Hibike! Euphonium – 03
…one of the few instances of complete eye-wear in animation…
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It looks like the good ship Hibike is on a course through some choppy waters. With most of the crew complaining about deck chairs, or blissfully unaware of the situation, the few that are trying to find the course to the new world are feeling the pinch. So what is up with the Admiral?! |
Shin Sekai Yori
Breathing is an activity that suits all occasions
After watching this episode I feel like singing the old Mario Bros. commercial, “somethings gumming up the plumbing, poor Luigi’s in a bind”. Basically, Mario?! Where are you?! This band isn’t anywhere near all systems go, and don’t think a super-heroic plumber with a kitsune tail is going to come to the rescue any time soon. It’s going to take everyone being on the same page for that to happen, and when most aren’t even looking in the same direction, as Midori helpfully points out, then what really is the point?
I really like that KyoAni is going in this direction. In past productions, they’ve relied heavily on very large bursts of comedy and drama to tell the story. But here, they’ve gone for a whole different approach, one that has a bit more connection to real life. There are problems that this concert band is facing, many of them rooted in the past year, and like most problems, you don’t get to hear it all up front. It comes to you in bits and pieces, and yet you still have to move forward…while still sorting out your bits and pieces….
…especially when it means keeping a connection to the past…
I really loved the instrument selection scene, as it very brightly underscored each new character quite brilliantly. For Hazuki, she needed to see each tuba before making a selection, and even named the one she choose with a goofy pun. She’s in this, but she still brings her personality along fro the ride. For Midori she falls in love at first site, falling short of being whisked away into marriage, contrabass and wife, but only just. And yet the poor girl cannot get to his chibi version from a capsule machine.
Then we come to Kumiko and her new instrument. It’s no secret she’s been wanting to select a different piece, as it seems she feels she can leave part of her past behind her with a brand new choice. Whether or not she did something wrong in concern with Reina is still on her mind to some extent after all. But there really isn’t a need for a break, is there? Not when you have the ultra-enthusiasm of Asuka to contend with. If I didn’t know better I would swear that the vice-president has more wisdom than her outward, playful personality lets on. Still, she choose the eupho that got left behind last year; it’s been waiting to have new life breathed into it…those little connections really made that scene. Even when her sister seems to have no wind for Kumiko’s sails later on.
But we come to where we leave the first-years in the bass section for a spell. The rest of the band is having problems, and all of them stem from a lack of motivation. It was telling in several scenes to see the ball being dropped in lack of concern for practice, lack of concern for messing up during ensemble, and lack of perspicacity to be there in the moment. Even the bass section has it’s problems getting it together. It looks like horns are barely trying. They didn’t look in on percussion, but we can assume it has some hurdles as well.
There are a few prime suspects for this lack of motivation. At the most basic level, for some students, when the cat is away, there is no reason not to play. Well, idle-hands that is… Taki-sensei has a hands off approach at the moment, giving the students a great deal of latitude in the process. For some this could be liberating, for many other this is a lack of direction and focus. He’s even blase about what piece they practice for the upcoming ensemble; only suggesting it when pressed to do so.
But the next suspect is probably the elephant in the band room. There’s a quitters war that has left a vast wake behind it. As of now, the who’s and the what’s are to be filled in later, but it seems the lack of motivation and enthusiasm is a road the band has gone down before. It’s very probable Taki-sensei knows these things. Is is a Zen approach perhaps? You have to be happy people to be a happy band? If the room has that many mixed emotions, where would his instructions even go?
It looks like Reina is doing what she does best
A few more notes…
There are a great many areas that the band is not living up to potential, and we can look forward to the story being shaped by the characters and how they handle this in the weeks to come. This is good old fashioned character driven storytelling and they’ve taken great pains to balance and pace this out for maximum effect. They’ve not relied on tropey dopey bits and pieces to take over, but instead have relied on letting us pay attention and find the story a bit more than halfway.
I seriously love these two together…
I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when the section leaders met. Something tells met that might get covered in a flashback. But I cannot help but feels some heavy grievances were alluded to at least in part, and some hard choices were being made. If anything the way the story is shaping up, it looks like Taki-sensei is letting them sort their issues out. Before they can be a band ensemble, they have to be a personal ensemble. So how that will come about is for the rest of the story to tell. And also, how it probably fell apart back in the day….
Special thanks to Sean over at G+’s Anime Talk community. He’s currently in Japan right now. This was from the Yamaha store in Ikeburkuo. Don’t you think they will be moving some brass? Just like Gibson guitars and K-ON!
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Haruka and Asuka really do give out that great leader and co-leader vibe, that you know they are going to work hard in their own way for the other.
As for the chickens in the band, this is where the “Nationals or Nothing” voting choices is really coming home to roost. You have people who don’t want to try for nationals, and you can’t really ‘make’ them. They didn’t vote for it, and from their perspective, focusing on it is ruining their fun in band. But most of them didn’t even vote against Nationals. They just didn’t vote. At least Aoi went out on that limb and voted against Nationals. But Aoi is probably more likely to try to go along with the others than those skivers who didn’t vote.
But what’s even worse, in my opinion, is that the skivers don’t want to try, but they want the perks. They want to play in the festival. They don’t care that the way they perform will embarrass the hell out of their school and their bandmates. Whatever. It’s fine. That the teacher won’t go along with that is the big roadblock to them. He’s holding them back, they don’t see it as he’s keeping them from embarrassing themselves. And as always, ‘the reasonable one’ is put in the middle. I don’t envy Haruka at all. She has the responsibility, but no authority. It’s a sucky position to be in.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I would love to see Aoi and Haruka tell the whole story with Asuaka on color…
POWUH: iLurker with 8 comments
While I kind of see how Taki-sensei adopts a ‘Zen’ approach to being the band’s advisor, I didn’t like his manner during their ensemble. One of the members even said that the least he could do is offer some constructive criticism as opposed to just simply telling them that they were awful.
But of course he, as an adult, cannot interfere with the band’s personal problems. whether the ultimate resolution would be to recruit more members or to plead to the second-years to come back is something that remains to be seen.
You’re spot on on how the past is reflected on nearly aspect in the show: Kumiko and Reina, the third years and the second years, and yes, Kumiko’s sister looks disgusted at the mere thought that she could hear some brass play at home again.
This being a KyoAni adaptation though, everything will work out in the end…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
To me it wasn’t really a zen approach. It was that the band members, essentially, lied to Taki-sensei to get him to come to the practice. And I don’t fault him for not playing their game. I think it’s likely he knows about the history, something Kumiko and the others don’t. And the people who tried to press him for ‘constructive criticism’ knew exactly what was wrong. They weren’t the new people. They were trying to skate by, and he wasn’t going to play along.
Now, as I have said, I think he puts too much credence in the “you voted for this” thing, and that’s where a lot of the friction is, because he saw that most of them didn’t vote for it, they just didn’t vote against it. But I can also imagine that that’s a more Japanese attitude to take: You shouldn’t let down the others.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m not going to regret “the zen approach”. I won’t! I had written at least two paragraphs on what I thought he was up to. That one phrase pared it down. I knew he didn’t want to play into their hand, as I was certain he was aware of the band’s past.
I will believe, for now, that he is putting just enough credence on “you voted for this”. It’s his own game, and he owns it at the moment. That will take some balancing now, but Kumiko feels a bit optimistic as a result.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Thank you for commenting, and welcome to Metanorn, Neomo.
I think Highway covers what I was thinking in response below, at least for your first two points. But I was playing it a bit close with Kumiko’s sister. There is a huge story in that distance she showed in the episode. I suspect it might have something to do with Kumiko’s middle school competition, or something that branched from that.
In as far as I know, this series is based on the first of three novels. So there’s plenty of room to grow. But as you say, with a KyoAni work, they typically leave us in a good place.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Hibike! Euphonium praised for it’s accuracy!
This is really neat…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Haruka and Asuka make for a great team. Once the slackers in the band either drop out or start taking practice seriously, I think the two of them will provide just the leadership the band needs.
Asuka is best girl in this anime.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
She is soooo Best Girl. But she has stiff competition.
And the both of them are a great team. I would like to think of them really as one in the making, as it seems they’ve got the stuff, and are in need of putting it into practice.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Leadership is more of a team than an individual. A leader needs able backing and Haruka has it here in Asuka. And, yes, to put it in military terms the CO and XO need to be as one.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ve edited the post with a new pic!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Ohhh my gosh, they’re trying to use this show to get more people into music…and it’s brilliant!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Seeing that, I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t do more cross-branding (there was one trombone sporting a prominent Yamaha emblem) with the anime.
I’ll say that I think Yamaha instruments are dang good. Both my piano and bass guitar are Yamaha. I’ve never played a piano I liked more.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…what sort of differentiated cross-branding could they do? I’m coming up blank.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I was thinking more logos on instruments, for one. Yamaha makes almost every instrument in that band. And they do so at very competitive prices. Plus as a Japanese brand, I have to imagine that they are very well-represented as far as what students have. So it wouldn’t be out of place for a lot of the instruments to show it.
The show is avoiding most of the every day stuff. So we don’t see anyone going to buy valve oil or reeds or anything like that, but they could.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
We’ve seen fantasy show go whole hog for Item Drops….might as well for valve oil, eh?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Oh yes…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It might be interesting to find out Kumiko’s sister’s problem with it. It could be from the banal, her sister is extremely selfish and just doesn’t like Kumiko doing anything, to the plain, listening to Bass part practice kinda sucks, to something we have no idea about.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I think her sister’s reasoning, again, ties into the past. Perhaps she was a booster for Kumiko’s middle school to go far at past Nationals. A great deal of that story has yet to be told…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno, I didn’t get that kind of vibe at all. That wasn’t supportive in any way, the way she “oh, you’re playing that again. I don’t want to hear it / deal with it.” That was what I got from it. I think it ties into the past, but the past of “This bothered me in the past, I don’t want it to bother me anymore.”
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I dunno, this makes the character a real stinker. That could very well apply, so we shall see in future episodes.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
As for Kumiko’s sister, I think she practiced a brass instrument and wasn’t particularly great. Then she showed her kid sister how to play, and Kumiko turned out to be quite gifted. Kumiko’s sister got jealous and that is a big part of Kumi’s ambivalence towards music.
I know I am reading a lot into very little interaction with Big Sis, but that’s the way I see it.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
That’s a pretty decent read, well into the limits of the show. We’ll see how it stacks up…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
You just might have something here.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Taking a lead from my Sensei-senpai,
From ANN: Soon, there will be a lack of sukurumizugi perving!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
I was wondering about the…Shin Sekai Yori (no not the anime), I firstly thought that this theme was only on this show until i notice a familiar BGM when I watch the 1st episode of Gunbuster…
I realize that this old theme…
Show ▼
Hmm, what was that theme?, and what is all about?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It’s part of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. It’s a popular symphony, and of course, it’s in the public domain, so it’s something you will hear fairly often because it’s cheap for producers to use.