Interested in learning more about how #anime_eupho's TV series, movies, and novels were made? I've assembled a lot of facts from interviews with staff members and put them in chronological order here!
Episode 8 is a REALLY cute episode about our characters being your average high school teenagers, along with a wonderful culmination of Kumiko's journey to becoming friends with Reina. I don't think I have much to say because I'd figure a lot of other people might've already said a lot of what I'd like to say, plus more!
Regarding Hazuki's budding crush with Shuuichi, I kind of find it adorable - it's a basic part of the life of the average high schooler, and seeing everyone acting like regular high schoolers was definitely charming - from Midori becoming a gremlin pushing Hazuki forward with pursuing this relationship with Shuuichi, to Kumiko being stuck in the middle with the girls wondering if she and Shuuchi are a couple - with the anxiety that entails of making her friends mad; and then seeing all the other students trying to find other people to hang out with for the festival being adorable as well - Riko and Gotou being the "blatantly obvious 'secret' couple", Yuuko having to "settle" for hanging out with Natsuki and Tomoe instead of her idol Kaori - who has Haruka and Asuka to hang around with, and Kumiko hanging out with Reina basically on accident to try and avoid any awkward associations with Shuuichi.
Moving back to Hazuki; I'd have to say that the way she handled her time with Shuuichi is nothing short of remarkable. After being shot down by Shuuichi (knowing that this pairing was gonna be dead on arrival after seeing Shuuichi try to pursue Kumiko); she takes it head on, with a SMILE, whilst promising Shuuichi that she'd support him with Kumiko like the tuba player that she is; it only after leaving the festival - cute flower hair pin removed, hair being down and messy, and with Midori bringing up the subject again, where she finally lets the tears flow. And I wish that I could hug Hazuki too.
As for Kumiko and Reina's hike - I don't think there's much else that I could say that people familiar with Hibike haven't already heard. Kumiko and Reina's banter and sarcasm is very human and endearing, there's Kumiko basically making a joke about Reina having a pain kink (which is funny as fuck LMFAO). You have Reina describing her desires - to become not just "special" in the eyes of other people, but to be truely special, as the reason why she works so hard to play the trumpet and become a special person with an almost-magical aura - and to be honest, she's kind of captured me with that aura almost as much as she's captured Kumiko.
Finally, the entire scene on top of the hill is nothing short of legendary. To the REALLYGORGEOUS shots of Reina and Kumiko on top of the hill with her dress flying around in the wind.to the final scene. Ai wo Mitsuketa Basho, originally written by Hanako Oku of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time fame, is a BEAUTIFUL song to close out this episode - showing a montage of everyone enjoying their lives in the festival, Hazuki with her heart and soul pouring out after confessing to Shuuichi, and Reina and Kumiko's friendship being cemented at this exact moment. You can REALLY see why there were so many people who adopted KumiRei as a headcanon pairing all those years ago - and why there are still many who keep that headcanon to this day (including me).
There are certainly episodes much later on in this season, as well as in season 2, that are probably better candidates for "Best Episode" in Hibike; but so far, throughout this rewatch, Episode 6 is probably my personal favourite so far, at least with how relevant and relatable this episode is for me.
The episode starts off the next arc - with Taki-sensei announcing that there will be auditions for the 55 students who will be part of the band for the Prefectural Competition. And Hazuki feels the pressure as a mere beginner, especially when she learns how high the stakes are - that her being able to pass the auditions in her second or third year are not guaranteed, and that she has to give every audition her best, including her first year. Hazuki does want to try, at the very least to get better, until she's satisfied.
However, as a beginner, she has an uphill climb - of having to learning the basics of playing music and the tuba, along with learning the piece that she'll have to perform for the audition. And it can be a frustrating climb for people - her included - with her "knowing" that she's "bad" due to not being able to play the tuba the way she'd like to, along with her having had a similar experience with tennis back in middle school where she felt like she couldn't be as good as she wanted to. Plus, it doesn't help her when Asuka provides her a beginner piece to practice on, and Hazuki doesn't see the point in practicing a piece that's so easy.
Kumiko captures it well as she describes it to her seniors saying "Not being able to play well hurts more than people think. She still has a lot to learn, so she may not even realize what's going on. If she doesn't find some kind of goal...I think she might just give up".
After that monologue, Gotou captures the reason why the tuba is so special, and why I love the tuba. As he says, even though the tuba's sound on its own might sound dull to some; when the tuba joins along with the rest of the ensemble,"it becomes music, and a harmony is born". Furthermore, the sound of a tuba in that ensemble provides warmth to the music and support to the rest of the band. Hazuki learns this lesson herself when she plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with her friends, and comes out of it with a new appreciation of how awesome the tuba is. I'm TOTALLY not biased.
As for how the show progresses - it was nice - we get some mroe development between Kumiko and Reina, where Kumiko says back to her "You haven't changed", and with Reina getting embarrassed and asking if it was revenge; more development - both subtle and direct - regarding possibly something between Hazuki and Shuuichi; another apperance of the best character Tuba-Kun, and the episode ending with Aoi watching Kumiko practice and telling her "Good luck at the audition!".
Don't have too much to mention here, except that episode 4 is a continuation of the hill that the concert band has to get over regarding being able to play the Marine's Hymn properly.
It takes a lot of work when it comes to maintaining yourself as a musician. As Taki shows, the fundamentals are just as important, if not more so than the music itself, as it's the foundation on which your music stands. However, the somewhat strict regimen (especially when compared to what the concert band used to do for "practice") can be stressful for people too.
There's also a good chunk of student gossip and drama too - which isn't too out of the ordinary. People gossipping about Taki's learning style, and people experiencing the worst of it feeling as if they were "questionable". But it's both cool and also funny (in a good way) that this anger towards Taki-sensei taking away their SunFes tradition got people inspired to follow his practice regimen just to prove him wrong. Whatever works, I guess.
And it does work, when they "sounded like a proper ensemble" playing the Marine's Hymn; afterwards, he quickly gives them the jam-packed practice schedule for SunFes, and tells them "I think we can". He didn't push them to become good; the concert band banded together to become good, because they collectively agreed on a goal to impress Taki-sensei - and Taki-sensei basically tells them that they'll be able to get through SunFes, because they have a shared goal.
We do get some interesting character developments, though. Reina catches Shuuichi gossipping with Kumiko about Taki's "questionable" methods; and chastizes mostly him over everything. Despite Kumiko's anxieties regarding how Reina felt; we see Reina apologize herself, and then Kumiko - feeling that she shouldn't let her slip away - apologizes herself and complements her playing of Dvorak as being uplifting and motivational - an inspiration for Kumiko to practice hard as well, as if Reina's working hard, she might as well do so too. Kumiko first worries if what she said was "creepy", but then clarifies "And yet, what I did felt neither strange nor wrong. In fact... it felt nice" - as if she's slowly closing the gap between her and Reina.
Plus; we do get a few more subtle hints of what may be to come - mostly Asuka dipping the parent-teacher conferences quickly, with her only explanation being that "five minutes is more than enough"; along with Aoi's concerned expression at the end of the episode after Taki reaffirms the concert band's goal to make it to nationals. #Anime#HibikeEuphonium#SoundEuphonium#anime_eupho
Episode 3 is another good episode to show the Concert Band starting to reap what they've sown in declaring their goal to be going for Nationals; as well as capturing some more of the magic that is the Concert Band experience.
For the light-hearted stuff; you have seniors helping the first year students with techniques and training - including a cute moment between Kaori and Hazuki, along with her learning how to take care of her tuba. We also got to see our trio of Kumiko, Hazuki, and Midori meeting their instruments for the first time and naming them. Kumiko bringing home her euphonium was also relatable on a personal level to me - it reminds me of the days that I had to walk home. With my tuba. Having to ride a crowded bus home. Fun.
One other notable thing was how important Hazuki's role is here - she acts as a vessel for the people who have little to no music or concert band experience; in this episode being seen trying to train and practice, as well as asking Kumiko and Midori about how bad the ensemble's "performance" of the Marine's Hymn was.
Now for the more serious stuff; we start getting our first glimpses of something that happened with the second years - there's barely any in the club, and most of them seem very lazy and dejected - notably an upper-classwoman that Kumiko notices staring out the window and leaving practice early. Something that more serious second-years like Gotou say that first years "shouldn't be concerned about that". Something that involved ambitious second years butting heads with the seniors...
We get to see the results of a concert band that doesn't yet fully understand the importance of practice - seeing band members messing around, leading up to their AWFUL performance of the Marine's Hymn. And we also see the fallout; section leaders having to discuss it privately, practice getting cancelled, and first years having to talk amongst themselves.
Among all this, we see Midori talk about everyone having their own opinions on what happened, and then Hazuki picking up on something crucial - wind ensemble is NOT multiple individuals performing, everyone is stuck on the same stage together, and they HAVE to work together to put together a good performance, or else sound like shit.
Also, one more notable thing - we see Asuka biking outside at night while Haruka and Kaori are discussing the situation; and when the latter two ask her why she's outside, She just says "Something's been bothering me lately, so I came here to take a load off", then quickly moves back to talking about her role in dealing with the concert band's woes. I wonder what this is gonna become....
If my estimates are correct, #anime_eupho Ensemble Contest has earned over 400 million yen as of today's box office gross. This would be 10th all time for KyoAni theatrical releases. Amazing for a theatrical OVA release.
I don't know if we'll get any official numbers, but my estimates have #anime_eupho Ensemble Contest earning around 320,000,000 yen after 17 days in box office gross.