(L+CR) Hibike! Euphonium [anime]

[Dextro]

I'm sold on this one for now. The first episode already had more instrument playing animation than the entire first season of K-On!

Ok, leaving jokes aside, that was a very good first episode for me. The main character looks like a very interesting person to follow. Not too genki but not deadpan enough to bore. Just on perfect mix imho. Then there's SaphireMidori-chan which I was dreading from all those overblown anime faces during the OP but who ended up being one of those too cute to hate characters for me. Then Asuka who reminds me of a younger Sawako-sensei. Overall I'm liking the cast which is already more than the first episode of Amagi did for me and I got quite a few chuckles out of this so it's on the right track.

On the sound front the OP and ED ended up sounding a lot better than I expected from the previews even if the OP directing felt as underwhelming as most KyoAni OPs tend to feel (impressive visuals not withstanding). They really need to improve the direction for those intros, I don't think I've seen one I've genuinely liked since Hyouka and even before that they had stuff like the first K-On OP with the slapped on Asusa which was just incredibly lazy. (and they even tell us not to say it )

[DOmus]

Well, it was pretty good. I liked to color of the background, plus, I loved the work done in the eyes. The animations is fluid and the design for the character and their reactions are lovely.

The story seems good, not as intense and dramatic as with Shigatsu from the previous season(well, so far), but neither that SoL and random as what I had in mind. From this single episode it seems like there is a great variety of characters and personalities, something that I like. So far, the one I like the most is Asuka, and I think it will remain like that till the end of the season.

The music will be good, at least Im sure about that. Another anime which I will be getting its OST and musical covers.

[FlareKnight]

Good start I thought.

The show obviously looks great, you know what you are expecting with KyoAni that's for sure .

I like the MC as well. Can get her being really on the fence about whether to join the band or not. How things turned out in middle school and the incident with her fellow bandmate really left its mark on her. I'm somewhat curious why the other girl ended up going to that school, maybe some home trouble where this was the only place she could go or maybe family connection. Since it's not really a strong music school and if she wanted to go to nationals it would make sense to go somewhere that is darn good already.

So far I like the cast. Our only male character is a solid enough guy. The other two girls seem like they could end up fun characters to watch. And just my condolences to Midori....being named Sapphire, that's just rough.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Our only male character is a solid enough guy.

I see two male characters. The childhood friend and the teacher. The teacher was kinda interesting, in a somewhat eccentric way. The childhood friend didn't get enough attention to get a read on him, but seems on the generic side so far. That's not a good sign but we'll see what happens.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I see two male characters. The childhood friend and the teacher. The teacher was kinda interesting, in a somewhat eccentric way. The childhood friend didn't get enough attention to get a read on him, but seems on the generic side so far. That's not a good sign but we'll see what happens.

Not sure why I forgot about that guy, but fair point. The teacher who I expect will be conducting seems interesting.

The childhood friend was pretty much just there . I will give him props for torpedoing his chances before with the whole "quit talking to me ugly" line he gave in the past.

[Flower]

Ep 01

I thought the first ep was visually fantastic, of course - its KyoAni, so I should not be surprised, but even so I was impressed.

Other than that I thought the story to be pretty decent...only an introductory ep, of course, so we will see how things go over the next few eps, but for now it looks promising.

[Darthtabby]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

And just my condolences to Midori....being named Sapphire, that's just rough.

It's very interesting to see a Japanese character with an obviously foreign name in anime. That's very rare (and I suspect it's rare in real life Japan too).

I was sceptical of this show, but the first episode seems pretty solid. Like many here I particularly liked the main character. The gender imbalance of the main cast didn't actually bug me very much, though I was rather amused by the "All experience levels welcome!! Especially boys!" sign that showed up in one scene.

[Triple_R]

Excellent first episode.

This first episode was pretty much everything I hoped it would be.

I was hoping for something with conventional modern anime charm, but also with a decent sense of realism and seriousness to balance that all out with. Thankfully, Sound! Euphonium delivered that in flying colors (or should I say soaring notes?)

Now for Triple_R's Top Ten Observations on Episode 1!:

1. I really like Kumiko. She seems very well-balanced to me. She honestly makes me think of your standard KyoAni male lead in the body of a KyoAni female lead. In other words, she has a bit of that
Kyon/Oreki/Yuichi/Tomoya frank honesty and self-reflecting edge to her. She can carry "cheerful" pretty well, but she's by no means simple and thoughtless.

2. With the above in mind, I loved the smooth surefooted subtlety of Kumiko's characterization in the first episode. Often the "holdout", the "wet blanket", the "no, I'm not going to!" character in this sort of show/situation comes across as just obstinate or lazy or exasperating. But in Kumiko's case, I could perfectly get why she initially didn't want to join this band. And what's really great is that KyoAni pulled this off in a very implicit subtle way. I'd explain it further, but it's almost like explaining (and hence ruining) a good joke. I'm confident that most viewers will "get it" anyway. So moving on...

3. The band music was expertly executed. It sounded just good enough and nice enough to make it easy to understand why some listeners were in awe of it, but it was also just discordant enough to understand why Kumiko thought it sucked. Yes, it was a mostly pleasant and nicely rising sound, but there was some disharmony there that I think most people who have heard at least some band music before would pick out.

4. I like how our four leads are joining an already established school club/band. I like it for sheer novelty, honestly. Anime has done the "start up a school club from scratch!" and "revive a school club that's down to 1 member or even 0 members!" so very very very often. Just for a change, it's nice to see the main cast joining a full-fledged club. Not to save it (in the most basic sense of preserving its very existence), but just to join it. One added positive here is that it leaves me curious to see how the show will balance its main cast with the rest of the band.

5. Episode 1's opening scene was very strong. A good way to bring the viewer into this fictional world, and build up some immediate interest and intrigue. The key is as much in what it didn't show as in what it did show.

6. Asuka's trickster nature is very entertaining. The fake hand gag truly took me by surprise, and left me laughing - I almost never see that sort of thing outside of a Batman cartoon.

7. Hazuki and Sapphire make a good starting trio with Kumiko. There's good overall balance there.

8. Reina Kousaka... She shows a lot of promise so far. I'll do my best to avoid the most obvious comparisons.

9. My take on the two male characters is the same as Kazu-kun's. I like the idea of this band having a slightly eccentric male teacher leading it.

10. The red string of fate in the ED... lol! That was amusingly blatant in trying to win over yuri fans.


Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Wonderful first episode. It almost makes me think of the best of KyoAni fusing with the best of P.A. Works!

[Marcus H.]

I don't know if my eyes are tired or that effect where everything that's not the subject, especially the area around said subject, is blurred and diffused. It's not that bad, actually. It's just that it brings a wispy atmosphere when it shows up.

[Peanutbutter]

Looks like Kyoani gave themselves an extra challenge for this series. Beside the usual wonderful visuals and animations, the sounds and sound effects is also gonna play an important part here.

Was initially planning to skip this (since previous Kyoani works have not been <i>that</i> engaging), but oh well, since there's nothing else to watch today, I'll guess I will follow anyway. (Kinda like Kumiko)

[Hiroi Sekai]

Oh god I love it. It brings back everything I loved about jazz and concert band in high school, and adds some gorgeous KyoAni animation to it. Seriously, if they can keep up this level of quality, I could reach that Hyouka pinnacle again and die happy.

Unfortunately, we never made nationals. We loved playing to death though.

[Tranhieu]

So I was thinking about watching the 1st episode while eating breakfast, and before I knew it the ending credit rolled in without me even touching the meal

That said, this episode was excellent in all fronts! Art quality was captivating as expected, the best among first episodes I've seen so far. It was not at Hyouka level yet but came pretty close, especially those reflections on the instruments were so well done I was even distracted from checking out the girls!

Story wise, there's not much to say about this episode but it served its purpose well enough. As other people already mentioned the way those girls thinking about joining the band club was very natural and realistic, nothing dramatic nor exaggerated about it. Even Kumiko's contemplating was done with much realism and resolved fast enough in order not to distract the flow of the whole story, which reminded me of Hyouka's story telling a lot.

The music was also one of this episode's highlights. The ED hit me with a bit of a surprise, a pleasant one I would say.

Looking forward to next week. This's exactly what I want to see from KyoAni ever since Hyouka ended.

[Houreki]

I wasn't sure to watch this but I'm glad I picked up. The first episode was good, Kumiko seems to be a very well balanced character but Asuka stole the show for me.

[Marcus H.]

I honestly don't know the point of giving out "dud golds" to those who are good enough to get high marks in the competition but are not qualified to the next level of competition.

Those dud golds feel more like a slap to the face than a silver or bronze.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I honestly don't know the point of giving out "dud golds" to those who are good enough to get high marks in the competition but are not qualified to the next level of competition.

There's probably a fixed number of slots for the next level of the competition. Let's say that among all the Gold level schools, only the top 3 can advance to the next level of the competition. The rest are "dud gold," not so much because they're not qualified, but because there aren't enough slots for them.

I suppose they could have made them Silver instead, but that probably wouldn't be an accurate representation of their skills. "Dud gold" schools have Gold skills, even if they couldn't advance. The Silver level seems to be quite a few notches below in term of skills.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I honestly don't know the point of giving out "dud golds" to those who are good enough to get high marks in the competition but are not qualified to the next level of competition.

Those dud golds feel more like a slap to the face than a silver or bronze.

We had "dud golds" in my high school years too. However, you're not actually awarded something called a "dud gold". It's a piece of self-classification denoting oneself as just "not good enough". It's a term we call ourselves for getting that far without progressing.

It's very much like saying "I won the race, but I still lost the Olympics".

[Boukenxha]

I like the mood that this show is going with, it's captivating. Or maybe because I liked Swing Girls as well, this does kinda feel like a small time indie movie, japanese obviously and ironically, the extravagance of Kyoani's illustration and animation would perfectly replicate the suburban life scenary as though it is the real thing. On the whole, the show feels a little artsy, also gven the central theme of concert band music, but at times the tempo, Kumiko's characterization, the subtle handling of her dilemma, largely how the characters are portrayed, are natural, lowkey in a comfortable way, these contributed to me feeling that way.

[Eclipze]

Good first episode.

I used to be in the concert band as well back in secondary school. Was a Tuba player, so the keychain part was kinda funny in a way.

[whitecloud]

Just curious....do Yamaha sponsored this? You can see their name in quite huge placement

[Marcus H.]

It's not like they haven't done this before in K-ON. Ritsu's drum set is a Yamaha, Mugi's keyboard is a Korg and they use Marshall speakers. (Of course, that's setting aside the guitars used, which are name-brand ones too.)

I'm more interested about which brands they'll use for the rest of the instruments.