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K-ON!: The Complete Omnibus Edition
The original story of K-ON! in one complete omnibus!
Lead guitarist Yui Hirasawa has never played an instrument. Bassist Mio Akiyama hates attention. Drummer Ritsu Tainaka would rather goof around than practice. And pianist Tsumugi Kotobuki seems more interested in sharing snacks. Together, these four girls are (technically) the Pop Music Club! Sure, they’re in over their heads trying to form their own band, but this motley crew won’t let anything stop them from having a good time. Eating cake and rocking That’s what Afterschool Tea Time is all about!
Lead guitarist Yui Hirasawa has never played an instrument. Bassist Mio Akiyama hates attention. Drummer Ritsu Tainaka would rather goof around than practice. And pianist Tsumugi Kotobuki seems more interested in sharing snacks. Together, these four girls are (technically) the Pop Music Club! Sure, they’re in over their heads trying to form their own band, but this motley crew won’t let anything stop them from having a good time. Eating cake and rocking That’s what Afterschool Tea Time is all about!
- GenresMangaComics Manga
512 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
15 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
dnf
March 8, 2024DNFd at page 121
I don't dislike it, I'm just realizing it's reading like literary fiction to me, like things are happening but there's no point they're just happening, and usually I mind that waaaay less with manga, this one idk, usually I can get through manga pretty easy but I'm noticing every time I pick it up I only read a few pages, and even now I've been in a reading mood, and a manga mood, I read all the manga I had out from the library, and this is all that's left to read besides what's on my kindle and I'm just sitting here side eyeing it choosing to watch YouTube instead and thinking about the other books I've got out, which is usually a sign to DNF for me
I don't dislike it, I'm just realizing it's reading like literary fiction to me, like things are happening but there's no point they're just happening, and usually I mind that waaaay less with manga, this one idk, usually I can get through manga pretty easy but I'm noticing every time I pick it up I only read a few pages, and even now I've been in a reading mood, and a manga mood, I read all the manga I had out from the library, and this is all that's left to read besides what's on my kindle and I'm just sitting here side eyeing it choosing to watch YouTube instead and thinking about the other books I've got out, which is usually a sign to DNF for me
April 30, 2025
4.5/5
my fave anime, knocked half the star for sawa-chan's creepiness and didnt love the panel formatting (one of the reasons why it took me forever to read this)
my fave anime, knocked half the star for sawa-chan's creepiness and didnt love the panel formatting (one of the reasons why it took me forever to read this)
October 27, 2024
The single funniest manga I’ve ever read. It’s written in 4-koma format, yet manages to tell a real ongoing story with well-developed characters … AND manages to set up and land hilarious jokes with nearly every individual strip (sometimes more than one per strip!) One of my new favorites - I hope the spinoff manga series get more printings!
August 29, 2025
'K-ON!' is a comedic slice-of-life manga drawn in the Yonkoma (four cell, comic-strip) style. It's about 4 high school girls joining forces to create a light-music club. Despite being in a "music club", the girls barely play music, Yui, the lead guitarist often forgets how to play the guitar and most of the time, the girls lounge around eating sweets and drinking tea.
While it might not sound impressive in writing, 'K-ON!' is considered the originator of the "cute girls doing cute things" genre. It's wholesome, optimistic and full of slap-stick humor. 'K-ON!' doesn't have a good story or well developed character arcs, but it is a pleasant read that will leave a dumb goofy grin on your face.
While it is great that the Omnibus Edition includes the whole 4 book series, it's heavy and uncomfortable to read unless you are a desk or lap reader.
'K-ON!' has some questionable humor. I found the behavior of the girls' club manager Sawako particularly disturbing. She frequently asks the girls to dress up in revealing clothing and in one scene couldn't tell the difference between the two members Mio and Azusa, so she grabs one girl by the breasts due to their difference in bust size. This kind of humor is probably acceptable to Japanese netizens, but I found it pandering to the male-gaze at best and creepy at worst.
Despite only having 5 main characters, Tsumugi, the pianist is barely developed. She is only introduced to a scene to be played for laughs and to be the girls' infinite money hack (it's implied she is an heiress to a wealthy family). Tsumugi acts like an alien or robot, inhabiting the body of a human with an uncanny valley-like behavior and conveniently disappears when she is no longer needed.
The manga also has a faithful anime adaptation which fixes a lot of the odd humor quirks I had issues with and does a better job at telling a complete story. And it also helps that due to the nature of the medium, the anime has music and singing which can't be matched by the manga.
---
If you have watched the 'K-ON!' anime, you're not missing much skipping this manga. The manga has more sexually explicit scenes, fan service moments and does a better job at portraying the cast's internal thoughts.
If you have not watched the 'K-ON!' anime, I heavily recommend it, as it is superior in almost every way compared to the manga.
While it might not sound impressive in writing, 'K-ON!' is considered the originator of the "cute girls doing cute things" genre. It's wholesome, optimistic and full of slap-stick humor. 'K-ON!' doesn't have a good story or well developed character arcs, but it is a pleasant read that will leave a dumb goofy grin on your face.
While it is great that the Omnibus Edition includes the whole 4 book series, it's heavy and uncomfortable to read unless you are a desk or lap reader.
'K-ON!' has some questionable humor. I found the behavior of the girls' club manager Sawako particularly disturbing. She frequently asks the girls to dress up in revealing clothing and in one scene couldn't tell the difference between the two members Mio and Azusa, so she grabs one girl by the breasts due to their difference in bust size. This kind of humor is probably acceptable to Japanese netizens, but I found it pandering to the male-gaze at best and creepy at worst.
Despite only having 5 main characters, Tsumugi, the pianist is barely developed. She is only introduced to a scene to be played for laughs and to be the girls' infinite money hack (it's implied she is an heiress to a wealthy family). Tsumugi acts like an alien or robot, inhabiting the body of a human with an uncanny valley-like behavior and conveniently disappears when she is no longer needed.
The manga also has a faithful anime adaptation which fixes a lot of the odd humor quirks I had issues with and does a better job at telling a complete story. And it also helps that due to the nature of the medium, the anime has music and singing which can't be matched by the manga.
---
If you have watched the 'K-ON!' anime, you're not missing much skipping this manga. The manga has more sexually explicit scenes, fan service moments and does a better job at portraying the cast's internal thoughts.
If you have not watched the 'K-ON!' anime, I heavily recommend it, as it is superior in almost every way compared to the manga.
August 5, 2024
K-On! really is Best Girl ✨
This collection is cuter than cute and very easy to read. The artwork took just a moment to get used to, because the character designs are similar but not the same as the anime adaptation, but it improves over the series and is so delightfully expressive.
I was unaware of this series' yonkoma structure, and expected the girl's adventures to be told in a more traditional 'chapter by chapter' narrative. But again, as with the art, I quickly got into the situation-setup-punchline cadence and the larger stories rose to the surface without feeling too stop and start based on the format.
Regarding the translation, it's well done but I think it applied just a touch too much 'westernizing' for the ease of the readers. I appreciate the intention, and the glossary of japanese terms and customs in the back is very helpful, but everyone, in every language, knows her name is Azu-nyan, never Azu-meow.
Anyways, it's exactly what you expect, the perfect moe slice of life series.
This collection is cuter than cute and very easy to read. The artwork took just a moment to get used to, because the character designs are similar but not the same as the anime adaptation, but it improves over the series and is so delightfully expressive.
I was unaware of this series' yonkoma structure, and expected the girl's adventures to be told in a more traditional 'chapter by chapter' narrative. But again, as with the art, I quickly got into the situation-setup-punchline cadence and the larger stories rose to the surface without feeling too stop and start based on the format.
Regarding the translation, it's well done but I think it applied just a touch too much 'westernizing' for the ease of the readers. I appreciate the intention, and the glossary of japanese terms and customs in the back is very helpful, but everyone, in every language, knows her name is Azu-nyan, never Azu-meow.
Anyways, it's exactly what you expect, the perfect moe slice of life series.
September 18, 2025
This was such a fun and cute read!! I ended up loving all of the characters.. I have faith the anime is going to be 5stars, but the manga was really cute and really helped me to disconnect from the real world for a little bit. I wish I could've had such great friends during high-school, so it was really sad but comforting. Initially I thought it would be one story, but it's more like a collection of short stories during the three last years of high-school of the characters. Really wholesome, made me laugh, had tea time scenes, beach "episode", cute moments amongst the characters, and it's really obvious sometimes they liked each other as more than friends!! Just awesome.
July 21, 2023
Tatlı, çerezlik, kendinizi sırıtarak bulacağınız bir komedi. Bende yeri ayrıdır. Animesini daha çok beğenmiştim ama tek oturuşta bitiriliyor. Ki ben odaklanma sorunu yaşayan biriyim. Bir puanı reşit olmayan kızların gereksiz frikik çizimlerinden kırdım :')
September 19, 2024
Hace once años me vi el Anime y qué bello ha sido reencontrarme con esta historia a través del manga, pudiendo conectar con la esencia de las protagonistas del club de música moderna que con sus personalidades dispares crean un aura y música única que llega a los corazones.
June 7, 2024
Watched the anime with my daughter a few years back and we loved it. Fun reading through the source manga - great collection and I'm interested in reading the newer K-ON! Shuffle book.
September 20, 2024
ME ENCANTÓ!!!!!
Bueno, la verdad es que este anime tiene mucho valor sentimental para mi, lo vi cuando estaba en el secundario y empecé a tocar la batería para hacer una banda con mis amigas, tal cual como pasa acá. A pesar de que no duramos mucho juntas (2 o 3 años), yo seguí tocando la batería durante mucho tiempo, más de 10 (cosa que me sorprende). Me flashea mucho pensar que ahora incluso estoy aprendiendo piano también! Por eso, siento que la música es parte importe de mi vida y es gracias a este manga/anime <3<3
Me llegó bastante y lo disfruté a más no poder. Me hizo reír, me hizo llorar un poquito y me hizo pasar buenos momentos. Siento que todos los personajes son lindos y se diferencian muy bien entre ellos. A pesar de ser un slice of life, creo que era muy chuni y yo disfruto bastante de este tipo de series que son para relajar un toque. Amé!!
Ahora me dieron ganas de ver el anime! Estoy contenta de haberlo comprado, porque voy a poder visitarlo cada vez que quiera jejejejje Muy recomendable! Las amé a todas y me fascinó!!
Mis chiquitas TwT:
Bueno, la verdad es que este anime tiene mucho valor sentimental para mi, lo vi cuando estaba en el secundario y empecé a tocar la batería para hacer una banda con mis amigas, tal cual como pasa acá. A pesar de que no duramos mucho juntas (2 o 3 años), yo seguí tocando la batería durante mucho tiempo, más de 10 (cosa que me sorprende). Me flashea mucho pensar que ahora incluso estoy aprendiendo piano también! Por eso, siento que la música es parte importe de mi vida y es gracias a este manga/anime <3<3
Me llegó bastante y lo disfruté a más no poder. Me hizo reír, me hizo llorar un poquito y me hizo pasar buenos momentos. Siento que todos los personajes son lindos y se diferencian muy bien entre ellos. A pesar de ser un slice of life, creo que era muy chuni y yo disfruto bastante de este tipo de series que son para relajar un toque. Amé!!
Ahora me dieron ganas de ver el anime! Estoy contenta de haberlo comprado, porque voy a poder visitarlo cada vez que quiera jejejejje Muy recomendable! Las amé a todas y me fascinó!!
Mis chiquitas TwT:
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews