Yep, although this eighth episode sees the girls of the light music club (Asuza excepted) thinking about their futures, so this also serves as a neat little opportunity to flashback to the past. More specifically, we find both Ritsu and (predictably) Yui having more than a little trouble filling in their school's forms regarding their future careers and schooling prospects - Just what would these two "unique individuals" be good at exactly? Certainly not speaking the "filthy" English language, that's for sure...
As Yui and Ritsu are called away to see Sawako on account of not having made any future plans, so Nodoka is given the opportunity to indulge those present in an account of how she met Yui and how she used to behave back in her formative years - Pretty much exactly the same as she does now in case you're wondering, with the possible exception of trying to eat crayons. Similarly, upon Ritsu and Yui's return from a discussion with Sawako, Mio and Ritsu shares stories of how they first met and ended up as friends, with the latter helping the former over at least some of her shyness, albeit in a rather forceful way. Finally, we segue back to the future, with some genuinely funny imaginings of how Yui would cope with certain career choices (i.e. badly) as she continues to struggle when it comes to picking out a career for herself.
Although this isn't going to count as one of my all-time favourite K-ON!! episodes, even I have to yield somewhat to the cuteness of seeing a kindergarten Yui trying to eat crayon and a grade school Ritsu being... well, Ritsu. Or a pineapple. As I just mentioned, the best segment of the episode was easily seeing a future Yui in various jobs (which could probably make up a decent series in its own right, like some kind of dysfunctional Hataraki Man), but as a whole the flashbacks did make for a nice little change of pace while still retaining that inevitable K-ON!! fluffiness. Even when it isn't a laugh a minute, this show still manages to relax me at the end of a long day where I managed to generate a couple of thousand e-mails that I didn't want. Go me.
I think Yui would do quite well as a Neet.
ReplyDeleteI take exception to the idea that "Doing one's best" is not an acceptable career!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat little episode, and wow, the preview shows that we're already at the Final exams??? So, we obviously are going to have to deal with the girls' musical antics once they leave school, could they maybe actually make it to the Budokan, after all?
ReplyDeleteThe bit with the crayon I could see coming.. I was frantically waving my arms going "DON'T!!" as Yui was considering the tasty look of the apple to the crayon. :)
But what will become of Azu-nyan... Surely we will not leave her behind after just half the current series...?
I also had the Hanamaru Kindergarten vibes (gotta be the Pampers... or the extremely large heads). Either way, the episode was extremely cute, especially Mio's flashback segment. I liked her scene where she totally told-off Ritsu to act like a tree and win your own damn award, but coincidentally it attracted Ritsu even more. Probably the worse decision of her life :P
ReplyDelete@Michael: Haha, I thought she was gonna eat the paper instead (the one with the apple, that is), but I guess the crayon eating did seem predictable as well.
I think this was one of the episodes I loved most so far:D The previous one left me quite bored because I'm not really a Mio fanatic. In this one there were so many cute and comic moments, and I felt quite sad for Yui at the end, she looked so depressed lol.
ReplyDelete