Ragashingo

Episode Summary:

After the briefest of recaps, where Miku again worries about Hibiki, we jump right back into the action of Chris vs Hibiki. We learn that Hibiki’s punch from the end of the last episode packed nearly as much power as Tsubasa’s superb song. Chris’ armor is even struggling to regenerate after taking the single hit. Chris and Hibiki trade a couple more blows before Chris realizes she isn’t getting anywhere. The Nehushtan armor isn’t powerful enough to defeat Hibiki. But Chris has another surprise in store. She explosively ditches the Nehushtan armor and then sings out in the familiar chant of someone activating a symphogear. When the dust clears, we find that Chris somehow has Ichi-bal, a relic stolen from second division some ten years before.

After complaining that she hates singing, Chris breaks out into a harsh set of rock lyrics as she unleashes a rather awe inspiring wave of firepower at Hibiki. All Hibiki can do is run as Chris opens fire with energy crossbows, giant twined double gattling guns, and racks full of micro missiles. But, as the explosions fade, Chris is surprised to find that her attacks were blocked by a large wall of silver and blue metal. “A shield?” she wonders. “A sword.” Tsubasa answers from out of nowhere, standing heroically atop one of her giant Heaven’s Wrath blades. Tsubasa then looks back to the recovering Hibiki and says the words we thought we might never hear. “I need your help.”

Tsubasa leaps down and confronts Chris in close combat, but a flight of Noise attack before she and Hibiki can subdue the troubled girl. Except, they don’t go after Hibiki or Tsubasa this time. Instead, they target a surprised Chris who is only saved thanks to Hibiki’s reckless interference. And here, for the first time in the open, is Finè. She tells Chris she has no further use for her then collects the pieces of the discarded Nehushtan armor and leaves with a distraught Chis chasing after her. Back at Second Division headquarters, we learn that Chris Yukine is a girl who went missing two years ago after having been rescued from a war in South America.

Tsubasa returns to Second Division for the first time since her nearly fatal superb song. While it’s clear that she is still struggling with moving on from Kanade’s death, she is now at least willing to put in the effort to help Hibiki out as a partner instead of an unwelcome replacement.

Hibiki returns to her dorm room where Miku is waiting for her. Miku isn’t just angry with her. She is cold towards Hibiki and is barely willing to talk to her at all. After one short, angry outburst, Miku goes to bed… but chooses to use the normally unused bottom bunk. Things are not looking good at all between Hibiki and Miku.

We then turn to Chris who has apparently been wandering alone through the city all evening. She’s struggling with Hibiki’s claim that people can learn to understand each other if they are just willing to talk. Chris comes across a young brother and sister who have become separated from their father. Surprisingly, Chris helps the pair look for their parent and at one point the little girl she is escorting catches her humming a little tune. But, when asked about it, Chris again states that she hates singing. The three find the children’s father who thanks Chris for her help. When Chris asks the kids how they can get along so well, they tell her sometimes they don’t. But, after they fight they make up and get along again. This seems to give Chris something new to think about.

That night, we see Ryoko dictating some notes to herself about the capabilities and limitations of the Symphogear system. She starts by talking about the things we know about them: That they empower their users but can end up killing them especially when their users use the superb song ultimate attack. She goes on to talk about how Hibiki may be the one Symphogear users who can resist the dangers of the Symphogear thanks to being a fusion of a normal human and a relic. And how this unique fusion even let Hibiki activate Durandal. But, then Ryoko beings talking about how Hibiki could be the proof that humanity is breaking free of some kind of ancient curse put on it by “The Custodians” and might be able to regain control of its fate.

Back at school, Miku is still not talking to Hibiki. When the two’s friends try to help, Miku runs off. When Hibiki catches up to her, Miku apologizes for the way she has been acting, but it’s not a real apology. Instead, Miku tells Hibiki she was so hurt by Hibiki’s actions that she doesn’t think they can remain friends any longer and departs leaving a devasted Hibiki alone on the school roof.

Finally, at the very end, we see Chris return to Finè only to be completely betrayed. Not only does Finè deploy noise to attack Chris, she cruelly attacks Chris’ worldview of using power to stop the powerful from waging war. Chris makes a run for it, but it is unclear whether she will survive!

Episode Impressions: 

I liked this episode a lot. Not only did we get a cool fight sequence with Chris showing her true power, we also got to see the show start to pay off several of the story threads it has been setting up. We got a big turning point for Tsubasa, a big change in Hibiki and Miku’s strained friendship, and I think we’re beginning to see Chris question her own past actions.

This is where I was hoping the show would start to go after building and building the tension between characters for the past several episodes.

Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Chris’s rock/metal Symphogear attack names. Billion Maiden? Mega Death Party? It seems like all of Chris’ attacks are partially named after famous bands. Plus, they look awesome. Those quad miniguns are especially cool!

Tsubasa finally admitting that she needs Hibiki’s help. This one has been a long time coming! Along with it was Tsubasa’s acknowledgement that Chris needed to be treated as something other than an enemy. That trying to kill her was not the correct strategy. By relaxing her rage, Tsubasa was able to fight better and see things clearer.

Getting to see a non-evil side of Chris. She was conflicted and confused after her fight with Hibiki, but she still took it upon herself to help some lost kids find their dad. Chris seems to be something of a kind, decent person when she is apart from Finè.

Songs In This Episode: 

Makyuu Ichaival (Ichaival, the Magic Bow) – Where Hibiki’s songs have been mostly about hope and moving forward, and Tsubasa’s has been about her grief giving her power, Chris’ song is much more harsh and is filled with despair and anger. She sings about ripping out her proverbial wounds in order to forget her past. She sings about how she is someone who can’t be relied on. She sings about how she can’t trust adults and how she has never known their love. At one points she sings something like: “How can you believe in adults like that? I have never never never never known their love!” Yes, this is a song of anger and mistrust and anguish. There’s a thin sliver of a wish to be loved buried in there, but it is almost entirely drowned out by the rest of the lyrics.

Watashi to Iu Oto Hibiki Sono Saki ni (The Sound Called Me Resonates Beyond) – We continue this song at the beginning of the episode, but it soon gives way to Chris’. Nothing new here, I don’t think.

Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Ame no Habakiri, the Ultimate Blade) – Same with Tsubasa’s song. Nothing new. But, wow, it sure was nice hearing it start up as we saw Tsubasa had saved the day!

Themes In This Episode: 

Similar to the end of last episode, we again see Hibiki attempt to talk to Chris rather than fight her. We aren’t noise, we can talk and so we can understand each other, Hibiki reasons. It’s a very interesting mindset when it seems like Hibiki could defeat Chris in battle if she just kept at it. But, Hibiki’s goal isn’t to defeat Chris, it is to help Chris even as they fight.

Tsubasa’s homecoming to Second Division is pretty neat. She is now able to think back fondly to Kanade’s words about being flexible like reeds that bend against a strong wind. Her friend’s encouragement even jumps into her mind as Tsubasa continues to struggle a bit with finding her own way beyond the fighting. What was it that Tsubasa used to love doing?

We again hear a bit about Chris’ true goals. She yells to Finè that she can extinguish the flames of war on her own with her own strength. We know Chris is being heavily used and manipulated. Has Finè tricked Chris into thinking she can put a stop to wars through violence? Finè pretty much confirms this at the end when she tells Chris that trying to stop war with violence is foolish because it will just spark more war. We heard through Chris’ song how angry and hurt she is… but she is still someone trying to prevent war? I think we’re being shown that there is more to Chris than just being an evil lackey for Finè.

Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Episode Summary:

We start this episode off from Chris’ point of view. We find out that something really bad happened to her when she was a child. There was an explosion or attack that seemed to have killed her parents. Then Chris appears to have been captured and maybe even put into slavery / human trafficking! And, somehow, Finé, the woman who is using and abusing Chris, must have taken her in. But now, Finé is after Hibiki, and Chris is afraid Finé will abandon her and she will be alone again if she doesn’t capture the new Symphogear user. Chris says she can get the job done but she wants to use her own power, not the power of the Noise and Solomon’s Cane.

Back at the hospital, Tsubasa is starting to recover from her near death experience. She is up and walking again. It also seems that her revelation about looking beyond the need to fight stuck with her outside of her dream.

Hibiki is doing some reflecting, too. She is worried about how easily she attacked Chris with Durandal’s power. She and Miku share a moment where Miku notes how buff Hibiki is getting after their post run bath. The two plan to go to lunch later.

Back at headquarters, there is a lot of discussion about the defense minister’s death. In some ways, it is a setback because he was friendly to 2nd Division, but in others, he often shielded them from scrutiny, but that also meant they couldn’t get the funding they needed. The new defense minister seems more willing to fund 2nd Division, but in return their activities will be more closely watched. Interestingly, the new defense minister is more closely allied with the Americans.

Later, Ogawa calls Hibiki and ask her to check in on Tsubasa. This again puts Hibiki at odds with Miku who wanted them to spend time together. When Hibiki makes it to Tsubasa’s hospital room she finds it a complete mess. Turns out it was Ogawa who usually cleaned it up for Tsubasa… much to Tsubasa’s embarrassment.

Hibiki and Tsubasa talk in Tsubasa room and on the roof of the hospital. They talk about why they fight as Symphogear users. For Hibiki, it’s something that she laughs off, but eventually she admits that it’s because Kanade saved her two years ago. For Tusbasa, it almost seems like she is trying to help people but while looking for a way to die. To escape the pain of everything and everyone she’s lost.

Hibiki comes away from their talk encouraged and heads off to Flowers restaurant to meet with Miku. She sees Miku along the way but Chris suddenly appears and attacks, forcing Hibiki to transform in front of Miku in order to save her. With barely an apology, Hibiki rushes off to try and stop Chris, leaving Miku behind to worry about their battle.

Episode Impressions: 

This episode was a little exposition heavy, but that’s not all bad. The talk between Tsubasa and Hibiki appears to show that Tsubasa has finally begun to accept Hibiki as a Symphogear user. That Tusbasa is now trying to help Hibiki, if only to help her avoid falling into the unhappy life of a warrior, is something new. That’s a pretty big turning point for Tusbasa, even if she might not be fully supporting Hibiki yet.

If anything, I think this is another one of those episodes that did the necessary work of setting up that our characters are changing. Hibiki is now able to admit why she fights. Tusbasa is now looking beyond the fighting. Even Chris now has a real reason for why she fights, even if we don’t know all of it yet. If the next episode starts paying off these changes then we’ll be in a good place.

Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Hibiki declaration of what she wants to do when she sees someone in trouble. Moving as quickly, shortly, and directly as possible to help people is pretty much what Hibiki is all about!

Hibiki’s battle with Chris. Hibiki is doing as well or perhaps even better than battle hardened Tsubasa at this point in the battle. We’ll have to see if that holds up next episode.

Songs In This Episode: 

Watashi to Iu Oto Hibiki Sono Saki ni (The Sound Called Me Resonates Beyond) – Now here is an interesting song! Interesting because we’ve both have and haven’t heard it before! This is Hibiki singing her version of Kanade’s final song! This new version is definitely Hibiki’s. It is much more hopeful, even as Hibiki sings about her own stumbles. The key difference between the two is that where Kanade sung:

We might have met in order to not forget the light
The sound called ‘you’ plays until it burns out
I am by your side, so sing out with us

Hibiki instead sings:

Maybe that’s why we were brought together
The sound called me resonates beyond
Sing your kindness, sing out with us

It gives me chills thinking about how Hibiki is the echo that rippled out beyond the end of Kanade’s life! Pretty cool then that “Hibiki” means “Echo” among other things in Japanese. Kanade burnt out her life to save Hibiki, now Hibiki is able to embrace her life and save many, many others.

Themes In This Episode: 

This episode is fairly theme heavy even though not a ton really happened:

– We return to the theme of self sacrifice. Tusbasa is pretty insistent that Hibiki not fight just to find a way to hide the guilt and pain that comes with losing people. It’s unspoken, but Tsubasa is very clearly talking about herself. She felt it was her duty to endlessly fight and fight. To protect people. But really, she was fighting knowing… hoping even… that she would come across a battle that would be too much for her so that she could die and be free of her pains of loss. Tsubasa was too proud to break down and admit her feelings, so dying honorably against an overwhelming enemy force was her only hope of ending the grief she felt over Kanade’s death.

– But, we also have some small indications that Tsubasa is looking for the world beyond fighting. Tsubasa’s near death does seem to have changed her outlook on the world. I think she is just barely understanding that herself, but I’m hopeful that she’ll continue to move forward with her life. She’s been stuck as nothing but a warrior and “sword” for so long, it’s nice that she might see herself as a person soon.

– We finally hear more about why Hibiki really want to help people. Previously she said it was so she could return to her own normal life. But now, we go deeper and learn that Hibiki feels a responsibility to Kanade. Hibiki knows she should have died at the concert two years before, so she wants to justify her survival (and Kanade’s death saving her) by helping save everyone she can in return. In some ways, Hibiki’s reasoning is still based in guilt, but I see hers as a bit better than Tsubasa’s has been. The difference is… Hibiki isn’t filled with grief and has not resigned herself to die.

– There’s also a moment where Tsubasa asks Hibiki what she thinks about when she is fighting. Hibiki answers that she wants to help people by taking the quickest, shortest, most direct route to saving them. Hibiki’s no nonsense, no thought about the dangers way of thinking is one huge aspect of her character. We see it a second time this episode at the end where Hibiki “helps” Chris with a Fast. Short. Straight. Direct. punch to the gut!

– We get good confirmation that Hibiki was terrified by what she did, or almost did, with Durandal. Hibiki seems to be able to tap into a vast amount of power more easily that Tsubasa or Chris, but keeping herself under control when she does is still a problem.

– We’re learning a little more about wants Chris really wants. Something very bad happened to her when she was young, and it appears she wants to crush anyone with power over her. I’m not sure she wants to rule everything. More… she doesn’t want people to abuse their power over others? Still pretty unclear at this point.

Special Attacks In This Episode: