Hibike! Euphonium Episode 3

“Please don’t waste my time.”

Impression

This is pretty thought-provoking. I initially described Hibike! Euphonium in terms of moe, but it’s been consistently dealing with some interesting things. That said, the moe is still there. I still think last week’s ‘hagu~’ scene was incredibly adorable, but it’s been veering away from Kumiko towards Sapphire lately. Apparently there is value in collecting Tuba-kun or whatever she’s searching for on her own, instead of trading it at school for the spares she has of Sax-kun and Horn-chan.

The wonderful Asuka delivered another top-level line though: “Please, Kumiko-han! Blow me! Blow me!”

Aoi-chan was right. Her fears last week – and Kumiko’s unspoken ones, I suspect, have all been brought to fruition, although it’s all happened a little faster than I had expected. And honestly, I agree with Taki-sensei. I initially believed he was being a bit dismissive of them – for someone who so heavily nudged them towards working for the Nationals, I expected him to put in a bit more effort than just leaving and telling them to call him when they were good enough to play as an ensemble. But after seeing the sheer lack of effort a significant minority of members seem to be putting into this, I can’t blame him. I have a feeling it was exactly the same last year as well from what Haruka has implied, which means that there is a good reason he’s given them what’s essentially a beginner piece for concert bands – if they can’t even get more than a few bars into it without falling apart, there is no way they can achieve the aims they supposedly set out for themselves at the start of the year. But it’s not Haruka’s fault. I know she has to hold some measure of responsibility as the club president, but to an extent a lot depends on the individual motivations of its members, and there’s only so much Haruka or Asuka can do.

Effort needs to be put in. This is even more crucial if you’re a newcomer, as I understand some of the girls are. It’s honestly not just breaking poor Reina’s heart, but also mine as well – the resolve she has is not shared by any of the other students, and she’s dragged down as a result with the rest of them despite having both ability and motivation. I’m actually wondering why some of those people are even there – sectional practice isn’t meant as an opportunity for them to mess about. And with the way some of the sections are approaching this, the problem isn’t even that they’re not practising as hard as they should – it’s that they’re not practising at all. I’m thinking of the horns in particular. It’s a really shit attitude, frankly, and the lack of commitment that some of these members have are making it worse for all the people who do want to work hard and reach Nationals. I mentioned culling last week, and this is one possible way forward – either that, or a reduced emphasis on newcomers, who are inevitably less experienced, have less skill and are less committed. I suppose the reality is that a concert band is a large-scale group ensemble, and numbers are actually necessary for it to function well at all – I knew there would be a problem with members like Aoi-chan, but I didn’t think it would be so bad as to cripple the entire band.

I’m guessing there’s still quite a bit of the story to tell – we’re not quite done yet with the background to this whole commitment issue. We will probably eventually find out exactly what happened with the current second-years later on, but from what Shuuichi said, the ones who quit were the ones who were all fired up. This must have left the club rife with unenthusiastic current third-years, for whatever reason they’re still here. There might also be a story behind Kumiko and her euphonium, although it could just be me – why is everyone saying that Kumiko has continually chosen that as her instrument of choice? Her sister did, Reina did, and even Kumiko herself did – is it that weird to stick to one instrument? What happened in the past between Kumiko and her sister, and does a euphonium have anything to do with it? I would have assumed that’s the most obvious choice to make, and would be easier on both the musician and the ensemble as a whole.