Sound Euphonium Overload!

Wow!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of a single anime having so many new projects announced in such a short span of time… (basically a single day).  Not one, but three movies – plus a new light novel!

Kumi

No, this wasn’t just an excuse to post a picture of Best Girl Kumiko…  :)  Hit the jump for more!


The first announcement was for three films.  A compilation movie of Sound Euphonium 2, a new story featuring Nozomi and Mizore, plus a movie ‘about Kumiko as a 2nd year’.

The second announcement was for a new light novel covering Kumiko as a 2nd year.

That’s a lot of new material for a single franchise in a single year.   But if the Nozomi-Mizore story covers the schism…  It would be interesting to finally get a first hand look at it given how deeply it affects the characters and at least partially drives the story of Euph and Euph 2.  (Though I understand the LN’s/manga go into a bit more detail than the anime…)

It’s the ‘Kumiko as a 2nd year’ that concerns me most though…  Euph 2 suffered badly from ‘sequel-itis’ as the original story was written as a standalone without much thought that there would be more.  What more story is there to tell?  Even though they only earned Bronze, they have made the Nationals after all.

Still, this is really just a tempest-in-a-teapot…  The movies most likely won’t be streamed or aired outside of Japan.  They LN’s are just starting to be released in the US and depending on the publishing pace and sales, we won’t see this LN (if we ever do) for a couple of years.

Speaking of the LN’s, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the first LN in America in just two weeks!

8 thoughts on “Sound Euphonium Overload!”

  1. You know, as much as I like Kyoto Animation, I have to admit their track record with TV sequels isn’t very good. Leaving Clannad aside, since calling After Story a “sequel” series is debatable (I consider it more akin to a split-cour continuation), they’ve done sequels to their own first seasons five times: Haruhi, Chunibyo, K-On, Euphonium, and Free. I haven’t seen Free, but three of the other four are notable disappointments compared to their first seasons, with only K-On S2 arguably matching or exceeding the quality of the original (I consider it superior to S1 in every way, though of course that’s just my opinion). Haruhi 2009’s issues have been analyzed to death, and Chunibyo Ren suffers from a similar problem as you bring up with Euphonium 2, being an unnecessary sequel to a fully self-contained story.

    It seems like their results with sequel films, OTOH, have been a bit better. Again I can’t comment on Free or Beyond the Boundary, but Disappearance of Haruhi is great, of course, the K-On movie for me wasn’t as good as S2 but was still at least on par with S1, and I know that Tamako Love Story (which I haven’t seen either) seems to be much better regarded than Tamako Market. So I’m still holding out some hope for these new films that they’ll give Eupho a lift again after S2’s letdown.

    And hey, between all this Eupho stuff and more Yuki Yuna on the way, that also means more work for Tomoyo Kurosawa, which is a Very Good Thing (and Sakura Quest too, though she only has a small part in that).

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    1. The only one of those I’ve seen is Euph, so I don’t really have a broad basis for comparison… Even though Euph 2 suffered from ‘sequel-itis’, it was a darn fine series and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Of course the argument can be made that if you must fall in quality, best to start from a very high place. :)

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      1. True, I think my initial comment was a bit harsh on Eupho 2. I also enjoyed the series, and would probably be less critical of it if it was a new/independent series instead of a sequel (or if I was just more of an Asuka fan, given how much focus she got). It’s only a “disappointment” relative to the bar set by season 1. It’s the gap between season 1 being up there my top ten all-time favorites, versus season 2 sharing space with shows like Love Live and Aokana down in my tier 3 group – still shows I enjoy, but lacking that extra “something” to push them higher up my list.

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  3. Kumiko must be among the best female anime protagonists ever, and a huge part of that goes to her voice actress (I approve of Wing King’s singling her out). That said, I’m not really that excited to see KyoAni tied up with a franchise once again.

    I loved Haruhi, Clannad, and Nichijou, and finally Hyouka. After Hyouka all they made fell flat for me, with the exception of Tamako Market which I found half decent. Then Hibike arrived on the scene to my profound disintrest; they’d long lost my trust. Turns out it was great! I liked the second season a lot, too. Then they made Maid Dragon, which I loved, too, so I’m currently back on the KyoAni train (even they still make aweful stuff like Phantom World). But I’d rather see them deversify that focus on a main franchise.

    Apart from that genralisation, I sort of share your plot misgivings; it feels like it’s going to be diminishing returns from here on out. Who knows, though? I don’t feel this is good news, I don’t feel this is bad news – I sort of shrug at it. At least, it’s movies. Those shouldn’t interfere with their capacity to do TV shows too much, I think.

    [Btw, I heard we have Kadokawa to thank for the endless eight in Haruhi, rather than KyoAni. I sort of approve of the endless eight, though. I like the concept, and I like the execution. But that’s just not something you can do for a… TV series. I’d imagine the TV stations airing Haruhi 2 must have been the most put out by the concept. You really can’t waste almost 2/3s of a season on what’s mostly the same episode (with a few twists, for minor progression and a conclusion). That said, I own the Dvds and don’t regret buying them.]

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    1. If I were worried about a studio going forward, it would P.A. Works more than KyoAni… :) But I also recognize that everyone’s gotta eat… and to do that, you have to have work in the pipeline. Not just KyoAni, but everyone else involved in the production from Takeda Ayano on down.

      Yet, you can tell the ‘same story’ a second time and still produce something very good. (The second cour of Shirobako is a shining example of this.) As I said at the time, Euph 2 wasn’t a bad show per se – it mostly suffered in comparison to its famous sibling.

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      1. Oh, I agree about PA Works. That’s something I’ve been saying for some time now. And the way I’ve been saying it is that I hope they haven’t contracted the KyoAni curse. The key difference is that KyoAni is supposed to be over it. PA Works would be slithering into their first major crisis; KyoAni would have a relapse. (That’s not any sort of objective assessment; it’s something much more selfish. I want them to make shows I like.)

        I sort of chuckle at the Shirobako example; as far as I’m concerned, PA Works was practising for the second cour. It’s the second cour that makes that show good; the first cour didn’t really grab me that much.

        There is something Shirobako and Euphonium have in common; special interest protrayal. As long as they’re animating concert performances, there’s always something to fall back on.

        For what it’s worth, I wish KyoAni well and I’m happy for anyone who’s excited for more Euphonium. It’s just that, personally, the prospect of re-watching season 1 holds more allure than the prospect of new material.

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