Sound! Euphonium (light novel‪)‬

A good compliment to the anime

I wanted to read this light novel after I enjoyed the anime so much, and I really enjoyed this book. The pace here is faster and there’s less of the more trivial drama that was in the anime, but listening to the pieces and seeing the characters in the anime made them seem that much more interesting when reading the book.

Some of the main characters seem to be more complex in the book than they were in the anime series, and it was nice to better understand Kumiko’s thoughts and personality. In the anime, she seemed a bit more bland and pushed around by everyone, but here her insecurities are highlighted more and it’s more obvious how she’s starting to grow and change as a person. Conversely, the anime did a better job fleshing out some of the other minor characters, who are sort of glossed over in the book.

The writing style is easy to read and breezy, and the storytelling has a very light, enjoyable pace and cadence. This isn’t deeply raw or emotional, but it does have some nice scenes of insight into the characters’ feelings. Since I tend not to like stories that are too emotionally traumatic, this book was exactly what I wanted to read.

I enjoyed this book a lot, although I think I liked it more because I saw the anime first. However, I can’t wait to read the other books in this series and see how the characters evolve.