I'm not here to talk about the weirdly relatable characters, about their song choices being perfect for a real fanrare and research behind uncommon instruments. I'm here to talk about SOUND.
If you pay close attention to the sounds of this anime, you'll quickly realize it's masterful - and by that I mean an opening door, footsteps, a page being turned. After many years working as a translator, I reached a point where I was tired of listening to shows being extremely sloppy with their sounds, having to listen hundreds of times the same part of the episode to come with a good subtitle. Sometimes my work involved big blockbusters, and even they had some really awful sounds thrown in the mix. On Hibike! Euphonium, that was never a concern.
After I watched it for the first time, I decided to re-watch some scenes where the girls played instruments, and every sound matched their movement (not on the right chords, of course, but the motion was very close), and it was possible to listen a key press on a clarinet, or even the slight delay the air took to fill the instrument before making notes. The care of that department was mind blowing.
Want to watch Hibike? If you like or don't mind a slow pace, teenage drama, and listening to a variety of instruments out of the mainstream, you'll love it.
