K-On!/Trivia

Non-Trope Trivia

In the first episode of the anime, Mugi is making a big deal out of mixing her fries with those of the other two girls. In Japanese culture, sharing your food with the group is a sign that you accept the group as your own, so Mugi was both being formal and very sweet in one go.
The train station seen most in the series, which is the one Mugi uses for commuting, is the Shugakuin Station on the Eizan Electric Railway in Kyoto.
The high school is based on an elementary school in Toyosato in the Shiga prefecture. The building was supposed to be torn down, but after protests from the local community it got renovated and opened for the public, and it now serves as a museum. It's needless to say that the building is now a very popular destination for fans of the series.
The Max Burger fast food restaurant frequented by the girls is based on a real-life McDonald's.
In episode 5 of the first season, Sawako plays her super flashy solo. However, the way she moves her arm while "speed picking" is something more akin to new guitar players. Faster playing is done using mostly the fingers or the wrist, Sawako's using her arm almost exclusively.
The place where the girls go to feed the Japanese monkeys, as seen in in episode 4 of the second season, is the Iwatayama Monkey Park in Kyoto, situated on top of Mt. Arashiyama. It is pretty much as depicted, including the splendid view of the city.
The statue seen at the very end of episode 7 of the second season is based on a statue of William S. Clark, the founder of Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University), which implies that Sokabe-sempai is studying in Sapporo. Also, the full version of "Cagayake!GIRLS" contains the words "Girls, be ambitious", which is a reference to Clark's famous parting words to his students ("Boys, be ambitious!").
Ton-chan is a pig-nosed turtle, a species that is actually hard to keep in captivity, since it's rather aggressive and prone to stress and illnesses. It takes dedication and specialized knowledge to care for one, so one wonders whether the girls would be up to the task. It might be especially unwise to keep it in a place with lots of noise, like where a band is playing.

Trivia Tropes

The Abridged Series -- Here ya go!
The Bechdel Test: Every single episode passes the test, and so does The Movie. Conversations range from music to snacks to hanging out with friends to wondering just what Mugi's house looks like, but only rarely mention boys in any sense. This is aided (at least in the series) by them being students at an all-girls school.
Cash Cow Franchise - April, 2010. The pre-orders for the yet-to-be-released DVDs of K-On second season occupied ten of the Top 13 most bought movies in amazon.com Japan. And this is only after the first episode of season 2 has aired, folks. The momentum of success and die-hard fandom set by Season 1 in 2009 does not look like it will slow down any time soon, with twenty six episodes in this season altogether.
- There's a movie coming out soon. Guess what the general reaction from the fans was...
- It's getting worse and worse. K-On model plane, K-On video game...
I Am Not Shazam—The name of the band is Hokago Teatime, not K-On!. "K-on" is a Roman-letter transliteration of the first syllables of the Japanese word 軽音楽 (keiongaku), "pop music", making "K-On!" roughly equivalent to "Pop!"
Licensed Game -- K-On! Houkago Live!!, for PSP. It's a Rhythm Game, and it Averted The Problem with Licensed Games by being developed by the company that made Project Diva. And yes, some songs are PD-level difficult.
The Merch: From shirts to ties to guitar covers to Image CDs to replica guitars and hilariously overpriced rice. It safe to assume it won't be going away for a while.
No Export for You: Hey, Puerto Rico, want this series on Blu-Ray? Tough luck, they're only available on DVD.
- Now subverted! Volumes 1 and 2 for Blu-Ray finally came out in October!^[when?]
- The United States won't see the second season released let alone dubbed, nor the movie, because Bandai Entertainment ceased distributing home videos due to illegal fansubs!
  - Not anymore! Sentai Filmworks announced in February 2012 that they'd acquired the rights to the second season, complete with an English dub from the first season's cast.
Hey, It's That Voice!:
- From the Japanese version...
  - Yui is Suu reincarnated!
  - Mio is Satan.
  - And Yui is in Umineko too; in fact, she's one of Satan's sisters, Asmodeus.
  - Sawa-chan is Matoi Tsunetsuki, AKA Stalker Girl -nyo...
- From the English dub...
  - Azusa is Squid Girl, (whose Volume 1 English DVD was released the same month as the release of Azusa's official English appearance.)
  - Yui is Mikuru Asahina, Hinata, Orihime Inoue, Illyasviel von Einzbern...
  - Mio is Nanoha Takamachi.
  - Sawa-chan is Miyuki Takara, and the current^[when?] Rouge the Bat.
  - Nodoka is the current^[when?] Blaze the Cat and Chun Li.
  - Ritsu is Taiga.
Reclusive Artist: No one actually knows who Kakifly, the creator of K-On!, really is. Outside of a personal website consisting of one page from 2011 saying he's abandoning the Net to focus on work, but he's produced nothing since doing an end card illustration for Yuyushiki in 2013.
Relationship Voice Actor:
- In the dub:
  - Mio Akiyama (Cristina Vee) and Tsumugi Kotobuki (Shelby Lindley) once met in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's as Nanoha Takamachi and Shamal.
  - Yui Hirasawa (Stephanie Sheh) and Sawako Yamanaka (Karen Strassman) met in Fate/stay night as Illyasviel von Einzbern and Rider.
  - Azusa Nakano(Cristine Marie Cabanos) and Ritsu Tainaka (Cassandra Lee) will become Kaname Madoka and Kyuubey in Puella Magi Madoka Magica
    - Fridge Brilliance: The Band is made up of Nanoha Takamachi, Shamal (Mio and Mugi (Shelby Lindley), Illyasviel von Einzbern, Kyuubey and Madoka Kaname (Ritsu and Azunyan) with Kallen Stadfeldt Kouzuki (Sawako Yamanaka) as their mentor. Sweet! This make it a team of Magical Girls + a mascot with an Ace Pilot as their mentor!
Shout-Out
- Johannes Krauser II. from Detroit Metal City makes an appearance in one of Yui's delusions in Episode 1.
- "Jimi Hendrix?" "Jimmy Page?" "Jeff Beck?!"
  - (Are there really that many guitarists that start with "J"?!)
  - When Azusa plays guitar the first time images of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Kurt Cobain (all wearing Azusa's pigtails) can be seen.
  - When the music store clerk tells the history of Sawako's guitar, images of Eric Clapton, Angus Young, Tony Iommi and Pete Townshend are shown, along with Jimmy Hart Versions of respective guitar riffs.
- The Music Video that plays during the school festival concert suggests an outlaw concert like The Beatles' rooftop concert, with a little Thelma and Louise thrown in as well.
  - Speaking of the Fab Four, did anyone notice that Mio is a left-handed bass player? That sounds strangely familiar...
- Yui hugging Azusa to calm her down has a high resemblance to Kyou's Glomp on Kotomi in Clannad (another show by the same studio), especially with the the "good girl" part. It also occurs in the manga, which might be mere coincidence, but Kyoto Animation sure picked up on it.
- Azusa and her tora-mimi^{[dead link]} are reminiscent of Kisa from Fruits Basket.
- A cheeky homage to the "I'm flying!!" scene (complete with Gratuitous English) from Titanic. (S1 10 08:03)
- All of the recurring characters share their respective last names with members of P-Model or The Pillows.
- In episode 4, Mio is looking through a box of old club members stuff, and finds a score book of Ozzy Osbourne.
- In one episode, it shows a clip of Sawako playing guitar with her teeth - an obvious reference to Jimi Hendrix.
- "ZA WHO." More specifically, Keith Moon, one of the reasons Ritsu took up drumming. When Ritsu mentions him in the club, Azusa asks if he's the guy who blew up his house with fireworks.
- Yui is seen imitating Pete Townshend's windmill strumming move from time to time.
- Sawako-sensei's white Gibson Flying V may be a shout out to The Legend of Black Heaven, where the same guitar is the signature instrument of another has-been ex-rocker, Oji "Gabriel" Tanaka.
- Kamakiri, the band with the left-handed guitarist who catches Mio's attention during the outdoor music fest, might be a shout-out to Donald Fagen.
- "Oscar!" (with screenshot)
- Less obvious, but in the third ending theme ("No, Thank You"), there's a shot where Mio puts her thumbs and index fingers together and in the gap between her hands, there's a shot of the sky. A similar hand-portal effect was used heavily in the video to "Shut Up and Let Me Go" by The Ting Tings.
- Also, some parts of the music in K-On! are not to dissimilar to those in certain Metallica songs. For example, the solo in Fuel and Yui's solo in Fuwa Fuwa Time, amongst others.
  - The same person uploaded a sequel that includes songs from the second season.
- The little frog statue in front of the club room looks an awful lot like a similar statue in Kamichu!. (However, it's a coincidence. The bronze statues on the staircase are actual architectural features of Toyosato Elementary School in Shiga Prefecture, which the high school in the anime was based on.)
- Evidently Nodoka is a Vulcan, not the biggest surprise with her unflappable demeanor.
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