Sawa-chan is Metal!!

Sickest solo in the series so far? lml

I had been extremely disappointed when the HTT girls swiftly gave up on convincing Sawako to play in her friend’s wedding. Needless to say, I’m a fan of being honest with oneself and being fearless with one’s likes and beliefs. When the HTT girls apologized to Christina I had thought they were gonna chicken out and play the “it’s okay even if you can’t stand up to things sometimes” and the “there are great people who will do their best to fill in for you” cards – have the HTT girls do their gig in Sawako’s stead and call it a day.

Great eyes, those are!

Hell yeah Sawa-chan! It is in moments like these that, as the Japanese like to say, you shine best. This is why you’re awesome. Not because you’re all pretty and yasashii and reponsible as a teacher, not because you’re a hopeless slacker and tea/snack junkie behind closed doors, not even because you’re such an expert costume rapist. Sawa-chan is awesome because she’s been on the other side. She knows what it means to jam and scream and fuck shit up and have the time of your life. That elusive “underground” realm characterised by defiant fashion and angry music bears a unique sort of magic lost on many “respectable people” who reject and shun them, mostly out of ignorance and subconscious social prejudice. Being a bygone star of that realm is an awesome thing, and it’d be great if Sawa-chan could now begin to learn to live with that part of herself instead of locking it away behind a “do not open!” door in some dark corner of her mind. I mean sure, it’s funny to see her remain as she is straddling her two worlds and flit every now and then between “Gentle Sawako” and “Dark Sawako”, but for some reason I’m all for character development this season. We’ve seen enough of the main casts’ “base personalities” by now. It’s time for some dynamics. Any kind or sign of change or evolution – however small and subtle – will be most welcome.

Great song, though I’m disappointed we didn’t get coarser vocals (what happened to “Omaera ga kuru no wa mattekita…. SHIINNEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” ?). Still, a metal gig in a wedding ceremony? One where everyone comes dressed in suits and ties and evening dresses? Awesome stuff. Except the reaction would probably be quite different in real life, at least where I come from. I can see it in my head now – the more sporting adults might be smiling with polite interest and remarking to their neighbours about how nice it is to be young, while some of the others would be squirming in their seats or touching their fingers to their temples in hurt dignity, too polite to protest but wondering in their heads how anyone could call that infernal racket “music”. The unfortunate catch behind appreciating music like this is that you’ll only ever enjoy it if you jump in with both feet. Not many people are quite willing to open up like these people did:

Still, it’s nice to see K-ON depicting grownups in suits and gowns enjoying themselves with the crashing beats and jagged riffs. It almost echoes some of the sentiments I keep hearing from this subculture of people who call themselves metalheads (one of whom is my brother). That going crazy over angry and often brutally rude music doesn’t have any bearing over who a person is and what a person can do – you can absolutely be a hardcore headbanger and a gentle and responsible teacher at the same time. That there isn’t anything fundamentally inappropriate or “wrong” about angry music and metal – you can absolutely play it in a wedding too, if only people learned to understand and accept it.

(And wait, did I just dare imply that K-ON made a cultural statement? The world ends tomorrow)

(PS 1: Azusa is so made for heavy music. Remember the stuff she played back when she first joined the band? She’s wasted on HTT, I say!)

(PS 2: I wonder if Sawako/Catherine ever got a stalker. If so, I would very much like to know what happened to said stalker :P)

She’s getting new fangirls even now