Watching K-On! Episode 11 – “Crisis!?”

As the band's second school festival draws closer, tension within the club runs high when Ritsu grows jealous over Mio's newfound friendship with Nodoka. Meanwhile, a decision needs to be made regarding the name of the band.

Notes/Observations/Trivia:

• The actual name of the episode is “Pinch!”, but it was changed to “Crisis!?” for the official English language version. It’s a little more puzzling that they would add a question mark to the title, breaking the theme of having every episode title ending with an exclamation mark.
• Ritsu gets hit once (for forgetting to submit the application for using the auditorium). Additionally, Yui gets hit once by Ritsu (for not believing that Ritsu takes proper care of her drums).
• First episode Yui calls her guitar by the name “Geeta”.
• As of the end of this episode, the band is called “Ho-kago Tea Time” (or “After School Tea Time”).

Manga comparison:

The scenes regarding Yui taking her guitar to the shop for maintenance are based on the eight 4-koma chapter in volume 2. The anime alters Mugi’s behavior in the shop here, when Yui doesn’t have the money to cover the cost. In the manga, she gives the clerk a “death glare”, intimidating him, whereas in the anime she offers to pay for it herself. The scene where the seniors show Azusa the video recording of the previous year’s performance is taken from chapter nine (and just as with “School Festival!”, the manga is a bit more explicit than the anime in showing what the audience saw). The scenes where they discuss and eventually choose the name of the band are also taken from this chapter. Parts of this chapter are also adapted into the next episode. The Ritsu/Mio conflict is original to the anime.

OST tracks used:

• My hometown where it snows – 0:00-0:13
• Kawaii Inbou – 0:37-0:59
• Patrol of stroll – 3:21-3:37
• Pinch Daisuki! – 3:38-4:36
• Happy languidness – 5:17-6:26
• Ukkari Kimi no Tame ni – 7:09-8:22
• Doki Doki Friday night – 9:21-9:49
• Kendama-kun – 11:15-11:19
• Virtual love – 12:15-14:10
• Unknown track* – 15:34-17:14
• Ii Yume Mite ne – 18:29-20:11
• Small flashing – 20:51-22:09

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

My take:

The “drama” in this episode didn’t do much for me, but the scene in Ritsu’s bedroom was sweet. A good episode overall, but for me more so because of the trip to the music shop and the naming of the band than because of the anime original conflict. Some might argue that adding conflict to the story might improve it, but I enjoy K-On! for (among other things) its lack of exactly that.