Sound! Euphonium: Ensemble Contest (特別編 響け！ユーフォニアム〜アンサンブルコンテスト〜), a theatrical OVA, started airing in Japan today, and I managed to get a ticket for the first show at the nearest theatre that is screening it. (Note: This post contains spoilers.)
The story continues from where Kumiko has taken over as the club president, with her first job being to select the school's representative for the upcoming ensemble contest. This OVA is only about 57 minutes, and I feel that there are some missed opportunities for making it into a longer film with more content.
The OVA focuses on the ensemble contest, or rather, the selection process for the school's representatives. The idea is to have a mini concert, where the school band's members form small teams of 3 to 10. The teams will play at the concert, and votes will be cast to select the best team, who will then go on to be the school's representatives at the prefectural round of the contest.
The mini concert serves as the audition, but the OVA never actually showed the concert. I mean, for a show titled "Ensemble Contest", there was no ensemble contest. Viewers were just given shots of each team, with the name of the team, the song being played, and the names of the members. Then, the results of the votes were shown, and we were all told which team would go on to represent the school. It was kind of an anticlimax, since the OVA had been building up to the "audition" for like 50 minutes. If Kyoani had taken the effort to produce the concert, with each team performing their own piece, it would have been a musical treat and a fitting conclusion to the OVA. Instead, we had a slideshow.
I think the voting system was also quite poorly thought out. As a middle ground between voting only by the school band's members and a more open voting system that allows spectators (including the third-year students of the band) to vote, Kumiko suggested that everyone be allowed to cast votes. If the band members' results are different from the spectators', then the members' votes will have priority. Wait. What stupidity is this? Isn't this just the same voting by members only? I mean, what it all says is that the spectators' votes are redundant, they don't mean anything. Then, why even bother?
Side note: The third-year students (Yuko, Natsuki, Nozomi) must be really really clever, because they already passed their examinations for university entrance in November. Which means all three of them went through the "recommendation by school" route instead of the "commoners'" way of taking entrance exams in late January and early February.
For the OVA, Ogawa Taichi serves as the assistant director. I think he is being groomed to be a director. I mean, Kyoani lost Yamada Naoko (she left the company after the fire), so they need to groom someone for the future generation. So instead of just legs (director Ishihara Tatsuya likes to use the movement of the legs to express feelings), this time, we had eyes. More than enough close-up shots of the eyes. I hope upcoming director Ogawa is not going to make this like a signature of his works...
Overall, the animation is Kyoani quality and the music is performed nicely by the same orchestra. It serves to continue the story of the series and shows more of Kumiko's character, which we will probably see more development in the upcoming season 3, scheduled for spring 2024. But at 1,500 yen (no discounts for students), it is a bit pricey for a 57-minute show that ended with a slideshow when I was hoping to see a concert. They could have made it a bit longer, with a proper concert (this series is about a school band, after all) and maybe even develop some of the plot lines properly (like Kumiko's conversation about opening windows with Yoroizuka Mizore). For an anime about music, there wasn't even a proper performance of a single piece this time, just bits and pieces. Well, I guess it makes for good viewing at home when it comes out on streaming services.
Oh, I really appreciate that they continued to credit Ikeda Shoko with the character design for the series. It is one way for her to continue living in our memories.
Update 5 Aug 2023: I finally realised the weird feeling I had about this OVA. I kept feeling something was off while watching now. I now know why: director Yamada Naoko was not involved in this OVA. I think it goes to say a lot about the impact of her stage direction for the series so far (minus this OVA). I guess the upcoming season 3 in April 2024 will give me a similar strange feeling again as director Yamada Naoko has left Kyoani already and is unlikely to ever return to be involved with this series. 😭
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