Category: Sound! Euphonium 2

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 04 [Awakening Oboe]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

This week Sound Eupho goes full-blown drama, exploring the struggles from Yoroizuka towards Nozomi. As a result, this episode is the show’s most emotional resonance, but at the same time is the show’s most straight-forwards in terms of plot. What you see is what you get, but the drama is resolved so well that I’m pretty happy with how all this played out.

It’s interesting to note that for how much the show set up this little drama, the conflict reaches its peak from something completely incidental, at first glance. Nozomi, upon hearing about Yoroizuka’s oboe criticism, decides to see her… to say hi, that’s enough to swell Yoroizuka’s emotions up and explode like a torrential rain. This turn of events might seem a bit randomly at first, but take a closer look and you can see their situation has been in a crumble ground that it’s a matter of time for that relationship to collapse on themselves. Before going to Yoroizuka’s point of view, let me raise this: people might think that Nozomi doesn’t really consider Yoroizuka as her friend because after she quit, they cut off their communication, which is something a close friend wouldn’t have done. Yeah, Nozomi might be a bit insensitive but truthfully, she did all that because that’s who she is. Who would blame her for that? She said that she didn’t tell Yoroizuka she quit because she didn’t want to drag her friend into the whole mess, which for me is fair enough.

In fact, it’s Yoroizuka who had a problem and the show highlights her issues quite effectively. Since Nozomi left the band without telling her, she felt left out. Nozomi had always been a precious friend to her, being the one who introduced her to play instrument. Yoroizuka fears that facing Nozomi again, she’d be rejected and that feeling keep boiling up inside her to the point that she gets sick just from listening to Nozomi’s sound. That is indeed scary when one’s too dependent on their relationship to others. For around a year she has been playing music for Nozomi and therefore overlooked Yuuko’s friendship and her enjoyment to the band. The visual alone conveys many feelings by the way they frame the characters, like how the show underlines Yoroizuka’s fragile emotions by displays her shutting herself up, literally, under the desk; or when Yuuko tears fall into her face (sharing the pain) and later when Yuuko literally knocks some sense out of her and raising her up to the bright sunlight. The drama sure is overloaded but the visual language is still as sensitive as ever. I have to give Yuuko an extra praise since this season she’s growing to be a very carefully constructed character (despite being very unlikable in first season) and I’m glad that she and Natsuki returning to tease one another again.

But the last five minutes of the show, right after the drama ended is when Sound Eupho returns to its dense storytelling. Asuka again proved to be a genius in pointing out the worst in people by commenting that Yoroizuka’s obsession to Nozomi is due to the fear of being alone, and afterwards making friend with Yuuko as an insurance, to which Kumiko completely disagrees. Asuka has been the most complex character of the series and the scariest thing about her is even when she’s putting up a front, she always makes sense. I doubt that her decision not to allow Nozomi back to the band is only because of Yoroizuka (well, mostly but hardly the only reasons). What she says might not be what she truly feels and I love to see how the show manages to crack into her true personality. Overall, while I think going for heightened drama is not the strongest suit (that would be the show’s emphasis on little moments) and the conflict was resolved a bit too quickly for my taste, it’s still a very well-executed episode. At least now we can move on to the Kansai competition and it’s time to give more spotlights to other members of the cast. Give me more Reina please!!

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 03 [Troubled Nocturnes]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

This week, we follow an almost 24 hours of Kumiko practicing music, Kumiko interacting with other members, Kumiko having a sleepless night in a band camp, and that’s basically it. In a very Sound Eupho’s way of storytelling, there seems to be not much going on, but this episode actually lays a lot of groundworks for the future drama of this season. This is essentially a set-up episode, but boy; does the execution shine through that make me completely hooked.

First, let me talk about Kumiko as a protagonist first. The show tells the story squarely through the point of view of Kumiko. It literally means that she appears in almost every moment of the show. We follow her every step, we see what she sees, we hear what she thinks. It’s actually a huge burden on her character, because if she’s not interesting enough, we will have a hard time getting on with her behaviors and thus could potentially bring the show down. Moreover, unlike most main characters in that situation who usually drive the plot themselves, Kumiko is passive. She was dragged to join the musical band, and then got swept away by the enthusiasm of the band. She’s even insensitive with the feeling from her surrounding, like she flat out rejected Shuichi (her childhood friend who also plays on the band), or never seems to comprehend Reina’s thoughts. Yet I believe she carries her roles very well. She has that cynical side of her, and her flat delivery (kudos to the voice actress here) both reflects really well her personality, and somehow adds charm to her character. She’s not a perfect person and that precisely why she’s believable in a way actual people behave.

Most of the drama this episode heads towards Yoroizuka’s issues (an emotionless girl). Although everyone agrees that her oboe skills are excellent, she can’t express herself very well. That problem echoed her confessions to Kuniko last week: that she doesn’t know why she keep competing, even though she’s clearly not enjoy playing anymore. In addition, when Kumiko confronts the always-scary Asuna, it is then revealed that the main reason Asuna refused Nozomi from coming back was because of Yoroizuka. She gets sick when hearing Nozomi’s sound and she can’t seem to operate when Nozomi is around. I suspect this was because of Nozomi’s very promise (to win a competition in high school) that put Yoroizuka in a trance, but I’m sure we’ll know the answer in next episodes. The message here is clear: Yoroizuka needs to open herself up in front of Nozomi, that coming event will both decide if Nozomi gonna be back to the band, and Yoroizuka’s solo performances issues. Neat tricks, Sound Eupho! Suddenly everything tied up to a neat package.

Upon seeing Niiyama (the female instructor) together with Taki-sensei, Reina, feeling insecure, couldn’t stop herself to ask for their relationship. This is for me the only clumsy part in this episode, as it feels very forced the way Reina stormed through everything to ask Taki about his affairs. Again, Kumiko is the one who get the real info dump: Taki had been married but his wife passed away sometimes ago. Taki almost gave up on music after that, but eventually he decided to teach music in this high school. Remember last week when he mentioned with a smile that he has no family right now so he spends most of his times for works? This competition training is a way for him to get his head out of his trauma. That’s a good character’s development and I’m amused to see how the show develops this little drama to its full extend. But please don’t make Reina confessing her affection to him. I just dislike it if the show goes to that path.

From last season, the question of pushing the band into competitive level has been addressed many times (pushing the band into competitive level means that those who play music just for pleasure will be left out. Hard but true), in this season again those questions become a central theme: Is competition fair at all? Do the players really enjoy competition? Kumiko receives different opinions from her peers, they are after all depend on each player’s perspectives. Yoroizuka explains that competition is to unfair, because all the hard works are being judged by something intangible: gold; silver; bronze; ranking, and playing competition is a pain for her. Later, when she asks Yuko (a girl who adored Kaori) that very same questions, she argues that trying to become better is worth more than doing nothing (like last year’s drama), but the competition assigns superiority (I like how she described it!) means that most of the time the end results justify the mean. Lastly, Reina says that she likes competitions and only winners get to say that judging music using ranking is worthless, because if losers say that they are nothing more than, well, sore losers. Those arguments all make sense and I’m glad that the show goes that far to explore different angles from the girls. This is a very solid Sound Eupho episode because they successfully plant all the drama seeds for this season, now let wait and see for all those seeds to blossom.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 02 [Hesitation Flute]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

It certainly is weird to cover the second season of a show that wasn’t originally covered here, but I do it anyway because the last season was among my favorite anime out of 2015 (not in my top 5 though). For anyone who will sigh when you heard the words ”KyoAni” and “musical band” together, no, this isn’t another K-On. While K-On focuses more about the band’s members having fun time together, Sound Euphonium takes musical seriously (too seriously!) and explore the huge band members interacting to each other. Contrary to the usual complains about things happen really slowly in Sound Euphonium, I consider it a very dense show. The show might feel slow in terms of plot, but they are rich in character’s interactions, in little character’s movements and in terms of the whole production values. Everything is gorgeous to look at and there are many things that you could take out of just by seeing those characters conversing. This is KyoAni at their most confident and while I don’t consider this show their best works (the top 2 of course are Haruhi and Clannad), the show certainly comes at their near-best, and this doesn’t come lightly considering my long affection for KyoAni.

The second season picks up right when the first one finished. Having won the qualifying tournament, the band aims to reach the National stage. But the drama between the senior class that happened one year ago that resulted in most of them quit (and which we always heard of but never know what exactly happened) keeps bubbling up the surface. Nozomi is among the most noticeable player to quit. She was the president among the group of Minami Middle School concert band. When she getting to high school however, the upperclassmen basically ignored practices and new members that bring frustration to them and cause a big stir between the members. Now, when the band is getting much better and preparing to compete in National stage, Nozomi wants to come back. It doesn’t go well though as Asuka flat-out declines. Our Kumiko has a chance to talk to Nozomi and she now decides to discuss with Asuka about that.

Last week, we were treated with a double-length first episode and I consider it one of the best episode in Sound Euphonium (along with one of the best first episode this season). The great productions and great cast are all there, but moreover they approach the story with confident pacing, to the point that 45 minutes long feels like 15-minutes episode. The second episode though, we were witnessed the usual pitfall for slice-of-life school settings show: a pool/beach episode. As much as I still love the interactions of the cast, and there were some great conversations between Kumiko and Nozomi, I could’ve prefer much better if the setting were someplace else. As far as I concern the cast goes to pool don’t add much to the plot, except knowing the fact that Reina’s chest is still growing because her swimsuit is tight. This was by far not a very good Sound Euphonium moments.

But thank god, aside from the pool settings, everything else rocks. This is the show that enjoys its little moments more than a bombastic over-the-top climax. There are so much of that little moments that really convey the mood of the scene. Take for example, when Nozomi and Kumiko talking about how she quit last year; her sad, melancholic tone was contrasted by the activities of young kids taking showers: pure, fun and innocent. When Nozomi burst out and cries, her teardrops were symbolized by the waterdrop in her cold-drink can. Or in later scenes when Kumiko meets Yoroizuka at night, her question towards her senpai: “why are you continuing with the band (even when you’re hurting)” was echoed by her senpai’s rhythm games pause-screen that asked her to quit or to continue the game. Those are smart and very sensitive storytelling right there that you don’t need to say out loud to make the audience understand it, instead they feel it. This is the best strength of Sound Euphonium. Next week we will have a fiercely confrontation between Kumiko and Asuka so I know we will have a good time. Sound Euphonium’s so far looking confident and strong.