Influence of Animes
So thoughts:
- It was really quite adorable. The girls remind me of both my friends and I in high school (since we were overachievers in clubs) as well as my girls in the ESS club here at school. They had different personalities, were a little bit over the top, but really lovable all the same. And they were super dedicated to each other.
- The overall story was a good message, good examples for younger girls watching. The main protagonist starts out as a directionless, lazy, and without motivation to do much of anything--but having the other members of the club depend on her compel her to be a good club member, learn guitar, that sort of thing...super Japanese-sounding, no?
- Still, I couldn't shake the underlying feeling of "uhhh why am I watching this...." The girls were different in personalities but still super idealized feminine. Super high voices. At least their skirts weren't excessively short, but there was a running theme of being dressed up by their teacher in random outfits like maids' costumes. The ending credits always show a shot of each girl looking like she isn't wearing anything (ex. first frame in the upper left corner of the picture below). Goodness gracious, they are high school students! I'm definitely being influenced by college or my buddies or something, because it's like now I can see this kind of female objectification and self-perpetuating subordination just about everywhere here in Japan (:tries to tune out high pitched whine of the other young female teacher:).
Anyway, even with the bits of odd feelings, I really enjoyed watching it. The club would slack off and be distracted and unproductive, and even when faced with criticism, the girls were able to perpetuate that being serious all the time wasn't worth it, the point of the club was to play music with people you loved being around, and playing music with heart and passion. The last scene with the protagonist Yui giving a little speech to her school about how the K-on club helped her as a person was so nicely done...and I wished so much that I could understand my students to at least that level when they express their ideas. It's one of those things you don't realize that you will miss, the fact that I have very little sense of any thoughts or ideas that my students (or even just the people in general) have. And of course there are lots of other ways to tell, nonverbal communication and signing and such. And I've never been the best at verbal communication anyway, always freaking out that I can express myself in words or contribute to discussions of something...and probably it was because I never felt like I knew anything, or that I had no reason to know anything. Not that I'm saying I'm completely opinionated now, but at least I'm getting a better sense of where I am and who I am. :)
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