Now it's Hibike! Euphonium's turn to end:

There are only 300 great artistic franchises represented in '100 Waifus', and in the past few days four of them have ended -- Konosuba, Girls Band Cry, Edens Zero, and now Hibike!.  It's been a whirlwind of emotions.  The final ep of Hibike made me cry in relief, not sadness or happiness, plain relief that their long nightmare of not winning a gold performance review was finally over.  In a way all judged sports are bullshit.  It's obvious Kitauji was always great, but unlike in soccer or baseball there's no objective point score that can establish who won.  It's up to some rando.  And until now Kitauji High was cursed with the wrong randos.

This vindication is the ending the series needed.  They so earned this moment.  This was the perfect ending.  Kumiko becoming a high school band advisor was also the only possible ending for her, nothing else made sense.  It's funny how perfectly she mimicked the hand gestures of Noboru.  I was also impressed with Kyoto Animation doing a closeup of every single member of the concert band, some 50 people.  To construct that many original character designs for such throwaway side characters is an unheard of level of dedication.

Overall I think my ranking of Hibike is correct at #45.  It's one of the only long anime with a proper ending, but a lot of its content is melodramatic and repetitive.  For instance how often Mayu proposed dropping out of the auditions.  Did we really need to have that conversation 10 times?  How many dates do Reina and Kumiko need when they're not even a couple?  #45 is already higher than Sousou no Frieren and only one below Angel Beats, a truly unique and emotional story about the afterlife by Jun Maeda.

Technically Sokushi Cheat now has a bluray release, but the filesize is so bloated it can't be used.  This seems to be the trend.  Since the anime isn't getting a sequel, I may as well read the light novels of this series next.  I need something to do until the Olympics.

One Pace is only one episode away from completely covering One Piece's Wano arc.  It's been a long time coming, so I hope it doesn't take much longer.

As expected Demon Slayer has promised to animate the remainder of the manga, but in the form of three movies, which will probably take a long time to complete.  I don't mind.  This is one of my favorite endings to any manga ever, so it receiving the highest budget and effort possible to adapt is a good thing.  Heck, I like this arc so much I'll probably watch it in theaters.  That is, if they release the Japanese audio version in America. . .