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K-On! #1

K-ON!, Vol. 1

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When their high school's pop-music club is about to be disbanded due to lack of interest, four girls step up to fill the membership quota. Unfortunately, lead guitarist Yui Hirasawa has never played an instrument in her life. Ever. And although she likes the idea of being in a band, standing in front of the mirror posing with her guitar is a lot easier than actually playing it. It's gonna be a while before this motley crew is rocking out, but with their spunk and determination cranked to 11, anything is possible!

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2008

42 people are currently reading
1040 people want to read

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Kakifly

24 books49 followers

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5 stars
842 (40%)
4 stars
576 (27%)
3 stars
483 (23%)
2 stars
137 (6%)
1 star
60 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
Profile Image for Emi.acg.
668 reviews224 followers
November 11, 2022
Estuvo entretenido pero en ocasiones es un poquito disperso y pierde la magia al no poder escucharlas. Y se van para otros temas, Sawa es rarísima xd

Se trata de un grupo de chicas que se conocieron tras unirse al club de música moderna, necesitaban mínimo 4 miembros para que no lo disolvieran.
Más que ensayar van a comer pero de repente igual participan en los festivales.

Es para pasar el rato más que nada y para la categoría del pop 🤫🤣
Profile Image for Danielle.
124 reviews27 followers
September 2, 2013
So this is the first time I read manga in this format. I was sometimes tempted to go from the upper right corner to the left (but it goes right down then to the left). Once I got the chapter down I got used to reading in this format.

It's a cute simplistic series about girls wanting to keep the pop music club alive. I will have to see if the library has the second volume.

Also at the very end, they have a nice easy to read pages for how to read music and how to play some basic chords for the guitar.
Profile Image for Katie (Kitkatscanread).
795 reviews181 followers
December 29, 2017
This was a cute manga about 4 young girls who start a band.
There are funny moments throughout
I liked the story but did lose interest a couple of times.
I also wasn't too keen on how it was structured with comic boxes. Would have preferred if it was a little like other manga without the boxes.
Other than that was a good read.
Profile Image for Book Tea 🫖 with Jai .
655 reviews22 followers
April 17, 2012
I found my self interested in the beginning but as the book go on. It got dumb and very silly. It started to loose it's interest. But I hung in there till the very end. But in some aspects it could have and should have been better. Because the story it self. Had a good thing going. But just did t last long.
Profile Image for Charmaine (CharmySketches).
57 reviews22 followers
August 18, 2016
I really enjoy the anime but the K-on! Manga isn't as funny or sweet. Many of the character's personalities are very different than the anime, Mugi was the most egregious example of this. Lastly, the art was a bit lacking in my opinion. The anime has a distinctive style, yet the art style in the manga looks very generic. Not sure if I'll be collecting or reading the rest of this.
Profile Image for gabriella⋆.˚୨ৎ.
77 reviews
April 11, 2024
★★★★ ⁻ "ᵂᵉ ᶜᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵖᵃⁱⁿᵗ ˢᵘᶜʰ ᵃ ᵖʳᵉᵗᵗʸ ᵖⁱᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ."

★`

Mio is so me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for MC.
614 reviews68 followers
October 31, 2019
K-On is a funny and endearing manga by manga artist Kakifly (his pen name). It is part of the cutesy genre of slice-of-life school girl stories. Such stories are not necessarily geared towards girls. In fact, they often are not. Instead, they are usually geared towards adult men. This is partially due to wish fulfillment. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the Western world, so this type of story is popular among people who want kids but don't have them.

The story begins when two best friends, Mio and Ritsu, are looking at clubs to join. Among finding that the light music club is empty and in danger of being disbanded due to the members all graduating the year before, Ritsu gets and idea. You see, in Japan, school clubs are very important for socialization and for the student's resume towards college. Anyways, Ritsu sees a chance to become president of a club by joining and taken command of the light music club. Of course, she drags poor Mio into the mix with her. Mio is, of course, very reluctant to take part in this club, due to her crippling shyness. This only gets worse as time goes on because of some funny future occurrences.

Soon two new students, Yui and Tsumugi, decide to join the club as well. Tsumugi is a talented musician who wants to play with a group, while Yui... is Yui. She is a funny and slightly air-headed girl who has zero musical talent, yet somehow learns to play the guitar like a pro very quickly.

The above is just the set-up, though, for the main story. K-On is not about music, really. The musical goings-on happen, yes. But they are not the main plot. The main plot was the budding friendship of these girls as we follow them through high school. The four girls (with a fifth to come in, I think, the second volume) forge a solid and loving friendship that really gets the audience to care and want to root for them and read about their humorous lives.

The characters each have their own unique traits. We have the air-headed yet talented Yui, the beautiful and talented, yet shy Mio, the slightly lazy but full-of-life Ritsu, and the kind-hearted, strong (seriously, an ongoing gag in the manga is her strength at near super-power levels almost, especially for her size), and hilariously engaging in wildly inaccurate mental Yuri pairings among her friends, Tsumugi. Even if you don't agree with Yuri, it's not the main thrust, just a funny gag. Of course, this is also a problem in that it might be unfortunate implications that the only mentions of Yuri are a gag. In fairness, it's to be funny, and not either endorsing anything or being homophobic. It's just a funny joke. Sort of like what American Dad (in it's less severe moments) can be to conservatives.

All of these characters, and their friends and family that we meet, grab the audience by the heart-strings so you care about their mundane, but funny, school lives.

This was the first volume of a funny, endearing, and sweet manga series. I've read (I think) three of the six total volumes so far, and I love it. I can't recommend it Highly enough.
Profile Image for #ReadAllTheBooks.
1,219 reviews93 followers
April 26, 2013
I initially resisted the impulse to get this series because I just didn't understand its appeal. It's similar in tone and format to Lucky Star, so I was pretty surprised when I just sort of flipped through it and shrugged. Maybe it was just that it was too similar in tone that I just couldn't appreciate it initially?

In any case, I ended up giving this another try later on and I'm glad I did. It'll never be one of my absolute favorite series, but it's very cute and light- something I really need right now with finals approaching. The artwork is really the best part of the volume. The cuteness of the characters is what brought me back to this volume, as I keep looking at the cute covers whenever I go through the manga section.

The character personalities are the second thing that keeps me reading. It's pretty typical stuff and not really anything outside of the norm of the 4-koma format. If I can give it a very basic and rough comparison to Lucky Star, this is pretty much Lucky Star with guitars and music rather than otaku goods. They're not identical, but they're close enough that there will almost inevitably be comparison if you've read one or both of the series. Both series have some definite merits, though.

K-ON's drawback is that it's just a little too typical at times. It's cute and I know I'll collect the next few volumes, but it doesn't really stand out too much. This might be because I'm not really as into playing music?

I'd recommend this if you're a fan of Lucky Star, although I'd avoid reading them both back to back. There's only so much 4 koma people can handle at one time and the similarities might detract from one or both of the books.
Profile Image for Holly Letson.
3,847 reviews527 followers
January 6, 2016
I was really excited, when my father brought this home for me, almost 2 weeks ago. Since I had loved the *K-On!* and *K-On!!* anime(s) so much, I knew that loving the manga was a sure bet for me. And, sure enough, this recaptured all the fun of the series for me as I read it.

But, I did find that it took me a little time getting used to reading the story up-and-down, instead of from side-to-side. And, it also really bugged me that they called the club "The Pop Music Club" instead of "The Light Music Club". Once I got over those things, it was very enjoyable.
Profile Image for Selena Pigoni.
1,941 reviews263 followers
December 23, 2014
There are some things that just work better as an anime.

K-ON is one of them.

K-ON is a 4Koma comic (4 panels). It's a bunch of semi-related shorts about the adventures of the "pop music club." It's a goofy little moe manga, but the anime definitely worked better for me. As is usually the case for me, music-related stories and manga don't mix very well.
Profile Image for Martyna.
52 reviews2 followers
January 11, 2016
This manga was fun and the characters were cute; that's all it really had to offer. Just a very "meh" manga I may check out the anime but again, it's not necessary something I'm entirely compelled to do. I'll be reading the second volume just because I already own it but I probably won't be reading/looking for the third volume.
Profile Image for Liz.
119 reviews13 followers
September 22, 2015
I don't think I will read the following volumes. It was kind of cute though.
Profile Image for Ben Nealis.
591 reviews21 followers
October 9, 2024
Very middle of the road. No part was particularly boring or entertaining. I feel much like the teacher in that this is more a story of friends drinking tea than being about music.
Profile Image for Lora.
857 reviews25 followers
April 7, 2021
I've seen the whole anime series, so the characters and general storyline was familiar to me (starting the club, learning to play in a band, first concert, holidays). But this was my first brush with a 4-panel manga (ie a collection of comic strips, each made up of 4 drawings that together show a cute or funny interaction).

Each of the main characters had a few scenes that made me smile or laugh out loud. One difference between the anime and the manga is that the manga has more focus on Mugi fantasizing about other characters kissing.

One scene I did not like had the teacher looking at Mugi's physique in a mini-skirt (teachers being attracted to students is a trope in anime that I just don't get).

The edition I read (Yen Press 2010) included translator notes at the back of the book. Some were general notes, for example the use of honorifics like "sensei." Others were notes about specific panels, and unfortunately the panels themselves don't give you any clue that you should go to the back of the book and check the translator's notes. I didn't even realize there were any translator's notes until I finished the book.

It was interesting to learn that the characters' names are inspired by two Japanese groups: P-Model and The Pillows. It was also interesting to learn that the author plays left-handed guitar (like Mio). In fact, the very last pages of the book were even dedicated to a short musical lesson about time signatures, musical notes and guitar chords.
Profile Image for Nora.
18 reviews
March 3, 2024
5⭐️
Another great manga! The whole “band / mundane” theme really plays out in this book. Now I kinda want to play guitar… Anyway, some of the scenes were hilarious. And this book actually taught me about Japanese’s culture and traditions. I watched some of the anime on Netflix, but not that much, and the manga is a masterpiece!! ❤️❤️❤️
Profile Image for Kangel.
23 reviews
March 9, 2025
I didn't realize how much fan service was in k-on!! It's kinda strange but I've learned to tone it out. The rest of the story is really cute and fun! Usually, I don't like slice of life, but this one seems to be an exception. One thing I really don't like is how tsumugi is really only used as a plot device or fan service..... don't do my girl dirty like that....
Profile Image for Steven.
174 reviews4 followers
January 10, 2018
Such a cute little comedy manga. My first attempt at reading a yonkoma and it was a challenge getting my panel order right. I'm gonna be picking up more of this series because I wanna see more misadventures of these adorable girls.
Profile Image for JaiLo Babii.
5 reviews
February 5, 2018
I'm super fond of K-On!, having watched the anime like 5011 times already.

The art in this is a bit awkward to me and I cannot pinpoint why. Overall, a fun read. I'll be getting the rest in this series.
Profile Image for Eri Ackley.
6 reviews1 follower
April 28, 2022
My favorite

K•on! Has been my favorite anime since I first saw it in 2010. I have both the physical manga and the ebooks as well. Something about the characters and story is just so perfect to me. Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Efsane.
123 reviews
June 6, 2022
Şeker bir komedi okumak istiyorsanız tavsiye edebileceğim bir manga oldu kendisi. Asıl puanım 3.5 çünkü içine girmek zaman aldı tek oturuşta bitirmedim. Çerezlik kelimesinin tam anlamı bence bu manga. Devam edip bitireceğim kesinlikle (zaten aynı gün 2. cilde de başladım ve bitirdim.)
Profile Image for Adam.
95 reviews
December 3, 2017
Cute little slice of life story. Nothing much happens, but it's drawn well and it's entertaining.
Profile Image for Donniesands.
138 reviews3 followers
May 5, 2018
Very disappointing. Lots of nothing but gorgeous character design is a plus.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews

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