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While half of the cultural festival stuff was cheesy as all hell - especially Yoroizuka's class' moments - I thought this episode was just as good as the preceding ones. Euphonium has never been a show that's excelled in its broader themes, to me, but always manages to nail the little character moments spectacularly well, and this episode was no exception.

I mean, sure, Kumiko just wandering into exposition is getting a bit tiring by now, but she's the POV character, what can you do.

Valhern wrote:

Nozomi and Mizore aren't in the same class:

http://i.imgur.com/GGVp7PH.jpg

Class 2-2 and 2-3 joint. It doesn't say who belongs where but the interpretation should be the more logical one.

Thanks for clearing that one up! Now I'm thinking they decided to mix up things a bit to give us that adorable scene between Yuuko and Natsuki Anime hyper

vonPeterhof wrote:

Can't remember how exactly they put it in season 1, but in the books it's mentioned early on that Kitauji used to be a strong school under another advisor (who is later revealed to have been Taki's father), but they went downhill after he retired about 10 years ago.

It's just as you say. Digged back to episode 6 and found Kumiko's infodump: "For the past ten years, Kitauji has never made it past the prefecturals, not winning higher than bronze."

That explains everything. I'm so glad I asked here Very Happy

I had to scratch my head on what the heck the peeps of KyoAni are planning to do with Shuichi's character. He hasn't anything significant for the longest time, and it really will be in bad form if his only purpose is to keep shaking up Kumiko's character like that. If it's only because of the source material, they're going to be in danger in writing themselves into a corner.

Taki's and ESPECIALLY Asuka's inner problems has been brewing throughout the series, and I'm quite intrigued how they're to tackle them along with the upcoming Nationals. At the very least we know these characters throughout so it's not like a cold reading with Nozomi and Mizore.

I thoroughly enjoyed episode 7. It was to me more along the lines of the best episodes from the clearly better first season. Still, there is plenty of time left for season 2 to conclude in a high note.

And crazy ole me keeps hearing a different voice from Kumiko; it is distracting and a bit frustrating for me.

Well damn, that explains why Asuka is the way she is! spoiler[I kind of expected there could be family issues, but I didn't expect her mom to be this well, unstable, I guess?] I can't even imagine how Asuka kept all that inside of her. Though kudos to Taki-sensei handling it with as much grace as he could. I'd imagine it will be a MUCH different story if that stunt was pulled in a U.S. school, huh. I seriously doubt this will be end for Asuka's problems.

Now Haruka, hot damn! Not only she pulled her own weight in becoming a real leader for the band with Asuka's absence, she got a badass solo to really cap off how much she's grown. Really nice touch!

After making it to the Nationals, the band has seemed much more relaxed their past couple of performances. Even though the drama surrounding Asuka negatively affected the band's practice, they were still able to pull off a great performance at the concert at Kyoto Station.

Over at AnimeSuki someone commented that Asuka was really gone only a week, not the month we see in the Crunchyroll translation. That makes more sense to me given the flow of the story, but can anyone who speaks Japanese confirm that?

yuna49 wrote:

Over at AnimeSuki someone commented that Asuka was really gone only a week, not the month we see in the Crunchyroll translation. That makes more sense to me given the flow of the story, but can anyone who speaks Japanese confirm that?

Yup, I heard that line and Asuka was only gone for a week. The subbing fu$ked up.

The only quibble I had with the episode, other than what people above have said about the subtitles evidently saying that Asuka was gone a month when it should have been a week, is the Baritone Sax solo. My issue wasn't with the solo itself, that was AWESOME, or, as Kumiko's friend from the other school so appropriately stated, "Badass". The problem is that it was clearly indicated that the music was rearranged to make that a baritone sax solo instead of a euphonium solo because of Asuka's absence from practices. (The suggestion being that she is good enough to play the piece with the ensemble without practice, but not to play the solo with with no practice.)

That totally sounded like a sax solo. Someone who plays baritone or euphonium can correct me if I'm wrong, but the way it was played seems like it would have been really hard to do on a euphonium! That said, I absolutely LOVED the solo! It was one of the better bits of music this season. And I loved the "Badass" comment even more.

(I've really grown to enjoy that character - Kumico's friend from Rikka... whatever her name is. She is an interesting little point of view tossed in at times in the story. Really a well done piece of writing...)

zensunni wrote:

The only quibble I had with the episode, other than what people above have said about the subtitles evidently saying that Asuka was gone a month when it should have been a week, is the Baritone Sax solo. My issue wasn't with the solo itself, that was AWESOME, or, as Kumiko's friend from the other school so appropriately stated, "Badass". The problem is that it was clearly indicated that the music was rearranged to make that a baritone sax solo instead of a euphonium solo because of Asuka's absence from practices. (The suggestion being that she is good enough to play the piece with the ensemble without practice, but not to play the solo with with no practice.)

That totally sounded like a sax solo. Someone who plays baritone or euphonium can correct me if I'm wrong, but the way it was played seems like it would have been really hard to do on a euphonium! That said, I absolutely LOVED the solo! It was one of the better bits of music this season.

I haven't played since high school but I did play baritone/euphonium. While there were definitely riffs that were more geared towards saxophone, most of it could be played on a euphonium, which sounds about right for what they were going for. It would be difficult, but I can't imagine it was easy for a saxophone either.

Ah, the scene with Asuka's mother! That was really well done - the acting, the character animation, the framing. One thing I liked about this scene even back when I first read it is that how it finally forced Taki to seriously stand up for his principle stated back in the very beginning - that of respecting the students' sense of initiative ("independence" and "autonomy" are also applicable translations). While his training may be a bit less hands-on than that of many real life band leaders, he still takes most of the major decisions for the band by himself, and the vote in S1Ep2 was hardly an example of initiative, since few people seem to have voted how they really felt. But reaching out to Asuka to ask what she really wants, bypassing her mother's objections - now there's a teacher who really values the students' initiative and independence. Sure, there was no way this would have solved the problem right away, but Asuka needed that support to be able to at least state what she actually wanted.

In case anyone is curious, the piece the band played in the end is called "Takarajima" and it's by the band T-Square. Here's the original. And as for the mistranslation in the Crunchy subs, FWIW it's been corrected at some point last night or this morning (though not in all languages - the German, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic subs apparently still say "month").

zensunni wrote:

The only quibble I had with the episode, other than what people above have said about the subtitles evidently saying that Asuka was gone a month when it should have been a week, is the Baritone Sax solo. My issue wasn't with the solo itself, that was AWESOME, or, as Kumiko's friend from the other school so appropriately stated, "Badass". The problem is that it was clearly indicated that the music was rearranged to make that a baritone sax solo instead of a euphonium solo because of Asuka's absence from practices. (The suggestion being that she is good enough to play the piece with the ensemble without practice, but not to play the solo with with no practice.)

That totally sounded like a sax solo. Someone who plays baritone or euphonium can correct me if I'm wrong, but the way it was played seems like it would have been really hard to do on a euphonium!

Yeah, I was confused by this as well (pretty sure that in the novel there was never any indication that Haruka wasn't originally going to play the solo, and Asuka never shows up for the concert anyway). On the one hand, Taki clearly says that they're replacing the alto (alto sax?) solo with the baritone one, but both Haruka's worries and Asuka's brief initial reaction upon hearing about it seem to imply that it was the latter that was originally meant to play it.

zensunni wrote:

(I've really grown to enjoy that character - Kumico's friend from Rikka... whatever her name is. She is an interesting little point of view tossed in at times in the story. Really a well done piece of writing...)

Azusa is her name, and there's actually a spinoff novel series centered on her in Rikka's marching band (and this is the actual band they're based on). Haven't read the spinoff yet myself, but the people who have are saying that she's much more interesting to follow as a protagonist than Kumiko (and that there's even more yuri shipping fuel).

I was a little dissappointed in Taki this episode. It was surprising that he refused to level with his students about the effect Asuka's absence would have. This is the vice-president we're talking about. Professionalism is fine, but I think the man forgets he's working with teenagers, not adults. They don't have the coping skills in place to deal with certain things. But props to Haruka, her honesty is beyond incredible.

Quote:

Azusa is her name, and there's actually a spinoff novel series centered on her in Rikka's marching band (and this is the actual band they're based on). Haven't read the spinoff yet myself, but the people who have are saying that she's much more interesting to follow as a protagonist than Kumiko (and that there's even more yuri shipping fuel).

I'd love to read that. Kumiko's great, but her archetype kinda falls in the Everyman/Everywoman character, which is great as far as relatability goes, less so when trying to craft a unique persona. Do you know if there is a translation for the spinoff?

GlassesMan wrote:

Do you know if there is a translation for the spinoff?

Doesn't seem like it, I'm afraid. The books have only been out for several months by now, and in the absence of an anime adaptation there obviously isn't as much buzz for them as there is for the original series. Fan translators might get to it at some point, or maybe KyoAni will decide to adapt it in the future, but I wouldn't bet money on either scenario tbh.

GlassesMan wrote:

Quote:

Azusa is her name, and there's actually a spinoff novel series centered on her in Rikka's marching band (and this is the actual band they're based on). Haven't read the spinoff yet myself, but the people who have are saying that she's much more interesting to follow as a protagonist than Kumiko (and that there's even more yuri shipping fuel).

I'd love to read that. Kumiko's great, but her archetype kinda falls in the Everyman/Everywoman character, which is great as far as relatability goes, less so when trying to craft a unique persona. Do you know if there is a translation for the spinoff?

It's a much tighter story than Eupho purely based because Takeda knew the length going in and didn't have to tie in stories together like Eupho's second/third novels. It also helps that Rikka has much more going on with competing in both concert band competitions (like Kita Uji) as well as marching band competitions. Eupho's novels basically pair character stories with a big competition. Rikka's novels have 6 competitions/concerts in 2 novels basically going as you've discovered in the past three episodes.

In contrast to Euphonium's novels, which basically have Kumiko as a passive storyteller until novel 3, Rikka's novels are all about Azusa and her own tale. While they contrast a bit, it works really well to setup how things go for her. Given that we got to see a bit of her that I didn't recall from novel 2 in episode 5 that was from Rikka v2, I wouldn't be surprised to see this get adapted. I really want to see it adapted too.

And yes, the shipping bait is even worse in Rikka. There's three equally plausible girls you could ship Azusa with and each is as likely as the other.

ultimatemegax wrote:

And yes, the shipping bait is even worse in Rikka. There's three equally plausible girls you could ship Azusa with and each is as likely as the other.

Considering what happened in Yuuri on Ice recently, it makes me wonder any form of same-sex "ship baiting" will be in the process of being discredited if by any chance that gets a spinoff anime.

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