Anime Addiction : Sound! Euphonium

Sound! Euphonium is the latest anime from Kyoto Animation, and if I were to describe it in one word it would be beautiful. First-off. Let me come out and say that this Anime may not be for everybody. It is about a concert band and unless you have been in a choir or a band, you will find it hard to relate to the activities that happen on screen. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it is completely un-relatable, it is just that you will have a deeper connection if you have been part of one.

The story follows Oumae Kumiko as she joins concert band in high school as a Euphonium player and while it is a series that is very musical, the band is just a setting for all the drama and the character building that happens throughout the series. AS the series progresses, we meet a ton of characters of like Asuka Tanaka, Natsuki Nakagawa, Midore Kawashima, Hazuki Katou, and most importantly Reina Kousaka.

A huge chunk, and perhaps all of the first season is devoted to the relationship between Kumiko and Reina as they used to be in the band in middle school, but their differences coming between them because Kumiko joined for the memories and Reina joined to become someone special and to win the National concert Band competition.

Things are further complicated by their teacher Taki, and also the drama that happened between the third year students and the second year students that caused a lot of the second years to leave the band the year before.

The show has a very large cast and each of them have amazing character designs and a brilliantly unique personality which get an ability to shine. While the show does take its time to highlight the characters, when it does it does so spectacularly. They all develop over the two seasons of the series and grow both as a band and as individuals.

I became so attached to the characters that when the series ended I was left wanting more both from the characters I got to know and from new characters. The overall story is the band trying to win gold in the nationals but it is filled with many subplots which are all executed brilliantly, while never taking focus away from the main story.

The Reina-Kumiko Arc that spans the first season is brilliantly handled, and even that has even smaller subplots that build their relationship. If you notice, you will see that I don’t say friendship. That is because, despite not being canon, the implied relationship between them is evident, and while I don’t generally care about romantic subplots, I just really wanted to see them make it canon. But rest assured, in the light novels they are just friends, so it is all up to the individual person to decide on what they want the relationship to be.

Aside for this, other character arc that hit me really hard was the one between Kumiko and her sister and also the character arc of Asuka that happen in the second season. I will be lying if I didn’t admit to tearing up during the particular arcs.

The show being produced by Kyoto Animation, the animation is out of this world. While Yuri on Ice excelled in movement, Sound! Euphonium excelled in conveying emotions through still images, framing, focus and coloring. And Jesus Christ, this thing had some of the best backgrounds I have seen on an anime made for TV. I mean just look at these frames, it’s like my eyes are blowing up from the beauty. The music in the show is great and I really enjoyed the opening and ending themes of the two seasons. The classical pieces are done well, but it is the solo Trumpet parts that I really have to compliment. And in that case all the instrument players, because it is flawless when it needs to be, and when we see a player on screen make a mistake, you don’t need to be an expert to find out that the music was not great, because somehow they made the musicians to play badly.

The animation, the story and the music are all standout and I am happy to have been able to watch this series. Having been part of a choir when I was in high school, I could relate to a lot of drama and in a way that made me like the series more. Sound! Euphonium made me fall in love with characters and left me wanting more. It is a nearly flawless series and so;

I give Sound! Euphonium 9 out of 10.

The series has two seasons and each of them is 13 episodes long. I binged the first season and watched every episode of the second season as it aired one episode every week till last Wednesday and I thoroughly recommend that you check it out. Until next Time;

Sayonara!!