Review for K-ON! - Volume 2 (Review)
Tuesday, 1st November 2011, 15:53

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Introduction
Two months gap between single disc releases? I feel like I'm back in 2005. But while the release format may be distinctly last decade, the K-ON! anime is very much of the now, and could very well be the next anime gateway drug, the show that recruits a whole new legion of fans to the medium. Ten years from now, grizzled veterans of the anime fan base will be citing a show where cute girls do cute things as the one that switched them on to anime. To think, for me it was uber-violence and profanity laced dubs. But K-ON! goes from strength to strength, the franchise gets bigger and bigger and it looks already to be this decade's Haruhi Suzumiya. It's first fourteen-episode season led to a second, longer one, and in between the release of the first and second volumes in the UK, the hype about the K-ON! feature film exploded. The story will bring the K-ON! girls to the land where pop music was born, and already mock-ups of Yui and her friends crossing Abbey Road have started appearing. I haven't been so thrilled to greet a new volume of anime since the last next big thing.

Yui Hirasawa has spaced out her way through elementary and middle school, and history looks set to repeat itself when she starts high school. Even though she is eager and excited about her new life as a high school student, after a few weeks pass, and after every extra-curricular club in school has courted her, she still hasn't decided on which one to join. It's when her friend Nodoka gently informs her that she's on her way to becoming a NEET that she finally picks a promising flyer and fills in the form. She chooses the Light Music Club, inspired by some happy memories of playing the castanets in nursery school. She isn't quite ready for what membership entails.

Now she's lead guitarist in a rock band, although learning to play, after she has bought a guitar comes surprisingly easy. On bass is the seriously minded, and seriously shy and easily spooked Mio Akiyama, while Mio's best friend, the brash and outgoing Ritsu Tainaka is the drummer. On keyboards is fellow surprise recruit and warm-hearted rich kid Tsumugi Kotobuki, and together the girls aim to hit the big time.

The next four episodes of K-ON! are presented on this dual layer disc from Manga Entertainment.

5. Advisor!
Summer camp may have been a success, but coming back to school, the Light Music Club gets brought back down to Earth with a bang when they learn that Ritsu never even filled in the application form. They aren't an official club in the school, although thankfully, with Nodoka on the school council, rectifying that oversight is a simple matter. But then she tells them that they need an advisor, a teacher to provide suitable adult guidance and oversight. Looking through the old Light Music Club memorabilia, and photos of the old heavy rock band, Ritsu spots a familiar face beneath all the make-up and the vicious looking costumes. Music teacher Sawako Yamanaka is an upstanding, gentle, elegant and feminine member of staff who already has the responsibility of supervising a club, but blackmail is such an ugly word, and liable to backfire.

6. School Festival!
Their first live performance impends, and when she learns that Yui can't sing and play guitar at the same time, Miss Sawako takes her under her wing for some intensive training. So intensive that Yui loses her voice. That leaves Mio to sing lead vocals, on stage, in front of the school, during the school festival. Her chronic shyness leaves her in a fluster at the very thought, while everyone else is too busy with their class festival activities for the band to come together to practice. To make matters worse, Miss Sawako has some pretty outlandish ideas when it comes to the costumes that they should wear. Will Mio be able to conquer her nerves in time?

7. Christmas!
The season of goodwill looms, and so does the Light Music Club Christmas Party, for which Ritsu is already planning a cover charge. It's just a matter of finding a suitable venue. Fortunately Yui's parents are off to Germany for the holidays. Even more fortunately, Yui's sister Ui is the sensible one in the family, and she'll be able to organise a party without burning the building down. It's all set to be a nice, cosy get together, party food, and presents… and then Miss Sawako gatecrashes, depressed at not having a boyfriend to spend the holidays with.

8. Freshman Reception!
It's already been a whole year! Spring is rolling around again, and the girls of the Light Music Club are looking forward to starting their second year in high school, and finding out what class they are in. What's more Ui is starting as a first year, and with the intake of new students, it's time for all the clubs to start recruiting, and the Light Music Club is no exception. Miss Sawako has gotten over-eager again, and designed some costumes for the girls to wear as they go on their recruitment drive. Maybe they'll have better luck playing a live performance for the new students, if only Mio has gotten over her stage fright yet.

Picture
K-ON! gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which as usual is filtered through Australia's Madman Entertainment, who have deigned to give it a native PAL conversion. The animation is excellent, detailed and fluid, while the show is replete with bright, sunny colours, and very pleasant character designs, character designs that served as inspiration for the characters in the Sound of the Sky anime. This is another high-end anime production, and it shows on the screen, with some very imaginative animation, and thoughtful character study. I noticed no problems with compression or judder, and the image looks fine, even when scaled up on a high definition display.

Sound
You have the option here of DD 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese, along with the usual translated subtitles or a signs only track. The audio is fine, the show's splendid light pop music comes across with great effect, while the dialogue is clear throughout. As usual I opted for the original language track, but from what I sampled of the English dub, it's one that follows the original pretty closely in terms of character voices, style, mood, even to the point of using Japanese honorifics.

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