Name: How Warm It Sounds | Why Hibike! Euphonium Is My Favorite Anime
Uploaded: 2019-09-23T11:33:15.000Z
Duration: 20 min 8 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

I first watched Sound Euphonium in my freshman year of college, thoughts of my next steps still safely ahead

Past perfect

I'd recently started a YouTube channel on a whim, and even covered the series in one of my earliest videos,

Adverbs of degree

describing it as a bit slow and certainly nothing too exciting,

I graduate in May, the future is no longer then and I can confidently say,

Sound! Euphonium is my favorite work of all time

When we first meet Oumae Kumiko, she doesn't seem like the type of character a story should revolve around.

Indecisive and awkward, she absent-mindedly blurts her thoughts out loud and second-guesses her decisions, even those as banal as ice cream flavors.

Kumiko would much rather blend in with the crowd,

then stick out, avoiding confrontation where possible and accepting whatever's put in front of her.

She only started the euphonium in the first place because nobody else wanted it.

She doesn't put herself out there for fear of being let down,

a safe weak play shielding her from pain, but also the true joy of accomplishment

the series opens to her final middle school competition, and Reina's despair at their failure to advance

Kumiko is the type of person who's okay with settling for a dud goal. She wouldn't let herself believe

they could do any better, but Reina is a different sort of person. Where Kumiko is content

just looking ahead, Reina sets her sights high. Laying it all on the line for the chance to be special

Thoughts of Reina's drive pushed Kumiko away from the band, afraid to commit herself wholeheartedly towards a goal

She always keeps "one foot in, one foot out"

I now see so much of my old self in Kumiko at the start of the series.

Aimlessly wandering through life without much direction. I went to university because it's what everyone around me did,

I only chose my major because it's the one I was told would best position me for medical school.

I'd shuffle from one class, one obligation to the next with only exam weeks connecting the loose threads.

Even my Youtube channel, originally created as an outlet free from my daily grind, started to fall into the cold pattern of routine

Soon days turned into weeks, weeks into semesters, and semesters into years.

Where was the experience I could call my own, was I doing anything of my own volition was, I doing anything at all?

My mind would always come back to Sound! Euphonium. Funny how certain things can have such an impact on you without you even realizing it.

Just look at Kumiko that image of Reina never leaves Kumiko's mind

she wants to put it all behind her, seeking a fresh start at a school not known for its concert band.

Much like her new hairstyle, Kitauji was her way of cutting clean from that past. Even so, she can't avoid the band's pull

Hazuki's honest excitement at creating sound reminds Kumiko of her own first steps with music, relighting that spark just enough to call her back

She ditches the ponytail, that's not her, and agrees to join Kitauji's band. Unlike Midori, though,

who unabashedly proclaims her love for the contrabass. Kumiko looks to a new instrument, wanting to break away from the euphonium,

but a part of her knows how deeply she loves the euph, even if she doesn't consciously realize it.

Season 1 centers around Kumiko discovering her passion, leaving that directionless haze behind her and living authentically.

when Taki sensei gives the band the choice of chasing nationals or having fun,

Kumiko abstains from the vote, unsure what she wants or what Reina would think. She exists on the periphery,

totally non-committal. Aoi warns Kumiko not to let these years pass without living to her true feelings.

She makes the point that everyone chooses what's safe.

Nobody's willing to make the jump it takes to put themselves out there, to reach for what's in their heart.

Throughout the first season, Reina represents this vexing, faraway mountaintop to Kumiko.

Listening to her trumpet fills her with the desire to play harder, to reach her level

She's constantly framed following behind, or looking up at her. Reina is the image Kumiko aspires to reach. Subconsciously or otherwise.

During their hike in episode eight Kumiko remarks "this must be how it feels to lose your life,

drawn to a beautiful thing despite your fears".

In some ways Reina is the antithesis to Kumiko.

She hates routine and structure, often wanting to leave it all behind, if only for a moment

But even if she can't make the impossible leap, she won't let that stop her from taking the smaller one right in front of her.

She didn't reach the summit to admire the view,

but because nobody else would. Reina doesn't want to blend in with the crowd

she wants to stand above it. To be truly special.

her fierce, unending determination to make that happen is almost blinding, leaving Kumiko in a trance as if having an out-of-body experience.

No matter how many times I watch this scene, I can't help but feel like Kumiko, swept away by this dreamlike beauty.

I feel that burning desire, pushing me forward. Later the others note how Kumiko sounds more expressive and mature than before,

as she chases that image of Reina on the mountain. She won't let Reina fall short of her goal.

She's going to become special. She is different from the others. Kumiko needs to believe in that Reina.

She no longer awkwardly stumbles through every conversation with her, that discomfort replaced with understanding.

Not backing down or trailing after her. In a complete turn of events from the earlier vote on the band's goal; the once guarded, distant Kumiko

suddenly becomes outspoken in support of her friend, vigorously cheering for Reina while the others remain silent.

Kumiko's growth here culminates in episode 12, forced to confront what the euphonium means to her;

after Taki sensei gives her a challenging new part to play for the competition

and she struggles to get it right, no matter how much she throws herself at it, still it eludes her.

She tells Reina of her feverish desire to improve, to be special like her, as the frame boxes her in,

"The fingertips, the strength, and timings of my breath. I can hear the sound I want in my head.

The frustration of being unable to reproduce it."

I often come back to this line, how helpless that feeling is when you know what you want to do, but can't find the way forward.

Throughout the episode, shots of a butterfly follow Kumiko, but now it's caught in a spider web unable to move ahead.

Finally Kumiko's desire to be better that's built up inside her explodes out into a desperate cry.

I want to improve. I want to be special. I'm not content wading through life, or taking the easier route simply because it's clear

I'll find my way forward, whatever that means, wherever that leads me. I feel that painful yearning inside like Kumiko,

Kumiko finally understands how much it hurts to completely put yourself out there and come up short. She defiantly tells her sister

there is a point to sticking with the euphonium: because she likes it.

Only when Mamiko leaves, does the weight of these words hit her, as she looks into a mirror and reiterates much softer

Taki reassures her you really only need to enjoy something to do it,

I remember coming back to the series long after I'd first watched it and being struck by how deeply I felt Kumiko's emotions here.

I realized, I don't know what my passion is but seeing, Kumiko find hers, with the resolve to see it through, filled me with determination

It was like a light went off in my head, where the patterns I'd fallen into seemed

so small and the answers became clear. Stop living to what's expected of you. Live to yourself

Kumiko discovered what drives her and is committed to make it a reality. In a perfect world we could do that all the time,

but even if it's only just for now, this moment is all that matters to her.

Kumiko has to be Kumiko. I have to be me. It sounds so simple, but maybe that's enough.

Two recurring questions pop up throughout the series; why do you play and who do you play for?

When Kumiko presses Gotou on "why tuba?", he responds with a straight face: "I like tuba".

Ultimately, Kumiko discovers how much she enjoys the euphonium,

realizing that that's all the reason she needs.

The second season centers around the latter: "who do you play for?"

Reina says she plays for herself, Asuka plays for her father, Taki for his deceased wife, Kumiko for her sister.

But how do you get these feelings across?

The staff described the theme of season 2 as a "reach you".

Be it Mizore's inability to put her thoughts into words with Nozomi, or Kumiko's own struggle to communicate her feelings

to Asuka and Mamiko. Where season one shows Kumiko finding her passion, season two is about finding her voice.

She's remained on the edge of conflicts, a bystander to these events, unable to influence any of them, offer any solutions,