it's a slightly odd experience coming to it after watching the TV series, because - particularly in the first couple of volumes - it has that "early prototype" feel to it.

The thing that really threw me about it at first was the layout, though. I'm used to reading translated manga back-to-front, that's not a problem, but the K-On! manga is basically a very long sequence of 4-koma presented two to a page, so you have to read them down as well. I didn't realize that at first, and so spent the first couple of pages hopelessly confused, since I'd tried to read the panels

2 1
4 3
6 5
8 7

and they actually have to be read

5 1
6 2
7 3
8 4

(starting from the righthand side of each panel, to boot). Takes a bit of getting used to.

The television series only covers the core cast's high school careers. There's a volume of the manga where they go off to college. I have to admit I'm a little disappointed by that one. The new characters introduced in it aren't as likeable as the original cast, and I had kind of hoped that - having had to portray her as smart enough to get into college in the first place - the artist might dial back a little on the rather cruel running joke of how not smart Yui is once she got there. Instead, if often seems as if he's kind of doubling down on it. In high school she often came across as a kind of unwitting genius, but in college she's just... dumb. It makes me sad.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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