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Sound! Euphonium Author's New Novel is About High School Canoeing Team

Writer Ayano Takeda revealed in November that she will launch a new novel series titled Kimi to Kogu - Nagatoro Kōkō Canoe-bu (Rowing With You - Nagatoro High School Canoeing Club). Takeda then revealed on Saturday that the novel will have a collaboration short story with Takeda's Sound! Euphonium novels included in the first print limited editions of the novel. Shinchosha will publish the novel on February 1.

The new novel's story centers on a high school canoeing club with only four members, but is still aiming for the inter-high competition. Takeda noted that the series will be her first new series of novels after Sound! Euphonium.

Takeda released the first Sound! Euphonium novel in 2013, and the first anime season adapts its story. She followed up the original novel with the Hibike! Euphonium 2 Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-Bu no Ichiban Nagai Natsu (The Kitauji High School Concert Band's Longest Summer) novel in March 2015, then the Hibike! Euphonium 2 Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-Bu, Saidai no Kiki (The Kitauji High School Concert Band's Worst Disaster) novel in April 2015, and then the Hibike! Euphonium 2 Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-Bu no Himitsu no Hanashi (The Kitauji High School Concert Band's Secret Story) short story collection in June 2015. Takeda released the two-part novel spinoff Rikka Kōkō Marching Band e Yōkoso! (Welcome to the Rikka High School Marching Band) in August and September 2016, focusing on the character Azusa Sasaki and Rikka High School (based on the real-life nationally renowned Tachibana High School Marching Band).

Takeda wrote a two-part sequel novel to her Sound! Euphonium novels subtitled "Haran no Dai-ni Gakushō" (The Turbulent Second Movement). The new story takes place during Kumiko's second year. The story introduces new first year characters. The two volumes shipped in August and October 2017. The series also has three short story collection books. Takeda will publish two new novels for the series collectively titled Hibike! Euphonium - Kitauji Suisōgaku-bu, Ketsui no Saishū Gakushō (Sound! Euphonium - The Kitauji Concert Band's Decisive Final Movement) this April and May.

The first 13-episode television anime series premiered in April 2015. The anime inspired the Gekijō-ban Hibike! Euphonium: Kitauji Kōkō Suisōgaku-Bu e Yōkoso "flashback" film in April 2016. The 13-episode Sound! Euphonium 2 sequel series premiered in October 2016. The second flashback film in the franchise, Gekijō-ban Hibike! Euphonium: Todoketai Melody, opened in Japan in September 2017.

Crunchyroll streamed both seasons of the anime, as well as the OVA that was bundled with the seventh Blu-ray Disc volume of the first anime series. Ponycan USA released the first and second season on home video.

Naoko Yamada's Liz and the Blue Bird, the first of two new films, opened in Japan on April 21, and also opened with screenings by Eleven Arts in the United States in November. Hibike! Euphonium: Chikai no Finale (Sound! Euphonium The Movie: Oath's Finale), the second planned film, will open in Japan on April 19. Tatsuya Ishihara (both seasons of Sound! Euphonium) is directing that film.

Sources: Ayano Takeda's Twitter account (link 2), Shinchosha