Sound! Euphonium 2 - Episode 11
Previous S2 Eupho review(s):
Episode 01
Episode 02
Episode 03
Episode 04
Episode 05 Part 1 and
Part 2
Episode 06
Episode 07
Episode 08
Episode 09
Episode 10
I ended up making a blog as a unified location for all these Eupho writeups (cause it's hard to keep track of 13 posts for many people), so if you want a single place to check for these posts, or an easy way to refer people to them, they're at
https://thoraxes.wordpress.com/
Also a link to the neogaf post with the URLs for all 13 Season 1 episodes is
here.
- Stiff speech by Asuka, as Hashimoto pointed out, heh. The way she countered him at the end was fun.
- Reina is still pretty cold and distant right now. Obviously because of the Taki wife picture. At least Kumiko is on to her. It's weird when a friend avoids you, especially at a time like this. Midori's glee when asking if it was a fight, lol. Same with the dating.
- Asuka is practicing her solo from the piece. Natsuki also really took this whole sitation like a champ. To see her be so amicable, and want Asuka to be the one to play is a really mature move. I like their relationship.
- Also I just want to thank whoever has done all these water-drinking cuts for this season and the last. I don't know why I love them, but I just do.
- Midori's plan is flawless... Except uh, she failed, haha. Kumiko's reaction to being flat-out shut down was fun. I had a friend that acted like Reina once, and it took me a looooooong time to figure out what the heck actually happened.
- Looks like Mamiko is gone from the house for good now.
- Reina finally called her out. I guess she's ready to talk about the Taki stuff. Girl drama. Cute sweater. The way Reina says she's angry made me laugh, because it's something only someone with her demeanor can say so monotone but still know that it's 100% true. If this is about the Taki stuff, maybe this means that she investigated and found out that Kumiko knew, but didn't tell her? I guess that would make a lot of sense. Kumiko did it from a good place, but I understand Reina's disposition here too. I love the way the trees are swaying in the background during this last moment of silence.
- Oh wow, the cut away from Reina yelling is awesome. The way she just finally burst. Here it is, about Taki's wife. She knew Kumiko knew too. Dang. Reina sure went a little crazy with reacting to the news about her crush, but being that young, having those feelings, and not knowing how to act when you have them is just part of growing up. That even someone like the cool and collected Reina can have an outburst like that shows that not even she is immune to emotional growing pains. Kumiko dropping the bomb about Taki's wife being dead, and Reina's reaction is sad here too. "I'm rooting for you."
- Ahhhhh, little Reina with the ribbon is so cute. I can understand the other girl's frustration here, haha. I too didn't have a piano at home so I always had to practice at the music building, heh. It's nice to see that Reina always appeared low-energy on the outside for anything that wasn't related to music. This is kind of a neat conversation between Reina and Taki at the bridge, about music. You can see he encourages her playing even back then. If i had to guess, Taki's wife was a trumpet player too maybe? Hence the weirdness of the end of that scene. She took it as gratitude and affection, while he was trying to rid hiumself of something that reminded him of something painful.
- It's even affecting her playing. Her sound is losing its force. Yuko trying to cheer her up is fun. Just the way she comes in and tries to help. Haha.
- Ah, she saw he wasn't wearing the ring. Also, this is unusually forward for Reina. Also unusually open for Taki too. Reina wanting to know what his wife was like, makes sense, and I wonder if Taki would've told anyone else that much, if they asked. The story about his wife is such a shame. His motivations for concert band are good too. One minor thing I like about the visuals in this scene that other shows don't do, is that they let Taki's glasses arms obscure his eyes from the side-profile.
- Kumiko is right, to an extent. Though Reina seems like the kind of person who wants to know the stuff she knows would hurt her most, so she can fight her own feelings head-on.
- If Kumiko says her sound got even better, than that makes sense. Since Reina is a strong person, her getting over something ambiguous in her life and coming out ahead only makes sense.
- Bikes!
- Visiting her grave? I guess she's come to pay her respects. Since she likes Taki so much, it kind of seems weird (from a western perspective anyways), but at the same time you could take the gesture as a kind of thanks for making Taki who he is. That was a nice thing she said.
- Ah, she's playing the piece she got from Taki that day long ago at the same spot. Good trumpet fingering animation, and all spot-on. A neat thing about the last four notes is the focus on movement of a 4th. The main notes are the first and last one of the small phrase, from G to C, a perfect 4th. Usually, that sort of sound on a solo trumpet evokes the connotation of Taps to me, the song typically played for fallen soldiers. Since that piece is so old, the connotations what it stands for have permeated lots of part writing over the years, and while not as popular as the dies irae, it has the same mindspace.
A nice episode that finally showed Reina coming to terms with her feelings for Taki. Though I don't think she'll give up, it's nice that all the baggage finally got out into the open... well, except for Reina telling Taki her feelings, but i'm pretty sure he figured that out, haha. Part of me felt a little like this episode would've been better coming before the resolution of Asuka's stuff, since it took two episodes and felt a little more fleshed out as a result. That all said, this episode made me wish to know more about Taki and Reina's parents a little more too. I want to know more about the history of the band program of North Uji.
Now that all of the current plot threads are tackled, I hope we get back to the instruments soon! I wanna write about that again!
