10 Second Anime - Hibike! Euphonium - Episode 11



Kaori and Reina hold their head-to-head audition in front of the band in their new practice concert hall.

Heh.

Did you know it was Summer and it was really hot? Let these little scenes remind you while pacing the plot seamlessly.

Jokes about the weather are always good to set the mood, but they also gave the girls a reason to set up certain scenes. Like Kumiko setting off to invite Reina to have lunch with her and the other girls only to have a tense scene with Yuuko. Or acting like old people in a train car to let us know that the scrubs still have their own duties for the band. Or Kumiko running by the river hating on bugs and having the sound of Shuuichi's trombone announce his presence instead of her eyes always darting around. That's how to use a setting and a season to make the story roll.

 

Since the plot was really just seeing what happened at the audition between Reina and Kaori, the rest of the episode was a good chance for some character study.

Yuuko begging Reina to throw the audition was a big shock! Shock!

This third person limited narrative style means that Kumiko is always "accidentally" stumbling on to these scenes. She's quite nosy, but at least she keeps this stuff to herself. Well, she keeps almost everything to herself, which is a main part of her character development as she chose Reina to start opening up her feelings about music.

 

These underclassmen always want "senpai to notice" them, but then it happens, and they wonder why they were so keen on it. At least that's always the twist in teenage girl comics.

Here, Yuuko wanted to confirm how good Reina sounded. She had to admit that Kumiko was right, that Reina was better than Kaori.

 

I didn't expect the pairing of Natsuki and Yuuko but it made sense because of their shared experiences.

They were both there during last year's mass exodus. We learned that Yuuko's devotion to Kaori wasn't just your average junior student being infatuated with a pleasant and mature senior. She was also the better junior trumpet player but wasn't allowed to do the solos because of their old rule about seniors doing them. Now that she had a legitimate chance this year, being a great trumpet player and a senior too, Reina had to come and spoil everything.

Natsuki also was a senior student who got her spot taken away by a junior student. That similarity was enough for Yuuko to reach out to her. They both knew how tough some of the current seniors had it last year being in the middle between the lazy seniors and the serious sophomores, and how desperate they were to keep enough members in the band to even play their usual concerts. They may not be friends, but they are comrades forged during an emotionally harsh campaign.

 

After last episode's confession, this yuri bait has no effect on me.

Okay, maybe it affected me a little. Kumiko X Reina 4evar! Reina sure is touchy-feely with her close friends. Kumiko finally returned Reina's "confession of love" from the Agata Festival. Of course, this isn't romantic love (still yuri shipping, just not as hard as before), but a growing bond between musicians and friends.

Reina can appreciate that. But let's not talk of Reina killing Kumiko if she ever leaves her. I like my yuri bait to be on the tsundere side, not the yandere side.

 

We also tried to peel some layers off Asuka.

It was quite telling when Kaori admitted she didn't want to hear Asuka's real opinion of her musical abilities. We're getting clues that Asuka is also one of those "special" students where music is almost her whole being, but her friends aren't part of it, even the ones in the same band. Perhaps she's taking a different tack than Reina where she'll form regular friendships, but they won't share anything about music together. Reina only wants to form real friendships with "special" musicians. Kumiko should feel honored.

Having only Haruka visit Kaori before the contest instead of Asuka joining them showed that she meant it when she said the best musician should play the part and she didn't even want to waste her time with meaningless words to support her friend. For the band, friendships do not matter to Asuka.

 

And then we saw and heard the audition.

I noticed that Kaori was nervous when her lips quivered before starting her piece, but Reina's were not. And while Kaori's sound was good, and there were no wrong notes, it was not a sound that filled a concert hall. From Reina's first piercing note, the other students heard the difference. Reina's was a sound that carried while Kaori's did not. Hearing those notes in a room filled with blankets was nothing compared to how they were supposed to sound in an open concert hall. Reina had it, and everyone knew it.

Hmm.

I was not expecting how the applause meter ending played out. I can think of several interpretations on why no one except Kumiko and Hazuki clapped for Reina. The one I like best is that it was obvious who was better and who deserved it, but they couldn't bring themselves to clap because of how hurtful it would sound to one of the nicest and most competent seniors in the whole band. The tally was 2 clappers to 2, and we saw on Kaori's side it was the two who had the most sentiment toward her. Asuka still showed her mercenary musical side. She really didn't care who played.

 

Taki-sensei gave another false choice to Kaori, who he knew was an honest young lady. No, there was no way Kaori was going to play the solo parts after Reina's demonstration.

 

Now that all that stuff is out of the way, I see a new thread for Shuuichi and Kumiko developing because of his trombone difficulties. Will she stop ignoring him, or is she still all aboard the Reina train? That side story, along with Asuka's mask, are some of the only things left to explore before the first competition concert. I'd like to see Shuuichi have his troubles trying to get in between Reina and Kumiko.