hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Hirasawa Yui gathers no moss

That Mio is the top favourite K-ON character isn't a surprise at all. I have been a little surprised though at how much Yui is disliked: she 'drove [Kabitzin] crazy, in a bad way' and Mentar called her a 'walking toothache.' Ouch.

I'm not going to rush to the defence of K-ON's QUALITY animation (though it doesn't bother me that much). But I'm going to fanboy about Yui for a bit, as Tohsaka Rin might chant, to protect the balance.

I was actually surprised about Yui. I dislike clumsy characters. I dislike dumb characters. And I dislike clumsy and dumb characters, with the obvious exception of Osaka because, well, she's Osaka. But I was really quite touched by the way she was so sincerely transparent about how lackadaisical she is (????...??) and how mortified she was at the false hope she had given the rest.

Was also completely won over by her 'straight to the point' assessment of the trio's performance. Besides being a 'Yui says the darnest things' moment, it was a completely plausible hook for her to change her mind and join K-ON. Yui was looking for a club where she could have fun, maybe make some friends and definitely not be subjected to too much stress. It's a naive and hopelessly romantic notion, in the days when [Singapore] school clubs either tend towards being relentless CV-building vehicles and/or ruthless school ranking point gainers, that I couldn't help but smile at.

If Ritsu, Mio and Mugi had played really well, Yui would undoubtedly have been too intimidated to join. But now that she's joined, she does get what she wanted. Though not quite in the way she expected. Even so, the trials and tribulations of being in the light music club are, well, light in comparison to MUZIK IZ SRSBZNS anime. And it's this lightness that makes things bearable for Yui and for me to watch her muddle through.

Yui probably never imagined that joining K-ON would make it necessary for her to get decent grades. It was a great opportunity to give the rest of the cast to act out their roles of Straight Man (Mio - and not just against Ritsu!), Minami Kana (Ritsu) and Illuminati (Mugi).

I have to confess that I was absolutely terrible at math in high school (though my scores didn't sink to 12%, I think the lowest I ever got was still a really pathetic 28%). I didn't have quite the same bounce back (about 60% rather than 100%) but I suppose I didn't have Mio's tutelage. So it was quite hard for me to be annoyed with Yui for being bad at math. Or not very good at concentrating for her studies; goodness knows the number of times I've packed my room and completely rearranged all my furniture when deadlines loom. OTL And I was LOLOL at the Kelly Bundy effect at the end of the third ep.

Nonetheless while I'm looking forward to more K-ON, I do hope Yui's characterization will concentrate less on her airheadness - it gets less funny when there's overkill and becomes cruel to the character - and KyoAni will bring out more of the sincerity and charming naivety that captivated me in the first episode.

Related posts:

1. K-ON 7
2. K-ON 13
3. K-ON 11