©Ayano Takeda,TAKARAJIMASHA/Hibike Partners2024

Sound! Euphonium is no stranger to repeating past points and storylines over and over again. It's not just that the school year structure requires the same festivals, competitions, etc., to return regularly. Students frequently initiate discussions about elements such as auditions. It can reach the same level as public repetition. In this episode, the conversation with Kuroe turns to her apparent worries about causing discord when auditioning and potentially taking away a spot from someone deemed “worthy” by the club. “than. It's impossible to ignore the feeling of having been here before. This problem has appeared many times in Euphonium—the main difference now is that it can directly affect Kumiko herself.

Some of the early teases about this episode made me think that it might fully describe Kuroe, but it looks like that will have to wait. This is an episode directly about Kumiko, however, there's no doubt that the mysterious Mother influences things in important ways. Kumiko, as usual, struggles with questions about her future. She's making the classic anime move of delaying filling out her post-graduation planning form. Her eye on the band's future is focused on her duties as president and the extensive management of all member matters rather than concern for her position. Early in this episode, there's an incredibly vivid moment when Kumiko turns around to answer her father's prompt, perfectly capturing that nervous awkward feeling when you know your parents are going to ask you a tough question about your plans. your plan. She's putting things off and she knows it. But as this season has shown, the future is going down, whether we like it or not.

Cyclical events from the past, intertwined with the certainty of the future, characterize much of Kumiko's internal conflict in this episode. Kuroe's underlying threat exhibits some similarities—she asks Kumiko to attend the Agata Festival, Kumiko lies about her plans to refuse, mirroring her similar shooting down of Shuichi in the season Firstly. It shows Kumiko avoiding confrontation with others and her future. It also shows that she has the ability to return to her previous self, which she discusses later in the episode. However, the implications from Kuroe's intrusion into Kumiko's practice session to her meddling in Kumiko's notes and comments about playing solo with Reina, seem quite clear: Kuroe could usurp the position. of Kumiko while playing with Reina, something our heroine may eventually find herself forced to fight for.

Because it turns out Euphonium's biggest classic plot point that took center stage this week was the surprising Kumiko/Reina relationship. Okay, I discussed this in the TWIA column, so don't repeat it too much, but I'm disappointed with the Sound! Anime Euphonium does not commit to clarifying the proper romantic attraction and relationship between Kumiko and Reina. However, the framing makes it impossible for me to read it as anything other than that. This episode doubles down on that, with both girls refusing to make dates to the festival, with Reina instead inviting Kumiko directly to her house for the evening. In addition to the series' usual cyclical style, it also comes across as a fitting callback to the legendary eighth episode of the first season. Hazuki and Shuichi even reconnect in the festival scene, when she scolds him for not going there with Kumiko. Grab him.

For all the other immobility that Kumiko is imposing on her future because of the uncertainty, going from a mountaintop hike with Reina to an intimate move into her home symbolizes the only place she allows herself to improve. As the initiator of this, Reina is more clear about her plans: she's the one who invited Kumiko to her house, and she's constantly and not-so-subtly pushing Kumiko to go to music school. second. Reina's assertiveness has always been at the behest of others in her life, whether it's Taki or Kumiko, so in this case, it feels like she needs her girlfriend to confirm that she will continue to attend music school with her so she can complete it on her own. Kumiko, being Kumiko, doesn't have to make it to the end. Like the enlightenment she had before starting the series, she realizes that she can envision a future goal, as long as it is contextualized through Reina.

That gives the trajectory I speculated about some of the previous paragraph goals: Kuroe threatening Kumiko to play with Reina (Reina frankly says she prefers) might be what makes Kumiko realize that she can personal competition for something. It wasn't just about taking the band to Nationals and winning, but also playing soli at Nationals with Reina. Driving together, planning the future together, it's romantic, as is the how and why of Sound! Whether Euphonium will commit or not is a question for its future. Yet in context, with this particular episode, how does contextualizing the seeds of its future lie buried in the past? It's tightly thematic storytelling. Some of the repetitive elements seem annoying, especially after so many years of showings. But they pay it off effectively and prepare for further accumulated repayments. Unlike Kumiko, Sound! Euphonium has outlined its plans.

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That's right! Euphonium 3 is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris was more involved in drama than band in high school, but he says the motivation was similar. You can follow what he is commanding on Twitter or find your way to blog orchestra.