Adapting the “響け! ユーフォニアム” novels written by Ayano Takeda, “Hibike! Euphonium” is all about the challenges of a high school concert band club to once again reach a championship level.
The story unfolds around Kumiko, who although she decided to make a fresh start in high school, gets dragged into joining the concert band club where she not only has to deal with the club’s woes but also faces Reina, a girl that was in her middle school concert band club and with whom she had a falling out.
The overall genre is that of youngsters coming of age and overcoming challenges, along with the typical plot items to be expected of a school club or tournament anime. What makes “Hibike! Euphonium” stand out from similar anime, is its more unique protagonist and character driven atmosphere.
While Kumiko’s friends Hazuki and Sapphire are the typical energetic lively girl and timid ojousama style characters, Reina has already proven to be much more than the usual serious scholar type girl and Kumiko herself is a joy to watch. While one might think she’s a rather run of the mill main character due to her inner monologue and exaggerated facial expressions, she’s quite refreshing not only in terms of her whole character but also how she interacts with everyone and her more human, natural responses.
Looking at the characters design style and the overall animation, one immediately recognizes the work of Kyoto Animation. As expected from this studio, the animation in “Hoibike! Euphonium” is excellent and at times just incredibly stunning!
In some scenes the studio has done some gorgeous background rendering with very nice effects that while looking unfocused, makes the background really emphasize the scene and enhance the atmosphere. Several key character animation scenes have been mind blowing, including the some scenes between Kumiko in Reina in the latest episode.
Highly recommend this show to all anime fans. You can watch “Hibike! Euphonium” on Crunchyroll.
