Hibike! Euphonium: Kakedasu Monaka

(MINOR SPOILERS OF TV SERIES AND OVA) Perhaps the best way to describe Hibike! Euphonium is by literally contradicting myself: it is a work of complex simplicity. The emotional dissonance that exists, when a large group of individuals come together is typical of the atmosphere that you may find in a musical ensemble. Long story short, this OVA works as an alternate perspective provider on the emotional climax towards the latter end of the series, and it does it superbly.

When you strip down a piece of music, meant to be performed by an orchestra, concert band or choir...you find multiple sections of notes, melodies and ... phrases that sound hollow and empty when separate, but form a harmony of sounds when performed to perfection by an ensemble. Thus, an ensemble can be considered a body, operated by individual organs. Hibike!'s TV series perfectly encapsulated this aspect of daily life with a sense of subdued intensity and genuine passion, whilst also producing a work that exemplifies human drama at its most simple and complicated.

So how does this single OVA episode build from that? What can be considered to be the weakest element of the series; the romance triangle between Kumiko, Shuichi and Hazuki; was given more time to flower in this short 20 minutes. But rather surprisingly, against the backdrop of the increased intensity in the band's atmosphere towards the lead up to the competition, and the recent rejection of a proposal of love, instead of focusing on mindless bickering and self-pitying, Hazuki's character truly shines through as she attempts to throw herself into the cheerleading trenches for both the band and for Shuichi's seemingly one-sided love.

Put simply, Hazuki is the genki trope done right: she's realistic in her optimism, unwilling to show her sad side, but willing to admit it, when she realises her need for emotional support from her friends and an ability to find new goals to work towards, and ways to support the friends that helped her find a sense of comradery in the bass session: the ability to harmonise with friends as a small ensemble is an endearingly intimate and beautiful experience which can only be shared between true friendship.

The highlights of the episodes were essentially extended flowerings, stemmed from the seeds planted from the original series: Hazuki's interactions with Sapphire, Natsuki and Shuichi throughout the episode forms the backbone of this side story, and it sorely depends on your knowledge and sense of understanding towards these characters, your attention to detail and the ability to follow KyoAni's subtle framing of relational climates between characters, and their subtle expressiveness beyond just facial expressions and dialogue.

Sapphire's reminder to Hazuki, that she was brave beyond human capacity, when she proposed and took the rejection head-on; was a simple throwaway line, but the camera's close-ups of Sapphire's expressions of intense genuinity and Hazuki's shocked face that was etched with bittersweet gratitude, was made all the more memorable, when you consider the mirroring of Sapphire's encouragements of 'no regrets!' and Taki-sensei's opening comments, to take their failure of making the cut during the auditions, as a chance to further improve themselves, and to consider their situations as a tactically advantageous one: the bitter taste of failure is a source of motivation that is lacking in the students who made the cut. It's all a matter of perspective.

Natsuki has always been a favourite of mine from the TV series: her sparing presence were etched with memorable moments of goofiness and a sense of a upper-classman who has finally found her source of inspiration and the desire to support her juniors. What's so endearing about Natsuki's character; as supposed to the positive front put forward by Asuka to hide her more unapologetic side; is her ability to provide a source of warmth to her fellow section mates; one that isn't showered with spotlights of gratitude. Natsuki's actions, such as signing messages of inspiration on Kumiko's music sheets, her simply putting an arm around Hazuki's shoulder backstage, and embracing her in a hug on a whim on the way home, speaks volumes about her character: a good friend who supports you without being predictable and obvious. The OVA extends our scope of her impact on Hazuki's outlook on band life and acts as a magnifier for the emotional significance of Hazuki's interactions with Natsuki backstage, as they quietly cheered their bandmates on in episode 13.

Other little nuggets of gold are simply spread around for fans of the series to pick out: why did Hazuki quickly adjust her grip on the tuba case when her and Shuichi's hands touched for a split second? Why did Hazuki smile suddenly when she spied kids playing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and why did she encourage herself to run faster by commenting on a tubist's lung capacity?

Needless to say, KyoAni's work on the series is top-notch: a great control of subdued digital polish, lighting control and general fluidity in animation. The background art were borderline visually poetic in their intense details and selective colour palettes of the sunset's orange hues, and the blueish coolness of twilight. The background music were directly borrowed from the subdued and theme-based OST of the TV series, supporting and adding the needed polish to each scene they were utilised in.

As an OVA, this is an episode which you can enjoy alongside the TV series: it is a subdued but impassioned piece of artwork, made from a studio that greatly respects humans' interactive nature: interesting things always happen when you just allow characters to interact like human beings.

Kyoto Animation has done it again, even if this is just a special. The care and attention for detail is as present as ever. It's just a special, mind you, but the art is still absolutely gorgeous! Animation is fluid and clean to watch. This made me want to rewatch Hibike! Euphonium all over again and it reminded me of why Hibike! Euphonium is my favorite series of all time.

I'm still so amazed by the degree of how I still care for the characters. The feelings hit deep and really, you just have to do everything as best as you can. Loved it! Hazuki, I ... feel for you bruh.

(( originally posted as personal notes in website Hummingbird ))

It's as good as any episode in the first season. This OVA focuses on the students who didn't pass the auditions, especially Hazuki, the main character here. We see what they were up to while the main band practiced, things like choosing their group's name and making the presents they gave to the band in the last episode. At first, I thought it would just be a light episode with some cute interactions, which would already be pretty satisfying for me. But there were many touching scenes with Hazuki, Shuichi and Natsuki that were great combined with the beautiful visuals. It also shows Taki-sensei supporting ... this group, which was missing from the first season, when it felt they were just abandoned.

The animation is top-notch, just like in the first season and anything created by Kyoani, it's enjoyable to watch even when there's not much happening becaue it's so beautiful. They used the same opening and ending, and again the OST is really good and complements each scene exquisitely. Recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first season. I think this completes the series well and it's not just a useless filler. And especially to see more about Hazuki, considering this is probably the last time she receives the spotlight, since she was not a main character anymore in the sequel. For just an additional episode, it was a lot better than I expected.

Somehow, I completely skipped over this episode when I watched the entire Sound! Euphonium series. So we technically watched this out of order. Sound! Euphonium - Ready, Set, Monaka basically occurs in parallel with episode thirteen of the first Sound! Euphonium season, and I'll assume you've watched it for the purposes of this review.

Story & Characters: Sound! Euphonium - Ready, Set, Monaka gives us some neat little story snippets that wasn't included in the thirteenth episode of the Sound! Euphonium season. The ten girls who did not make the cut for the Kitauiji Concert Band form a new team. First, we ... learn how they came up with their team name. It was interesting, even if it ends up being somewhat uncreative. However, the rest of the episode explores not just what they can do for the concert band, but what Hazuki can do. While the concert band is on their way to the concert hall, Team Monaka has their own agenda with everyone being on board with being the best support for the band that they can be.

Hazuki is basically the centre of attention for this episode, and even though I didn't completely love her in the first season, this episode does a fantastic job at tying up some loose ends that I greatly appreciated. She wants to show that she can be a good sport about not making the cut and she does that with her head held high in the sky. The rest of the Sound! Euphonium characters aren't shown a ton here. Shuuichi has a very interesting role in this episode, something that probably should have been included in the original series. Natsuki also ends up with some interesting lines. It almost feels like some of Hazuki's optimism rubs off on her, something many audiences likely didn't see coming when the first season aired. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 8/10)

Art & Sound: It's hard to fault any of the graphical animation or sound works here, but they still do put emphasis on the nice moments here, which is always appreciated. Kyoto Animation truly does put their heart into this season and this episode didn't falter. The same OP and ED remains from the first season here. (Art: 9/10, Sound: 8/10)

Overall Enjoyment: Sound! Euphonium - Ready, Set, Monaka gives us a lot of fun little details that I really did appreciate. I am proof that you really didn't need to watch it to watch the rest, and is really just an addition to what already is a great series. I recommend watching this if you've already seen the first season and are enjoying the series. (8/10)

We all have our hour upon the stage, or our 25 minutes to be exact, and that's more or less what Kakedasu Monaka is, an episode through the eyes of 'Team Monaka', the people (mostly just Katou) who failed to qualify in the Wind Ensemble, and the depiction of their role within the competition, a bit unfortunate for them that even when they're technically the main characters, they still have a supportive role, but no matter, it's an episode about Katou, and her accomplices in Team Monaka, and how the big day unfolded, from their perspective.
When all's said and done, this is basically a regular ... episode of Hibike but this time around Katou's the main character, and, there's all the goodness that you'd see in a typical episode, made marginally different on account of the fact that Team Monaka consists of different people than the performers in the Wind Ensemble, and also the fact Katou has different things that she needs to do compared to Kumiko, but, in recognition of the fact that this was a one-time ordeal, they certainly pulled no punches, which was a good move on their part, since if we're going to get one episode from the perspective of a different character, they might as well make it eventful, and that they do, while high octane isn't something that's usually a particularly fitting description of a high school drama, this time, it is, there's plenty of desperation seen, and, of course, there's a shot of Katou jumping into the sky at one point, because if they've got one episode on their hands, they might as well go for it.
All in all, Kakedasu Monaka's a perfectly valid addition to the Hibike Euphonium series, usually with OVAs you can expect them to put in less effort, but not this time around, in fact, the opposite, when one considers the closing 5 minutes or so, the impression I get is that in the knowledge that this was the only episode they had with Katou as a main character, they chose to make the most of it, and it's certainly a fuller experience than most single episodes of the original series. While under most circumstances I'd say if you decide to skip an OVA you're not going to miss out on much, not this time around, this episode is undoubtedly a fine addition to the series, with as much character and heart put into it as any regular episode, if not more so.