Asahi: “K-ON! Has No Story, So There’s No Growth”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Oct 22, 2010 07:52 JST
- Tags: Asahi, K-ON!, Kyoto Animation, Mass Media, Moe, Music, Otaku, Production Controversy
A less than favourable review of K-ON!! published in an Asahi newspaper column, panning the anime and its fans for having no interest in story development, is proving somewhat incendiary online.
An abridged translation of their review:
Unlike a music manga like BECK, which offers plenty of uplifting action, what K-ON! deals with is tea parties, cake appreciation and tests, in a laid back slice-of-life way.
There’s no story development or outcome with a classic moe manga like this – so there’s no story.
For otaku it seems character is more important than story, so fragmentary episodes like these are preferred.
As there’s no story, there’s no growth.
There are no male characters either – so there’s no change there either.
A utopia without any outcome or growth might well be just what blog and Twitter stir-loving modern fan tastes are after.
The reviewer would appear to fall firmly into the “Type A” otaku mould.
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People stating that the Slice of Life genre never has plot or character development clearly have never seen Welcome to the N.H.K. or BECK(A music anime done right).
Azumanga Dioh is less offensive because its just a skit show, and actually has humor. Its not wasting your time with full episodes, its just a five or so minute skit and into the next one.
K-On initially sets up to have a similar plot as BECK, a person being introduced to the world of music, but once that happens nothing else is really accomplished. It just meanders about with ZOMG teh cute girls.
Not only that, there is absolutely no point to them actually learning music. With a show like BECK, music is absolutely integral to the plot. With K-On however, you could literally switch them playing music with something like them learning musical dance routines and the effect it has to the plot would be so negligible as to not exist. Its clear K-On is simply latching on the idea of musicians like a parasite, draining whatever it can so it can have musical numbers like a certain other anime by KyoAni I'm not terribly fond of.
K-On is shallow and you are shallow for liking it. K-On sucks and you suck for liking it.
Opinion man....live with it.
if you can't,then you're a little,little man..
"k-on sucks and you suck for liking it"
Same could be said about you for not liking it...get that straight.
You've voiced your opinion,as did everyone,but no matter if you like it or not,fact are that no one care enough to alter their taste.
You,as everyone here is,are no reference for the world to follow,you can say whatever you want,no one is going to take you as a model.
You say this suck,but seeing how arrogant you are by claiming that people suck for their preference,you might as well tell them to watch it for better effect,cause there are people like me who could easily start to fanboys over shit like this just to piss off guys like you who cannot get that people are different than their little person with their narrow view of the world.
Now allow me one last sentence:Beck sucks and you suck for liking it.
Nice isn't it? I LOVE voicing my opinion!
If its just my opinion in regards to the show and the people who watch it, what are you arguing and trying to refute it? That implies
There is objectivity in everything, even entertainment. Just because everyone has their individual biases and preferences does not free excuse K-ON from criticism.
I can look at something like BECK and objectively admit that it is slow, often times painfully slow, paced and the lead is a huge wimp at the start of the series. I can except that the show has problems and things that will turn people of it.
You and every other K-ON fan get upset and defensive if someone so raises any complaint against the show. You hide behind the delusion of "Well thats you opinion" and blatant lies like "Slice of life has no plot. Thats the name of the game for the genre". You throw ad hominems like "People hate anything thats popular!" to defuse the argument.
I also have noted that you've done nothing to refute my criticisms of K-ON. I assume that has something to do with them being inarguable and true.
There is literally nothing to K-ON. There is no redeeming value.
1. Production values do not a good show make. They're the frosting. Good art, visual direction, and animation are always nice and K-ON's is certainly something, but they don't make a show worth while. At the same time, I never criticized K-ON's production values. I never mentioned them actually because in the end they are as meaningless as K-ON is.
2. Moe is almost always narratively bankrupt. Thats not an insult, that is a fact.
3. How am I a fan boy? That doesn't make any sense at all. A fan boy is someone with a passion and love of a piece of entertainment to the point of losing reason. Besides, if I don't care for it, what do you expect me to do aside from down rating it?
Finally, you're wrong. Its BOTH the story and how you convey it. One without the other is meaningless.
That's fully your personal opinion, you realize? What type of anime qualifies as "good" and "bad" depends on what one rates more highly.
It's generally the difference between critics of movies in the newspapers and the guy reading the critics' comments.
"Moe is almost always narratively bankrupt"
That's an opinion, not a fact. Facts are supported by actual, indisputable evidence. You don't have any of that because everyone here could argue with you about it. For instance:
"I never mentioned them actually because in the end they are as meaningless as K-ON is."
Obviously, you don't value production values highly. There are people that do.
That's what makes this an opinion, just as much as other people have an opinion of the show being good.
"How am I a fan boy? That doesn't make any sense at all."
I believe the person was probably attempting to make you look like the stereotypical "Haters gonna hate stereotype." (No, that wasn't me responding to you the last few time).
You have your own opinion of the show, but it's just that: an opinion. If you're trying to treat it as an objective fact when not everyone agrees with you, then you're not a "fanboy". You're a guy with some kind of god complex regarding your opinions. It only makes you look worse, so I don't suggest you do it.
If you treat it as an objective fact when you spew something that's obviously an opinion, that's not really going together well.
If you'd like, I can pick apart your original post for opinions, too.
Oh wow, you want to start objectivity?
Then you should know that K-on!! is a very great show. If you aren't as retarded as most of the people, you can see that it's very well-directed, and not as painful as Beck. The graphics are good, the animation is good, the timing / editing is smooth.
But do the bunch of fucktards care? No. They don't know shit about movies / directing, but they THINK they do, just because it's so easy to think that every moe anime is bad.
Grow up and learn to rate shows. A story without a plot is still a story. It's all about the way you convey it. And K-on didn't bore me even one second. And even if it did, I wouldn't be as fanboyish as you guys to rate it down just because YOU dislike it.
At least someone can see the truth. Such a shitty anime.
It's slice of life. Those tend to not have much of a story or development. It's still nice to watch, though.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō and Aria are slice of life, they has story and character development.
So your point is naive and stupidly superficial.
I did actually upvote him, because I love both titles he mentioned.
What? The fellow anon in 09:25 says a mouthful of truth and you downvote him?
Gawd, how awful are the moeblobtards
I wrote "tend to", not always. I prefer anime with story myself, you know.
Motherfucking small print gets you everytime
Bullshit, I call it.
Antique Bakery is a slice-of-life and yet it has story and development. So your point is totally invalid.
dunno why,basically...
from starting of K-ON
i can only see the main character(forgot already) get into the band,learning musical instruments and having a performance...
even now they will go the U
my mind still saying... : (main character(forgot already) get into the band,learning musical instruments and having a performance...) 99x
goddamnit >,<
Never thought someone would mention that series here.
I actually miss it and its wholehearted goodness
So does the aforementioned BECK. But all the same, people need to get over K-On! Who cares if there's no story? If you need it, go watch something else. Like the review said; blog and Twitter stir-loving modern fan tastes. If that doesn't apply to you, oh well. K-On! isn't good but it's not terrible. It's just different... in a slow, storyless kind of way. And that wasn't even the case in the first few episodes.
(Personally I can't stand to watch it anymore, but it's pretty hard for me to stop watching something after starting.)
Your point is the one that's totally invalid since you obviously can't even read.
I enjoyed it, but i also can't argue against anything the article said either. Hidimari sketch is the same but i loved that show.
You know he actually said "tend to", right?
/\ This. Lucky Star & Azumanga had FAR, FAR more development than this, and those two were almost purely comedy slice of life.
people call it slice of life, but it wouldn't be so popular if weren't the moe.
Okay, let's call it "slice of moe" instead *facepalm*
Aria and Yokohama KK have story though....
Schrobby
really? Genshiken is a slice-of-life and it have a great development...
I like slice of life shows. Azumanga was about nothing but cute girls in school life, but had funny jokes woven through... well, they made it, really. Lucky Star was sort of the offspring of Azumanga and Genshiken. Awesome, but not about anything still. I'm planning to start reading Nichijou - it looks along those lines - well, the art looks like Yotsuba&.
I tried to watch K-on, but all I saw was moe niche pandering with no skeleton to hold it up. I'll give it big points for not having a character who's a full-time maid, but that's about all the kindness I have for it. My brain complained violently in ways unheard since Bleach ep 1... (so cliche I couldn't help but predict it down to the last line of dialog.)
Manga about nothing is about characters, but I guess the K-on girls just felt totally soulless to me.
I like K-on because of its slice of life style. At the same time, I would have LOVED it if it was more serious like BECK, with actual playing of instruments.
I like this review simply because it's blunt but accurate. While I'll watch shitty anime such as K-ON if I'm bored, I always prefer watching an anime with depth which moe-blob garbage can't provide.
Ah, and btw, good job to the staff posting such news, it's a good way to keep the users active ;)
I like slice of life anime like aria and lucky star.
aria did have a plot and the characters did progress (albeit very slowly). K-On! started with (loose cannon) girl joining club, girl turns out to be prodigy, girl make declaration about playing Buddakan (sp?) by graduation. Gradually that falls apart, though the club/band is awesome for having practiced so little. And by season two there is no pretense of that initial plot line ever taking place. So even though I did/do like K-On! and !!; I'm dissapointed that nothing happened beyond the original 4 girls graduating.
If characters are adorable and make you care about them, you'd enjoy whatever they're doing, so I guess it works.^_^
And no male character present also lets fans dream about their favorite girls without ANY worry for competition, too!:)
I really don't see how this could be inducing rage except in the sense of denial. K-On _doesn't_ have a story. It's a 4koma and basically just shows random semi-amusing/cute things that happen. It doesn't try and move beyond the limits of its medium and it barely even tries to meet any kind of bar on character stereotypes (Energetic One, Lazy One, Competent Younger Sister, Quiet Shy One, the Princess. Yup, all there.)
If you like it? That's fine. I like things that aren't masterpiece works of classical artistry, too. But don't pretend it's anything other than what it is: pandering to otaku culture.
"A utopia without any outcome or growth might well be just what blog and Twitter stir-loving modern fan tastes are after."
Thank you Thank you, finally someone who understands that the world today has become a place for instant oat meal gratification.
No backbone and no depth, just straight up fan service.
There's room in the world for both.
still looking for the fan service here tho..
the article is right ( in my opinion )
Why would it need a story in the first place? MOE is enough!
I smell jealousy and absence of understanding there...
You are the kind of lust driven scum in this earth who is killing the anime industry by buying their lazy ass work.
Moe is not the end all be all of anime, you are the reason why shit manga like Lotte no Omocha gets an anime.
Moe may be sufficient, but having a story just makes it better.
Mmmmmm... Ui becomes yandere and kills Azu-nyan, then alien spaceships come to the earth and the professor recruits Yui and Ritsu to pilot the uper duper Mecha Gundam with sword to defeat them but Mio has become Emo and wants to suicide and have a trip to the spiritual world where she become the magician warrior of the legend but wait, plot twist, its a trap and they want to sacrifice her to the Old Gods. And then Jun and Nodoka joins forces with a Waki Miko to defeat them and save Mio who, PLOT TWIST, has become evil. And they all destroy the world in the fight. And in the real world Ui has killed them all. They are all dead JIM!!!!
Awesome!!
Aww anon....dude... spoilers, man!
Music doesn't turn out to be the ultimate weapon like in Macross, Black Heaven, RahXephon, etc!? What a twist!
Its pretty true, I watched K-ON! because it had a plot at first, girl gets recruited to a music club and form a band, but she was a novice and had to learn along the way. I loved it so much I took up guitar lessons because of K-ON! Yes thats right. Then over time the story took a backseat for more moe blob randomness, with nothing barely happening. And for a guy who loved K-ON!, I could get past Episode 2 of K-ON!! (Second Season). Shows how much it has fallen to appease the Moeblob fans.
could not*
I'm so happy they mentioned Beck 1000 times better then this moe garbage, any of you so called "Anime fans" on this site should go watch that.
it reminds me Lucky Star... but LS ws much better..
That, I agree wholeheartedly.
I don't know if Lucky star is that much better... I mean, it did have references to other anime, which was funny. But in terms of references, I would think Pani Poni Dash had more (and to be put blunt, I like Pani Poni more than Lucky Star, as a whole)
It's jerk-off material for budding pedophiles. The wanker makes his own story.
Why's everyone gotta pick on K-ON? It's enjoyable, so just watch it.
Why's everyone gotta pick on K-ON?
-------
Because people with empty life's need something bitch about!!
Because criticism is a way of showing that people care about what is showing and what the masses are watching on T.V idiot. We do not get Pan's Labyrinth or Scott Pilgrim if people do not bitch about how boring movies are in the 60's.
Next time we will have an anime about janitor girls doing cute janitorial things. As long as it is moe it will sell.
FUCK THAT and FUCK YOU!!