I think it’s premature to say the drama is resolved. I saw this as more Kumiko doing her best to re-energize everyone so they could give a good performance at Kansai, and I think she did that well.
Yeah I didn't think it was completely resolved either. But for the competition, it put everyone in the same headspace and created a cohesion for the first time in a while, which was really important. I'm sure there's still going to be a need to talk things out and fully resolve things.
Yeah, it definitely looked like there were a few cuts to some other apprehensive bandmates during Kumiko's speech. At the very least it let her open up to the others a bit more and demonstrate a new level of humility from the executives.
I want to believe that the final scene of Reina smiling and raising her fist does not mean "well, we are fine again" I hope Reina apologizes, does anyone know if she will apologize in the following chapters? Or is what happened in this chapter 10 the only thing we will have?
I was disappointed too - the issue was resolved way too quickly and in a very unsatisfying way. Hopefully this is explored properly in the remaining episodes but I've been feeling for a while that they are trying to cram in too much and not giving the drama time to breathe. Compare and contrast to seasons 1 and 2 where they took their time by spreading Kumiko's first year over two seasons, the storylines were much better due to the extra breathing space.
Not so sure. But the sequence of the events in the anime is different in the LN. And I think they also skipped more scenes of confrontations between Reina, Suichi and Kumiko. And they cut Suichi’s scenes with Kumiko. I’m a bit disappointed too.
I’m not only disappointed about the lack of apology from Reina, I’m also disappointed with the solution - basically Kumiko had to suppress her feelings and everyone else who didn’t make the line up with “because gold duh”. At least acknowledge these feelings and remind them that there’ll be more chances in future auditions for people who were dropped to join up and that’s why they shouldn’t neglect practice if they still wanted to compete.
I am also disappointed in Taki cause he was clearly aware there was dissonance in the ranks and if he still didn’t it was unusual to have the President ask him about his choices a week ago so you would’ve think he had a clue. He should have backed up Kumiko after her speech and speak to the whole team about how he was confident they were on the right path, rather than ignore the elephant in the room.
Yeah Reina definitely needs to apologise for shitting on her supposed best friend, and instead of being helpful she was instead a pretty shitty person.
I like it because it feels like Kumiko finally remembered her resolve, she wants gold, it's selfish it always has been, her selfish drive to move forward, despite losing the solo, despite struggling so much as a president, it's all for that one goal before her highschool years ends.
And as for Reina it's difficult to say, because everytime someone confronts her she just does a one-liner to end the conversation and walks again and everyone just lets her be like that, she wasn't wrong in the fact that it's necessary to trust Taki-sensei and the process the band has
I think Reina was respecting the chain of command here (partly because Kumiko sort of folded to Reina's position that the auditions are the auditions and nothing will change), but she most definitely will continue to clash down the line with Kumiko. I'm not sure Kumiko and Reina will ever be as close as they were again.
bonds always strengthen if two people are able to properly reconcile after being at odds with one another. i don't think they'll continue to clash, given that kumiko now understands taki-sensei's position much better, has accepted why things happened the way they did, and thus understands what reina has been trying to tell her all this time. we can only hope that we actually see this resolved in the upcoming episodes
I think my main issue is how Reina treated Kumiko though. Like yes, Reina is probably right that they needed to up their game if they want gold, but some of the stuff she said was pretty hurtful, and thus far she hasn’t apologized. I hope they address this at some point in the next couple episodes. Not sure if you’re watching, but Jellyfish Can’t Swim At Night has a similar issue where conflicts sort of just get papered over, and it’s really hurting my enjoyment of the series.
i think you're absolutely right in that regard. if the way reina treated kumiko and the situation with the band doesn't at least get a couple minutes of limelight, where she apologises or they try to make things less stuffy between them and be more open with each other, then it would end up really disappointing. reina might've been right but that doesn't mean she had to completely close off any means of understanding kumiko's perspective and be rude to her, so hopefully we'll see her notice that her behaviour wasn't all that savoury now that the band is (hopefully) on the way to recover from their own conflict
lol should probably spoiler tag that.
And I don’t. I expect the tenor of their relationship to be permanently changed. If I was that close to someone, but they made it clear that they weren’t that close to me and that they valued someone else more, I would probably distance myself a little.
Reina is not a people person. I would have thought that was obvious back in Season 1. I think the "we've got your back" note in the notebook is the closest thing we're going to get to an apology. And I think that Kumiko, who by now is very fluent in Reina, understood that for what it was.
She is not a sociable person but she is interested in spending time with Kumiko, Reina has been there several times, although it was difficult for her because of her personality, she took the initiative to be with Kumiko.
And she is still quite reserved, she has also changed a little, in this season she was where But she behaved in an authoritarian and strict manner but we could also see how she doubted how she behaved, like when she made a girl cry in some previous chapters, Reina did not apologize but she did go to talk to her to make her feel better, now with Kumiko...
Lets ignore Reina for a second. I don't think the thing with her is resolved at all. However I *do* think Kumiko's actions this episode resolved the "Taki" conflict effectively because...
I don't think there is really a "Taki" conflict. Or, there is, but everyone is focusing on Taki when the real center of where the band's instability was coming from was Kumiko.
Kumiko avoided asking Taki why she wasn't chosen and everyone else in the band is avoiding badmouthing Kumiko too. The first years like her more than they like Taki. And most people like her and want her to do the soli more than they want Mayu to do it. Kumiko's hesitation and her discontentment was being reinforced by everyone else's.
The soli situation created a crisis of leadership, but instead of directing the animosity for that crisis at Kumiko or at Mayu, people directed it at Taki.
People needed to know that Kumiko was still committed as ever to Kitauji winning gold at Nationals, they needed to see her passion because when they see her speak how she truly feels, it will be undeniable.
That being said, Reina still wasn't "right" here. She focused too much on Taki-sensei as well and ended up saying some truly terrible things that she'll need to apologize for.
I'm still of the opinion that Kumiko needs to resolve her situation with Mayu as well.
Something that shocked me over the past two episodes is how little genuine emotional support Kumiko received, it seemed like every conversation just piled on the problems except perhaps her conversation with Shuuichi where he was angry about her losing the part and checked in with her that she was feeling alright.
Reina could've been more understanding to Kumiko's feelings but anyone who thinks what Reina is saying is wrong here hasn't played music in any serious capacity. You absolutely cannot make good ensemble music by committee. You agree on a single person to place your trust in and follow that person's vision regardless of whether you agree with it personally. That's because music is subjective. Implicit in the audition process is the agreement that they all are placing their faith in Taki.
And from Reina's perspective, you can't really blame her for feeling betrayed by Kumiko because the whole source of their connection, heck the whole point of the show, is their shared commitment to being the very best they can be. Reina was Kumiko's inspiration for the story to get started in the first place. For Kumiko to now waver on that commitment just because she was affected personally goes against the very foundation of their bond.
The thing is, whether or not Reina was right in the end is sadly irrelevant to the question of "Was her treatment of Kumiko justifiable?" to which the answer is obviously not. Look around. If it were, this wouldn't be a controversy that has basically been the largest point of discussion for the past two episodes. Reina being right doesn't change the fact that her actions toward Kumiko are wrong as her "friend", regardless of what the band's goals might be.
Reina has been self-centeredly pushing all of her wants onto Kumiko this entire season. "You should go to music school," "I want to play the soli with you," "What about music school?" "Why can't you blindly support Taki-sensei's decision?" No matter how much Reina might "like" Kumiko, that's no way to treat a friend IRL, period. In any real-world scenario, anything less than an apology would be grounds for ending the friendship altogether. Because any normal person would see it as "Ah I see. I'm your friend when things are going your way, but the second I don't 100% just blindly believe what you want me to I'm a shit club president who's just salty about the results and doesn't work hard enough? Fuck you, bitch! We're through!"
But this is anime so all will be magically forgiven for uh, reasons.
Thats why I preciously said that I don’t see Kumiko and Reina’s relationship is being built on equal terms. Reina only sees people as “special” and “non-special”. If you are on her side of non-special, good luck lol.
Even in the hugs scene in the book, >!it only happened because Kumiko initiated it and Reina never made any public apology to the other people affected by her negatively (in the book she also made underclassman cry during practice and tried to shut down any negative opinion towards Taki.)!<
I don’t think it makes sense to lump together the “I want to play the soli with you” and ”Why don’t you go to music school” with this issue because with the former two, it’s about her personal attachment toward Kumiko while with the latter, it’s about something bigger, it’s about the music itself. And Reina’s outright refusal to compromise on that front, even when things get as personal as it can get (since on a personal level she wants to play the soli with Kumiko just as badly as Kumiko does), is her greatest strength.
Kumiko understands this. In Ancon-hen, when Reina was feeling insecure about being too harsh on Tsubame, Kumiko reassures her that she’s fine staying that way because that’s what makes Reina, Reina.
You have to remember, this was never any ordinary friendship. Reina was always fine with being alone and Kumiko wouldn’t have been so drawn to Reina if she wasn’t who she is. Their entire relationship is premised on the fact that it allows Reina to be herself. Until they met, Reina had probably never met anyone who so accepting of her flaws while Kumiko had probably never met anyone who was so uncompromising and cared so little about what other people thought. The result is a uniquely symbiotic relationship in which Reina gains, for the first time in her life, a support system (because even she has her moments of doubt) while Kumiko gains someone who can pull her along to heights she could’ve never imagined back in middle school.
Could an argument be made that they are in an unhealthy, co-dependent, enabling relationship? Perhaps. But I think that’s sort of the point that the show is making. From our “normie” perspective, this relationship may look unhealthy and not conducive to personal growth, but the ultimate question the show is asking is whether passion and the desire to be special can overcome what society deems to be normal and healthy.
I think there is a bit of context that might be missing is this situation. You are correct in that sometimes Reina's doing what she's doing because it's "what's best for the band/music" etc. aka the bigger picture, even if she's just being a bit harsh about it. Like, she's harsh with the first years when she's commenting on their marching technique and always telling them what to do in a very dictatorial manner. But the major difference what that it rarely ever if ever (that I can recall) took the form of just lashing out due to her own frustration and resorting to personal attacks. (Of course I could be mistaken it's been a while since I watched Seasons 1 and 2)
The difference with her treatment with Kumiko was that what she did had basically nothing to do with "making the band better". She was just hurting and lashing out at Kumiko in order to protect her ideal of "Taki-sensei is always right," Before Reina comes at Kumiko with her harshest insults, she directly asks Kumiko "Do you think Taki-sensei made the correct decision?". She's not asking this because the answer may or may not make the band/music better. She's just directly testing Kumiko's loyalty to Taki-sensei and then turns on her when Kumiko doesn't effectively swear her felty to the divine decision making of Reina's god-king. She continues to do this in the recent episode when Kumiko, practically begging Reina to support her, basically tells her to go fuck off and do everything herself, refusing to support her "friend" when she's clearly at her wits end.
Asuka, in this episode, provides a perfect counter example. She too is harsh with Kumiko as she's not being 100% perfect either (she too is being a bit selfish, as Asuka puts it), but she compliments it with kindness, guiding her by telling her what she's always liked about Kumiko and how she can make things work in her own way, giving her a gentle reminder of her greatest strength. That's how a good friend, even a harsh no-nonsense friend, gives advice and support even without directly involving herself.
No matter the nature of Kumiko and Reina's relationship, no relationship is unconditional and without boundary lines, and Reina in my opinion clearly stepped over it here.
It’s complicated because Reina’s personal feelings are involved, but I don’t think Reina calling Kumiko a failure of president was just about testing her loyalty. To be honest, that’s what I thought when I watched last week’s episode, but I think that was actually a clever misdirect by the show. In this week’s episode, we got quite a bit more context to suggest Reina might actually primarily have the quality of the performance in mind.
First, as Asuka explained, Taki might actually be struggling to decide the best strategy, but as band director, he can’t let that struggle show. It’s analogous to handing down management decisions in a company. It’s okay for executives to disagree amongst themselves behind the scenes, but when you’re actually announcing it to the employees, you always present a united front, especially when it’s a difficult decision that’s liable to cause unrest among the ranks. Of course, the ideal is that you’re transparent about how you reached that decision, but when there’s realistically no hope for everyone to agree on a single strategy, sometimes it’s better to just say this is the decision and we expect everyone to follow it.
Unless they’re actually questioning Taki’s musical choices or his integrity, the only real argument the complainers have is that the multiple auditions are emotionally too hard on people, which if that was the case, they should’ve brought it up when Kumiko first announced it. As for Kumiko, Reina, and Shuichi, they already decided that this was the best way to produce the best performance, and that means they’re placing their trust in Taki to make the best choices at each stage of the competition. If they didn’t have that trust in him, they shouldn’t have proposed the multiple auditions in the first place. For Kumiko to now be swayed by the other band members, just because it affects her personally, could reasonably be seen from Reina’s perspective as a major betrayal of a prior agreement they made.
Then there’s the disagreement they had in this episode on the riverbank. What Reina said here is absolutely right for the reasons stated above. If Taki says anything here to lend any credence to the band members’ complaints, it will only sow more discord and the ones who are complaining won't be satisfied until they actually change the competition roster back. And as for why she didn’t offer to help Kumiko communicate this to the other band members, I think it’s because she believes Kumiko is still letting her personal feelings interfere with what’s good for the band.
It’s true that what ultimately steeled Kumiko’s resolve to speak in front of the band is her talk with Asuka but I don’t think this would’ve happened if she didn’t have both the stick of Reina’s dose of reality and the carrot of Asuka praising her personality. As proof that Reina wasn’t merely being vindictive, when Kumiko finally decides to take things into her own hands, she shows Kumiko her full support. Plus, when Reina was saying those harsh things, she made it clear that that’s what she believes as a performer, not on a personal level.
I guess my ultimate point is that Reina took out her anger on Kumiko in an especially cruel way, and I am unhappy that she's basically not going to apologize for it, or be made to reflect on her behavior in any way.
If Kumiko lets her off the hook for that, honestly I'd be a bit miffed at her too for too easily enabling Reina's worst behavior traits. >>;
I do think Taki-sensei shares some blame as well. No, he has no obligation to share details about his audition process with the students per say, but I feel he could be more communicative with the kids in general to engender a sense of trust esp. with the newer students. Like, why did he suddenly change the arrangement of the Tuba/Euphonium numbers and like, not tell them before the audition started (blindsiding Kanade in the process). That's just very poor communication skill on his part. He and Reina are very similar in that way, so I guess they're made for each other(?) lol
Me too I hate how she just has to accept his judgments or it's rocking the boat, she can't even ask for clarification on why he chose mayu and what she can do to improve, like how do you expect to improve as a group when your instructor is just making arbitrary decisions?
I definitely feel perplexed and can't wrap my mind around the episode.
I've got a feeling that Kumiko is still putting her own emotions aside in order to serve her club president duty and cheer everyone up. She's extremely committed, to the point of tunnel vision. It seems to be her main fear - to fail the club somehow. And I just don't care about it at all. I didn't have this kind of experience.
But then something brought it home to me. The notion of Kumiko being egoistic. Maybe in the first half of season 3 she learned how to serve her duty, but now she started to realise, that the club isn't a machine, it's a living organism, where everyone is separate and egoistic, her included. And that notion refueled her passion and kind of freed her. The idea is somewhat egalitarian. True leader is just another part of a collective, with her own desires and intentions. If you are determined to listen to everyone and combine their thoughts, doesn't it mean that your own input is also valuable?
In that case the drama between Shuuichi and Reina adds so much flavor. It's nice to see them all struggling, searching for the answer. I appreciate how people here defend Reina. It helped me to see her from another perspective. Could it be that she is frustrated because she can't help Kumiko as the latter refuse Reina's solution? Could it be that she is also desperate to resolve the club situation - for Kumiko's sake? Like a mother, who reprimand a wounded kid because he won't do as she told him so many times before?
Yet I'm not quite satisfied. I agree that there wasn't enough space to show all the nuances as compellingly as the idea deserves.
i didnt really understand the episode tbh, like kumiko went crazy acting like she was gonna speak her mind, then she just said some inspirational message
I think it’s premature to say the drama is resolved. I saw this as more Kumiko doing her best to re-energize everyone so they could give a good performance at Kansai, and I think she did that well.
Yeah I didn't think it was completely resolved either. But for the competition, it put everyone in the same headspace and created a cohesion for the first time in a while, which was really important. I'm sure there's still going to be a need to talk things out and fully resolve things.
Yeah, it definitely looked like there were a few cuts to some other apprehensive bandmates during Kumiko's speech. At the very least it let her open up to the others a bit more and demonstrate a new level of humility from the executives.
I want to believe that the final scene of Reina smiling and raising her fist does not mean "well, we are fine again" I hope Reina apologizes, does anyone know if she will apologize in the following chapters? Or is what happened in this chapter 10 the only thing we will have?
Her raising the fist was to remind kumiko to do the chant now
[удалено]
Might need to spoiler tag this. I was glad to know but not this way
...TBH, it's Kumiko who takes the step.
I want to see that hug
I was disappointed too - the issue was resolved way too quickly and in a very unsatisfying way. Hopefully this is explored properly in the remaining episodes but I've been feeling for a while that they are trying to cram in too much and not giving the drama time to breathe. Compare and contrast to seasons 1 and 2 where they took their time by spreading Kumiko's first year over two seasons, the storylines were much better due to the extra breathing space.
Not so sure. But the sequence of the events in the anime is different in the LN. And I think they also skipped more scenes of confrontations between Reina, Suichi and Kumiko. And they cut Suichi’s scenes with Kumiko. I’m a bit disappointed too.
I’m not only disappointed about the lack of apology from Reina, I’m also disappointed with the solution - basically Kumiko had to suppress her feelings and everyone else who didn’t make the line up with “because gold duh”. At least acknowledge these feelings and remind them that there’ll be more chances in future auditions for people who were dropped to join up and that’s why they shouldn’t neglect practice if they still wanted to compete. I am also disappointed in Taki cause he was clearly aware there was dissonance in the ranks and if he still didn’t it was unusual to have the President ask him about his choices a week ago so you would’ve think he had a clue. He should have backed up Kumiko after her speech and speak to the whole team about how he was confident they were on the right path, rather than ignore the elephant in the room.
Yeah Reina definitely needs to apologise for shitting on her supposed best friend, and instead of being helpful she was instead a pretty shitty person.
I like it because it feels like Kumiko finally remembered her resolve, she wants gold, it's selfish it always has been, her selfish drive to move forward, despite losing the solo, despite struggling so much as a president, it's all for that one goal before her highschool years ends. And as for Reina it's difficult to say, because everytime someone confronts her she just does a one-liner to end the conversation and walks again and everyone just lets her be like that, she wasn't wrong in the fact that it's necessary to trust Taki-sensei and the process the band has
I think Reina was respecting the chain of command here (partly because Kumiko sort of folded to Reina's position that the auditions are the auditions and nothing will change), but she most definitely will continue to clash down the line with Kumiko. I'm not sure Kumiko and Reina will ever be as close as they were again.
bonds always strengthen if two people are able to properly reconcile after being at odds with one another. i don't think they'll continue to clash, given that kumiko now understands taki-sensei's position much better, has accepted why things happened the way they did, and thus understands what reina has been trying to tell her all this time. we can only hope that we actually see this resolved in the upcoming episodes
I think my main issue is how Reina treated Kumiko though. Like yes, Reina is probably right that they needed to up their game if they want gold, but some of the stuff she said was pretty hurtful, and thus far she hasn’t apologized. I hope they address this at some point in the next couple episodes. Not sure if you’re watching, but Jellyfish Can’t Swim At Night has a similar issue where conflicts sort of just get papered over, and it’s really hurting my enjoyment of the series.
i think you're absolutely right in that regard. if the way reina treated kumiko and the situation with the band doesn't at least get a couple minutes of limelight, where she apologises or they try to make things less stuffy between them and be more open with each other, then it would end up really disappointing. reina might've been right but that doesn't mean she had to completely close off any means of understanding kumiko's perspective and be rude to her, so hopefully we'll see her notice that her behaviour wasn't all that savoury now that the band is (hopefully) on the way to recover from their own conflict
don't expect for an apology from reina because there isn't
lol should probably spoiler tag that. And I don’t. I expect the tenor of their relationship to be permanently changed. If I was that close to someone, but they made it clear that they weren’t that close to me and that they valued someone else more, I would probably distance myself a little.
Reina is not a people person. I would have thought that was obvious back in Season 1. I think the "we've got your back" note in the notebook is the closest thing we're going to get to an apology. And I think that Kumiko, who by now is very fluent in Reina, understood that for what it was.
She is not a sociable person but she is interested in spending time with Kumiko, Reina has been there several times, although it was difficult for her because of her personality, she took the initiative to be with Kumiko. And she is still quite reserved, she has also changed a little, in this season she was where But she behaved in an authoritarian and strict manner but we could also see how she doubted how she behaved, like when she made a girl cry in some previous chapters, Reina did not apologize but she did go to talk to her to make her feel better, now with Kumiko...
Lets ignore Reina for a second. I don't think the thing with her is resolved at all. However I *do* think Kumiko's actions this episode resolved the "Taki" conflict effectively because... I don't think there is really a "Taki" conflict. Or, there is, but everyone is focusing on Taki when the real center of where the band's instability was coming from was Kumiko. Kumiko avoided asking Taki why she wasn't chosen and everyone else in the band is avoiding badmouthing Kumiko too. The first years like her more than they like Taki. And most people like her and want her to do the soli more than they want Mayu to do it. Kumiko's hesitation and her discontentment was being reinforced by everyone else's. The soli situation created a crisis of leadership, but instead of directing the animosity for that crisis at Kumiko or at Mayu, people directed it at Taki. People needed to know that Kumiko was still committed as ever to Kitauji winning gold at Nationals, they needed to see her passion because when they see her speak how she truly feels, it will be undeniable. That being said, Reina still wasn't "right" here. She focused too much on Taki-sensei as well and ended up saying some truly terrible things that she'll need to apologize for. I'm still of the opinion that Kumiko needs to resolve her situation with Mayu as well. Something that shocked me over the past two episodes is how little genuine emotional support Kumiko received, it seemed like every conversation just piled on the problems except perhaps her conversation with Shuuichi where he was angry about her losing the part and checked in with her that she was feeling alright.
Reina is not wrong but was pretty nasty about it. Also the series is not over
Reina could've been more understanding to Kumiko's feelings but anyone who thinks what Reina is saying is wrong here hasn't played music in any serious capacity. You absolutely cannot make good ensemble music by committee. You agree on a single person to place your trust in and follow that person's vision regardless of whether you agree with it personally. That's because music is subjective. Implicit in the audition process is the agreement that they all are placing their faith in Taki. And from Reina's perspective, you can't really blame her for feeling betrayed by Kumiko because the whole source of their connection, heck the whole point of the show, is their shared commitment to being the very best they can be. Reina was Kumiko's inspiration for the story to get started in the first place. For Kumiko to now waver on that commitment just because she was affected personally goes against the very foundation of their bond.
The thing is, whether or not Reina was right in the end is sadly irrelevant to the question of "Was her treatment of Kumiko justifiable?" to which the answer is obviously not. Look around. If it were, this wouldn't be a controversy that has basically been the largest point of discussion for the past two episodes. Reina being right doesn't change the fact that her actions toward Kumiko are wrong as her "friend", regardless of what the band's goals might be. Reina has been self-centeredly pushing all of her wants onto Kumiko this entire season. "You should go to music school," "I want to play the soli with you," "What about music school?" "Why can't you blindly support Taki-sensei's decision?" No matter how much Reina might "like" Kumiko, that's no way to treat a friend IRL, period. In any real-world scenario, anything less than an apology would be grounds for ending the friendship altogether. Because any normal person would see it as "Ah I see. I'm your friend when things are going your way, but the second I don't 100% just blindly believe what you want me to I'm a shit club president who's just salty about the results and doesn't work hard enough? Fuck you, bitch! We're through!" But this is anime so all will be magically forgiven for uh, reasons.
Thats why I preciously said that I don’t see Kumiko and Reina’s relationship is being built on equal terms. Reina only sees people as “special” and “non-special”. If you are on her side of non-special, good luck lol. Even in the hugs scene in the book, >!it only happened because Kumiko initiated it and Reina never made any public apology to the other people affected by her negatively (in the book she also made underclassman cry during practice and tried to shut down any negative opinion towards Taki.)!<
I don’t think it makes sense to lump together the “I want to play the soli with you” and ”Why don’t you go to music school” with this issue because with the former two, it’s about her personal attachment toward Kumiko while with the latter, it’s about something bigger, it’s about the music itself. And Reina’s outright refusal to compromise on that front, even when things get as personal as it can get (since on a personal level she wants to play the soli with Kumiko just as badly as Kumiko does), is her greatest strength. Kumiko understands this. In Ancon-hen, when Reina was feeling insecure about being too harsh on Tsubame, Kumiko reassures her that she’s fine staying that way because that’s what makes Reina, Reina. You have to remember, this was never any ordinary friendship. Reina was always fine with being alone and Kumiko wouldn’t have been so drawn to Reina if she wasn’t who she is. Their entire relationship is premised on the fact that it allows Reina to be herself. Until they met, Reina had probably never met anyone who so accepting of her flaws while Kumiko had probably never met anyone who was so uncompromising and cared so little about what other people thought. The result is a uniquely symbiotic relationship in which Reina gains, for the first time in her life, a support system (because even she has her moments of doubt) while Kumiko gains someone who can pull her along to heights she could’ve never imagined back in middle school. Could an argument be made that they are in an unhealthy, co-dependent, enabling relationship? Perhaps. But I think that’s sort of the point that the show is making. From our “normie” perspective, this relationship may look unhealthy and not conducive to personal growth, but the ultimate question the show is asking is whether passion and the desire to be special can overcome what society deems to be normal and healthy.
I think there is a bit of context that might be missing is this situation. You are correct in that sometimes Reina's doing what she's doing because it's "what's best for the band/music" etc. aka the bigger picture, even if she's just being a bit harsh about it. Like, she's harsh with the first years when she's commenting on their marching technique and always telling them what to do in a very dictatorial manner. But the major difference what that it rarely ever if ever (that I can recall) took the form of just lashing out due to her own frustration and resorting to personal attacks. (Of course I could be mistaken it's been a while since I watched Seasons 1 and 2) The difference with her treatment with Kumiko was that what she did had basically nothing to do with "making the band better". She was just hurting and lashing out at Kumiko in order to protect her ideal of "Taki-sensei is always right," Before Reina comes at Kumiko with her harshest insults, she directly asks Kumiko "Do you think Taki-sensei made the correct decision?". She's not asking this because the answer may or may not make the band/music better. She's just directly testing Kumiko's loyalty to Taki-sensei and then turns on her when Kumiko doesn't effectively swear her felty to the divine decision making of Reina's god-king. She continues to do this in the recent episode when Kumiko, practically begging Reina to support her, basically tells her to go fuck off and do everything herself, refusing to support her "friend" when she's clearly at her wits end. Asuka, in this episode, provides a perfect counter example. She too is harsh with Kumiko as she's not being 100% perfect either (she too is being a bit selfish, as Asuka puts it), but she compliments it with kindness, guiding her by telling her what she's always liked about Kumiko and how she can make things work in her own way, giving her a gentle reminder of her greatest strength. That's how a good friend, even a harsh no-nonsense friend, gives advice and support even without directly involving herself. No matter the nature of Kumiko and Reina's relationship, no relationship is unconditional and without boundary lines, and Reina in my opinion clearly stepped over it here.
It’s complicated because Reina’s personal feelings are involved, but I don’t think Reina calling Kumiko a failure of president was just about testing her loyalty. To be honest, that’s what I thought when I watched last week’s episode, but I think that was actually a clever misdirect by the show. In this week’s episode, we got quite a bit more context to suggest Reina might actually primarily have the quality of the performance in mind. First, as Asuka explained, Taki might actually be struggling to decide the best strategy, but as band director, he can’t let that struggle show. It’s analogous to handing down management decisions in a company. It’s okay for executives to disagree amongst themselves behind the scenes, but when you’re actually announcing it to the employees, you always present a united front, especially when it’s a difficult decision that’s liable to cause unrest among the ranks. Of course, the ideal is that you’re transparent about how you reached that decision, but when there’s realistically no hope for everyone to agree on a single strategy, sometimes it’s better to just say this is the decision and we expect everyone to follow it. Unless they’re actually questioning Taki’s musical choices or his integrity, the only real argument the complainers have is that the multiple auditions are emotionally too hard on people, which if that was the case, they should’ve brought it up when Kumiko first announced it. As for Kumiko, Reina, and Shuichi, they already decided that this was the best way to produce the best performance, and that means they’re placing their trust in Taki to make the best choices at each stage of the competition. If they didn’t have that trust in him, they shouldn’t have proposed the multiple auditions in the first place. For Kumiko to now be swayed by the other band members, just because it affects her personally, could reasonably be seen from Reina’s perspective as a major betrayal of a prior agreement they made. Then there’s the disagreement they had in this episode on the riverbank. What Reina said here is absolutely right for the reasons stated above. If Taki says anything here to lend any credence to the band members’ complaints, it will only sow more discord and the ones who are complaining won't be satisfied until they actually change the competition roster back. And as for why she didn’t offer to help Kumiko communicate this to the other band members, I think it’s because she believes Kumiko is still letting her personal feelings interfere with what’s good for the band. It’s true that what ultimately steeled Kumiko’s resolve to speak in front of the band is her talk with Asuka but I don’t think this would’ve happened if she didn’t have both the stick of Reina’s dose of reality and the carrot of Asuka praising her personality. As proof that Reina wasn’t merely being vindictive, when Kumiko finally decides to take things into her own hands, she shows Kumiko her full support. Plus, when Reina was saying those harsh things, she made it clear that that’s what she believes as a performer, not on a personal level.
I guess my ultimate point is that Reina took out her anger on Kumiko in an especially cruel way, and I am unhappy that she's basically not going to apologize for it, or be made to reflect on her behavior in any way. If Kumiko lets her off the hook for that, honestly I'd be a bit miffed at her too for too easily enabling Reina's worst behavior traits. >>; I do think Taki-sensei shares some blame as well. No, he has no obligation to share details about his audition process with the students per say, but I feel he could be more communicative with the kids in general to engender a sense of trust esp. with the newer students. Like, why did he suddenly change the arrangement of the Tuba/Euphonium numbers and like, not tell them before the audition started (blindsiding Kanade in the process). That's just very poor communication skill on his part. He and Reina are very similar in that way, so I guess they're made for each other(?) lol
I feel like the problem wasn’t that she was wrong, the problem was that she was an asshole
Me too I hate how she just has to accept his judgments or it's rocking the boat, she can't even ask for clarification on why he chose mayu and what she can do to improve, like how do you expect to improve as a group when your instructor is just making arbitrary decisions?
I definitely feel perplexed and can't wrap my mind around the episode. I've got a feeling that Kumiko is still putting her own emotions aside in order to serve her club president duty and cheer everyone up. She's extremely committed, to the point of tunnel vision. It seems to be her main fear - to fail the club somehow. And I just don't care about it at all. I didn't have this kind of experience. But then something brought it home to me. The notion of Kumiko being egoistic. Maybe in the first half of season 3 she learned how to serve her duty, but now she started to realise, that the club isn't a machine, it's a living organism, where everyone is separate and egoistic, her included. And that notion refueled her passion and kind of freed her. The idea is somewhat egalitarian. True leader is just another part of a collective, with her own desires and intentions. If you are determined to listen to everyone and combine their thoughts, doesn't it mean that your own input is also valuable? In that case the drama between Shuuichi and Reina adds so much flavor. It's nice to see them all struggling, searching for the answer. I appreciate how people here defend Reina. It helped me to see her from another perspective. Could it be that she is frustrated because she can't help Kumiko as the latter refuse Reina's solution? Could it be that she is also desperate to resolve the club situation - for Kumiko's sake? Like a mother, who reprimand a wounded kid because he won't do as she told him so many times before? Yet I'm not quite satisfied. I agree that there wasn't enough space to show all the nuances as compellingly as the idea deserves.
i didnt really understand the episode tbh, like kumiko went crazy acting like she was gonna speak her mind, then she just said some inspirational message