For a group of girls that spends their time drinking tea, eating pastries, and occasionally playing music, it was probably only a matter of time before the Sakuragaoka High School Light Music Club found their way to Merry Olde England. That was the promise delivered at the end of the television series, and K-ON! The Movie looks to make it happen. As (presumably) the grand finale of the franchise, does the film succeed as a sweet swan song or will fans be left with a bitter taste in their mouth? Let’s review.

K-ON! The Movie

Studio: Kyoto Animation
Publisher: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: May 21st, 2013
MSRP: $39.98

Main Feature

If you’re reading this review I’m assuming you’ve watched the K-ON! television series, and if you haven’t I’d recommend doing so before watching the film. It’s a fun, lighthearted story about five girls who form a light music club at their school, and the movie focuses on their trip to London in the final weeks leading up to graduation. While the plot and characters are pretty simple and easy to understand, it’s really meant to be a supplemental story. In fact the most surprising thing about K-ON! The Movie is how much of the story it tries to supplement.

While you would think the majority of the film would be about the girls’ trip abroad, that actually only takes up about a third of the film. Much of the first act is spent retelling how the girls decided on their destination, while the movie’s final act shows the concluding events of the TV series from the perspective of the four original club members. Clocking in at 110 minutes and moving at the show’s trademark lackadaisical pace, that means the movie feels really long and perhaps a bit disjointed. There is an underlying plot about the older girls finding the perfect parting gift for Azusa that tries to tie things together, but it still almost feels like the trip itself and the events afterward could have been two separate movies.

Taken from moment to moment however, K-ON! The Movie still has plenty of the easy going charm that makes the series enjoyable to watch. From the amusing heavy metal intro, to the Enrgish laden culture shock of the trip, to the girls’ sweet, endearing good bye, there are plenty of moments fans will enjoy. Even though retelling large portions of the story from the TV series feels a bit like overkill, the movie is a fun, sweet, and appropriate send off for the light music club.

Technical Quality

Kyoto Animation never disappoints on the technical side of things, and as expected K-ON! The Movie looks and sounds fantastic. The series’ slick animation and rich, earthy color palette spills over from the usual school scenes into a painstakingly recreated pastel version of London. As confirmed by Zigg, our resident Brit, many famous landmarks and trendy hot spots are accurately recreated then softened up as they get the K-ON! visual treatment. This makes much of the film both impressive and almost soothing to watch.

Music is a really important part of K-ON! and the soundtrack for the film does not disappoint. In addition to two new songs for the opening and ending, the girls also perform a few of their previous songs throughout the movie. While it would have been nice to hear a little more new material, I will personally forgive them since they include the lesser known “Samidare 20 Love” with the more popular tracks. The score itself reprises many of the same themes from the TV series, with the occasional dash of new, more “British” material to spice things up. Once piece that stood out to me was a splash of mellotron and clarinet during the hotel scenes, helping set the perfect mood for a bunch of goofy Japanese school girls hanging out in a foreign land.

The dub reunites the cast from the TV series who all do an admirable job interpreting the girls’ higher pitched voices into English, certainly no small feat. Much like the Japanese cast, you can tell they have a good natural chemistry and flow that has no doubt come from working on over 40 episodes of the series together. As expected the songs remain in Japanese and performed by the original cast, but the voices are close enough to keep the transition smooth.

Bonus Features

I was pleasantly surprised to find K-ON! The Movie packing nearly two hours of bonus material, mostly consisting of press events and television specials to promote the film. The extras are taken from the Japanese release and subtitled, which is a pretty unusual but welcome move. Japanese voice acting fans will be pleased to see several interviews and performances with the original cast members, but I found the segment with Director Naoko Yamada’s trip to London to be the most interesting. You can really see how her experience made its way into the film itself, and that’s exactly the kind of thing I want out of my movie extras.

Overall Value

As a standalone film, K-ON! The Movie would probably make for an overly long, unfocused introduction to the series. As a supplement to the television series though, it’s a fun bonus romp with the cast in unfamiliar territory, as well as a sweet (if maybe unnecessary) expansion of the series’ surprisingly emotional conclusion. Coupled with top notch production values and an impressive amount of bonus features, this is a great release for fans to complete their K-ON! collection.