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There's also just years and years of slow burn but that didn't fit

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loser (affectionate)

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Is there a film that you guys watched when you were younger that had like a really big effect on you?

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Ronance won the poll so there✨

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Ever since the start of Hibike Euphonium, Asuka has been a character defined by what she doesn’t show us. She puts on an air of being a goofball, an eccentric, someone who’s the life of the party and still capable of doing anything she puts her mind to. She presents herself as the ultimate cool-girl senpai, as the kind of character you’d find in so many Cute Girls Slice of Life anime. But as time goes on, we see that shell start to crack more and more. We start to see her cynicism, her stubbornness, the pain she keeps buried under that bubbly exterior. And in the second season, Kumiko’s journey has been defined by how much she’s started pushing back against Asuka’s false front. Even in the midst of Mizore and Nozomi’s arc, there was still an intense focus on Kumiko and Asuka’s conflict over the matter, and how much of Asuka’s true self slipped through in Kumiko’s attempts to crack her open. To use Reina’s parlance, Kumiko has started trying harder and harder to peel Asuka’s good-girl mask off.

But it’s only in season 2, episode 9, when Kumiko visits Asuka’s house, that Asuka finally drops all the acts and lets her true self speak for the first time. After spending so many episodes pushing and pulling, breaking down each other’s walls, we finally get to see what it looks like with Kumiko and Asuka really, truly talk to each other.

And the result may well be the best episode of the entire fucking show.

Just, holy shit. Holy shit. Everything about this conversation and its fallout is perfect. Finally, we understand the true Asuka hidden beneath all those layers of deflection. The Asuka who feels shackled to her overbearing mother but thinks there’s no way for her to escape. The Asuka who believes it’s her fate to be disappointed and not wish for anything more. The Asuka who fought so hard to follow her father’s dream, who genuinely loved playing his instrument, but struggled against pressure to stop it from the beginning. A girl who’s scared, a girl who feels trapped, a girl who’s still trying to put up false fronts and tell Kumiko she doesn’t resent her mother at all, only for a newly determined Kumiko to reject her lies and force the truth out of her with all the investment she never felt at the start of the show. And Kumiko, embracing her desire to care about something and refusing to let her anxiety cripple her again, lets her true self break through and shine on Asuka right back. A girl who’s come to love playing in band, a girl who cares far too much about this high school club, a girl who doesn’t want to lose the things that matter to her, a girl no longer content to stand on the sidelines and watch the people she loves hurt themselves without helping them. It’s an outpouring of pure, raw emotion, two rock-solid shells crumbling to dust and leaving nothing behind but the bleeding, beating hearts underneath. It’s incredible. It’s stunning. It’s beautiful.

It is so achingly, unbearably human.

And in the aftermath of that outpouring of emotion, Kumiko and Asuka sit on the riverbank. Asuka plays her father’s piece, the title of the show itself, to let Kumiko into her life. She plays for the sheer joy of playing. She plays in pure, pristine silence, surrounded by the soft autumn wind, the dappled light on the countryside, and the quiet ripples of the waves. And folks, I just fucking lost it. A single fucking instrument, playing a single melody, made me break down sobbing. It’s a moment of sheer, unadulterated beauty, a polemic to the wonder and majesty of an ordinary day spent with ordinary people, doing what you love for the simple, unfathomable joy of doing it. It’s a connection that cracks the screen and tethers you to the characters as if your own heart were singing that euphonium’s melody. It is, without question, one of the single most beautiful moments I’ve ever experienced in anime. And it accomplishes it with no giant battle, no dramatic confession, no outpouring of things beyond reality’s comprehension. All it needs is a silent day, a simple song, and two characters who’s story has brought them to a point where only this wordless reverie is enough to express what they’re feeling.

I talk a lot about everything that makes Kyoto Animation so amazing. Their commitment to high-quality animation, their belief in the power of normal life, how they treat their employees fairly and kindly, how committed they are to creating pieces of genuine art that mean far more than just some bargain-bin seasonal show. But nowhere have they accomplished something so human, so honest, so unflinchingly real as Hibike Euphonium. Nowhere else has their portrayal or ordinary life felt so magical, meaningful and massive. Season 1 was already incredible, but in season 2, this show becomes KyoAni’s crowning achievement. This is, without question, one of the greatest anime I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’m so grateful that rewatching it hasn’t dimmed its splendor in my eyes. If anything, it’s only reminded me how amazing it actually was.

I think this is the last episode I’m gonna watch tonight. Let’s be real, there’s no way I’m gonna top that. But thank you all for re-experiencing this masterpiece with me. Let’s make these last four episodes (and two movies) count.

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we as a community do not talk about the parallels between jean and eula enough. two heirs who were rigorously trained from a young age to fulfill all of the expectations of their respective clans to the point where neither of them got to experience a regular childhood? their personalities, goals in life, and perspectives are just so different, but they hold a certain respect for each other despite the rivalry between their clans… i can’t help but figure that they understand each other in a way that none of the other characters do. the way they mirror each other is just *chef’s kiss* and i wish this was touched on more in the game. 

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Fellas this is the first time ever that Eula and Jean have been pictured together in official media, I'm over the fucking moon for them

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I NEED to see eula and jean interactions. the main descendants of the two richest Mondstadt clans coming together in the Knights of Favonius. Eula thinking for the longest time that Jean was her rival. The childhood rivalry between them. Both of them having such a different approach with their families, Jean sacrificing herself to uphold the values of her family vs Eula wanting nothing more than to distance herself from the cruelties of her clan. Such an interesting dynamic that this game probably will never explore.

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@mistyheartrbs sharing her post-canon fic "it was coming all along" on ao3 (which everyone needs to go read now) inspired me to revisit my own post-canon au!

2025 kitauji quartet yayy!!

here's me trying to figure out kumiko's suit for when she conducts at nationals (for the first time! big deal! good for her!!) and also here's kumiko just woken up with bedhead because i'm not sure what her long hair looks like when it's down

and ope i guess kumirei had a sleepover??

thanks for your time; hope to see you again. i'm gonna go read or pass out now

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Honestly they don't even have to get together at this point whatever they got going on is a whole lot gayer

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kyoto animation

kyoani

KYOANI

KYOANI WHEN I GET YOU

KYOANI WHEN I GET YOU I SWEAR

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Today's Uchiha Family groupchat update (based of this)

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pre-shippuden naruto au where everything is the same except after every interaction with sakura, sasuke goes home and does this

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kafhime