Let's Be Weebs: Sound! Euphonium Character Analysis

Sound! Euphonium is an anime with an amazing amount of pedigree attached to it. Its production studio is Kyoto Animation which has, most of the time, produced no small number of stellar works. Its animation director Tatsuya Ishihara happened to have directed not only The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but the masterpiece Clannad: After Story after having directed the original Clannad series, itself very good. The most important part of having directed After Story is that it shows that Ishihara knows how to craft stories and experiences that are rooted in realism and mundanity.

Clannad: After Story is an excellent example of a story whose characters felt like they lived and breathed in a believable world. If you take away the pseudo-fantastic elements, the second-half of After Story functions as a wonderfully realistic character drama. This ability to tell a story about interpersonal relationships and how they serve a grander theme is one of the reasons why Sound! Euphonium was lucky to get a director like Tatsuya Ishihara.

In order to truly understand why Sound! Euphonium works so well, you needn’t look further than its two principle characters - Kumiko Oumae and Reina Kousaka.

Kumiko Oumae
“Did you really think we could make the nationals?”

Kumiko Oumae is one of the most complex main characters that I have ever seen in an anime. The layers of depth surrounding her are astounding. Not very much of her characterization is ever acknowledged out loud - in fact, Reina is the only person in the entire main cast to ever realize that there’s more to her than her facades show.

On the surface, she seems very much like any normal high school freshman. She’s cheery and happy and does a lot of things that others would regard as normal. However, there is a hidden inner apathy within her. Despite her welcoming exterior, she finds that she can’t bring herself to care about a lot of things and that she’s truly cold and distant at heart. She holds a lot of contrary opinions in her mind which most people don’t know about in spite of her tendency to unconsciously spout out her thoughts. Indeed, her apathy and lack of empathy is what causes Reina to become attracted to her, though we don’t realize this until around the eighth episode. Kumiko’s apathy and coldness is well-documented in the first episode, where she’s not afraid to admit that she never thought that her middle school concert band had anywhere near a chance to compete in the nationals - which seems to upset Reina quite a bit. After she hears Kitauji’s concert band play for the first time, she also observes that they play quite terribly. This insensitivity plays a huge role in shaping who she is.

Another of Kumiko’s defining character traits once again involves her general apathy; this time it manifests in the form of peer pressure. Whenever anyone suggests anything in the anime that Kumiko should do, Kumiko tends to do it. However, this is not a case of an unwilling Kumiko doing something she doesn’t want to do it. Far from it, in fact. Kumiko finds comfort in others telling her what she should and shouldn’t do because it’s far easier than doing what she thinks is right. Indeed, she feels she shouldn’t apologize to Reina for being insensitive because she believes that she was completely correct and justified in saying it but she does so anyway at the behest of her new friends. Much in the same vein, Kumiko didn’t want to play in Kitauji’s concert band but was persuaded by her friends. Kumiko hadn’t enjoyed the concert band experience for quite a while and just wanted to leave the whole thing behind her, but she found it easier to simply do what others suggested. Even further on, she lets Asuka coerce her into playing the euphonium despite her desire to play the trombone. At any of these instances, Kumiko fails to put up much of a fight, simply going with the flow instead of striking out on her own.

Like I said earlier, Kumiko’s coldness manifests in a variety of different ways. Another one of these is how she treats her relationships with other people. When Midori or Hazuki do or say something that she feels is stupid or foolish, Kumiko is sure to make a mental note that she believes that what they’re doing is stupid or foolish - though she never reveals this to them. The apathy can also clearly be seen with Shuichi, her childhood friend. Despite knowing each other for quite a long time, Kumiko never seems to care about him very much at all. They happen to both be in concert band and Shuichi even holds a crush on Kumiko, but Kumiko’s apathy absolutely engulfs her relationship with Shuichi. When Hazuki questions Kumiko on whether she likes him, she shuts her down immediately - saying that any attraction she has to him is absolutely preposterous. She sees nothing there and, much of the time, simply doesn’t want to talk to him. Kumiko also seems very eager to get Hazuki to go out with Shuichi, if only to get him off her back.

It is also important to address a major side effect of Kumiko’s apathy - her ambivalence and large disregard for music. Kumiko is very much a talented musician, but it is obvious that Kumiko doesn’t realize that - or if she does, she doesn’t care very much. Indeed, Kumiko is the type of person who chooses her high school based on what their school uniforms look like and doesn’t care too much about her grades. She is adrift in her own melancholy about life; this is obvious in almost any early scene where she’s wallowing by herself in her room.

This may seem like a list of reasons for why Kumiko Oumae is a pretty terrible person, one who can’t bring herself to care much about anything. You would be correct. As Reina observes at one point, “You sure are an awful person.” However, Kumiko does begin to mellow out as the series progresses. A large part of that - and some would say the only reason why she changes the way she is - is because of Reina Kousaka.

Reina Kousaka
“I want to become special. I don’t want to be the same as the others.”

Reina Kousaka begins the series as a mysterious and enigmatic figure. She is aloof and distant and doesn’t seem to want to socialize with anyone very much at all. In fact, her only interest appears to be in joining Kitauji’s concert band. And not without a good reason because, as it turns out, Reina is easily the most skilled trumpet player at Kitauji - and perhaps the entire prefecture. This doesn’t put people into very good waters with her because, especially when it came time to choose between a merely good trumpet player and Reina, she ends up one-upping those senior to her.

Reina’s mysteriousness pervades through much of the series until about the eighth episode. In that amount of time, we learn very few things about her. The most important thing, however, is something we learn in the very first minute of the very first episode. She loves music and is passionate about it. Music is not just something that she does for fun, it is something that she bases her life around. Her passion for music extends to nearly every corner of her life - including what school she chose to go to. Kitauji was not traditionally a musically-inclined school, but their new teacher Taki, is the son of a famous concert band conductor. Reina’s parents and Taki’s parents knew each other, and so Reina knew Taki. Her belief and passion in Taki fuels her decision to go to Kitauji, and is one of the many decisions in her life that is affected greatly by her love of music.

Not to be outdone, Reina’s main character trait, after the initial veil of aloofness is lifted, happens to be her drive to be truly special. Reina wants to be different from everyone else; she wants to be the one that stands out from the crowd. It doesn’t matter whether someone is older than her or whether they’ve been doing it longer; she wants to win. She does this, not by cheating or trying to win over people (like Yuko in the band), but by truly proving herself to be the best. To Reina, life is a meritocracy; those that are best get the reward. This may seem strangely obvious and you may find it bizarre that I’m noting a trait that seemingly most musicians have or should have. However, it is important to place this aspect of Reina under the lens of Japanese culture. In Japan, seniority is king and, indeed, Kitauji has a seniority system in place that heavily favors the third-years. Reina, however, doesn’t believe in a system like that. “I’m better than her!” she proclaims when Yuko rejects the notion that Reina should play the solo at the competition, saying that Kaori should play due to seniority. The notion of the meritocracy is a primarily Western idea, not one that the Japanese are particularly noted for. Thus, it’s important to note that Reina’s ideals seem strange and full of hubris when viewed through a traditionally Japanese lens - and that is why it makes Reina so unique and that is why it fits her character so well. Her character is one of individualism, someone bent on being as apart from the crowd as possible - to be as special as possible. And she deserves it.

Another important aspect of Reina’s character that reveals itself slowly through the course of the series (though is present even in the first episode) is the face of stoicism that she puts up. Reina is a person that is absolutely burning with emotion; so much so that it feels as though that she is burdened by it. No one around her has as much idealism, as much happiness, as much sadness, or as much confidence. She is someone who lives her life believing in so many ideals, but rarely shows them to anyone. The reason for this is never outright stated but it can be deduced from her background as the daughter of a famous and talented musician that she very much wants to live up to - and possibly surpass - her father in the field of music. She is driven and motivated to fulfill what she wants to do. She works hard, does everything she has to in order to succeed, and is frustrated when others don’t seem to work as hard as she does. This is the reason for why Reina screams so much. Whenever she screams, she lets out all of the negative emotions plaguing her - a cry of frustration so loud that it echoes from whatever high place she’s chosen to scream from. These cries and screams further encapsulate Reina’s burgeoning emotions.

Reina Kousaka is a person motivated by passion and emotion, though it may not seem like it at first. She knows what she wants and she does what she needs to to get it. But that’s not where it ends, because Reina is also an incomplete person - one who sorely needs a person in her life to balance out her intense emotion. And that person is Kumiko Oumae.

Kumiko and Reina
“You won’t abandon me?”
“If I do, you can kill me.”
“I’ll actually kill you.”
“I know you would, Reina.”

The connection that binds Kumiko Oumae and Reina Kousaka together is something that is obvious just from the end credits of each episode alone. In the end credits, Kumiko and Reina are bound together by a red string. In literary terms, this refers to the ancient Greek legend of the “red string of fate” - showcasing two individuals whose particular destinies are intertwined in a certain way. There is no better way of describing the relationship between Kumiko and Reina. They are the perfect foils for each other.

Kumiko begins the series an apathetic and cold person, though this isn’t obvious to anyone. Reina, however, can see right through Kumiko’s facade. Indeed, Reina’s fascination with Kumiko began the day that they won the dud gold and failed to enter the nationals. Kumiko’s seemingly insensitive remark about not believing they’d make nationals sent a teary-eyed Reina running away. Kumiko had always regretted her insensitivity in that moment, but she believed what she had said all the same. Despite Kumiko’s regret, it later turned out that Reina hadn’t hated her for that remark after all. In fact, Reina had become attracted to her after that instance. She admired Kumiko’s ability to keep that coldness inside of her under wraps. Reina was so intrigued by it that it made her want to “peel that good-girl skin” off of her. It is rather confusing at first trying to understand exactly why Reina is so intrigued by Kumiko. However, it’s clear that Reina sees quite a lot of herself in Kumiko - indeed, her facade of cheeriness is quite similar to Reina’s own stony-faced disposition.

In a similar vein, Kumiko was deeply affected by Reina running away due to their not making the nationals. Deep down, Kumiko is perfectly capable of working hard, being passionate, and being just as special as Reina. But she buries all of that deep within herself; it’s simply easier to ignore it all and go with the flow. But that moment when they got the dud gold and Reina ran away was the first time that those aspects of Kumiko started slowly clawing their way out of her. Kumiko is disturbed by this, but ignores it much as she does with many things in her life. It isn’t until she’s confronted by the prospect that Reina is going to be present at Kitauji that she begins to feel afraid again. It is important to note at this point that Reina is the only person that has made Kumiko feel this way. Kumiko, too, had felt a connection form - however subconsciously - at that moment when Reina ran away. This is when the red string began to be threaded.

All of these disparate emotions and attractions to each other comes to a head when Kumiko inadvertently invites Reina to go to the Agata Festival with her. Reina seized this is an opportunity to finally tell Kumiko of the emotions that she’d been feeling, though it wasn’t obvious to Kumiko at first - to her and anyone else who’d have observed this happening, it simply would’ve been another example of Reina’s stoicism and aloofness. Reina had informed Kumiko that they would be bringing their instruments to the mountain with them. A side detail that’s quite important here is that Kumiko was perfectly willing to drag her euphonium up the mountain with Reina despite her unwillingness to bring it to practice with her childhood friend Shuichi. Kumiko, once again subconsciously, does something for Reina that she would never do for anybody else. Once they begin hiking, the chemistry between the two is instant. Kumiko is instantly attracted to Reina, whose stoicism begins to fade the further they get up the mountain. Indeed, Kumiko’s inhibitions follow and she speaks her mind clearly and honestly in the same way. Reina confesses her “love” for Kumiko, though Kumiko is at first weirded out by it. This “love” is Reina’s appreciation and admiration for the way that Kumiko is - her detachment and her ability to be brutally honest. They reach the top of the summit and it’s a lovely view. This is when it’s clear that the sparks really begin to fly. Kumiko’s mentions that being with Reina is akin to “losing [her] life to beauty,” and follows that up with saying that she wouldn’t mind that at all. They follow this by a discussion on Reina’s wish to be special, capped off by an instrumental duet which, incidentally, is titled “The Place We Found Love.” It’s clear from this moment onward that Kumiko begins to “love” Reina the way that Reina loves her.

It’s important to stop here again before discussing anything else that the “love” being talked about in this essay is not necessary the traditional form of “love.” The connection that begins to be formed between Kumiko and Reina that began at losing the competition but crescendos at the mountain summit is so much more than any burgeoning homosexual relationship or anything like that. It is a mental and emotional connection of understanding that transcends most notions of “friendship” without necessarily being erotic. It is romantic, to be sure, but it is never reaches any levels of eroticism. It is an innocent, pure love motivated by mutual admiration, respect, and understanding.

That being said, things change between Kumiko and Reina very quickly after the mountain hike. Kumiko begins to open up more and becomes more like Reina. She begins to exhibit more hard work, more passion, more dedication motivated by seeing just how hard everyone else is working. The “old” Kumiko would have responded in simple apathy but this “new” Kumiko, who has been changed by Reina’s passion, responds much more like Reina would. Furthermore, Kumiko begins to declare her emotions to Reina much more plainly. She doesn’t hesitate to support Reina - openly, even - against Yuko’s support for Kaori. Reina’s effect on Kumiko reaches its apex when Kumiko struggles with the euphonium piece that Taki has asked her to play - screaming at the top of her lungs and shouting, “I want to improve!” These are both things that Reina would have done. Similarly, Reina begins to express what she feels more, as well. Kumiko is the only person for whom she truly ever smiles; whenever she smiles it is a momentous event and the show places a large amount of gravitas whenever it occurs. Reina also begins to be much more physical with Kumiko, a contrast with her initially reserved and stoic nature. There is no shortage of hugs or intimate moments between the two of them after what happens on the mountain.  Kumiko even confesses her own “love” for Reina right before the re-audition that pitted Reina against Kaori. Kumiko brings out in Reina the passion and fire that hide deep within her, bringing them to the surface.

Kumiko Oumae and Reina Kousaka are two of the most delightfully complex characters that I have ever seen in anime. These two serve as perfect foils and counterparts, whose chemistry with each other are unmatched. They share a bond that transcends most descriptors of a relationship - a mutual understanding of each other and their places in each other’s lives. A dualistic relationship where each sees herself in the other. An emotional relationship where each one’s differences only serve to compliment the other - and allows both of them to grow further as people. It is a relationship that is bound by fate, bound by the red string.

And that, my friend, is just one of the many reasons for why Sound! Euphonium is the best anime of the 2015 Spring Season.

P.S. Welcome to "Let's Be Weebs," a new segment on the Throne of K-Robe that addresses the author's rather on-and-off relationship with anime. Here's to more analysis in the future!