K-On Complete Collection Blu-ray Review [Part 2]

This review continues from part 1, which examined the themes, characters, and plot in seasons 1 and 2 of K-On!, a slice-of-life musical series. This review will examine the K-On! film, the special features, English dub, and more, within the Blu-ray collection.

K-On! the Movie, which released in theaters in early December 2011, and on Blu-ray and DVD in July of the following year, is set after the 22nd episode of the second season. It begins with Yui awoken by her alarm clock. Soon thereafter the light music club plays a rock song, declaring that After School Tea-Time will brake up. Azusa is devastated. To calm her concerns, they reveal, to her, that they are only play acting as Death Devil, the rock band their club advisor, Sawako, was part of, for a cassette tape recording. The club members decide to have tea and eat sweets. Some time after, they agree to take a graduation trip.

Everything soon falls into motion as their travel destination is decided. Absurdly, their turtle, Ton, chooses the destination: London, the place of music. Mio is predictably overjoyed. Although the trip is primarily for the light music club seniors (Mio, Yui, Mugi, and Ritsu), Azusa ends up creating an itinerary. Unsurprisingly, almost all of them bring their instruments. Mugi even ships her keyboard from Japan! The film is a nice addition to the series, retaining the series appeal and visual execution, and serving a bit of an upgrade from the original series. Some, like Nick Creamer of Anime News Network, may grouse that the film is trying to stretch “too little content over too much running time” and that it “occasionally feels like a retread of the second season.” I see it much more positively. The film expands the series beyond the confines of Japan, where the series takes place.

Without this film, viewers would miss funny hijinks. For instance, since Mio, Yui, Mugi, Ritsu, and Azusa don’t know much English, a manager pulls them into a sushi club. He tells them to play for guests because he incorrectly believes they are Love Crisis, another Japanese girl band. Later, the five girls go sightseeing across London. At one point, they find a replica Rosetta Stone in the Enlightenment Gallery (previously called the King’s Library) of the first floor of the British Museum. That scene inspired me to go to the same location. In fact, I visited that museum, and gallery, in an overseas trip earlier this year. Coming back to the film, Mio, Yui, Mugi, Ritsu, and Azusa visiting the replica Rosetta Stone connects to the original series. Characters performed Romeo & Juliet and could not find the tombstone since it had been misplaced. As a result, a replica Rosetta Stone was used instead. For the five girls, this is a bit of a remembrance, making them think fondly back to a performance of that classic William Shakespeare play.

Throughout the film, Azusa misunderstands what is going on and is unaware that the light music club’s seniors are trying to write a song for her. Her worries soon fade as she spends time with the other four girls. All five of them play at the Japanese culture festival in downtown London, performing “Fuwa Fuwa Time” and “Rice is a Side Dish.” Hilariously, Yui still sings the latter in Japanese despite translating the entire song into English earlier in the trip. She even adds a new verse. Following their performance, all five girls, plus Sawako, rush to the airport so can catch their plane ride back to Japan. On the cab ride to the airport, as Azusa sleeps, Yui comes up with the perfect song for Azusa, with the other three girls agreeing. It sets the stage for what is to come.

On the last day of school, in an iconic scene, all five girls all play a graduation concert, standing on top of desks. Sawako tries to protect them from a teacher she once clashed with, not wanting them to get scolded. To her surprise, the professor tells her the girls are cute and play better than she (and the rest of Death Devil) did in the past. As a result, the girls are given “a pass.” After that, the four light music club seniors work together on a song for Azusa. She soon becomes suspicious, believing they are hiding something from her. Everything unfolds the same way as it did in episode 24 of K-On!, but from another perspective. Instead, the viewpoint of Yui, Ritsu, Mio, and Mugi is shown, rather than Azusa.

The club’s seniors want the song to be a tribute to Azusa. She is overjoyed. The film ends with viewers only seeing the girl’s legs while walking, then the rest of their bodies, as they run toward Jun and Ui. The ending song (as shown above in a credit-less form) has all five of the girls (Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Mugi, and Azusa) come together. They sing and run along on the beach together, enjoying each other’s company. The film’s credits end with one of their iconic songs, Fuwa Fuwa Time, playing. It serves as a nice end to K-On!, capping the series with finality.

The Blu-ray disc set consists of two discs for season 1 (episodes 1-9 on one, 10-14 on another), three discs for season 2 (episodes 1-9 on one, 10-14 on the second one, and 19-27 on the last one), plus one disc for the movie. There’s one additional disc, in the set, which contains special features. This includes a report about the process of voice acting, a press conference in London, a live music show with the main cast and crew, and a movie premiere event. The latter makes the movie look interesting and exciting. It gives the impression there will be a crisis, but also makes clear it will be about friends who will be together forever.

Other features include the cast appearing on a show which highlights K-On!, a Japanese trailer, and Japanese teaser. There’s fast-paced Japanese TV spots, some of which ask people to purchase a light music holder. One trailer focuses on Yui. Another has the light music club’s members outlining rules on how to be respectful. The final trailer is more exciting and with a quicker pace. There’s silly season 1 and season 2 shorts (known as Ura-On! and Ura-On!!) by Kyoto Animation, which produced this series. They center on Azusa, Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Mugi, each one from the perspective of a certain character. They are goofy and have limited animation.

Of all the special features, my favorite were the clean openings and closings, which cannot be easily found online on places like YouTube, due to copyright strikes against fans who post them. There’s also an interview with director Nanako Yamada in London and a video recording of a K-On! performance in a music hall. These features make the series better. Even so, I wish that the special features were distributed throughout the discs, rather than having them clustered on one disc. Despite that, this release is better than what many anime Blu-ray releases have. It is an improvement from a previous Blu-ray release of this series.

Although the English dub is very good, no subtitles are available. As such, I stuck with the original Japanese version since it has subtitles. While the voice cast of the latter version is great, the dub, by Bandai/Sentai (i.e. Bang Zoom!), brought in acclaimed voice actors like Stephanie Sheh, Cristina Vee, Cassandra Lee Morris, Shelby Lindley, and Christine Marie Cabanos. Other characters were voiced by Karen Strassman, Xanthe Huynh, Laura Bailey, Michelle Ann Dunphy, and Bennett Abara. This followed another dub, by Animax, with English subtitles. The series, and film, aired on Netflix, for a short time, between 2019 and 2021.

These voice actors have done their share of dubbed voices. Some have voiced characters in Western animated series. Consider Sheh, who voiced Zhu Li Moon and Rohan in The Legend of Korra, Katana in DC Super Hero Girls, Amanda and Lazer Girl in We Bare Bears, Olive in High Guardian Spice, Village Elder and Biyu in Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, and various characters in Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld. Similarly, Vee voiced Jay-Ten in Steven Universe, Robyn Hill in RWBY, Xochi and Coyolxauhqui in Victor and Valentino, Kayla’s singing voice in the ZooPhobia short “Bad Luck Jack,” and Verosika Mayday in Helluva Boss.

Morris also voiced Lena Luthor in DC Super Hero Girls, and Leif in Amphibia. Cabanos voiced Arizal in Recorded by Arizal and Hoshi in Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl. Strassman voiced mermaid Elodie in High Guardian Spice. Huynh voiced Daji in the aforementioned Tomb Raider series. Bailey voiced Amber in RWBY. Abara voiced Flutterina in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

While there was speculation about a third season of K-On, Yamada and head writer Reiko Yoshida decided to produce Tamako Market, instead. Many K-On! production staff returned for that anime, which has a soft and sweet tone, with “cute girls doing cute things” but is more quirky. Unlike K-On!, which did not include the reported romance present in the manga, Tamako Market added in romantic elements, either between Tamako and Mochizo or Midori’s feelings for Tamako in the film (Tamako Love Story). Some said that both series have different objectives. K-On! shows Yui’s journey through music with help from those around her, becoming a story of appreciation and growth. In Tamako Market, there is “an absence of a long-term objective.” Tamako tries to maintain a normal life, even after Dera causes a ruckus after showing up.

Overall, this series was very enjoyable, with female friendship at the center. Curiously, Erica Friedman, a long-time yuri reviewer and commenter, reviewed the show’s second season, describing it as having “palpable lack of Yuri.” She embraced it as fitting, even though commenters did not necessarily agree with her. In her view, the series has elements which reflect real life. Friedman has a point that there’s “nothing deep or meaningful in K-ON!,” apart from a lot of “memories and some good times with friends,” as she said about the manga. However, I feel she may be putting down the series in certain ways. I have similar feelings about those who describe the series as “basically a sitcom.” That is downplaying what is really going on. At the same time, I agree with Friedman in the sense that K-On! has “cute girls being cute [and] cutely-type series” and is, undoubtedly, a “sincerely adorable story.”

I don’t disagree with Friedman’s assertion that “there is no yuri” in K-On! nor do I disagree with her comment that there will “never be yuri in this series.” Instead, there’s only female friendship present. That is abundantly clear from the series itself. This is why it is similar to other recent series centering on female friendship, and additional series in recent years, as female friendship anime continues to grow within animation, particularly in anime. Despite that, fans can push for better within anime series. It is certainly possible that the story could have been better, and stronger, with canon yuri relationships. Even so, I am generally satisfied with K-On!, as the series is certainly well-done and well-executed.