Hibike! Euphonium

What to say about this series…It was a real treat and easily the best anime of 2015 season for me and a top 5 all time favorite. Can't wait for the second season! Simple story told with great craftsmanship and loving care, slow build and development of both the story and characters, and some jaw dropping beautiful animated scenes. There are some real magical moments here!!!

The story is told thru the narration of Kumiko, the main character and a first year, apathetic high school student. She's passive and disinterested, generally nice but often a bit blunt. She played the euphonium, but her previous band experience in Jr. High left her conflicted; In particular, her encounter with her fellow band-mate Reina's extreme upset over the results of their national's qualification competition. She decides on a new start, new friends, and therefore a new High school where most of her previous classmates aren't attending. She loves music, but she's hiding from her own internal conflicts about band. Her lack of passion/commitment/investment in playing and in life is the beginning place for her growth arc in the story.

The new High School wind band is a mess, has had large conflicts the previous year (between those motivated and not), to the point of members choosing to drop. Kumiko's new band-mates also have motivational & technical issues, and aren't anywhere near competition level. This is one thing I find fulfilling about this series; it takes a large cast of characters and develops many thru the story arc. I got to know them and identify, they felt fleshed out, complex and believable.

Of course, several of her Jr. High band-mates also end up at the same school, including Reina, and Kumiko must face her internal conflict and press thru. A new inspiring music teacher is the catalyst for the bands growth both collectively and individually; he holds them to a higher standard. Disagreements arise as they try to find their way and come together as a whole. They're aiming for Nationals, we're along for the ride, and it is a truly inspiring journey! Thru blood, sweat, and tears, we see these characters struggle and grow.

Depending on the scene and episode, here are my individual category ratings.

Animation 6-10. Consistently good to great, but there are some stunningly beautiful scenes here and there. High attention paid to details. Musical instruments look real, and they even paid attention to the musicians fingering of notes. Kyoto Animation, nuff said.

Story progression, solid 8. Be patient with this one, it does take some time to develop, but all scenes move the story forward.

Pacing 6-10. Overall good, often excellent, and certain episodes flew by, I was so engrossed.

Framing of shots & animation direction 8-10. Hollywood directors & cinematographers could take cues from this. Also, scenes are drawn as if looking thru a camera lens, with direct/reflective lighting, depth of field and moving camera effects giving this a very cinematic feel.

Main character development 6-10. Kumiko's growth as a character is wonderfully handled. I went from mildly interested to emotionally invested.

Supporting character development 5-9. Reina and a score of core characters handled from good to excellent.

Minor character development 2-6. In a band of approx 65 people, many side characters get some screen time. In 13 episodes!

Soundtrack 8-10. The music performances are awesome, appropriate, and set the mood wonderfully. Background music & effects very good, with good OP and ED.They really made this a main focus, and it shows!

Drama 7. This is a slice-of-life anime, so no huge earth shaking conflicts here, but natural feeling conflicts in competitive environment do occur, with allies aligning on both sides of the issue.

Humor 4-7. OK to very good, although there are some really cute and funny moments.

Caveats: 90% of the characters are moe cute girls, often acting in moe cute girlish ways. Kinda like new Disney, with shorter skirts. This is anime, after all. Thankfully, no fan service (cleavage or panty shots).

If you want an action anime, look elsewhere. Slow but even pacing.

Somewhat mature themes (girl-girl infatuation/professions of love) in a few scenes. Handled tastefully,though.

Can at times be overly sweet, overly cute, but never distractingly so for me.

Japanese dialog with English subtitles. If you can't put up with that, look elsewhere.

Overall a 9+ in my book. Special visual/musical beautiful scenes to watch out for are in episodes 1, 5, 8, 11, 12, and 13 finale. Finale is stunning and tense, best anime finale I've seen!

I'm not here to talk about the weirdly relatable characters, about their song choices being perfect for a real fanrare and research behind uncommon instruments. I'm here to talk about SOUND. If you pay close attention to the sounds of this anime, you'll quickly realize it's masterful - and by that I mean an opening door, footsteps, a page being turned. After many years working as a translator, I reached a point where I was tired of listening to shows being extremely sloppy with their sounds, having to listen hundreds of times the same part of the episode to come with a good subtitle. Sometimes my work involved big blockbusters, and even they had some really awful sounds thrown in the mix. On Hibike! Euphonium, that was never a concern. After I watched it for the first time, I decided to re-watch some scenes where the girls played instruments, and every sound matched their movement (not on the right chords, of course, but the motion was very close), and it was possible to listen a key press on a clarinet, or even the slight delay the air took to fill the instrument before making notes. The care of that department was mind blowing. Want to watch Hibike? If you like or don't mind a slow pace, teenage drama, and listening to a variety of instruments out of the mainstream, you'll love it.

It's made by kyo-ani, so obviously the animation quality is some of the best I've ever seen in a tv-format anime. The show is mostly well done story-wise, but it some parts left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, the yuri-bait sucks, I think every one watching the show wanted you know who and also you know who to get together, and there was too much focus on the teacher and his relationships. The show dragged on at times, this was the first show I ever had to complete in chunks, watching different animes before I competed the next few episodes because of how boring it mostly was. Honestly I was going to give this a 7, but I can only really say not so good things about this show so I see no reason to give it that high of a rating. If you are an anime fan you probably won't like this, if you are a straight up drama fan you probably will. I can definitely see why it is rated high, but it's not my cup of tea (even though I love most slice of life animes AND play the tuba and euphonium) so do with that information what you will.

I did not expect this show to go as hard into middle drama as it did, but it is so well done and the character development is slow and steady that I think it's a phenomenal show even if I think it only really pays off in the third season.

I will say that the show is a bit of a lesbian bait. I mean the way the girls talk to each other and actually go out, I think this is very gay, but they never growed over the line sadly.

Show looks beautiful, they have putten so much care, attention into it and that drama hits every time it actually makes me care about high school music clubs drama and I did not expect that.

There is such a warm to the show, the character design that has so much personality in it and when they were casual clothes, you can really see who they are. Animation on the people's faces are out of this world in how emotional it is.

And just to see the last season, is one of the best, I have seen of this kind of story. Has a part of that, I did not expect and is still shocked and enjoyed by I would absolutely recommend this series to anyone who is a little bit curious.

It's sad watching a series I've cared deeply about finally come to an end, yet joyous at the same time. Many great series fail to stick the landing. While Sound Euphonium may have stumbled a bit here and there, it still made for a satisfying journey, both for Kumiko and me.

For those that don't know, Sound Euphonium is a high school drama anime series produced by Kyoani (Kyoto Animation), revolving around the Kitauji High School Concert Band and its various members. The anime came out in 2015 and, at the time of this review, has recently come to an end after a nine-year run. It has three seasons plus a movie. There's also a spinoff film called Liz and the Blue Bird, and a special OVA called Ensemble Concert. While both these specials are good, and worth viewing they're not required to understand the main story. However, for those interested, you need to watch the movie, Chikai no Finale, after season 2 before proceeding to season 3 or you will miss out and be confused on many things.

Sound Euphonium was a series I've known about since it first released but was one I put off watching for years. Mostly because school life anime wasn't something that appealed much to me at the time, though that has changed in recent years. I wasn't fan of two other prominent school life anime Kyoani had made beforehand. I know I'm in the minority, but I'm one of the few anime fans who doesn't like either Haruhi Suzumiya or K-ON. I didn't like them when they first came out, and I don't care for them now.

However, in 2021 I had come down with Covid, and was in lockdown. For some reason I was in the mood to watch a school life anime, so I chose Sound Euphonium. I had binged the entire series up to that point, and found myself not only enjoying it, but became a fan. Now, I will say it's my second favorite work by Kyoani, just behind Hyouka.

I would say season 2 is the peak of the series. S2 I would say is great if not amazing. However, I like every entry in this franchise. I really enjoyed season 1, Chikai no Finale, Liz and the Blue Bird, and Ensemble Concert. S3 I would say is the weakest part of the franchise. My major issues with the series lie in that season, but I still enjoyed it overall.

Like with every Kyoani work, the art, character designs, and overall animation are spectacular, and it only improves with each season. By the time we get to S3 the animation is almost immaculate. The music is also a plus, as it should be given it's an anime that revolves around music. Everything regarding the presentation of this series is top tier.

This show also has a bit of relatability for me personally, as I was actually in the band as a kid, throughout all of middle school and part of high school. I played the flute, same as the character Nozomi. This is part of the reason she's one of my favorite characters. We played the same instrument.

However, it's not mainly the animation nor the performances that make me a fan of this anime (though they are still big reason), but the characters in it. This show has some really fun and memorable characters: Nozomi, Mizore, Kanade, Hazuki, Sapphire, Asuka, Kaori, Haruka, Natsuki, and so on. Even characters like Yuko or Taki, who I couldn't stand at first, I grew to like more as the series progressed (mainly Yuko).

However, no character can compete with Kumiko for me. I will go as far as to say that Kumiko Omae has become one of my favorite female protagonists in anime for me. Seeing her grow throughout this story is like watching your daughter come into adulthood. She goes from being a mostly passive character to a leader that brings out the best in others and brings everyone together. Her journey is the main reason I kept with this show.

I do have some issues with the series. Most are minor, but there are a couple notable ones. Firstly, the romance subplots with our two leads, Kumiko and Reina, aren't handled that great. I didn't the romantic elements particularly annoying or intrusive, which is more than I can say for a lot of school drama series I've watched. However, it's mostly treated as an afterthought compared to everything else. It feels like it was put in the series because this is a high school drama series, and some romantic tension is expected to be in there. And this show can get a bit melodramatic at points.

Also, there is some yuri baiting in this series, if you didn't already know. Sorry yuri fans out there, but the two lead characters aren't lesbians in a relationship, even if some scenes, taken out of context, make it seem that they are.

However, the big issues for me come in the form of two characters. Most of the characters in this series I like, love, or at least am indifferent to. However, there are two I don't care for. One is the second female lead of the story, Reina. She's a character I never got that into. She has a great design, but her personality was always off-putting for me. Though, I could deal with her in most of the series. But when we get to S3 she gets pretty incorrigible.

The other character I don't particularly like is Mayu, though for very different reasons. She's introduced in S3 as a rival for Kumiko, but she comes off as more of a plot device than an actual character. Just someone meant to stirrup drama.

Despite some grievances, I still deeply appreciate this series. It's not for everybody to be sure. If you're not a fan of school life types shows, this is probably not for you. If you can't stand melodrama in any capacity, this isn't for you either.

However, if you do like high school dramas, music anime, or are just a fan of Kyoani in general this is a show you should definitely watch if you haven't already. I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10, but I'll round it up to a 9 for this review.

For a show I put off for so long, and was unsure about, it has become a favorite of mine. I would say the best way to judge which movies, shows, games, books, or anime are your favorites is how much go back and revisit them. Sound Euphonium is a series I've rewatched many times since I got into it in 2021, and I'll no doubt rewatch it many more times in the future.