Okay so this week for High Score I’m going to cheat a little bit. K-On!, for those poor folk among you who aren’t aware, is an anime about a high school rock band named Houkago Tea Time. It has a pretty typical anime score; there are some lovely melancholic numbers and some annoyingly chirpy background fillers, but nothing particularly note-worthy. “Why then”, I hear you ask, “would you devote your weekly column to it?”. Well, you’ll hear me reply, like I said I’m kind of cheating this week. K-On! might not have a particularly great score, but Houkago Tea Time might just be the best fictional all-girl rock band of all time and their songs, some of which are played live throughout the series and/or film, some of which are used as opening and ending sequences, are perfect examples of j-rock at its absolute finest.
K-On! was such a huge hit upon its release that many of their songs, and their mini albums, actually charted pretty high in Japan. Needless to say this was capitalized on by the powers that be and in addition to the songs featured in the show, film, openings and endings, there are also a whole heap of, what are curiously referred to as ‘Character Image Songs’, giving each character (including some secondary ones) their fifteen minutes of fame, to varying results. With so much to sift through it can be tricky to sort the bad from the good. Today on High Score, I’ll try to make the vast, musical landscape of Houkago Tea Time a little easier for you to navigate and hopefully ignite in you the same delusional devotion that leads me to struggle with the fact that they might actually be my favourite band.
Don’t Say Lazy is the end theme for the first season of K-On! and probably the track that fans and non-fans are most familiar with. J-Pop star Yoko Hikasa is the voice of bass player Mio Akiyama and takes lead vocal on this track, which upon its release went straight to number 2 in the Oricon singles chart. Undeniably, one of the many things that makes K-On! so special is its stellar voice cast who, in addition to delivering unforgettable performances, also serve as the singing voices for their characters. The tracks are produced by the wizards at Pony Canyon, but for all the water-tight production and crunchy guitars, it’s Yoko’s vocal that makes this track pop.
This track, one of Mio’s character image songs, never actually featured in the show or the film but did feature in the PSP/PS3 game, Keion: Houkago Live!! along with all the other character image songs. Mio’s bassline steals the show here, it’s intricacies are almost too subtle to make out but if you pay close attention it’s impossible to ignore the inflections and licks she fills the rhythm out with. Look, I know it’s not actually Mio Akiyama playing bass on this track, but I like to pretend it is and who does that hurt? Nobody. Nor does it change the fact that this is another brilliantly produced piece of textbook J-Rock with driving guitars and flying synths, complete with a totally bad ass synthesizer solo about half way through.
I’ll hold my hands up for this one, it’s a total guilty pleasure. It wouldn’t be considered one of the better tracks in the oeuvre but fuck it it’s got all the j-rock hallmarks that make the rest of their tracks great AND a huge slab of pure eurovision-esque cheese slapped on top for good, or bad, measure. A character image song for keyboardist, Tsumugi Kotobuki, her voice actress, Minako Kotobuki does an admirable job despite not having the same kind of vocal chops as Yoko Hikasa and the piece is, unsurprisingly, impeccably produced by the genius’s at Pony Canyon. Don’t fight the cheese, just let it take you to its magical land of euro-j-rock bliss.
Although all the band members get equal screen time, and asking a fan to pick their favorite character is a quick way to render them comatose with indecision, it could be argued that Yui Hirasawa, voiced by Aki Toyosaki, is the true protagonist of K-On!. As such she takes lead vocal on a lot of the songs performed in the show, including this lively up tempo number. While she has a totally different voice to pretty much any of the other vocalists on the team, and it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (little pun for the fans there, you’re welcome), it’s undeniably charming and her delivery, like everyone else, doesn’t falter for the musical numbers. Curry Before Rice is a punchy, punky j-rock track about how much Yui loves curry but needs rice on the side to cool it down. Let that sink in. Then admit that it is brilliant.
I have criminally omitted an awful lot of great material here. Fuwa Fuwa Time is probably just as famous as Don’t Say Lazy and is a major part of the first season’s initial story arc. Go! Go! Maniac! was the first anime image song to top the Oricon singles charts and along with season 2 ending theme, Listen!!, meant that the girls became the first female vocalists to occupy both the number 1 and 2 spot since 1983. K-On! was, quite literally, a musical phenomenon and if these tracks have even intrigued you a little bit, go watch the show. Fall in love with Mugi, Mio, Yui, Ritsu and Azunyan the way I, and countless others have.
Then rock out to their tunes.
