Hibike Euphonium Concert Band Incomplete: Implications with a dash of Wishful Thinking

While I was making the blog post about episode 10 (in particular about salty senpai’s comment that Kumiko is the reason that she didn’t make it in the band)… when I noticed that the numbers aren’t adding up.

KITAUJI CONCERT BAND IS ACTUALLY INCOMPLETE!

See this:

The producers of the show is kind enough to show how much detail they put into Hibike. They released the names of all the band members along with their position, their year, etc.

In total, there are 64 members of the band at the start.

Though, with Aoi leaving before the audition, that meant there are 63 members left now.

And as Kumiko have helpfully explained in her monologue, 55 is the maximum number that they can bring in the competition.

The thing is Team Monaka has 10 members.

So using simple subtraction:

63 members – 10 members that didn’t make the cut = 53 members that did

Realizing this, I went back to the competition scene to check my numbers. And yup, Kitauji only took 53 members which meant there are 2 potentially open seats

Now, you might be wondering why this piece of information is important.

Its not really. ^^

Except perhaps for my own wishful thinking that since the drama between Mizore and Nozomi turned out to be just one  big misunderstanding. Then, in the future they can put Nozomi in the band after they narrowly qualify in the Kansai tournament as  as a “power-up” for the nationals.

After all, Nozomi is apparently a good player as evidenced by Kumiko’s reaction when she heard her play. Heck, “being too good” is Kumiko’s commented for  the probable reason why Nozomi shouldn’t be on the band.

If this is a shounen sport series, I’m 100% sure that the above would happen. Especially since the series gave 4 episodes detailing the Mizore-Nozomi conflict.

Unfortunately, judging from the tone of the series which skew being closer to reality than “let’s go to nationals” feel. I think the above scenario has a poor chance of happening. Even if Mizore and Nozomi has resolved their misunderstanding, I’m pretty sure that it would still cause a boatload of drama if they put Nozomi into the contest roster. (Just putting Nozomi with Team Monaka should be fine though ^^ )

….Unless, having shitload of drama is the point of this plot?

On one hand, I can see a vague direction that could develop there. The band needing Nozomi and the other second years that quit to help them reach the nationals. On the other hand, I don’t think it makes a very compelling storyline or even a highly probable one….

Before even taking into account how hard it is to find an interesting resolution to that plot or how it would happen organically  The second years who quit have probably joined other clubs by now. Not to mention barring Nozomi, since most of them just got silver in the prefectural tournament, they couldn’t have been THAT good. I also feel that the second season (episode 1 to 4) is already pushing it in trying to include Kumiko to this plot.

Its probably better if whatever happened with the second years leads to some development with Kumiko somehow somewhere. Preferably with Asuka or Reina; As Kumiko shines more brighter whenever she’s interacting with the two mentioned characters.

Personally, I think this little factoid has more to tell about Taki as a judge and the Kitauji band as a whole than any future developments. This post started after all about the jerkish senior in Kumiko’s middle school’s comment.”That if Kumiko isn’t there, she would be able to make it.”

Perhaps that its somewhat true in a way. More competitors meant more chances of losing.

But, here in Kitauji (for now), it seemed that Taki put skill in a premium when choosing. It shows that Taki isn’t just going to pick anyone to fill his quota. For Taki there is a minimum skill level that the concert band need to be able to go to the nationals and if you don’t have that, you are out of luck even if there are still open seats available.

I also found it a bit reassuring that Kitauji wasn’t able to fill the maximum number of members needed. I’ve talked about this with somebody before but its a bit of a miracle that Kitauji has THAT many skilled band members to begin with. I meant Kitauji has a poor reputation as a concert band in the past so its not going to attract anyone plus its past system before Taki seemed to do everything to  discourage the competitive and driven student out of the band.  There should be some token consequence for that considering Hibike is trying to be “realistic”.

And here it is.