Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Sound! Euphonium 2
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Keichitsu0305
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It's weird to point out how obviously gorgeous KyoAni shows are but MY GOD!! This performance was too phenomenal for a mere TV production!!! Since I hate recap films, I have no idea if the Sound! film even comes close to how jaw dropping, highly intricate, and excellent cinematography that episode 5 had. The past four episodes felt like a slog since we had to witness more petty squabbles but with minor characters that didn't strike a chord (lol) with me personally. But, I hope the remainder of the season will focus back on Kumiko's inner circle and Asuka's final school year.
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zrnzle500
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As did I. Just the sort of bravura performance I seek from Euphonium. As someone who was in band in high school, it felt very realistic both technically and emotionally. Sure I knew that they would advance, but it felt very earned. This is the sort of episode that makes me believe that its position as a serious contender for AOTS is very well earned.On the podcast last week, they said this season was getting less traffic than the last season, and I hope that this episode will reignite interest and excitement in this season. As to the issue of emotional disjointedness, while I don't think the change is all that jarring, even assuming arguendo that it is, I don't think that a significant change in emotion is all that much of an issue, especially considering how singular events like competitions are. Emotions don't always flow smoothly from one to the other, and of course a competition is going to shift emotions from what they were before it was imminent to nervousness. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2316 |
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I didn't find the change jarring, exactly; it's more that, while watching this episode, I pretty much completely forgot about the events earlier in this season. It felt like I was watching a one-off OVA follow-up to S1 or something rather than a single episode in a larger season because this episode didn't go out of its way to sucker punch me with its connections to the low-level drama that's filled the first handful of S2's episodes. It was a pleasant forgetting (and not really being actively reminded) that this is part of a larger S2 whole rather than a shocking emotional about-face.
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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^I think the connections were there, they just weren't throwing it in your face. To me it seemed the culmination of Mizore's emotional arc but they wisely didn't make that the focus of the episode. Given how some weren't very keen on the last arc's focus, using a light touch when sewing this episode into the fabric of the season seems like the right call, and given how phrased it, it seems you find that choice agreeable.
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2316 |
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I agree. That's why I said this episode "didn't go out of its way to sucker punch me with its connections to the low-level drama that's filled the first handful of S2's episodes," and that it didn't "actively remind" us of those connections, rather than saying it just outright didn't have them. I don't intend this as a criticism of this episode, for what it's worth; I loved this episode. It's just something that struck me as the episode ended. In retrospect maybe it should be regarded as a mild criticism of this season, though not of this episode. |
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Merida
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I think i noticed for the first time during this performance that there are actually more than two guys in that band...
This was a very beautiful and emotional episode which really made you feel the joy and the tension of being in a competition (even though we pretty much knew they'd make it to Nationals) and the connections to the previous epsiodes were subtle but certainly there, i especially loved Mizore's smile at the end. |
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meiam
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Hehe I agree that this felt disconnected from the previous episodes, but I'm damn glad it is! I was afraid they were going to drag the conflict further or something like that, so that we'd have an episode dedicated to celebration and forgiveness and the big performance on episode 6, but nope, slammed the door shut on it and moved on.
But yeah this is a case where the adaptation blow the original way out of the water, Kyoani is just in a league of its own and this episode they were just showing off. The story just feel like it has an hard time keeping up with the artistry and the writer really could use something with more substance to stretch there muscle. It just made me wish the previous arc actually build up to the performance in an interesting way. They could have instead used an internal conflict within the band rather than drudge an old conflict that has almost nothing to do with vast majority of the cast (including the two main character). Maybe some of the B member challenge the main one for a spot at the competition, or the stress of the constant training is straining relationship, with some weaker member being unable to keep up with the better one or something. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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Pretty much nothing to add here with respect to the artistry, an A+ episode if I've ever seen one. I was wondering how they were going to work around the fact that the band is performing the exact same pieces again, but it looks like no "workarounds" were necessary - buildup & payoff, new characters to care about, even more technical excellence than before, and we've got us a work of art. Having said that...
At this point I'm probably being unreasonably cautious about these things, but I get the feeling that these details in the novel might qualify as a mild spoiler for those who may get the chance to read it for themselves later (unless the next episode reveals them in a couple of offhand lines). Anyway, here goes: spoiler[While the anime does talk a bit about the three big schools from Osaka, it doesn't really go into detail about why the Kitauji students see them as a formidable barrier. Asuka lectures the first years about how the level of musical training in Osaka prefecture is on a whole other level, so that for the past several years schools from other prefectures could hardly ever win gold, let alone advance to the Nationals. And the three qualifying spots for the Kansai region are pretty much reserved for the Big Three. While this bit of information isn't directly tied to the conflicts within Kitauji, it's pretty much constantly in the background, with the students discussing news from those schools, looking up their past performances, comparing themselves to them, etc. As for the whole Mizore/Nozomi conflict, while it is at its heart an interpersonal falling-out caused by poor communication, in turn explained by Mizore's introversion and Nozomi's obliviousness, the thread that ties it to the struggles of the band as a whole is the debate about the nature of the competition they are participating in: is it a fair fight where hard work pays off, or is it a mere talent show where the results depend on the judges' whims? The anime does showcase the various perspectives on this issue, but ultimately sidesteps the question of what exactly made the Kitauji worthy of the Nationals in comparison to the other schools, thus defaulting to the standard shonen formula of "hard work + friendship = victory" (feel free to call me out on my misuse of manga demographic terminology  ). Without going into unnecessary detail, the novel makes it a bit more ambiguous as to whether Kitauji's victory was mainly the result of their hard work or a fluke due to a freak accident causing one of the Big Three to mess up slightly. Kitauji's efforts are rewarded, but we do see that it isn't all about effort, and even though Mizore has found reasons to enjoy playing in competitions, some of her arguments aren't really refuted (she had other arguments in the novel aside from "it's all based on the judges" tastes, like the fact that technical proficiency is valued more highly than artistic expression).]
Having said all that, I'm not mad at all about the changes: while making it a bit clearer just how much the odds were against Kitauji might have made it a little better, the execution that we got was beyond reproach, and the shifts in thematic focus do make me curious about what they'll do with the next arc. I just think that putting all the blame for the disconnect between this episode and the preceding arc on the original author is a bit unfair. Especially if you haven't actually read the novel 
Last edited by vonPeterhof on Thu Nov 03, 2016 3:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lord Starfish
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It literally used the exact same animation, so... yeah. I mean the performances in the movie were a bit longer (which is quite frankly the only good thing I can say about it-- Trying to compress a 13-episode series which deliberately went for a very slow pace to build up atmosphere, into a 2-hour movie was just a bad idea to begin with. I think I realized that when I was only 15 minutes into it and the band had already had their utterly failed first performance for Taki), but I struggle to even remember what that additional animation even looked like. Which I suppose can be taken as a good sign in that it blended in perfectly with the TV-footage to the point where you couldn't tell what was new and what was old... But yeah, you probably did the right choice in skipping the movie. Maybe if it becomes available for free streaming at some point I might recommend you go watch the performance scenes, but other than that it was a total waste of time. |
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vonPeterhof
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Luke's JRPG Channel
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I was very moved by that performance.
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proper1420
Posts: 32 |
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"Reina's solo was transcendent, the lightness of her fingerwork matching the beautiful tone of her music"
Interestingly to me at least, a lot of shots of the entire performance (from a rough analysis I guess 33%), including the closeup of Reina's fingerwork during her solo, appear to have been reused from S1E13. And in the end it didn't matter one bit: I was very impressed. Given that the performance in S2E5 runs almost twice as long (6:50) as that in S1E13 (3:30 with two cuts), KyoAni did more new animation for this performance than for the performance in the season 1 finale. Even taking into account the impression that the new shots relied more heavily on stills (e.g., backstage and scores), that's mind-boggling. Most if not all of the reused shots at least had the background replaced. Some were more extensively modified: for example, in the shot from behind Reina at the beginning of the solo, Taki has been shrunk (I guess he's a bit large in the S1E13 shot), and in the profile shot of the trumpet section during the solo, Kaori's head is no longer bowed (http://imgur.com/a/DhW6S). One shot from S1E13, the first of Asuka and Kumiko at about 1 minute into the performance, was redone, removing their glance at each other (I guess repeating that glance was deemed too obvious). Edit: added link to screenshots. Last edited by proper1420 on Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Edl01
Posts: 117 |
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I made a joke in the preview guide that we shouldn't count Sound Euphonium as an anime because it makes all the other shows in the season look lesser by comparison. Then I went to watch other fantastic shows like Flip Flappers, Girlish Number and Yuri on Ice, which showed me that this season had shows good enough that they could possibly rival Sound Euphonium's greatness and maybe become the best show of the season, so I killed the joke.
With that said I just want to say; I don't think we should call Sound Euphonium an anime, it makes all other shows in the season feel lesser in comparison. |
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darkchibi07
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Geez, imagine if other concert TV anime series like Nodame Cantabile had the same ridiculous attention of detail applied as this week's Euphonium episode. It's just unreal!
I know someone mentioned some shots are reused which didn't bother me as much. It kind of makes sense in the grand scheme of things since they are playing the same song. Maybe we'll get a brand new, gorgeously animated concert scene during the Nationals with a new song to boot.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I want to see KyoAni tackle on a full-on musical film. I'd imagine their success with A Silent Voice should give them some clout in the Japanese animation movie business. |
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zensunni
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Glad to know that I'm not that strange... LOL! I totally agree with the review. This was one of the finest episodes of TV animation I have ever seen! |
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