Hibike! Euphonium

As a person who has had his fair share of pointless Moe blob shows I admit that my initial impression of Sound! Euphonium wasn't the best. In all honesty, The moment I saw the cover of the show I dismissed it as another Moe blob show and skipped it without much thought, and It was only through high ratings and numerous recommendations that I decided I would give it a chance. But even then I wasn't convinced. I went into the first episode with a face of disdain. Only to watch further and further until I realized how terribly wrong I was. Sound! Euphonium gaveme a slap in the face and made me realize how shallow I have become. I shall never judge a book by it's cover again. The story follows Oumae Kumiko, a former Euphonium player who looks to change her life as a High School Freshman. Ironically although she wants to avoid the High School Brass Band she gets pulled into joining along with her two new friends, and there she accidentally meets her former bandmate Kousaka Reina. A girl she accidentally insulted in junior high. The story itself is pretty simple and isn't very original.If that's the case then what exactly is so good about this show? One of the reasons is because of Euphonium's representation of youth. Sure Euphonium is a show about music. The show is centered around music. But even more than that Euphonium is a show about hardships, ambition, frustration, friendships,life. Euphonium is just so much more than an anime about music. That doesn't mean the music is overlooked or anything. On the contrary the music in Euphonium is absolutely spectacular. The band pieces that the club plays sounds exactly like an actual brass band. When I say that I am not only talking about the good pieces but also the bad pieces in the beginning of the show. The band sounds very much like an actual High School Band and I definitely appreciate that.The soundtrack apart from the actual music pieces are also quite varied and all fit the mood quite well. As a show created by KyoAni you would normally expect the usual eyegasm inducing animation that the studio has become commonly known for. Well let me tell you Euphonium takes Kyoani's standards and puts it on a whole new level.I am not kidding at all.The amount of detail from the fingerings of the instruments,character expressions,backgrounds,etc are just amazing. There is also a hint of realism in the animation that fits the show just perfectly. I really couldn't do the animation justice explaining it here. You just have to go see yourself. It's nice to see that Euphonium has a nice story, stunning animation, and beautiful sound. But that would all go to waste if the characters weren't good. Well fear not, for Euphonium's strongest aspect comes from it's characters. You have Oumae Kumiko, A High school freshman who doesn't seem to have any special goals in her life, and wants to have a fresh start at her new school. At face value Kumiko doesn't seem very interesting, but dig a little deeper and you realize that there is so much more to Kumiko than your average female lead. Probably the most enjoyable part of her is watching her change along with her interactions with the other people in the band. Seeing her grow over the course of the show from an indecisive person who doesn't really know what to do with her life to a person who hungers to get better with her Euphonium is truly a rewarding experience. On the other hand you have Kousaka Reina. A cold and seemingly distant trumpet player. Reina to me is a person that puzzles me constantly because it is often very hard to see what she's thinking. On the outside she has this cold demeanor but through her various interactions with Kumiko you realize that there is so much more to Reina than what you see on the surface. Most people who has ever been in a school band can probably attest to this when I say that usually not everyone is on the same page. What I mean by this is that not everyone has the same goal in mind. Some people are in the school Band to just have fun playing their instrument while there are others who take music more seriously and want to start a career out of it. Some people are naturally better at others while there are others who drag the whole band down. It's not as simple as just putting up a goal and working towards it. Everyone has their own opinions and their own ideals. Sound! Euphonium knows this and represents this perfectly. The side characters are not just there to become background characters with little relevance, but each of them have their own personalities, their own opinions, their own motives. Probably one of the greatest examples of this would be Tanaka Asuka. An eccentric but extremely talented Euphonium player who is liked by most people. Her energetic personality and humorous demeanor makes her a very fun person to watch, but as I watched deeper and deeper I realized that there was much more to Asuka than meets the eye. Honestly speaking Asuka couldn't care less about the emotional drama that happens in the club. Asuka is always neutral. She never picks sides and always distances herself away from the drama that goes into the club. Asuka doesn't have any emotional investment whatsoever with the members. This can probably be seen best in a scene where Kumiko asks her who she thinks should be the solo, and Asuka answers frankly that she doesn't care. It's these types of differing attitudes that make the club seem like an actual school band, and not one that is conveniently made for anime. Honestly speaking one of the reasons why I have become so attached to this show is because of the chemistry between Kumiko and Reina. At the start of the show part of the reason Kumiko didn't want to continue the Euphonium was partly because of Reina. In the beginning of the show Kumiko seems to have a really hard time understanding why other people can play with such dedication, and this is evident when Kumiko asks if Reina thought that they would actually make it to the nationals in Junior High. If anything Kumiko just seems to want fun with playing the Euphonium. She doesn't want to be so devoted playing an instrument at the beginning. Through the course of the show though Kumiko ends up finding the motivation to play from none other than Reina herself. Although they seem to be completely different from each other. They are similar in the fact that they both isolate others from getting too close to them. Reina realizes later on that Kumiko is isolated like herself and wants to become close with her, because she thinks that Kumiko might be able to understand her motivations for wanting to stand out from the others. This is what becomes the motivation for Kumiko to take playing the Euphonium seriously. After learning more about Reina's ambitions. Kumiko wants to become special to. She doesn't want to be left behind by Reina. This intimate relationship between the two characters is just absolutely beautiful. That's not to say the show is completely devoid of any problems though. Kumiko and Reina's chemistry end up taking up too much of the spotlight which ends up making the other potential romance completely fizzle out and become something that completely gets shadowed over.This is a very minor problem but its still worth pointing out. To say that Sound! Euphonium was surprising to me would be an understatement. It completely blew away my expectations and then some. If there was anyone who was in a similar situation like me and decided to skip this show I urge you to give this show a chance. You might be surprised to see what you find.

Hibike! Euphonium was absolutely gorgeous and blew away my expectations in every field. Kyoto Animation at their best what I mean by that is their ability to make the viewer fully engaged into a slice of life anime. Throughout my extensive catalog of anime I have had my fair share of the slice of life genre and I can say with the utmost confidence that Euphonium is definitely one to check out. I started watching the anime on the pretext of a group of people saying it may be the anime of the season. Upon hearing that statement from my high horse I decided thatit may be worth looking into. In the course of watching the show I constantly reminded myself that SNAFU Zoku was the anime of the season and as I completed the final episode of Euphonium I painfully, but not regrettably, give Euphonium anime of the season. Story - You have to "love" anime Synopsis' because they merely scratch the surface. The Story focuses on a band club that commits to make it into the national competition little did they know how far away they were from meeting that goal. Art - The backgrounds! The highlights! I haven't been shown the beauty of 2015 animation until Euphonium premiered. Kyoto Animation really made an outstanding piece of work. No matter how familiar I am with their works it still did not prepare me for the beautiful display of emotional scenes that were blissfully captured. Sound - Its of the Music genre of course the music would be emphasized. The music was very dependent on the skill of the club so as you would watch the show from beginning to end you could see their growth as well as hear it. I am no where near a person that can critique music but if you listen closely you could see how just a small change of sound and a strength of breath can take music a long way. Characters - Kumiko by far was my favorite as her inspiration was Reina who possessed an undying dedication to music as well as her future. Kumiko broke my preconceived image of her as the optimistic protagonist we have all seen before within the first episode. These two made for the most stunningly beautiful scenes I have ever seen in a long time. In the beginning each club member was made to make a decision not only as a club but also as individuals. The characters that were focused on in the anime each had something different that would propel them past their limits. Enjoyment - Hands down this is a contender for anime of the year. I enjoyed every episode and I can potentially see myself rewatching Euphonium in the future. For my closing remarks I would like to talk about how good of an anime it was for the music genre instead of the slice of life aspect I have been ranting on about. Musically, it was superb for an anime for being set in high school. So for my final piece, I would like to say Euphonium is better than "Your Lie In April" for many reasons that I wish I could disclose to the general public, however, I am afraid I cannot incorporate spoilers in this review. I know it is a bold claim as I too, am a fan of "Your Lie In April". In whichever case I hope you take this review into account when you decide on your next anime.

I really don’t know about this series. I know for sure that it WAS NOT good, but I don’t really know what to think about it and what exactly I liked and disliked about the series. I know that it looked really pretty and there were some beautiful moments, but many of these key scenes didn’t have a purpose that was fulfilled by how they looked. Its as if the show wanted to look nice just to look nice and the images didn’t enhance the plot as much as they should have. Speaking of the plot, it was mostly hit or miss with both thefirst and second halves feeling weak in their own ways. The first half had some enjoyable parts but the main cast didn’t really mesh together in any real or believable way, and most characters didn’t have anything to really like about them. Many were bland and didn’t have much purpose aside from either being an obstacle or fulfilling an aside that fed into the main conflict. Kumiko was likable to an extent and received the most development, and I can really appreciate that she isn’t put into a certain mold and feels conflicting and layered enough that she feels the most real, but she was a character that would have been better served in a better plot. The plot was, personally, the weakest part of the series in part to how inconsequential it felt at times, and how many of the surrounding elements did not service it in a meaningful way. What I mean by this is that many of the asides that the series which served to either flesh out the world, provide character development, or explain the situation in a practical way, didn’t seem to have much impact because the time spent developing these scenes did not, in turn, provide a similarly large effect on the world. Often the understandings of other characters to what is happening or the status quo does not change and it feels like most of these moments could have easily been tossed aside and it almost seems like they were. That is not to say that certain scenes such as Kumiko and Rikka on the mountain aren’t memorable, but that it instead feels like it came out of nowhere and disappeared without any real impact on what is going on. You could call it subtlety and say that development on these characters is meant to be subdued and realistic, but even in that case it doesn’t work because we do not spend enough time getting to know these people to really know how their feeling. Other than Kumiko who, admittedly, did believably change over the course of the series. Aside from this, the series feels the need to shove all development down our throat with useless narration which often repeats to us things we could understand just by watching what is happening, and most of the time comes off as redundant and unnecessary which ultimately takes you out of the experience. As a whole, the plot showed promise, particularly at the beginning where the destination and the obstacles were made clear and the possibilities of truly coming together while working towards something meaningful as a group seemed like what the series was aiming for, while emphasizing the attempted repair of an awkward friendship. The problem, I think, is that the series was too short. I faulted the series’ inconsequential asides but I believe if this same story was told over more episodes and we really got to know more members of the band then while seeing them all interact would have given the story more impact as we see how the events of the story matter to them and better understand what makes them who they are. Instead nothing feels like it really matters because as certain elements are introduced, they often don’t have a worthwhile conclusion or don’t add anything to the story. They may tell you more but not enough that you know why it matters. As the story progresses certain events only add unnecessary drama or hold the overall plot back either because the whole story also has the misfortune of being largely predictable, and because they do not add any further tension when the stakes were clearly established and characters act in a way that defy what is best for everyone and holds everyone back. Finally, and this is much more personal, I did not enjoy Kumiko and Rikka’s relationship. To be clear, most of the characters lacked meaningful relationships, but I did not see a reason to enjoy their’s in particular. Nor did I see any reason to justify them as a yuri pairing. NONE AT ALL. I am being entirely serious. None of their interactions in the beginning gave me any reason to believe either of them even liked each other nor do they even seem to get along most of the time. They just have vaguely romantic moments that serve no purpose and feel very out of place. All in all, I don’t hate the series, but I do have many problems with it, and would easily say that it is my least favorite Kyoto Animation show of recent memory. I can give credit to Kumiko being likable enough to make some parts bearable, and for the ending actually feeling fulfilling. However, most everything else was not enjoyable and I began to actively dislike the show by the 3rd quarter. I didn’t like the characters, I didn’t like how the plot flowed, and while the show is beautiful, the art does not add anything nor do anything to bring you closer to the world. Its pretty but without substance.

I'm a music person. I've always been one, though at the beginning it was in heart alone. In middle school I played violin, trumpet and sang in the choir, and I was told promptly and I quote that I sounded like "a cat being run over by a lawnmower". This didn't get me down though (for some reason,) in fact I saw my apparent absolute lack of any talent whatsoever to be a sign that I was meant to pursue music. I continued to practice much to the suffering of everyone around me, and though I experienced harsh criticism along the way I'm now incollege and I'm part of two prestigious music groups and consider myself to be a functioning member of the music community. I can look back and track my progress from hopeless wannabe to soloing for Joe Biden at his Christmas party at the National Observatory. I still have the napkins I stole from his bathroom. Hopefully no NSA cameras were watching. Sound! Euphonium is a show all about this struggle, the burning desire to make your seemingly impossible ambitions come to life, and so while I am obviously laden with personal bias due to my background I will still stand here and testify as an equally great fan of storytelling that as the great Euphonium yuri shipping fad of Spring 2015 comes to an end, what we're left with is... a pretty spectacular show. Kyoto Animation has developed quite the reputation for itself over the past decade with shows such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, K-On and Hyouka, to name a few. Anyone who's seen more than one of these has probably noticed a trend; it's not something they try to hide. KyoAni loves three things, or rather they know that anime viewers love them: high school, slice-of-life, and moe. Literally everything they've put out in over ten years has had these traits, and they've been spectacularly effective at least in part due to them. I've heard a lot of people complain about how KyoAni's endless fluff shows are ruining anime, and to that I would say: KyoAni really hasn't made that many shows. Blame other studios trying to replicate their success for the moeblob spam that inevitably flood every season. When KyoAni DOES make a show, however, anyone who is willing to put up with the inevitable fluff should check it out, and Sound! Euphonium is no exception. Actually, I would go so far as to say that Sound! Euphonium is one of the best KyoAni shows to ever be produced. Euphonium is pretty much the perfected embodiment of KyoAni's strengths: the art is stunning. The character animation is out of this WORLD. The writing and drama are strong and honest. The music... ohhhh the music. As the name would imply (and contrary to what many lusting fans seem to believe,) Euphonium is a show about music. Yes, there are drama and romance in it but its first-and-foremost focus is on the growth of the high-school band in which our protagonist Kumiko is a euphonium player. Because of this, the show has a very group-oriented focus, because hey, bands are a group effort. The band cannot succeed without the effort and cooperation of ALL of its members, not just the protagonists, and while Kumiko and her close friends strive for personal improvement both in attitude and talent Euphonium shows us time and again that they are inevitably only part of a collective whole that must all come together in this way in order to be successful. This is the first aspect in which the show absolutely wowed me: THE CHARACTERS Euphonium is a short 13 episodes, and yet not only does it manage to deeply develop the protagonist and her close relationships but also follow a supporting cast of an unbelievable size. More than ten characters have full arcs across the length of the show and countless others gets development and recognizable personalities. Despite this, the show never feels rushed and it never feels as though its detracting attention from either the main cast or the band itself. It does this by carefully weaving the character's struggles together so that each episode focuses on a plethora of conflicts, showing how they may or may not be connected but also how they all matter as part of the band's dynamic. No one gets left behind: there are small, quick scenes all over the place keeping tabs on all of the characters, and by the end when I'm watching the band preform it feels like I'm actually connected to the ensemble rather than just some of the people that are in it. On the other hand, the main cast are individually compelling as well: Kumiko is definitely up there as one of the best female protagonists of all time, as someone who is relatable, charismatic, and a touch-- dare I say-- deep? She begins the show as directionless but contemplative, and as her obviously intense thought process slowly guides her towards something she cares about she experiences some of the most profound moments I've ever seen in an anime: spectacularly executed scenes about the pursuit of passion and trying to weigh what's supposed to matter against what matters to you personally. (Of course, the show handles these ideas in a much more tactful way than I just did, and that's really what sells it.) Her exceptionally driven comrade (and secret lesbian lover) Reina is actually equally compelling: her frustration with others apathy, her honesty about her own ambition, and her struggle to try to interact with others in a way that is more tactful but still honest all add up to make her a suitable romantic counte-- I mean, "best friend" for Kumiko, the protagonist. You'll get plenty of heartwarming scenes from the two of them, but you'll also get ones that are powerful and true: Euphonium is one of KyoAni's most driven shows, and it is not content to just sit back and be cute and charming. Much like Reina and Kumiko it wants to go places, and go places it does. THE PLOT I was actually amazed by how much story the show managed to cover in thirteen episodes. Much like an elegant trombone slide the story of the show progresses fast but smooth, blending together with the character's development to achieve that most desirable effect that all slice-of-life shows dream of: a plot that is driven by countless small moments rather than a few obvious big ones. Life doesn't move in big shifts, it moves through countless small moments, and Euphonium captures that. The band grows and improves, both in sound quality and relationship, such that it is an unrecognizable ensemble by the end of the show. Progress and change are steady in the show, but they aren't dramatized. You can look back and see how far the band and the characters have come (and they do the same thing) but it's not something where you can point to a specific moment and say "this is where things changed". Things are ALWAYS changing. What I will say, without spoiling anything, is that Euphonium has a definitive story and conclusion. It isn't just a slice-of-life where stuff happens and then at the end some stuff has happened and it teeters off: Both Euphonium and its characters have a goal, and by the end of the show we are given a definitive resolution to that goal. While a sequel would be both possible and much desired, it is not required as the show does a great job (especially amongst anime, which are known for having obnoxious unresolved conclusions) of having a powerful and definitive ending, with what was in my opinion the best episode of the season (and maybe even the year if not for episode 9 of Death Parade) thanks to its top-tier character moments and ABSOLUTELY FRIGGING GORGEOUS MUSIC THE SOUND This is the VERY BEST soundtrack I have EVER experienced. Not because it's the prettiest or catchiest music-- though it is extremely enjoyable, but because like everything else in the show it is the most impressively nuanced thing I've ever heard. People don't comically suck in Euphonium: they're usually just kind of sloppy and sad, so that you can tell not just that they're not great but exactly how "not great" they are. When the band first plays, it's not an abomination: it's simply lacking, morose, and full of small yet noticeable errors in tempo and pitch. It's not hard on the ears, but it's not fun to listen to either. However, as everyone improves and the talent of both the individuals and the group gets spectacularly better you can HEAR it. You can hear the marked improvement, even though there are still errors. You can hear the energy and vitality that begins to seep into everyone's performance. You can hear each rehearsal as the pitch becomes clearer and the parts begin to line up crisper. As I mentioned earlier I'm a music person myself, so I obviously have a little bias here. But I still firmly believe that this show NAILS IT with carefully executed performances and a stunning attention to detail when it comes to comparing and contrasting different sounds. One scene that jumps to mind (without spoiling anything: I'll be vague) is when characters are auditioning for a solo part and two markedly stunning performances are given... and yet despite how good one of them is you can still hear just how much better the other is. I was blown away. The show respects the audience, playing the music as it would be and letting them decide for themselves what they think sounds best rather than making the gap in performance qualities obvious enough that anyone can notice it as a contrived indication of talent. THE ART is gorgeous. Remember Hyouka? Well, it's more of that. It might even be prettier in some scenes. The attention to character movements and details is on-point, the direction is godlike, the backgrounds and instruments are both drawn gorgeously. One of my favorite things about the animation is that it ensures that characters are always subtly shifting or moving in some way, as people do, as opposed to using the classic "person standing here and only their mouth or maybe one hand is moving." People move constantly, especially in conversation, and Euphonium captures that bringing everyone in the show to more vibrant life. I'm not holding that against other shows at all though: it's great that KyoAni can do that, but that's pretty much only because they're rich as fuck and can literally bring worlds to life by throwing money at the screen. What they can get credit for though is the way that the scenes and character motions are framed: aka GORGEOUS and indicative of the countless complicated feelings and relationships the various band members have between themselves. This also is some of the most obvious and solid proof of Kumiko and Reina's steamy future, but that's besides the point. ENJOYMENT I loved watching this. I loved the performances, as they were borderline epic. I loved the characters, as they were compelling and sweet and diverse and were portrayed in a plethora of environments and moods. I loved the romance, which was touching and adorable and didn't overshadow the actual story. I actually signed up for a crunchyroll trial so that I could watch the new episodes sooner, and I'll be adding this to the top tier of my sequel wishlist. It's short, its amazingly well executed, it's compelling, and I'd pretty much recommend it to anyone. Anime of the season. OVERALL: 9/10, Most impressive soundtrack of all time, Needs R-rated spinoff.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes