K-ON!! - Episode 17

With the school festival fast approaching, it's time for the girls of the light music club to knuckle down and practice properly for once... except they don't have anywhere to do it, as it's revealed that the music room is out of bounds due to a problematic leak that leaves it in need of repair.

This gives us the comedy set-up for the vast majority of K-ON!!'s seventeenth episode, as the girls go on the hunt for a new ground to practice with. Despite Sawako's best efforts the brass band practice room is out (indeed, Sawako seems to have no luck at all persuading anyone this episode, perhaps her carefully cultivated image isn't all she thinks it is?), and an attempt to practice in a classroom is soon brought to a halt as the volume threatens to shake the entire building to the ground, never mind disturbing the other students. Using the school gym is also a short-lived affair, and with little other choice the girls end up at a professional recording studio for a session arranged by Ritsu but surely paid for by Mugi?


It seems that even having to pay for studio time doesn't get in the way of the girls goofing off however, as the entire session is spent drinking tea and the girls preening themselves in the studio's mirror - Thank goodness then that their club room is soon available for practice once again. This allows us to segue into the final chunk of this episode, which sees the girls trying to put together some lyrics for a new song, with Yui finding inspiration thanks to an illness to the normally infallible Ui.

While this episode was more settled into its groove than the previous instalment, that didn't make it any less entertaining or funny, as it managed to squeeze in a few laugh out loud moments in the midst of its more generally amusing perambulations. It seems like that mis-step of a couple of weeks ago is long gone, as once again this was K-ON!! doing what it does best - Throwing a bunch of girls into a relatively mundane situation and yet deriving plenty of fun and frolics from it. Who knew a character's sister getting a cold could be so heart-warming? What other anime could leave me considering which hairstyle I prefer on a particular character without feeling too weird about (Ritsu, I'm looking at you)? In fact, there aren't all that many series that would leave me frustrated about having to wait an extra couple of days before watching an episode, but I can honestly say my Wednesday just wasn't the same without a dose of this show.