Who wants a sticker?

I’ve been quite enthusiastic about K-ON!! lately. Every episode since 13 has been good, and I was especially hyped after last week’s enjoyable offering. Sadly, this week I was in for a disappointment. While the latest episode wasn’t necessarily bad, I didn’t enjoy it all that much. Sure, it had some really cute moments in it, but I feel that the plot was far too repetitive. It relied all too much on the cuteness, eschewing any meaningful plot or character development.  The end result was an episode that was a bit disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t exactly bad… but it wasn’t very good either.

Read more after the jump.

This won't end well.

This episode’s plot mainly consists of Azusa repeatedly heading to the music room, where she encounters various other HTT members and tries to convince them to get serious and start practicing. First we see her find Mugi, who has fallen asleep behind the piano, and the two actually interact for once. This was definitely a rare sight, since these two have barely even acknowledged one another up until this point. Next Azusa finds Mio changing her guitar strings. These two girls then head over to Ritsu’s home to eat. Finally, she encounters Yui, and helps her then clean out their turtle’s aquarium. And with that, the episode ends. Not all that much in the way of plot, eh?

CUTENESS... OVERLOAD...

The episode was iffy. It wasn’t at all bad, but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping. My main problem was with how repetitive it is. It focuses mainly on Azusa’s interaction with the other girls. She walks to the clubroom, determined to try and make the girls practice, then meets somebody and gets sidetracked. Rinse and repeat. They tried to break up the monotony by having Azusa visit Ritsu at home instead of the music room, but the difference was superficial. It would have been nice to see a bit more interaction between the girls, although it wasn’t all bad. Seeing Mugi and Azusa together was enjoyable, since the two rarely speak at all. Similarly, the scenes with Ritsu were pretty funny. However, I had problems with the other two. Mio and Azusa barely speak to each other at all; instead we just watch Mio change her guitar strings. As for Yui and Azusa, they do nothing but clean out the aquarium. Couldn’t they have added some dialogue to these scenes?

Are you happy yet, Azusa? Are you satisfied?!

But of course, this episode was still very entertaining. The jokes were hilarious, and they got the cute parts nailed. While I have some gripes with some of the more repetitive scenes, the episode as a whole still holds up pretty well. I liked seeing Azusa in the spotlight again, since we get to see her interact with the other major characters this time around. It feels a lot more enjoyable than just ogling her in a swimsuit.

Although this was a good episode, I think it could’ve been better. The repetition in the plot was the main flaw, and dragged the whole thing down. But, as usual, it was enjoyable to watch and won’t leave you disappointed in the end. K-ON!! has been doing well these past few weeks, so lets hope that they can manage to keep this pace up for the future.