40 Fun Facts About K-On!

Before picking up the guitar in K-On!, which was the only instrument Yui Hirasawa knew how to play?

Castanets were Yui's only skill when she signed up, and she could not read sheet music either. She joined after misunderstanding what the term light music meant.

Which city do Yui Hirasawa and her K-On! bandmates choose for their graduation trip overseas?

London wins out in the 2011 film, which features a café inspired by the real Troubadour in Earl's Court, a spot fans of the series often visit.

Which pet does the K-On! light music club buy so Azusa Nakano has someone to look after?

A turtle named Ton moves into the club room, paid for with money from selling an old guitar that once belonged to the girls' teacher.

Ritsu Tainaka of K-On! picks which famously wild British rock drummer as her favourite?

Keith Moon of The Who gets the nod in the anime. Later, watching a concert video of his band reminds Ritsu why she loves the drums, even out of the spotlight.

Which name does adviser Sawako Yamanaka give the K-On! band when its members cannot settle on one?

Ho-kago Tea Time means After School Tea Time, apt for a club whose newest recruit is shocked to find everyone eating cake instead of practising.

Mio Akiyama and Ritsu Tainaka are voted into the lead roles of which Shakespeare play in K-On!?

Romeo and Juliet goes ahead with Mio as Romeo and Ritsu as Juliet, plus a replica Rosetta Stone borrowed from the occult club to stand in for a missing gravestone.

Which accessory, brought in by a teacher, earns Azusa Nakano of K-On! her lasting club nickname?

Cat ears do it: Yui tacks nyan, the Japanese counterpart of meow, onto Azusa's name, and Azu-nyan sticks for good.

Which single change was made to the title K-On! for season two on Japanese television?

An extra exclamation mark is the only change to the title, though the season itself doubled in length, running 26 episodes against the first season's 13.

Yui Hirasawa falls for which famous guitar model in K-On!, despite a price far beyond her budget?

Gibson Les Paul Standard, in Heritage Cherry Sunburst, is the guitar Yui nicknames Gitah. Her friends take part-time jobs to help her afford it.

Which studio, also known for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Clannad, animated K-On!?

Kyoto Animation produced both TV seasons and the 2011 film, and by 2011 merchandise sales for the series had passed 15 billion yen.

Mild-mannered teacher Sawako Yamanaka of K-On! hides her past as lead singer of which band?

Death Devil was her heavy metal band, in which she performed under the stage name Catherine. Ritsu uses the secret to blackmail her into advising the girls.

Which song does the K-On! band play at its first school festival, with nervous Mio Akiyama singing?

Fuwa Fuwa Time was meant for Yui to sing, but she lost her voice while training to sing and play at once, leaving a terrified Mio at the microphone.

Which title does drummer Ritsu Tainaka claim for herself in the K-On! light music club?

President is Ritsu's self-proclaimed title, yet she keeps skipping the paperwork. The club room went without an air conditioner because she never sent in the request.

Mio Akiyama of K-On! is entranced whenever a music shop stocks which rare kind of instrument?

Left-handed models are scarce, and Mio plays that way herself. At a summer rock festival she is just as transfixed by a guitarist on stage who shares the trait.

After Mio Akiyama trips on a cable at her first K-On! school festival show, what do other students start?

A fan club springs up after the mishap, founded by an infatuated student council senior who later trails Mio around school in her last days before graduating.

Which distinctive facial feature of Tsumugi Kotobuki in K-On! is said to run in her family?

Large eyebrows mark out Mugi, the band's wealthy keyboardist, who has played the piano since she was four and has won several contests.

Besides playing, which creative job does Mio Akiyama mostly handle for the K-On! light music club?

Writing the lyrics falls to Mio, and the results are famously sugary. Ritsu once mistook a sheet of them for a love letter addressed to her.

Who poses as a feverish Yui Hirasawa at a K-On! rehearsal, only to be exposed for playing too well?

Her younger sister Ui, who looks nearly identical to Yui with her hair down, had picked up the guitar part in only a few days of practice.

Azusa Nakano bakes a chocolate cake for the graduating K-On! seniors to mark which occasion?

Valentine's Day finds Azusa too nervous to hand the cake over at first. Once she does, Yui answers with a speedy White Day gift in return.

Which rare gift of Yui Hirasawa's in K-On! astonishes Azusa Nakano, who has played guitar far longer?

Absolute pitch lets Yui tune by ear, which astonishes Azusa, a guitarist since fourth grade who has been playing far longer than she has.

Tsumugi Kotobuki's family in K-On! owns holiday homes across Japan and even in which Nordic country?

Finland is where Mugi spends part of one summer, and the souvenirs she brings back inspire the girls to plan an overseas trip of their own.

Which club did Mio Akiyama intend to join before Ritsu Tainaka forced her into light music in K-On!?

Literature was Mio's choice until Ritsu, her childhood friend, hauled her into a club that faced being disbanded unless it found four members within the month.

Why does homeroom teacher Sawako Yamanaka place all four senior K-On! band members in one class?

Fewer names to remember was her honest motive. Her pupils soon copy the band in calling her Sawa-chan, which ruins her image as a mild-mannered teacher.

Which director made a series-directing debut with K-On! and later directed the film A Silent Voice?

Naoko Yamada got her first directing chance only about four years after finishing university, then went on to direct the second season and the 2011 film as well.

Which artist wrote and drew the original K-On! comic strip before it became an anime?

Kakifly both wrote and illustrated the strip, ending it in 2010 and then reviving it the next year with separate college and high school storylines.

Yui Hirasawa and her bandmates in K-On! attend which all-girls private high school?

Sakuragaoka's light music club had no players at all when the story begins, because every one of its previous members had already graduated.

The real building used as the model for K-On!'s campus was originally built as what?

An elementary school in the rural town of Toyosato was the model, and it has opened part of its old buildings to the public as an exhibit for fans of the series.

Which first-season K-On! ending theme won Best Theme Song at the 2009 Animation Kobe awards?

Don't Say Lazy puts Mio's voice actress, Yoko Hikasa, on lead vocals instead of Yui's, and the single entered Oricon's weekly chart at number two.

Which K-On! opening theme became the first anime image song to top Oricon's weekly singles chart?

Go! Go! Maniac sold about 83,000 copies in its first week, while the same season's first ending theme entered the chart right behind it in second place.

Which voice actress won Best Lead Actress at the Seiyu Awards for playing Yui Hirasawa in K-On!?

Aki Toyosaki took Best Lead Actress in 2011, one year after the same role had helped earn her the Best New Actress prize at those awards.

Mio Akiyama's instrument is later given which regal first name in the K-On! anime?

Elizabeth is what her sunburst Fender Jazz Bass comes to be called, sometimes punned as Elizabass. Azusa's guitar is named Muttan in the same spirit.

Mistaken for another act on a K-On! graduation trip, Yui Hirasawa's group must play at what venue?

A sushi restaurant gets an unplanned show in the 2011 film because the girls are taken for Love Crisis, a band that belongs to a friend of Ritsu's.

After cramming to full marks on a make-up exam in K-On!, Yui Hirasawa finds she has forgotten what?

Her guitar chords vanish because Yui can only hold one subject in her head at a time, the same single-mindedness that earned her the perfect score.

Which accessory keeps Ritsu Tainaka's fringe pulled back off her forehead throughout K-On!?

A yellow hairband is Ritsu's trademark, along with a school jacket she always wears open. She says she picked the drums simply because they are cool.

Sawako Yamanaka of K-On! is named after Sawao Yamanaka, a musician in which Japanese rock band?

The Pillows also lent a name to Nodoka Manabe, Yui's level-headed childhood friend, who is named after the band's guitarist Yoshiaki Manabe.

K-On! first ran as a comic strip in which Houbunsha magazine devoted mainly to four-panel series?

Manga Time Kirara carried the strip from its May 2007 issue until 2010, and its companion magazine Carat ran chapters of the series as well.

Which K-On! spin-off comic, launched in 2018, follows a new band at a different school?

K-On! Shuffle stars Yukari Sakuma, an aspiring drummer who decides to get into music after watching the original girls perform.

K-On!'s band was the first female act to hold Oricon's top two singles spots since which 1980s idol?

Seiko Matsuda had last managed it in 1983. The girls matched her in 2010 with a pair of singles that came out together.

Which company picked up K-On! for North America after distributor Bandai Entertainment closed?

Sentai Filmworks re-released the first season and also took on the second season and the film, with the original English dub cast returning to their roles.

Which club did Tsumugi Kotobuki of K-On! plan to join before she was invited into light music?

Choir was the plan for Mugi, a piano prodigy, until Mio and Ritsu invited and encouraged her. She has since written several of the band's songs.