I finished watching Hibike!  I thoroughly enjoyed it, it felt a bit short of a ride thanks to only being 13 episodes long, but it didn't feel super rushed to me either, it's just a different pacing than the first season where many more different things happened I think.

Not going into spoilers or analyses or a bunch of opinions here, just leaving it at that.  Like I mentioned before, this is a series that will definitely benefit from revisiting and I'm looking forward to doing that over time.  The first season of the anime happened =10 years ago=, can you imagine that?  I appreciate that there is so much around these characters, I think it helps you lean into the real feeling of what it's like to go through 3 years (or however many) with the same group, and think about all of the different things that happened.

Kumiko is an incredible character, I really don't think I've really ever seen a character with "strength" portrayed in this way and I think it's something that I'll be thinking about in the future.  Even when I think about "quiet strength" or whatever that I try to embody sometimes I think it's a little different.  There is a part of myself that honestly wonders if she should just be my new role model, ahaha, it's hard not to just look at her and be in awe.  But I'm also not sure that is quite correct for me, either, I'm sure it's easier for me to slot into some other archetype, you know, like Fern or something lol.  Even when I saw Mayu in this season I was like "oh, this seems like the air of someone I could aspire to somehow" hah!  Kumiko's strength is so much more "true", though, I think that's what makes it so inspiring (and rare!).