Hibike! Euphonium: Kakedasu Monaka

Hibike! Euphonium: Kakedasu Monaka is a prequel episode taking place between the auditions and final performance of Hibike! Euphonium. This episode features great music but the animation and art style seems to be lacking making this episode a combination of many things making it mediocre at best.
As previously stated, this episode takes place in between the auditions and the final performance: following the rejects from the auditions who decide to go by the name Monaka to represent their group. The episode makes a lot of references to the show such as making the good luck charms or collecting the mallets from the band room for ... the final performance. Outside of this and a bit of character development, not much happens though.
There are many great things about this episode. Although I can point out the music, much of it is just reused from Hibike! Euphonium as are the backgrounds. The reference back to the main series and filling in the gaps is a very nice feature and helps to make the world this show takes place in more built and grounded in reality.
As for the bad, there isn’t too much to criticize. The worst part was probably the animation that seems to be incredibly rushed in this episode and not really polished. On top of this the idea of an arc following side characters seems cool, but most of these characters are not at all developed during the main series making it feel more like you’re watching this episode to see more of the world of Hibike! Euphonium, not to see these unimportant characters, which to some people is a plus but to me it just seems lazy.
I didn’t really have a lot to say in comparison to my other reviews but that is because it is hard to say a lot about a twenty-five minute episode. Overall I would recommend this episode for those who are fans of Hibike! Euphonium due to its length, but those who don’t really care all too much about the world of Hibike! Euphonium and are just watching it to say they have watched it or they were recommended it and aren’t all too interested, or those who are re watching it, this episode is very skippable.