Cirno is a Genius

Yesterday, I had one goal in mind: To see the new K-ON! movie. Unlike other anime films (Nanoha, Haruhi) it has pretty good distribution here in Japan and I had a theater that was a little over an hour drive from me. So I got up early and drove out….

Never underestimate the power of K-ON fans. This being the only theater within a hundred kilometers playing the movie here in Northern Japan, the fans were there in full force. I was hoping to go to the first showing at 8:30, but when I got there a little before 8:00, there were already over 100 people in line. I waited for oven an hour and got a pretty decent seat in what ended up being a sold out showing at 10:50.

I won’t give too many spoilers, but if you are a K-ON fan on any level you are going to enjoy and love this movie. My Japanese isn’t that great, but I knew exactly what was going on. To start off, the beginning is just…. epic beyond words. unless you catch one off part on Ritsu’s drum kit (the only hint I’ll give) I was completely fooled. Every part of the story is carried out in typical K-ON fashion, and the movie doesn’t seem long at any point. (even though it’s almost 2 hours)

As you probably already know, the girls go to England as their “Graduation Trip” or senior vacation of sorts. I predicted that there would be many incidents of hilarious English awaiting me, and I was not disappointed. The only two interesting things I’ll say without giving too much away is: Mugi’s English isn’t as good as we’re lead to believe in the series. (Her frustration at the speed of the locals speaking is beyond hilarious) And, interestingly, none of the English was subtitled in Japanese. I would say all of it was realistic and correct (With the exception of parts of a scene in a restaurant that I won’t give away) and it was interesting to see their reactions. Yui and Ritsu give the stereotypical “Yes! Hello!” response to everything. Azusa and Mio seem to be the ones that try to understand and speak anything. But overall there was very little English spoken in London. Oh well.

Also, London is nowhere near Scotland. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

The ending part was fantastic. Again, I’ll save the spoilers, but I really want the soundtrack just for that last song. It’s great. And as for the very very end of the movie, it’s one of those “It’s the ending but not really the end of the story” deals. Not sure how to interpret it yet.

Overall, it was a K-ON Quality A+. I plan to see it again if I have time and I’m near the theater  while it’s still playing. If you are in Japan, go see it! If not, it’s worth the wait!

Lastly, here is some of the promo stuff they gave me when I got my ticket:

It’s a stamp card (for each time you see the movie….) and a postcard with lyrics from a certain new song

If you get a chance to see it, let me know what you think!