This is a post I made on MyAnimeList about Sound! Euphonium S3E12. As noted, there are major spoilers.

This episode has been on my mind for days.

One of the things I simply don’t understand, is how many people are calling this anime “trash” and “garbage” because they decided to deviate from the LN. I think those people are having an emotional reaction, and I kind of understand it. To a degree. I also think they’re not understanding what the anime was going for, and exactly *why* it differs from the LN.

I haven’t read the LN in its entirety (I own it, but my Japanese unfortunately isn’t good enough yet. I am very upset and embarrassed about this). But my understanding from what I have read and heart is that the LN focuses on Kumiko almost exclusively. She is the main character, and everything is seen through her eyes.

But the anime does not do this. It takes a more third person view, and there are two main characters (as well as some characters that *almost* make that status, such as Asuka). Kumiko, and Reina.

We first see Reina when she is angry because the band made “dud gold”, not proceeding to Kansai. She is in tears, saying how upset she is, and Kumiko spends the next few episodes basically obsessing over the fact that she said “You didn’t think we were going to make it to Nationals, did you?”.

Then, in the eighth episode, we have Reina and Kumiko forming their relationship, based on music, but a kind of mutual respect. Kumiko respects Reina for her drive to win, and Reina respects Kumiko because she doesn’t hold back and speaks her mind, even when it’s inappropriate to do so. They do so by climbing Mt. Daikichi, and ultimately dueting.

In this episode (S3E12), they go to Mt. Daikichi again, but this time the roles are reversed. Reina is clearly emotionally *wrecked* because she had to choose Mayu over Kumiko for the solo.

Throughout the entire arc of this anime, Reina has been an “ice queen”. We rarely see her cry (never after the first episode), and she is seen as distant and even scary to her classmates. But she has always been close to Kumiko, even as she is very insecure with her friendship with Kumiko. This has been an ongoing theme throughout the anime, and it came to a head in Eps. 9 through 12. She has been making friends, well, sort of, but they’re Kumiko’s friends, and she remains a little distant to all of them, though they do accept her.

Episode 12 does not only mark a turning point for Kumiko, it marks the completion (or near completion) of Reina’s character arc too. Because she is, for maybe the first time in her life, in a position where she actually cares – and *deeply* – about another person. She did what she thought was right, but the thought of losing Kumiko absolutely wrecked her. She realized, for maybe the first time – what it means to love another person, and what it means to maybe lose that person, especially due to your actions.

This was Reina finally learning that Kumiko loves her for her, and she is not going away.

This may have been Reina learning how much she actually loved Kumiko.

Because Kumiko already knew how much she loved Reina.

The art of the absolute *pain* on Reina’s face as she faces the friend she loves after having betrayed her (in order to stay true to herself and her ideals) is some of the best animation, ever.

Those who were upset about “yuri-baiting” kind of missed the whole point, because now that we see this episode, it was never about yuri, and was never intended to be yuri (though I wonder if making it an actual yuri relationship was one of those changes that the LN author said she could not tolerate). It was about a close female friendship, it was about two people who grew to love each other deeply, and it was about two friends who took almost their entire high school career to learn how deep their friendship went.

This is not the only important character arc, clearly. Kumiko’s growth from being a wishy-washy, distant conformist to maybe one of the best suisougakubu buchous ever at kitauji, definitely better than the first year one (and learning what she wanted to do with her life) was important character development, and clearly Reina had a great deal to do with that. But Kumiko had just as much to do with Reina’s as well. Reina was afraid that she would lose Kumiko if Kumiko didn’t go to music school, and we can see now that that will not happen, and most importantly, so can Reina, now.

I think we got it all wrong. This was set up from the very beginning, and quite frankly, if this had been yuri it would have actually *cheapened* it, in my opinion. What Reina and Kumiko share is something much deeper and closer than one of those anime yuri relationships with lots of pantsu and lack thereof, etc. And being able to convey that kind of emotion is, well, one of the most amazing things about anime, and KyoAni as well.

(this is not a statement on yuri and should not be seen as reflecting my viewpoint on yuri in general, which I will keep to myself as it’s not important. It should be seen as a statement regarding *these two characters*.)

So, I don’t understand people who call this “trash” or “garbage”. In my opinion, they’re not understanding what KyoAni was trying to do here, and in just considering this a trite anime with “waifus” or “best girls” they’re missing out on some very, very deep emotional exploration. But, I guess that’s not for everyone. But if not… why did they watch Sound! Euphonium all the way to S3E12? It’s not like this is a surprise, especially after S2E10, or S1E11, or even S1E8…

Oh well. I shall not speculate. I will simply say that for those who can appreciate this for what it is, this episode, for all of my other criticisms of the pacing and drama-forcing of this season, may cement Sound! Euphonium as maybe (at least arguably) the best anime of its genre of all time, and arguably the best anime… ever. I can’t think of a single episode or scene, from any anime I’ve seen, that has topped it.

I hope we get a little more content from KyoAni in this universe.

And can we spare some praise for those voice actors? That was a work of ART.