Reviews for Hibike! Euphonium 3 (6.16)

Note: This will cover the whole franchise as it is already finished and there is not much to say about each entry on its own.

If Yuru Camp is an exception of my usual disinterest of the cute girls doing cute things subgenre, Hibike! Euphonium is THE exception, as it is easily my favourite anime franchise. I love two of its entries, which rank high among my favourite anime of all times, and I like most of the other entries, amounting to ten titles that I enjoy and in some cases love, if I am not mistaken. That is something that no other franchise has managed to reach, and I do not think any ever will.

The reason for that is simple, the series is not just trying to be cute as it has drama and characters actually doing what they are supposed to as in any other normal slice of life show, and also does not include the usual tragic or very dramatic elements of other shows with similar aesthetics.

Unlike her older sister K-On!, for example, here the girls look and act the age they are supposed to be, which means they are not just cute to the point something seems off about them. They act more like the teenagers they are, having their own issues, insecurities, and problems with others.

They also look their age, they are not cutesy moeblobs and they are not deformed with some chibi artstyle in order to seem cute even when they are not.

And the anime is supposed to be about playing in a school orchestra, and you can actually see the characters doing that in some pretty well animated and directed scenes, although the pieces are just background music and not own interpretations like in other anime like Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, for example.

Still, when the moment calls for it in the plot, you can notice some differences in interpretations and that is a nice detail. Not only that, but the characters are also shown studying, training and preparing stuff for their competitions. They also lose a lot of the times, things not always go their way, so in all it feels closer to other common slice of life or school competitions or sport series, than other moe shows that are meant to watch to relax and have some good sleep afterwards or something.

There are even characters that have to leave the band for their own personal reasons or that leave because they have other priorities in mind, so it is not like the scenario is completely idealized.

And unlike other shows of its kind, where sooner or later I come to dislike how the characters act in tryhard adorable ways to the point they seem dumb, I like or plain love most characters in this franchise.

Starting with the protagonist Kumiko Oumae, which tries and fails to build a typical good girl image around her, as she is actually pretty self-centered even though she tries to hide it. Thus even though she tries to get close to others to help with their problems and maintain the stability of the group, she never takes the extra step to actually get personally invested, and never lets others get to know her that much. It is actually pretty great when she is called out on a few seasons about that. Since she is the protagonist and narrator, is not surprise that she is also the character with the biggest amount of internal monologues and most focus in the franchise, as she goes through several self-discovery moments throughout the seasons. First reaffirming her place in the band and fondness of the world of music in the first season, then her similar relationships with Asuka and her older sister, which she sees as similar, in the second, and then coming to face her old self, her new role in the club, and her own limitations and newfound goal in the third.

Then you have Reina, who does not shy away in saying what she has in mind, to the point that she can come off as rude and ends having issues with other characters, and is also one of the most determined and talented characters in the whole show. She still has her own teen quirks like having a crush on her teacher, or being a bit bratty and proud, especially when confronted, so she does not come off as being too mature or something like that, and thus more believable.

Another character that I really like, and my favourite of the whole bunch, is Asuka Tanaka, who first appears as the funny one, but is also the one to call out the other on how silly and trivial some of their teen problems are, and also the one that can understand and expose Kumiko the most. Later on, as her own drama is more or less the main conflict of the show, she gets more focus, similarities with Kumiko’s sister, she becomes something like a role model or major influence for her, and is shown to have her own teen problems.

The other characters are ok, is just that they do not get as much focus, but is still fine how they see themselves reflected on others or opposites of them, and also how they struggle or feel insecure about their own abilities or roles in the club, and the internal conflict or conflicts within the whole band that that can lead to.

Combine all that with polished artwork, backgrounds and special effects with close to no quality drops, and expressive body language and motions, along with good sound effects and music including the openings with perhaps the exception of the endings, all of which are enhanced by good directing especially for the musical parts, and the presentation is often also very good. The negative aspects can include the very typical character designs and voice acting, with perhaps the exception of the most emotional moments for the latter.

Despite my praises so far, I can not deny that this franchise is still just another high school drama and at times a generic cute girls doing cute things. So no, not even my favourite gets an above average rating, it is still just a plain and straightforward slice of life with not much substance and does not deserve to be considered by me as something special.

And is not like it is free of problems in its writing, which I will cover by going through each entry:

-The first season is the introduction phase obviously, so a lot of it is setup, yet ironically it has the biggest amount of content regarding the activities of the ensemble and stuff. Despite that, a lot of it is introducing characters that do not get much focus in the end. For example, do we really care about that one dropout girl that Kumiko knew before joining the school? No, she is just a plot device for the protagonist to clear the doubts of her mind. Then you have Yuko, who in the first season was nothing but cringe, a fangirl of Kaori that turned everything melodramatic for petty reasons. I mean I get it, it is the last chance that her adored senpai will have to play a solo in the ensemble, but since the audience does not follow these characters that much, it is normal to feel indifferent towards the whole thing, and consider the reactions exaggerated and overdramatic. There is also some teen romance that goes nowhere despite taking up screentime, and even though I did not read the novels, the changes in the anime from the source material are well known, such as the relationship between Kumiko and Shuuichi being cut short, and a lot of yuri bait between Kumiko and Reina. If you watched some other KyoAni stuff besides this franchise, you know not to expect them to actually commit to that, and thus you do not bite the fishhook, but if you are unprepared for it, you will set up yourself for disappointment.

-There was an extra episode focused on the members that did not get into the ensemble and more specifically Hazuki since she is friends with the protagonist, but honestly is not much of an addition. The most you can say is that she runs an unbelievable distance in such a short time, but nothing else, and even that is something easy to look past it because the work is fiction and normally you not pay attention to it in the moment.

-The second season makes the mistake of wasting a third of its duration on two up to that point irrelevant characters with just seconds of screentime, and with such stupid drama around them that turned the whole thing quite hard to get through, especially on a first watch. To top that, Kumiko keeps getting into the conflict by pure coincidence and even takes an active part of it despite having no relation to any of it. Around the second half the conflict shifts to her, her sister and Reina, and even then she is more like pressured by other characters to take an active part of it, instead of doing it by her own will. What I am getting at here is that the main character became a passive plot device that accidentally bumps onto the conflicts for about half the duration, and when she finally does, the whole thing becomes so melodramatic is quite hard to watch. There is so much teen drama in this season that there is barely any music in it, you know, the core element of the show. And the yuri bait in this season was just as strong as in the first, if not even stronger, only with different characters, and of course there is no outcome for any of that. Overall this season gets a negative rating from me.

-Both seasons got some of those very short specials that exist just as excuses for buying the physical copies of the stuff that was already shown on tv, and they range from meh to just bad to plain awful, as they switch the usual tone of the series and behaviour of the characters, to typical moe caricatures, screw that. These two installments also get a negative rating from me, especially the specials of the second season.

-Both seasons received recap movies. The first one was so rushed for trying to cram all the content into less than two hours by skipping all the preparations for the competitions, that deserves a below average rating from me. The second one did what its season should have and took away almost everything regarding Nozomi and Mizore and focus on Kumiko and Asuka instead, thus is better by default. Despite that, taking it away completely makes part of the dialogues between the core characters to lose part of their meaning, and the whole thing is still kind of rushed for the same reason as the first, even though not as much, partially because it is a little bit longer. I do not think is bad, and is the second entry I love, just behind the first season, but I can not consider it anything above average either.

-Then some boneheads had the idea to make Liz to Aoi Tori, a spin off movie about Mizore and Nozomi. THANKS, NOW THE WORST PART OF THE SECOND SEASON HAS AN ENTRY ON ITS OWN. To be frank, I do not fancy this part of the franchise much, is the reason why I barely liked the second season, and why I loved its recap movie a lot simply by removing it. It took me a second watch to even tolerate the whole thing. The beginning is somewhat similar to what was already shown, so what is the point? This part of the movie is plain bad, and no amount of playful directing about unimportant details can save it. Some had issues with its change from the usual artstyle of the franchise to something closer to Koe no Katachi, but despite the long necks of the characters, I do not mind that much, and it is a good choice for the visualization of the tale that the movie is based around. Eventually the movie turns up to not be as overdramatic as the second season was, and the characters confront each other and get a very needed sense of individuality and a good sendoff of each other, culminating Mizore’s character arc on a very needed musical scene with some spectacular directing. Thus as a whole the movie starts really bad but becomes better in its second half and gets a proper conclusion. The negative aspect is the strong yuri bait that again gets no payoff, and this movie renders the first third of the second season even more pointless. Not bad as a whole, but probably takes more than a single watch to fully appreciate. At least that was my case.

-The third movie takes place between the second season and Liz to Aoi Tori, introducing the characters that appeared there that no anime only knew a thing about, another issue of that movie I guess, though it is somewhat minor all things considered. Just like the first movie, this one has the problem of being too rushed, and is worse this time around because it is not recap material, it is content from the novels that should have had more duration or a proper series. As it is, the new characters are presented in a hurry, they come off as unlikable, and their drama seems unimportant and very exaggerated. There is a even a second year character that can not play in the esemble any longer, and do you care? Of course you do not, there was no time invested in her. Thus, this one also gets a negative rating from me,

-After getting content from the franchise on each year, four years were needed for more content out of it come out, partly because of the fucking arson done by that madman that tragically killed a lot of people, if you remember. The Ensemble content ova is just like the extra episode of the first season, it does not have much content in it, it is essentially filler but not bad for any particular reason. I wish I could say something else about it but besides some very specific moments in its directing and my own enjoyment about it, I do not remember much about it.

-Then there is the just finished third and final season and the sendoff of the franchise. I know there will be some more crappy specials and perhaps a recap movie about it just to milk it, but as for the adaptation of the actual content of the source material, this is where it ends. In tone and direction, this entry is close to the second season, as music takes a very secondary role for the teenage drama to be the main focus. The big differences are that it is nowhere near as overblown in here as it was in the previous series, and this time around it is almost entirely focused around the main character, thus you are given a reason to care. Characterization wise, is the season where Kumiko gets explored the most as she struggles to fit in the position of the club president, gets to face her old self in the newly introduced character Mayu, and even gets surpassed by her in what is easily the biggest and boldest change in the canon made by the studio, of which I have nothing but praise for them for it and for not chickening out about it, and for what it means for the protagonist.

Despite that, no one can deny how very little music there is in it, how competitions are completely skipped, essentially making the preparations pointless, and how the little bit of drama and explorations other characters have is especially rushed in setup and resolution. This is particularly bad for Mayu, who is an important character but otherwise remains a mystery throughout the whole season, and only gets a tiny bit of exploration when it is about to be over. Essentially, just like it happens with the third movie, you only care about the older cast that was present in previous seasons, regardless of how much screentime they have, but not enough about the newer cast. The conclusion is alright I guess, is well directed and what the audience expected and needed to come at some moment, but I could not be convinced that it was as effective and satisfactory as it would have been if it was the older cast getting that result instead.

As a whole, the praises I gave to the franchise in the beginning of the review should be seen as the core minimum of the series of its kind, even though they are the reasons why I like in the first place. It is beautiful to watch, good to listen to and is well directed, and has minimum attempts at a plot and characterization with enough results to get an overall average score from me, but otherwise is still not very good in terms of writing and tone, especially at its lowest points that inevitably deserve some below average ratings. It is my favourite anime franchise, and I will go back to it for sure as I did several times in the past, but in my eyes it is otherwise average in its purest form, and there is nothing wrong in admitting to enjoy something like that, instead of blowing it out of proportions.

My personal ranking for the entries

First season

Second movie

Third season

Liz to Aoi Tori

The Monaka special

The Ensemble ova

Second season

First movie

Third movie

First season specials

Second season specials