Hibike! Euphonium 3

With the ensemble contest behind them, the members of the Kitauji High School concert band now aim to win a gold medal at the national competition. For third-year club president Kumiko Oumae and her friends, it is their last chance before graduation. Filled with anticipation and anxiety, Kumiko worries if she can successfully lead the band.

Amid her struggles, Kumiko encounters transfer student Mayu Kuroe. From her gentle demeanor to her talented euphonium skills, Mayu was a member of the Seira Girls' School concert band—a regular at nationals. While Mayu is friendly, Kumiko cannot help but have an indescribable feeling from their meeting.

As new members arrive and plans are set in motion, the club, with an insatiable hunger for a gold medal, learns what it truly takes to propel themselves to reach the national level.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Oumae, Kumiko Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Kousaka, Reina Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Tanaka, Asuka Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Yoroizuka, Mizore Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Nakagawa, Natsuki Supporting

Fujimura, Konomi Japanese

Tsukamoto, Shuuichi Supporting

Ishiya, Haruki Japanese

Kasaki, Nozomi Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Katou, Hazuki Supporting

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Hisaishi, Kanade Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Yoshikawa, Yuuko Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Usukura, Ryuutarou Producer

Yarimizu, Yoshifumi Producer

Ishihara, Tatsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 3, 2025

MidniteAndBeyond

Recommended

A very long journey has come to an end. To those who aren't aware, Sound Euphonium was one of the shows that made me stop watching anime for a bunch of years. It was mainly due to just being watched during a very difficult time in my life, but I also found myself very shocked that I didn't end up absolutely falling in love with a Kyoto Ani series like I normally would. I finally watched Liz and the Blue Bird last year and it changed my stinkin life. So I was a lot more optimistic going into Season 3. Overall, I think I need ... to rewatch this entire series someday under a fresh perspective. It's been so long since I saw the first two seasons, but I could still feel that sense of accomplishment for reaching the end of the journey. Both within myself as a viewer and within the characters for how much they had changed and all that they had gone through. I remember a criticism I previously had about this series was that the main cast all felt like background characters to another show. But I feel like that's sort of the point. There's a wide array of personalities with different goals and backgrounds, but it's first and foremost the club as a whole that serves as the main character. Everyone's positions in the club change every year. New people get added, old people graduate. And everyone changes throughout every step of that journey. They might not feel like main characters in the beginning, because they're coming in as the newbies in season 1. But even as time goes on and they take on more prominent leadership positions, they still have to deal with being new to the people coming in. When looking at it like that and taking in the reason as to WHY these interactions and dynamics are the way that they are at the specific points in time in which they happen, it all becomes so much more brilliant. It becomes... real. Oh, ya. And the music and visuals are still beyond legendary, from beginning to end. It's Kyoto Ani's magnum opus. Nuff said. I definitely need to watch this series again someday. I'm sure my score will go up once I do. But for right now, I'll just say I'm incredibly grateful to have finally "got it".

8.5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 19, 2024

Horikoshi-Zero

Mixed Feelings

I just really don't understand why they only gave the third and finall year only 13 damn episodes. You'd think they would've learned after the second year movie and the backlash it received.
Year 3 still isn't as bad as year 2 but what really makes it so depressing is that the number of episodes really is the core problem. Every arc feelt rushed and most characters lacked the brilliant characterization of year one (which had more than double the episodes to play with).

It' still worth a watch for any fan but because of how much I anticipated this third and final year I must say ... it's probably one of the biggest dissappointments of any animes I've watched.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 1, 2025

Nox---

Not Recommended

Preliminary (11/13 eps)

Yeah, i dropped a KyoAni... I completely lost any kind of interest for this at the end of episode 11. Although i know how it ends, since i read summaries. Just to make sure i was right to drop it. And yes, i had guessed everything (which isn't too hard), so good for me. I spared myself some torture.

We already know what Hibike is like. This is season 3. So, i will cut to the chase and try to explain what i disliked in there. Let's note that i rated Season 1 and 2 10 out 10. Only "Juuni Kokkuki" and "Madoka" did that well ... in my animelist. I loved Hibike's first year. But after that, to me, it spirals down to hell, and i actually genuinely regret spoiling my good memories of "Hibike" with whatever followed. So, let's go...

Kumiko starts off as an interesting character. Dispassionnate, frank to a fault, she didn't care to smile to people when she didn't feel like it, and had a non typical take on many things. A good way to illustrate this, is the fantastic dialogue she has with Reina the first time they climb Daikichiyama in Season 1. When she asks Reina if her feets hurt (they bleed), Reina answers: "yeah, but i don't hate pain". To which Kumiko replies: "Nanka eroi" (sounds kind of sexy). Say, how many anime girls did you see have that kind of dialogue in animeland, especially in an anime that is not an ecchi, nor an edgy comedy ?

Same episode of Season 1, Reina explains to her that she dreads normalcy, and wants to become special, and that Kumiko ought to understand that much. Reina states that she wants to become special through playing trumpet. Kumiko lunges at her, asking if it is really possible to do so, clearly interested. And by the way, during seasons 2, she states herself that she wants to become special, too. Obviously, nobody really knows what they mean by that. I mean, you can top the charts and be a walking stereotype at the same time.

So, after this necessary reminder of the characters' context, here is the list of my gripes:

* Here comes my top gripe with this season. Gradually, Kumiko loses what made her special. She stops speaking her mind. She stops dreaming. She stops having ambitions. This is not a writing mistake. The author made her change to fit more the 'norm'. In "Chikai no Finale", Kanade asked her: "and what are you going to do when you get good at playing euphonium ?". "I don't know, i didn't think that far yet" she answered. Gosh, i should have seen the red flag. I don't want to spoil you too much, but by the end, i feel like Kumiko became a boring mess. I can't relate with her choices at all. And other character's reactions seriously annoy me too, like Reina. I couldn't believe what i heard: All this for that? I am sure some of you will feel like this is a great way to finish off Ku... eurgh... no, that's not the right expression in english i guess... a great way to [u]further develop[/u] Kumiko as a character. If you do, i simply am the perfect opposite of you. I consider it to be the second most boring option in the universe. Actually, i wouldn't have had much of a problem with it if they didn't hardcore tease what i considered to be the best option. But i had seen it coming: "Ok, i can see that they do that because they want to do the opposite for the sake of a cringe surprise that is not surprising in the slightest". Unfortunately, i was right.

* Speaking of unsurprising surprises... Mayu... All it took to me to guess everything was 3 things. 1) You could see Taki and Matsumoto speaking to someone in a box when Kumiko came to bring back the key. It made sense that it was a student. And they talked to this person until after the bell had rang. 2) There was an empty seat in Kumiko's classroom. And 3) Reina and Kumiko heard someone "talented" playing euphonium near the station when going back home. With this, it became easy to guess everything regarding Mayu and her role in the story up to the end, as soon as by the middle of episode 1... And i remember clearly thinking... "No... You are not going to do that, right? That would be SO DAMN ANNOYING". Mild spoiler: they did. Worst part is: when you know what is coming, it is even more annoying when you are proved right. Mayu, as a character, only exists to bring frustration. And because KyoAni rewrote the end, the frustration is never released. That's an awful thing to do in my opinion.

* My 2nd gripe here is that Reina turned into a psychopath. That was so damn annoying and clearly overdone. No human behaves like this. Unless they are one of my ex and straight out of a psychiatric hospital. Actually, this brings me to another of my major gripes with this 3rd season...

* The drama. It is everywhere. Reina is a device to introduce shitloads of it. This season screams: "I am a drama and i want you to know it". Again, it appears that KyoAni even rewrote parts of the original story (part of the end) so that it would be even more dramatic and overdone and senseless. And i mean... that's... who wanted that? They really made Reina into a sociopath for the sake of emphasing more drama. It is detrimental to the character. You don't use established characters to add more drama. It is because the characters ar who they are that drama may naturally follow. This is the other way around. They got it backwards. And it is glaring.

* And by the way. While in the first two seasons, you had a pretty good balance between drama, slice of life and music, here, the result resembles more an expertly crafted mix between drama, drama and drama. What, where is the music you ask? Simple: they needed room for more drama. So, there is no music. SunFes is skipped. Kyoto Premlims are skipped. And even Kansai is skipped. The school Festival? The gigs they are meant to play and that you saw during their first year? This time around, they ae not even mentionned. No. music. whatsoever. I watched that for the music and character driven story, first and foremost. That they got rid of it for the sake of more exaggerated, noisy and hollow drama is beyond me.

* Somewhat related to the first point, here is the story-related part of it. Part of the story is something i genuinely abhor. The part where Kumiko struggles to find what she wants to do after high school becomes rapidly overwhelming. I mean, many of us probably struggled to know what we would do after high school. That wasn't the most entertaining part of our lives, i am sure. In my case, these were very bad memories. I came to see an anime about music. Not a cumulated 1+ hour long drama about the most petty, uninteresting and unfulfilling struggles life has to offer. Because this is THE overarching story of this season 3. Even more than the nationals. I watched it. I didn't want to, but i did. Because i hoped for this anime to bring something only an anime can provide. Something that life does not offer that often. I knew this series was about 'real life'. But i wished they wouldn't be 'that' real to the end. I should have expected it. This is a common trend when it comes to japanese animation MCs. Yes. After this last dialogue at the end of episode 11, all the drama fell flat. And it was then that i realised that any emotional tie i had to this series had just been cut clean. In a split second, i lost all investment i still had towards these series. That's miraculous. At this point, i totally stopped caring about whether she would get her solo or not. I stopped giving a damn whether they would get gold or not, too, as it suddenly felt totally meaningless to know. I couldn't even be bothered to care what would happen of their various relationships.

To conclude, if you are there for the music, to see how Kumiko's destiny will turn out, a developped romance (any), if you have some ships that you want to see sailing towards the setting sun, if you were there for the music (again), to see how Kumiko achieved becoming special through playing euphonium, or if you are expecting to see no annoying character-slash-plot devices in a KyoAni anime... turn away fool ! You will only hurt yourself.

If, on the other hand, you crave for character drama, to see them struggle without having a clue what to do. If you like when a detail can snowball into an atomic apocalypse for the sake of drama. In short, if you watch animes "for the feels", you will love that. This was made for you specifically. A shame i was never part of this club.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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