Creative Staff
Story/Art: kakifly
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi embark on their college adventures! It will take some time for the girls to get used to life away from their families and adjust to the pace of college life, but there’s one aspect of their new situation that there’s no uncertainty about: joining the pop music club! But they aren’t the only high school band making their debut on the college scene. Is Afterschool Tea Time ready to perform alongside the hard-rocking rhythms of The Girlz?!
Technical:
The cover is a nice image of the main cast walking together over a plain white background, with a piano pattern below them and music notes to their back. The back cover follows a similar theme, this time using the three girls from Only Girlz and adding a synopsis above. The paper quality feels solid, and a good number of color pages appear throughout, which is nice. Bonus sketches, comics, and translation notes also help to round out the book. Text reads smoothly, honorifics are maintained, and sound effects are left in their original form and translated.
The art style is the same as that of the original series, using a simplified look while still maintaining a moderate amount of detail. The new characters fortunately fit in fine visually with the cast, with unique enough designs to help easily distinguish them from one another. Backgrounds appear frequently and look fine.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though they’re now college students living in a dorm, the girls from Afterschool Tea Time still find themselves every bit as disorganized as they’ve ever been, struggling to even manage to get up on time. During the entrance ceremony, Yui ends up falling asleep on the person in the seat next to her, a girl with short hair and a temper to match. It turns out that her name is Akira Wada, and along with her friends Ayame Yoshida and Sachi Hayashi she’ll also be joining the pop music club.
Upon visiting the pop music club, they find it a fair bit larger than their old one from high school. While there, they learn that Akira’s band is surprisingly impressive, but they also manage to impress their rivals when they get a chance to play. From there, the three new girls, whose band is apparently named Only Girlz, integrate them into the cast, with Yui becoming especially attached to Akira.
After a variety of events, such as a training camp and a visit back home, the time comes for a big “battle of the bands” during the school festival. Who will win this fierce competition, and what effect will it have on their friendship in the process?
In Summary
This book certainly tries to maintain a balance between hanging on to the relationships between the cast from the old series and integrating in a number of new members. While this actually works out fairly well in the case of Akira, most of the rest of the new characters feel rather underdeveloped, only allowed a gag or two to make up what we see of their personality. A lot of what this book is trying actually works out decently enough, it’s just a shame that it has to be so short. It feels like there’s hardly any time to get a feel for this new setting and cast, meaning a lot is left unfortunately underdeveloped. Though it’s certainly disappointing this new status quo couldn’t manage another volume or two, it still fortunately manages a number of decent jokes, and Akira does actually manage to work her way into the cast and leave something of an impression. All in all, K-on! fans looking for a little more time with the characters should be sure to give this a look, as it’s still a solid entry into the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 23rd, 2013
MSRP: $11.99
