Looking back on S1 of Sound! Euphonium, it didn't seem to have any overarching themes. One that comes to mind was the relationship between certain key characters and their instruments, showing how their personality and behaviour can change with a piece of brass (or wood) in their hands, but that's at least slightly far-fetched. Comparatively, S2 not only has a central theme, but also a plot building it up and then exploring. Namely - why those key characters are in the concert band, or rather, because of whom.

This is a good point to mention that I'll take some liberty with mentioning plot threads from later episodes, but I'll try to avoid spoiling particular events as much as I can.

The season starts right where we left off - the Kitauji High School Music Club has passed the first stage of the All-Japan Band Competition and continues to aim for the Nationals. In order to achieve that, additional coaches are recruited and students are putting even more focus into practicing. However, some issues from the past are rearing their heads again. The infamous "incident" that caused most of current 2nd years to quit is still finding ways to affect the band's life. Asuka continues to be an enigma, in a way that can seriously screw with people. Kumiko's relationship with her sister, which was only very briefly touched before, now proves to be its own bag of problems.

The interesting thing here is that first few episodes tell a story which centers around none of the main characters. Instead it introduces two new ones, and the entire "conflict" is between the two, whereas everyone else is only tangentially attached to it, if even that. Thus the show takes its time telling us the nature of relationship of this duo and everything around it, and by the time we know everything, the entire situation is resolved. However, once that's out of the way, four other characters simultaneously go through a very similar story. In a way, the second part of this season retells the events of the first one in more detail and on more examples, which is quite an interesting story structure in my opinion. Those branching threads share some of the particularities, while differing on other aspects. One sub-plot is about the ever-lasting conflict of club activities versus studies - truth is, most of these characters won't become musicians, so every once in a while the reality knocks on the door and asks "are you sure it's wise to practice for some competition you probably aren't going to win instead of studying for your exams?" Which in turn begs the question I've mentioned in the opening paragraph - "why are you playing in the concert band in the first place?" And I'll have you know, those answers can be quite suprising.

At this point its worth to mention that S1 adapted only one volume of the light novel series the anime is based on. S2 decides to go for two at once, which I haven't noticed in terms of the material feeling rushed or anything of that sort, but it does explain the structure of this season compared to the previous one. It seems like a good decision, although I don't know what (if anything) was omitted. Also, I have to say that it's interesting that despite looking as part of "main four" in the promotional material, there's even less Midori and Katou this season compared to the previous one, with the former being reduced to a goofball who likes to say simple cliches with completely straight face, and the latter being almost completely non-existent. Not that I'm complaining, those who were given attention are inherently much more interesting characters. Also, this shift of focus gives a nice feeling of getting closer to the characters that received more of it this season, even if this leaves others in a position of filler characters who already said their piece and can now be let go. But again, those characters were never made interesting in the first place, so it feels fully intentional and works well.

There's really nothing to say about the production of this show - KyoAni has accustomed us to high quality animation and voice acting, and I'm not the right person to explain what exactly is high quality about it. What I can commend is the directing, with some amazing atmospheric scenes and scenery shots, good use of camera shaking during emotional scenes, cuts that feel just right and great use of background music.

One thing I have to say is that the show started slightly losing me near the finish line with seemingly infinite torrent of scenes where characters loudly express their rather simple feelings towards each other, but there was enough nuance in the very last episode to leave on a high note. Additionally I have to shout out my very favorite scene of this season where

Spoiler, click to view

Kumiko is trying to have a serious talk with Asuka, believing that her senpai for one reason or another respects her and might listen to her request even though she's been largely neglecting everyone else's concerns. However, to Kumiko's suprise, Asuka decides to challenge that notion - why does she think people respect her? Sure, you can take her behaviour as being mature, understanding, calm and collected, but you can also describe it as being wishy-washy, afraid of hurting others as well as being hurt herself and thus keeping her distance, which meant she never actually helped anyone or really had an effect on anything. While I think the intent was "why are you so sure others are honest with you", my first impression was "how can you be sure I'm being honest with you". In few sentences Asuka challenged pretty much everything the relationships in Kumiko's life are built on, which was a really scary thought, but also an interesting one.

The entire conversation is definitely my favorite one in this show period and seemed like something out of an entirely different show, but it also fit really well with context of that episode and overall plot.

I wonder if we'll see a return of Sound! Euphonium. The ending seemed like something that could've been the final scene of the entire series and I would be satisfied by that, but there're easily more stories you could tell with those characters and the themes this show revolves around. I love the melancholic atmosphere this show can so effortlessly create and I have to say that I've also quickly fell in love with the setting of wind ensembles. While there seems to be a limit of how much can you do with a coming-of-age story, the good ones are quite rare so it's always great to see one executed so well. I dread the return of more light-hearted, cutesy KyoAni, but even if they never produce anything in similar vein again, I'm really happy that this series happened.