Review: K-ON!! 14 « Project Haruhi

9Jul/103

Review: K-ON!! 14

SURPRISE! :3

From the tone of my last K-ON!! review, you may have thought I despised this show. But it's quite the contrary; I love K-ON!!. It's chock full of laugh-out-loud humor and entertaining characters, and this week's show was a great example of that. After my disappointment from last week's subpar offering, this episode thoroughly rekindled my love for this series. It was filled with enjoyable humor and charm, and was a sheer delight from beginning to end.

Read more after the jump!

Yes, the logic is flawless.

The episode begins with Ritsu heading out to go shopping. However, she encounters Mugi along the way, who attempts to scare her (the result is shown in the first screencap). From this, the viewer can tell this episode will revolve around Mugi and Ritsu--a never-before-seen matchup in either season of K-ON!. This struck me as refreshing, as Mugi rarely has episodes focused on her. Anyway, this episode starts off as your typical slice-of-life fare; it has no real main plot until the halfway mark, when Mugi asks Ritsu something so bizarre it could only come from her...

Anybody else having Fight Club flashbacks?

And the rest of the episode is Mugi literally trying to annoy someone to the point of hitting her. Only Mugi could've created such an unpredictable situation.

This episode went smoothly and steadily; I was enjoying it from start to end. The jokes were definitely entertaining, and some literally had me falling out of my seat laughing. The interaction between the characters is great as always, providing a lot of this episode's comedy. Of course, the match-up with Mugi and Ritsu was a great idea. Not only was it hilarious, but it was also nice to see Mugi get the spotlight for once.

Now, as for the cons... well, there really wasn't anything I disliked about this episode, to be honest. At least, nothing major... except maybe the new OP and ED. The OP was definitely not that great. Sure, it got the whole cute part right, but it's a little too repetitive and moves a bit slow. However, the ED was excellent. It was quick, cool, and had some astounding visuals. Oh, and for those of you Azusa fans, she makes a very small appearance in this episode. She pops up for only a few brief seconds, and hardly has any dialogue. But I think after the last episode, this wasn't a big letdown.

Sorry, Azusa. Maybe next episode?

Ultimately, K-ON!! 14 does an amazing job. It was certainly better than the previous episode; the story is fun, the jokes are laugh-out-loud good, and the plot moves at a great pace. Aside from the new OP, this episode is a surefire hit, especially for die-hard fans. This was the type of K-ON!! episode I've been waiting for; lets hope that we see a lot more episodes like this rather than the trivial eye candy we've been force-fed for the last few weeks..

About Konata

Konata (aka Jeagle) is Project Haruhi's resident newb. He's young, eager, and we make him get our coffee. He enjoys slice-of-life anime such as Lucky Star and K-ON!. Make it two sugars and no cream, Konata!

Filed under: 2010 Summer Season, Anime, K-ON!, K-ON!!, Reviews Leave a comment

Comments (3) Trackbacks (2) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

bloo
July 9th, 2010 - 00:40

To be honest, I can’t believe you called the last episode trivial eye candy, yet at the same time cited this episode for having a good plot. Episode 13 was one of the most introspective and thematically focused episodes of the entire series, while this episode was little more than RitsuXMugi bonding and a ton of fluff. Eh, to each his own I guess.

I actually loved the episode though. Like you said, all the jokes were hilarious and the comedic timing was spot on. I particularly liked the brick joke with Nodoka eating Yui’s strawberry. I really didn’t expect it to come back into play, but hey, that’s pretty much the point of a brick joke.

I gotta disagree with you again on the OP and ED. The animation for the OP was absolutely astounding. Say what you will about the song or the aesthetic, but the actual animation was incredible. From a technical standpoint, it was amazing. While the ED was less ambitious in the animation department (but still at a high level), it was still great What it lacked in great animation, it made up for in style. The entire thing just oozed attitude, and the outfits were fantastic as usual.

All in all an amazing episode.
Starlogic
July 9th, 2010 - 22:19

I really enjoyed this episode, To be fair Ritsu IS my favorite character, so to see Ritsu-Heavy Episode makes me happy. This episode really was pure fun, Mugi is really a (sadly) underdeveloped character, so it was nice to see an episode about her.
I do agree with Bloo, that really episode 13 I feel was a far better episode in a story sense, with the introspective self-conflict. Though this episode was far more fun. (and I love both!! don’t hit me!)

the New OP I liked! I still like Go! Go! Maniac! better, though. It was high energy and definitely had the cute mastered, especially with Yui’s little hop around on stage. my one problem with it was that there was SO MUCH going on, and it jump cut so much, it was hard for me to take it all in. Though! I did like the change in the way they introduced the characters, it was like as if they themselves were making the OP.
Repetitive? Go! Go! Maniac!’s ‘Matrix Rotation’ repeated 3 times!

And the ED? Y’all already pretty much covered it. It was (though not much movement.) stunning, very cool and stylish. definitely my favorite so far.
The new OP and ED did make it feel (for me) more like the first season, sorta nostalgic. it was a nice feeling.

Overall, I still love K-On!!
stevedore
July 14th, 2010 - 15:57

K-On should have a better plot…I mean they could make it so HTT actually gets scouted by some person and then they actually become famous and thus a plot is emerged. Other than that the show doesn’t get any funnier or boring than what it is.