This community thread is dedicated to everything K-ON! The story of Yui and her high school girlfriends and their time in the light music club. Here you can discuss relevant topics like the anime, the manga, music, etc. Bought a new K-ON! body pillow? Post about it here. Watched an episode of K-ON!!? Post about it here. Saw a crack in a wall that looked like Mio? Post about it here. Just try to remember the rules of the forum when you post... Ignorance is not a valid excuse.
Main Cast
The main character of K-ON!, Yui plays a Heritage Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar that she nicknames "Gīta." Before joining the club, Yui did nothing but eat and sleep away her free time, not that she doesn't still do that now. Being some what of a savant, she can learn new things incredibly easily, though she tends to forget everything else in the process...
Crowning Achievement - Played as Tree G in the school's rendition of Romeo and Juliet
The mature, yet incredibly shy girl of the light music club, Mio plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz Bass with a tortoiseshell pickguard. Despite being mature in appearance, she has a very girly side that comes out in the lyrics she writes for the band. She has the "most talent" of the group.
Crowning Achievement - Has an official fan club
Self-proclaimed president of the light music club, Ritsu plays Yellow Rick Marotta Signature Yamaha Hipgig Drum kit with an add-on floor Tom, Cymbal set from Avedis Zildjian. Childhood friend with Mio, Ritsu tends to drag her into all sorts of things. Ritsu would make a good boy friend.
Crowning Achievement - Speaks very good English
Often referred to as "Mugi" by her friends, is a wealthy girl with a gentle and sweet personality who plays a Korg Triton Extreme 76-key keyboard. Despite her wealth, she is fascinated and finds joy in "normal" everyday activities, such as ordering fast food. She tends to bring tea and cakes to the club room for the girls to eat. She has a fondness for yuri manga.
Crowning Achievement - Won a board game in a lottery
The youngest girl of the club, Azusa plays as the band's rhythm guitarist with her Fender Mustang electric guitar. Being a year younger than the other four girls, Azusa joins the group after watching a performance of the light music club at the freshman reception. She may wish the club would be more serious and practice more, but she herself plays around just as much if not more than the other girls. She sun burns really easily, much to her dismay...
Crowning Achievement - Consolation prize in a talent show
Supporting cast
Ui Hirasawa 平沢 憂 - Voiced by: Madoka Yonezawa (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)
Yui's younger sister. Since their parents are rarely ever home, Ui fills the role of mother for her sister. She's pretty much perfect in every way. After the seniors graduate, she joins the light music club with Jun and Azusa.
Sawako Yamanaka 山中 さわ子 - Voiced by: Asami Sanada (Japanese), Karen Strassman (English)
Music Teacher and alumna from Sakuragaoka Girl's High School. When she was in school she too was in the light music club, where she and her friends played death metal music in their band Death Devil. She is forced to be the new adviser of the new light music club, as Ritsu blackmails her after the girls learn of her past.
Nodoka Manabe 真鍋 和 - Voiced by: Chika Fujitō (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)
Yui's childhood friend and confidant who is a member of the school's student council. She becomes friends with Mio as well during their second year in school, and unbeknown to Mio, is also the President of the Mio Fan Club.
Jun Suzuki 鈴木 純 - Voiced by: Yoriko Nagata (Japanese), Michelle Ann Dunphy (English)
One of Azusa and Ui's classmates and close friends. She joins the jazz Club, but after a while starts to get jealous of Azusa's stories of her time with the light music Club, where she eventually joins for their senior year along with Ui.
K-ON! began as a four-panel comic-strip manga written and illustrated by Kakifly in May 2007, and ended on September 9, 2010 with a total of 4 volumes. The manga folows our hero Yui through her high school career where she joins the light music Club and makes friends with Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, and Azusa. The Manga was then relaunched in April 2011 in two separate magazines, with one following the exploits of Yui and friends as they attend college, and the other follows Azusa, Ui and Jun in their senior year.
The manga was licensed by Yen Press for English release, with volumes 1-4 as well as the K-ON! COLLEGE and K-ON! HIGH SCHOOL volumes.
There is an anthology entitled Minna de Untan!, which features several guest strips from various artists. An official anthology series, K-ON! Anthology Comic, began sale from November 27, 2009, with five volumes released as of October 12, 2011, and two "Story Anthology Comics" were released on November 26, 2011. 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of this legendary franchise!
The 13-episode anime adaptation of the manga K-ON! aired between April 3 and June 26, 2009 on TBS in Japan, directed by Naoko Yamada, written by Reiko Yoshida, and produced by Kyoto Animation. The first season follows Yui through the first two years of high school where she joins the light music club and learns to play the guitar, and in their second year they recruit new freshman guitarist, Azusa. The second season, K-ON!! aired with 26 episodes on TBS in Japan between April 7 and September 28, 2010. The second season follows Yui and friends in their senior year, as well as focus on Azusa and her junior friends as they hang out outside of the club. A film adaptation of K-On! was released in theaters on December 3, 2011. It follows the HTT girls as they travel to England to celebrate their graduation. K-ON! the movie was released on July, 18 in Japan. Blu-ray and DVD
Bandai Entertainment released the first season in North America in 2011, while the second season has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks and was released in the west in two volumes on June 19, 2012 and August 28, 2012. Bang Zoom! Entertainment produced the first and second season of the dubs as well as the movie! You can watch the series on Hulu, and if you really want to, you can buy the movie on Steam, for whatever reason... 2014 marks the 5th anniversary of the first anime season!
Since the show is about a music club, naturally their would be music. If you're interested, many of the songs are available on Apple Music. If non-physical isn't your thing, you can collect HTT's various songs both on CDs and 7 inch vinyl albums.
K-ON! Hōkago Live!! is a PSP rhythm game developed by Sega. The gameplay involves you matching button presses in time with music featured in the anime. 19 songs in total featured from the first anime season and first set of character song CDs. Though the real meat of the game is that you can customize the clothing, hair style and accessories of the HTT girls, plus you can decorate both the club room and Yui's bedroom. K-ON! Hōkago Live!! was released in Japan on September 30, 2010.
A HD port of K-ON! Hōkago Live!! was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 21, 2012.
Unfortunately, there are no plans for a western release, however both games can be imported, region free, here, and the game is quite easy to understand and navigate through menus with little to no Japanese language experience.
K-On! Hōkago Rhythm Time is an arcade rhythm game, developed by Atlus, which hopefully means Sega can't just sit on the license anymore. The game features trading cards as rewards that can be used to get new songs in the game. A game I'll probably never get to play, but it sounds cool!
Besides music singles and video games there are all sorts of kinds of K-ON! merchandise. Ranging from anime figures, to body pillows, to toasters, to trading cards. Think of anything and there's most likely a K-ON! themed version.
