girl cartoons

My unwarranted optimism for K-ON!! seems to, as of episode 3, be paying off. The hinting at more serious development of the maturity angle wasn’t just a fluke, and they’re actually managing it well this time.

Episode 2 was reasonably explicit in its reference to Azusa’s growing estrangement from the others, shown in the straightfaced moment where Azusa noticed the freshmen getting used to their new clubs and in gags such as the “new member” at the end - KyoAni are doing an admirable job of weaving a tempered discussion of the effects of growing up into the apparently-vapid “moeblob” show its viewers and critics expect.

Episode 3 expanded upon this in a new direction I certainly didn’t expect, though - the other members seem to feel anxious as well. On one level Ritsu’s crisis with drumming is a(n effective) vehicle for 22 minutes of fresh gags, but it indicates so many other things. It shows character consistency, something which I argued in my last K-ON! post had been in decline in the OVA and the new season’s first episode. This might not be particularly of note in works of fiction in general, but for a show which regularly receives the sort of flak that K-ON! does, I think it bears notice. Anxiety about not “shining” and the absurd ways she decides to try and remedy the problem exhibit minute details of Ritsu’s personality established over the course of the whole series so far.

The questions of maturity the show has been raising with Azusa will most likely be directed at the other girls as well - after all, Azusa won’t be the only one affected by the girls’ graduation, and the others all have their own personalities and hang-ups that this impending split seem to be stressing. Ritsu has her own image problems to address, which I definitely think run deeper than episode 3’s half-hour reconciliation addressed.

This theme of maturity hearkens back to the first season’s twelfth episode, in which Yui reflected on how she had grown over the past two years, and at least become more determined if not much more competent. I’d predict more from season two developing her and Ritsu’s characters, and Mio’s monologue in episode 3 ideally implies that her character might be dropping the moeblob ball for a moment or two in the near future. KyoAni definitely seem prepared to really speak to the themes they’ve set up.