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[Reelya]

Haha, i was thinking about the most common complaint about K-On, that they never practice their music or play that many gigs, so it's "unrealistic."

Hate to break it to you guys, i've played in a couple of amateur bands, and hanging out, getting drunk and smoking pot while playing video games (ok this bit's not in K-On, but i'll wager the tea + cakes is a stand-in for drugs or alcohol most bands members seem to ingest) is 99% of what we did.

A bunch of no-hopers sitting around procrastinating, doing ANYTHING except practicing their instruments is a far more realistic portrayal of most amateur band efforts than some Mary-Sue "we made it big" drama series.

"I wanted to see a show about music" the critic complains. No, you didn't, you wanted to see a wish-fulfillment fantasy of everyone who ever wanted to form a band with their friends. If you were only in it for the music, you'd just stick a CD on. What K-On gave you was a bunch of losers who try and form a band with their friends. It's too slice-of-life in that they're a failure as a band, like most people who form a band.

[Kobold Troubadour]

"I wanted to see a show about music" the critic complains. No, you didn't, you wanted to see a wish-fulfillment fantasy of everyone who ever wanted to form a band with their friends. If you were only in it for the music, you'd just stick a CD on. What K-On gave you was a bunch of losers who try and form a band with their friends. It's too slice-of-life in that they're a failure as a band, like most people who form a band.

Harsh truth filtered with random cute things...but I guess they never did care much that they didn't become more than the Light Music Club. They hanged out, had fun, ate sweets...some people actually expected a road to success story rather than good ol' slice-of-life? Huh.

I don't know why...but I find it amusing to find out Kyon is in Muv-Luv & helping out in the fight against BETA.

[Reelya]

Yeah? I've tried to get into Gundam a couple of times and it didn't really hook me. Although i was informed here once that because i like Macross i must automatically like Gundam coz apparently they're exactly the same. I can't really see it myself.

I have Gundam 79 here, it's pretty far down in my watch list but i guess it can't hurt to check out the original.

(as an aside about what we were talking about a while ago, i did end up enjoying the later part of TTGL quite a bit, I was concerned at first that the status quo in the first bit was going to be sustained for 90% of the show, and was glad that they changed things up)

[Flying Dice]

I don't see too much of a Macross = Gundam thing, TBH. Most Gundam series tend to edge too close to Super Robot vibes for that, what with the whole thing about Gundams being special even if they're used as military weapons. From what I've heard, though, The 08th MS Team is much closer to the same sort of feel as Macross (in terms of mecha = air/spacecraft in Macross and mecha = tanks in 08th, not because they both care about the power of music).

In either case, the slightly less narmy (narm-free Gundam doesn't exist  ) Gundam series (Wing and 00) tend to focus pretty heavily on the political situation, so they can be fairly interesting. The original is good as well. Can't say I'd recommend SEED (or worse, SEED Destiny) to anyone who doesn't want to hurt themselves, though. ∀ was surprisingly good for a Gundam series that straddled the line between Real Robot and (true) Super Robot.


As an aside, I'd like to thank Skyrunner for letting me know that Dance in the Vampire Bund exists. It ended up being a lot more interesting than I had expected, fanservice ("fanservice") aside.

[Leafsnail]

Haha, i was thinking about the most common complaint about K-On, that they never practice their music or play that many gigs, so it's "unrealistic."

Wait, that's the most common complaint about K-On?  Not that it essential boils down to "cute girls doing nothing"?

[Flying Dice]

∀ Gundam hooked me just from the premise alone, though I've put off finishing it. One of the better aspects of it was that they used almost no stock footage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Moonpeople exit cryosleep and return to Earth to claim it. The people on Earth are at ~1870-1900 levels of technology, sort of an industrial-punk feel.

Then there's the titular MS with the notorious crotch-ball cockpit.

And the thing about it (IIRC) being Word of God that ∀ is Earth far in the future after the other Gundam series have occurred. They use Zaku IIs; there are shout-outs to other Gundam series, etc.

[Neonivek]

Haha, i was thinking about the most common complaint about K-On, that they never practice their music or play that many gigs, so it's "unrealistic."

Wait, that's the most common complaint about K-On?  Not that it essential boils down to "cute girls doing nothing"?

Besides in MOST series where someone is in a band or a martial artist or a scientist... I just assume they practice off screen anyhow.

It is why Cooking Master Boy's Mao is such the Mary Sue. Because they ESTABLISH that he never cooked before, practiced, or even watched his mother cook... Yet he apperantly accumulated the skills to face world class chefs from the get go.

[Reelya]

Haha, i was thinking about the most common complaint about K-On, that they never practice their music or play that many gigs, so it's "unrealistic."

Wait, that's the most common complaint about K-On?  Not that it essential boils down to "cute girls doing nothing"?

Well, that's a complaint too, but "cute girls doing nothing" is essentially the same complaint you could apply to almost all "group of girls" slice of life animes from Azumanga Daioh, to Aria: The Animation to Lucky Star, while the lack of musical insert songs is the one specific complaint laid on K-On.

In fact, i would warrant that the ONLY reason K-On gets specifically targeted as the definitive "cute girls doing nothing" anime while those other ones do not (I challenge you to prove less nothing happens in those other shows ), is that people came into K-On expecting the "road to success" plot-line and got slice-of-life instead.

Hell, there's one called A-Channel, which is basically K-On with no gimmick whatsoever, and 3/4 characters could be carbon copies of K-On characters. If nothing happens in K-On, even more nothing happens in A-Channel, and unbelievably, A-Channel has better reviews than K-On despite jack shit happening in the whole series. Maybe because people didn't come into it with expectations of anything but slice-of-life.

Actually, now that i think of it, it seems like the same reason reviewers were pissed off that Tantei Opera Milky Holmes never solved any crimes xD. Genre confusion of a slice-of-life / random gag comedy, for a detective drama in that case, so you had people watching the show who really had no business watching that genre, then complaining that it's the wrong genre basically.

[ToonyMan]

I don't know why...but I find it amusing to find out Kyon is in Muv-Luv & helping out in the fight against BETA.

What where did you get this.  There was no Kyon in what I saw.

[Leafsnail]

Well, that's a complaint too, but "cute girls doing nothing" is essentially the same complaint you could apply to almost all "group of girls" slice of life animes from Azumanga Daioh, to Aria: The Animation to Lucky Star, while the lack of musical insert songs is the one specific complaint laid on K-On.

Yes, it is.

[Neonivek]

slice of life animes from Azumanga Daioh, to Aria: The Animation to Lucky Star,

Arn't two of the three very specifically comedies.

Heck Azumanga Daioh is almost Japanese Peanuts (Except... not... but I cannot think of a better comparison)

I need to watch K-On though to really judge... if it isn't just a flat out comedy, it could be the answer.

Though remember... both Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star do not have a goal or even an implied goal. If something happened in either of these animes, nothing would happen anyway. If K-On became famos and practiced Guitar the anime would be over.

[Patchouli]

Haha, i was thinking about the most common complaint about K-On, that they never practice their music or play that many gigs, so it's "unrealistic."

Hate to break it to you guys, i've played in a couple of amateur bands, and hanging out, getting drunk and smoking pot while playing video games (ok this bit's not in K-On, but i'll wager the tea + cakes is a stand-in for drugs or alcohol most bands members seem to ingest) is 99% of what we did.

I don't think they are complaining about them not practicing, they're complaining about them not practicing but still being able to perform gigs with any sort of proficiency. Especially Yui, who just happens to be a natural at the guitar.

[Neonivek]

Really?

Do they specifically not practice? or is it possible it is happening off screen?

Because I've seen band shows where they never practice onscreen (As well as one... where they get like... two maybe four gigs and ALL they do is practice... That show had such a cop-out ending too where they ran out of time to do a proper ending so the ending is litterally "Hey guy watch our band"... "WOO we are famos!" and it litterally wasn't even episode length.)

Oddly enough one show I saw seemed perfectly aware that the heros band REALLY wasn't good (AT ALL!) so they were ranked something like 1000 of all amateur bands and they never improved.

[Reelya]

Season 1 covered almost 2 years, that's plenty of time to pick up the basics, and she's not like Jimi Hendrix even then. So given the stated time-lapse it's not that unbelievable that someone could become proficient at rhythm guitar.  The average time-lapse between episodes is almost 2 months in season 1 (I haven't seen all of season 2)

and, yes it's stated that they're lazy - as a band - they goof off and don't practice anywhere near as much as they should - but the girl who picked up guitar in season one, also states she plays a bit at home every day.

But overall, they're a SHITTY band, much shittier than the tapes of the previous light music club's band that they listen to. So there's no Mary Sue effect, it's stated that they're lazy, and all their songs actually suck.

[Neonivek]

Ok so it is implied that they practice off screen.

Why does K-On feel like it takes place in that Kyon anime that I can never remember how the name is spelled so I never mention it by name?

Kyon and K-On should totally do a crossover!