ROG Manga Review – Final Volume of K-ON! by Kakifly

The senior members of the Pop Music Club inch forward through their final high school year. The girls study for exams and goof off — but will they actually play any music?!

As usual there is next to no time for music, although now that’s more because they’re supposed to be studying for college than because their sitting around drinking tea (though there is, of course, plenty of that). Kakifly recycles a lot of the same old jokes for this volume: studying for tests proves that Ritsu is lazy and that Yui can’t focus, and casting Mio as Romeo in the class play opens the gate for more “Mio is so shy!” jokes. Mugi is still the most awkward character; it makes sense since one of her traits is an inability to fit in, but her constant desire to get punched like Ritsu can get grating. And there are the usual jokes that just can’t translate from Japanese, like Yui and Ritsu’s song titles and the lyrics to “Rice is the Dish” (you can figure it out from reading the liner notes, but once you explain it, it’s not funny). The manga has its moments, like the lengths Ritsu goes to make Mio tutor her (she climbs through a second story window), or Mio’s panicky behavior when she thinks Ritsu has a boyfriend. But as usual, while K-ON! may make you crack a smile, you’ll be hard pressed to really even chuckle at anything.

Azusa continues to be one of the more likable characters in the manga as she very realistically deals with the stress and sadness of her friends moving on. She worries that they’ve forgotten about the club in favor of doing the school play, and that now that they’re seniors that they’ll quit altogether. Azusa gives a long list of complaints about Yui and the others (particularly Yui), but in the end she has the most emotional reaction: “I promise, I won’t get mad anymore, just…just please don’t graduate…” But then her friends play a farewell song, and she becomes determined: “I’m gonna make the new Pop Music Club so much better than this one–!”

Even with the slight emotional upswing in at the end, K-ON! is still a shallow, goofy story that struggles to hold your attention for more than the length of one chapter. But, that’s not much more than what you can expect from a manga that’s more about hanging out than playing music. Still, for what it is, K-ON! is a fun time – a sweet manga to pick at that won’t make you feel too guilty for whiling your time away with it.

ISBN: 9780316188357 • MSRP: $11.99 • Yen Press • Released December 13, 2011

Review copy provided by the publisher.