Watching K-On! Episode 6 – “School Festival!”

When Yui loses her voice, a nervous Mio has to fill in as the band's vocalist for their performance at the school festival.

Notes/Observations/Trivia:

• Sawako’s ongoing obsession with dressing up the club members in (often rather questionable) outfits begins with this episode.
• Mugi’s apparently abnormal physical strength, too, is first introduced here.
• The student council girl seen standing next to Nodoka at various points in this episode is Megumi Sokabe, a character who will play a larger role later.
• Ritsu gets hit on the head twice (for referring to Mio as “dangerous”, and for giving herself too much praise)
• First performance of the song Fuwa Fuwa Time, which was released as a CD single soon after. The actual version of the song heard here (with Yui’s husky background vocals) is found on another CD.
• The band poster seen in the Fuwa Fuwa Time “music video” refers to the band as “HTT”, though at this point in the story the band has actually yet to be named.

Manga comparison:

“School Festival!” is based on the eight 4-koma chapter and follows it pretty closely. The anime adds the scenes early on of the band members being too busy with other obligations to be able to practice, the scene where Ritsu “introduces” them all in the club room, and of course the “music video”. Mio’s panties-exposing accident is a bit more explicit in the manga – where the anime turned it into a fun gag by showing a striped rice bowl on screen in place of her striped underwear, the manga unabashedly puts poor Mio’s bottom on display for all to see.

OST tracks used:

• Cotton candy - 1:52-2:22
• Happy languidness - 2:36-3:23
• unknown track* - 3:55-4:48
• Ukkari Kimi no Tame ni - 5:53-6:44
• Kawaii Inbou - 8:03-8:59
• Kendama-kun - 9:20-9:24
• Patrol of stroll - 9:54-10:50
• Small flashing - 11:10-12:21
• Have some tea? - 13:42-15:34
• Ano Hi no Yume - 17:33-18:16
• Karui Joudan - 21:28-22:08

* listed simply as “unknown track” because it is not included on any K-On! OST album.

My take:

A thoroughly enjoyable episode. Since it contains the band’s first ever live performance, and the debut of Fuwa Fuwa Time, there is little doubt that this can be regarded as one of the highlights of the first season. Add to that the hilarious and legendary rice bowl incident and Mio’s line about her being “ruined for marriage”, and we have a winner for sure.