Hibike! Euphonium 3 Episode 4 Discussion

I'm surprised at some of the people's reaction to this episode.

This episode was centered around Motomu, but he wasn't the focus. This season is about the band stiving to win at nationals of course, but it (and the whole show) is about Kumiko, and in this season it's about Kumiko's role as president and her struggle to overcome her insecurities as a leader (as well as balancing school and club life, thinking about the future, etc). Motomu himself was on the screen maybe 1/4th of the episode, and his story is really just a means to show Kumiko's growth as president.

In the last episode, she had a suspicion that something was wrong, but it took Suzume approaching her to tell her what's going on, and Ririka presenting the opportunity for her to step in. This time, she and Midori took the initiative to get more information and try to resolve the situation themselves. She's growing as a leader.

If anything, compare this to the Nozomi and Mizore arc, when Kumiko was there but didn't have any impact whatsoever. Yes, in the end it ties back to Kumiko, but it was mostly four episodes centered around these two characters, and they were the focus.

Skipping SunFes is disappointing, but it's completely understandable. It's an event that's inconsequential to the goal of winning nationals, and thematically it's unimportant to the story that the new first years have gotten better (and we already know that the main cast is skilled). Reina's clearly a strict but competent leader; her leadership is not her struggle, therefore the results of her instructions are not nearly as important as Kumiko's.

I agree that it'd be nice if they spread out the last year into two cours, but considering that we're not, the decisions made in this episode made sense to me.

The animation in this episode and throughout the series has been immaculate. However I'm not sure I'm loving the direction this series is taking. 4 episodes in and we have heard essentially no music, the Sunrise festival was not shown at all (even though there was a lot of development and improvement shown for it). This season so far feels so melodramatic, with a different issue every episode about characters that, quite frankly, I don't care about. I loved the characters from the first two seasons, but these new ones just feel like add ons and I feel no connection to them I dont know if anyone else feels the same. The next few episodes need more music and we need to see the relationship and dynamic between kumiko and the new eupho girl grow through them playing music and the competition. The reason why the first two seasons are so good is because the music and the development of the music is perfectly crafted and the characters are unique and memorable and they are introduced and constructed in such a way that they feel 3d. With kumiko in the new role as the president i understand that she is now linked with eveything and the dynamic of how she interacts with events has changed but i feel like there now has to be a focus on the music in the next few episodes and hopefully a relationship development between kumiko and shuichi, a focus on the eupho girl and kumiko, seeing the old characters again, reina closure with taki, kumiko and her sister closure scene, and obviously kitauji winning gold.

Would love to hear any thoughts from people about the show so far and their hopes for the rest of the seaosn.

Yeah, I was sad too that we missed out on the Sunrise performance. But we did see that before, twice in fact. We can't blame them if they wanted to skip it and do something else this time.

As for the "something else" that we did get, yeah, it does not feel very important in the grand scheme of things. But I think slice-of-life episodes with minor characters are par for the course for this anime. The previous seasons had a lot of those; there was that girl who left the club to focus on her studies, the club president feeling insecure about her leadership, the teacher's past marriage, and the Nozomi/Mizore drama, to a certain degree (which I felt at the time was way too long, tacked-on and "melodramatic," as you put it).

Even if she again ended up not doing that much in the end, I really liked seeing Kumiko proactively tackle the problem and give definitive advice and support. Last time it was on the club dynamic, and this time it was on personal matters. It was endearing to see her character growth and a new side of her. And I think this is what they wanted to spend a bit more time on. She can't just focus on playing the euphonium anymore.


As sad as it is, there's a possibility that we may not get as much music this time as in the previous seasons. Kumiko's relationship with music and her journey to become better are topics that have already been covered extensively, and they may not be interested in exploring them further. There's always a danger of becoming stale, too.

I hope I'm wrong, though. Maybe Mayu can mix things up on the musical side of things.


I would definitely not be okay if there are still many more episodes to come focusing on minor characters, but I enjoyed this little moment in the concert band life.

Even if they cut down on the music a bit, I fully expect them to do a lavish Nationals performance sequence, and I won't accept anything less.

@perseii Thanks for taking the time to reply :)

I can understand them skipping the whole sunrise performance but even 10 seconds would have been nice to hear. Kumiko in the president role is set to come with her dealing with peoples personal issues and i too do enjoy seeing this side of her but i feel like in the first two season peoples issues directly related to the club and they were woven into the narrative more smoothly, these ones in this season feel like stand alone events, unrelated to the club narrative.

What im expecting and maybe hoping to see if mayu buing potentially better than kumiko at the eupho and that being the drama kind of like reina and kaori in the first season. I want to see kumiko and shuichi romance resolution thats been left unanswered from the film. Also would i said it already but i think seeing the old characters again and a big emotional scene with kumiko and her sister would be perfect. Would also like to hear kumiko playing the eupho, like asuka did in the end of that one ep in s2, that was beautiful. What would you like to see?

I can see what you mean. At least it was a chance for Midori to get more involved in club matters. She actually did something this time, other than just showing up for practice. And their duet in the end brought it all back to their love of music and playing together, which is what it's all about.

I'm also very much looking forward to Mayu challenging Kumiko in some way.

I feel like they're done with the Shuuichi romance, unless they spend a lot of time building that back up. Personally I wasn't that into their relationship (I don't think Kumiko was either).

I thought Kumiko and her sister already had a good arc and a good resolution. I really liked their awkward goodbye where they shouted "love you, sis" at each other.

Of course I'd love to hear Kumiko play, and I'm sure it's coming. It would be absolute poetry if Kumiko could share a moment like "Asuka playing for Kumiko on the riverbank" with someone again, this time with Kumiko playing.