Sound! Euphonium had a goofy cooldown episode this week, which was reasonable enough for what it is. As I discuss at length in my review, Euphonium’s second season has consistently suffered for its adaptive nature, and so I’m not really expecting it to match the self-contained greatness of the first season. It’s messier, and the drama emerges far less naturally from the fundamentals of the narrative, and that’s just what we gotta deal with. Anime is a tricky business!

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Looks like the show is at last taking a breather

And now we’re suddenly at their school festival maid cafe, which isn’t going well. Normal school stuff just keeps happening

The main two just being bored by the festival is wonderful. It feels like KyoAni level up their friendly banter with each production

Natsuki bullying Yuuko, good

This episode’s basically just an excuse to put the whole group in goofy costumes

Love interest-kun gets one scene for the first time in forever

This episode is pretty disjointed and aimless, but it’s just a fluff episode anyway, so I’m not too annoyed with it

This episode is also more directly prodding the disconnect between its central relationship and their ostensible love interests

Nice quick set of cuts transitioning us to Kumiko studying

Mamiko, Kumiko’s sister, is considering dropping out of college

We’re again running into the problem of stories demanding conflict, thus new books introducing totally new ones

Though Kumiko’s relationship with her sister has been made pretty clear. And it’s interesting to see how attitudes like Reina’s, combined with her own frustration, are articulated in her words to her sister here

This season really isn’t as tightly “about” things in the way the first season was absolutely focused on ways we define ourselves and seek greatness

Taki idly drops the fact that he’s carrying out his wife’s final wish

Someone Asuka knows has arrived. Looks like it could be her mother