Just got back last night from the English dub screening of Sound! Euphonium The Movie - Our Promise: A Brand New Day
It’s really good, y'all! It took me a little bit to get used to hearing Erica Mendez’s voice coming out of Kumiko Oumae but I warmed to it quickly. I was especially gleeful to hear Christine Marie Cabanos join the cast as the new freshman Euphonium player Kanade Hisaishi. While I was a little sad Cristina Valenzuela didn’t reprise Reina Kousaka, I thought Laura Post did a fine job.
Apparently this story runs basically in parallel to the drama of Liz and the Blue Bird and carries beyond, since both Mizore and Nozomi pass their auditions and are on stage for the final performance and Mizore once again delivers her amazing oboe solo even more impressively than in Liz and the Blue Bird. Neither have speaking parts in this movie but they are there.
The Kumiko x Reina moments in this film are simply precious and worth the price of admission alone. They love each other so much…
My only quibble with the ADR direction is having the characters pronounce the name of their school as “Kita Oooh Gee” which kind of drove me nuts since I know in Japanese it’s much closer to approximately “Kih TAU gee”….why they couldn’t have just gone with that in the dub is beyond me.
Also, before the main feature started there was a 10-minute SUB ONLY recap sequence of Season 1 & 2 highlights which was a little unsettling since it made me wonder if I was actually going to get to watch the dub tonight or were they going to force me to sit through the sub even though I specifically paid for the dub. I didn’t really need the recap since Seasons 1&2 are still fresh in my memory. There’s also a post-credits stinger so be sure to stick around.
All in all I am very happy this movie got an English dub and felt very entertained throughout. The material could definitely have been stretched out to fill a complete 3rd Season but I’m still pleased this film exists. A 3rd season would’ve probably stayed sub-only. By dubbing this movie it adds more weight and social interest in perhaps one day dubbing the whole series, perhaps via Kickstarter. The original season sold like gangbusters so I think they’re leaving money on the table by not dubbing it.
I would definitely watch Liz and the Blue Bird before this movie, because as I stated, the stories run basically on parallel tracks. The actions that conclude in Liz and the Blue Bird must take place someplace only around the midpoint of Our Promise--A Brand New Day.
Mizore's most detailed and realistic character design is in Liz and the Blue Bird, because she is the protagonist of the film and Reina Kousaka and Kumiko Oumae are relegated to being supporting characters in the background. Mizore is the achingly shy oboe player, the only one in the entire band until this year. She's had an on again off again complicated relationship with her friend Nozomi, a flute player, who is a bit of a social butterfly but also kind of, well, flighty and unreliable. In Season 2 we get a lot of backstory with these two. Nozomi's gentle peer pressure is the only reason Mizore joined the band at all, where her hidden talents were allowed to flourish. Then all of a sudden in Middle School, Nozomi quits the band without warning and without telling Mizore. Mizore is very hurt by this betrayal and holds a grudge that stretches well into Season 2 of Sound! Euphonium. Indeed, their reconciliation takes up a lot of the overall action in Season 2, which Kumiko is instrumental in brokering.
Interestingly, Mizore's character design in Our Promise--A Brand New Day goes back to the simpler television version seen in Season 2, probably owing to animation budget constraints, and the fact that she has no actual lines of dialogue and neither does Nozomi. But both are clearly identifiable on stage in the final set piece.
While I do annoy some of my more close minded fellow anime fans on Facebook when I point this out.....this franchise is hella gay...in the best possible ways. In Liz and the Blue Bird part of why Mizore suffers is because of how unequal her relationship is with Nozomi. Nozomi likes Mizore, yes, but no more so than any other casual friend of hers. While Mizore, by the time of Liz and the Blue Bird has gone back to regarding Nozomi as her one and only true friend in the world, without whom she would feel lost and completely alone. It's unhealthy and co-dependent. But also one gets the feeling Mizore doesn't just regard Nozomi as a casual friend....she LOVES her, as in possibly also romantically. And Nozomi doesn't seem to want to reciprocate their friendship at that level of intimacy that Mizore craves. Nozomi doesn't owe Mizore anything, but the two keep failing to have an honest conversation about their feelings until nearly the end of the movie. Mizore feels so very alone and pities herself but initially fails to notice her new Kohai who desperately wants to be friends with her too. Eventually Mizore relents and invites the eager young freshman to a pool party and we see them conversing after, the freshman so very grateful her senpai noticed her and invited her and what a good time she had, etc.
Reina Kousaka has a perhaps unhealthy obsession with Taki-sensei. She's in love with him even if it's taboo and impossible right now. But at the same time her one and only best friend is Kumiko Oumae. Kumiko and Reina are utterly devoted to each other. It's clear their relationship transcends mere friendship...they definitely love each other. And Kumiko clearly and repeatedly really isn't into guys at all, unlike many of her cis het friends. She does go on a few dates in Our Promise--A Brand New Day but only "as a friend". Her heart's not in it. Indeed she gets a look of surprise and nearly disgust when one boy confesses to her in the opening scene and later a boy wants to kiss her and Kumiko reacts violently and angrily to this unwanted advance and runs off into the night crying to find solace by Reina's side. Reina is surprised to see Kumiko but happy in her own reserved way to see her. They meet on the same hillside where they began their friendship in earnest during the series. Reina talks about wanting to go professional but expresses her fears about it because she admits she wants to be with Kumiko forever. They share a bite from the same candy apple Kumiko brought with her from the festival. This is a romantic yuri couple, and this is the closest they've come yet to acknowledging that about themselves. There was even some yuri tension between Kumiko and Asuka-senpai at the end of Season 2 that I did not expect but was pleasantly surprised by. Asuka is another character that you never see with a boyfriend or express any interest in any guy ever.
Asuka-san enjoyed teasing Kumiko all during Seasons 1 & especially 2. But the more Kumiko learned about Asuka's troubled home life the deeper Kumiko's empathy and affection grew towards her senpai. And with Reina being often distracted by Taki-sensei, it's only natural for Kumiko to feel increasing love feelings for Asuka that she finally gives voice to in the concluding finale of Season 2 in a bitter-sweet scene after graduation, where Kumiko confesses "I love you, Asuka-senpai!", her voice nearly cracking. Asuka looks startled and surprised by the love confession but she doesn't reject Kumiko either. She just smiles and accepts her kohai's feelings as valid and is basically like "see you around, kid. and good luck to the band next year!"; I personally think Reina is bisexual but I also believe she's utterly devoted to Kumiko, who is a lesbian. I think Asuka-san is a lesbian as well, but the show never directly states it...it must simply be inferred from context and from absences, from what *isn't* there...no boyfriend, no overt interest in guys, no guys hitting on her, etc. Reina x Kumiko are the OTP of this franchise, but if Reina ever did end up marrying Taki-sensei and Kumiko were heartbroken, I think Asuka would welcome Kumiko into her life with open arms. Reina may low-key be aware and thus does put in the work to stay emotionally close to Kumiko in this newest movie, and indeed deepens the connection. On the other hand, Reina does act strangely clueless at times during this movie....seeming willing to let Kumiko pursue dating guys if that's what she truly wants....as a bisexual girl herself she can't exactly say anything...but doesn't get until later that Kumiko has always been just platonic friends with these band guys and doesn't want a romantic relationship with any of them. I hope one day the franchise will let them acknowledge how much they love each other and and be able to declare that love to the world and be accepted.
This is a really great franchise and I hope that if the dubbed movies above do well the Japanese owners will re-consider and dub the original television series as well. The first season sold so unexpectedly well I think a dub would be surprisingly popular. We can only hope.
Whelp, there I go publishing an essay length anime thing out of the blue....it's been awhile.
