Hibike! Euphonium Movie: Kitauji Koukou Suisougaku-bu e Youkoso - Reviews

Nekus, one of the sagest anime experts I came to know in A-P, produced a viewing guide for the entire Sound! Euphonium productions from the seasons to the specials to the movies already made and possibly would have words about those in future production.  When asked his opinion on this movie Kitauji Koukou Suidougaku-bu e Youkoso, his advice was straightforward.

SKIP.

I watched anyways, and for one solid reason, the quality of a story produced in a series of thirteen episodes vs. a 103 minute movie adaptation.  For Nekus is right in one account, the Sound! Euphonium Movie is recap.  But, I have seen recaps that were complete utilization of footage of series to create movie. Disappointing.  And I've seen lengthy series offered a second, yet completely altered viewing as an OVA (Magic Knight Rayearth comes to mind about now).  So, how would viewing the movie go when you already know what will happen?

Look for those subtle elements that make the movie subtly different.

And, in doing so, you might even believe that the movie was the superior work to the series.  For example, too much was made of the comradery of the girls Kumiko, Hazuki, Reina and Sapphire in the series.  It is less pronounced in the movie.  In the series, the awkward tension between childhood friends Kumiko and Shuichi leaves one wondering if they'll ever hit it off.  In the movie, the feasible love triangle twixt Kumiko-Hazuki-Shuichi is shot dead in no time.  Kumiko rejects Shuichi, Shuichi rejects Hazuki.  The unfortunate year prior with the shiftless third-years is nixed in the movie, only Kaori losses her chance to be a soloist to an inferior third-year.  Now a third-year, Kaori's rivalry with Reina for trumpet solo has real traction, and one can see Kaori's challenge to regain the role of soloist as her personal redemption.  But the movie resolves the Kaori vs. Reina episode far more smoothly than the series, making Kaori far nobler in yielding to Reina's superior skill.  There were definite places where the movie handled the material of the plot better.  And the personalities of the 55 members of the Kitauji High Wind Ensemble were better developed.  You found a better click to the who-is-who in the various portions of the ensemble.  The only thing wrong though was the personalities of the main players as Asuka and Natsuki were scaled back.  There is only so much you can do with 103 minutes over against the 312 minutes contained in the thirteen episode season.

The animation of the movie had good points and some bad.  For bad, the use of background in animation has its uses, but not when the people in the background are feet away.  Two girls talking in front of a bunch of stiffs looked strange.  Leave the backgrounds to sweeping panoramas (which the movie did have).  But the intricacy of the movements of hands in the playing of instruments was more advanced in the movie than the series.  It was as if the movie did better clean-up animation to show the fluttering of fingers over flutes to get those tremolos.  In fact, the accuracy of the fingering and the synchronization of the music was uncanny.  As for coloration, you still had the brown and sky blue girls’ uniforms, but the elements of the shine and shimmer of a wind ensemble in performance was better honed in the movie.

The music of Sound! Euphonium Movie used that of the series (recap, you know).  But there was more of an intensity to its performance (indicated by a simple scene of a water bottle vibrating during a crucial practice session).  The movie offered everything that the series gave but did it with a sense of something done the second time.  Do it better, or don't do it at all.

And better is what you get in Sound! Euphonium Movie.