Hibike! Euphonium 3 – 09 – A Matter of Balance

What’s done is done, but Kumiko isn’t quite able to pretend that she’s not angry. When Mayu haunts her steps, she turns on her “nice” voice and kindly asks her to stay the fuck away from her. The thing is, Kumiko isn’t sure who she’s angry at: herself, Mayu, Taki-sensei … whoever. The point is that that anger is there and she isn’t quite sure what to do with it.

At least in Kanade she has a venting partner. Kanade is great this week, as she not in so many words tells Kumiko “I told you so.” This whole auditions for every round of competition is ostensibly meritocratic, and something had to change after two years not winning Gold, but the resulting effect on the entire band calls into question the decisions made by the man at the top: Taki-sensei, someone in whom the underclassmen don’t have blind faith.

Also unsurprisingly on Team Kumiko is Shuu, who is clearly down in the dumps about how things went down with the auditions. Kumiko is flattered that he feels this way, but assures him she’s fine and that as vice president he needs to buck up and stop worrying about “silly things”. This season has been super-light on Kumiko-Shuu interactions as they apparently broke up in the movie I didn’t see, so I appreciated this scene with the two.

While Sapphire rejects the “picking sides” concept, it’s undeniable that the band is splitting into pro- and anti-Taki factions, which is to say some trust him and the process without hesitation (most of all Reina, but also Hazuki) while others are more like Kanade, Sapphire, and Shuu, feeling like something is off with Taki-sensei. Reina makes it quite clear she has zero tolerance for criticism of Taki-sensei, storming away when Kumiko blithely tells her she agrees with her over Shuu and being distant the rest of the day.

When Kumiko chases Reina down and they meet on a bridge during sunset, it’s clear Reina can sense that Kumiko has doubts about Taki. When asked directly, Kumiko has to admit that this is the case, and then Reina brings the hammer down, calling her “a failure of a president” and marching off.

That’s high school for you: one day you’re swapping swimsuit tops and bottoms, the next day you’re not going to school together or talking for what Kumiko believes will be a non-trivial amount of time; never what you want with a band president and its drum major, but also two friends as close as Kumiko and Reina!

It’s clear Reina feels betrayed that Kumiko is doubting Taki, but may also be upset that Kumiko didn’t do what was necessary to beat Mayu for the soli they promised to do. I held out hope that Kumiko could just win the audition for the nationals.

But with both the band and the two girls in such a bad place, will they even make the nationals, and if so will Reina still want to do the soli with Kumiko? How do they come back from Reina calling her a failure?

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 08

As we return to Kikuhiko’s tale, he’s just finishing up his tour with Master Yakumo, having steamed up many an audience in Kyoto with his seductively funny rakugo. Talk of making him a shin’uchi is no longer presumptuous; as even his own master was too enthralled both with his performance and the reaction of the crowd to notice the mistakes he made.

Kiku is rapidly progressing on the steam locomotive to greatness, but there are sacrifices that need to be made on the way – both those imposed upon him, and those he imposes on himself.

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Back in Tokyo, Miyokichi sits in the back of another full house as Sukeroku performs and effortlessly drawing huge laughs. But she’s not laughing; she’s there to catch a glimpse of the man she loves who’s currently giving her the cold shoulder.

Her presence didn’t go unnoticed by Sukeroku (she was the only one there who wasn’t “ancient”), and he proposes a commiseration session: she gets to vent to him about a subject he’s very well versed in – Kiku-san – in exchange for buying him a drinkypoo.

Their ensuing conversation, a thing of beauty, offers many insights into Miyokichi’s character and the nature of her love of Kiku. She doesn’t even like rakugo; she prefers movies. Hearing his voice is the only reason she goes to the theater. She endures the stodgy, old-fashioned practice she wouldn’t otherwise give the time of day…for Kiku. She also endures his constant brush-offs, including this most recent unannounced trip of his.

Miyo can endure this because she’s strong. She had to be. Abandoned by a man when in Manchuria, she had to sell her body to survive, until Master Yakumo brought her home. But because she’s become so tough, neither the good Master nor Sukeroku are her type. She doesn’t go for nice guys, she likes cold guys, and Kiku has certainly been that to her.

Miyo doesn’t want the moon; she just wants to be able to stand beside the man she loves and support him as a woman. But she suspects, and Sukeroku can’t convince her otherwise, that Kiku intends to break up with her. When she takes her leave on that somber note, Sukeroku, ever the nice guy, can’t help but draw her into a hug.

It’s while she’s struggling to get out of that hug that Kiku appears, suddenly back as quietly as he left. His exchange with Miyo is brief and probably the coldest yet, but there’s a reason for it; Kiku indeed intends to break up with her, and doesn’t want to be cruel by being kind beforehand.

Kiku can admit to Sukeroku that he loves Miyo, but the Master has told him he needs to find a “proper woman” to settle down with a family. Disobeying would mean expulsion from Yurakutei, and in this case, with his rakugo future so bright and his identity and place in that world so clear…Miyokichi is second fiddle to all that.

In fact, Kiku would rather simply be alone than be with anyone, a sentiment that quickly evolves into an agreement for Sukeroku to move out of his apartment. Kiku relays to Sukeroku all of the flaws their master mentioned that are making it hard to promote him, but Sukeroku is in this business because he loves rakugo, and he has bigger plans than the Yurakutei orthodoxy could ever accommodate.

His position is legitimized by the simple fact they’re in a packed jazz hall filled with Japanese in Western clothes, listening to American music. The times they are a changin’. He acknowledges that a part of rakugo must always endure, but that’s Kiku’s duty. Sukeroku intends to be the part of rakugo that evolves by changing to suit whatever the people want, which is never fixed.

Kiku is a traditionalist; Sukeroku the innovator. But they are alike in two important ways: they both love rakugo and they both respect each other’s place in that world. At the same time, Sukeroku didn’t want to end up like his previous “master”, the one from which he took the name Sukeroku, who ended up dying penniless.

That night, Master Yakumo celebrates with Matsuda his hard-won success in getting both Kikuhiko and Sukeroku promoted to shin’uchi, he takes the Yurakutei family record from the alter to let the past generations share in the celebration, even as he laments he wasn’t quite able to achieve what his forebears did.

Unaware of his promotion, Sukeroku roams the streets, gently kicked out of Kiku’s place, backlit by the bright lights and the winds of change. Kikuhiko, also unaware, but now alone in his apartment like he wanted, pauses his practicing to inspect the old fan Sukeroku gave him. They’ve started on very different paths for the same love of rakugo. It was an amicable parting, but that doesn’t make it any less sad!