New on DVD and Blu-Ray is “K-ON! The Movie,” which features the conclusion of the Anime series. “K-ON! The Movie” tells the final tale of the Light Music Club as they decide to take a trip overseas before their graduation from high school.

Mio, Ritsu, Yui, Tsumugi and Azusa find themselves on their way to London England after their pet turtle chooses the location by way of tea cup. Mio is elated and their junior Azusa jumps in on planning their itinerary for them.

Once in London, the girls have to battle the language barrier, try to find their hotel, getting mistaken as the band celebrating the opening of a sushi bar and performing moments before they have to catch their flight home back to Japan—all the while, the seniors are trying to figure out what to give their junior Azusa before they officially graduate.

Available language tracks are Japanese with English Subtitles and English. I highly recommend viewing this movie in Japanese because of the impact of the scenes that take place in England. The girls struggling to communicate with the Londoners is oh so funny and not having to read subtitles for the few instances where characters like a cabbie, hotel desk clerk or sushi bar staff are talking is just enjoyable.
The only flaw sometimes is that the subtitles don’t seem to match what I’ve read while watching a fan-sub which is surprising because you’d think the official version would have the most accuracy. Nonetheless, the movie is still a masterpiece with the Japanese audio track.
In English, I feel the re-writer and voice actors did a great job, they really tried to capture the original dialog and emotions, but there is still nothing like the original production. All in all, “K-ON! The Movie” can be enjoyed in both Japanese and English.

The animation and artwork is just beautiful—all right, who am I kidding, it’s perfect! Visually, it is totally modern and is pleasurable to watch on both DVD on a glass TV and the Blu-Ray in full HD must be immaculate!

The sound stands out in 5.1 surround in both Japanese and English, however, the best sound comes from the multitude of songs that fill the movie. Regardless of the audio being in Japanese or English, all songs are performed on the original Japanese track. Most are performed by Aki Toyosaki the voice of Yui—these songs are very J-Pop oriented and are just a whole lot of fun to listen to. Other songs performed by Toyosaki are very heartfelt, so her range as a voice actress and professional singer then combining the two, is just excellent.
Although I dislike saying this, I feel that the songs performed by Yoko Hikasa the voice of Mio are far superior—this is probably due to personal taste, but Hikasa’s songs are usually along the lines of rock and roll and her voice is so powerful and you can really feel the emotion in her voice (sorry Aki-San, it’s just personal preference). Hikasa is quite equal to Toyosaki with being able to voice characters, professionally sing, and mix the two for a five star Anime performance!

Just a cool picture from a K-ON! Sponsor called Lawson Station which is a convenience store mostly located in Japan. From left to right is Azusa, Tsumugi, Ritsu, Yui and Mio—how cool is that!

The DVD comes in a 2 disk special edition set and the Blu-Ray is a single disk, each has a ton of awesome special features including many interviews and premiers featuring the Japanese cast. There are also a few making of extras with the director of the Anime and movie. The extras also include a few Japanese trailers and finally credit-less opening and closing—the closing is a full animated music video of “Singing” sung by Yoko Hikasa, (Mio).

“K-ON! The Movie” has finally overcome “Waterworld” as my favorite movie of all time, I have watched it on Fan-sub 11 times and when it finally came out in the States about a week ago, I grabbed it without a second thought. I’ve watched it twice since I received it in the mail, once in English (to see what it was like) and once in Japanese (which I will forever view it in).

I highly recommend picking up K-ON! The Movie if you are a fan of the series, like some cool original music, enjoy comedy or even want to see what a true “slice of life” is like in a wonderful animated fantasy.

GRADE: A+ (“K-ON! The Movie” is really a masterpiece and it closes the series with pure perfection)!

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