The gag about Ritsu’s ‘love letter’ was my favourite of this episode – both funny and sweet. Though I keep thinking that Mio must have been thinking of Ritsu when she composed those lyrics.

Overall, a light and fluffy series that kept me entertained each week. I would liked to see more Mugi Vision and Raising Heart Yui (that we saw in the first and twelfth eps) but no major complaints.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

For me, an anime’s end is often trumps its journey – particularly if I felt the ending or non-ending made a mockery of the journey. Such as the resets of School Rumble. I recall reacting badly to the final episode of the first iteration of Fullmetal Alchemist which continues to dampen my enthusiasm for the Brotherhood version. And my frustration with the Love Hina manga also placed a restraining order on any potential interest for getting into anything else by Ken Akamatsu.

But K-ON is not one of those shows where the ending matters to me. Unlike Azumanga Daioh’s clear teleological momentum towards the End of High School and beyond the event horizon into the possibility of the loveless and lovably dysfunctional futurama of Nyamo and Yukari-chan, to me, K-ON is about making friends, friends having fun together with lots of heart – with us voyeurs picking our favourite in the girl band.

Omo really hits the proverbial nail amidst the tl;dr haystack (Ed: Stop mixing metaphors.) when he said unto us:

I thought K-ON was a lot more fun once I realized the show is about band chemistry.

It’s not quite the end yet, with one more episode to go but here’s some thoughts overall thus far. I do like yuri but yuri siscon, the gattai of the Hontou Ni fetishes I do not want. Sorry Ui but the most likely (one-sided) yuri in this series is just a bit too disturbing for me.

The cheongsam was my favourite too. I would have liked to see more Mugi Vision scenes but I still have my doubts aplenty as to whether Mugi is actually a lesbian herself. My take on this is that she likes looking at pretty girls, especially pretty girls being touchy feely with each other, but IIRC she hasn’t pictured herself in the picture. She’s more a bystander, a voyeur – probably belong to that demographic of girls who buy yuri manga but who are 99% straight themselves.

Yui running home to get Gitah and racing back, recalling the sequence of the first episode, was also a KyoAni innovation. In the manga, Ui saved the day again. Like the innovation of the previous episode, it had a nice flow and brought back all of Yui’s FUD prior to joining K-ON / After School Teatime, underlining just how many great memories she’s created for herself and her friends as a result of a whimsical decision and the right circumstances during that fleeting period of youth and freedom known as high school.

Never forget that love – even if it’s not yuri.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

Jaalin wondered:

The bit with Yui fixing up her guitar was normal K-ON fare, which was totally fine and pretty fun, but what the hell was up with the Ritsu bit?

The whole Ritsu x Mio doramaz seems to be KyoAni original material; I didn’t see anything about this up to Chapter 25 of the source material which Gordonator confirms. I thought that part was rather non-4komaish but Mikotoism ‘could even feel the 4komaness of this episode.’ Actually there were substantial changes from the 4koma. Yui did not offer Mio unto the Sawa-chan God of Maintenance. And Mugi did not use of awesome Korruption Kollusion Nepotism powers to get Yui free maintenance for Gitah.

But it’s ok. I liked it anyway. Especially the bedroom scene. Where deep yuri love heals. Suzumiya Yuki has already explicated on this in his very appropriately named blog, Yuri Goggles @ > 9000x – check it out, give a warm welcome to another member of the Yuri Delusion Alliance and leave lots of comments (now that I have popped the blog’s comment cherry mwahaha)!

Of course I completely support the spread of Dr Tsumugi Kotobuki’s MugiVision virus. Where do I sign up to be her lab Igor or nameless henchman, Ascaloth?

Metanorn notes how Azusa’s innocence has been taken away by Sawa-chan-sensei’s DVD. But the nosebleed was taken away. An affront indeed to the cause of justice and yuri delusion!!

Oh another change from the 4koma was how Sawa-chan-sensei did the Decider thing WRT the band’s name (so appropriate) first time round rather than have the delay. Well, the delay (due to Ritsu’s sickness) didn’t take place in the 4koma. The Four Girls in Unison mode in the anime (above screencap) was a great gag though. This change in the sequence also melded into the change of reason why Yui caught a cold. In the 4koma, it was something to do with Sawa-chan-sensei cosplay again but the anime reason (catching it from Ritsu) has a pretty good feel to its flow too. Either way it still sets up one of the same great gag of Ch 25.

The big question for Ep 12 now, as posed by RP and Hanners, is: Will we get a finale like God Knows?

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.