Hibike! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest-hen

The long-awaited new work will be screened in theaters as a medium-length animation in the summer of 2023!

Along with the summer brass band competition, the ensemble contest, commonly known as "Ancon," is a place where exciting performances are held. The performance of several people in one group has a charm different from that of a competition.

In order to participate in the Kyoto prefectural tournament of Ancon, a representative team is selected in the school's preliminary round. However, with over 50 members, the Kitauji High School brass band is facing a variety of problems! Will Kumiko, the newly appointed head of the club, be able to make it through the preliminary rounds?

The days of struggle begin.

(Source: Official Website, Translated)

Oumae, Kumiko Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Kousaka, Reina Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Yoroizuka, Mizore Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Nakagawa, Natsuki Supporting

Fujimura, Konomi Japanese

Tsukamoto, Shuuichi Supporting

Ishiya, Haruki Japanese

Kasaki, Nozomi Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Katou, Hazuki Supporting

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Hisaishi, Kanade Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Yoshikawa, Yuuko Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Kawashima, Sapphire Supporting

Toyota, Moe Japanese

Ishihara, Tatsuya Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Karasawa, Miho Theme Song Performance

Hanada, Jukki Screenplay

Reviews

Aug 5, 2023

Jollii

Recommended

As an appetizer for the upcoming season it's perfect, I'm left craving more.

The pacing was great, much better than the two summary films, and chikai no finare. True concert band nerds may be left wanting for more performance scenes however.

While it accomplished a lot in its runtime, there was time that could have been better used.

I wish it could've been longer but it gives fans mostly the kind of service they'd want from Hibike.

Only con is that you need to be in Japan to be able to watch it. As OVAs go, it doesn't get much better I think.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 18, 2023

Narujoe

Mixed Feelings

When I saw that this OVA had been announced a while back, there was nothing that could dampen my mood and as the months passed by I grew more and more excited to watch it. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but given that it has been 4 years since the 3rd film (the most recent Hibike release), I was at least expecting something worthwhile to watch. However, I was disappointed after watching the OVA because nothing of substance really happened, the ensemble contest does not matter at all and we didn't even get to hear the group that won!

The whole 50 minutes ... felt lacklustre and hollow which is a real shame because I absolutely love everything about hibike. The characters, their dialogue and their interactions felt wishy washy and shallow compared to the complex and well crafted conversations and events that happened in the first two seasons. I get that it's an OVA but why was the decision made to make a 50 minute OVA where you're stuck in the middle between a normal episode and a film? Kumiko is one of my favourite anime characters ever but in this she seems a bit bland and uninspired, I hope they bring her cynical yet kind personality back for the third season, I really do love her character.

All in all I enjoyed seeing the characters back and the animation, although clearly held back, still looked beautiful. This OVA should have been longer, or, it should have been shorter, deciding it to be 50 minutes leaves it in this weird position where you don't really achieve anything the whole time. There was about a collective 3 minutes of us seeing instruments actually being played, I hope there's a lot more in season 3, I'm sure KyoAni won't let us down. If you love HIbike then definitely give it a watch, if you don't then you're not really missing out on much.

Thanks for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 13, 2025

Gippy

Not Recommended

Spoiler

This has to be the most elaborate troll by Kyoto Animation since Endless Eight. This was meant to be watched after Our Promise: A Brand New Day, the 3rd movie in the franchise, and covers the remainder of Kumiko's 2nd year at Kitauji High School.

So for the entirety of this movie, the band students needed to form ensemble groups. They would compete against each other, and the best one would represent the school at some external festival. The movie spent its sweet time on the planning and practice stages of this contest. You know what this movie didn't show? The actual contest itself. Instead, in ... the final minutes of the movie, it showed photos of the ensemble groups with the students' names, as well as the results. There were no actual performances heard other than a shortened cut of Kumiko's ensemble group piece.

So the title of the movie was a complete lie, and therefore the whole thing was a rude joke. Just skip it completely and move on to season 3. As of this review, Crunchyroll doesn't have this, but has everything else in the franchise. Don't worry, you're not missing anything.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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