K-ON! Sound Bite features in Try, Try, Try by Jason Mraz

A teeny-weeny sound clip from K-ON! has sneaked it's way into the new Jason Mraz's single called Try, Try, Try at 0:12 and 1:09 minutes. Is it a troll? I've checked plenty of versions out on the net and they all seem to be the same. It is entirely possible that it was fan-made and got passed on. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to assume it's not...

I've always been a fan of Jason Mraz's work from Geek in the Pink to Wordplay to I'm Yours and now perhaps to Try, Try, Try. I wouldn't have heard of this song if it weren't for my sister who practically worships Jason Mraz. Anyhow, she had me listen to it and I immediately spotted the K-ON! sound bite. Her, being a non-anime-geek, didn't realize that it was actually a sound bite related to anime and thought it said "Hey-Yo" instead. How she mustered up that lame word from K-ON! is still beyond my understanding, but I reckon that the western societies' obliviousness to anime in general is how this little sound bite managed to go by unnoticed.

But why did Jason Mraz do this?

Personally, I love the K-ON! sound bite being in the song, it's extremely amusing to listen to but it just doesn't quite fit with the vibe of the song. From his previous work though, we all know that Jason Mraz is an extremely talented musician/artist and loves to experiment with sound. None of his songs sound the same and they range from him singing opera (in Mr. Curiosity) to his rapid wordplay (in Worldplay). Perhaps this is just another experiment? Or is there another motive?

It could very well be that his decision to put this sound bite in was due to commercial reasons. Perhaps, he's trying to broaden his target market and get some random otakus and other anime-watchers, be it addicted or casual watchers, from all corners of the earth interested in his music! In which case I might actually be helping him out... For now though, we can only speculate until Jason Mraz either tells us or perhaps he'll just leave us to wallow in our conspiracy theories until the hype dies down!

Or maybe, just maybe, Jason Mraz is just another otaku?

K-ON! - Episode 4

After having picked up a tape of the previous Light Music Band recordings at a concert, Mio puts her foot down and realizes that it's time to practice, and practice hard. Her solution in making the band improve? Training camp! Where? Tsumugi's villa by the beach. What does this mean? Yes, you all know it well, swimsuits and bikinis!

As expected from Yui, she sleeps in on the day but some how manages to make it in time all thanks to Ui. After a bit of banter in the train, they arrive at Mio's "smallest" villa which happens to be humungous. Mugi shows Mio to the garage which has been prepped up for the band with drums and all.

Mio wants to buckle down with the practice right away but the happy-go-lucky pair, Yui and Ritsu, head off to the beach and Mugi follows. So due to peer pressure, Mio helplessly follows them.

Yui and Ritsu play around at the beach until they were interupted by Mio. And her boobs. Thank you KyoAni...

More of Ritsu scaring Mio about barnacles... Later, they realize they hadn't done any practice!

Yui and Ritsu were too tired to do any practice which is when Mio says something along the lines of "we'll never be able to play at the school festival". The two happy-go-lucky-ers suggest doing a maid cafe instead. Hence the extremely cute picture of Mio with a heart symbol.

Thank you KyoAni...

While taking a break outside everyone surprises Mio by setting up fireworks and having Yui play the guitar which sort of like a milestone in the story giving Mio the reassurance that it really can happen.

Ritsu teases Mio more about Barnacles and Ghosts and Mio ends up crying as you can see. Yui and Ritsu are stunned with Mio moe-ness (they aren't the only one, heck, I was about to explode). After that Yui shows off some of her skills she has accumilated through 3 months of guitar playing and amazes everyone. They, then, have a bath in what looks like a swimming pool to end the long day.

Thank you KyoAni...

After the trip, Ritsu brings Mio some pictures. Mio doesn't like 'em. So she kills Ritsu.

Preview - Nodoka to be the band's advisor?

Wow... I'm pissed off... Yes... Really, really pissed off... Why? Here's why... I only just realized that K-ON! is only 13 episodes long according to MyAnimeList.com. A show like this deserves, no, NEEDS to be longer. I'm slightly disappointed with how short it is since it's such great fun to watch. But there's nothing we can do about it now.

This episode, itself, was the best. Just simply the best. Mio had a huge role in this episode and I can not even begin to tell you how moEpic Mio was. (See what I did thar?). Mio with a sad/angry face, Mio in a maid costume, and Mio in a bikini. All in one episode. I'm about to explode.

K-ON! still manages to surpass my unreal expectations.

Just one teeny-weeny point of criticism, Yui's unrealistic development of skill on the guitar was... Unrealistic. If they had made it a 24 or more episode series the gradual development would have been perfect. But I guess this is the only way to begin the transition from nooby Yui to pro Yui.

Thinking over it, a 13 episode series may be quite suitable as the jokes may get old since it is a slice of life in it's own right and there is no real plot to keep us glued to the screens. There are arguments for both sides I guess... I still wish it were longer.

But this episode has been a generous gift of Mio fanservice. Once again,

Thank you KyoAni!

With tears streaming down her face, Mio says sadly "Only 13 episodes..."

K-ON! - Episode 3

“Guitar strings are scary, they’re thin and hard, so the feel like they’ll cut my fingers” says Yui igniting a conversation in the club room which eventually leads to our delicate Mio screaming. Yui then “feels up” Mio’s hardened figures. When the whole finger affair had ended, Yui was given a book of chords to learn however she couldn’t even understand them and was taught by Mio.

On the way back from school, Yui was greeted by Nodaka and was reminded about midterm exams which had completely slipped her mind due to intense chord learning. As expected from Yui, she completely flunks the exam getting a solid 2% whilst the other in the club get extremely good grades. As a result, Yui has to retake her exams. But retaking and failing the exams again means that Yui will not be allowed to attend club activities which means… the Light Music Club will have to be dissolved! Nooooo… So Yui is encouraged by everyone in the club to work a week before the retake. But her revision ends up into a room tidying session (C’mon, who hasn’t done that?) and she gets nearly no work done. On the night before the exam she confesses this to the club and they form an urgent revision session at Yui’s house with Mio as the driving force behind this cram session.

At Yui’s house, the band meets Ui, Yui’s sisters who is extremely polite and constantly serves them snacks while they help Yui revise. Ritsu is Ritsu and therefore disrupts the session and was eventually kicked out by Mio. Half way through Nodaka comes to visit and meets the band for the first time. After a while, they get on with the revision session and the next day after the exams Yui enters the club room in shock...

She aced her retake.

Preview – Looks like they’re having a slumber party disguised as a music practice camp!

K-ON! has not disappointed me. Every week I expect more and more, and every week they manage to surpass my expectations. To be fair, it's only been 3 weeks. But still, I am full of praise so much that if I keep going at it I’ll probably make you sick so I’ll share some of my thoughts that popped up while I watched it.

My first thought when I saw Ui was “NAGISA! YOU’RE BACK!”. Her character personality is pretty much exactly the same. My KyoAni character recycling theory seems to be true. I sure don’t mind though.

Also, it looks like we’re going to have a meganekko (i.e. Nodaka) to join our moe band.

The K-ON! Manga… About that… Don’t try it. I tried a couple of chapters and it exactly the same as the anime in terms of story, characters, and jokes. So anime easily kicks the manga’s butt because half of the jokes require timing and good execution which the manga obviously lacks. The art in the anime is way nicer too. Check out chapter one if you don’t believe me.

And finally about Mio, I take back what I said in the first post… She’s not a tsundere. It’s weird though. She does exhibit some tsundere-ness especially towards Ritsu… Mio’s more of a shy or alternatively “delicate” person. Not your garden variety tsundere which makes her absolutely awesome. I reckon we should have a Mio day. Here an awesome picture by some artist (IF YOU KNOW PLEASE COMMENT, AS I WOULD LIKE TO CREDIT HIM/HER) which I’m currently using as my iPod Touch background.

K-ON! - Episode 2

After a little bit more character introduction with Yui narrating, the band decide to meet up and pick a guitar for Yui. Unfortunately, Yui lacks money even with her piggybank supply. She asks for her pocket money early from her parents and ended up with 50,000 yen (equal to roughly 500 dollars). The next day, the meet up and go pick a guitar from the music store with plenty of distractions such as dresses and drinks along the way. She falls in love with a 250,000 yen guitar and refuses to get anything else. Knowing that Yui is firm with her decision, the band then decide to get jobs in order to earn enough money for Yui to get that guitar

--->

Only Yui can come up with something like that.

They get jobs as a Traffic Counter (is that even a job?). At the end they don't earn enough money and realize that it would take way too long. Yui gives up on the idea and decides to pick a regular guitar. Fortunately Tsugumi's parents own the store and she manages to bargain the 250,000 yen down to a perfect 50,000 yen. The episode ends with some light hearted comedy back at the club room involving Yui and her obsession with the newness of the guitar.

Next episode looks like exams are coming up!

It was a perfect second episode. I didn't expect Yui to suddenly become amazing or have her progressed significantly to hear a song. The pacing is perfect. It's good that they're really building everything up one block at a time. This way, we'll be able to see Yui and the band's development and this way, we (as the viewer) will really start to empathise with the character and laugh or cry alongside them. KyoAni has done it again... It's true, anything KyoAni touches turns into anime gold.

And I haven't even seen all of their work! Download The Episode Here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WPKYB3DJ

K-ON! - Episode 1

Character Introduction (Characters don't actually dress like this in the show!):

By the way, I refuse to use wiki's summary because some of the character traits weren't revealed in the episode and there was a lot of detail in the instruments they played, if you're interested you should check it out! But I think it'd be revealed later on. Plus it'd be nice to slowly see them develop, you know?

She's Yui Hirasawa. Our cute, clumsy, air-head protagonist. She can't play any instrument but somehow gets
sucked into the Light Music Club. She picks up the guitar as a result and joins the band.
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this particular personality archetype. Clumsiness doesn't strike me as cute. But I know half the fan-boys who are watching this are loving this.


Tsumugi Kotobuki is the band's keyboardist ( Is that a word? T.T). She's polite and quiet. She joined the Light Music Club because she thought that it'd be fun.
The quiet one... Cute... But nothing out of the norm.

Also I got one point to criticise... Don't you think she has the thickest eyebrows for an anime character?!

Maybe it'll start a new fetish... Who knows?

Ritsu Tainaka is the most hyper-active person in the show, despite this she is a competent leader and a drummer. She also the head of the Light Music Club.

My second favourite character. A loud-mouth, comedy-baiting character. She is pretty cute in her own hyperactive way.

Mio Akiyama, she is officially my favourite character in the show. Everyone out there. HANDS OFF! She's MINE! RAWR. =.=

Um... Oh yeah, the intro:

She's the band's bassist and got dragged into the club by Ritsu. I see her as a tsundere character (well, not quite... Her pesonalities hard to describe as "shy" would be the wrong word to use. She's not exactly shy... Well, so far she hasn't had any "blush" moments). But anyway, I'm a sucker for tsunderes.

SO BACK OFF! grrrr...

Summary:

OP (Cute OP):

A fresh start at a new highschool, Yui wakes up late but manages to make it in time to the opening ceremony. After that she is swamped by Head of School Clubs begging her to join their club. A couple of weeks later she still can't decide.

Meanwhile, Ritsu takes over the Light Music Club which has been inactive due to lack of members for a while. Mio is dragged in to the whole affair and so is Tsumugi who initially came to have "a look around".

Yui finally decides to join the Light Music Club thinking that the music they play will be "light" e.g. using clappers. But no, they needed a guitarist. A capable guitarist. However, because the club is desperate for members, they convince Yui to stay with food and then finally convincing her to join the club by playing her a piece which was deemed crap but very fun by Yui. She now has to learn the guitar from scratch. We'll have to wait and see how that turns out!

ED:

(Simply AWESOME! Goth Lolis are always welcomed X.X Especially because Mio is singing!)

Next Episode - Buying a guitar!

Thoughts:
You know what, when I was six, I used to get so hyped up for Christmas and Birthdays. But it just never really turned out as good as you had hoped. You catch me drift? That’s how I feel about K-ON! Expecting too much was wrong on my part, after all it’s in the “slice of life, high school” genre. The nature of this particular genre is that viewers have to slowly build a relationship with characters. When we can relate and understand all the “in-jokes”, that’s when it starts to get good. And judging from episode one, it promises to get good!

It's a show for anyone out there who enjoys a cheeky bit of slice of life and comedy. Plus, it's literally impossible for a guy to not fall in love with at least one of the characters as they range from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of personality traits and appearance.

So GO WATCH IT! [At least the first episode!]

Side note:

Yui bears resemblance in character and appearance to Tsukasa Hiragii (from Lucky Star). Hmmm…. Coincidence? I think not!

Many people have been mentioning the similarities of K-ON! characters and Lucky Star characters around the net... Is KyoAni recycling?!

Because I love it!