K-ON! (Anime)

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K-on! (Keion! "けいおん!") is the anime adaption of Kakifly's manga of the same name, which was produced by Kyoto Animation and aired in Japan between 2009 and 2010 in two seasons. The anime became a world-wide success and allowed the franchise to gain much more depth by highlighting facts that the manga did or could not do. The anime also introduced real music, partly based on lyrics from the manga but mostly entirely new composition. The music from the anime contains several "Original Soundtracks", "Character Image Songs" for most individual characters and several musical productions by the main band, Ho-Kago Tea Time.

Plot
K-ON!’s story revolves around four (and later five) Japanese high school girls who join their school’s Light Music Club. The show follows the daily lives of each member and shows their interactions with each other, their teachers, friends and families.

At first, despite being successful in saving the club from being disbanded, each member brings in her own sorts of problems to prevent a strict and structured training. The guitarist Yui Hirasawa has no experience in playing musical instruments or reading sheet music and usually forgets already managed progresses, be it in her musical or academic career. Drummer Ritsu Tainaka often forgets to fulfill her responsibilities as the club's president and usually rushes at the drums. The bassist Mio Akiyama is, in contrast to her Ritsu's hyperactive nature, a shy scaredy-cat with immense stage fright. The keyboardist Tsumugi Kotobuki has, as the overprotected daughter of an unimaginably rich and influential family, no real idea of "normal" social situations. At the beginning of their second year of high school, a fifth member joins the club, an underclassman named Azusa Nakano who also plays guitar and usually struggles with the irresponsibility and carelessness of the other members.

During their shared school career, all of them eventually manage to handle their problems together, making the light music club a more serious club bit by bit. Every day, the club gathers together to drink tea and eat snacks in the clubroom, which quickly becomes the club's trademark and finally leads to the band's name, "Ho-Kago Tea Time" (Afterschool Tea Time in English).

Characters

 * See: Category:Characters

Most characters of K-On! have surnames derived from members of the Japanese bands P-Model and The Pillows.

Main characters
 * Yui Hirasawa (平沢 唯), voiced by Aki Toyosaki
 * The main character. A clumsy girl. She plays guitar and is the main vocalist.


 * Ritsu Tainaka (田井中 律), voiced by Satomi Satō
 * An active girl who is the president of the light music club. She plays the drums.


 * Mio Akiyama (秋山 澪), voiced by Yōko Hikasa
 * A mature but shy girl. Forced by her childhood friend Ritsu into the club. She plays the bass and is the second vocalist.


 * Tsumugi Kotobuki (琴吹 紬), voiced by Minako Kotobuki
 * A wealthy girl with no experience of normal living standards. She plays the keyboard.


 * Azusa Nakano (中野 梓), voiced by Ayana Taketatsu
 * Introduced at the middle of the first season as a freshman. She plays guitar.

Secondary characters
 * Nodoka Manabe (真鍋 和), voiced by Chika Fujitō
 * A childhood friend of Yui, she becomes a member of the school’s student council.


 * Ui Hirasawa (平沢 憂), voiced by Madoka Yonezawa
 * Yui's younger sister. Unlike her sister, she is very mature. Later joins the Light Music Club.


 * Jun Suzuki (鈴木 純), voiced by Yoriko Nagata
 * A classmate of Azusa and Ui. Also later joins the Light Music Club.


 * Megumi Sokabe (曽我部 恵), voiced by Asumi Kodama
 * The president of the student council and the Mio Akiyama Fanclub.


 * Sawako Yamanaka (山中 さわ子), voiced by Asami Sanada
 * The club's (forced) advisor and an alumna of the light music club. She supports the club with (sometimes weird) clothes.


 * Satoshi Tainaka (田井中 聡), voiced by Mika Itou
 * Ritsu Tainaka's younger brother.


 * Norimi Kawaguchi (河口 紀美), voiced by Yū Asakawa
 * Old friend of Sawako and the second guitarist of the band Death Devil.


 * Tomi Ichimonji (一文字 とみ), voiced by Sachiko Chijimatsu
 * Kind old neighbor of the Hirasawa household who always looks after Yui and Ui.


 * Members of the Class 3-2
 * Several different class members with the main characters, exclusive to the anime.

Publication
The anime adaptation K-ON!, directed by Naoko Yamada, written by Reiko Yoshida and produced by Kyoto Animation, started airing in Japan at the third of April and ended at the 26th of June 2009 on the television network TBS, as well as on many minor networks. Between the 29th of July 2009 and the 20th January 2010, seven DVD and Blu-ray Disc compilation volumes were released by the Japanese company Pony Canyon. On the 20th of January 2010, an additional original video animation (OVA) episode was released on the final DVD and BD volumes. Each DVD/BD volume contained short extra episodes with the name Ura-On!.

The second season K-On!!, first announced during the Let's Go live concert in Yokohama on the 30th of December 2009, was directed by the same staff as the first season and aired in Japan between the 7th of April and the 28th of September 2010, again mainly on TBS. It was released on nine DVD/BD volumes in total, published between the 30th of July 2010 and the 16th of March 2011. The last volume contained again an additional extra episode (OVA). Like the first season, every volume also contained short extra episodes called Ura-On!!. The Japanese anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks licensed the second season and released it on DVD and Blu-ray in two boxsets, published on the 19th of June and the 28th of August 2012.

At least three English dubs of the series exist. The first was produced by Animax Asia for both seasons, and aired exclusively in Asian countries. To date, only two voice actors from the Animax dub have been positively identified, these being Lily Truncale (Yui) and Muriel Hoffman (Ritsu and Nodoka). The second English dub was produced by Bang! Zoom! Entertainment for the first season with voices provided by veterans of the industry such as Stephanie Sheh, Cristina Valenzuela, and Laura Bailey. The third English dub by Sentai Filmworks was produced for the second season and is often considered as the same dub as the Bang! Zoom! dub due to having the exact same voice cast.

Episodes
A list of the episodes of both seasons:

Music

 * See: List of K-ON! Albums

Being an adaption of a manga that shows the daily lives of musicians, the anime published many original musical productions, sung by the voice providers (seiyū) of the main characters, Aki Toyosaki (Yui Hirasawa), Yōko Hikasa (Mio Akiyama), Satomi Satō (Ritsu Tainaka), Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi Kotobuki), Ayana Taketatsu (Azusa Nakano), Madoka Yonezawa (Ui Hirasawa), Chika Fujitō (Nodoka Manabe), Yoriko Nagata (Jun Suzuki) and Asami Sanada (Sawako Yamanaka).

Like (usually) every other anime, each K-ON! episode has an intro and an outro song, called "opening theme" and "ending theme". The first season's opening theme, "Cagayake! GIRLS", was sung by the seiyū of the main cast, Aki Toyosaki, Yōko Hikasa, Satomi Satō and Minako Kotobuki. The season's ending theme is called "Don't Say 'Lazy'" and was sung by the same cast. Both theme singles were released on the 22th of April 2009. The insert song "Fuwa Fuwa Time", which also became the Light Music Club's/Ho-Kago Tea Time's trademark, was released on the 20th of May 2009. Other songs, played at the shown concerts, were gathered together on the album "Ho-Kago Tea Time", which was published on the 22th of July 2009. The single "Maddy Candy", played by Sawako's band Death Devil, was published on the 12th of August 2009.

Following traditional anime trends, each main character was granted with an own unique "Character Image Song", who got published between June and October 2009 (Yui's and Mio's at the 17th of June, Ritsu's, Tsumugi's and Azusa's at the 26th of August and Ui's and Nodoka's at the 21th of October).

Unlike the first season, the second had two opening and two ending themes which were always sung by the main cast, this time including Azusa's seiyū Ayana Taketatsu too. The first 13 episodes used "GO! GO! MANIAC" as the opening and "Listen!!" as the ending theme. From episode 14 onwards, "Utauyo!! MIRACLE" served as the opening and "NO, Thank You!" as the ending theme. On the 28th of April 2010, the first opening and ending theme were published, while the second were both published on the fourth of April 2010.

During 2010, many singles were released, like "Pure Pure Heart" (second of June), "LOVE" (23th of June) and "Gohan wa Okazu / U&I" (eight of September). The band's second album, "Ho-Kago Tea Time II", was released on both normal double CD and limited edition (that came with a cassette tape) on the 27th of October 2010.

The second season also published new image songs for the character, this time including Jun's seiyū Yoriko Nagata too. The publishment started with Yui's and Mio's songs on the 21th of September 2010. The second set, including Ritsu's, Tsumugi's and Azusa's songs was released on the 17th of November 2010. The last set, containing Jun's, Ui's and Nodoka's versions, was released on the 19th of January 2011.

The anime also had an "Original Soundtrack", who served mostly as background music. The soundtrack of the first season was released on the third of June 2009. The second season mostly used the first soundtrack again, and mixed it with entirely new songs. The second season's soundtrack was released on two CD's, published on the 21th of July and the sixth of October 2010, respectively.

Similar to the "Original Soundtrack", the album as granted with "Official Band Yarouyo!!" albums, which collect many unused background songs, instrumental versions and "TV size Versions" as well as music sheets for the notes of the included songs. The first album was released on the second of September 2009, the second on the third of March 2010, the third on the 26th of May 2010, the fourth on the 15th of September 2010, the fifth on the 22th of December 2010 and the sixth on the 15th of June 2011.

Aside from the main albums, there are certain special/bonus albums like the "Web Radio Show" albums.