Review: K-ON!! 21

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Last week’s episode of K-ON!! had a rather solemn tone, making viewers teary-eyed as the HTT girls finished their final festival together. With this in mind, the next episode could have had any tone imaginable. It could have kept the serious, dramatic feel of the school festival, or shifted back to the lighthearted but ultimately pointless moe fluff that made this show so infamous.

Sad to say, they decided to go with the latter. It reminds me of a previous annoying filler episode a few weeks back. However, this episode was far more entertaining than that disaster, with the jokes being good and the interactions spot on. Of course, since I’m an evil hater critic who loathes all things good and pure, I still had some problems with it. My main complaint is that the episode doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the table… just more predictable moeblobbery that fails to surprise anyone. With only five episodes remaining, can they really afford to be wasting time with this kind of filler?

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Review: K-ON!! 17

Use the Force, Yui!

After last week’s slight disappointment, I was hoping that this week’s episode of K-ON!! would be an improvement. Thankfully, it did succeed to some extent, but there were some noticeable problems in it. This episode felt like a giant tease, making us think the girls would stop procrastinating and actually practice for once. How foolish of me to get my hopes up; they spend the whole episode goofing off yet again, not getting a damn thing accomplished. But despite that, I somehow still ended up not hating this. The inherent moeblob charm that kept me sane throughout the more aggravating scenes. It’s one of those,”not bad but not good either.” episodes, in my opinion.

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The Four Laws of Moe

Is this moe's true form?

This is a refined and expanded version of an editorial I originally wrote for Japanator. The original can be found here.

It seems one of the biggest problems in the ongoing moe debate is the lack of any concrete definition for the term “moe.” This has lead to all sorts of argument among otaku; some believe the term can be applied to any female character the viewer considers cute, while others argue it should be strictly limited to its original Japanese definition. Personally, I think the truth lies in between these two extremes. After all, language is defined by its usage, not by the opinions of a few crazed fanboys or some dusty old dictionary. Therefore, based on my own observations and research, I have created the Four Laws of Moe. I believe these laws lay out, in clear and concise detail, the exact parameters of moe and what traits a character must exhibit in order to be considered as such. Of course, these laws are merely a reflection of my own opinion; feel free to improve upon them, argue against them or even construct your own alternative theory. Whatever the case, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

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K-ON!! is coming!

HOORAY!
The second season of everybody’s favorite moeblob slice-of-life anime premiers this week.  Since about half of our staff loves K-ON!! and half utterly loath it, I’d say this is going to be an interesting spring season here on Project Haruhi. Personally, I’m looking forward to this show; the first season was a lighthearted and enjoyable (if shallow) offering, and there’s no reason to suspect the second season will be any different. How about you, dear readers? Are you excited… or are you planning on hiding in your moe-proof bunkers until this storm blows over?

Incidentally, if you’re so inclined, you can follow the REAL Ritsu on Twitter. She’ll be keeping us up-to-date on the latest K-ON!! news, merchandise and fanart… provided she remembers tweet regularly. I’ll remind Mio to crack the whip on poor Ricchan. Also, a more in-depth discussion of K-ON!! can be found on our forums.