Sound! Euphonium 2

Episodes 1-2

And so Sound! Euphonium returns. Kumiko's trials with her high school band were easily one of the highlights of 2015, demonstrating the talents of Tatsuya Ishihara, Naoko Yamada, and one of the all-time best anime production teams in the medium. Kyoto Animation have been solidifying their reputation as an unparalleled studio for years now, for reasons I've covered before and more besides. And Naoko Yamada in particular is starting to gain the renown befitting one of the industry's brightest stars - having jumped from a key animator on Air to episode director of Clannad and then series director of K-ON!, she's since directed the fully original Tamako Market and Tamako Love Story, and was most recently the director of the studio's best-selling film to date.

But Sound! Euphonium isn't just Yamada's project - not only are directorial duties split between her and Ishihara, but every Kyoto Animation project demonstrates the rich pool of talent they've been steadily cultivating. The sequel's first episode (which I already covered in-depth for the Preview Guide) is a fine example of this, as the astonishingly beautiful second half was directed by emerging talent Haruka Fujita. And here in the second episode, we can see the seeds of a new talent, with the upcoming Violet Evergarden's original illustrator taking on assistant AD duties.

But talent alone can't make a project succeed. Fortunately, Sound! Euphonium 2's second episode still demonstrates all the close focus on small moments and sturdy character work that makes the show shine. We open with the summer heat, as blurred, distorted shots of the pavement demonstrate the mirages of the high sun (blurred shots are a reliable trick of the studio, as this episode regularly demonstrates in a variety of contexts). From there, some choppy conversational cuts bring us to the first half's conceit: a pool episode.

Pool episodes aren't generally the most reputable of anime cliches, but Sound! Euphonium makes the most of this one. There was some fanservice here, but basically none of it was of the leering variety - instead, the fanservice was more expressed through sequences like the ones starring Natsuki and Yuuko, where their bicker-flirting took priority. Natsuki and Yuuko are an adorable pair, but I'll be somewhat disappointed if this season just uses them for romantic bait and comic relief. They're both solidly textured characters, and this show is largely above stuff like one-note joke relationships.

The actual focus of this half was Kumiko's first direct confrontation with former band member Nozomi. Their initial meeting was one of my favorite sequences of this episode, as Nozomi challenged Kumiko on being picked for the competition team over her senior Natsuki. Kumiko was initially cowed by this charge, which was very in-character - she's never been particularly good at confrontations. But close shots of her panicked eyes gave way to memories of Reina's conviction, and when she responded, it was in Reina's voice. Kumiko's defense here was very clearly what she'd thought Reina would say, a strong piece of character growth that directly conveyed how much Reina has had an impact on Kumiko's self-image.

From there, the two of them actually got into a lengthy conversation about Nozomi's thoughts on the band. This talk, and the later one echoing it from Natsuki's perspective, felt a little clumsy in my mind. Nozomi's role in this narrative isn't a natural one - it's understandable that third-year students who left during the chaos might return now, but we've been given little reason to care about either that conflict or these characters, and their complete non-presence before makes this feel very much like a “season two conflict.” It's natural for shows that weren't guaranteed a sequel to need to invent new conflicts, but in a show with storytelling as generally naturalistic as Euphonium's, it does add something of a speed bump to the dramatic trajectory. In that context, both of these conversations felt slightly expositional; the pacing of the dialogue and body language were still very natural, but the content felt a little spelled out for the sake of the audience.

That said, all of the incidental conversations and scene-setting of this episode were terrific. The first half brought its pool setting to life through lots of shots conveying the variety of spaces relevant to the pool itself. There was no laughing and splashing in the water; instead, we got scenes of the girls walking to the vending machines to avoid awkward conversations, talking in the shade to avoid the heat, or hanging out on a too-crowded grassy plane. As pool segments go, this was a purposeful and tonally satisfying one.

That emphasis on the significance of space continued in the episode's second half, when the group headed off on their three-day training trip. Idle conversations at the crowded lunch hall were quickly contrasted against Kumiko's conversation with Natsuki, which took place in a vast and cavernous empty space. And when Kumiko finally talked to Yoroizuka, their relationship was partially framed through the disconnected levels of their conversation. Initially situated beneath Kumiko, Yoroizuka's frustration was conveyed through successively encroaching shots of her expression and rhythm game, placing us closely in her headspace. When Kumiko joined Yoroizuka on the bench, the shift in their relative power was clear - in fact, it's likely that Yoroizuka's quiet intensity alarmed Kumiko in much the same way Reina often does. But once again, our focus was on Yoroizuka's feelings, as that focus on blurred shots placed us directly in her headspace while she questioned her own reasons for sticking with the concert band.

The episode concluded with Kumiko taking a step forward for Nozomi's sake, but before that, we had one last scene between Kumiko and Reina. Their relationship is one of the big open questions of this series - it's clear the two are closer than most friends, and in fact are generally framed in overtly romantic terms, but both this show and anime at large have demonstrated a frustrating unwillingness to acknowledge or validate such same-sex relationships. Even this relationship is conveyed with a sensitivity and depth that vastly outstrips most outright representation (compare how much these two have impacted each other to the non-relationships of Yuri Kuma Arashi, for example), but leaving it as unspoken inference does cheapen the narrative. This is more a broader cultural issue than a failing of Euphonium specifically, but Kumiko and Reina's rich and thoughtfully articulated relationship deserves better than to even invite accusations of pandering.

That's a bit of a low note to end on, but overall, I was still thoroughly impressed by this episode. It wasn't a highlight, and I'm still not totally on-board with the new drama of this season, but it was still full of smartly framed and beautifully executed scenes. It also did a great deal of work in pushing this new conflict forward, so I'm hopeful my feelings there will improve once Kumiko is more fully integrated into the third-years' story. This wasn't Sound! Euphonium at its best, but Euphonium is still an extremely impressive show.

Overall: B

Sound! Euphonium 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.