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Jan 8, 2025
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
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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 7, 2025
Great and emotional story as always, it's almost hard to rate/talk about any addition to this series objectively because it starts to feel neutral that it keeps delivering with high expectations. It's a shame that the release of this movie was whack, english sub came late so the movie is not popular as it deserves to be.
There isn't much to review to be honest, all the qualities remain the same compared to previous releases, but if one thing stands out it's the seamless pacing. The timeframe was perfect for the movie, it didn't feel like it should've been longer or shorter, it didn't feel rushed
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or too slow.
The story touches on Azusagawa's problems and we also get to see him bond with Mai even more, these are 2 things people wanted to see and this movie delivers just that.
There's not much to add, you can expect the same quality as before, great watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 1, 2025
Very lovable romance anime, but it could've been done even better. Around ep5-7 I was thinking to myself that I will rate this 10 because it was so good an enjoyable, but the momentum only lasted so long...
First off the opening is great, it stands out, it's different from the usual energetic openings you'd be used to. It's slow and nice, it's really fitting for the anime.
On the surface it's a usual high school romance, but it's done in a unique way, the main couple form a relationship in the early episodes and it's more about them growing as a couple. At first it didn't
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need tropes to keep going and stay interesting, the anime touched on sensitive topics and was pretty emotional and open. There was no dragging, no misunderstandings, no bullshit that you'd expect from any romance anime. It wasn't until ep7-8 that the story needed new cliché characters and tropes that challenge their relationship which felt fabricated and a downgrade to the story up until that point. In hindsight the anime could've stayed interesting without having to utilize such things, there was no need to introduce new characters just for the sake of triggering the underlying problems with their relationship, although the growth of these added characters was nice to see.
Also episode 13 is basically an OVA, not only it didn't happen in the manga, it just doesn't add much to the story. Episode 12 is the real closure to the anime, but even that is a bit lackluster.
All in all it's still a great romance story, it starts off really strong, but falls off a bit towards the end. One of those shows that you will love but will always remember as the anime that could've been even better
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 25, 2024
Significant improvement after the previous movie, which was a mess. This OVA proves that Hibike Euphonium can still be done right after Naoko Yamada's departure.
While it is an improvement to the last movie, there's still a tiny bit of pacing issue, or more like uneven content to timeframe ratio. Had it been for ~10 extra minutes, the ending would've been proper and more dramatic. This felt like the ending of Game of Thrones, we don't get to experience what happens at the auditions for the "AnCon", we are only given the end result. Thankfully it didn't try to get involved with too many storylines with
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limited screentime like the last movie.
That leads us to the other issue, there's barely any music being played. In an anime that heavily focuses on music, in an OVA with a storyline about preparations for an ensemble contest, there must be some music played...
Undeniably it's still good old Hibike Euphonium drama, but with some flaws. Honestly it's disappointing that KyoAni needs to have these steppings stones to get back to the level of the previous releases (not you, 3rd movie).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 24, 2024
I didn't expect to be disappointed, but damn this hurts. I don't understand the reason for this blunder, Hibike Euphonium 1&2 and Liz and the Blue Bird did it right, then they decided to rush the 3rd movie.
3rd years got replaced by 1st years as expected and the newcomers ended up having some issues that needed to be worked out. In addition there was some romance involved, a bit of existential crysis. Issue is that this should've been another season with 13 episodes, not a movie. Every storyline got rushed or outright neglected and forgotten, timeskips are painfully noticable. I still can't believe that most
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of the 2nd year was done like that, almost 1/3rd of high school was basically fit into 1 hour and 40 minutes (including credits).
Most of the drama would've worked just like before if it wasn't for the unprompted speedrun. It's only the euph players' drama that was pretty predictable, other than that I was keen on following all the storylines. We got a little bit of everything, but it was only enough to scratched the surface in each storyline. I'm so mad that the new 3rd years didn't even get a proper goodbye from the band, maybe it will be addressed in a sequel, but I doubt that.
There are a few CGI shots that painfully stand out, most notably during the final performance. Once again just rushed.
Unfortunately you can't skip this, afterall this speedruns their 2nd year run and you'd be missing out on a lot of information. This is a compilation movie of something that doesn't exist. They can do better than this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 22, 2024
It's so much different from what I expected, but not in a bad way. Yamada Naoko had a lot of freedom with this movie and it turned out well. Also really nice visual/sound as expected from KyoAni.
It's an interesting side story about 2 close friends going through an emotional rollercoaster, but in the already established universe of Hibike Euphonium. However it's nothing like the series, in many ways they're polar opposites, for example the story is hyperfocused on Mizore and Nozomi, nobody else gets any screentime, it's almost exclusively set inside the school too and also the emotions are a lot less spoonfed to the
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viewers.
It's one of those movies that you might wanna watch more than once to fully understand every aspect of it, there's a lot of symbolism and metaphors throughout the entire movie and it's easy to miss a few due to the volume.
Usually movies suffer from the fact that they're somewhat limited due to screentime, Liz and the Blue Bird though overstays its welcome. Since the characters and their relationship are already established in the series they saved like half hour on introductions for starters. Then also it's a bit slow, most of the progression happens in the last 30 minutes, the first 1 hour just presents the conflict and ignores it while showcasing the duo's dynamic. And I hate to say it but there was no need for that taking up about an hour, it's hard to point out which scenes should've been cut since all of them hold a bit of significance to their relationship through metaphors, but it just feels a bit too much.
With that being said there's no other issue I find about this movie, it's unique and achieves what it wants while being a great experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 19, 2024
For the most part it's an enjoyable watch despite only being somewhat of an introduction to the series. These 12 eps went by really fast and there's so much to explore.
It was a bit confusing what the show is about at the start, but gradually it makes more sense. It looks to be one of those longer running series that will take several seasons to fully adapt with a great story. It's also missing a romance tag or romantic subtext (or love status quo? idk about these tags anymore) at the very least.
One thing that's hard to understand is the author's obsession with putting Momo,
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the female lead, into rapey situations. Episode 1 rubbed many people the wrong way but manga readers said it's not gonna be like that going forward, yet in the last ep she once again found herself in another one of those situations. Just uncalled for and makes the author look like a creep.
All in all it's still a great watch, I'm looking forward to see how the rest of the story turns out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 19, 2024
This was so hard to enjoy. The premise had more potential than how it turned out.
The pacing is awful, at first I thought it was just a bad adaptation, but as it turns out it wasn't rushed, it adapted 50/110 chapters in a pretty normal way. Yet it feels like it's all over the place, soooo much screentime was wasted on reaffirming that both MCs are awkward that it was insulting, at the same time there were really good chapters cut short for no good reason (in hindsight).
The last episode especially, while it delivered what we've been looking for, it felt out of place solely
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because there were not enough emphasis on the MCs romantic feelings, it was always about their anxieties and not how they truly feel about one another. And it's so annoying because one could say "well that's what this anime is about" which is true, but would it have been really that hard to make it 20% romance/80% anxiety instead of 10/90? There's just not enough "proof" of their love the way it was delivered, it feels like something's missing and saying that their love has always been there behind their indecisiveness and low self esteem is just not enough. And it's such a shame because the last 10 minutes were so enjoyable, seeing them happy and all, but the journey was awful.
I liked the side characters a lot more, they achieved the same depth as characters as the MCs with just a fraction of their screentime, they're even more interesting and meaningful.
If this gets a second season (which I doubt) then it can easily outshine this season, the last episode (and a few episodes focusing on side characters) showed that they can easily make this anime good and meaningful without wasting all the damn time showcasing the MCs awkwardness for the millionth time.
Watch at your own risk, there are a few good moments, but the payoff is slim.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 10, 2024
Almost as good as season 1. There's less focus on music unfortunately, the last performance was even skipped which is an interesting choice. Less music means more drama, and the drama remained emotional and interesting. Some side characters were focused in many episodes for a change and it worked out well.
This is not exclusive to this season, but you can't help but notice that Kumiko always ends up eavesdropping by chance. It's obviously very convenient for the plot, but feels kinda meh.
Other than that there isn't anything new that can be said about this season that hasn't been said about the first one. It's a
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great sequel.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 9, 2024
There were so many things this anime did so well, but still had a pretty generic and "safe" ending. At first I was impressed how they didn't use clichés or tropes to advance the story, but gradually they used some towards the end which is a shame too.
The slowly unfolding love polygon was pretty well done, it wasn't annoying or awkward, it had the perfect amount of uncertainity and excitement you expect from a romance drama. In the second half of the anime it boiled down to a love triangle which was not as perfect. Natsune having a change of heart, almost randomly, her feelings
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are just unexplored. Not like the other characters' feelings are more detailed or voiced, but at least their feelings were either known or gradual. Looking past that every character felt genuine and their feelings are justified.
Also the ending is just... The storywriting was brave at times, it did things other animes wouldn't try. In romance animes there's always a label above every character, like you know their destiny based on their role, you know the MCs will eventually end up together, you know that side couple will end up together etc., but somehow this show makes you question yourself, you become more and more unsure about what the ending is gonna be. But still the ending is unoriginal, all that buildup seems like a waste in hindsight. The ending also could've been just a minute longer to express just a bit more emotion and to see them react to a pretty surprising element of the ending, but oh well.
All in all it's a great drama anime. It had more potential, but it's still a good watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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