K-ON! Movie

My life is complete... once again.

Having relocated to a country where I can watch the latest anime first hand (at the expense of waiting a bit longer than the rest of the world for the latest Hollywood flicks, yes, Japan is that slow), so my first venture here as Atalude's unofficial "movie correspondent" is of course the much hyped movie of the Kyo-Ani franchise K-ON.

Naturally, if you're one sensitive to spoilers, this is your chance to look away if you've not seen the movie. Not that a slice-of-life show like K-ON has much to spoil about.

SPOILERS BELOW

First, as someone who has stayed in the UK for a few years, seeing Kyo-Ani recreate all the locations in London faithfully brings a nostalgic feeling for me. I even just visited London early this summer just before it got sacked by rioters.

Fortunately, by the time the girls arrived in London, there were no more rioting, so they're free to travel around as they please.

(If you want to stay in the same hotel as our lovely girls, try booking a room at the Hotel Ibis London Earls Court, from 80 pounds a night. )

The story takes place just a few months before the senior girls' graduation, and they reckoned since they've now got their passports (season 2 episode 27) they should go on a graduation trip overseas, eventually deciding on London, bringing Azu-nyan along for the ride.

That said, the scenery in London turned out to be just a sideshow in the grand scheme of things, as along the trip, the four older girls discuss what to give to Azu-nyan as a parting graduation gift. This is more or less the process of how they came up with the idea of the song Tenshi ni Fureta yo, played in the heartrending finale of Season 2. All in all, it was a nice touch as the TV series finale focused on Azu-nyan's sorrow of parting with her seniors while the movie focused on the senior girls' gratitude for their junior.

Tenshi ni Fureta yo

Other highlights:

- HTT suddenly playing Death Devil's style in the beginning gave me quite a shock. Thankfully, the girls were only syncing one of Sawa-chan's old records.

- Yui and Ui's parents finally make their anime appearance.

- Mugi, despite being more travelled than the other bandmembers, is surprisingly poor in her command of the English language. Even Mio and Azu-nyan understands more.

- Most of the foreign characters are voiced by foreign actors, though it sometimes sound like their English script has been slightly dumbed down to accommodate the girls (as well as movie's Japanese speaking audience). But it's bearable.

- Shameless product placements by Japan Airlines and the aforementioned Hotel Ibis.

- First day in London and the girls decide to have some sushi. Though they have no idea how posh Asian restaurants in London can be.

- The sushi bar manager mistook the girls as the Japanese band that was due to perform that night. With no choice byt to perform, Yui saw an Indian guy with a turban and decided to do Curry Nochi Rice. It turned out well.

- The band that was supposed to come was actually Love Crysis, the band of Ricchan's friend (Season 1 Episode 14), who was also in London doing gigs. They later invited HTT to do another gig in the outdoors, just outside the London Eye, opposite Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Though agreeing to do the gig means they had to rush to Heathrow in order to catch the plane home, thankfully Sawa-chan flew all the way over to help them out. (Though they declined to put on her specially designed ninja cosplays. )

- After going back to Japan, the girls decide to do yet another gig at school. Sawa-chan had to arrange for them to perform in the morning in order to avoid the Dean's wrath (due to her own personal experience with Death Devil). Though there wasn't much need to worry as the Dean rather enjoyed HTT's music.

The OP is performed by Yui as usual.
OP Unmei♪wa♪Endless!

As with most other EDs performed by Mio, the movie's ED is awesome. Though the girls' Victorian-like PV costumes also caught my attention:

Yui in one-piece dress with twin pigtails and big glasses = Love

ED Singing!

(Both the OP and ED are out now. The OST will be out later on December 21st)

K-ON is bigger than I thought in Japan, I went to a cinema in Shinjuku on Monday night to avoid the weekend crowd, but it was still packed. And the people there weren't just otakus, from couples to students to whole families. Gotta give it to Kyo-Ani for successfully marketing a supposedly moeblob show to the mainstream (at least in this country).

Yamanote line train with movie posters

Overall, the wait for this movie was certainly worth it if you're a fan of the show. While the movie was particularly smooth sailing in comparison to other "exciting" movies out there, if you're someone who enjoys "slice-of-life" comedy, this is something to enjoy for just over 2 hours. (Once again, since the whopping 2 1/2 hour length of Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, Kyo-Ani has redefined the standards of how long an anime movie should be. )

(I'll have to remind myself to ask Shin to bump this article up once the DVD is out when more of you guys can watch it. Until then, I'll go back into blogging hibernation. )

About Kinny Riddle

Part time reviews contributor. Full time procrastinator.