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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/11386693 *** Beautiful and emotional!

I really liked this show. I was sceptical at first... I think it's very easy for shows that surround something seemingly inconsequential (such as a high-school club) to severely overplay how much people actually care about these things. Hibike! Euphonium did this very well though, from the onset. I guess it's about managing expectations, and what the audience can expect from the characters by showing what the characters expect from each other. I really liked the set up.

I love how distinct each character is too. They have unique personalities and interests, though a bit cliché (the big silent guy, the bubbly girl, the cold beauty). The main character though was just something else. I really, really liked her! I love how she treats the people around her, it felt very human, I think this was just excellent writing. She's cold sometimes and bursting with emotion in the next scene, but it never feels out of place. We really get to explore how she sees the world and what she values in relationships, as well as how much she's willing to sacrifice in her personal life to achieve her goals. I just love Kumiko.

The animation was very good too. I guess that's to be expected from KyoAni. What I really appreciated, as someone who has played in a band for many years (trumpet), is that they didn't try to make the performances magical. A lot of sports and art anime (Haikyu!!, Blue Lock, Blue Period) depict their subject as sort of nigh-magical, with colours flying everywhere and cool names for special moves. Hibike! Euphonium leans more into realism, it doesn't try to make music seem magical, it just lets the music be magical, if that makes sense. I thought it was beautiful; in a way, it's the animation holding back, but it's just really well done.

The music of course was just fantastic. Don't have much to say on this subject in particular, it's a music anime, it has great music. I will say that I loved how much silence there was. Especially before and after an emotional performance, they just let the notes hang, letting the emotion build. Beautiful, I say!

The one criticism I have is that it's very short. It's only 13 episodes, and there's too many loose ends. I WANT MORE!!! Well, there is more of course but it's in the next season, which I haven't gotten to YET. This show is definitely worth a watch.

What do you think? *** Rating: 4/5

Watch on CrunchyRoll! Arr🏴‍☠️!!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/922307

> This is a spoiler-free review > *** > Let's start with the obvious: the animation is brilliant. It's MAPPA after all. The production quality on this show is very good, and leaves very little to be desired. Sure, it's not the pinnacle of modern animation, but it's more than serviceable, and it posed no issue whatsoever. > > Regardless, this show is very interesting, visually. The characters too, but mostly the environment is totally CRAZY! It's weird, and beautiful, and creepy. The flowers are just stunning, and knowing what they mean in the story just adds a special layer to such stunning visuals. > > The voice acting (sub) is great as well, but the general sound design was subpar. I felt like a lot of scenes were very silent, and not in a cool or creepy kinda way, just in a "they didn't know what to put in the background" kinda way... The OP is a TOTAL BANGER though, and it was hard to skip, honestly. > > Still, all of this isn't that big of a deal if the plot and the characters make up for it. > > But they didn't really. > > There's a varied cast with their quirky personalities and origin stories, but they're so poorly explored that that barely matters. The only characters that have any emotional weight are Gabimaru (MC) and Sagiri (MC). To be fair, these two do have very compelling backstories and cool chemistry. The rest of the cast either didn't have enough screen-time for us to truly engage with their stories, or had basically NO backstory at all. > > Gabimaru specifically is a very emotional character. His struggle with his up-bringing, with love, family, and freedom is really compelling, and so is Sagiri's struggle with human nature, sexism, and her place in the world. > > The plot is just OK. The setup is awesome, and promises a lot of action and adventure with lots of tension and high stakes, but that just ends up not being the case. We spend most of the time watching cool fight scenes. The fight scenes are very cool, sure, but where's the substance? I think a big problem is that Gabimaru is way too strong. His plot armour is just too much... > > And the ending... I mean, come on. IT'S A FUCKING JOKE! If they were gonna end the show like this, it should've just been a 24/25 episode release. I know S2 is already in the works, but this season simply felt incomplete. > > Well, the show does a lot of things right, and a few things wrong. If more time was spent developing the characters and advancing the plot this would've been way more satisfying. For that reason, I'm still looking forward to the second season. > *** > Rating: 3/5 > > Watch on Crunchyroll! > Arr 🏴‍☠️!!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/543614

> This is a SPOILER FREE review. > *** > Horror done PERFECTLY. > > "FROM" is creepy, desperate, and hopeful. Every second is crawling with this sense of imminent dread. Time is ticking, and ticking, and _ticking... And they can't escape. But they still hope that that might change. > > The characters are brilliant. From father Khatri to Boyd to Jim to Jade, they all serve their purpose perfectly, and the more secondary characters also manage to flawlessly push the plot forward, as well as provide some much needed reprieve from the main storyline of the show. Because the main storyline is INTENSE! > > The way the different personalities clash and slow things down, beautiful chaos. Even just the dynamic between the town and the colony house! The best part, really, is how much power is in the hands of the people, how much THEY control their life in the town. And how much one person can doom so many others. > > Still, my favourite thing about the show is the very clear theme of family. That's what moves everything, they all lost family, and they all found family in that accursed town. I love that. > > The audio and the visual are both great. Everything is set up magnificently to give the viewer that rising terror. > > The only real criticism I have is the acting. It's not bad, but it's not that great either. I wasn't familiar with any of the actors before watching this show, but I'm not exactly looking forward to what they might do next. Still, it doesn't really take away that much from the show, since they do a good enough job of conveying everything that needs conveying; occasionally they knock it out of the park too. > > This season left a lot of mystery to solve; more loose threads than I can count. > *** > Watch on MGM+! > Arr 🏴‍☠️!!!