While everyone in the concert band focuses on the upcoming auditions to determine who will make the competing group of 55, Aoi makes a surprising decision that would really upset Haruka.
From the start, Taki wanted to break the status quo and actually make it to nationals after the members voted as a majority on that goal. The performance during Sunfest shows that everyone wants to take nationals seriously now. However, Aoi, Kumiko’s childhood friend decided that she couldn’t handle concert band anymore since it was eating into her entrance exam preparation time that she decided to quit. Unfortunately, Haruka, the club’s president couldn’t handle her decision that she started crying.
For a while now, I have been very curious on why so many serious players quitted the band last year. It seems that the issue has been subtly obvious from the start with some of the members slacking off even with though there is a new advisor. Apparently, the people who just wanted to have fun got into a heated argument with others who are actually serious about nationals that half the freshman quitted as a result. Because of this, it’s easy to see why Haruka became extremely upset and felt that she isn’t fit to be the club’s president. She thought that she could bring both sides together, but it was fruitless.
Moreover, given that Aoi voted against going to nationals in the first episode and knowing that if she practiced more, she would have to commit more time, the writing was already on the wall for her since she already admits that she didn’t enjoy her time in concert band. Given that this is a club activity and not a high school elective that you are stuck with, it’s understandable why she decided to quit in the end. If you don’t have the passion or motivation to play an instrument in concert band, you will most likely not make it to the group that will compete in nationals or improve.
To me, she is better off quitting since it will put fewer burdens on the members who are serious about it. As for me, besides elementary school, I never considered of quitting since I enjoyed playing music no mater how much work I have to put into it.
With Aoi quitting, it seems that Haruka has finally gotten over it and decided to move on now that most of the casual members are weeded out. With that, I wonder who will pass the auditions since it will most likely be the focus of next week’s episode. Will Reina and Kumiko cause a big upset? We’ll see.
Intense stuff this week. Goes to show how valuable Aoi was to the team and how the serious and the easygoing cannot get along most of the time.
Next week…give me strength is it’s not a one-off…
Yep, which is probably why Haruka was emotional and even tried to persuade her to not quit… but it’s bound to happen since the choice of focusing more on entrance exams are more important than competing in nationals as the former is something that will impact her more then latter.