This finale starts out by briefly going through the five days leading up to the nationals. They are days that are filled with more joy and fun than anxiety, dread, or fear. They also include Kumiko, Reina, Hazuki, and Sapphire posing together for the heartwarming photo above.
When Mayu hears Kumiko playing the special piece with which Asuka entrusted her—a song to cheer her up when she’s feeling down—she wants to join in. Not about to be left out, Kanade insist on joining them too. That’s fine with Kumiko. She wants to play it with them, and with everyone. Playing together, making beautiful music together, is what it’s all about.
When the day arrives, both Kumiko and Reina give one hell of a motivational speech before they take the stage. Reina, who has promised to one day confess to Taki-sensei (whom she deems “way too attractive” for her to get jealous whenever other girls notice him), pokes Kumiko later for saying she loves Taki-sensei. For the record, she loves Reina, and everyone in the Kitauji concert band as well.
Kitauji takes the stage, and the ensuing piece, played essentially in its entirety and mostly uninterrupted, serves as both a retrospective of all of the joyful and torrid days of the last three seasons (plus movies) and a culmination of everything that came out of the last three years. All of it led up to this, and every single person on that stage plays their goddamn hearts out.
While Euphonium ripped our hearts out by having Reina vote for Mayu for the soli, it pays off here, as the show is content to give us what we the audience wanted and what the Kitauji kids richly deserve: National Gold, at long last. It is unsurprisingly one of the most emotionally intense cathartic moments in the series’ history, and KyoAni doesn’t skimp on the tearful happy faces once the judges’ decision is handed down.
Now that Oumae Kumiko has successfully presided over a concert band that achieved National Gold, and the celebrations are done, and Reina has gone to America to train with the best, all that’s left is to reveal what Kumiko herself has decided to do. This too is not surprising, but not anti-climatically so. After graduation becomes the assistant advisor for the Kitauji concert band.
She’s embraced the challenge of a constantly-changing roster and the slew of difficulties that comes with advising a band full of teenagers. She knows what it was like to be these kids in this place, in this time of their lives, which makes her well-suited to teaching them.
Oumae-sensei is resplendent in her camisole and practical-yet-stylish open-toed shoes, and of course that bright, confident smile. It’s a smile that gives one confidence the National Gold her band won need not and probably won’t be the last.
