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| The extra capitalization adds even more emphasis. |
Dear Internet,
Well,
here I go. This will be my one hundredth
review. It is somewhat a shame that I
have to spend it on a show like "K-On!!", but what can I do about
it? The first review was on a copycat
King Kong film, so I really should not try and make this little experiment any
more glamorous that it really is. This
whole thing is just an attempt for me to keep my sanity together. There are a few other reasons, but those are
frivolous. And I think that explains
"K-On!!" pretty well. It is a
show that tests my sanity more than anything else. It makes me laugh a few times, but those are
few and far between. This is sadder
considering that it bills itself as a comedy and slice of life show.
"K-On!!"
is the second season of the first show, but it is a second production show from
a technical standpoint. You can tell
this is the situation since there are two exclamation points in the title. Do not think that it means that the show is
twice as exciting. Do not think it means
that the show is twice as energetic. Do
not think it means the twice as funny.
If anything, the extra exclamation point means that the show got a
little more of a budget. Either that or
it is evidence that the show is trying too hard, like reading forum posts made
by middle school kids. I suspect that if
the show got another season after this it would be titled
"K-On!?!" At least then it
would reflect the show's questionable ability to entertain.
The
second season picks up right where the first left off, not that the first
season left us at a cliffhanger. The
closest thing to a wonder that the show could instill was what kind of food the
girls were going to eat next. This is
something that boggles my mind. The cast
spends more time eating than practicing music.
At the rate that the group consumes sugary sweets and other edible
confections, they should all have gained twice as much body mass at this
point. The only one that gets a free
ride against this is the drummer since it is the most active instrument being
played. The main guitarist is said to
never gain any weight, but that is more of an escape rather than an explanation
as to how the characters regularly consume half of their diet from the cake
bar. But I digress.
The
show is the same story from the first one, just going at a slower pace. In thirteen episodes, the first season
covered two years of high school. In the
first half of the second season, only one year passes. With that stretched out time frame, the show
does a few things differently. It is not
much but I will give the show its due.
The one difference is that there is a bit more emphasis on the musical
aspects of the show, something that the first season flaked out too much
on. The show still has as one of its
half dozen core jokes being that the group never seems to practice their
music. However, in the thirteen episodes
toad, there were nearly twice as many performances from either the main band or
from some other group. On top of that,
the show did spend an entire episode on the problems of humidity and moisture
in relation to its effects on fine tuned instruments. It did this with the backdrop of a rainy day
episode, but at least it actually talked about the instruments for a
change. The show still threw it out the
window when the characters started to become overly attached to their
instruments. I am talking about naming
their instruments and treating them like people. It comes across less like a joke and more
like a disturbing episode from a relapsing mental patient. Maybe this is because the straight man
character, the bassist, succumbs to the same blob of a personality that the
rest are already a part of.
Perhaps
I am looking at this show incorrectly.
Perhaps I am looking at it as though it is supposed to be something it
is not. Maybe instead of expecting the
show to be about music and the various intricacies that come with it, I should
look at it instead as a slice of life show.
Except, the show fails in that regard as well. A slice of life show is supposed to be about
nothing in particular and be about a specific thing at the same time. Look at a show like "Usagi Drop." The show is specifically about a man who has
to take in his grandfather's child as his own, but the show as a whole is about
the various troubles and blessings that come with having to raise a child. The skill of "Usagi Drop" comes
from the topics that the episode centers on.
Whether it be on learning to take care of a person besides yourself or
having to change one's career for the sake of another, the slice of life genre
deals with the little things of life that are in actuality the big things. "K-On!!" does next to none of
this. There is an occasional aspect of
an episode that deals with the mundane aspects of life, but it never touches
upon the profoundness of that monotony.
A slice
of life knows how to show the grandeur of the simple things in life. A shower of rain becomes an outdoor
bath. A snail traveling across the leaf
no longer becomes a garden pest, but a new pet.
A trip to the grocery store becomes an adventure into the unknown. Taking the garbage to the curb in the middle
of the night becomes a test of bravery. A
lazy afternoon becomes a display of the benefits of being lazy. But no matter what, it has to be entertaining
to the audience. If the show does not
make the viewer see these things but only gets the characters to do such, it
fails as a slice of life show.
"K-On!!" has a few moments of these displays of everyday life
turned extraordinary. A cleaning of a
closet becomes an expedition of buried treasure. A summer afternoon filled with daydreams
shows how close their reality is to fantasy, and so on. The problem is that the show does not make
theme moments magical. It makes them
comical, which is not really a problem if it were not for the fact that it does
not do this very well. It sets up the
slice of life situation, works it a bit into a wonder, and delivers a less than
average joke about it.
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| Why she keeps hoping the answer will change is beyond me. |
The
jokes of the show can mostly be listed as such:
The main guitarist is a scatterbrained, unmotivated airhead. The bassist reacts overly to scary
things. The drummer is an annoying git
who skirts her responsibilities. The
keyboard player is rich. The teacher is
a mature adult except she is not. The
main guitarist's younger sister acts more like a mother than a younger
sibling. The secondary guitarist calls
out the group for not practicing until they appease her with sweets. They all will do anything for that white
drug, sugar. And they do not have enough
common sense to function most times, yet alone learn how to play an instrument. That is the sum of the majority of the jokes
in the show. They are funny in the first
five times or so, but the show has such a small bag of tricks that it shows
very quickly. Even when it falls back on
this bag of tricks, it does not use much variety when executing these jokes.
Overall,
"K-On!!" is more of the same.
It is supposed to be, considering that it is the second season. But does that mean it has to be so much of
the same? Even the slight variety of the
episodes in season two could not make the show feel like it is repeating
itself. The show had a much larger
change in scenery from one episode to the next, yet it constantly felt like the
circle it was traveling in was shrinking.
Not even the revival of the old light music club's band, Death Devil,
could save this show. At least I only
have one more day of this.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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