As the 10 minute recap at the beginning of the theatrical screening reminds us, Kumiko is a student at North Uji (Kitauji) high school in Kyoto and she has decided to join the concert band club and continue playing an instrument that she’s never had strong feelings for since it was assigned to her back in elementary school, the euphonium. Over the course of her first year she makes new friends, reconnects with an old friend from her concert band past, the trumpeter Reina, comes to truly love the music she can produce with the euphonium, and gives the concert band’s competitions her all. While the band ends up competing on the national level they only receive a bronze prize and so, now in her second year with her seniors taking charge of the club and new first years filtering in, Kumiko once again finds herself in the concert band’s practice room where everyone agrees to give it their all and shoot for gold at the nationals.
One thing that always stuck out to me about the Sound! Euphonium anime — I would even call it one of the show’s defining characteristics — is the slow and measured pace it has which really allows for the characters’ emotions to get under the viewers skins and resonate with them just as much. So it felt rather odd watching a just-under-two-hours movie cover roughly the same amount of time in Kumiko’s life as the entire first season did (which was roughly six hours). I don’t know how this movie compares to any of the original novels that the entire series is based on and I suspect I won’t have a chance to compare them for a while; while Yen Press did release the first volume in 2017 (which corresponds to the first season of the anime) they haven’t put out a release schedule for any future volumes which bodes poorly for anyone who wants to read the story instead. Even without being familiar with whatever source material there is it’s clear that some subplots were trimmed down to fit into the movie’s 110 minute running time.
One subplot I didn’t mind being trimmed down, even though I also acknowledge it was a weird choice, was Kumiko’s relationship with her childhood friend, also in the concert band, Suichi. It’s been clear from the start that Suichi likes Kumiko, the movie opens with a scene of him confessing to her, but it’s clear from Kumiko’s reaction that she’s never even considered that Suichi would want to go out with her. That backs up what I remember from the TV series, as while Kumiko is familiar with Suichi (and tends to default into a tsundere-like character around him which she doesn’t do in front of anyone else) she’s always much more interested in spending time with her friends in the brass section or Reina. Heck, there’s much more ship-tease between Kumiko and Reina in the TV series and continuing here in A Brand New Day it seems like the two of them are always the most honest with each other and actively make time to be with each other.
Looking back, the first season of the show almost feels like queer-baiting between the two of them and all of this really highlights just how uninterested Kumiko and the story seems to be about her relationship with Suichi and how much more interested it is in her relationship with her best friend. The movie even resolves this subplot between Kumiko and Suichi in a rather half-hearted way. I am curious what this relationship was like in the source material simply because it comes off as such wishy-washy writing here.
Reina herself has a fair number of scenes in this movie but she takes a backseat to the new first-year students that Kumiko has agreed to help mentor, especially the two new tuba players and the one new euphonium player in the brass section. Having Kumiko take on this leadership role is a great move for her and it highlights that, while she still has a blunt tongue at times, she is aware of how her words come off to others and has decided that she actively wants to change herself. Her moaning over the amount of energy the first-years demand from her is amusing and, while she doesn’t always make the “perfect” choice when it comes to conflicts involving the first-years (many of which continue in a familiar vein for Sound! Euphonium, the conflict between seniority and ability in an environment where not everyone will get to play in the competitions) Kumiko’s actions feel perfectly in line with her character and reasonable for a second-year high school student.
A Brand New Day feels different from the past seasons of Sound! Euphonium due to it’s shorter runtime and compressed pacing and while I prefer the pacing of the show (and believe that it made them stronger) this movie was a satisfying return to the Kitauji high school concert band. Another movie, likely to be the last, focusing on Kumiko’s final year in high school has been announced and if Eleven Arts has another theatrical run for it then I will be sure to show up to that one as well.