Hibike! Euphonium (Sound! Euphonium)

Now that Kumiko Oumae has enrolled in Kitauji High School, she hopes to forget about her past. Despite her desire for a fresh start, she gets dragged into the school's band club by her new friends—Sapphire Kawashima and Hazuki Katou—and is once again stuck playing the euphonium.

As the band currently stands, they won't be able to participate in the local festival, Sunfest, let alone compete at a national level. The band's new advisor, Noboru Taki, gives them a choice: they can relax and have fun, or practice hard and attempt to get into nationals. Not wanting to repeat her mistakes from middle school, Kumiko is doubtful as to whether they should try for nationals. Amidst the chaos, she learns that her old bandmate, Reina Kousaka (who she had a bitter relationship with) has joined Kitauji's band club. Under the pressure of Noboru's strict training, Kumiko and her bandmates must learn to overcome their struggles and find success together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Episode Videos

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Adaptation:	Hibike! Euphonium
Other:	Hibike! Euphonium: Suisougaku-bu no Nichijou
Side story:	Hibike! Euphonium: Kakedasu Monaka
Sequel:	Hibike! Euphonium 2
Summary:	Hibike! Euphonium Movie 1: Kitauji Koukou Suisougaku-bu e Youkoso

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Oumae, Kumiko

Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo
Japanese

Kousaka, Reina

Main

Anzai, Chika
Japanese

Katou, Hazuki

Main

Asai, Ayaka
Japanese

Kawashima, Sapphire

Main

Toyota, Moe
Japanese

Tanaka, Asuka

Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako
Japanese

Yoroizuka, Mizore

Supporting

Nakagawa, Natsuki

Supporting

Fujimura, Konomi
Japanese

Tsukamoto, Shuuichi

Supporting

Ishiya, Haruki
Japanese

Kasaki, Nozomi

Supporting

Yoshikawa, Yuuko

Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nakamura, Shinichi

Producer

Saitou, Shigeru

Producer

Senami, Riri

Assistant Producer, Publicity

Yarimizu, Yoshifumi

Assistant Producer

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Opening Theme

"DREAM SOLISTER" by TRUE (eps 1-12)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Tutti! (トゥッティ!)" by Kitauji Quartet (北宇治カルテット) [Kumiko Oumae (Tomoyo Kurosawa), Hazuki Katou (Ayaka Asai), Sapphire Kawashima (Moe Toyota), Reina Kousaka (Chika Anzai)] (eps 1-7, 9-12)
	2: "DREAM SOLISTER (Wind Orchestra Ver.)" by TRUE (eps 13)

Reviews

Nov 16, 2023

Cartier117

Recommended

This quite frankly could've been Kyoto Animation's greatest work had it "stood out" a little more. What I mean is, their other titles like Violet Evergarden, Clannad and K-On had elements to them that made them unique and instant fan favorites. Hibike! Euphonium can easily be described as another CGDCT high school club anime, and because of this I am not surprised that it never became as popular as those other titles.

Despite this, Hibike! is probably the most consistent and well-put-together storyboard/production that Kyoto has produced. The goal of the characters is simply to win gold in their concert preliminary. Such a basic premise might ... sound boring (especially to those who have no attachment to band music), however it makes it easier to flesh out the "meat" of the story and address multiple themes and ideas when the audience can easily follow along. Because of this, Hibike! has surprisingly complex characters and deeply emotional scenes, which is fairly unusual for a seasonal club anime. The last episode is the performance itself (which is typical for performing arts anime), meaning that the viewers do not hear the fruits of the band's labors until the very end. The show paces itself accordingly in the buildup to that moment, and even pulls a full circle moment with the opening and final scenes, which really helps to round out the deeper meaning of this arc. The culmination of the final act is certainly something worth investing in, and there is still plenty to look forward to in season 2.

A show about music naturally needs good music, and I am not just referring to the pieces that the band members play. Kyoto knocked it out of the park with this story, as the ambient soundtrack of each scene fit the mood perfectly, and their stunning animation really sold the magical elements of it all. To understand what I mean, you'd have to experience it for yourself (especially the bridge scene!). Considering the year this anime came out, it's honestly criminal how no one speaks about the animation quality (it feels as though it's a 2020s anime). Because of this, I believe that even those who do not particularly enjoy band stuff or high school drama can find themselves lost in the momentum that this series carries in each episode.

Review Ends Here, Character Analysis Below---------------------------------------

Our dual protagonists of Kumiko and Reina are strong overall characters that experience character growth in their own ways, however it's really 3 of the side characters (in my opinion) that molded the stakes and "band drama" to what it needed to be. The first is the band instructor, Noboru Taki, who depending on who you ask could be considered the antagonist of this story. The reason he is such a great character is because he's polarizing: on one hand his mannerism is too crude and alienating, but on the other he genuinely tries to help his students get better by not being too easy on them. This harsh yet meaningful teaching style generates plenty of plot points that effectively allows Hibike! to function as a story. In other words, without the presence of this character, there wouldn't be conflict or plot progression at all.

The other 2 characters are involved in the drama itself, which I will avoid explaining for spoiler reasons. Asuka is integral as a comic relief and mentor figure from the perspective of the protagonist, however we later learn that the reason she is so relaxed is because there is a little spite to her carefree attitude. This reflects how the drama was negatively impacting the mental fortitude of the band members, to the point where they'd rather not address it but dance around it instead. This "elephant in the room" weighs heavily on the atmosphere of select scenes, and overall the tension building was pretty remarkable from a cinematic standpoint.

Natsuki is the final character I will mention, because unlike Asuka who grows detached from the petty politics of the band, Natsuki finds herself motivated to jump back in. She isn't initially interested in reaching gold or even practicing in general, but soon finds herself mesmerized by the younger members' zeal. While she doesn't achieve all that she wishes to, it is nice to see the actions of the main cast having a positive impact on members who find themselves on the periphery between "caring" and "not caring". While other characters in the band also go through this, Natsuki stands out because the unofficial "older sister" dynamic she has with Kumiko and the other first year brass players. Despite being a minor character, Natsuki's own little character development helps to enrich the entire narrative, primarily through her actions and not through words.

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May 9, 2021

Fishymonster_

Mixed Feelings

It's made by kyo-ani, so obviously the animation quality is some of the best I've ever seen in a tv-format anime. The show is mostly well done story-wise, but it some parts left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, the yuri-bait sucks, I think every one watching the show wanted you know who and also you know who to get together, and there was too much focus on the teacher and his relationships. The show dragged on at times, this was the first show I ever had to complete in chunks, watching different animes before I competed the next few episodes because of how ...

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Jan 23, 2021

Justicefornoone

Not Recommended

Funny

In my short life watching animated series, if there's something I learned through the years is that the best pieces of animation are those ones which can balance remarkable and original art, animation with a fascinating or at least compelling story with well written and rounded characters, and last but not least, making a good use of music to make the experience more delightful, memorable and even complement the atmosphere and characterization, especially if music is the central theme of the aforementioned series.

In this case I am reviewing one which art is kind of remarkable, with decent musical compositions, but appalling melodrama and cardboard characters: ... Sound! Euphonium.

Art & Animation:
I am, like everyone, a biased person, and I have to confess that I'm not a fan of how Kyoani confront their creations: they clearly are almost unbeatable in how they animate every detail and how fluid can look, only comparable with cinematographic works of Ghibli, CoMix Wave, or any film with high display of production values like Redline or Sword of the Stranger.

Of course, they lack of creativity in some aspects like character design in order to make them look as cute as possible ends up falling into the generic department, losing against other formidable pieces like Dennou Coil, Cowboy Bebop and FLCL. And don't make me start on how some animes with budget limits prove that your animation can have high standards like Haibane Renmei, Rakugo, Trust and Betrayal, Evangelion or Berserk '97.

Music:
In a series about music, someone may expect masterpieces that can give classical musicians a run for their money or at least if the staff are using non original soundtrack, to use it properly like Nodame Cantabile so you can mentally relate the music with the anime. And even though it's not bad music per se, it's unfortunate how average are such compositions and how wasted it feels at the end of the day (you can separate it almost completely from the anime and enjoy it more on your own!). I can forgive this if we weren't talking about a slice of life where the cast is in a school band. Fortunately, sound effects are extremely polished but that can be expected from Kyoani.

Story:
So far I haven't spoken about what is this all about. So, what's this all about?
Well, a group of Moe girls walking and talking nonsense most of the time, and supposedly focused on winning a place in the school band and rehearsing as hard as possible. This second part is, again, supposedly to be the main plot but Kyoani preferred to focus on their specialty: giving queerbaiting between cute innocent schoolgirls because yuri-bait helps a lot with merchandising. At least 30% of the camera is entirely focused on schoolgirl thighs just for the sake of having them somewhere rather than giving more space to actual characterization, so far we've been told rather than shown the motivation of the main cast to find the Euphonium, hence the pace of this series is also appalling in spite of having less than 15 chapters.

Characters:
And now the biggest offender: the characters. To be fair, Kyoani never was a studio that gave half a damn about good screenplay or writing, so the closest thing to decent writing that I've ever seen of them is the characterization of Haruhi suzumiya (instead of being a cute retarded cardboard, she's a full sentient girl with bad manners) and the comedy of Nichijou, that worked somehow in each chapter.

Nevertheless, do not be fooled by those who claim that the portrayal of these girls are totally realistic -whose names can be replaced by the main girls from K-ON due to how awfully similar they are-. There's nothing that helps people to point a single trait of personality of ANY of these girls. Why? Because it's not necessary to even try to give them a personality. On the other hand, checking other music-centered animes like Kids on the Slope, Beck or Kono oto Tomare, you can easily make a distinction between each one of their respective casts. Also, there's not character development at all, not saying that this is mandatory but at least the writer could make these moe dolls had some charisma and more traits to convince me to care about them. And before you ask, no, Liz and the Blue Bird is not realistic or even remotely good either, but wins against Euphonium due to the segments of the tale of Liz where animation and music actually merge with each other smoothly and they forget about the high school setting

Overall, it's only worthy if you are a hardcore fan of this overrated studio. Otherwise, I advise you to stay away from it and find the other examples of how great some anime music can be: Nodame Cantabile, Kids on the Slope, Beck, Kono oto Tomare, Forest of Piano.
If you really want to see how good Kyoani can be with their high production values, go check Violet Evergarden or Nichijou, which are so far their best works.
And if you wanted an actual GL story rather than dirty pandering, Revolutionary Girl Utena is always available, or Shinsekai Yori.

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Hibike! Euphonium

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