K-On! (けいおん!) : The Power of Affirmation

K-On!! , the second season of K-On! , has ended on Animax. I knew ahead of time that the season has to end, and how it will end (they graduate of course!). Still, it was sad to watch the final episode.

One wonders what draws people to watch this hit anime series, 80% male and 20% female, so they say. Is it the girls? Is it the comedy? Is it something else?

For me, watching K-On! was not about watching the girls, per se. Neither was it about the comedy of the series. I don't remember what I felt when I first watched the first episode of the first season of K-On. I might have laughed at their antics and felt that the humor alone was worth following this series. As the series progressed, the show tugged on my heart's strings. Watching the girls solve their problems or achieve their goals, in a plausible comical way, filled and still fills my heart with warmth. K-On!! , the second season, continued the series' theme of heartwarming comedy.

At the center of the theme was the affirmation the primary characters and even the supporting characters give each other. This theme is evident in the second season's second opening theme song (Utauyo!! Miracle) where the main characters of the series give all the secondary characters hugs, and tight hugs at that.

Throughout the first and second series, the characters affirm each other. Sure, Yui is a klutz and is unreliable but the rest of the gang accept her as she is and she progresses and grows up throughout the series, always doing her best. Ritsu and Mio often play the 2-man comedy team with Mio playing the straight man and Ritsu as the comedian. Unfortunately for Ritsu, this means she has to take most of the pratfalls for the humor. Tsumugi or Mugi is the enabler or deus ex machina for the group. She is the glue that keeps the group together and the oil that keeps their engine running smoothly. Unfortunately, this also makes her the least developed of all the main characters but on the other hand, it also adds to her mystery. Then again, Mugi often acts as the strange one. Azusa has the saddest part of all, in my opinion. She often plays the outsider looking in, in their group. She is the only junior in a group of seniors, often left out in activities that segregates the juniors from their upperclassmen. We feel this sadness the most when, come graduation, Azusa begs her seniors not to graduate and leave her. Yet Azusa remains very precious to her seniors and she is always shown to be treated as a full member.

And affirmation is the name of the game, all the way to the end of the season. That is what I see, whenever I watch the episodes of this series. And the best part of it is that K-On is a comedy: the joy of affirmation joined with the joy of laughter.

But don't forget the tea and sweets too. ;-)

Sail Away