Hibike! Euphonium – 04
This week…on Bee and Puppycat….
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…Kumiko and Reina are on the job, and they take a trip through Temp-bot to the planet Solfège… “Hold Still for Uniform Assignment!”..I’m sorry this really isn’t Bee and Puppycat. I lead you on. But we do have one heck of an entertaining and endearing episode, so let’s see what happened….. |
Walking on eggshells…
When last we left the concert band, Taki-sensei had given them a week to get their notes in order, and Kumiko gave us a positive outlook in her now traditional “on to the next piece” transition out. So now we catch up and see some of the changes the band knuckled under to get where they needed to be. But that isn’t to say the process wasn’t without the cracking of some nerves
Sensei’s Pitch
Taki-sensei, “You must feel the Forte flowing through you…”
Sensei’s approach is pretty much as back to the basics as he can get. A sound wind-instrument needs a sound body, so the first order of business is to get them into the proper physical shape to meet the demands. In addition to that, his approach stretches into the much needed mental space the students need to occupy to succeed. He’s chipping away at the lazy, sessile attitude that has crept into the the ensemble. The basics of good, honest, goal-oriented work. He can nitpick at the end if he really wants to, but no one can say he deserves a horn mouthpiece to the noggin. Geez, lighten up French horn! To balance out some of he negativity, Taki-sensei has his fair share of support from percussion, and at least the ever awesome Asuak knows where he is coming from. Reina though, will not leave it alone if a bad work is spoken about him.
Of course, this isn’t without a fair share of grumble-bums questioning him at every single turn. But they are paying the piper. They wanted him involved, and he is prepared to give nothing less than what is needed; whether they can knuckle down and get to it or not. Quite a few complained along the way, with one of the French horns (again!) in particular having a burr in her saddle; to say nothing of most of the trombones. But, to their credit they rise to meet the challenge, shaking off the old and bringing in the new.
It was a work in progress on many fronts
But in addition to working on the music, the main cast works on building some solid relationships as well. Whether it was from Midori insisting on being part of future mischief, or with some of the older grievances between Kumiko and Suuichi looking as if they are going to be, if not buried, then at least understood. I love her familiar yet grouchy tone with him, and at this point, I can’t decide if it’s the romantic childhood friend route, or if she’s cast him as a stinky brother. Both options have gold as far as the narrative are concerned.
And even if it was a very awkward, and frightening, circumstance in some respects, the bridge between both Kumiko and Reina is slowly being rebuilt. Kumiko lays it out exactly like a confession, and that’s pretty much how it had to go down if she was to get those feelings off her chest once and for all. I loved how the direction flirted with both faux-horror and slapstick comedy faces to bring the case home. Kumiko was off balance, and it underscored exactly how the scene could be seen in present and how she could look back on it in future, “I was all worked up over that?”
Do not mess with Reina’s husbando!
Oh, so saxy!
Looks like a Cat
We can keep this one short but sweet this week. There are a few little tidbits I still love about the whole thing though. One, Kazuki is just not giving up. She is sold on the whole experience no matter how far behind she finds herself. She has potential though. She was the first to ask how high when sensei commanded the leap on the PE field, so to speak. Nakagawa continues to be distracted, but finally answers the call and performs when needed. And Aoi is still looking forlorn. And perhaps the sweetest thing ever is the Tuba x Tuba ship of Gotou and Nagase. This show will probably not trade on any OTP much, but for my money, they are the pair.
After a whole month I thought I was really into this show. But, I didn’t know just how much. I’ve loved the steady progression from one week to the next, both in real time and in narrative time. Which is not to say they’ve dropped the pace down, as they’ve been able to achieve quite a bit with some great short cuts here and there. It’s evocative without getting bogged down. But truly, I got very anxious, as much as the students would be, at the prospect of what they would be playing for SunFes. It was some darn fine writing to save that for another time.
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: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
This is probably my favorite new series this season. I like the way everything is developing. There is some real doubt as to how the band can pull it off, and the characters are varied and interesting.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…brilliant writing and direction. It’s fun to watch it a few times a day just to get more out of some of the subtle bits; not the big bits, but just some of the grace notes that make the show a treat to look at…
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Well, that’s some real teacher work. Seriously, I did not expect him to have the attitude he had last episode. Most fearsome of all, he just says every “hateful” things he does with a half-smile on his face. That’s scary as hell to me.
I wrote hateful with in quotes because that’s what is expected from a teacher who is supposed to take his band to the nationals. Or worse, he would be one of the nicest harsh teachers I’ve seen, because my volleyball team trainer was harsh as hell and Taki-sensei isn’t even close to him. I guess what’s difficult is that with a 60 members club, it must be hard for the advisors to be more personal, and for the students to get to know him better. And if the way Reina acts towards him means anything, he must be someone really special.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
“Give ’em Hell, Taki”, “I just tell the truth and it feels like Hell” He’s no JK Simmons from that one movie about the drummer that was critically acclaimed that I didn’t see.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I wish they’d had a few more obvious problems when they get together as an ensemble at the end. Something to show progress, but not that they are really good yet. Having the director say “There were things I could pick out” doesn’t really give the impression correctly when the performance was actually pretty good. Of course, it’s probably hard to get a real ensemble to play “just a little bad”.
Taki-sensei is the perfect director for this band. Of course, he’s pretty unrealistic as far as a person like that existing, but hey, it’s anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I also thought it was nice that they showed Hazuki not playing. If they’re going to accept all experience levels, it’s only fair to the rest of the group to not require those beginners to be up to speed within a couple weeks. And I loved Asuka’s reaction to Hazuki’s problems “You’re getting stuck at every step! Like a perfect beginner!”
The only thing the episode could have had more of is Asuka, and in the long run, that’s perfect. She’s the type of character that lesser directors would ride hard and wear out. Ebullient supporting characters should always be used sparingly.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…thank you for “horning in” on Hazuki. I left that bit out of my post on purpose! I had suspected that she was left out for that reason, but was not 100% sure.
…it’s reigning in characteristics like Asuka’s that keep this from becoming like their previous “moeblob” material. As it’s is she comes of as delightfully eccentric.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
You’ve made me imagine the boots on the ground. I’m thinking that the musicians are called upon to do just about anything. In most cases it must be difficult to be asked to “suck a bit”. Isn’t that years of ingrained muscle memory? Almost an instinct? Unless they recorded a real high school band going through these stages…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Unless you used a large amount of direction – “You mess this up just like this here, and *you* mess this part up just a little” you’d likely end up with far too much messing up. And there might be another reason: They want to use that song and performance again, in another part of the show. Or even for another show. If it has distinctive mistakes, it becomes useless for that.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
For some odd reason I’m now in mind of what I read about how the orchestra performed the ending part of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”.
They all had a certain amount of measures, and were told to start at the lowest end of the scale the instrument could play, and time themselves moving up the scale to reach the end of the last measure.
Or something like that….this is where my ignorance really has a chance to shine!
But then, I also read about a John Cage piece (or was it John Cale…..or Kale…one played for the Velvet Underground, I’m sure) where he had to instruct how to scrap an aluminum can across a block of ice the right way….
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
i could still hear some mistakes though so it wassnt entirely perfect
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
So that teacher (Taki? ewww) has capable of uh…scolding and torturing lungs (Thankfully, not in a literal way) …well…sort of!
and i got to ask to that saxophone girl (Reina Kousaka). in Local Language.
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………………..OOPS!!!
And The Next Episode…Well, It may had a chance of disaster, but good luck!