Tag Archives: Sound! Euphonium

Sound! Euphonium 2 – Episode 7

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Sound! Euphonium really returned to the strengths of the first season this week, with a conflict that echoed that season’s key variables in both its relevant characters and its thematic substance. Haruka and Asuka make for a fascinating pair, and this episode made the most of each of them, making for a strong comeback after some shaky narrative territory. I’ve been told the third book is stronger than the second in general, so here’s to more great character drama to come!

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

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Fall 2016 – First Half in Review

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The season’s halfway point has arrived! Normally this is the part where I’d comment on how quickly time seems to be passing, and probably make some offhand gesture towards our inescapable mortality, but given we just concluded one of the most horrific and dispiriting political contests in my country’s history, it really doesn’t seem like time’s been passing all that fast lately. But if you wanted fatigued political commentary, you’d check my twitter feed – in spite of all else, the world keeps turning, and that means talking about cartoons!

This season has been offering us a terrific bounty so far, presenting close to half the shows that will likely star in my year-end list. The better shows get, the more small-minded and useless it seems to rank them in any kind of reductive list, but what’s the point of a tradition if it’s not celebrated far past the point of reason? So let’s once more do that thing I always do, starting at the top and running down my favorites of the season so far!

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Sound! Euphonium – Episode 6

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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!

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Fall 2016 – Week 5 in Review

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This was a perfectly respectable week in anime! In fact, it was more than respectable – Yuri on Ice managed to grab my interest in a way it never had before, Flip Flappers pulled off a stunning vignette that raised the bar for the show altogether, and Euphonium had possibly the best musical performance I’ve seen in anime. This season is just ridiculous, you guys – normally something like Yuri on Ice, Euphonium, or March comes in like a lion would be the bright spot in a largely weaker lineup, but this season’s crop basically starts at JoJo/Girlish Number and only goes up from there. Given I’m writing this prior to the election results, the world may literally be on fire by the time this gets posted (UPDATE: the world is literally on fire), but at least we’re going out with some pretty cool cartoons. Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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Sound! Euphonium 2 – Episode 5

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Yeah, this episode was a triumph. After four relatively low-key episodes, Euphonium finally let loose with an episode whose energetic first half was still dwarfed by its titanic performance segment. I obviously love the subtle stuff, but it sure is impressive to see what only this studio can do when they really let loose. Glad to have you here, Euphonium.

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

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Fall 2016 – Week 4 in Review

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This was a workhorse week in anime. We’re several weeks out from the premieres, meaning most of this season’s shows have more or less established their tone and structure, but we’re still also some distance from the sort of narrative shakeups that often mark the midpoint of one season productions. That point in the season means many shows are entering a bit of a lean period at the moment – demonstrating their fundamental quality, but not really dazzling with any new talents. Yuri on Ice and Flip Flappers have largely settled into their genre spaces, Girlish Number and Euphonium each hit some mid-sized dramatic turns, and JoJo just kept chugging along. Weeks like this put the onus on me to come up with new stuff to talk about, so thanks a fuckin’ lot, anime. Fortunately, after possibly more than a hundred of these Week in Reviews, I’ve learned how to spend a lot of time talking about basically nothing. So if that sounds like fun to you, pull up a chair and take a seat as we RUN THESE SHOWS DOWN!

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Sound! Euphonium S2 – Episode 4

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Sound! Euphonium 2’s fourth episode ended up more or less resolving the Yoroizuka/Nozomi conflict, which was unexpected but very welcome. The show’s definitely had trouble making this a story worth caring about, but this episode nailed its big dramatic moments while acting as a clear demonstration of a new KyoAni director’s unique talents. KyoAni have such a reliable and growing team that I’ve recently found myself enjoying their productions purely in how they let more and more of these creators demonstrate their talents. They were low on directors for a little while there, but their next generation is terrific.

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

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Fall 2016 – Week 3 in Review

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Anime is so friggin’ good this season. I thought I was lucky last season, given my sturdy crop of half a dozen reliably entertaining shows, but this one is offering a solid handful of shows that could easily be the best anime of a normal season. Yuri!!! On ICE is consistently funny and extremely propulsive, Sound! Euphonium is every bit the equal of its predecessor, Girlish Number is giving Watari Wataru an easy canvas to riff on, and March comes in like a lion might still be my favorite thing I’m watching. With Flip Flappers and Izetta each offering their own very different strengths, pretty much every kind of show I like is solidly represented here. I remember noting in the spring season that all I was lacking was a strong character-focused story – well, I may not be getting a Conrevo-style themey-wemey show this time, but I think I can be content with this embarrassment of character-focused riches. Anime is being very good to me, so let’s stop with the rambling and RUN THESE SHOWS DOWN!

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Sound! Euphonium S2 – Episode 3

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Oh jeez, Sound! Euphonium was really good this week? How friggin’ predictable.

Yeah, this episode was great. Given a cohesive thematic center through Kumiko’s repeated reflections on competitions, full of sharp conversations featuring some as-of-yet underutilized characters, it basically did everything I’d want from a Eupho episode. And that gorgeous performance by Asuka at the end was basically a cherry on top – the show didn’t need that moment, but it’s sometimes those accidental encounters that end up the most meaningful. Euphonium is a hell of a show.

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

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Fall 2016 – Week 2 in Review

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Preview week has finally concluded, and most shows are already past their second or even third episodes. This season turned out to be even more bountiful than I’d expected, meaning I’ve had to make some ruthless cuts to make the absolutely most efficient usage of my cartoon consumption experience. Magical Girl Raising Project’s second episode killed the sleepy magical girl, so it’s off the list. Keijo’s second episode only had me intermittently laughing through its first half, so it’s gone. With roughly forty or fifty weekly articles to write, I’ve been forced to cut down my list of “leisure anime” to only the fiercest, boldest, most ruthless entertainment machines on the market. It’s brutal work watching all these cartoons, but I can take solace in compressing the painstaking work of dozens of artists and animators into an offhand paragraph for your lunch break consumption. Let’s grit our teeth, clench our bowels, and RUN THIS DOWN!

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