“Well… if it isn’t Ethel Barrymore! I do hope you’re going to favor us with something special tonight” – “Please!” – “Say uhh Hamlet soliloquy, or the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet?” – “Mr. Lockwood!” – “Oh, don’t be shy! You make about the prettiest Juliet I’ve ever seen!”
It’s cloudy with a 159% chance of Pickles for our voluptuous K-ONER Mio, who has just been assigned the role of Romeo in the upcoming school festival. Red-Glasses-Girl also announced the other leading role in this Shakespearean play: Ritsu, who will play Juliet. Both are not content with this decision, but because the other students rigged the votes, nothing can be done about it.
"Trust me, the play is totally WICKED!!" *ba-dum-PSH*
While playfully impersonating each other, Mio and Ritsu realized that they could indeed play their roles as long as they act like one another. Despite this revelation, Mio still cannot overcome (hurr) her stage fright and totally bombs the rehearsal. To remedy this, Mugi invites the K-ONERS to work as maids in a fancy café. Long story short, Mio’s training is considered a failure since it did little to change Mio’s stage fright. The End.
♫ Diiing-dong, diiiiiing-dong~ Do you hear the bells go DIIIIIIIIING-DONG? Do you knoOoOoOoOow, do you know why they're ringin'? Do you knoOoOoOoOow, why the birds are singin'? Well you're gonna geeeeeeeeeet, a big surpriiiiiiiiiiiiise, 'cause I'm gonna put you WIIIIIIIIIIISE: The bells are ringiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin' for me and my Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal~ The birds are singiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin' for me and my Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal~ ♫
Impressions:
I guess Mio will not transfer like episode 17’s preview made us believe, but now I’m satisfied that she’s sticking with the K-ONERS. I actually felt sympathetic for her this time, especially those moments of sadfrog.jpg. Let’s ignore all those moe stereotypes and assume Mio actually does have some sort of social anxiety. It’s clear that she does not want attention, though her cute face, long flowing hair, and (to put it bluntly) large breasts contradict that. I’m reminded of Ookami-san’s male lead, who also becomes nervous whenever someone looks at him. Some anime fans consider this annoying and over exaggerated, but I think there’s nothing exaggerated about it. People naturally feel anxious when others are looking/starring at them; it’s just a matter of getting used to it. The question is: how can Mio overcome this?
She cannot purposely look ugly by, say, cutting her hair, acting masculine and wearing silly-putty red glasses because naturally, people want to look good. They want to feel good about themselves, so the aforementioned option is not an option at all. Perhaps you could take Mugi’s plan and force her out into the wild, but that could also have a negative impact if it is not done in short segments. Mio is not comfortable in attention-grabbing situations, so it would be better to ease her into these things.
Maybe I’m looking way into it because, as mentioned by the K-ONERS themselves, she plays perfectly during live performances… OKAAAAAAY let’s just get to the standard J159-Sexism, shall we? Ritsu proved that just smacking a woman ‘cross da face will yield some “fine” results *winkydink*. Even Azusa enjoyed Ritsu’s chokehold, and here’s a pic of Mio rubbing against my penis. So why does K-ON(!!) enforce these anti-feministic qualities? Maybe this is alll a dreaaaammm…
In short, I loved this episode! There were plenty of upper-lips and Red-Glasses-Girl Nodoka was actually pretty cool (she forced Yui to practice “standing still“, haha).
"What? But I thought Romeo x Juliet was an anime! Who's this Shakespeare you keep talking about? Is that the new Soulja Boy dance or something?"
This post was written by...
Jesus159159159 – who has written 116 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
With an obsession for out-of-context captions and an unhealthy dedication to Sir Kabitzin the Third, Jesus159159159 is the 2nd Member of the 2nd Generation of Sea Slug Environmentalists. His interests include watching anime, eating Cheez-Its, admiring the curvaceousness of upper-lips, sniffing upper-lips, applying chap-stick to upper-lips, and drawing. He will mainly blog light-hearted shows of girls with enormous, shiny dentures.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I didn’t see No.1 Mio fan, Sokabe-senpai. Did I miss her or was it that they didn’t give her screentime? I absolutely LOVED the scene where she begged for a “Mio-tan” autograph in Ep 7 and Nodoka being utterly horrified by it.
Also love how the whole class really came into the picture. Especially how they ganged up on Mio and Ritsu to be Romeo and Juliet. And then their gasps of KYAA when the two hugged/kissed in the balcony scene. Those girls really know how to have a good time – at the expense of that lovely K-ONER pair.
re: Mio rubbing up scene – I’m actually surprised that you didn’t doodle a J159 dakimakura cover onto the hug pillow. *dun dun dun*
Sokabe-sempai is supposed to show up for the concert.
By the way you two, what are your thoughts on the fact that the K-On manga is ending next month?
@ Zyl:
As Myssa Rei mentioned, Sokabe will appear in the upcoming episode (20). Can’t wait for the lower-lip lipstick!
Yeah, those classmates are pretty devious! They’ll sacrifice their souls for yuri if they had to.
I suggest they sacrifice Uiuhhh yeah…I’m surprised I didn’t mosaic-it, lol! Great suggestion! Too bad I was late with this post… maybe next time!
@Myssa Rei
I don’t read the K-ON manga (yet), but I will admit that I’m going to feel pretty sad when it ends. The K-ON manga ending in September means that there will be no K-ON season three (K-ON!!!) like I had hoped…
I don’t even think too highly of K-ON, but there’s just an unsettling feeling when I witness the end of a great Moe Era. I honestly believe K-ON is one of the top laid back moe animes out there, not including garbage-moe that has blatant fan-service or pedophilia. Sure the K-ONERS are young too, but you don’t see them repeatedly making sex-jokes that only 10 year olds would laugh at (ex: Seitokai Yakuindomo)… So yeah, it’s hard to believe they’re going to end this delicious milk-cow money-making franchise! Perhaps their next move is to make a movie. 
Thanks for the note on Sokabe-senpai – goodness, I’m sooo looking fwd to the next ep!
wrt K-ON manga ending in Sep, I haven’t read the manga either but it also means that there won’t be another season of the anime.
It’s a pity but it’s preferable to the series going on and on and on like some endless shounen series with lots of filler episodes. Structurally it is also somewhat de rigeur wrt high school-based series; the manga/anime ends when the main characters graduate e.g. Azumanga and MariMite. I’m still waiting for a series that will break this limitation and follow people, or at least one chara, post-originating context e.g. Cheers to Frasier.
Uhhhh that first caption is sort of out there, which is why I will link the source! Enjoy!
I honestly don’t know how anyone watching this ep could find no merit in it, even if they happen to have a Baka Rator-esque hatred for the series. So many things worked perfectly. Even if Mio and Ritsu are classic moe stereotypes, put them together and they become far greater than the sum of their parts. I love how the cast bounces of each other (sadly not literally). Both the dialogue and VA’s were on top form here
Too many funny moments to mention but props to Ritsu’s brother for laughing in the background and Ritsu herself for denying Shakesphere. I’ve been trying to do that for years.
Thanks for the link, I have to admit that particular reference went over my head. Rap and musicals; you have some pretty disparate tastes J159. :hmm:
Noooo K-on can’t end. Don’t leave us with Strike Witches
Yeah, this episode was great! On topic with the VA’s, I had to pay special attention to Ritsu and Mio’s accent while they impersonated each other. This and the combination of their hand movements (aka Ritsu softly touching her cheek with glittery-eyes and Mio boyishly putting her hands in a “I don’t know” manner) led to more enjoyment. Being non-japanese (that’s why I follow subs
) requires you to use both vision and hearing when watching these toonz. Some anime fans are so concentrated on the subtitles that they don’t realize the backgrounds or other important artistry (like crappy animation!).
Disparate…*checks dictionary* I SEE! Thank you for the compliment!
LMAO BAKA-RATOR?!?!
Not to poke fun at you but that typo just made my day. Thank you! (btw, I put an extra T… hope it’s okay)
hahahaha XD. That is awesome. I remember realising I made a typo and thought it looked better left that way, but I seriously wasn’t expecting a response of that caliber. You should seriously send it off to BR’s fan art page and share the love . Hats of to you sir, you’ve surpassed yourself with that pic.
Yeah also totally loved the imitiation scene with the mimicked accents and body movements, I… you know i’ve totally lost my train of thought, I just keep scrolling up to that picture, rofl!!!!! ;P ;P ;P
NOOOOOOOOOOO I’LL NEVER SEND IT TO BAKA-RAPTOR!!! HIS HATRED FOR K-ON IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!! Plus, I don’t want to give the impression that I have a huge crush on him! *blush* *sprinkling-eyed*
Here’s the full-sized (well, it’s still not as big as the original but it’s still bigger) version of the pic. I’m too embarrassed to tell him so if you want to send him an email, please do ;P
I absolutely loved your musical references in your captions being a huge Gene Kelly fan.
Everything else I loved about this episode has already been covered by you in this entry, or others in comments, so great job and keep up the good work!
YES!! A GENE KELLY FAN!! Thank you for the compliments! :love:
This is one of my favorite episodes so far. So much yuri subtext, and a romantic play featuring two girls is such a yuri trope. Even the classmates agree Mio x Ritsu is a perfect match.
And so much snuff-sniffing of their UPPER-LIP STANK (okay that didn’t happen, but there were some upper-lips to be had… or sniffed).
I’m more of a Yui x Azusa fan. :love: (and Jun… The Jun-Bug! *BA DUM PSH*…
)