Hibike! Euphonium is a beautifully animated work by Kyoto Animation, about the lives of high schoolers in the music/orchestra club who decide to try to make it into the national finals for an orchestra competition. Originally, the source material comes from a novel, but personally, the adaptation is so good that it seems almost as if the animation was meant to be animated all along.
The animation itself was stunning, with KyoAni using their highly-developed skills for color composition in conjunction with detail, creating dreamlike settings in enclosed spaces, creating the most wonderful of moments mostly contained within a school campus. On top of the extremely beautiful character designs and exceptionally smooth animation, it created a wonderful experience where I, as the viewer, could forget that I was watching a series and I wanted to do nothing but continue. An immersive show ,even within the lows in which no action took place, that drew the viewers to want to continue watching even in the most dire of situations; such was exceptionally beautiful.
I cannot stress how amazing the animation is, however. The most subtle of actions and gestures, each of which portraying the personalities and thoughts of the characters to the fullest was combined with great voice acting, creating the impression that the characters on screen were not fiction, but people could meet if they walked outside, each of them with their own distinct personalities and ideals. Perhaps it was the subtleties of their movements, like the way their bodies may compress slightly up when they feel threatened or uncomfortable, or the way their body language functions in different social situations. The subtlety of these motions are usually not caught the first time around, so watching an episode a second time is probably a very good idea.
However, the most amazing of moments that were memorable to me were almost always the smallest of unimportant ones. Though they may be deemed forgettable by most people, I felt like the small talk between the characters, or the lull in the story, those were the parts that really made the story believable and so much more “real” for me. These small actions really fleshed out the characters, and I am exceptionally glad that they decided to put those in.
This particular anime had hit some of my tender spots quite hard, especially since I had done band in middle school and I was reminded of all my experiences that I had in there. The large scope of musical instruments, the various pieces of music played, the nit pickings of the band director/conductor, all of those memories came flooding back to me. The story itself is like a homage to all of those who have done music at one point of their lives, and the long-forgotten feelings are stirred up due to the greatness of the show. Every conflict, every hardship, every one of those feelings are painstakingly pounded through the heart, and I, the viewer, could feel every one of those feelings just as much as the characters on the screen did.
Now that the first season is finished and the second series is just beginning to air, I have high expectations for what is to come.
