A good anime OVA: How Hibike! Euphonium gives its side characters a chance to shine

When you look at any of the teasers for Hibike! Euphonium, an anime produced by Kyoto Animation (KyoAni), there are four girls. But viewers will confidently say that of the four advertised girls, only two of them get a chance in the spotlight. While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, I couldn’t help but wish the other girls had some screen time in the show. KyoAni fixes this issue by releasing an OVA.

So first of all, what is an OVA? An OVA stands for “Original Video Animation” according to Google, but its just a label for a special. Your typical anime in 1 cour (season) has 12–13 episodes. But sometimes studios/creators will release an OVA or a few additional episodes that are essentially bonus material and not always relevant to the canon material. Why do people make OVAs? It’s extra content for your favorite show, bonus material on maybe a DVD or Blu-ray sale, just something to sell, or material to keep you interested in between cours.

I recently finished the Nisekoi: OVA series, which adapts some chapters from the manga that aren’t central to the plot. It doesn’t really do much besides remind you that eventually there will be a season 3 and to make fans buy merchandise about magical Nisekoi girls.

If you ever look at how I rate my shows(MyAnimeList), many of my lower scores (5 or 6) are associated with OVAs. I hate OVAs. Sometimes I feel grateful for more material about my favorite anime but I too often feel like its just wasting my time. I feel like I gain nothing from watching them. The recent Nisekoi: OVA is a 4 episode series. Using Nisekoi, an anime that is known for having no progression, is a little biased, but it gets my point across. For clarity: this show is a romantic comedy centering a male protagonist deciding between various girls. It’s a fairly typical genre that anime is famous for.

The Nisekoi OVAs do nothing. They are just fan service and reiterate character interactions. Episode 1 is about the characters spending time at a shrine (for I think New Years). It’s mostly an excuse to show off the girls in yutakas, traditional shrine garbs, and have them do what they always do. Marika attempts to seduce Raku and make tons of physical contact. Onodera continues to act shy and unsure of herself, and misses an opportunity to actually have meaningful interactions with Raku. Tsumugi gets into some unnecessarily close contact with Raku, some joke is made about her body, and then reinforces her position that Chitoge and Raku must be together. Chitoge does tsundere things. And that’s it. Just characters doing their usual antics. I didn’t even look up the synopsis: I’m basing this off my memory of watching the first episode of the OVA in August. But I’m fairly confident I’m right (I then went to rewatch episode 1: the Ruri portion of the episode has Raku at least ponder somewhat about making progress and there is no obvious Tsumugi body joke, though Shuu does take pictures).

Episode 4 continues this tradition. The first half of the episode is about dreams Raku and his harem have about being in husband-wife scenarios. We get to see all the girls as housewives. Marika being shameless/very forward, Tsumugi being a little shier, Onodera not really doing anything but apparently having improved cooking, and for some reason Chitoge being a dog (don’t actually know why, unless they are implying Chitoge is a bitch). The second half is about magical girl Kosaka, where the girls parody magical girl series and…its mostly about them changing into costumes that cover less and less. Pure fan service. Nothing happens. Now, I’m not saying OVAs like this are automatically bad for making no plot progression. It makes fans happy to see their favorite girls in these situations and sometimes seeing more character interactions in general is fun. But I personally have a hard time rating highly an OVA that doesn’t do anything the original show hasn’t done before. I’ve already seen the Nisekoi girls having amusing interactions with Raku (it is actually enjoyable usually to see them together), but I can’t help but want more from a special.

Thankfully, one of my favorite shows, Hibike! Euphonium, released an OVA that did it right. Brief summary of Hibike! Euphonium: it’s a show about a band aiming to compete/qualify for the national competition. The main characters are four girls: Kumiko (main protagonist), Reina (mysterious, talented, and has history with Kumiko), Midori (plays well, mostly supportive friend), and Kazuki (beginner playing Tuba, friend who pines for Kumiko’s childhood friend and is rejected because he likes Kumiko). Now, one of my problems with this show is that Midori and Kazuki, despite being advertised as the other two leads, get no real development.

Here is how Kazuki’s story is in the TV series: beginner, befriends Kumiko and goes on to start playing Tuba. She kind of is a plot device a bit to explain music jargon to viewers who don’t play instruments. She at some point feels disheartened that tuba is hard and she isn’t having fun. Kumiko and Midori jam with her and Kazuki realizes that playing with friends are fun. Festival happens, and she has taken an interest in Tsukamoto, Kumiko’s childhood friend who plays trombone. Kazuki goes with him to the festival after being turned down by Kumiko, and encouraged by Midori (support role), confesses. Tsukamoto, a nice guy and ultimately does make the right decision, rejects Kazuki politely. Poor Kazuki then realizes Tsukamoto likes Kumiko, and supports their relationship. There are auditions for the final qualifying competition (for nationals), and she doesn’t make the cut (is beginner, duh). Continues to help out and support band, but after that she doesn’t really do much.

So yeah our poor Kazuki takes many hits and has to keep supporting the band, which she does stupendously cause she’s super positive. But for a lead character, she didn’t get nearly as much development as Kumiko, Reina, and even secondary characters like Natsuki. But this OVA turns it around.

The OVA follows the adventures of the band members who didn’t make the cut for the audition and takes place around the end of the TV series. It starts with Kazuki and the other rejects (mean name but I’ll use it for convenience) being talked to by their conductor/teacher about taking this time to improve and keep practicing. They all decide to make a group name and they form ways to support the new people. The OVA gets plenty fluffy, having lots of Natsuki and Kazuki interactions and some Midori moments. But no mistake, it’s all about Kazuki. She has a conversation with Tsukamoto, and at first its all awkward because you know he feels bad about rejecting her during their date in the show and she is a little down about it. But they carry her tuba down the stairs together (and Kazuki doesn’t let him carry it, she tells him to support her like a proud, independent girl who don’t need no man). And Kazuki senses how awkward he feels, and essentially tells him “hey, we’re alright. you’re fine, I’m fine.” She clears the air. It really shows off her maturity and her positivity. This is a girl that was quickly relegated to the background in the show, and here she is saying I’m still strong and giving encouragement to others. It also gives context to another scene in the TV series where they are talking again.

She later has a talk with Midori about Tsukamoto and Kumiko, and Kazuki admits she has found love troublesome and has a moment of weakness (sheds a tear). Midori, being touched, encourages her, telling her that she was brave and right for confessing and pursuing her love interest. There’s some arts and craft session (making encouragements for the main band) with the rejects and Kazuki makes Tsukamotos, still not being completely over him. Natsuki notices this, and gives Kazuki some encouragement and a hug, telling her not to have any regrets. These scenes really flesh out Kazuki’s emotional development. It’s not easy getting over rejection and her lingering regret is pretty well resolved thanks to her friends who tell her she did well and that she shouldn’t regret neither the decision nor the outcome. It gives some more dimension to her positivity in the TV series and further emphasizes her stronger character. She’s strong because she puts on the smile despite feeling the sadness. The OVA just adds the additional details the TV series had no time for.

Also to note, there’s a brief scene of Kazuki’s room. This is a staple of KyoAni, who invest so much in the small things. Kazuki’s room is pretty nerdy: some planet posters, a solar system mobile, and lots of cute animals. It adds more details about Kazuki as a person (she’s a bit of a nerd, and there’s also a brief scene where she is having a lightsaber fight with someone in the background). Our titular character, Kumiko, and Tsukamoto finally appear, and Kazuki continues to encourage them and support them (she cleans Kumiko’s outfit and tells Kumiko about hearing her sound and saying that “I know you’ll do fine because I heard and saw how hard you practiced”). Then Kazuki helps Tsukamoto carry things and their conversation is very natural. When Tsukamoto offers to carry a heavy tuba, Kazuki says that she can do it on her own and mentions how she is ready to graduate from being a newbie. She even encourages Tsukamoto to pursue Kumiko with a smile. Without the context given by the OVA beforehand, this would’ve felt so unrealistic for her character to say this.

Later, there are some missing drumsticks, and Kazuki offers to be the one to get it. As she runs, she remembers about how she joined band because it looked super elegant and relaxing. It’s not, but she reiterates that if she had to choose again, she’d join band again and play tuba. As she runs, she shouts about how running this much is nothing and that the lung capacity of a tuba player should not be underestimated. It’s a great sequence to show off her growth as now a musician. She was the necessary beginner role to help explain music jargon to viewers, but this whole sequence really conveys her seriousness about music and her readiness to, again, graduate from being a newbie and her love for music and band. She’s smiling and shouting as she runs and while it’s not as frame heavy as Kumiko’s run in the TV series, you get that same revelation and development atmosphere and feeling watching it. They’re both moments that show the pride these girls have about being musicians. And you would never have gotten that parallel or shared love about Kazuki without this extra episode.

So what did this OVA do? It better explored the emotions around a character that needed it. The OVA told us more about Kazuki, and a little more about Midori and Natsuki too. It gave dimension to Kazuki’s positivity in the main series by showing her sadness and how she rose above it thanks to her friends. That’s an OVA done right. Maybe it’s not plot progression. But it’s character progression and adds so much to my experience. I gave this OVA an 8/10, which might even be too high. The OVA is a tier below the TV series in terms of sound and animation (but the show was already god tier in those categories). There’s nothing wrong with OVAs in general, but I hope I showed how an OVA can truly add to a series beyond fun and fan service.