(L+CR) Hibike! Euphonium [anime]

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

What an enjoyable 23 minutes. The look, the pacing, the characters, the interactions -- all excellent. "None of us are willing to say what we really feel, we're just all heading in the safest direction." Wonderful starting point...

Agreed. I was actually happily surprised by the conversation between Aoi and Kumiko - great stuff. But also Kumiko really came across even stronger in this ep as very realistic, normal, and even "human".

Great second ep. Definitely committing to this one. I hope they can keep this up!

[Wandering Soul]

I like how Kumiko's actions and reactions just feel so human and natural. I also like how the show is slowly setting up her relationships with other characters.

That teacher also seems intresting as not many teachers I know would give a choice like that.

[Proto]

Indeed. This episode and the series in general seems to hit all the right notes(!). As people have mentioned the character interactions feel natural and the narrative is fluid, interesting and foreshadowing. Nothing to complain about here.

[FlareKnight]

It was interesting how things really did feel fairly complex, but those are human interactions for you. Things are just not terribly simple at times. It was interesting that the teacher gave them that option and pushed them to think about it.

I think the band president also represented things in an interesting manner. You could tell she was a bit rattled by the idea of them having to take some initiative and in a sense some responsibility for choosing their own path. It wasn't going to be just given to them, but rather they had to seriously think about it.

I can certainly get Kumiko wanting to change up instruments. Sometimes the Euphonium ends up being a thing you can't shake . Not a hugely popular instrument in those kinds of situations.

[Miraluka]

Not bad but still waiting things to pick up.



Btw, is it me or this show isn't that popular on Japan?

[Triple_R]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to break a bit with the glowing reception the second episode appears to be receiving here on Anime Suki so far. Now, there were certainly some elements I liked about Episode 2, but there was also some disappointments for me.

I'll cover what I liked first:

1. It's a bit of a broken record at this point, but it probably still needs to be said - KyoAni does truly wonderful visuals. The scenery from 19:00 to 20:20 was truly beautiful to behold. The scenery felt very full and vibrant in a decidedly pleasant way, like breathing in a cool gust of air flowing over nicely scented flowers on a picturesque Summer day. The school scenes were also impressive in their own way, as they have a great sense of spatial dimension, particularly in the music group scenes.

2. I like how the band as a whole received a lot of attention here. Our lead characters are still our lead characters, but the rest of the band are thankfully elevated well above mere props or window dressing, being full-fledged characters in their own right. It definitely helped my overall take on the episode.

3. I liked the band teacher. I liked the way he presented himself, and the way he deferred to the band as a whole.


Now, what I didn't like:

1. Kumiko's episode-long Reina-avoidance was a bit exasperating. It was amusing at first, but it eventually made Kumiko seem a bit weak and uninspiring to me. With the exception of her interactions with Shuichi, she seems somewhat fearful and pretentious in her interactions with other characters. I don't need her to be a genki girl, but I would like to get a better sense of what she truly wants and is aiming for. Right now, she seems a bit listless to me.

2. Reina felt pretty emotionally flat to me. She even made me think a little bit of Aldnoah.Zero's Inaho. Given how powerfully emotionally expressive Reina was in the opening scene of Episode 1, I find this both disappointing and a bit odd.

3. It sounds like some here thought the handling of the Kumiko/Reina dynamic was great, but I found it rather anti-climatic and underwhelming. And honestly, I'm inclined to disagree with the naturalistic compliments its receiving. Given how emotional Reina was in the opening scene of Episode 1, I'm inclined to think it would be more natural for Reina to show some real emotion when encountering someone she knows from that band team that failed in a way that caused her to loudly cry.

4. On the whole, I found the pacing of Episode 2 a bit slow and meandering. Beautiful KyoAni visuals and a well-realized supporting cast (i.e. the rest of the band) managed to save this episode from boring me. Yeah, this show is pretty different from K-On. K-On was significantly livelier, in my opinion...

[Proto]

3. It sounds like some here thought the handling of the Kumiko/Reina dynamic was great, but I found it rather anti-climatic and underwhelming. And honestly, I'm inclined to disagree with the naturalistic compliments its receiving. Given how emotional Reina was in the opening scene of Episode 1, I'm inclined to think it would be more natural for Reina to show some real emotion when encountering someone she knows from that band team that failed in a way that caused her to loudly cry.

To be fair you are comparing a moment of great emotional catharsis to daily life interactions with someone who may as well be an acquaintance. Maybe there's more to it than meets the eye, but at this point you just can't expect the same level of emotional investment. Heck, showing such a dichotomy between the character then and the character now may be an important hint in and of itself. At this point I'm more inclined to let the show speak for itself rather than force my expectations on it given that we are still on the set-up episodes.

And...

On the whole, I found the pacing of Episode 2 a bit slow and meandering. Beautiful KyoAni visuals and a well-realized supporting cast (i.e. the rest of the band) managed to save this episode from boring me. Yeah, this show is pretty different from K-On. K-On was significantly livelier, in my opinion...

Slow and meandering is good. Lively and colorful is also good. Yes, they may opposite in their approaches, but that is orthogonal to the quality of the show IMHO.

Btw, is it me or this show isn't that popular on Japan?

Why do you think so?

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Proto

To be fair you are comparing a moment of great emotional catharsis to daily life interactions with acquaintances.

No, I'm comparing a moment of great emotional catharsis to catching back up with the person you shared that moment of great emotional catharsis with. Honestly, I think Episode 2 was overly subdued about that.

And...

Slow and meandering is good.

I disagree.

Out of curiosity, though, do you tend to dislike fast-paced shows?

[Proto]

Out of curiosity, though, do you tend to dislike fast-paced shows?

I definitely tend to prefer slow paced anime, shows, movies, books in general, that said I don't particularly dislike fast-paced shows. I guess I could list Teekyu and Kill-la-kill as shows that go above my nonsense meter.

No, I'm comparing a moment of great emotional catharsis to catching back up with the person you shared that moment of great emotional catharsis with. Honestly, I think Episode 2 was overly subdued about that.

Well, if you want to look for deeper meaning in it I guess we could guess she was just lashing at whomever happened to be closest (and hence she places no special value in Kumiko, in which cases a normal exchange of pleasantries is expected) or whether she shared that moment with Kumiko specifically because it was her and hence the subdued response here has a completely different meaning. (a normal exchange of pleasantries is there to disguise a deeper animosity).

The third option would be that we just don't trust the people behind the series and blame it on poor screenwriting. Personally at this point in time I'd like to attribute it to the other two.

[Triple_R]

I just found the dichotomy disappointing and odd, Proto. I was hoping for a more colorful Reina character given how she came across in her introductory scene in Episode 1. I don't think that hope was unreasonable given that it was based on the anime content itself.

I'm not thinking about the series as a whole yet, and I don't think anybody should have to. Time will tell which of your options is closer to the truth. For now, I'm just talking about how much I liked this one particular episode while watching the show live.

I'm fully open to changing my mind based on later developments. But I don't see the harm in giving "snapshots in time" episode reviews either. It can be interesting to see how views on shows and characters change (or stay the same) over time.

[Benigmatica]

Episode 2:
Well, it sucks that Kumiko Oumae is stuck playing the euphonium instead of a trombone. But hey, Asuka Tanaka's dialogue makes everything lively!

Also, it's gonna be interesting when Taki-sensei trains them hard for the Nationals.

[Proto]

@RRR: Fair enough. I think we can agree that her reply and reaction was definitely odd and unexpected based on what we know of her.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Proto

@RRR: Fair enough. I think we can agree that her reply and reaction was definitely odd and unexpected based on what we know of her.

Honestly, I'm glad we can agree on that. Because I was worried that the dichotomy was being missed.

Maybe you're right and it is a hint. If so, it could end up being very deft and creative character handling.

But even if not... maybe the opening scene of Episode 1 is a case of distorted main character perspective? You know, sort of like unreliable narrator.

[Miraluka]

Originally Posted by Proto

Why do you think so?

There is not that much board threads on 2chan like the usual Kyoani show would(just the regular) for example and the fanart community doesn't seem much interested on this show.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I just found the dichotomy disappointing and odd, Proto. I was hoping for a more colorful Reina character given how she came across in her introductory scene in Episode 1. I don't think that hope was unreasonable given that it was based on the anime content itself.

What made Reina upset back in middle school was not being able to compete in the nationals. Kumiko's comment was something minor in comparison. Chances are she doesn't even remember, which is reasonable if you think about it.

This matter affected Kumiko considerably more because she felt guilty and conflicted afterwards. She felt like she was a bit of jerk, and regretted it, but on the other hand she thought that she really didn't do anything wrong. She's so conflicted she can't even decide if she should apologize. You can see this is all in her head.

Overall I think this whole thing is mainly meant to show Kumiko's character flaw, indecision. It felt anticlimactic because it was supposed to feel that way. Reina has bigger concerns, like winning the national.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

What made Reina upset back in middle school was not being able to compete in the nationals. Kumiko's comment was something minor in comparison. Chances are she doesn't even remember, which is reasonable if you think about it.

I strongly disagree. Middle school student isn't that young. An event at middle school age that causes you to break down into tears and express extreme disappointment is something that should stick, at least for a few years. I can remember the most disappointing/upsetting events of my middle school aged years, as well as the key people surrounding those events, and I'm in my 30s, for crying out loud.

Kumiko's comment was also directly related to this disappointment, and seemed to me to increase Reina's anger.

[Myssa Rei]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

There is not that much board threads on 2chan like the usual Kyoani show would(just the regular) for example and the fanart community doesn't seem much interested on this show.

Because there's no obvious "hook" for those fan artists to jump into, at least right now, especially given how Euphonium started out as a novel, and likely not one specifically written with the tastes of late-evening watching otaku in mind. If you don't remember that well, this happened in Hyouka too -- no explosion of fanart until the 2nd ED at least, and even then it only got rolling during the Kanyefest, deep into the second cour (the miko costumes sure helped).

As for Reina's lack of reaction, right now I'm in the camp that thinks that she does remember it, but just doesn't think it's as huge as a deal as Kumiko thinks it is. She may have been bothered at that time, sure, but she didn't dwell on it.

What was that bromide again? "It's only important because you think it's important." An important, life-changing, paradigm-shifting day in your school life might have just been a boring afternoon to your classmate sitting beside you.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I strongly disagree. Middle school student isn't that young. An event at middle school age that causes you to break down into tears and express extreme disappointment is something that should stick, at least for a few years.

What stick is the inability of her team to get to the nationals.

I can remember the most disappointing/upsetting events of my middle school aged years, as well as the key people surrounding those events, and I'm in my 30s, for crying out loud.

You may remember, but if whatever upset you back then still does you'd have some serious issues to care about. Besides, what made Reina cry in the first place wasn't Kumiko.

Kumiko's comment was also directly related to this disappointment

That's just not true. She was clearly crying before Kumiko said anything. Her comment bothered her no doubt, but on the whole it was something trivial.

In any event, do you really not see the dichotomy that Proto and I are pointing out?

No. I don't think there's anything odd about Reina's attitude. I was already suspecting that Kumiko was blowing things out of proportions since the first episode, and Reina probably didn't give much of damn. This episode just confirmed my suspicions.

[Proto]

>>>In any event, do you really not see the dichotomy that Proto and I are pointing out?

>>No. I don't think there's anything odd about Reina's attitude. I was already suspecting that Kumiko was blowing things out of proportions since the first episode, and Reina probably didn't give much of damn. This episode just confirmed my suspicions.

I stick with my guns and say that it's just too early to decide one way or the other. At this point it could be anything really. Yes, something definitely stinks here. It could be an unreliable narrator. It could be nuances of something deeper. It could be aliens.

[FlareKnight]

Yeah, I think it's a fair point that Reina probably didn't dwell nearly as much on it. It's possible it is still on her mind and she's just not bothering to bring it up, but she may have just put that comment behind her. She had something more constructive to do with her energy like continuing to take lessons for playing the trumpet.

It could just be the core of the incident for Reina was the failure to make the nationals. While for Kumiko the core of that incident was her interaction with Reina.

It'll be interesting to see where they go with these two. Right now and perhaps even back then they weren't all that close. Maybe once they got closer as friends that comment will become more important.