Sound! Euphonium


US Distributor: Pony Can USA
Production Studio: Kyoto Animation
Was this provided by the publisher? No
More Info: Anime Planet


A euphonium is a baritone brass instrument, similar to the baritone horn found in most American high school band rooms. It rounds out the bass section of a concert band, acting as a bridge between the bright tenor of the trombone and the bedrock presence of the tuba. They pack a punch when they need to, but play support most of the time.  Secondary school students tend to not choose a baritone or eupho. Rather, the teacher chooses it for them, either out of necessity or because the student’s chosen instrument places them among, shall we say, a comically oversized party.  Proud parents flood the ranks of flute, clarinet or trumpet sections (or violin, if the school is big enough to even have strings) with their little prodigies , until apathy and grade concerns thin the herd. But I digress.

Depending on how your thought process works, the plot and character developments of Sound! Euphonium might either seem eventful or not at all. We first meet Kumiko Oumae as as middle school student and euphonium player. She’s  hearing the results of a competition piece her school band played, and it’s not good news. The band receives a rating that’s tantamount to “gosh, we liked your sound, well enough, and if you had really worked at it, we might have sent you to regionals. Alas, we will not.”  

Kumiko feigns disappointment, but expected this result all along. Her band mate Reina Kousaka appears crushed, more so by Kumiko’s complacence than by the rating.  Reina and Kumiko advance to the same high school, where the band is led by a new director, Noboru Taki. An objective observer might say that Reina admires Taki intensely. He’s her David Cassidy, her Kirk Cameron, her Justin Bieber, perhaps all three rolled into one like a weird multi-generational pastry of questionable edibility. Her heart is a trumpet, all out there and loud, and if he were into trumpet-hearted girls, this would be a different story.

Kumiko would have to make a real effort to be less interested in joining concert band in high school, but thankfully, Hazuki Katou enters the scene. She’s a big voice in a tiny package who, for some reason. thinks band is where she should be. It’s as if the stars aligned and broadcast their heavenly music straight into her ears and out her mouth as a conduit. If that’s not enough, in comes Sapphire Kawashima, who insists that the others call her “Midori” even though it’s a completely different color.  (I learned that by watching anime, folks. I am an expert.) Midori plays upright bass, and loves it so much that she played it ‘til her fingers bled. It was the summer of ’69. Needless to say, the others exhaust Kumiko into submission, and she agrees to check out the band.

It’s a bit difficult to chronicle what happens next, mostly because I have no desire to do so. Suffice it to say, Reina’s there, which gives Kumiko the last push she needs to join. On Mr. Taki’s prompt, they elect to work hard and try for national competition, as opposed to merely having fun and learning a bit about music.  We meet some more characters, from the forced love interest Shuichi (on trombone), to the club vice president, who despite her obvious leadership qualities isn’t president,  Asuka (on euphonium).  Asuka pulls unsuspecting Hazuki into her web by saying tuba is her divine calling, or something.

From there, the show painstakingly explores the motivations and tribulations of every girl in the band, resolving or deferring each in turn, ignoring the boys and men in order to objectify the girls and women. It shares time between portraying all the girls as the embodiment of the instruments they play, and developing something of a teen romance between Kumiko the grounded, and Reina the dreamer.  Frankly, some lovely scenes come out of the latter, at least until I stop and think about which particular fetish is being played to in each moment. It’s bells and valves and mouthpieces and hot air, all the way down.

The first season is an exposition of what concert band clubs do and sets a goal for the protagonists, while the second puts both in motion. I found it considerably more enjoyable than before, because it felt as though the show found a voice. Taken as a whole, the social makeup of the band plays out as a series of symphonic weaknesses that just need a trumpet to shake things up, followed by a euphonium to smooth them out. But who takes care of the eupho when her resolve fails?  Another eupho, of course! Imagine the rest, as I know you want to.

Best of all, the second season has more music. I was ecstatic to experience uninterrupted scenes of the band playing for competition, all of which do a respectable job of animating the performance as well. Japanese TV animation is notoriously lax about making any movements lifelike, so it’s nice to see KyoAni making an effort.

As a former band geek, I can appreciate Ayano Takeda’s sentiment in creating Sound! Euphonium, despite the obvious whitewashing about how high school students behave while away from home on field trips. It makes me think of my former band director, may he rest in peace, and how passionate he was about the subject, and how ineffective he was at motivating us in the moment, as it were. He showed us a world we simply wouldn’t witness again, unless we became band directors.  I give credit to this show for reminding me of that.

Much like high school itself, Sound! Euphonium ends as it began, with competition judgment and room for improvement,  but while the institution is unchanging, Kumiko has grown into a young woman who wants something and is willing to work for it. For now, her life is a magnum opus waiting to play out.  Conductor wanted.

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