Hibike! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest-hen

Sound! Euphonium is one of my very favourite series, so when I heard it was getting an OVA ahead of it’s third and final season, I was ecstatic! I will assume you’ve seen the prequels for the purpose of this review. Liz and the Blue Bird is not a required watching for this though. Story & Characters: Sound! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest Arc takes place after the conclusion of Sound! Euphonium: Our Promise: A Brand New Day, where, even though the band didn’t get invited to Nationals, the club activities still persists. Instead, they decide to take place in the Ensemble Competition for highschool students, which basically has the same rules as Nationals, but instead, are for groups of two to eight students. Since only one group per school is allowed to participate in the qualifiers, it’s up to the students to select the best group amongst themselves to represent Kitaugi High School. For the most part, storylines remain tame, ranging from how students will go about forming groups, to actually figuring out who gets selected amongst our favourite first and second year students. There still is some conflict without our groups, but none of the scale of either seasons or the movie. The group selections themselves are interesting enough, where students that we don’t know get to play together, and we focus more-so on Kumiko’s group. The group itself aren’t all familiar members either so watching as they rehearse was probably the high point of the story. What causes group members to struggle, what’s not working, and how do we fix them? These are strong ideas, and they don’t go quite as fast paced as the movie, which was welcomed here. The third year students are basically out of the picture for this OVA, as they prepare for getting into post-secondary school, so end up focusing more on everyone in Kanade’s year and now-president Kumiko’s year. Mizore, Natsuki and Yuuko get some interesting scenes as we catch up with them though. Kumiko is obviously our focus, as she tries to ease into her new role as club president – which she basically picked up before starting her official third high school year, due to the club not participating in Nationals. We get to see some minor flaws she has, but her interactions with Reina, as brief as they were, are still really nice to see. Hazuki and Sapphire, who weren’t really involved in Season 2, get more screen time this time around and they were interesting this time around. I didn’t love them in the first season, but they were strong here. Kanade follows Kumiko around the school a gets some minor screen time, but nothing nearly as stark as how she acted in the movie. Taki is mostly uninvolved in this season. As you get to the end of the season, you likely wish the season ended on more of a high note, pun intended, as it doesn’t feel like the story completely wraps up. They also don’t really show much in the final performances – which was equally disappointing. Still, this OVA likely only serves a warm-up of what’s to come in the third season. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 8/10) Art: Kyoto Animation is still puts out a strong product, but due to the story, they don’t really have much of a chance to shine like they did in previous seasons. Scenes with characters further away also looked noticeably dull, though it mostly didn’t matter anyway. (8/10) Sound: I’m still not sold at that finale should have been structured the way it did, so like the animation, the sound didn’t get much of a chance to show itself off. Still, instruments still sounded really nice in the context of the anime and the ending song and VA work were solid. (8/10) Overall: Sound! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest Arc is a fine distraction for Sound! Euphonium watchers before Season 3 airs in a few months. Whether it's bringing characters together or playing music together, both both, we get to see that here and I love those little moments of when something cool happens. It’s still Sound! Euphonium and it still remains strong for what it aims to do – get characters together to play music. And it does that. (8/10)

Hibike! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest-hen is a canon continuation of the Hibike! Euphonium series. Taking place after Movie 3: Chikai no Finale, it is definitely an improvement in pacing since it focuses on one arc only whereas the previous film fit almost a whole year into its runtime. This is a short film that sets up the third season of Hibike! Euphonium remarkably. This review is spoiler-free, feel free to read without worries. Story: As I previously mentioned, this film focuses on one arc, the Ensemble Contest. As the new president of the concert band, Oumae Kumiko is faced with struggles on how to lead effectively in herrole while continuing to refine her skills at the same time. Outside of that, the film centers on the intense preparation and competition for the ensemble contest, exploring the pressures and challenges faced by characters, existing and newly introduced. The film balances these struggles together with the looming competition. In terms of any drama/tension, there is not that much compared to other installments of the series. In this case however, it is not a negative aspect at all. Without giving away any specifics, the story captures teamwork and pursuing excellence, while of course staying true to the heartfelt tone of Hibike! Euphonium. 8/10 Characters: While the film focuses mainly on Kumiko, it does a good job in building the side characters. Even though it is sad to see some of my favorite characters absent from the band due to exam preparations (some of them do return but I rest my case), the new characters and the current ones we have are still very enjoyable to watch. In this particular film, I must commend the dynamic between Kumiko and Reina. Even though the other films and seasons already had a really good dynamic between them, this film somehow does it better. Their interactions were amazing and their character growth is especially noticeable when compared to the past. New characters had their fair share of development as well. Generally, this part of the film is very well done. Never really felt that there was any rush in development. Kumiko and Reina stole the spotlight for this field but the rest were definitely not undeveloped. 9/10 Art and Animation: What can I say? It's Hibike! Euphonium. The art and animation are flawless as always. Adopting the same art style as usual (not counting Liz to Aoi Tori), you will not be disappointed if you already love how the series looks. Characters are full of emotions and expressions and everything felt natural. The reflections and colors are beautiful and the environment is so lively. If I were to try and find something to nitpick, I literally cannot. Phenomenal as always, definitely will never be disappointed for this field. 10/10 Music/Sound Design: Another field that Hibike! Euphonium excels in. The voice acting and music are great as always. The ending song for the credits was really good. However, I do think there wasn't a chance for the music to shine as compared to previous installments. The way they did the performances could have definitely been done better. I was sad I didn't get to hear the full performance. Outside of that however, exceedingly great job. Usually would be a perfect score, but because of the incomplete performances, I will have to rate it lower. 8.5/10 Overall, Hibike! Euphonium delivers once again with its powerful blend of emotional depth, character development and musical excellence. It delves more into the personal journeys of our favorite band members, capturing their experiences without missing a beat. Stunning art, amazing sound design, splendid story and characters. If you have been loving the series thus far, you will not be disappointed. With this leading to season 3 of the show, it does its job by giving a little sneak peek of what to expect in the end. Kumiko is best girl.

It’s definitely the most refined Hibike content we’ve had since Liz and the Blue Bird (which is my favourite film of all time), but I fear that without the input of Yamada, everything has become somewhat more emotionally inert. Attempts have been made to replicate the influence she had on the series—there’s a handful of little leg moments that made me scour the credits for her name—but it’s not quite up to the standard of the series. That being said, it’s still a lot of fun, and a solid set up for season 3; it’s especially nice to see Kumiko functioning as the club’s president,and overall much of my disdain for the series’ previous film has been remedied. I’m excited for what’s to come!

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