The series is based on a novel of the same name by author Ayatachi Takida, and its adaptation into an anime was announced on December 28, 2014, with the broadcast scheduled to begin in April 2015.

Although the story of the original work takes place in the city of Uji in Kyoto Prefecture and the characters speak the local Kyoto dialect (Uji dialect), the television version replaced this dialect with standard Japanese.

The main production team, including the director, made a field visit to real locations such as the Uji River, Mount Butokuzan (Okichiyama), and actual music competition halls to gather reference materials used in drawing and screenplay.

The location of Kyoto Animation's main production studio is near the real places that inspired the work, which made it easier for the staff to go take reference photos when visual materials ran out.

Initially, the characters Kato Hazuki and Kawashima Safaya were designed with different hairstyles (double ponytail and wavy long hair) specifically for the anime, but in the final stage this was reversed and the short hairstyles from the original novel were adopted.

The musical scenes in the work used the 'Freshman Wind Ensemble' composed of first-year students at Senzoku Gakuen Music University, and the performance was intentionally recorded at low quality in the early scenes to depict the progression of a modest school wind ensemble improving over the course of the story.

To avoid confusion between the background music and the sounds of wind instruments that appear frequently in playing scenes, composer Akihito Matsuda composed the background music for the work without using any wooden or brass wind instruments.

In the first episode, a piece from the theme music of the historical television series 'Abarenbō Shogun' rearranged for a wind ensemble was used, but the story required using a version intentionally performed poorly only in that episode, although they also recorded a skilled version assuming 'performance improvement after training' which was included only in the official soundtrack album.

In the music competition in the episodes, the actual performance of a trumpet rivalry competition between a third-year student and a talented first-year student was performed by two different musicians—a university student and a professional musician—to show the real difference in level through actual sound quality.

The work received widespread praise from former school wind ensemble enthusiasts for the realism of its depiction, as critics and specialized magazines noted that the dialogue and scenes accurately reflected the real experiences of wind ensemble members in great detail.

After the series aired, there was an increased demand among school wind ensemble students to choose the euphonium as their first choice of instrument, which was previously considered one of the least popular instruments, becoming one of the most desired instruments.

The number of members in the wind ensemble in the original novel is 81 members, but in the television version this number was changed to 64 members, with a name and personality designed for each member, even those not appearing in the novel.