheet" with only the melody, chords and lyrics. Textbook teaching for modern guitar says you teach the chords first, so Azusa started off with the E-chord and even adjusted Ritsu's left-hand fingers for her. You can argue she can be creative and go for something melodic employing only one or two strings, but the failure to do so isn't quite "idiotic".
** When Mugi tries playing the guitar, Azusa somehow decides that it's a good idea to teach Mugi, who is a total beginner at guitar, how to play Barre Chords, something which many guitar players spend months or even years mastering. And that's the first time Mugi even touches a guitar. No surprise, Mugi also gives up on learning to play guitar.
*** The last is not true in the manga, where Mugi continues to learn the guitar. Though we can call that an alternate Idiot Ball because to a contest winning level pianist, finger sensitivity is life and the calluses from learning guitar won't help.
*** Azusa was '''moving up''' to the F-Major Chord after some easier chords, and learning it is an essential skill. What's not essential is to immediately learn the Full-Barre version shown in the anime - there are 10 different ways to play a F Major chord on guitar, of which one, X-X-3-2-1-X does not require '''any''' finger to press on more than one string.
*** To be fair to Azusa, everything but the full barre version requires some strings to not ring (that X), so the player must be careful to avoid those strings when picking.
*** Yui is shown to have some penchant for barre chords, perhaps because they have a fuller ring and the same fingering can be moved up and down the neck for other chords, which means fewer fingerings to memorize.
*** Mugi is unusually strong so Azusa may have reasoned she can do it.
*** It's still a significant fail to not have alternatives on hand after Mugi is clearly struggling, though.
** Perhaps her worst fail was with Nao in the ''High School!'' manga. Nao was trying to demonstrate how you can build the C-Major 7 chord (C-E-G-B) on first principles of music theories, but gets stuck trying to :"add" the B note. The joke is that CM7 requires only TWO fingers, X-3-2-O-O-O: shorten the A-string by three semitones / frets for the C, the D string two semitones for the E, the next strings are ''automatically G and B'' (they don't have to be ''added''), and it's OK to leave the high-E ringing as well; finally stroke while avoiding the low-E string. Clearly neither Azusa, Nao or Sawako-sensei realized this and only a last minute intervention moved Nao into digital music composing rather than leaving the club.

* PowerWalk: In each of the three endings, the girls do this, although a bit differently each time. In 'Don't Say Lazy', the four original members do it together in their (much loved, according to fan art) Goth-Lolita outfits. In 'Listen!!', the five members of Afterschool Tea Time after the addition of Azusa do this inside the cake. In 'No, Thank You!', the five girls are all present doing this amidst a field of H's and T's, although this is the only time they are not together as a group, and also the only time they are wearing school uniforms (although they've all changed by the time the chorus comes; also note that the school uniforms worn are '''not''' the uniforms of Sakuragaoka). It is possibly worth noting that in each of these cases, the girls are walking right to left.

*** Azusa was trying to teach Ritsu how to play the first '''chord''' on the piece, an E-Major.

* IdiotBall: Despite being quite the guitar player, most likely trained by her Jazz Musician parents and probably the most down-to-earth member of the Light Music Club, Azusa is a disaster when it comes to teaching her senpais to play guitar. Case in point:
** Yui makes progress when Azusa teaches her, because Yui already knows enough to ask very specific questions on what she needs help on - articulating through a particular phrase or reading through a complicated score that jumps back and forth.

** Yui makes a bit of progress when Azusa teaches her, because Yui already knows how to read guitar tab and rhythmic notation, both of which it can be assumed that Mio, Mugi or even Ui taught her.