Hibike! Euphonium! Anime Review

First of all, this is a non-spoiler review, so don’t worry about getting spoiled before watching it. :D

Secondly, my kind of review is actually serious, but I tend to forgot what’s actually happening in the anime. So I will use a little bit of impression that I got from a certain scene on the anime XP

My first impression with Hibike! Euphonium was that this anime is going to be a jazz musical anime. I got the impression from the PV which introduces us with the main characters with jazz song as the BGM which reminds me a lot to Guns n’ Roses from Baccano!’s Opening. Just listen! 

The other first impression is that this anime will be like K-On! Which is an anime about cute girls doing cute things which I fed up with these days lol

But Man, I was totally wrong. This anime is all about wind ensemble, just like Nodame Cantabile! And the story focuses on how they struggle to get into national competition. This anime is animated by Kyoto Animation or KyoAni for short. So here goes my anime review on Hibike! Euphonium!

Story 

Personally, I’m a story oriented kind of guy and if the story is engaging for me I will say the anime is good. The story opens up with Kumiko in the junior high school with her yuri friend Pepe Reina waiting in the hall with other people. And it was revealed that they are waiting for results of competition and apparently they didn’t make it, and Kumiko was like 

“oh we got the silver prize, that’s okay” 

and pepe Reina was like 

“NO! THAT’S NOT ENOUGH! I FEEL BAD! AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD TOO!” 

*best summary ever*

Moving on, Kumiko finally get into Kitauji High School and she was like a grumpy girl that critizes everything about anything related to wind ensemble. She was like

*looking a guy who plays trumpet from afar*

“That guy sure sucks” 

*sees a group playing some kind of music using various instruments*

“That band sucks”

Man she sounds like Beavis and Butthead (old reference is old)

And she met new friends named Emerald Saphire and Hazuki. Saphire or Midori as she wants to be called is a shy cute kind of girl and Hazuki is a genki type. The three of them are still confused which club they want to enter. And finally (yes you guessed it) they joined Kitauji’s Wind Ensemble Club. And Kumiko shocked that apparently her love of her life  Reina is entering the same school as she is and she entered the same club as well! 

Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

They have a new club supervisor named Taki-sensei, a cold-handed person. The first time he come to the club was like

“Hi, I’m your new supervisor, what do you want to do with this club?”

“We want to go to the national competition!”

“Okay let me hear you guys play”

*plays*

*he smiles* “Okay, What the hell was that? If you want to go to national it will take more than this”

Yes he is that kind of guy, and I like his character.

And after that Taki-Sensei gives them tough exercises to make them a better player. 

Will they succeed to go the national competition?? 

Characters

The story focuses on the 4 main girls, Kumiko, Hazuki, Midori, and Pepe Reina

I like all of their character development, 

Kumiko from a grumpy young girl into a girl who finally ambitious to get it on with Reina be a better player

Hazuki who never played tuba before and she is struggling to get better

Midori who loves Contrabass and playing it like a baws despite of her small body

Much Quality, Such Animation, Wow

And Reina, who is so smug at first, and become a little bit humble person. But just... a little. Personally I don’t really like a character who is good at something and being so smug about it lol. She was like, "I WANT TO BE SPECIAL! OH YOU WANT TO BE SPECIAL TOO?! THEN I WILL BE MORE SPECIAL THAN YOU!" yeah. I don't like her attitude

But my main focus is Taki-Sensei. He is the guy who leads the club into the competition with his own ways. And I like his personality, He might seem calm and put a smile on his face all the time, but he is actually a very strict and nurturing person at the same time.

Best girl of the season!

The other character that I like from is Asuka. Well besides her character designs appeals me the most *megane girl ftw, wehehe*, she has nice personality as well. She actually can be the president of the club but she refuse it. But she leads a lot in the club. But she doesn’t really care about other personal’s issue *which I can really relate a lot when it comes to acquaintances lol*  

I also like Haruka’s development. She is the president of the club and at first she was depending too much on Asuka. And Asuka was like, “Come on, your the president of the club! Get a grip!” and in the end, she became a capable leader. 

Animation & Sound

Well, it’s KyoAni we are talking here guys, everything looks beautiful and detail in this anime. And the BGM is quite relaxing because it’s classical and it sets the mood right in the anime. The opening sequence reminds me a lot to K-On's Opening but the song itself is giving the energy of the anime

I really like the Reff Part

While the ending song is Tutti! I dunno why the ED song sequence is sooo KyoAni lol. Having the main girls singing the song in the end. But I like the song, it's so catchy!

Personal Enjoyment
I enjoyed watching this anime because it has engaging story, characters that I cared about, awesome animation, and more over the quality is consistent through out the series. The jokes are delivered in a good way. The pacing is consistent even thought there's some subplots that I thought it can be skipped. And the ending was quite fulfilling for me though but I want to see them more in the next season or movie. Please make it KyoAni! 

Problems that I have with this anime

Well, even though I enjoyed this anime, I also have problems that kinda bugs me throughout the series :

1) The suggestive yuuri scene : Well maybe this is to redeem make up for male audiences for what KyoAni have done in 2 seasons of Free! which pleases the female audiences. So instead of guys on guys, it’s girls on girls now! It's not like I hate this.. But I don't like a cock tease like this lol

Now kiss! SERIOUSLY!

2) Dramatic Subplots : The subplots are kind of filling in for fulfilling 13 episodes quota. I don’t really like the subplots because it feels a little bit unnecessary and skip-able. I won’t spoil it for you but it is kataomoi (one-sided love) and NOTICE ME SENPAI! problem

PLEASE NOTICE ME SENPAI!

Should you watch it or not?

I’d totally recommend this anime if you are into classical music or musical anime or if you liked a story about struggling to achieve something. 

Suggestions

If you are interested in other musical genre anime, you can watch Nodame Cantabile which has the same theme with Hibike! I really enjoyed watching Nodame Cantabile, I even watched the dorama too