Manga Thoughts: K-ON! College
Aug. 11th, 2013 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI suppose one sign I was liking K-ON!! was that in the last few episodes there did seem some amount of "it'll be sad to say goodbye" mixed in with the usual anticipation of what anime series to start watching next. I even went so far as to seek some reassurance in the thought there was still a movie to watch. So far as the larger franchise went, though, there was also the thought I already had a new volume of the manga, one started after the four-volume series had wrapped up with the four main characters graduating from high school to all go to the same college. At the same time, though, I did remember noticing comments that this attempt to pick up something concluded hadn't seemed to have been a real success over in Japan, as opposed to Genshiken, say (the "second series" of which is airing as an anime series as I write.) A volume of manga isn't a major time investment for me, though, so after taking note of how it had been licensed for release over here I went ahead and bought it.
As the humour in K-ON! seemed pretty much a matter of the characters being specific types, there might not be much room for character development even with them at college. However, a thought I've sometimes used to shrug off the broader sort of "anime characters," that they're "not real people," might not have occurred to me this time around: I can remember wondering just how the compleat airhead Yui would function without her responsible younger sister Ui helping her out. She did seem to wind up relying on her friends and her new acquaintances. There was at least one bit added to her character, though, when she went back home (to find her room being used for storage) and saw her mother. "Parents" had been pretty much absent from the anime before; I'd even wondered if one family picture suggested she and Ui only had a father (who would, of course, always be away on work).
With no anime to compare against, the manga did seem to be lacking something, just as I'd wondered a bit when reading the first volume a while ago. There does happen to be one more volume of additional manga yet to be released, though, this one getting that much more fractionated by featuring the youngest member of the band Azusa and her two friends. Whether this will mean "supporting character types" only, I don't know yet.
As the humour in K-ON! seemed pretty much a matter of the characters being specific types, there might not be much room for character development even with them at college. However, a thought I've sometimes used to shrug off the broader sort of "anime characters," that they're "not real people," might not have occurred to me this time around: I can remember wondering just how the compleat airhead Yui would function without her responsible younger sister Ui helping her out. She did seem to wind up relying on her friends and her new acquaintances. There was at least one bit added to her character, though, when she went back home (to find her room being used for storage) and saw her mother. "Parents" had been pretty much absent from the anime before; I'd even wondered if one family picture suggested she and Ui only had a father (who would, of course, always be away on work).
With no anime to compare against, the manga did seem to be lacking something, just as I'd wondered a bit when reading the first volume a while ago. There does happen to be one more volume of additional manga yet to be released, though, this one getting that much more fractionated by featuring the youngest member of the band Azusa and her two friends. Whether this will mean "supporting character types" only, I don't know yet.