K-On! Volume 1   Starring (voice): Aki Toyosaki, Asami Sanada, Ayana Taketatsu, and Chika Fujitō Manga Entertainment RRP: £17.99 MANG5240 Certificate: PG Available 29 August 2011

Yui Hirasawa has just started high school with its confusing number of extracurricular clubs, but which one to join? She joins the light music club, a club with so few members that it is danger of being disbanded. There is nothing light about the club, being essentially the start of a girl band...

K-On! (2010) is an anime show directed by Naoko Yamada. The script by Reiko Yoshida was based on the original manga written and illustrated by Kakifly. Character design is by Yukiko Horiguchi, who based his designs on the manga’s original. The show gained a high degree of success in Japan.

Volume one has only four episodes of the thirteen episodes in season one. If you had to pigeon hole the show, it’s a bit like Glee, where a small group of school kids, with dubious talents, get together and, in this case, form a girl band.

The first four episodes see our heroine join the club only to discover that they are missing a guitarist, the problem is that Yui only plays the castanets. Never mind, the girls get jobs, hoping to raise the money. Guitar in hand Yui sets about practising, but fails to balance this against her schoolwork and fails her midterms. Once again the girls pull together to get her through. With the first term out of the way the band retires to a villa to practice for the school concert.

K-On! Is a light hearted situational comedy featuring a bevy of cute girls. It is light on the eyes, but lacks any substance and seems to be made for an audience of young girls. Nothing wrong with that, many such shows exist of varying quality and this one is best described as playfully engaging.

The first four episodes are presented on this disc with a nice clean print; there are audio options for either English 2.0 or Japanese 2.0, with English subtitles. The character design ensures that the girls complement each other and are easy to tell apart. The only extra on the disc is an interview with voice actress Stephanie Sheh, who plays Yui (10 min, 15 sec).

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Charles Packer