Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 11 – Their Selfish Wants

First things first: The prefecturals. Did Kitauji High win Gold? Why yes, they did, but Euph still made us hold our breath along with Kumiko, Reina, and the band members. This part of its storytelling is never not effective, especially when we see Kumiko’s face resolve into joy and relief on the stage with Shuu behind her, along with Reina’s.

Now there’s no doubt our girls have a chance to play the soli part together for National Gold. Here’s the thing: there’s a lot of buzz around the soli that featured Reina and not Kumiko, Mama Mayu. At their next practice, Kumiko congratulates Mayu on nailing the soli. Mayu wonders if she really means it.

When Kumiko returns the practice room key, Taki-sensei tells her she gave a speech before the concert that was “exemplary of a president.” This is coming from someone who admittedly has a habit of being cold in such situations.

Kumiko may not have played in the soli, but without her speech I don’t think Kitauji wins Gold. They were so out of sorts, and she locked them into a space where they could relax, focus on the music, and excel.

We get deeper into Taki here than ever before this season, as he once opined to his late wife that teaching school concert bands with high turnover is “as futile and thankless as stacking rocks on the River Styx,” to which she responded “they’re not rocks, they’re people.”

Kumiko, Reina, Hazuki and Sapphire have drinks together, and Kumiko admits to still having no freakin’ idea what she’s doing after high school, even though it’s late September. Sapphire has a really nice little spiel about how they’re all “sowing seeds for unknown futures in all kinds of places.” She really is an old soul.

On the train home, Reina asks if Kumiko wants to go with her to a university orchestra concert featuring their old senpai , oboist Yoroizuka Mizore. Yuuko, Natsuki, and Nozomi will also be attending. Before they part ways, Reina does the right thing and apologizes for calling Kumiko a failure and pushing her away.

In response, Kumiko asks for a hug for Reina to prove her love for her, and Reina obliges. KyoAni does proper justice to the event, as Reina is initially reticent, but once Kumiko’s arms are around her, she puts hers around Kumiko and the two smile in sweet, sweet reconciliation.

Kanade makes it clear (if it wasn’t already) that she wants Kumiko to play the soli part with Reina. Kumiko practices so hard she starts to cry in frustration like Reina. Kumiko admires how Reina has never changed since they met in regards to being so unwavering about musical excellence.

This time around, Mayu comes up to a practicing Kumiko and tells her, once again, she’ll be forfeiting the soli part. She repeats all the same chestnuts: she doesn’t want to rock the boat, she doesn’t want to cause anyone suffering or misery.

She knows both she and Reina want to play the part one last time together, so she’s fine with stepping aside. She even says she flat out doesn’t care about playing the soli. Kumiko repeats what she’s always said: let the best euphonium player win, but Mayu doesn’t believe her. Mayu doesn’t think Kumiko really wants the best player to win.

Kanade overhears the exchange and warns Kumiko not to take Mayu seriously. She’s certain Mayu would never approach Kumiko and talk to her if she was truly serious about forfeiting. This is a battle between Mayu’s selfish wants and Kumiko’s.

In preparation for the fancy orchestral concert, Mamiko glows up her little sister and drills it into her head that she’s cute as hell, something we’ve clearly never disputed! When Mamiko asks if Kumiko is going to go to music school, she says probably not. When asked why, Kumiko simply says “just because,” and Mamiko accepts that, because “just because” is the hardest reason to dispute.

As Mamiko lovingly fixes Kumiko’s hair and makeup, Kumiko opens up about the central issue: she wants to play a soli; in the last round, she lost to another player; and she wants the role back. If nothing else, Kumiko looks cute as hell for the concert.

So does Reina, as the two meet up in their lovely fancy dresses with Yuuko and Natsuki (who are a full-fledged couple) as well as Nozomi. Kumiko and Reina admire Yuuko and Natsuki staying so close after graduation; they’re a model for what Reina wants.

Mizore is already playing solos in her first year of college, and Kumiko imagines that while Reina was watching Mizore, she was imagining herself also playing at greater heights. But when Kumiko asks Mizore what she’d think if she ended up in her college next year, Mizore admits she can’t picture her there at all. Neither can Kumiko!

When Kumiko and Reina are once again about to part ways to their respective homes, Kumiko comes out and tells Reina: she’s not going to music school. She may not know what she’s doing, but she won’t be doing that, and she feels that strongly in her gut. Reina quickly accepts this, but then says she’ll be promptly “ending things” with Kumiko after the Nationals.

Her rationale for this is that if they don’t have music in common, they’ll gradually drift apart. She’d rather “end it now” and “hold on to what they have’. To this, Kumiko bursts into laughter. Reina tells her not to laugh, and Kumiko takes her hands into hers and assures her it will be fine; they won’t change. Kumiko tells Reina she’s her special person, and Reina’s grip on Kumiko’s hands tightens as she tells her she’ll go and become “even more special.”

Kumiko and Reina are without doubt one of my favorite couples in anime, and this episode put on a clinic for why that is. Reina is scared about their future, but Kumiko knows that their bond goes beyond mere music. That said, Kumiko still intends to beat Mayu fair and square so they can play the soli together. If they can’t, and if after graduation Kumiko never touches an instrument again, it won’t matter. Because nothing can destroy their bond.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night – 11 – Carpe Nox

With over two Million with an M likes, Mei’s heartfelt bout of terrible singing went unexpectedly viral, but despite Mei hating her singing, the vast majority of comments are positive, supportive, and excited for the new song that’s now back on. Mei’s courageous stunt got Kano wanting to sing again; but the question that still eludes her and holds her back is knowing why she’s singing … or for whom.

I thought it had already been established she was singing for Mahiru, just as she was drawing for Kano, but whatevs! Maybe after their little kerfuffle they’ll need to rediscover that. In the meantime, Mahiru is not having a great one at Hayakawa, delivering some concept art that Yukine immediately rejects as not Umitsuki Yoru’s art, and nails her assessment of Mahiru as someone who doesn’t love their art.

After watching a demonstration of how the mocap system will graft her art onto virtual SunDolls, perhaps to give her more motivation and inspiration, Mahiru ends up in a car with Mero, who asks her what she thinks of LookIdiot’s videos and methods. Mahiru is quick to denounce them, but also admits sees a bit of herself in Look, only someone who took their “griping” to the extreme and ended up hurting people.

Mahiru/Yoru only emerged to the point where she’s even drawing again thanks to Kano, so she can’t judge someone who doesn’t have a similar lodestar. Whatever else Yukine is to Mero, she’s not that!

After Mei tells Kano she’s not singing like herself and suggests she rewrite the lyrics so she’s singing about something she wants to in the here and now, Mahiru hits another snag in her relationship with Yukine: She’s now out of time. Yukine claims to want to give her more, but there are deadlines to meet, so she marks up Mahiru’s art and tells her to adhere to a prescribed style—an art style entirely not Yoru’s any longer.

Mahiru has a little monologue on the street pretending she’s okay with all this, but the truth is, she’s not, and she’s not going to give up on her art, even if Yukine ordered her to do so and may well fire her if she defies her. To this end, she travels to the storage unit with Kiui that contains both of their art from when they were little.

Kiui was a great artist, and admits she picks everything up quickly and gets good at it, only to be overtaken by those with genuine passion and drive. It was the case with Mahiru’s jellyfish mural idea. She jokes about always quitting before getting overtaken so she never actually loses, but eventually Mahiru can sense that Kiui was lying about not having people message her about being outed as Nox.

Kiui has gotten a lot of nasty comments from her former classmates, ruining all the work she did to reinvent herself. She’s also weary of going to the old arcade with Mahiru for more inspiration. She uses Kiui’s own superhero posing and meter to list all the great things about her that make her, to this day, an “ever-shining superhero” in Mahiru’s eyes.

Kiui gains the courage to accompany Mahiru, but soon retreats to the bathroom when she sees other classmates. Then the two that were sending nasty messages encounter Mahiru, congratulating her while shitting on Kiui for being a liar. Mahiru comes loudly and proudly to Kiui’s defense, assuring her she’s cool as ever. When they mock her for what they deem as not “growing out” of that admiration, Mahiru holds her ground.

Kiui can tell Mahiru needs some backup, so she confronts her naysayers, who start laying into her incessantly and nastily. They even make fun of the fact Nox is a guy and wonder if she wants to be one. This is shitty teenagers at their shittiest, but Kiui weathers that shit and declares she hasn’t changed one bit from the person she was.

Kiui was ostracized for unapologetically being who she was, to the point she “let the world get the better” of her. But she created the Nox persona as a way of continuing to love her genuine self, and won’t let anyone deny her that identity. We don’t see how the normies react, but it doesn’t matter. Kiui isn’t going to let their normie bullshit stop her from loving who she is and always was.

Witnessing Kiui put herself out there among the wolves and not only survive but thrive re-energize’s Mahiru’s desire to find the Umitsuki Yoru art she loves. Kiui took a huge, courageous swing without worrying about the ramifications, and Mahiru follows her lead by defying Yukine.

Mahiru starts off by telling Yukine about her friend that she loves, and the ideal persona they created to keep loving who they are. Then she unveils new art for the Virtual SunDolls that dazzles with the same playful energy as that jellyfish mural. Yukine dresses her down for not doing what she was told (and not speaking to her with respect), but then smiles and tells her that this is precisely what she wanted: the art she loves.

It was a risky-as-hell gamble, but because it works out, Mahiru has a teensy little bit of leveage with Yukine, and she decides to use it immediately for JELEE’s sake. She asks that Hayakawa find a way to squeeze a performance from JELEE into the same end-of-year event as the SunDolls.

If Yukine agrees, Mahiru will have given JELEE a huge boost just when it felt like she couldn’t be any farther from the group’s current activity. That activity includes all-new lyrics by Kano. Lyrics she won’t sing by just following the notes (something Mei was once accused of by her parents), but in a way that takes the listener of a vivid journey. If Yoru succeeds, JELEE will be able to go head-to-head with SunDolls—and with Kano’s mom.