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

Hisaishi, Kanade Supporting

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Katou, Hazuki Supporting

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Yoshikawa, Yuuko Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Usukura, Ryuutarou Producer

Yarimizu, Yoshifumi Producer

Ishihara, Tatsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Reviews

Apr 14, 2025

SAINTPABLO_22

Recommended

It's been months, and I’m still not over this anime, the emotional damage is too much 😭😭😭

First thing I loved was being able to experience the perspective of the third years. I always disliked Haruka’s character as I thought she just lacked so much confidence, was always panicking. But seeing what it’s like to be the president from Kumiko’s perspective, it really made me appreciate Haruka’s characters a lot more.

Kumiko takes front and centre as we really get to explore the full depths of her character, from the stress of having to be the president and trying to keep the band together, the stress ... of maintaining her role as a Euphonist, the stress of her personal relationships and of course the battle with herself and her morals. Kumiko is time and time again forced to choose between what others want of her and sticking to her own morals and identity.

But the character that I really appreciated the most was Mayu, she is a difficult character to handle as she directly opposes our MC and thus she is easy to hate on or just be annoying, but they handled her character very well. We are able to see Mayu as an obstacle to Kumiko but not the enemy, which is something that requires very skillful writing which I really appreciated.

All of this is leading up to what is the greatest ep in anime, scratch that the greatest ep in all of media. I have never been in so much emotional ecstasy, I was crying, excited, in shock from what I witnessed. The balls to pull out a move like this left me speechless. And then the moment with Reina and the parallels calling back the moment from season 1 just hit so hard. Then seeing the pain that Kuimko was experiencing really showed the maturity of the show as it gives a sense of realism, that despite Kuimko winning the battle with herself and finally reaching her goal it was not done without sacrifice, she is sad in this moment and at her lowest really hitting us that this journey was not just rainbows & sunshine. The ending was the cherry on top, it just put a huge smile on my face. It was absolute perfection.

I have never been so passionate in a review before, so when I tell you this, I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. YOU WILL NOT REGRET WATCHING HIBIKE EUPHONIUM!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 8, 2025

griddyweeb

Mixed Feelings

Hibike! Euphonium as a series will forever stay dear to me, no other anime could make me emotionally attached like this did. It hurts that I could "only" rate it 7, but there are few issues that are hard to look past and hindered the finale.

For the final season KyoAni dropped the ball, it felt like the series lost its identity towards the end. There was barely any music, the bad storylines took priority over interesting ones, the drama could've been better. Objectively it wasn't a bad season but considering that it's part of Hibike! Euphonium it could've been significantly better. It would've been as ... easy as scoring on an open net, yet they decided to make anime original changes, waste time on the wrong characters.

I can't understand the motive behind leaving a gazillion storylines open in favor of dragging out the most obvious drama about Mayu and Kumiko competing for the soli part. The LN could be blamed for introducing this character in the first place, but it was at KyoAni's discretion what to focus on. The entire season felt rushed, but no wonder.

Year 1 consisted of 2 seasons and 1 movie. Year 2 consisted of 3 movies (it was outrageous tho). You'd expect them to learn from their mistakes, the insane rush and lack of individual focus in year 2 was clear as day. Yet they decided to finish off the last year in just 13 episodes, and this is the end result. The complete lack of focus on the individuals of the band felt so distant, the emotional bond to the entire series was disregarded completely. It's as if the characters were never important to the story in the past, a proper sendoff and more detailed after story was expected for the 3rd years, but it ended like it was a one-man show with Kumiko.

I don't understand the 8.72 rating on this season, but I don't blame anyone either, the emotional attachment to the series as a whole makes it harder to critize it.

It's sad it had to end like this, but I don't regret watching Hibike! Euphonium at all. For me it will always feel unfinished.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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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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