I start 2012 by watching...K-On?

Well it finally happened. On New Year's day I watched both seasons.

I used to think K-On was yet another dumb cash grab with moeblobs in the vein of Lucky Star which I absolutely hated and bailed after 2 episodes. It also didn't manage to exploit my seiyuu weakness, because seiyuu trends move way too fast these days and I didn't care about a single voice actor in HTT, despite seeing half of them perform live last year. They were all "new" people and I'm a cranky guy stuck in 2007 era seiyuu-fandom since that's when I last had time to really watch much anime.

I also thought hyper-accurate dancing/guitar finger movements/synchronized anime lips/whatever was already a gimmick during Haruhi so I wasn't really impressed when I read a few reviews gushing about OMG ACCURATE INSTRUMENT PLAYING. But my opinion was gradually turned around last year as more people educated me about the show and I started getting more exposed to it. Just little things that did it...like buying K-On merchandise for friends when I was in Japan, or hanging out with a certain guy who had a K-On camera that automatically added them into pictures you took, or just being made to listen to Fuwa Fuwa Time when riding in peoples cars.

By the time I got to Japan I was actually legitimately interested in the series. But I still didn't have enough time to actually watch it. Nor the motivation. However November 2011 was basically K-On month in Japan as people were getting hyped for the upcoming movie release. I decided to make a bet that I would PROBABLY like it, so I held my nose, closed my eyes, and dived straight into the K-On marketing machine. Surely if I didn't do all these activities, my future self would regret missing this chance later on.

So I was going to K-On cafes, visiting K-On locations, buying K-On themed deserts, accumulating K-On collectibles, and finally on December 3rd watching the K-On movie - all without actually knowing what the hell was going on. The majority of these were expensive, non-refundable, non-transferable, non-resellable experiences and essentially impossible to hedge financially. Payable one month later on my credit card bill. We call this taking a naked position.

Well it turned out to be a lot of fun, and also turned out to the last push I really needed to get me to marathon the whole series last week. It was good. And so I reaped the rewards of my K-On experience in Japan, retroactively.

One sign that my 2012 luck is looking good: the character who turned out to be my favorite was one I accidentally got a ton of bromides for. And it wasn't who I thought it would be.

And in another sign, KKD is up 10% today. It may not be cake, but donuts are close enough.

Posted by Paranda at January 6, 2012 6:52 PM

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Comments

Posted by: omo at January 6, 2012 11:25 PM

Posted by: paranda at January 7, 2012 7:40 PM