Hibike! Euphonium Season 3 • Sound! Euphonium Season 3 – Episode 13 discussion – FINAL

I was relieved to see Shuuichi’s hairpin at the end, at least they are dating again

Such a beautiful final episode summing up everything that has happened since the beginning of the series. I love that we ended the show with the same piece of music we started this season with.

Seeing Kumiko and others winning Gold at Nationals and graduating moved me deeply. We spent so much time with them throughout all 3 seasons and movies that I can’t believe that it’s over. Kumiko was a wonderful president and grew up so much, she’ll definitely be a great teacher.

Now I just hope that it’s not the end of the story of Kitauji’s band itself. With Kumiko being a new assistant advisor, there are so many possibilities for telling other stories about the band. I’d love to get back to Kitauji to see how it’ll fare with Kumiko as a teacher.

I want for the last time praise KyoAni for the excellent and beautiful visuals in this season and Tomoyo Kurosawa for her stellar performance as Kumiko, without her Kumiko wouldn’t be herself xD

As for my opinion about the entire season… I want to remind you of the words from one of the previous episodes.

* You know… You’re all really tense this year … but when you play music, you-
* You *play*. Play music. Correct?
* Do you really get it?

This exchange of words between Taki and Hashimoto from Episode 9 really stuck with me and I think that it perfectly describes my feelings towards the final season of Hibike! Euphonium.

It was great, like really great, but all this drama for almost the entire season left me feeling so exhausted, especially after the previous episode when Kumiko lost the audition to Mayu.

I know that there was a lot of drama in 1st and 2nd seasons too, but I feel like there was also a lot more music and joy in them. [This season started with such a banger opening with fun music and direction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QnDkpiAfKs), but then it turned heavily into drama without much place for *play*. At least finale episode delivered some of that joy.

I’m also sad that we didn’t get much music this season other than last week’s audition and today’s performance (which was pretty good). There was no SunFes performance or performance of their competition piece with Kumiko solo (I just hope we’ll get it with a soundtrack like when we got Crescent Moon Dance in two versions, with Kaori and Reina solo in the 1st season OST).

Overall, 9/10 from me because even with all those complaints, it still was excellent anime although I don’t know if I’ll want to watch this season again because of all that drama. It was great but I don’t know if my poor heart can handle watching it one more time.

I’ll update this comment later with my screenshot albums from the episode.

Jukki Hanada sacrificed Shuuichi for Reina, and the result was a lose-lose. How ridiculous.

It’s so cute that Kumiko still has that hairpin even when she becomes a teacher, a bit sad that the anime doesn’t show how much she loves Shuuichi, but I’ll take it

Insert *why cant I hold all these emotions* meme… I’m so happy right now. Couldn’t have asked for a better ending.

Holy shit, Kumiko-sensei is real lmao!

You can’t just *say* Skinship Training like it’s a thing.

I almost forgot my favorite character Sakai still hadn’t graduated.

So when are we getting the Kanade spinoff?

The win doesn’t feel as good without Kumiko and Reinas solo, but I’ll take it.

Even though I disagree with things that Kyoto did during this season specifically, it’s been a pleasure to watch Hibike for the last decade or so.

Going to miss Kumiko so much

Gold!!! It’s been an honour witnessing Kumiko grow as a person in her 3 yrs in Highschool, She looks good as a teacher and it definitely suits her with her powers of detecting drama. I kinda want more of kitauji, what kind of 3rd yr Kanade will become, Sally is also interesting given how talented she is, and I wonder if they’ll redo the triple auditions?…., I’m gonna miss Kumiko and the girls

We’ve finally reached the end, huh?

To be honest, this didn’t feel as emotionally stunning or cathartic an end as the Season 2 finale (though maybe I’ll feel differently on rewatch), but then again, maybe it didn’t need to be. Last week was the emotional climax of the season (and I certainly cried a lot then); this episode is the characters picking up the pieces and moving the story to the inevitable conclusion.

As much as the episode arrives at a clear conclusion for the main story arc (they get gold, Kumiko becomes a teacher, Reina goes to the US), it also leaves a lot of ambiguity and room for interpretation. What became of Reina’s confession to Taki? (Presumably she was summarily rejected?) What became of the characters’ relationships in general? Wait a second, if Kumiko became a music teacher, did she go to a music school after all??? (I’m not sure how it works in Japan, but at least in the US, a music ed degree is still a music degree.)

Perhaps some of these might be expanded upon in a compilation movie, and I would love an answer to at least *some* of these, but to be honest, to leave some of these still ambiguous feels very Eupho, honoring the directorial spirit of Naoko Yamada even if she is no longer working on the series.

Part of this, I’m sure, is related to the time they had allotted: I think they could have really used even one more episode to really round things out. In the words of the friend I was watching the broadcast with, they had to be “ruthlessly efficient” with their use of time in this episode in order to cram everything they needed to in it. But I think the tight construction of the episode is also a benefit in some senses: I really liked the framing device at the start showing a series of vignettes leading up to the competition. It almost portrays how these kinds of periods *feel* in real life: flashing by so quickly you can barely keep up, but with some moments laden with meaning.

And then the performance! Excellent, to be expected, though it is of course bittersweet that Kumiko did not end up playing the soli… This was my first time hearing the full piece, and it’s an excellently composed piece (to be expected of Akito Matsuda)…I found it interesting that the soli had very little accompaniment to provide additional harmonic context until near the end.

At the end of all of it? They finally are awarded gold!

To be honest, despite the celebrations from all involved, the gold almost feels like a Pyrrhic victory to me: was it truly worth the suffering they went through? But that might be just me.

I’ll admit that I am a little dissatisfied with the ambiguities in how Reina turned out in the end…I’ve been thinking more and more the past week about how her character has not been developed much. (Something that has been pointed out in episode discussions in the past.) This especially goes for her infatuation with Taki-sensei, which blinds her to so much…I had the sense that unless she moved on from Taki-sensei, she wouldn’t be able to properly mature and become an adult. However, I think in order for the previous episode’s conclusion to “work” emotionally and narratively, Reina’s judgement had to be proven “right” by the framing of the narrative, and this episode continues this by having them earn gold. She may very well have moved beyond Taki-sensei, but this happens offscreen, leaving things open…

Maybe a lot of this comment is me not being completely satisfied about the episode, but overall I do quite like it! Like I said, I think they did the best they could with the runtime they had and the direction the narrative took.

The soundtrack for this episode was also incredible—not only bringing back old pieces from previous seasons but interweaving them together and creating emotional high points…I let out an audible yelp when the main theme of Liz and the Blue Bird found its way into the soundtrack.

And the actual ending is very satisfying: Kumiko becoming a music teacher? And I love love love circular storytelling, so the way this was framed to mirror the first episode was perfect! A lot of other moments revisiting and recontextualizing previous scenes: Mayu approaching Kumiko but this time Kumiko letting go of Asuka-senpai and teaching Hibike! Euphonium to her and Kanade, passing the piece on; Kumiko and Reina playing The Place Where We Found Love (though this is also kind of heartbreaking); and of course Reina’s “I’m so happy I could die.” (“What a drama queen,” my friend commented.)

But man, crazy to think that it’s over, after nearly ten years. (Though I’m holding out hope that they adapt some of the spin-off novels…)

On a personal note, the discussion threads for season 2 were the first time I started participating on /r/anime, and in broader anime fandom in general, so it’s maybe been a bit of a homecoming for me to participate on these ones…I’ve had some great times and made some good friends on this subreddit, so I’m very glad to have returned to the Eupho threads after so long…

Well damn, and so it ends

I found it a bit weird they decided to plant a cherry tree exactly for that class, but damn if that wasnt a nice instrument for the last bit (also maybe Matsumoto-sensei playing a bit favorites for Kumiko)

Normally not really a fan of flashbacks, but hell geniusly well done. We got to see/hear the competition and reminiscence about the past years. Also impressive how they really looked a bit younger than in S1

Also mad respect for squeezing that all into one episode without it feeling too rushed

Glad to see that Kumiko picked a teacher job and even got to work with her previous teacher would have liked maybe just a line more about her relationship with Reina

Honestly feeling like those graduates, glad to be here and having witnessed that show, but man am I sad to not having anymore of it
^Please ^give ^us ^a ^Kumiko-sensei ^series, ^there ^is ^so ^much ^potential

I knew what was coming and I still cried. Thank you, Kyoto Animation, for helping me rediscover my passion for music. This show has inspired me to pick my trombone back up after 4 long years of wondering if I had truly burnt out.

This show is easily my favorite anime of all time and I don’t think anything else could even come close. If they release a complete Blu-Ray box set, there’s literally no amount of money that could keep me from buying it.

Here’s hoping they adapt the Rikka novels at some point down the line. It won’t be exactly the same, but at least we’d be able to revisit this universe one more time (~~until they do a sequel about Kumiko’s life as an advisor, that is~~)

I definitely wasn’t crying throughout the whole episode.

I wished to see a great and dramatic graduation + goodbye and more music in general, but it was still good. The dialogue made up for it.

This is the only anime that has made me miss highschool on some level.

Why the drum major girl at the end looks just like Reina? Reina 2.0 haha

I’m fucking crying man.

Thank You, KyoAni