I recently finished watching the entire Hibike! Euphonium series and I can safely say it's now one of my favorites of all time.

As someone with experience in competitive sports, I have never seen anything capture so perfectly and thoroughly the sort of emotions and dynamics that take place within a highly competitive highschool/college team/club. I had the experience of being an international transfer student into a NCAA Divison 1 team and I have either seen or experienced almost everything the characters go through, it was honestly sort of unnerving and eerie how much of the show felt like emotional deja vu… it was e hell of a ride-along bringing back both good and bittersweet memories (along with the inevitable regrets).

I loved the anime original deviation with the ending too. I have seen online a lot of people who were unsatisfied with not getting the perfect ending for Kumiko and Reina (especially since the orginal novel apparently did) but to me what they did felt much more true to life and if anything showed Kumiko's growth even more. The hint at the end as well that Reina and Kumiko might have started drifting apart with her pursuing her career in the USA is also a gut punch but healthy dose of reality at the same time… if Reina truly wanted to be special, being a professional and world elite requires living a selfish life and you can't wait for anyone else around you. I also lost contact with most teammates from college after graduating and coming back home to my county, even though I know ever time I meet one of them even years later we can always pick it back up right from where we left off given how deep and intense our past bonds from those years are.

I also actually like to believe Taki sensei was going to pick Mayu for the final solo to begin with (like Reina ends up doing) but he left the vote up to the students since he wanted to avoid the drama from the previous audition and in a way test them to see if they were willing to do whatever it took even if it only made a 1% difference towards getting gold at nationals (it worked during the first year, so he decided to try it again). It also worked perfectly in coming full circle from the Reina-Kaori solo drama from season 1, the audience is put in the shoes of Yuuko who you probably disliked at the time for getting in the way of Reina but we are made to understand her feelings this time around. Besides, a lot of people seem to not give any thought as to how Mayu is an even more talented Euphonium player who also wants her last chance to play a solo and win gold at nationals since it's well established by the end that the whole "being willing to forgo the solo" was only her forcing herself to sacrifice in order to keep the peace due to past trauma. We are driven to dislike Mayu because of jealousy and protectiveness towards Kumiko but in the end she is a genuinely nice and talented person who would also deserve her last chance to shine at nationals. It seems like a lot of people took at face value the idea that Mayu and Kumiko were at the same level by the end but it simply not the case (even by Kumiko's admission when she later meets with Reina) and they tried to convey it during the final audition in the performances as well.

I'm not sure if the asphyxiating pace of Season 3 was intentional but it worked really well for me in conveying both the anxiety of being in your last year with your last chance of reaching your goal while all the additional stress from other sources just keeps on piling up. The line of it "all being over in an instant" felt way too real and relatable.

I think the only drawback for the whole series is that the 2nd year is done way too fast and skipping through most of it. I understand the competition is cut short from them not qualifying for nationals but they could have shown us more of the fallout from it. I would have liked to see more of the farewell of Yuuko and Natsuki for example and further exploration of the relationships with the incoming freshman. I watched all of the OVA and Specials as well but it still feels like there are some important gaps between the 2nd and 3rd season imo. In a selfish fan-boyish way, I would love for them to also maybe produce a epilogue "years later" OVA after the final recap movies are released but it would be by no means necessary of course. They could also adapt the Rikka marching back spin off novel perhaps? No idea if Azusa Sasaki's journey would offer anything that hasn't been covered by the main series already though (if anyone has read it, let me know!).

Sorry for the wall of text but this series stirred me up good lol I have so many other questions and thoughts but I wouldn't be able to put them all to writing, I'm still not sure how I feel about Asuka overall for example… I love her as much as anybody else but part of me feels like Asuka is the Kumiko who took the route of selfishness over being a true leader, that's maybe why she cares so much about taking Kumiko under her wing and calls her a "real Euphonium" but at the same time isn't able to face her later on when Kumiko grows to be a selfless leader sort of rejecting her at the end of the apartment visit and not showing up at the final performance (maybe Kumiko's idealism brought on some shame for Asuka). But it's just my interpretation, it's hard to get a read on her and that's exactly the point of the character I believe.

Did anybody else reading have a similar experience as me in sports or performing arts and resonated personally with this series? I had a similar experience watching certain moments of Kono oto Tomare! (mostly the Akira backstory) but this time around since the story and characters were much more grounded and the story is told in such an intimate way, it was even more powerful and relentless in a way…

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Am I alone in saying that crunchyroll went from a solid streaming service that helps to support the artists as best as possible, to a train wreck of a service that doesn't know what it is doing?

I mean the new content tab is broken, it just throws stuff at you. Impossible to actually know what new episodes are out unless you keep track of launch days (used to but don't). Now it just throws the last weeks worth of content at you randomly and leaves you to click and figure out if you saw the last episode or now. (is it for adds or something?)

The streams are solid but there is no user mentality.
When I finish a series and want to watch something similar. I get recommended the same shows no matter what genre. It seems to be based off of release date but still. For a service that charges money, I expect some effort put into said service. We are doing you the service in paying you, we as customers expect to get some quality in what we pay for. 6 months ago I would never have posted this I was content. The last 6 months have been sharply going down the hill of pig feces.

Anyone got opinions on funimation or similar anime streaming services?

You listen to the audio (character talking in Japanese) then look at the subs and instantly know they are wrong.

Like not "wrong wrong" but not conveying the real side of the character. I'm finding that I know enough bits and pieces of Japanese that I find myself pausing episodes and being a critic about the subs.

If only I could have that sort of passion to perperly learn Japanese.

Shoutout to the fan subs of years gone by. I still recall the subs from Miname-ke that explained all the various cultural bits and pieces and why characters often acted a certian way based on how they used a personal pronoun. (Boku, etc)