It’s Kumiko and the third-years’ last camp. The auditions for prefecturals are on the first night and announced the next morning. But after Kumiko earned both a spot with the euphs and the soli with Reina, there was a very good chance she’d lose that spot to her reluctant rival, Kuroe Mayu.
Heck, the moment Mayu arrived and we learned there would be auditions for each competition, she loomed ominously on the periphery, like Chekhov’s Euphonium.
Even Mayu is aware that she’s a ticking time bomb, and she doesn’t like it. She claims not to have transferred from Seira for individual glory. If she truly does want to be the first chair euph, she’s being tight-lipped about it and insisting the opposite: She doesn’t want to rock the boat.
If she beats out Kumiko for the euph soli, it will rock the boat. Throughout the episode, Mayu presents a symphony of subtle movements and expressions indicating the discomfort and turmoil within.
She knows this because as much as everyone likes her as “Mama”, the fact remains that people think that Kumiko should do the soli with Reina. Reina makes that clear to Kumiko this week as well, pretty much saying that when the Nationals come around, only Kumiko will do.
But the fact she’s noticed Kumiko getting more warnings from Taki-sensei and Mayu getting none means Reina may be prepared for the eventuality she’ll be doing the prefectural soli without her brass girlfriend.
Mayu tries one last time to suggest that she forfeit. Kumiko hits her with the “the best players are chosen at Kitauji” spiel. Mayu reveals she’s never bought that and still isn’t, calling it politeness.
She posits the fallout of taking Kumiko’s part, and that’s when Kumiko snaps back at her that she expects to take the part, which Mayu yet again claims isn’t the case. Kumiko is reminded of the bad old days she’s tried so hard to avoid in her administration.
The morning after auditions but before selections, Kumiko gets up like her predecessors before her and walks out into the dewey, gleaming morning to play a soulful solo. Mayu follows her with her own horn, keeping her distance. The auditions are over. Kumiko urged her not to forfeit, and she didn’t. The die is cast.
Even so, when the names are announced, Kanade isn’t prepared to be left out of prefecturals altogether, nor is Kumiko prepared to hear that Mayu, not she, will be doing the soli with Reina. But she should’ve been.
She created the conditions for it to happen, even when Mayu warned her repeatedly and Kanade told her with her “brutal honesty” that if left to her own devices, Kumiko will pick the short straw.
This might be what’s best for Kitauji … on paper. But psychologically? We’ll see. Kumiko and Mayu are now tied 1-1. The only chance Kumiko has left is to win the soli part in the Nationals. And I doubt Mayu will be any less difficult to beat in that audition.
P.S. I guess Motomu confessed to Sapphire this week, and it looks like she rejected him? And then Kanade gave him a soda as consolation? It’s a little unclear, but also doesn’t matter as much as Kumiko getting booted off the soli!
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I won’t say she had it coming, since Kumiko was never complacent. But she is definitely distracted by a lot of things to really focus on getting the soli part.
And while she didn’t mean it, Mayu’s willy nilly atitude isn’t helping here. She was putting Kumiko into a corner by asking her time and again if she should just forfeit the audition, essentially forcing Kumiko to make the decision for her. This after Kumiko already made it clear that that’s not how it works in Kitauji.
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