Sound! Euphonium

I started watching this series as a result of the terrible arson attack on the Kyoto Animation studio. As someone who considers many of their works a favorite, the news cut me very deeply and made me the most upset I've been in a long time. However, I decided to keep my chin up under all the dark and stressful emotions I along with many others felt, and reminded myself that all the wonderful people working at Kyoto Animation had dedicated their lives towards entertaining their viewers and making them feel happiness through their works. K-On! Is my favorite piece of media I've ever consumed, not just anime, and rewatching it only made me love the series and Kyoto Animation even more. It's a gem I see myself rewatching many, many more times in the future, along with the other fantastic anime Kyoto Animation is responsible for. Hibike! Euphonium is one of the most recommended shows for those who enjoyed K-On!, and I had been meaning to watch this for some time now. I could see through its dedicated and appraising fanbase that I'd be in for a real treat with this anime, so I decided watching it would be the best way for me to pay tribute to those who very unfortunately lost their lives at the studio, as I simply don't have the funds to donate monetarily.

I don't have a ton of experience playing in an orchestra or band, so this anime did not evoke much nostalgia for me. I played the cello briefly in elementary school and never got enough experience to get past the ear-screeching and terrible phase that forced me to hoverhand my instrument during the end-of-year concert in my 4th or 5th grade. So the story of Hibike! Ephonium did not hit very close to home for me, but it was still very enjoyable on its own. I understand many people who played in their high school orchestra love this anime and get a wild nostalgia trip from it, a feeling I deeply wish I could experience with this show now.

The story of Hibike! Euphonium is nothing special, but nothing uninteresting either. This is sort of a sweet spot for me, as I generally dislike fantasy shows outside of the cutesy slice of life genre, as well as plain boring shows with heavily uninspired characters. Honestly, I dig into most anime with very little reading beforehand (and I encourage others to do the same!), and I sort of expected another K-On! I realized how wrong I was after the first couple of episodes, though this was not a bad thing. While there is some overlap, Hibike! Euphonium focuses on an entire orchestra's worth of students and what they aim to achieve together in the realm of music, and is often heavily dramatic, whereas K-On! focuses more on a small group of friends and how they interact with one another. Comedy and heartwarming wholesome moments have the spotlight instead of Hibike! Euphonium's drama and gripping story. While the story isn't high-octane "saving the world" gripping, the writing managed to make me cheer on certain characters and detest others.
I think the story in Hibike! Euphonium was handled very well. I haven't seen many anime in the "music" genre, so I'm not particularly qualified to speak on the subject, but Hibike! Euphonium feels like a unique story. I'm sure the story and characters mimic that of many other previous anime, but the effort put into this anime shows, and it doesn't come off as a copycat of anything else. It was a product of the heart, not of the wallet or time constraints.

The art is simply breathtaking. Kyoto Animation, as always, looks clean, uncluttered, and high quality. Sticks in the mud always complain about their use of filters, but these same people, to be fair, would also need to complain about every modern film, and the use of applications such as ReShade in video games. The linework and animation is already flawless, and I believe the tasteful usage of filters only take the artwork to the next level. The attention to detail put into the animation and drawing of every individual instrument in the orchestra alone puts Hibike! Euphonium above Koe no Katachi and Violet Evergarden in the artwork department, in my opinion.

The sound and music is beautiful. What would you expect from a musically-oriented anime from a highly respected studio? I honestly want to say as little as possible about the music and leave it for you to experience on your own. It's good. If it wasn't good, this music anime would not be nearly as popular as it is.

The characters of Hibike Euphonium are not the best, but together, they make for a pretty interesting group. High school students can only get so interesting, but their interactions between each other is where most of the entertainment from this anime comes from. Just like in reality, many students are unique emotional wrecks who sometimes get carried away with toxicity and are confused with what to do in some of the most stressful years of their life. Admittedly, this isn't a perfect 10/10 anime. Kyoto Animation attempted to squeeze some romance and romance-related drama into Hibike! Euphonium, but there just really wasn't enough time in one season to allow for this. The romance felt like it could've gone somewhere, but it falls short without even becoming a halfway important role to the story or its characters. I say all this as someone who has only watched the first season so far, so perhaps it'll come together nicely as I continue to watch the other seasons and films of this series. But for the review of the first season, the romance leaves much to be desired. However, many other aspects of characters excel for quite an entertaining story.

I only got into anime recently, and have only been a fan of Kyoto Animation's works for an even shorter period of time. However, less than a year's time was more than enough for me to fall in love with the dedicated and high quality work of this studio. May those who lost their lives at the tragic Kyoto Animation studio incident find ultimate peace wherever they are now. I wish for nothing less than a quick recovery and peace of mind for the rest of the employees who were injured in the incident. Your works will always hold a special place in my heart, and I genuinely hope to see many more works from such an amazing studio with fantastic people.