That was really hot.
Impression
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just surprised by how cute you look.”
“Don’t your feet hurt?”
“They hurt. But I don’t hate pain.”
“What? That’s kind of hot.”
“Pervert.”
“It’s a confession of love.”
“There’s no way you’re serious.”
“But I’ve always been drawn to that side of you. It’s like you put on a kind, good-girl face, but inside, you’re actually really distant. It makes me want to peel that good-girl skin off of you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t you understand my love?”
“You’re twisted, Kousaka-san.”
Is this real life? Is this wonderful pairing actually happening? All my dreams for Kumiko and Reina are coming true! I swear, at this point we’ve gone past the simple yuribaiting featured in many other works by KyoAni. It has to be more than this by now. I’m loving their relationship more and more each week, and for different reasons as well – at first, it was fun because it was awkward. But now they’re at the stage where they engage in this strange sort of banter that’s completely unlike what you would expect from high school girls in anime, topped off with a slight hint of sexual tension – and it’s there, believe me. It’s not just wishful thinking on my part, at least not any more. I feel like Kumiko has always wanted to get to know Reina better, but has always held herself back because of their past interactions. On Reina’s part, Kumiko is someone who interests her – who is different from the rest. Her terrible personality, cynical thoughts and tendency to crudely speak her mind actually makes Reina notice her even more – she sets herself apart that way. And Reina is, as a result, coming onto Kumiko hard.
It was so breathtakingly magical when Kumiko finally called her ‘Reina’ whilst staring up into her eyes. It was the best Kumiko moment of the episode – alongside her response to Reina telling her she didn’t hate pain. But Reina was absolutely perfect – I really love this lively version of her that’s still straightforward, it’s so incredibly different to how she tends to be in school. And that white one-piece dress dealt the finishing blow. Reina was actually interested in her all along, but just never showed it. I have a feeling that the ‘confession of love’ was more literal than Kumiko brushed it off as – in fact, the entire mountain scene had romantic undertones to it. The entire town is at a festival, and fittingly in line with their personalities, these two decide to ditch it and hike up a mountain with their instruments to play a duet together at an outpost overlooking the city.
I want this pairing to happen, I’ve made no secret of it. The single and biggest obstacle to that is Shuichi, whose presence will probably be more of an issue than I’d thought. That, and the fact that actual shoujo-ai is very unlikely to occur in an anime that’s not explicitly marketed to feature it. But this is KyoAni – who have already given Kumiko and Reina a lot of intimacy, and who have a notoriety for diverging wildly from the source material of their adaptations like what happened with the two seasons of Chuunibyou. I’ve heard that already, many scenes featuring Kumiko and Shuichi have been cut from this adaptation, and clearly a lot of time is being spent on anything with Reina in it. Clearly, someone at KyoAni has immaculate taste.
So it was all about romance this episode. It’ll be the auditions at last next week, but I can see romance remaining as an important underlying theme. The festival actually showed us a lot about the current state of affairs – for example, Riko x Gotou look like a solid pairing. And it’s implied that girls like Haruka, Asuka and Kaori won’t be getting any focus on the context of romance, and neither will Natsuki-senpai or ribbon loli-senpai, who ended up going to the festival together. The main ‘dilemma’ is now that Hazuki likes Shuichi, who clearly likes Kumiko who likes Reina. It seems like Kumiko isn’t really giving Shuichi’s interest in her a second thought – she had an inkling given how flustered she was when he asked her to the festival, but I honestly don’t see the romantic interest between them. Kumiko would rather not meet up with him to practice after school as her euphonium is too heavy. In fact, there’s more sexual tension between Kumiko and Reina than there is romance between Kumiko and Shuichi. He may have gotten the message when she freely let Hazuki speak to him, implying she wasn’t interested in talking about the festival with him any more – but who knows. It’s all too early to tell.
Finally, what on earth is this sorcery, Sapphire-chan?
I’m almost never went to sleep because of those Kousaka (though I’d still stick to call her surname instead of “Reina”)-Kumiko feels and yeah, Hazuki’s kokoro already got hit when Shuichi said that he didn’t have feelings for her (why on Earth have you done to my poor Hazuki, you damn bastard?! >_< I'm a Hazuki x Shuichi shipper, period.). And about Sapphire's imouto, her name is Kohata by the ways. Wah, she's as cute as her big sis! 0/////0
My Yuri shipper presence has already got into my nerves to Kumiko and Kousaka (dear God, why am I doing this still?!)! But I think they are maybe more than just newly formed friends who are met by destiny and playing in the same band, it also shows about how these two can actually become closer to each other by simply climb on the mountain while Tanaka-senpai et al are having fun in the summer festival in order to improve something about themselves to their respective instruments (I love seeing Kumiko practicing fingertips). The special ending sounds beautiful, damn (the title was "Ai wo Mitsuketa Basho" composed by Hanako Oku)! And it felt like it's already entering my eardrums before going to bed…
I'm so felt sorry about Hazuki being heartbroken because she's trying so hard to noticing Shuichi even on that confession during the matsuri, it made me so sad once again. 🙁 But I do hope this isn't end of the HazuIchi ship.
I ship Hazuki and Shuichi too, Hazuki’s feelings are adorable! Shuichi seems fixated on Kumiko, but hopefully Hazuki doesn’t give up as easily as she said she would.
Kumiko refused to practice with Shuichi in the park because her euphonium was ‘too heavy’, and yet she had no problems dragging it up a mountain for Reina. I didn’t even need to fish for yuri material, it was practically falling out of the sky. All that casual intimacy, the suggestive lines… and the title of that piece they played was ‘The place I found love’?! I will actually be disappointed if Kumiko x Reina doesn’t happen after how real they’ve made the possibility. It was apparently a thing in the novels too!
http://www.kitakubu.co/2015/05/the-hibike-euphonium-novels-were-also-yurilicious/
In the novel there is more Shuichi x Kumiko moments too though. The anime removed some of them and downplayed Kumiko’s reactions to his invitation to the festival (in the novel she goes overdrive and runs aways like a typical tsundere).
In the novel Kumiko and Reina don’t take their instruments to the maintain, so they don’t perform together or anything. Reina doesn’t touch Kumiko’s lips in the novel, just her cheek. The anime staff went a long way to make the moment feel more fascinating and sensual.
Yuri fans like me, who already read the novel, are hoping for an anime-original ending, since they already changed things like these. But we’ll have to wait and see.
I hope so too, and KyoAni is honestly the best studio for messing around with the original source material and turning things anime-original – I hear that the Chuunibyou anime deviated wildly from its novels, with characters like Dekomori and Mori Summer being anime-only.
I think Kumiko has been portrayed as not really caring about Shuichi all that much, in contrast to the novel – running away makes it sound like she got really embarrassed and is conscious of him, whilst in the anime she just suspiciously asks ‘why?’ as if she’s never seen him in a romantic light before. Even when Shuichi reminds her, she immediately grabs onto Reina (and doesn’t let go!) allowing Hazuki to make her move. The duet felt rather important to me in terms of cementing their new relationship. It’s interesting… so in the novels they never made sweet, sweet… music together on the mountain!
Oh, I was laughed when Kumiko called Kousaka a kid while talking to Shuichi! XD Kousaka confirms to be like Marilyn Monroe and of course, she ain’t no hate that pain.