Please don’t make choices you know you’re going to regret…
Please don’t give up, not until you’ve done everything you can!
Please watch both seasons of this show, then Liz and the Blue Bird - which is also a masterpiece
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then the sequel movie
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and then the most recent special
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for the fullest realization of this emotional journey
and to finish just in time for the third season to start in Spring of next year.
That is the only one I could see having a realistic chance of surpassing Aria the Origination as my favorite anime of all time.
I've been having somewhat of a very odd day today, with all kinds of mixed events happening, arguments and falling outs with friends, a surprisingly hectic day at work, a misunderstanding between me and a family member, disappointment in the local grocery store not having the item I have been eyeing for a while in stock at the moment, or said local grocery store's deposit vending maching not accepting my empty bottles as bottle deposit.
Why does this all matter, you ask?
It doesn't. Not really, at least.
I honestly just need SOMETHING for my intro to get into the transition to talk about what I wanna talk about here:
In spite of all this, or maybe even because of it, my evening has been filled with creativeness and a whole lot of emotion. And a lot of that stems from me thinking about this show's protagonist, Kumiko Oumae, because of a silly little challenge I'm doing on this site at the moment simply for the heck of it.
So, in lieu of an actual "review" in the true sense of the word, and much different in style from the reviews I have previously done on my MAL account (do check those out, I'm actually quite proud of a few of them ^^), I want to bring to all of you the word-salad below - the biggest reason for my love of this show - highlighting just exactly why I love Kumiko as much as I do.
Whenever I think about Sound Euphonium, the first thing I think about - even before the absolutely GORGEOUS visuals ,seriously I think this alongside the Monogatari Series is THE best animated series out there just LOOK AT THAT!
▶ Video and the perfect use of its sfx and music in its honestly mindblowing performances (don't watch this video if you haven't seen all there is from the show, cuz this is from the sequel movie and is best experienced after Liz and the Blue Bird)
is just how human the characters are, and first and foremost how human Kumiko is.▶ VideoKumiko Oumae is my favorite character. But what exactly does that mean? And why is that?
She is not only my favorite female character in anime, nor just my favorite female character in general, no, she is overall my single favorite character in ALL of fiction. Period. With a very high margin between her and number 2.
And it all boils down to a single word.
Funnily enough, this hasn't always been the case. Not even after first finishing Sound Euphonium. Mind you, I already liked her a lot when I first watched the show, I'd say top 50 definitely, but not more than that at first. After I watched SE for the first time, I kinda fell into a little hole of emptyness. I watched it at a time where I binged a show like this in 2 days, then immediately moved on to the next doing the same, over and over. Hell, this was a time where I watched 120(!!!) episodes of Gintama in 4 days.
Not with this, though.
After this, I didn't watch ANY new show for about 3 weeks I think.... because I couldn't get this one out of my head, especially the second season. So, over the course of time I found myself drawn to rewatching clips and bits of this again and again and again. The more and more I watched and rewatched these things, the more I started to connect to Kumiko, on a MUCH deeper level than I had initially realized. And then I once again stumbled upon a little scene in season 2 episode 10, not even the
Spoiler, click to view
big outburst Kumiko has in there toward Asuka, from which the above inserted quote stemsThe scene of Kumiko riding the train. That's when I realized: Kumiko is me.
So, for a little context, putting it into spoiler tags, so go ahead at your own risk, but if you're here you probably already know anyway, and it's also not as if they're giving away too much, so you can safely look at them:
Spoiler, click to view
Kumiko had just had a little moment of reconciliation with her older sister after an argument because of the decision her sister made that she now regrets, in which she gets asked "when I go away/move out, would you be sad/lonely?". At the same time, there was her senpai in her club Asuka going through a very similar situation as her sister, that she wanted to do sth about, but doesn't know how yet. And she stands on this train, pondering about everything going on, thinks back to her sister's question and realizes "of course, I'd be sad and lonely." - and ends up breaking down in tears in the middle of her train ride, with the nice little touch of the camera panning over to the reaction of a pair of what I presume to be sisters standing close to her, who approximately have the same age gap as Kumiko and her sister.
▶ VideoAnd when I say "I can identify with her", I don't mean in the usual "she is so me fr fr" kinda way a lot of people do and a lot of characters aim for, no, I mean I KNOW the kinds of struggles she went through, I KNOW the kinds of feelings she experiences, because I also went through them in my life.
I have a brother 6 years older than me and saying "I've always had a rocky relationship with him" would be a HUGE understatement, even today I'm not exactly clear on my feelings about or for him, I can certainly tell it's NOT respect. Maybe it's a kind of familial love, I don't know I haven't really had a heart to heart talk with him at any point in my life when we weren't both drunk or at least a little bit tipsy.... and even then, most of the conversations we have drunk center around anime and manga...
Coming from a background of having now ACTIVELY played in a marching band for 17 years, and learned for almost 20 overall, I had my own arc of: starting to learn the instrument, coming to like my instrument, trying to improve, hitting a wall with it and the satisfaction of overcoming said wall. Even last month I stumbled upon a wall because of a new piece we started playing that just has a lot of hurdles for us in the rhythm section (I play snare drum, btw.)
Spoiler, click to view
That's why I resonate with this little scene in episode 12 of season 1 so much: ▶ Video ▶ VideoAnd I've also had these moments, so much going on in my life at the same time, that I couldn't keep up anymore, that overwhelmed me, that made me crumble down and break down in tears. I remember a specific time where I was incredibly stressed at my old job - this is now already almost 3 years ago - and after a hard day on my drive home I suddenly just got hit like a truck by a wave of anxiety and depression - quite frankly completely out of nowhere and EXTREMELY inconvenient on the german Autobahn at tempo 160 km/h - and start crying my heart out.
These are the moments I find myself drawn back to Kumiko, and Sound Euphonium as a whole, and find comfort in them. I know that no matter how deep or dark the abyss I fall into is gonna be, this is where I need to go to find my way out of it, and find the courage to start moving forward again.
I've said at the beginning that my feelings for Kumiko can all be summarized in one single word.
That word... ultimately... is:
There has not been created a single character that is as relatable to me as Kumiko, and therefore she will always be the best I have seen. And I hope that never changes.
Kumiko is literally me if I were a cute anime girl, but alas I'm not even a girl, much less a cute anime girl, so all I really CAN do about it is work through my days in my (surprisingly fun) office job and write up these tiny little (way too personal) essays here on my evenings.... and weekends.... and nights..... and even sometimes in my breaks or on slow days at work....
If you want to watch a story that has about 10 characters that could evoke exactly these kinds of feelings in you, then you have come to the right place.
We need more studios like Kyoto Animation that continuously put out stories as real and human as this, prioritizing quality over the quantity of the series they produce.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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I mean, there IS a reason I chose her as my profile pic ^^
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P.S.:
This show has the Best. Title Drop. Ever.
EVER, I tell you!
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Edit after multiple days:
Tomoyo Kurosawa as voice actress for Kumiko, much like in her other roles, does an IMPECCABLE JOB of bringing this character to life and perfectly showcases her personality, which is why she will always be my personal favorite voice actress.
It also helps that she voices another one out of my top 4 animanga characters ever with Phos from Land of the Lustrous. xD
Val, if you actually do end up reading this review: maybe I really am just a little b!tch… xD