All you need to know about Hibike Euphonium is that Taki-sensei is the evil last boss, and that’s it.
Yeah, just kidding about that. He’s pretty cool. Taki’s ability to motivate the kids in a harsh way in order to prepare for the Sunrise Festival reminds me very much of some of my own coach’s, especially my swim coach. While it is understandable that this garnered him a negative reputation amongst others in the ensemble, they’ll no doubt be thanking him for it later.
Many of the band members picked out their instruments. Unsurprisingly, Kumiko is stuck with the euphonium (Which I think she likes more than she cares to admit). Midori, who is a seasoned vet, sticks with her bass “George”. Hazuki, the greenest of the three, goes with her new tuba “Tubacabura”. The endearing way in which they name their instruments reminds me of one Yui and her “Gitaa”.
There seems to be some uncomfortable tension associated with the lack of second year students in the band that the upperclassmen seem to know something about. I’m sure in due time we’ll find out what that’s all about. Could it be related to the recurring theme of “Playing for fun” or “Playing competitively”, I wonder? Kumiko and Shuichi seem to find much to discuss to one another after practice. They were discussing Taki (Not dissing him, mind you) and Reina comes out of nowhere and takes a proverbial dump on them. This only serves to further stress the estranged relationship between Reina and Kumiko even further from their middle school incident.
To be quite honest, I feel as though Kumiko is exascerbating the situation by refusing to talk to her. I doubt Reina holds her accountable for anything at all. Kumiko does eventually talk to Reina and smooth things over though, even going so far as to say that she is inspired by her. Reina playing outside the school in the third episode does come to mind – in many ways, she is inspiring.
These two have such a strange relationship.
