If you watch Episode 24 of K-ON!, Season 2 and aren’t just a teeny little sniffly when the Light Music Club sings “Touched by an Angel!” to Azusa, you are no longer a friend of mine.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Superhero Eric P., who sponsored today’s review is definitely a friend! Thanks Eric, every moment I spend in the company of Houkago Tea Time reminds me of friends like you. ^_^

The second disk of the Season 2 of the  K-ON! anime, continues as it began, with wonderful moments of real life interspersed with absurd moments that only could happen in an anime…except when they actually happen in real life.

Houkago Tea Time enjoy their final high school school festival, play their final concert at school, pass their final final exams as high school students, take college exams and celebrate Valentine’s Day with their adoring underclassman, Asuza.

Time passes, as it does. I can barely remember my high school years, to be honest. Not all of what I can remember is good, but I find that my mind strays more to the moments that were good as I get older. Because K-ON! is about fondly recalling high school I will share a story with you from my high school years.

I’ve mentioned previously that I was in marching band and that I played clarinet. I was exceedingly mediocre, but when you’re playing that many hours every day…(band class, compulsory music lessons, marching band practice, football games, competition and individual practice) I was tolerable. My sempai in band was the woman who became my wife some years later.

One day we returned from an away football game to find that the band room entrance to the school was locked and that no one had the key. The band director went off to try and find someone to let us in and we stood there, bored, tired, ready to get out of our uniforms. To keep ourselves amused, we started to jam. One of our songs that year was a jazzed-up version of “My Favorite Things” – not a song that too many of us had any fondness for, but it did play well in the show. So we started to play that. The sun was getting low, it was getting dim out on the side of the school we were on, and we just…played.

For the first time it all meshed. The trumpets and the trombones got along, the soloist actually hit his notes, the drummers suddenly learned to count to 4. The woodwinds were in tune and on.

It was the best performance of that song we did all year.

If I never remember another thing about high school, I want to always remember that moment.

This disk of K-ON! made me remember that moment.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring this review…and for bringing that memory to mind. ^_^

Season 2 of the K-ON! anime is, well, pretty much exactly the same kind of thing as Season 1 was, so if Season 1 didn’t appeal to you, then probably this season isn’t going to either. ^_^

Season 2 has exactly the kind of thing *I* liked about Season 1, so for me, this is total win.

The two things I liked best on this disk have nothing whatsoever to do with Yuri or music. For me, what makes K-On! work is the interplay between the four leads. More than any other series, this one strikes me as one written by someone who actually knew something about real girls. (As say, compared with Yuru Yuri, which reads like a guess as to sort-of what girls are, maybe, like, when they hang out.)

There are two scenes that strongly affected me in this way. The first, when the four are sharing a room for their school trip and making each other giggle by saying stupid things. Yep, we did that. Heck we *still* do that. My Mom once yelled at me when staying over my house for the holidays that my wife and I needed to stop giggling, it was keeping her up.)

The second is a scene so meaningless, so…normal…that it took my breath away. When they are all shopping at the home goods store and Yui comes running over to exclaim “Screws!” then dances in hyperactive delight at all the shapes and sizes of screw…yep, we do that too. ^_^

The palpable lack of Yuri is a plus, as well. When Yui hangs on Mugi there is no fanservice, overt or implied. This is how it should be. This is in fact, how it is.

K-ON! s that most rare of creatures – a moe 4-koma gag story about girls hanging out that gets it exactly right.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 1
Service – 4

Overall – 8

Once again it is my great pleasure to thank Okazu Superhero Eric P. for his sponsorship of today’s review!