Ah, the beach episode.

Finding the belongings of the former light music club, Mio decides that the summer vacation shall be for training. Mugi offers her help to the group, by lending them one of her villas. The day of the departure comes, and here comes the beach episode.

Finding out about your predecessors

Ozzy Osborne is anything but light music

You know, I am surprised that Mio have not caught on earlier when she have seen the Ozzy Osborne score book in the box. This is an important clue about what the former light music club used to be.

The second reason she want to do the training camp is the scheduled school festival. Haunted House and maid cafe seems to be the usual ideas in anime with highschool settings. But Mio is straight to the point, they are the light music club, therefore they shall do live performance.

Mio, Sousuke Sagara she is not.

It have come to me that Mio could pretty much be the co-leader of the club when Ritsu deviates from her responsibilities (after all Ritsu was the one who started it). Her balance between shyness and tsukkomi is partly the reason she have gained a respectable pool of fans.

Sadly, Mio have yet to call Sousuke Sagara, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, one could legitimately fear what would become of the girls if Sagara was actually coaching them.

Back to the resort. Tsumugi’s villa, very big in the eyes of three middle class highschool girls, happens to be very loaded, with furniture, equipment and food (excepted the booze, Mugi’s parents have made sure of that). Then much to the three girls’ surprise, Tsugumi tells them this is actually the smallest villa they had. This is actually raising the question: how rich her family is.

Mio expected training right away. However, this was not what Yui and Ritsu had in mind. Summer vacation meant goofing around. Beach means being in swimsuit and enjoying.. the sun.

The Last Temptation of Mio. The trident is not symbolic, honest!

You have done enough, Mio.

Her name is Mio. 15. Well endowed. Still growing.

A certain blogger would comment on Mio’s assets and her swimsuit. A bet, “melonpan” or “is amazing”? In anime, you insert breast envy from other girls. That is the case with Yui and Ritsu.

Barnacles belongs to the group of things that totally grosses me out. It gives me creeps, even without knowing the urban legend. I was looking at a photobook about whales as a kid. I was ooooh, aaaah until I saw a BIG ZOOM on the skin of a whale with CLOSE-UPS OF BARNACLES! AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

And before you ask, yes the lotus seed girl shops posted on 4chan utterly disgusted me.

I know that I still love a series when the first thing I think of when I see Tsumugi and her sandcastle is this:

By the way, Chikaru Minamoto is still AWESOME.

What do people expect from a BEACH episode? What’s so offending to their “refined tastes”? I thought that the point fo a beach episode is to turn off your brain and enjoy the summer service.
I either see misplaced expectations or just plain masochist. Well, back on K-on!

Kurogane have written a full Mio fanboy mode on K-On! episode 4. No one could fanboy better than he did.

I’ll just highlight what ought to be remembered about this episode:

Yui’s budding scene presence. Apparently, so strong that Mio have become yuri for Yui:

She is not Jimi Hendrix, she is not Freddie Mercury, she is not Carl McCoy. She is just Yui Hirasawa. Someone who may have found something she can fully enjoy.

Viewers can tell that Yui shares some traits with Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk. Both of them are capable of good to great things in their respective domains, however the basics have yet to be learnt by them.
This is where we get to see another of the interactions between the group outside the usual. Mio teaching Yui the basics.

And the other highlight is Mio giving them a sample of what the former members could do.

It was until they actually heard their voices, and find out what kind of music the former members played:

Yes, the shadow of Krauser is still lurking above K-on.

Overall, it was what a normal man should expect from a beach episode. I don’t know what’s so sinful about it. K-On keeps going on its quiet pace. I seriously doubt that people would have liked all the 4komas to be used in 9 episodes. I have the feeling that KyoAni is trying to tune one of the major criticism adressed against them over the years: the pacing, an issue that have become a sore when you see Munto TV. If you ask me, K-on’s pace is fine.

Next will be Guin Saga, because the episodes 2 and 3 are finally subbed. Man, I was starting to be worried.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Anime.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.