The main personal allure of Hibike Euphonium was that I myself am currently in band class at my school. I've been learning how to play trombone and I guess that was a big reason I had a significant enjoyment of Hibike! Euphonium. Well enough of my rambling, on with the review.
Hibike! Euphonium, also known as Sound! Euphonium is a anime series based off the light novel of the same name. It follows a high school student who swore off music after middle school and how she meets the Kitauji high school concert band. She rejoins the concert band and them and the rest of the band with old and new friends now are trying to make it to nationals with help from a new band advisor.
So, let's get into the meat of what this series has to offer. The art and animation are absolutely stunning. The attention to detail when animating the actual instruments is very evident and the color and lighting were amazingly executed. I must also say that the background music is very good and all of the orchestral instruments melded together well. One complaint with the sound is that to me some of the voice actors sounded a bit annoyingly high pitched. I wouldn't really mind this with a couple of characters but this was a bit too much for my taste. I also must add that they got most of the instrument sounds down and the variety of instruments in the actual concert band is very large.
Story is a bit 50-50 in terms of quality and intrigue. The concept is pretty good because you don't usually see many anime with high school concert bands as the basis of a narrative. But I felt some aspects of this anime were a tad cliche such as setting. Another negative thing would be the pacing which I felt was off. The plot progression wasn't really that good though it wasn't as bad as in Rokka no Yuusha's case. But I did feel there were some episodes that did little for the plot. The drama and comedy were very good though at certain moments I felt the drama was a little forced though most of the time it was well executed. We do also get some insight on the past of the concert band and how they have had many ups and downs.
Characters are pretty good in this anime. There are some cliches present but the characters do have a good deal of fleshing out and they get built from these cliches into something so much more interesting. The character interactions were very dynamic and well executed especially with Kousaka and Kumiko. It is hinted to them being involved in a relationship and I respect that there is a homosexual relationship in this anime but it isn't executed poorly but executed very well. However I would like more relationship development in the second season which was announced. There were also some other great character interaction here which I hope are further developed in the second season. In general I also enjoyed how they highlighted the reality of a concert band. It also details how far people can go and how much people want to improve and get better.
I honestly out of all the characters present, found Taki-sensei to be the most interesting. He kind of brought the rest of the characters to life with their development and it seems that he truly knew what to do to bring the band to nationals. Other than him and the main trio, I found the rest of the characters to be good, but not great. I think some more character development would be very good for this anime.
So at the end what else is there to say? Hibike! Euphonium is very fun and treat for those who know about band. It can function as a learning experience for musicians and non-musicians alike. The narrative and characters are pretty solid, the animation is beautiful, and the music is awesome. So overall you should check this one out for a unique school life anime because I knew whenever I watched an episode, I wanted to just start playing my trombone.
