Hibike Chikai no final - review with spoilers -
So, I finally watched Hibike Euphonium Chikai no final, and I wanted to do a âquickâ review about it. I know this is going to be a bit subjective because I am obviously biased, but I am gonna try to be as objective as I can.
Also little disclaimer, but I am going to spoil so I can really give my arguments about the movie without holding myself.
For my general opinion if people wanna know without reading everything, I would give this movie a 4/10 at most. I had a huge problem with the pacing, with some directing decisions and with some scenes. I know I have to take the movie as an individual work and not comparing it to the novel (because a lot of important scenes have been cut from the novel), but I would say that if we compare Chikai No Final to Liz To Aoi tori... For a music anime, Chikai barely has any music, and most of the OST is truly forgetable.
For the in-depth part review...
I will start with the positive points.
- Most of the side characters (and by that, I mean... All the characters who arenât Kumiko, for this movie) are really amazing. But this isnât much of a surprise: they already were in the past. The new ones are really lovable too, but I am keeping something for the âbad partâ.
I am giving a point to Reina alone, but itâs because I love her with all my heart.
- The aesthetic is as beautiful as ever. But once again, it was to be expected from a Kyoani movie. The background is amazing, the colours are lively and give a true paw to the work, not mentioning that it gives a life to the movie.
There was one moment I also found really great in term of directing. During the Kantai competition, when they are playing Liz and the blue bird... During Mizore Oboe and Nozomi Flute âtalkingâ to each other, the oboe part focus on Kumiko (implying that she is the blue bird) and the flute answer focus on Reina (implying that she is Liz). And that part was really well done.
Aaaaand thatâs pretty much already it. Now I will go for everything I consider as negative.
- The pacing. Truly, this movie is going wayyyyy too fast. I know itâs only a movie to summarize two whole novels covering both Liz to aoi Tori and Chikai no final, but they cut a lot of character development and important matters due to the pacing.
First of all, Kumiko... Seems to have absolutely no idea about what she is doing in this movie. She is... here. Sometimes she makes cute Kumiko noise and she is being her usual self.
But I canât find the impact this girl had on me during the two seasons. How relatable she was, how emotional she could make me feel. And due to that, there were a lot of important scenes that were supposed to have a high impact... And ended up like a flop to me. I think, for example, about the scene with Kanade.
Surely, Kumiko is shining and helpful with Kanade. And she has grown, which is really nice to see. But sometimes, she is just... Smiling, for no reason, and not reacting the way I have been used to see Kumiko reacting whenever she is serious.
Speaking of Kanade, I said I wouldnât compare with the novel, but... She is mostly being cute and hinting a small part of her personality in the movie... But clearly doesnât show all her potential. The movie clearly overlook her relationship with Natsuki, only quickly showing it during... One scene (when itâs totally built up in the novel).
Kanade is supposed to be really close of Ririka, and... I donât even think we see them interacting in the movie. Like, at all.Â
I am doing another paragraph for this one, because it counts for Kanade, but also for all the other characters: due to the pacing, we donât see them playing individually, and we donât really hear them in the group (because there arenât many performances, in fact.)
So... When, for example, Natsuki mentions that Kanadeâs euphonium is way better than hers... Yes, nice. But we didnât hear it. We have no real idea if itâs really the case beside hearing the characters talking about it.
Same for Mirei and Sasuki. When they have their issue, itâs hard to really believe what they say considering we barely saw them playing together.
Also yes, Nozomi and Mizore got their own movie with Liz... But here, they donât talk at all. I think we can easily count the frames where they appear during the 1h40. A lot of other characters (like, Natsuki) donât have many lines or appearance either.
- The continuity. And along the continuity, I am also going to talk about the relationship between Shuuichi and Kumiko.
This movie is supposed to continue Hibike after the second season. And that gives me a huge issue with the way Ishihara threated ShuMiko relationship.
I am going to compare it with both the novel, but also with Tamako Market (because I saw a lot of people comparing it with the way Tamako love story was created).
In the novel, thereâs a build up to their relationship. Shuuichi has way more scenes than in the anime, some parts actually can make sense to give credit to their relationship, and Shuuichiâs confession take place during second season of Hibike. But it doesnât come out of nowhere. There was something clearly established. And then, during the second year novel, Kumiko doubt about her feelings. They are clearly more acting like friends than a couple, and when the break up scene happen after all the doubts and also everything that happened during the novel, it also makes complete sense.
In Hibike season 1 and 2, Shuuichi is inexistant. He barely appear, and when he does, Kumiko doesnât show any interest into him. Like, at all. Their relationship looked completely like a brotp with one sided love from Shuuichi side.
And when Shuuichi confess literally during the first minute of the movie... Not only it seems wrong, but itâs totally coming out of nowhere in the continuity of the previous seasons. They sell it like a kind of Tamako Love Story scene, but...
The reason why it worked in Tamako Love story was because Tamako had actually quite some scenes with Mochisu during the anime season. Surely, she was completely oblivious about his feelings for her, but they had some nice scenes together, Tamako never blocked Mochisu, and the build up was there. Then, they had an entire movie LITERALLY building up their relationship. It doesnât happen in the first minutes of the movie, but mostly at the very end.
In this case, the whole Shuuichi Kumiko relationship just come out of somewhere ???
And something that really annoyed me was the fact they added some pointless drama (that wasnât even a drama) about Shuuichi and a random first year... And then added a lot to the Agata festival scene (because basically, in the novel, Kumiko didnât plan to go with him. She just spends a bit of time with him before they just part way without doing anything because Kumiko planned to join Reina at her place, and Shuuichi is too scared of Reina to even walk Kumiko to her place - not mentioning she refused, anyway -)
And since they cut so many scenes mentioning Kumikoâs doubt about her feelings for him that were in the novel, when they actually break up in the movie... Itâs also totally out of nowhere. Kumiko mentions that she is busy, but... In Chikai, we donât actually see her being busy. (Which join the problem of pacing I mentioned earlier).
- Some scenes are completely out of character. And I am thinking about one scene in particular that I absolutely hated when it should have been one of my favorite (on a very subjective side).
During the Agata festival, when Kumiko joins Reina atop Mt Daikichi, they have a similar discussion to what they have in the novel... Except that it doesnât happen the same way and the discussion cut in the middle of nowhere when Kumiko asks for Reina to play for her.
As I already mentioned, they can totally change some scenes. As long as it still make sense and have the same meaning, itâs perfectly fine to do so. I didnât expect them to adapt 100% of the novel scene.
In the novel, Kumiko and Reina were way more intimate during this scene. Kumiko mostly lays with her head against Reinaâs laps, and when she asks Reina to play for her... She simply enjoy the music and wish they could stay this way and that nothing would change between them (because they were talking about their future, like in the anime... Except that the exchange was more powerful).
What I REALLY hated in the anime because itâs a huge finger raised to everyone, and totally out of character from Kumikoâs part... Kumiko asked Reina to play. Reina is playing her trumpet for Kumiko, and Kumiko... Text Shuuichi during the performance.
Just. No.
Kumiko loves music, and she loves Reinaâs sound. When Reina is playing, she would NEVER do anything else but listening to her performance... And it made me wanna bang my head against a wall (which is also an Ishihara addition, just like a lot of parts of the Reina arc in season 2... And I really dislike some of his choices.)
Showing a few scenes through a phone could be a nice and interesting idea... Not when itâs every x minutes, and when it shows mostly characters we have never heard about, and we wonât see anymore for the remaining of the movie. The two first scenes made me low key smile. The 25 other made me wanna facepalm.
We are quite far from the impeccable aesthetic of Liz and the blue bird, and the animation between the scenes always on point. I can also understand why he decided to show the lamps during the kantai competiton... But nope, it doesnât work in this case and just seems a bit âwhat the...?â
And I would say thatâs pretty much it for the review... I wasnât really expecting anything after the pictures I saw and the various spoilers I read, and I am still disappointed... I really believe they should have made a whole season to cover Kumikoâs second year. It would have been way better, and they wouldnât have overlooked a lot of important scenes.
I know Kumikoâs third year is gonna be covered in one movie as well... At least, thatâs what they were talking about. I kind of hope they are gonna do a season instead. I donât know what to expect from it, but I am kinda sad I ended up disliking a movie in one of my favorite franchise (if not my favorite). So I do hope third year movie, whenever itâs out, is going to make me dream the way Hibike always did.
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