Holy hell, maybe it's that last ep bias kicking in but man did this season close everything out on a perfect note. This season truly felt like "the end" and that sense of finality was really fitting for their third and final year of high school.
Only thing I could maybe gripe about is the first few eps when everyone and their dog are coming to Kumiko with every single little bit of interpersonal drama. Like okay, I get it, they gotta show that Kumiko's got big shoes to fill as the new club prez and that she's in way over her head, but good lord almighty did they really need to lay it on that thick? I was legit getting second-hand anxiety just from watching Kumiko try to juggle everything coming her way. But even then, it just goes to show how well Kumiko's emotions and internal turmoil came across that I could empathize with it so viscerally.
On that note, I'm just going to list out all the things I fuckin' loved about this season (again with last ep bias):
The scene leading up to the announcement of the national competition results, just hearing the defining measures of the competition songs from each year sent a shiver down my spine.
So fitting that Kumiko would become a music teacher at Kitauji. Love how they alluded to it from as early as the first few eps when she first got her career survey. Honestly feel like the moment that probably sealed it for Kumiko was when she was talking to Azusa about her future career plans though.
Mayu was a character I was iffy about at first, but I think in the end she serves as a pretty good foil for Kumiko while not being an exact 1:1 to Kumiko's past self.
Including the above, I just loved the recurring theme of cycles and time just repeating itself. From the song that they ended up choosing as their competition piece, to Taki-sensei's comments about the Sisyphean task of instructing a high school wind ensemble, to all the flashbacks to parallel situations facing the Kitauji band's former members, to the ending animation, all these callbacks just add so much depth to this world and I absolutely adored every second of it.
Anyway, I'm rambling at this point, so just gonna say that I'm really glad I ended up revisiting this series to catch up on the long awaited final season and I hope it'll have just as much impact on me when I inevitably rewatch it in a few years lol
Holy shit, I knew this was going to have some sort of insane plot twist because of the prequel, but I was not expecting THAT. Nothing makes sense, but why are there all these feels.