K-on! the original television series saw high school girl Yui Hirasawa (voiced by Aki Toyosaki) fake guitar skills in order to bluff her way into the music club. Some years later, K-on! The Movie finds Yui now an accomplished musician and her band, After School Tea-Time, including drummer Ritsu (Satomi Sato), bassist Mio (Yoko Hikasa) and keyboard player Tsumugi (Minako Kotobuki) on the verge of greatness. With graduation only weeks away, the girls are wracked with guilt at the thought of saying goodbye to junior classmate and lead guitarist Azusa (Ayana Taketatsu). The girls decide to take a pre-graduation trip together in the hope the experience will inspire the perfect gift for them to give Azusa. Although Yui favours Europe, the others decide on London which loveably dim Yui has no idea is in England let alone Europe. So it's off to London where mild mischief and merriment ensues.
Slice-of-life dramas in anime may draw fewer fans in the west but are hugely popular in Japan with choice examples like Rumiko Takahashi's involving rom-rom Maison Ikkoku (1986), off-the-wall comedy Kodomo no Omocha (1996) and genteel schoolgirl drama Azumanga Daioh (2002) among the most accomplished. Adapted from the four-panel manga written and drawn by pseudonymous artist Kakifly, K-on! a deceptively unassuming story about a struggling schoolgirl rock band, proved a smash hit selling more DVDs than any other anime in recent years. Thus spawning this feature film which is more an epilogue to a story already dealt with in the TV series which is a common occurrence in films spun off from anime shows. Amusingly, the film unconsciously follows a tradition in British television-to-big screen transfers by packing the cast off on holiday abroad, in this instance Swinging London. However, it manages to avoid the usual twee clichés and deliver a largely accurate, modern presentation of the city even though every English person on view is polite and helpful to a fault.
The girls do behave like stereotypical Japanese tourists to a degree, going ga-ga over everything they see appearing especially bemused over British sushi bars and doggy waste bins. For British viewers it is kind of a kick to see the likes of Camden Town, Borough Market and Brick Lane featured in an anime alongside the usual suspects like Big Ben and the London Eye. After the London adventure it is back to Japan where the girls plan to perform for their friends on the last day of school. Meanwhile, kindly if unconventional teacher Miss Sawako (Asami Sanada), a former proud punk rocker herself, endeavours to make sure one of the older, grumpier teachers does not spoil the fun.
To be perfectly honest not a whole lot happens in this story and yet it charms all the same. Its sole dramatic arc centres around the girls attempting to compose the perfect song to tell Azusa how much she means to them. Meanwhile Azusa herself frets that the others are planning to flunk high school on purpose so they can stay together. In the midst of all the froth and fun scripter Reiko Yoshida weaves some genuinely heartwarming homilies about friendship and universal teenage anxieties over the uncertain future. Happily on the basis of the post-credits music video - wherein Azusa takes lead vocals for a change - it appears After School Tea-Time have grand times ahead. Speaking of which, the music itself is actually kind of kick-ass. Alongside the expected sugary sweet sing-a-long J-pop the schoolgirls perform a fair few energetic punk rock numbers that sound pretty good. Of course not many punk rockers unwind after a gig with tea and cake but that is part of the K-on! girl's appeal.
Yukiko Horiguchi's chara designs are undeniably cute while the well observed character animation really physicalizes the girls' individual personalities and makes them all the more funny and engaging. Great performances from the voice artists also contribute to the film's appeal with Aki Toyosaki's increasingly manic reactions going a long way towards selling the gags.
