Symphogear Episode 08: No Shadows in the Sunlight

Episode Summary:

In the aftermath of Miku’s big reveal that she could no longer stand being friends with Hibiki, she and Hibiki are now sleeping in separate beds. And neither is happy about it. Miku gets up early and heads out without Hibiki in a further sign of the cracks in their friendship. Chris, too, is still feeling the effects of her own sort of falling out. She is still on the run from Finè and still being chased by a handful of Noise. She defeats a final bunch of them, but then collapses in an alleyway where she is found by Miku.

Somehow Miku gets the unconscious Chris to safety and takes care of her all morning along with the lady from the Flower restaurant. Together, the two nurse her wounds and clean her clothes. Chris is pretty beaten and bruised despite being a Symphogear user.

Here, we get twin talks between Miku and Chris, and Hibiki and Tsubasa. On the roof of their school, Hibiki laments to Tsubasa how she is upset because despite now being a superhero, she still has the most trouble solving the small important things like friendship. When Tsubasa begins talking about how lucky she is to have survived singing her superb song, Hibiki ends up comforting her. She reminds Tsubasa that she was there at her and Kanade’s final concert, so she knows Tsubasa’s songs are useful for more than just destruction.

Meanwhile, we learn Chris’ full backstory. Her parents were killed and she was kidnapped and probably had all manner of abuses and terrible things done to her. Then, after she was rescued from that, Finè stole her away and misled and abused her further. “All adults are trash!” Chris concludes. She then gives Miku a tip on how to deal with her split from Hibiki. Just beat her up and make it clear who is stronger. Then you can make up. Miku doesn’t want to do that, and can’t anyway, but she still thanks Chris for worrying about her. Miku tells Chris she wants them to become friends.

About this time, a Noise alert sounds and people go running for shelters. Chris doesn’t recognize the warnings at first, but once she’s told what they are, she goes running towards the danger! Chris laments that a lot of the Noise problem is her fault and that her attempts to bring peace only caused more harm, but she still stands up and takes on the Noise, demanding they focus on her and leaves others out of it. But, when Chris has trouble transforming into her Symphogear, Genjuro is there to save her. Chris completes her transformation and goes to town on the Noise telling Genjuro to go save others.

Meanwhile, Hibiki finds Miku and the restaurant owner trapped in a damaged building. A strange octopus Noise that responds to sound is overhead, so Miku communicates with Hibiki by writing messages on her phone. Miku silently shares her plan to lure the Noise away and tells Hibiki she trust her to save her before yelling out to attract the Noise and sprinting off to give Hibiki time to transform. Miku runs and runs and is almost caught by the Noise, but manages to dodge just in time which allows Hibiki to save her.

Hibiki, for her part, finally understands why she fights so hard to save others. It’s not because she is guilty at having survived the Noise attack at the concert. It’s because she was inspired by Kanade and wants to carry her acts of saving people forward into the future in Kanade’s place. Hibiki rescues Miku and the two are finally able to make up.

Chris is still out there alone. She’s had quite the day, but it included making a friend and being helped by an adult. She walks off in silence contemplating everything that happened.


Episode Impressions: 

This episode feels like it follows up on, advances, and concludes a few minor plot threads in preparation of more to come. Hibiki and Miku’s trouble are finally solved. And although Chris is still on her own, it feels like she is beginning to learn that maybe there are people she can trust. We still have Tsubasa not yet cleared to fight, but even she was encouraged that her songs can be for more than destruction.

All in all, while there are moments I enjoyed in this episode, it does feel like it’s caught in between. Things do happen. Problems are solved. But it really feels like bigger things are yet to come. It’s not a bad episode by any means. But, it’s also not really a key episode…


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Chris running to stop the dangers that she would have played a role in causing only a few days before. The part a little later where she stands up and demands the Noise attack her is pretty awesome. She’s mad as hell at her own failures but also at the Noise going after those who can’t fight.

I also really enjoyed the fact that Chris trusted Genjuro to go save others. It’s a tiny thing, but the girl who just a few minutes ago said “all adults are trash” told an adult she trusted him. It’s not the most direct admission in the world, but Chris is slowly opening up.

Hibiki realizing why she truly fights. It was never about guilt for her. It was about being inspired by Kanade and helping continue her actions echoing out into the future.

It’s short and the combat animation isn’t really all that great, but I still loved Chris’ little war against the Noise.


Songs In This Episode: 

Makyuu Ichaival – Chris’ song returns, but now it is focused on the Noise. That part where she sings that she’s gonna blow you and you and you and you to pieces is pretty awesome.

Watashi to Iu Oto Hibiki Sono Saki ni (The Sound Called Me Resonates Beyond) – The messages of this song resonate in an awesome way here. Right as Hibiki is having her revelation that she helps people to continue Kanade’s goals, she is also singing: “But now at least I understand one thing. For someone else’s sake people can get stronger.” It’s a nice sync up of thoughts and lyrics in that moment.


Themes In This Episode: 

Along with realizing why she truly helps people, Hibiki now also understands that you can’t save anyone on your own. That people need to want to be saved and need to help save themselves. Kanade telling her “Don’t give up living!” now fully registers with Hibiki.

Chris is in a troubled place where a lot of her preconceived notions are being challenged by better, more pure ideals… but at least for now she is still clinging to her idea of using strength and violence as a way to conquer others’ bad actions. She’s applying her philosophy to arguments between friends rather than world peace, this time, but it’s the same core concept.

We get a sorta inversion of Hibiki’s thought that people can understand each other if they talk and work out their problems. Miku goes through most of this episode, and the last, not talking to Hibiki. This leaves the two of them at odds. Then, at the end, Miku reveals what really drove her away from Hibiki. It wasn’t so much the secrets that Hibiki was keeping. It was that Hibiki was shouldering a dangerous burden alone. It hurt Miku that Hibiki wasn’t sharing the burden and it scared Miku to think that Hibiki might be hurt or killed by the heroics she was undertaking. But, once the two started talking about it again, things got much better between them!

On the roof with Tsubasa, Hibiki is sad that even as a Symphogear wearing superhero, she can’t just solve the little (huge) issue of her estranged friendship with Miku.


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Chris. Though she never admits it directly, she is changing for the better. She cares about Miku’s strained friendship even if she offers highly questionable advice on how to mend things. She runs towards danger to end it rather than causing that same danger herself. She doesn’t exactly accept Genjuro’s help, but she does instruct him to help others. She is still very troubled, and very unsure of where her priorities lie, but Chris is no longer the villainess she was in earlier episodes.


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:11 – In the aftermath of their argument, Miku is sleeping alone on the bottom bunk

0:49 – Chris is still being chased by noise

2:48 – So that Chris v Noise encounter happened early in the morning

3:00 – A Place to call Home Chris has nowhere to go home to?

3:48 – Miku rescued Chris

4:43 – So… Miku took Chris to the Flower lady’s home instead of a hospital??

4:54 – Chris is pretty beat up. I guess the Symphogear doesn’t fully protect you from all injuries…

5:24 – Miku never skips school

5:47 – The small things that truly matter are hard to do even for a superhero

7:02 – Tsubasa’s songs aren’t just for destruction. They are also songs of hope.

7:41 – Chris has no friends.

7:44 – We hear Chris’ backstory. Her parents were killed and she was kidnapped and used and abused for years before being rescued. But then Finè stole her away and used her more…

8:24 – Chris still believes the way to solve things is by being stronger and using force to end conflict. A bit of a variation on Chris’ Wish

8:48 – Once again, we see that Chris does have an inclination to care for people.

9:10 – Chris now has a friend!

10:03 – Chris does not recognize the Noise alert. Probably because she’s been the cause of such things and has never been on the receiving end!

10:15 Chris runs towards the danger.

11:07 – “I’m right here! So leave others the hell out of this!” Pretty chilling words.

11:30 – Genjuro is still an improbable badass.

12:22 – In contrast with her “Adults are all trash” stance earlier, Chris has come to trust Genjuro to be someone who saves people, even if she herself doesn’t really realize it!

12:48 – Though it’s not framed super well, there’s some cool bits to the way Chris fights here. She even kills a Noise as it tries to surprise her by coming out of the water.

13:33 – Nice jump flip by Hibiki

13:53 – Nice idea by Miku to communicate by phone screen when the Noise goes after sound.

14:15 – So we don’t get to see what they say?

14:55 – Miku feels sorry for the things she said and wants to fight too.

15:06 – Miku is a track runner…

15:59 – Now we get to see what was said. Miku shares the plan to lure the Noise away. Miku trusting Hibiki with her life is powerful!

16:53 – Don’t Give Up Living – Everyone is giving it their all, but you can’t save anyone with your own strength… they have to participate and help in being saved.

17:17 – It’s not guilt that makes Hibiki want to save others, it’s because she is carrying on Kanade’s dream in her place. (Also, the music lyrics sync up really well here: “But now at least I understand one thing. For someone else’s sake people can get stronger.)

18:04 – That’s one heck of a punch!

18:13 – “I am the sound that echoes ahead” – great lyrics

18:27 – They animated some gently moving ducks instead of the complex bouncing of two main characters from a long fall. 😛

19:23 – I wasn’t mad you kept secrets from me, I was mad that you tried to shoulder all that burden by yourself. I was just being selfish because I didn’t want to lose you again.

20:22 – A new picture!

21:50 – Chris survived.

22:08 – And things are good between Hibiki and Miku again.


Symphogear Episode 07: Fate Just Keeps Firing

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: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Both Finè and Ryoko Sakrui really like their butterflies.

Chris claims to hate singing, but she hums her little song. We only get to hear a few seconds of that tune, but try to keep it in mind. It will come back at some point.


Moment By Moment Notes: 

2:01 – Hibiki’s punch was almost as powerful as Tsubasa’s Superb Song?!

2:05 – The Nehushtan armor is repairing itself? Looks painful. Is it drawing on Chris’ life force to do so?

2:32 – We can understand each other if we talk

2:56 – It’s hard to tell, but I think Hibiki accidentally hit Chris as she dodged and redamaged Chris’ armor!

3:10 – A Symphogear transformation song?!

3:26 – Yep, a Symphogear named Ichii-Bal.

3:32 – So this is the other relic that was mentioned as having been lost in a previous episode…

3:52 – Chris hates singing?!

4:07 – Billion Maiden

4:15 – Mega Death Party

4:30 – Unleashing all that firepower tired Chris out.

4:42 – A shield? A sword!

4:52 – Chris is very perceptive here. And who did she hear Tsubasa’s private thoughts from??

5:13 – I need your help. (Wow! Now there’s some character growth!)

6:27 – So Finè finally shows herself to the others!

6:35 – Chris’ entire mission was to capture Hibiki, yet she threw Hibiki aside! And Chris’ real goal is to extinguish the flames of war??

6:39 – What curse on humanity is Chris talking about?

7:44 – Is she the one mentioned in the newspaper as having vanished way back in the first episode? Probably.

8:13 – How about being more human again? Wouldn’t that work?

8:54 – What did Tsubasa love to do a long time ago? Sing on stage?

10:22 – Tsubasa called Hibiki a comrade!

12:30 – Crush every human with the will and power to fight.

14:00 – Chris again says she hates singing. But she was humming a tune for a while there.

15:06 – Miku is sleeping in the bottom bunk now. That’s different.

16:16 – She sure does like her butterflies

16:26 – Hibiki might be able to sing her Superb Song without dying? Because she is fusing with a Relic?

17:15 Custodian’s Curse? Is this the first we’ve heard of that? Is this the cruse Chris mentioned??

19:44 – I don’t think I can be your friend anymore.

20:12 – Credits already?!

22:22 – And now Finè turns on Chris and Chris is alone!

22:35 – And Finè knows Chris never had the ability to stop all war!

23:08 – Kadingir?

23:37 – Is Chris going to die??


Symphogear Episode 06: Where Omens Lead

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: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

We got flashes of Chris’ backstory and at least part of her reason for fighting. Look for more on Chris’ reasons to come up soon.

Miku now knows that Hibiki is running off to be a superhero. Is she going to be happy or angry about this?


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:09 – So the main villainess is named Finè.

0:26 – Hibiki may have managed to attack using Durandal, but it doesn’t seem like she was in any way under control.

2:16 – That’s a young Chris in a bombed out or otherwise destroyed area. At least two people are dead near her. She is wearing fairly nice clothes and has her hair done up with bows. She is crying over the dead man. Parents killed, perhaps?

2:18 – Then she is in slavery with a bunch of other kids. Still in some sort of warzone by the looks of the men with guns.

2:19 – Still in her dress, huddled with other captive kids

2:19 – Holding her hand to her mouth as the men drag another kid away.

2:30 – So… Chris was all alone… until Finè found her? Rescued her?? And now Chris is afraid that Finè’s curiosity with Hibiki is going to lead to a similar result.

3:00 – “I’ll crush anyone who has power with my own two hands.” Is that Symphogear power? Or just strength (military or otherwise) kind of “power”?

3:18 – Tsubasa is up and walking

3:23 – So Tsubasa did resolve to search for the world beyond the fighting that Kanade saw.

4:09 – There it is… Hibiki straight up thinking that she should not have directed such destructive power at another person

4:33 – And she keeps running… symbolism for training harder to become less of a weakling… to gain better control of herself and her power.

5:03 – Miku used to be on the junior high track team

6:31 – The minister’s death removed some support for 2nd division… but they’re also making upgrades to their base.

7:07 – Interesting, the defense minister was protecting 2nd Division by not giving them more money / power. He was trying to keep them a bit more under the radar by not allowing them to become too much of a secret operation??

7:34 – The new defense minister is pro American? And authorized the base upgrades? And the Americans are probably involved in the assassination and are working with Finè. Is this all a part of Finè’s plan?

8:00 – Is the lipstick on the cup meant to remind us of the blood on the carrying case? I think so!

8:21 – Oh no! More leaving Miku behind!

9:41 – Haha. Her room is a mess.

10:15 – So this is what Ogawa asked Hibiki to do.

10:36 – Up till now, Tsubasa has only ever been able to fight.

11:13 – Two things here. First, Tsubasa actually praised Hibiki. But, second, she used “taking my place”… those are some dangerous words given Hibiki has been trying to take Kanade’s place. I wonder if Tsubasa meant it in that way at all?

11:47 – I guess Miku is struggling to be honest with herself. Heh.

11:57 – Why does Hibiki fight?

12:40 – That’s Hibiki’s “laugh it off” uncomfortable avoid the issue laugh. There’s something deeper there that she isn’t saying.

12:50 – There we are. She helps people because she was helped during the Noise attack two years ago.

13:25 – Tsubasa knows all about devoting one’s life to “helping others” as a form of suicide. That’s exactly what she did. She didn’t know how to live following Kanade’s death so she threw herself into battling the Noise with the expectation to die from it some day.

14:20 – To know how to use your power means becoming a warrior… Tsubasa says this as if it is a bad thing. Because it takes you away from a normal life!

15:03 – Help people as quickly, as shortly, as directly as possible. That is Hibiki!

15:11 – If the enemy is a person, she wants to let them know about the doubt in her heart… the doubt over whether they really have to fight.

Hibiki can be very simple… but here she is very profound!

15:37 – Miku is feeling very down.

16:18 – If you think about things when you are hungry, you only get bad ideas.

16:56 – Same idea from Hibiki, but approaching it from the opposite (more optimistic) point of view?

17:45 – Here it comes. Here’s where Miku finds out.

18:12 – So Symphogear transformation are instantaneous.

18:29 – This is a different song. This is… Kanade’s song… kinda!

19:06 – Hibiki tries to talk it out with Chris.

19:30 – We can understand each other

19:56 – Chris believes the opposite. Or has been taught that by Finè?

20:26 – Nirvana Gedon

20:45 – Chris is still afraid of being alone once more

21:21 – Hibiki grabbed it! And this is after blocking two big attacks that previously nearly defeated Tsubasa

21:33 – Fast! Short! Straight! Direct! Oh, and she pulled Chris to her as part of that big punch!

22:02 – And Miku thinks something terrible has happened to Hibiki?


Symphogear Episode 05: From the Bottom of Darker Depths

Episode Summary:

This episode starts with Hibiki leaving Miku behind in order to train. Hibiki seems like she is getting good, given the way she hits that punching bag!

After the opening, we get this long scene with another new villain character. This woman seems to be in charge of the mystery girl who attacked Tsubasa. We learn that mystery girl’s name is Chris and she is being commanded, sexually abused, and tortured by this new villainess. Chris seems to be under the impression that all of it is necessary to fulfill some sort of wish she has.

This new villainess seems to be in contact with someone who speaks English. They provided her with Soloman’s Cane (the relic that summons Noise?) and now she is lying to them about not being able to activate it.

Hibiki is still taking the day off to train. At 2nd division headquarters, she learns about the uncomfortable situation the “Disaster Squad” is in politically, and that the Japanese government is funding the Symphogear project as a hedge against other nations. But there is one good minister who looks out for 2nd Division.

The exact order of the next series of events is a little unclear. Ryoko is summoned to report to the minister. At some point, she returns with new orders… but in the meantime that minister is ambushed and killed by the person who was talking to the villainess over the phone. If things were just in that order, it would be tragic but not suspicious. But instead, the series of events is suspicious because Ryoko returns with what seems to be the carrying case the minister was protecting and the case has blood on its bottom edge.

While all this is happening, Tsubasa is still in her coma and is dreaming about Kanade. She remembers their bad times and their good times, but just before she wakes up she realizes that she can hold Kanade’s memory as close as she wishes to. Tsubasa wakes up for the first time since the battle and seems to resolve to be more flexible from now on.

Back at 2nd division, Ryoko claims to be unaware of the minister’s assassination, and proceeds to inform everyone of new orders to transfer a powerful relic named Durandal from beneath headquarters to a separate vault beneath parliament.

Hibiki and Miku are still deflecting off each other, but Ogawa helps cheer Hibiki up by reminding her that even the little things are being taken care of by a team of people.

The next morning comes, and Hibiki and Ryoko set off with Durandal intending to escort it to its new destination. Things don’t go as planned when Noise attack the convoy of cars leading to a big fight at a chemical plant where Ryoko blocks a Noise attack with an unexpected forcefield.

Hibiki is a much better fighter now after Genjuro’s training. She takes on a whole crowd of noise by herself by using a series of kicks, punches, and dodges. Chris attacks and gets a good hit on Hibiki, but then Durandal, which is apparently a sword, breaks free of its case and Hibiki manages to grab it. Hibiki’s rage returns, and in one swing of Durandal she destroys the chemical plant before fainting.

In the end, Ryoko suggest Hibiki not worry about the forcefield she saw then walks off to help with the cleanup.


Episode Impressions: 

This is an interesting episode. We seem to be introducing the main villain of the series, we get to see Hibiki fight after she concludes her training, and Tsubasa might now be on a better path than she was before.

This episode is also filled with mysteries and no small amount of suspicion. Who was the villainess talking to? Why does she have control of Chris? What does Chris want? And why did Ryoko return with blood on that carrying case?

And yeah, overall, this episode was good. It moved several things forward and asked all those interesting questions. Maybe it was a little confusing, but I think it is holding things back on purpose to create that suspicion about Ryoko.


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Hibiki knocking the punching bag into the pond after acting on Genjuro’s silly nonsense advice.

Tsubasa’s dream sequence. I think she finally realized something important before waking up. Plus, it was nice seeing Kanade again.

Ogawa reminding Hibiki that there is a team supporting her.

Hibiki’s first real fight against the Noise. Some of those moves and animations are real quick but really, really good. Especially when she dodges all those tentacles. There’s a cartwheel in there as well as a frame or two where she punches one of the tentacles aside!


Songs In This Episode: 

Gekisou Gungnir – No new songs yet, but it’s nice to see Hibiki fighting along with her song. I liked the part about “I’ve found it, the place where my heart belongs” as she was taking on the Noise. That was good.


Themes In This Episode: 

One theme that gets touched on a couple times this episode is that there are teams of people helping make even the small things possible. We see it first when Hibiki worries about her actions as a Symphogear user and she’s told not to worry because 2nd Divison’s staff helps keep things secret. The minister helping 2nd division could be considered another layer of this, helping keep them clear of government politics. Later, Ogawa reminds Hibiki that he and many others are there to help both her and Tsubasa live their lives and do their jobs as Symphogear users. It’s not said directly, but one way to look at it is even superheroes need help.

Tsubasa’s dream sequence with Kanade. I don’t think the two are literally talking to each other. As in, it’s not Tsubasa being encouraged by Kanade’s spirit or ghost. Rather, I think Tsubasa is working out for herself the path she needs to take to move forward. And her subconscious is using her memories of Kanade, both good and bad, to help with that process. There’s some good stuff here. Most notably, we come back to the theme of being flexible. Tsubasa nearly died because she wasn’t willing to let anyone in to her life after Kanade’s death. Really, she nearly killed herself. Her comment about failing to die shows us she did not intend to survive defeating Chris. When she came upon an enemy she couldn’t take on alone, she didn’t have a partner to help her. Imagine if instead of ignoring and hating Hibiki, Tsubasa had welcomed her as a Symphogear user and had helped teach her how to fight. The battle against Chris in the previous episode might have gone very differently!

Tsubasa still has Kanade with her. We also get this little thing where Tsubasa realizes that she has been keeping Kanade’s memories distant. She considered Kanade dead and gone, but now I think she has realized that it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, she can cherish her time with Kanade and hold her lessons close instead of locking all those memories far away.

We’ve also come back to Hibiki’s rage. She can hardly control herself after she grabs Durandal. And then she sends an attack at Chris without a moment’s hesitation. Remember, in the previous episode, Hibiki grabbed onto Tsubasa to prevent her from attacking Chris, because Chris was a fellow human. That didn’t seem to be a problem for Hibiki in this episode, but then, she wasn’t thinking clearly at the moment she swung Durandal at Chris…


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Interestingly, there were no named special attacks this episode. I’d say Hibiki blowing up an entire facility in one swing of Durandal was pretty special… but it didn’t get a title card.

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Ryoko performed multiple suspicious actions during the course of this episode. She returned with the blood on the carrying case. The orders she brought back said to move Durandal from a safe place to a less safe one, which seems very odd. When the Noise attacked, she suggested that she and Hibiki abandon Durandal. And then, of course, she had some sort of science or magic-based forcefield that she later told Hibiki not to worry about.

There’s one other thing… well, two maybe. The villainess controlling Chris and 2nd Division’s chief scientists, Ryoko, both like butterflies. The villainess is wearing a butterfly choker, while Ryoko has always had her butterfly hairpiece. The second thing? They have the same hair! Not the same hair color… but when Ryoko’s hair gets blown out of its bun, and especially when Chris looks questioningly back at Ryoko, Ryoko’s bangs and the two thin lose sections of her hair on the far left and right appear very similar to the villainess’s hair when she’s talking on the phone. Is it possible that Ryoko and the villainess are related somehow? Here’s three pictures demonstrating what I mean:


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:13 – Hibiki is still training

0:56 – There’s our mystery girl!

1:31 – There’s our mystery girl again!

1:42 – And there she is again in her stolen armor! So, she’s been a part of the show the whole time, and just hadn’t been introduced yet…

2:31 – So, someone handed a relic over in order for it to be activated? Solomon’s Cane?

2:41 – On the right held to a device is our mystery girl. She is clearly not the one in charge. This new woman is calling the shots, it seems.

3:28 – Is Solomon’s Cane the relic that summons Noise? It’s not the armor, right?

3:33 – Chris.

4:39 – Chris’s smile! She is being assaulted and tortured, but does she know any better? Why smile?!

4:55 – Miku is the best.

5:25 – Why rely on high school girls to fight? The classic magical girl question.

5:50 – So second division steps on a lot of toes to keep Symphogear research a secret

7:04 – Everyone has a job to do

7:46 – “No. I just failed to die.” That’s pretty grim!

8:00 – Too seriously, a reed before the wind.

8:21 – Tsubasa thought her life had no meaning or value…

8:33 – New philosophy from Kanade: There’s something beyond the fighting.

9:02 – It’s up to you to decide whether I’m close to you or not

9:10 – Tsubasa realizes she has a choice in how she remembers Kanade?

9:59 – So… has Tsubasa decided to be more flexible? To live with her failure? Or what?

10:26 – So this minister really is a good man who has the Disaster Squad’s back

11:04 – Or he was…

11:36 – Her phone was broken??

11:51 – WHY IS THERE BLOOD ON THE CARRYING CASE?!

12:05 – So the reason the Noise keep appearing is that they’re after the sword Durandal?? (Can we trust anything Ryoko is saying??)

12:14 – Darker Depths? The Abyss? That could be a callout to the episode title.

13:28 – Miku is getting tired of covering for Hibiki

13:53 – So the official story is that Tsubasa was hospitalized because of exhaustion

14:38 – Even the smallest things are backed by the efforts of many people

15:29 – Ryoko’s pink car is hilarious

16:54 – There is a chant of “Symphogear” in the background music

17:15 – Ryoko suggests just leaving the relic behind

17:28 – I think it’s important that Genjuro can’t see what happens next

17:31 – Ryoko can make forcefields?! Well… maybe it’s part of her science?

18:49 – First punch after training. Wow.

19:31 – Some really cool dodging animation followed up by this great punch

20:05 – Uh oh.

20:24 – That line art looks really cool

20:31 – And Hibiki is back in her rage mode

20:36 – Chris’s look back… To Ryoko…

20:40 – Ryoko is thrilled and fascinated with what’s going on

21:49 – Does it really matter (what happened)? Yes. I think it might! Ryoko is acting actually suspicious!


Symphogear Episode 04: Falling Tears

Episode Summary:

We start this episode five years before Tsubasa and Hibiki stare down the mystery girl wearing the Nehushtan armor. 2nd Division has just rescued Kanade Amou from the aftermath of a Noise attack on an artifact dig site. This isn’t the same calm, collected Kanade we first met three years later at the Zwei Wing concert in episode 1. As judged by the straight jacket she is strapped into, this Kanade is enraged to the point that she might even be a danger to herself and others. Through angered shouts and expletives, she makes clear that the only thing she wants is a way to kill the Noise who killed her family. No matter the personal cost to herself. All while a young Tsubasa watches timidly tucked away in her uncle’s shadow.

Genjuro and Ryoko put Kanade through a series of experiments meant to see if she can link with a Relic. While Tsubasa can naturally link with her Ame no Habakiri, it at first it seems like Kanade is unable to do the same. It’s only after Kanade takes matters into her own hands and injects herself with a dangerous overdose of the drugs they were testing on her that she is able to form a bond with Gungnir. In a dramatic scene she coughs up quite a bit of blood but successfully summons her Symphogear in the end.

From then on, Kanade fights for revenge along side Tsubasa. Until, after one battle, some soldiers the two saved note how nice it was to hear Kanade’s singing in the midst of battle. This has a transformative effect on Kanade. Her worldview that only contained thoughts of revenge shifts to one of using her abilities to make people happy which leads to the creation of Zwei Wing.

Back in the present, Tsubasa stares down the mysterious girl in the Nehushtan armor. The two begin a battle, and while they are closely matched, the mystery girl seems to have a small but notable advantage in power. At one point during the battle she pulls out some sort of weapon and fire it at the ground in order to summon Noise! A few of the Noise trap Hibiki while the rest serve as an obstacle for Tsubasa.

The battle looks like it is near its end when Tsubasa is knocked to the ground. The mystery girl taunts her, saying that Tsubasa isn’t even the reason she’s there. Really, she came to capture Hibiki, but she doesn’t say why. In response, Tsubasa vows to defeat the mystery girl before pinning her shadow to the ground with a small dagger. She then make a point of reminding Hibiki just how far she’s willing to go to achieve victory against the Noise and this new opponent.

Then, Tsubasa sings. She puts away her sword and slowly walks towards the mystery girl while singing her Superb Song. Blood flows from her mouth as she looks the frightened mystery girl directly in the eyes. The resulting blast destroys all the nearby Noise and seemingly badly injures the girl as well. The mystery girl flees just before Genjuro and Ryoko arrive. Tsubasa claims to be all right. That, as a sword, she won’t break now… but her claims are obviously a lie as there is a pool of her own blood forming below her all flowing from her mouth and even her eyes. A moment later Tsubasa falls to the ground.

We find out that singing a Superb Song is not necessarily fatal as Tsubasa is apparently rushed to a hospital and the doctors manage to save her life. It seems like she might even be able to fully recover in time. Meanwhile, Hibiki is beating herself up over her role in Tsubasa’s fall. She finally realizes that offering to replace Kanade was the wrong thing to do. Ogawa helps her understand more about Tsubasa and her need to fight after Kanade’s death.

Later we see that Hibiki is still working through the suffering Tsubasa must have been going through since Kanade’s death. First in a meeting with 2nd Division’s leaders, and then on the roof overlooking the hospital where Miku helps encourage her. Finally, after a month or more of trying to be Kanade’s replacement, Hibiki decides to be herself and protect the things she cherishes as herself.

We then get a fantastic training montage as Hibiki trains hard under Genjuro all while Miku watches in secret from the shadows. The episode actually ends on something of an ominous note as Hibiki promises Miku that she’ll never keep a secret from her…


Episode Impressions: 

Although I enjoyed the first three episodes of Symphogear, this is the one that really sold me on the series. Kanade’s destructive determination to kill the monsters that murdered her family was really impactful. But so was her shift to the calm, encouraging Kanade that we knew from the first episode.

Tsubasa’s fight with the mystery girl was impressive. There was some nice choreography in there. Tsubasa’s solution was chilling and had a great buildup.

Afterwards, it was great to see Hibiki really work towards understanding Tsubasa’s thinking and her own role in Tsubasa’s fall. That Hibiki’s solution was to actually train for her role as a Symphogear user for the first time was great to see. There’s a good number of easter eggs in that training montage and it had me laughing out loud.


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Kanade trying to sync with Gungnir. Her near insanity. Her willingness to risk death for the slim chance at getting her revenge. That bloody hand and handprint as she finally synced up with the relic. Her sheer frightening joy when she completed her first transformation and knew she could finally kill Noise. It was a great scene. Like I said above, it’s the scene that sold me on Symphogear as a show. The writing and emotions there had me convinced the show really knew what it was doing.

Tsubasa’s fight with the mystery girl. The Blue Flash attack being blocked and redirected. Tsubasa’s sword skills being bested. And her comeback with Shadow Weaving and her Superb Song. There was a great flow to the entire battle and also some great tension near the end. The musical buildup to the Superb Song was almost a little frightening. I knew that Tsubasa’s chilling, echoing song was coming, and I knew what singing it had done to Kanade. There was at least a chance Tsubasa might actually die which made it a very impactful scene.

Hibiki’s talk with Ogawa. Especially that moment where Hibiki asks if Kanade died to save her and Ogawa pauses and then takes a sip of his drink instead of answering. Brad Bird once said it about his movie The Incredible, but I think it’s true of every medium: One of the hardest things to do well is just having two people in a room talking about serious things. No jokes. No quips. No fights or explosions. To get points across and keep things interesting requires good writing and good characters. This scene had both. And this scene sets Hibiki and Tsubasa down a path towards a better relationship, which is nice.

Hibiki’s training montage. I probably missed some references, but at the very least it has Hibiki and Genjuro dressed as Bruce Lee. It has them dressed as fighters from Street Fighter, too, among all its silly looking exercises. I loved it!


Songs In This Episode: 

Zettō Ame no Habakiri – This song has the same meaning as before. It’s about Tsubasa grieving for and deriving determination from Kanade’s death. But now, it is directed at someone who might have played a role in that death. So, there’s another little layer of meaning on top of the dark themes already contained within Tsubasa’s iconic song.

Gekisou Gungnir – Hibiki’s song is used as the slow background music for her talk with Ogawa, and then as part of her training montage. A lot of meaning here? Maybe not. But Hibiki’s focus on bridging gaps and looking to the future does fit in with what she is trying to do with Tsubasa.


Themes In This Episode: 

The better world Kanade saw. The first theme we get in this episode comes from Kanade. Her initial, self-destructive rage at what the Noise did to her family and then later her revelation that her songs are useful for more than killing Noise. That they can help and inspire people, as well. I bet we’ll see more on this later, but it’s already pretty clear that Kanade shifted from someone only focused on revenge to a person who discovered a better way of living and was trying to help Tsubasa find that better way as well.

If anything, Tsubasa is sorta in early Kanade’s place right now. We don’t know what her childhood was like except that she was present at 2nd Division even when she was younger. But now, and for the past two years, Tsubasa has been caught up in a slightly more controlled cycle of rage and despair caused by Kanade’s death.

Tsubasa’s self sacrifice. I think we also got a little aspect of self sacrifice from Tsubasa. Was her Superb Song fully necessary? Could she have maybe retreated with Hibiki? Sure, she sang it to defeat the Noise and the mystery girl, but she also sang her Superb Song to make one final point to Hibiki about how Hibiki lacked determination to combat the Noise. It was almost a cruel jab, as if saying: “you’re so weak that I have to sacrifice my life to save yours… just like Kanade did.”

Hibiki finding her purpose. In the second half of the episode, Hibiki is finally able to come to understand both Tsubasa and herself. Ogawa helps her understand Tsubasa’s need to fight, and through that, Hibiki realizes just why it was so wrong to try and directly replace Kanade in Tsubasa’s life. It was never healthy for Tsubasa to channel her anger and sadness into nothing but fighting Noise, but for someone new to come along and try to fill that void without understanding it was only contributing to the problem.

But Hibiki also learned something about herself. She’d already figured it out a bit, that she too had something she wanted to protect. She speaks it directly in this episode. “It might just be a tiny promise or my bland everyday life, but I want to become stronger to protect them and still be myself.” Even if she knew she wanted to use her Symphogear to protect people, Hibiki had not yet really acted to gain the skills necessary to do so. Sure, she was fairly powerful when she went into that little rage at not being able to see the meteor shower with Miku, but she hadn’t even tried training to improve her skills. Finally, she has committed herself to actually learning to wield her Symphogear effectively. I can’t wait to see the results of her training montage.

Finally, let’s think about the episode title: Falling Tears. There were a lot of tears that fell in this episode:

First we need to think about who hadn’t let any tears fall. Both Kanade in her enraged state, and Tsubasa after Kanade’s death refused to shed any tears. Kanade was in a mad rage for a long time. Tsubasa’s rage and despair was more channeled or maybe more controlled, but she too didn’t cry for almost two years after Kanade’s death.

Next we have Tsubasa’s tears of blood flowing from her eyes after she sings her Superb Song. Her final statement before she collapses is her declaration of her current way of living. That she is a sword dedicated to defending people and that she will not break… which she must know is a lie. There’s blood flowing from her mouth and eyes and pooling at her feet. Maybe she is letting tears fall for herself, knowing that she has failed even in her desperate role of self sacrifice?

Then there’s Hibiki’s tears as she finally grasps the realization of Tsubasa’s cruel fate. Hibiki feels bad about what she’s done and at her lack of understanding. But, she isn’t crying for herself, rather she is crying at the tragic situation Tsubasa has been forced to live with the past few years.

Hibiki also sheds tears of joy as she and Miku share a moment of friendship on the roof. These kind of tears are important, too! Not all tears come from sadness and despair.

There’s one last instance of tears that’s a bit more subtle because its heard rather than seen. Hibiki’s Symphogear song, Gekisou Gungnir, includes a line that says something like: “I have no time to shed tears, I have things I want to protect” Unlike Tsubasa’s song, Hibiki’s has never been about channeling rage and despair. It’s always been an uplifting song of looking to the future and helping others. Tsubasa and Kanade refused to shed tears because to do so would be to show weakness or admit their sadness. We’ve seen Hibiki cry plenty, but the times she refuses to cry aren’t because she is holding in her sadness, but because she’s putting it aside to help others. Hibiki has been free to cry when she’s needed to while Kanade and Tsubasa weren’t. It’s an interesting distinction.


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Zwei Wing wasn’t formed by 2nd Division to fight the Noise, it was formed by Kanade, and to a much lesser extent Tsubasa, as a way to use their singing to help encourage people.

With enough experimentation and drugs, people who are not attuned to a relic can be made to be compatible with them to the point that the can summon Symphogear armor.

There is an enemy side to this conflict beyond the unthinking Noise. It was the mystery girl’s goal to capture Hibiki alive.

Miku now knows Hibiki is keeping some secrets from her.


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:00 – Five years ago, so three years before the concert tragedy.

0:18 – Wow! That’s Kanade, and she is angry and cursing! And the survivor of a Noise attack! Was she somewhere with her family digging for relics? Or just transporting one?

0:29 – So it was probably a trip to see a dig site?

0:39 – Wow, she is so different from the calm, collected Kanade that we’ve seen! She is angry to the point of being crazed!

1:29 – So Kanade had to take part in a bunch of risky experiments before she could use her Symphogear?

1:41 – Wow… that is not gentle!

2:36 – She is dying! She is willing to die for the slimmest chance to fight the Noise. (Which is still different from the Kanade we knew…)

2:54 – That bloody hand print. This was the real moment I knew Symphogear was an all time great anime.

3:24 – So… Kanade’s compatibility came from experiments and dangerous drugs while Tsubasa could sync with her Symphogear naturally?

3:54 – Last Meteor (and Kanade is still crazed!)

4:18 – Something changed with Kanade that day. This is where she starts becoming the calm, wise Kanade that we knew.

4:58 – So that’s how they went from strictly warriors to performers.

6:13 – This is a battlefield. “I think we’re going to get along quite well.” :p

6:26 – Blue Flash

7:11 – Not only can this person fight Tsubasa to a standstill (thanks to a fully powered Relic?) she is somehow summoning Noise?! Creatures that, as far as we know, are the largest threat to humanity ever!

7:55 – The goal was to abduct Hibiki?? Why?

8:09 – Shedding Tears (Is it really a different attack name??) – No, its the same text as before… not sure why the subtitles are different…

8:29 – Hibiki’s armed gear won’t appear.

9:23 – Nirvana Gedon

10:19 – Shadow Weaving – Did Tsubasa pin the girl with that little knife she tossed up in the air?!

11:06 – Tsubasa’s Superb Song. (The musical build up to it was amazing as well!)

11:43 – That blood. Just like Kanade. This is killing Tsubasa!

12:17 – The enemy survived!

12:42 – Oh wow… she is really messed up. And she falls.

13:13 – So singing a Superb Song isn’t a 100% death sentence. At least not if medical care is nearby?

14:45 – The lack of answer is a yes in it’s own way. Yes, Kanade died to save Hibiki. And everyone knows it.

15:29 – More tears. Whose tears is the episode title referring to? Tsubasa’s? Or Hibiki’s?

15:44 – Finally, Hibiki understands the pain she was putting Tsubasa through.

16:20 – Wow. What a powerful request.

16:47 – Drowning in the depth of despair?

18:09 – More shedding tears. More realizations.

19:22 – Miku is the best.

20:55 – More tears. But very different from the rest of the episode. These are tears of joy!

22:15 – Miku is watching Hibiki train.

22:30 – Even here, in Hibiki’s lyrics, we have a reference to shedding tears. In this case, she has no time to shed them because she has things she wants to protect.

23:36 – Hibiki’s lie about not hiding things could be trouble!


Symphogear Episode 03: Passing in the Night

Episode Summary:

For the past month, Hibiki and Tsubasa have been fighting the Noise, but they still haven’t been able to get along. Their fights against the Noise mostly seem to involve Tsubasa slicing through the enemies while Hibiki tries to fight but mostly ends up running from attacks or getting knocked around.

Back at her dorm with Miku, we find Hibiki trying to stay awake as she is writing a report on the Noise, of all things. But really, Hibiki is remembering the time she and Tsubasa almost fought.

In Hibiki’s flashback, Tsubasa insist that she doesn’t accept Hibiki’s attempts to replace Kanade at all. She says hell will freeze over before she accepts Hibiki and then jumps high in the air and launches one of her most powerful attacks at Hibiki! But right before her “Heaven’t Wrath” connects, she is stopped by a powerful punch from… Genjuro?!

Genjuro’s attack rips the road up and sends Tsubasa flying. In the aftermath, water spews from a broken pipe drenching Tsubasa and helping cover the tears now flowing from her eyes. Hibiki once again tries to console Tsubasa by saying she will do her best to replace Kanade… which is the exact wrong thing to say… and earns Hibiki a well-deserved, angry, tearful slap from Tsubasa. It’s only a month later during her evening daydream that Hibiki finally realizes why Tsubasa was crying.

That same evening we see Tsubasa reliving her memory of Kanade’s final moments. She is there at the stadium again holding a near comatose Kanade in her arms. Instead of impactful words of wisdom, all Tsubasa receives from Kanade are pained, glassy-eyed babbles before Kanade’s body crumbles. In the present, we find that Tsubasa blames herself and her own lack of strength for Kanade’s death.

Both Hibiki and Tsubasa are called to 2nd Division headquarters for a new briefing on the Noise attacks. We learn that the Noise were first recognized by the world 13 years ago, but have existed all the way back to ancient times. All the recent attacks have been around the school, and Ryoko wonders if someone might be controlling the Noise. Tsubasa thinks that they are trying to get to Durandal, an almost completely intact relic stored below headquarters. We’re told it is much more powerful than the Symphogears Tsubasa and Hibiki wear since their relics are just mere fragments. Interestingly, it seems that an intact relic can be used by more than just the limited few Attuned who can operate a Symphogear. If 2nd Division could activate Durandal, anybody could use it.

Tsubasa leaves with Ogawa to work on her album, once again noting her goal to have no emotions, while Hibiki stays with the others where Ryoko actively flirts with her! More importantly, we find that the headquarters and its mix of modern and ancient technology was designed by Ryoko same as the Symphogears. Meaning that headquarters should be safe from all Noise attacks.

At school the next day, Hibiki finally finishes her report and it is accepted by her teachers leaving Hibiki free to see a meteor shower with Miku that evening. Both are excited to finally have time to spend together, but then a Noise outbreak calls Hibiki away and she has to cancel her plans with Miku. Frustrated and angry, Hibiki tears into the Noise, quite literally at one point, showing an aggression we haven’t seen from her before. It’s almost a bit scary as she chases down one final Noise that escapes the subway tunnel they’ve been fighting in.

The Noise is about to get away when Tsubasa drops in like a shooting star and destroys it from the air. Hibiki tries once more to get through to Tsubasa, saying that she too has somethings she wants to protect, but before the two have any chance to talk, someone new interrupts them! The new girl that appears is wearing the Nehushtan armor that was stolen during the concert two years ago!


Episode Impressions: 

This was another episode pretty heavy on info dumping. We learn about how the Noise have probably always existed, how 2nd Division is protecting a powerful relic, and a little more about why Tsubasa has grown so cold and emotionless since Kanade’s death. We also see that Hibiki is having her own issues with being a superheroine, but she has finally started to realize why Tsubasa won’t fight along side her.

In a lot of ways, it felt like this episode set up things to come. Surely, we’ll hear more about Durandal, for instance. It also seems likely that 2nd Division headquarters will be attacked directly. Oh, and we end on a cliffhanger with a new girl wearing the armor stolen from the concert.


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Genjuro stopping Tusbasa’s rocket sword kick aimed at Hibiki! How the heck did he do that?! Maybe he didn’t… at least not entirely? I’m pretty sure that even though Genjuro did block it temporarily, it’s also true that Tsubasa cancelled her attack in order not to hurt him. Look at the way her giant sword vanishes and she sorta falls awkwardly away before the street is ripped up.

The scene where Hibiki is on the school lawn working on her report while accepting friendship and food from every direction. It’s just a cute scene.

Hibiki going berserk against the Noise in the subway! She stomps one’s face in! She rips another’s head off! She is not happy. We focus a lot on Tsubasa’s emotional state, but I wonder if Hibiki’s might play a role in future episodes. A stoic and controlled Tsubasa vs an out of control Hibiki?

The appearance of an actual villain. We don’t know who is in that armor, but we seem to have someone willing to talk and taunt at our heroines.


Songs In This Episode: 

Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Ame no Habakiri, the Ultimate Blade) – For Tsubasa, we get her theme song at the beginning and end of the episode mostly just as a show of her power. The meaning hasn’t really changed.

Gekisou Gungnir (Gungnir, the Striking Spear) – For Hibiki, I can’t help but note the cruel irony Hibiki’s song talks about never letting go of someone’s hand when just hours ago Hibiki was forced to leave Miku behind.


Themes In This Episode: 

Tsubasa as a sword. After Kanade’s death, Tsubasa seems to have closed herself off to everyone. She keeps referring to herself as a sword or a weapon. She sees herself as someone who only exists to fight the Noise and who has no need for emotions. And yet… we see that Tsubasa still has those emotions she does not want. She attempts to fight Hibiki because she is so angry at the cheerful girl’s insistence that she can replace Kanade. She seems to often think back to the moment where Kanade died. She insists she cannot even be upset, but she clearly is often mad at everyone when she isn’t able to hide her emotions from the world. Just fighting against the Noise is not enough for Tsubasa, but she hasn’t been able to admit that she needs more than fighting to be a full person.

Things Hibiki wants to protect. Hibiki isn’t helping things. It has taken her more than a month to start to grasp why Tsubasa refuses to fight along side her. I think what Hibiki says near the end, that she too has things she wants to protect, is her first real attempt to reach out to Tsubasa. It may not be the best attempt, but Hibiki seems to have realized that one of the reasons Tsubasa is so cold towards her is that Tsubasa thinks she has no real reason for being a Symphogear user. Of course, the only response that declaration got from Tsubasa was an emotionless glare, so we don’t know if Hibiki got through at all.

Hibiki lying to Miku. Over and over again Hibiki is abandoning Miku to fight the Noise. It is making both of them frustrated and we’ve already seen Hibiki take out that frustration on the Noise. It was actually kinda scary watching Hibiki literally tear apart the creatures that pose an unstoppable threat to humanity! But we also have to wonder how much longer Miku will keep covering for Hibiki. Or what might happen if Miku finds out what Hibiki is doing. Miku also seems like a good target to capture in order to force Hibiki to do something…


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Ryoko notes that Hibiki has caught her interest.

In addition to being based on their relic fragments, each Symphogear users’ armed gears embody their will to fight on the battlefield. Tsubasa sees herself as a weapon, as a sword, so she is heavily sword themed and her armed gear is a large sword that she uses in various special attacks. Will Hibiki’s armed gear just be Kanade’s spear?

That headquarters was designed by Ryoko with pagan and modern technologies and is thought to be a completely safe place seems like it’ll come back up later.


Moment By Moment Notes:

0:14 – A montage of Hibiki not doing so well. But, then, Tsubasa probably isn’t going out of her way to teach her, either.

0:36 – They’ve been this way for an entire month!

2:16 – Miku is researching meteor showers while Hibiki is writing a report on the Noise.

2:47 – Hecke Hetchara (I’m fine, no big deal).

3:26 – Hibiki has really caught Sakarai’s attention

3:59 – An armed gear embodies each’s user’s will to fight on the battlefield.

4:55 – Heaven’s Wrath – Wow, Tsubasa jumps high, throws her sword out which changes to building sized, then both her and the sword light up for a giant rocket kick!

4:58 – Wow! Genjuro just punched and put up a shield that destroyed Tsubasa’s giant sword to pieces and destroyed a large section of the road sending Tsubasa flying!

5:31 – Genjuro likes his movies.

6:12 – Wow, exactly the wrong thing to say! That slap is well deserved!

7:02 – Ouch… she couldn’t even see Tsubasa as she died. And what an odd, unfulfilling last line. (Totally excellent… just not what Tsubasa needed.) 🙁

10:05 – Ha, she was just working on a report!

10:14 – What happened 13 years ago? Is that just when the world could prove Noise exists?

11:21 – So Durandal (almost certainly a sword, it’s a sword from European legend) is going to be much more powerful than the Symphogear?

13:37 – Pagan and modern technology?

13:59 – That Tsubasa was approached by a British record company was mentioned on the news before…

14:46 – “Swords have no such emotions”

14:44 – Whoa!! Sakuri… that’s way over the line isn’t it!

15:18 – Hibiki thinks she is cursed.

15:34 – This isn’t an anime.

15:55 – Miku is the best. This time for helping with homework.

16:40 – The idea of seeing the shooting starts keeps coming up again and again.

16:57 – Miku was on the track team.

18:11 – The Noise may be an unstoppable enemy of humanity, but I’d run if I saw a high school girl turn and stare at me like that!

18:41 – One thing I’ve been noticing is that they always show the wave of energy released after a Symphogear user transforms… Always show it hitting the Noise… I wonder why?

2020: Whoa! Hibiki getting a little dark here. (And literally!?) Not just about not seeing the stars, but about losing her ordinary life because of the Noise.

21:06 – Tsubasa?! It’s her song!

21:30 – “I have things I want to protect, too!” This is less Hibiki realizing that she has things to protect… she wants to protect everyone… and more her trying to connect with Tsubasa.

21:48 – A new voice. Our first speaking villain?

22:01 – And this girl is wearing the Nehushtan armor? Was she involved in the attack two years ago? Was she involved in Kanade’s death?!


Symphogear Episode 02: Noise and Disharmony

Episode Summary:

We rejoin the action from last episode with Hibiki completing her transformation sequence. She is now clad in the same type of armor that Kanade wore two years ago. Even the instruments at 2nd Division headquarters identify the signature of her armor as Gungnir, much to everyone’s surprise!

A new song springs to Hibiki’s lips as she takes hold of the girl she’s been trying so hard to protect. Hibiki makes a superhuman leap off the top of the building she and the girl were on and lands unharmed on the ground far below. From there, she manages to first evade and then even fight back against the Noise. Where before, the Noise would have turned Hibiki to ash on contact, now Hibiki is even able to punch one with no problem. Hibiki clearly doesn’t have a feel for her new powers, though, as she crashes into buildings left and right unintentionally as she tries to get away. Despite that, she manages to keep herself and the little girl in one piece until Tsubasa can make a flashy entrance.

Tsubasa easily deals with the Noise, but then she and the staff from 2nd Division arrest Hibiki! They take her back to their headquarters which, it turns out, is located below Hibiki’s school, Lydian Private Music Academy. Although Tsubasa treats the moment as a somber, serious one, Genjuro and the others at headquarters upend the serious mood by throwing Hibiki a surprise welcome party.

Hibiki says an awkward hello to everyone, but is quickly carted off by Ryoko for a medical exam. Hibiki returns home to her dorm that evening worn out only to find a worried Miku waiting for her. That night, as the two fall asleep together, Hibiki tells Miku not to worry to which Miku responds that of course she is going to worry over her friend. Unfortunately, Hibiki is not allowed to tell Miku the truth of what happened.

The next day, we see that Tsubasa is not at all happy with the fact that Hibiki has somehow inherited Kanade’s powers. Back at school, Hibiki wants to go eating with her friends but instead has to report back to 2nd Division to get the results of her medical examination and an explanation of her powers.

It turns out that Ryoko Sakurai, the self described brains of 2nd Division, crafted special pendants from fragments of ancient relics which can only be used by a small number of Attuned individuals. They use songs to harness the power of these relics and form Symphogear armor. This special armor lets its user fight against the Noise who are impervious to seemingly all other forms of attack.

We further learn that the reason Hibiki can transform, even without a Relic pendant, is that she still has tiny pieces of Kanade’s Gungnir embedded within her from the Noise attack two years ago. Upon learning this, Tsubasa leaves the room, unable to handle her mixture of outrage and grief. Hibiki soon follows her and joyfully promises to help her fight the Noise, not realizing that she herself is part of the reason Tsubasa is so distraught.

At that moment a collection of Noise appear nearby and both Tsubasa and Hibiki go to confront them. Tsubasa engages a giant noise that forms when a bunch of smaller ones merge together. Hibiki manages to help out a little before Tsubasa destroys the giant creature.

In the aftermath, Hibiki begs Tsubasa to be allowed to fight alongside her, to which Tsubasa aims her sword at Hibiki and angrily says that yes, the two of them really should fight…


Episode Impressions: 

This was a rather subdued, exposition-heavy episode. We got a few minutes of combat at the beginning and end, but for the most part this episode was about two things: Explaining how the Symphogear armor works, and showing us Tsubasa’s mental state following Kanade’s death two years prior.

I like that the Symphogear armors are, in essence, technological. They harness a not very well understood power, sure, but they do so via technology. That Hibiki and most others barely understand how it works doesn’t really matter. Ryoko does, and that’s what’s important.

It was also good to see that the tragedy at the concert did have a major effect on Tsubasa. She doesn’t appear shy anymore, but she seems to have traded that shyness for a not entirely successful attempt at being an unfeeling warrior.


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

That brief moment as Hibiki holds out her hand to the little girl and cradles her in her arms. There’s a powerful strength there that I really liked.

Tsubasa’s final, as yet unnamed, finishing attack when she arrived to rescue Hibiki. She took out that large noise by impaling it with a sword the size of a medium sized building!

Hibiki’s admission that she barely understood any of the information she’d just been given about the Symphogear. Her voice and bemused, closed-eyed smile is just so cute in that moment!

The way Tsubasa had to leave the room as they started talking about why Hibiki could summon a Symphogear. Tsubasa is clearly not doing ok with her loss.


Songs In This Episode: 

Gekisou Gungnir (Gungnir, the Striking Spear) – This is Hibiki’s first song as a Symphogear users. Like most of the songs sung during combat, it is the voiced expression of her current thoughts and emotions.

Her song here is pretty neat. She’s basically saying that her singing is enough to bridge the communication gap between people that words sometimes cannot. And, that she’s going to use this newfound power of song to push forward into the future. Her song is kinda simple and straight forward, like she is. While there’s a line about not crying, this isn’t a song full of the pain / regret / suffering that Tsubasa’s was last episode. It’s a song of hope and bringing that message of hope to the future.

Also… I love the bagpipes it kicks off with!

Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Ame no Habakiri, the Ultimate Blade) – Tsubasa’s song continues to be awesome. I like its power and the way it feels like something spectacular and imposing is about to happen.


Themes In This Episode: 

Tsubasa vs Hibiki: One of the largest themes throughout this episode is Tsubasa’s reaction to Hibiki inheriting Kanade’s Symphogear. Tsubasa expressed the idea to herself that Hibiki is using a power that should still be Kanade’s. We also see something of a repeat of Kanade’s words about everything being ok as long as she and Tsubasa are together. Obviously, they aren’t together anymore… So, obviously things aren’t ok?

Does Tsubasa see this as Hibiki’s fault? Would she rather Hibiki have died if it meant Kanade could have lived? Hopefully Tsubasa is a better person than that, but it’s possible that kind of negative response is her first, grief-tinted reaction to seeing Hibiki using Gungnir. Or, could it be that Tsubasa doesn’t think Hibiki is up for the hard, life threatening role of being a Symphogear user? Again, we just don’t really know because Tsubasa hasn’t really expressed her feelings at all.

Hibiki, for her part, isn’t doing a lot to win Tsubasa over. Hibiki seems to think promising to fight the Noise alongside Tsubasa is what Tsubasa wants to hear, but it probably isn’t. Hibiki feels like a very energetic personality who tries to fix things by throwing herself into a situation, but so far Tsubasa doesn’t need help. She needs Hibiki to understand what Kanade’s death meant. Hibiki simply saying “I want to help!” isn’t enough. There’s emotions of sadness and grief radiating off of Tsubasa that Hibiki hasn’t even acknowledged yet. Things will probably stay bad between the two until Hibiki gets a clue.

Tsubasa’s offer for herself and Hibiki to fight isn’t a good sign. I don’t think Tsubasa means to actually harm Hibiki, but she might try to scare her away. Or, Tsubasa might take her anger, grief, and frustration out on Hibiki. I think it’s too early for anyone to actually be injured in such a fight, but it is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

That the 2nd Division’s headquarters is built below Hibiki’s school and is a mixture of modern and ancient technology is interesting.

Symphogear relics don’t activate for just anyone and it takes more than someone just humming a song. This would mean those who can summon a Symphogear are special in some way.

Hibiki is converting the power of Gungnir directly instead of using a Symphogear pendant like Tsubasa and Kanade used.

Hibiki is not allowed to tell anyone, Miku included, about her new double life as a super heroine.

Both in this episode and in the first one, the Noise appeared somewhat near the school. Is there a reason for that? Because the headquarters is there?


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:09 – Aufwachen is German for waking up. So… an awakening waveform?

0:19 – Confirmation that Hibiki’s Symphogear is the same as Kanade’s

0:23 – The OP. Remember, we’ll dig into the song and imagery near the end of the season to avoid spoilers.

1:55 – Bagpipes?!

2:15 – I love that little moment where Hibiki reaches out her hand and the girl takes it. That hug Hibiki gives her is so protective while also being bad ass!

3:15 – Hibiki’s first punch!

3:29 – Wait… if military grade guns and missiles don’t affect the noise, then isn’t that a waste of a perfectly good motorcycle?!

4:00 – Blue Flash

4:09 – One Thousand Tears

4:31 – I did not expect a sword that big! But, aww, the attack didn’t get a name. 🙁

4:51 – And that, my friends, is a military grade vacuum cleaner! :p

5:28 – Not even a hint of a smile

7:28 – That moment the elevator emerges into the wider shaft is pretty cool!

8:03 – She’s worried how her picture will look with handcuffs. What a goof!

10:35 – Miku is the best. (This comment will appear frequently. I herby promise to always copy and paste it, every single time.)

12:01 – There’s nothing to fear while we’re together

12:08 – That gear is Kanade’s!

12:16 – I like the random girl playing the horn. It’d be so annoying, but kinda hilarious!

12:25 – Flower is a shop that serves okonomiyaki… which is kinda like pancakes but tends to have vegetables or other stuff layered on top. So… “pancake place” isn’t an exact translation here.

12:36 – Your life is like an anime character’s.

14:30 – So she didn’t just sing at random, the power of the Symphogear relic guided her singing or made her sing?

16:11 – So, there are still some tiny pieces of Kanade’s Gungnir in Hibiki. (Also… isn’t this close to the origin story of Iron Man?! :p)

18:33 – Yeah, Tsubasa doesn’t seem thrilled at that…

19:36 – I think it’s good that the show acknowledges how strange it is to put yourself in the way of unkillable monsters from another dimension…

19:54 – The echo from the emergency speakers is really good.

20:24 – Tsubasa’s first transformation sequence

21:21 – Blue Flash

21:58 – Wait… should fight together or fight against each other?!

22:34 – Huh. This ending animation is actually pretty disturbing! (We’ll talk about it later.)


Symphogear Episode 01: Beat of Awakening

Welcome to the Senki Zessho Symphogear Episode Guide. Symphogear is one of my favorite anime of all time and I’m thrilled to share it with you! First off, a quick programming note. For this season, we’ll be using the Deetruck fan subs. I recommend these because of the way they separate the many songs from the spoken dialogue during episodes.

Episode Summary:

This first episode opens abruptly to the sound of heavy rainfall. We see a girl standing at a bus stop soaked by the rain. We soon see that she’s holding a bouquet of flowers… lilies, most likely… which is soon confirmed as she gets on a bus and travels to a traditional Japanese gravesite. Lilies, if you don’t know are associated with death and remembrance. Oddly, there is destruction all around her in every scene from the bus stop to the gravesite itself. Something bad has happened. Some sort of disaster! Along the way, the girl thinks of an old proverb about a cuckoo and the way it was thought to cough up blood as it sang. The girl narrates that her very best friend, the one whose grave she is apparently visiting, did much the same thing. That she sang on a battlefield even as blood spilled from her mouth!

We cut back to two years prior. The girl that died, whose name we now know is Hibiki, is standing in line for a concert of some kind and her friend, who we now know as Miku, is apologizing for being unable to join her because her family is having to take a trip to visit an ailing aunt.

We cut again, this time to the two singers of Zwei Wing who are about to give their concert. Blue-haired Tsubasa is sitting against a crate nervous and shy with her hand’s folded in worry. She is quickly approached by her partner, Kanade, who is much more relaxed and eager to go on stage. After a brief appearance by their manager, Genjuro, Kanade shares some words with Tsubasa. That she needs to be more flexible, that their audience won’t have much fun if they themselves aren’t having a good time. Pulled free of her shell, Tsubasa, too, is looking forward to performing in the concert. She and Kanade move forward hand in hand.

Meanwhile, Genjuro and spunky, upbeat scientist Ryoko Sakurai are setting up some sort of experiment with a strangely shaped object labeled Nehushtan. There are strange projectors pointed at the object. When Genjuro said that the concert will decide the future of mankind, he might just have meant it!

And now we hit the concert. The light dim, the impressive stadium-spanning stage is lit, and both Kanade and Tsubasa come falling from the heavens to an enthused landing as the crowd goes crazy. The two stand waving to their audience and start in on the impressively paced “Gyakkou no Flugel” (Backlit Wings). They dance and sing in perfect time to the melody until, partway through their song, the lights go out and the music swells and the roof of the stadium splits open into shards to showcase the sunset sky beyond! Our blond-haired girl, Hibiki, is having the time of her life at what is apparently her first concert.

Back at the experiment, it appears that Zwei Wing’s song is charging or empowering the Nehushtan object and that everything is going well. The song ends and another begins, but this time something has gone wrong. The object being empowered grows unstable and an explosion rips apart the middle of the stadium. It appears that the experiment area collapses due to the explosion and that only Genjuro and perhaps a few others survived. Then, from above, come strange flying creatures that look like they don’t quite belong in our world. Both Kanade and the audience recognize these creatures as “Noise” and the concert-goers immediately panic and begin to flee. As they do so the Noise descend and start attacking the audience members. Each person touched is quickly and painfully turned to ash!

Unwilling to let the attack continue, Kanade leaps off the stage and sings a short, echoing chant. A pendant around her neck glows and suddenly she transforms into a form-fitting orange, white, and black suit adorned with armored pieces that form around her. In her hand is a giant spear. She begins singing a new song and, at the same time, beings cutting into the Noise left and right. She takes out individual Noise with powerful swipes of her spear and takes out dozens at a time with powerful ranged attacks. Following behind her is Tsubasa who has also transformed into a blue set of armor and is cutting apart the Noise with a nodachi.

Back in the now empty bleachers, Hibiki has apparently become too shocked at the sight before her to flee. Something happens to Kanade and her power appears to dim. She even makes a comment to that effect, that she can’t go any farther. Above her, the rows of seating smash and crumble and send Hibiki tumbling painfully down to the ground floor of the stadium. The nearby Noise being rushing towards her only to be intercepted by Kanade who is then forced to block a spurt of vile liquid ejected at her by one of the building-sized Noise in front of her. Another Noise joins in and Kanade’s armor cracks and parts of it shatter. A few pieces are blown backwards and strike Hibiki directly in the chest! She falls to the ground in a pool of her own blood.

In a dramatic and chilling moment, Kanade rushes to the blond-haired girl’s side and urges her to keep on living before she then stands and walks calmly towards the large group of Noise arrayed in front of her. With a tear streaming down her face, Kanade lifts her crumbling spear high and sings a soft, chilling song even as Tsubasa yells in desperation for her not to. Back against the wall, our fading, glassy-eyed, Hibiki listens to the beautiful melody. A flow of blood escapes from Kanade’s lips as she finishes her song and then all the Noise present in the stadium are blown away in an instant. And, just like that, Kanade topples sideways to the ground.

Our blond-haired girl is in bad shape. She’s barely able to keep her eyes open now, but she does so just long enough to see Tsubasa embracing her partner. Shockingly, Kanade’s entire body disintegrates and is blown away by the wind as Tsubasa cries painful tears above her. When Hibiki next awakens she is in the middle of an operating room, surprised that she is still alive.

We jump forwards almost two years and find our blond-haired girl, whose full name is named Hibiki Tachibana, attending school with Miku. The two return to their rather spacious dorm room where we find that Hibiki has always had a thing for going far out of her way to help people. And that she choose to attend Lydian Private Music Academy along with Miku because it is the school Tsubasa attends. Two years prior, Hibiki didn’t even know who Zwei Wing were, but now she is a huge fan of Tsubasa’s who has continued her music career solo after Kanade’s death. We find that Hibiki isn’t actually sure of what she saw that day at the concert. She only knows that many people died and that she barely survived with a large scar on her chest.

Elsewhere, members of the Japanese Self Defense Forces are engaging a group of Noise, but find that their bullets and missiles have no effect on the otherworldly creatures. But then, a helicopter flies low overhead and drops a serious, emotionless Tsubasa to the ground right in front of the Noise. Defying Genjuro’s orders, Tsubasa engages the enemies before her, and in an impressive display of power, she strikes them down with a quick combination of powerful close and long ranged attacks.

The next day, Hibiki finally gets her chance to meet Tsubasa, but their encounter doesn’t go like she hoped. Tsubasa, still emotionless, merely points out that Hibiki has some rice on her face before moving on. Later, Hibiki races to a music shop in the nearby city eager to pick up Tsubasa’s latest CD when disaster strikes. It seems the Noise have been rampaging nearby and have already killed several civilians. Hibiki hears a scream and runs to assist a little girl cornered by them. The two flee across a stream and up a highway as Hibiki remembers a little bit more of what happened to her at the concert. Hibiki and the girl manage to reach a high rooftop in what looks to be an industrial complex. For a moment it looks like they are safe, but then they see that the Noise have surrounded them.

With the Noise nearly upon them, a familiar chant springs to Hibiki’s lips. Her voice echoes as she sings it and then she falls to her hands and knees as the same orange, white, and black armor that Kanade wore encases her! Hibiki stands up with a frightening look of power in her eyes as the episode ends.


Episode Impressions: 

I thought this was a pretty strong opening episode. If it’s job was to get me hooked for a second episode, then I’d say it did a great job. The concert scene and battle scene was almost custom made for me seeing as I come from a Macross background where of course singing and combat go hand in hand. And Hibiki’s transformation was a great mini cliffhanger that promised more cool things to come.

I also thought this episode did a good job establishing characters. Hibiki as the goof with a heart of gold, and Tsubasa as first a shy girl and then as a no-nonsense warrior. And I liked the way they did both of these. So much of Tsubasa’s character was established just by her sitting nervously in her cloak. And Hibiki, her little chant about buying the CD as she ran was almost all we needed from her.

Technically the episode had a couple of blemishes. Both the bus Miku gets on and the oil tanker coming into port in the beginning just looked a bit off. A couple of the 3d camera moves in the concert scene were a bit unnatural, as well. But beyond that, the art, animation, sound, and music were all somewhere between good and excellent. If the show can keep itself at this level all the way through then I think it will be very enjoyable.


Specific Scenes I Loved: 

Kanade and Tsubasa’s introduction. All it took was a sit and a hug and a few words to set up Tsubasa’s reserved character and Kanade’s far more outgoing personality. Sure, Tsubasa’s declaration that they could do anything as long as they were together instantly made me fear things would end badly, but it was pretty cool seeing a relatively small amount of animation do so much work in establishing two characters.

The concert, of course! Symphogear was produced by a studio called Satelight who has plenty of experience combining anime and music. Their work in this episode was near the top of their game with only the concert scenes in one of their previous series, specifically the Macross Frontier movies, potentially topping this one. Here, the hand drawn animation was downright excellent and the computer animated stadium in the background and camera movements that put the two together were pretty good, as well. The opening couple of shots of Kanade and Tsubasa dancing are a little stiff, a little unnatural in the way the camera moves in exactly one direction and doesn’t vary the speed of its movement much. These first few shots feel just a bit too mechanical, and the zooms are a bit too abrupt to start and stop. But the animation of Kanade and Tsubasa keeps up to even those somewhat jerky movements perfectly! That shot a little later on where the camera spins out into the audience is pretty darn cool. As a first try at a dynamic, engaging concert, this was pretty good, if maybe just a tad too ambitious for what they were able to pull off. But you can see the high bar they are aiming for. And they got pretty close to achieving it!

That brief moment during the concert where the roof lights up with Kanade and Tsubasa’s colors then opens to reveal the sunset is surprisingly powerful. Great combination of animation and music.

The battle against the Noise at the concert. So many cool things happen so quickly. Kanade taking out dozens of Noise with her special attacks. Her and Tsubasa’s cool run towards the camera where they destroy the Noise standing in their way. Kanade’s Superb Song and the way it saves the day at the cost of her life.

Tsubasa’s present day fight against the Noise. She disobeys orders to engage, but there’s no sign that she finds much joy in her victory. She wasn’t in a revenge rage, either. It was more like she was fighting out of a sense of duty but without a sense of satisfaction. As if the duty was her only reason for fighting now. Also, note her “One Thousand Tears” attack. It looks very similar to Kanade’s “Stardust Foton”. I think it is basically the same attack performed by Tsubasa in tribute or remembrance of Kanade with a new name that expresses Tsubasa’s sorrowful feelings.

Hibiki’s flight from the Noise. She is doing everything she can to keep herself and the little girl alive and in doing so she remembers that similar order that Kanade gave her two years before.

Hibiki’s first transformation. With Kanade, the transformation looked intentional and almost mechanical the way her armored pieces attached themselves to her. With Hibiki, all that techno-crap emerging from her body looked uncontrolled and painful! Is that the way she will transform every time, or was it a one off because it was her first transformation? Or do these heroines always transform like that and we just didn’t see it from Kanade or Tsubasa’s point of view?


Songs In This Episode: 

Gyakkou no Flugel (Backlit Wings) – This song was a fantastic choice to open the series and a great way to open the first concert. Its concert version is exciting, and it was great to see that the audience knew the song and was able to shout out some of the key lyrics. The song itself is about friendship, possibly even romance, and the way music can inspire people to support each other as they reach towards lofty goals together.

Orbital Beat – We only hear the very beginnings of this song as things start to go wrong at 2nd Division’s headquarters. Unfortunately, it is cut off by the explosion before we get to hear any of its lyrics. It’s actually a pretty cool song and we’ll get to hear it someday. For now, it is important to know that practically all of the voiced songs you hear in Symphogear have full length versions. Even Gyakkou no Flugel above was just a shortened two minute version of what is a five minute song.

Kimi to Iu Oto Kanade Tsukiru Made (Play Out the Sound That Is You to the Very End) – This is a personal song of Kanade’s that is all about her friendship with Tsubasa. It starts with reflections on her past days before the horror with the Noise began. Then it moves to talk about how the two of them can go anywhere they wish, even above the sadness they both face. The most chilling part is the idea put forth that maybe she and Tsubasa met so that they could survive these tragic days together. This shortened versions then ends with Kanade promising to sing along side Tsubasa until her very end… which of course comes a short time later.

Like all the Symphogear songs sung during combat, Kanade’s final song is an amplified reflection of the thoughts and feelings flowing from her heart. The two things she is thinking about are her gentle past that now seems like a miracle to her in its normality, and her relationship and partnership with Tsubasa. For a song that Kanade charges into battle with, it’s almost like she somehow already knows that things aren’t going to go well.

Zessho (Superb Song) – The lyrics here seem entirely meaningless. They read:

Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal
Emustolronzen Finé el balal zizzl
Gatrandis babel ziggurat edenal
Emustolronzen Finé el zizzl

At this point in the series, this song’s power and weight comes from Kanade’s tragic end. We’ll hear this song again at some point and learn some more about it. This is a key song in Symphogear, and you’ll hear bits and pieces of its melody spread all throughout the series. There will be more to say about the Superb Song in this season and beyond, but I’ll leave it at this for now.

Shiritsu Lydian Ongakuin Kōka (The Lydian Private Music Academy Anthem) – This is a fairly simple, straight forward song about greeting the sun and believing in one’s self even if you find tears at some point in your future. It’s kinda a classic Japanese school song. You can hear similar songs all across anime given so many shows feature students at school. Again, we only hear part of this song, the first half or so.

Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Ame no Habakiri, the Ultimate Blade) – This is Tsubasa’s main character song this season. We get a pretty abbreviated version of it here, one that even skips some of the lyrics to fit in the bits important to the scene. I found three fairly different translations of the lyrics, but they all point to Tsubasa singing her grief at Kanade’s death along side the possibly suicidal resolve that the loss of her closest ally has given Tsubasa as she continues her fight. It all ties together by saying that the bond she had with Kanade is what now powers or drives her blade.

This song will quickly become synonymous with Tsubasa, and we’ll hear it again in multiple different versions thought the season.

Synchrogazer – Although it is heard at the end of the first episode, this is actually the opening song for this season. One of the things I’ll do is save discussion of the opening and ending songs for the end of each season so we can talk about both the songs and the imagery they are paired with, without going into spoilers.


Themes In This Episode: 

Self Sacrifice: Right out of the gate we have Miku talking about how Hibiki dies on the battlefield with blood spilling out of her mouth. I think the implication is that Hibiki will sacrifice herself singing her Superb Song much the same way Kanade did in this episode. So, I think our first real theme in Symphogear is the willingness to sacrifice one’s self for others. If anything, Kanade sacrificed herself to save just one person. It seems she could have withdrawn if Hibiki hadn’t fallen near her. She definitely knew she was at her limit, but she stayed and died for Hibiki’s sake.

Being Flexible: Kanade and Tsubasa’s early conversation before the concert gives us at least a couple more themes. We have Tsubasa being shy / frightened / worried because, in Kanade’s words, she was taking the concert (and the simultaneous experiment?) too seriously. But maybe more profound was Kanade’s statement about oaks falling in the wind while more flexible reeds will live on. Given the harder edge we saw demonstrated by Tsubasa in the present day, could she have become even more inflexible after Kanade’s death? Finally, I think Kanade’s idea that the audience won’t have fun if the performers aren’t might come back, too. Really, I think everything is pointing to Tsubasa having to learn or relearn these lessons after Kanade’s death.

Don’t Give Up Living: Another bit of wisdom from Kanade is the phrase that has saved Hibiki twice now. “Don’t give up living” seems like something that might come back up again. Certainly, Hibiki remembered it as she was on the run from the Noise, but I can see her giving that advice to someone else in the future, as well.

Helping People: It’s mentioned a couple of times that Hibiki just likes helping people. I think that’s going to be her early motivation. Not to be a hero or fight evil, necessarily, but to help those in need. Presumably, she’ll be much more able to help people, even against Noise attacks, once she completes her transformation.


Special Attacks In This Episode: 

I love the title cards that pop up as various characters pull off their powerful special attacks. We’ll see repeat attacks, for sure, but there’s always the chance that we’ll come across a new one.

Things You Should Pay Attention To: 

Hopefully the subtitles you are using noted what it said on the back page of the newspaper Miku’s father was reading early in the episode. If not, it said something like: “Rescued Japanese Girl Goes Missing – Survivor of Guerrilla War in South America” Yes. This will be important later.

That Nehushtan armor appears to have woken up or activated but we didn’t find out what happened to it or if it was the cause of the Noise attack. They seemed to be using song energy, “phonic gain”, from the concert to power it or awaken it… so, maybe the same process attracted the Noise?

When Kanade’s armor shatters, its shrapnel strikes Hibiki. We see Hibiki’s large scar mid-episode. And at the end her transformation starts with her chest glowing with power. I think it’s pretty clear Hibiki has inherited Kanade’s powers.


Moment By Moment Notes: 

0:03 – Wow, what a way to open a series. Loud, sad rain. And quite a bit of destruction even in the very first background!

1:02 – Here’s our first image of main character Hibiki Tachibana. Note that the picture has had the left portion torn away.

1:41 – That’s one cool looking venue. I guess it’s a stadium but powered by its own giant solar panel?

1:58 – So, the girl we first met in the rain is Miku.

2:05 – Depending on your subtitles, you may miss the key moment. The back of the newspaper reads something like: “Rescued Japanese Girl Goes Missing – Survivor of Guerrilla War in South America”

2:22 – Here is our very first look at Tsubasa Kazanari. She look rather sad / worried!

2:33 – And here’s Kanade Amou. I love how they manage to convey her more outwardly excitement with just the way she sits even before we see her face.

2:56 – And here is Genjuro Kazanari, he seems to be the group leader.

3:17 – Ha, what a fun way to introduce a character, by having her announce her name as she answers a phone call. Yes, this is Ryoko Sakurai, clearly some kind of scientist.

3:43 – This cool looking stadium and giant circular stage was the moment I first perked up and started really paying attention to Symphogear.

4:04 – Kanade’s philosophy here is important.

4:53 – Our first concert sequence of Symphogear, and in a lot of ways its most important by far! Song here is Gyakkou no Flugel (Backlit Wings).

5:18 – This hand drawn animation synced to the computer animated background is really cool.

6:03 – Something about the progression of those lines and the swell of the music make this an oddly powerful moment!

7:30 – Things going wrong in the foreground. In the background is the song Orbital Beat.

7:48 – Our very first look at the Noise.

8:02 – Symphogear isn’t an overly violent show, but here at the beginning it certainly sets the stakes and shows it isn’t playing around with the horror of the Noise.

8:38 – Our first transformation of the series. Also kicks off Kanade’s song Kimi to Iu Oto Kanade Tsukiru Made (The Sound Called You Plays Until It Burns Out)

9:30 – Stardust Foton. Our first named attack via freeze frame title card. These are common throughout Symphogear and pretty awesome, all around!

9:42 – Something has gone wrong with that… armor. Did it call the Noise to the concert?

9:57 – Last Meteor. I love the implications there. An attack named after the thing that killed off the dinosaurs?!

10:04 – I love this bit of animation of Kanade and Tsubasa running forward taking out Noise as they go!

10:26 – Kanade’s words here, and her inability to go further, are important.

11:15 – Note that a portion of Kanade’s Symphogear armor broke off and the shrapnel hit Hibiki.

11:36 – “Don’t give up living” – another phrase that is important.

12:09 – Look how many came to listen today. Is she talking about the people who came to her concert, the Noise who are arrayed out before her, or both? Whatever the case, that line gives me chills.

12:22 – That tear.

12:27 – Our first Superb Song. Also chilling.

13:05 – That blood!

13:34 – That brief moment where you see her body burn away and her head come detached…

13:59 – Lydian Private Music Academy serves as a backdrop for the series.

14:14 – Hibiki’s lifelong hobby is helping others. Including this cat that got stuck in a tree.

14:54 – Tsubasa survived that concert as well. Important to note that just two years ago Hibiki didn’t know who Zwei Wing was. Now, she’s a huge Tsubasa fan!

16:25 – This song is Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Ame no Habakiri, the Ultimate Blade) and serves as Tsubasa’s character song throughout the season and occasionally beyond.

16:58 – Wright Slayer

17:02 – One Thousand Tears. (These seem pretty similar to Kanade’s Stardust Foton. I think this is an inherited / copycat attack that Tsubasa developed as a sorrowful tribute to her lost partner!

17:14 – Blue Flash. Love the traditional Japanese art background on this one!

18:21 – Thanks, Miku… But yes, Hibiki is kinda a weirdo.

18:46 – Yep, total weirdo. But I love her little chant as she runs!

20:16 – Don’t give up living!

20:32 – A gentle yet powerful song…

21:20 – If you listen closely, you can hear “Gungnir” as part of Hibiki’s transformation chant. Go back and listen to Kanade’s and Tsubasa’s and their respective Symphogears (Gungnir and Ame no Habakiri) are part of their chants as well.

22:09 Whoa! That does not look pleasant! Notice how her actual armor forms and deforms around her arms and legs and head after each burst of techno-machinery emerges and goes back into her.


What Makes Senki Zesshō Symphogear So Awesome?

When I found it a few years ago, I had no idea that Senki Zessho Symphogear would quickly become one of my favorite anime series of all time. It is a fun, uplifting, semi sci-fi spin on the classic magical girl genre that’s filled with awesome action, awesome music, awesome characters, awesome messages, and awesome stories told over five seasons. Here’s a brief description of a scene set in one of the show’s later episodes that is emblematic of why I love this anime so much:

Our main character, 17 year old Hibiki Tachabana, has just survived a powerful trap set by her team’s enemies. She did so by drawing on a never before used power granted to her by her Symphogear armor thanks to some key events that occurred in the prior season. After a flashy re-transformation sequence which sees her normally orange and white outfit slimmed down and adorned in shiny gold, she breaks out into a triumphant song about bravery and kindness as she now easily rebuffs the enemies who had moments ago been giving her so much trouble. With a few brilliantly animated blocks and punches in time with her self-sung lyrics, she swats two of her three foes aside before the final one unleashes a flurry of missiles at her.

Explosions light up the screen, and for a moment the scene is filled with smoke, but then Hibiki, still singing, her voice alive with righteous fury, bursts through the lingering haze fist first, completely unharmed. Her powerful punch careens towards the enemy leader’s face, certain to be a killing blow…

….but at the last possible moment Hibiki pulls back her punch, her fist mere centimeters away from striking true. She holds her attack there for a moment as if to make the point “I could have killed you.” But then her face breaks out into a kind, almost sympathetic smile as she unclenches her fist and turns her hand over to reach out an open, welcoming palm to her enemy.

“I don’t know if you were telling the truth or not, but you said you wished we could be friends… So…” Hibiki offers.

The above action sequence lasts just under three minutes but it contains all the pieces that make Symphogear one of the best anime I’ve ever watched. Without going too much farther into episode specific spoilers, let me break down just why I love this show so much.

1. It Has Awesome Action

While Symphogear isn’t as outrageously high budget as something like Akudama Drive or Ufotable’s various action oriented shows like Unlimited Blade Works or Demon Slayer, its action scenes and general animation quality are pretty good. Even its first season, which was produced with a lower budget and leaner crew, gets a lot right as far as action scenes go. Choreography, shot composition, tension, impact, and visual effects. They are all there from the very beginning. And the show just gets better and better by leaps and bounds as it moves into later seasons.

In particular, Symphogear’s action scenes deliver just about everything you’d want from what is essential a Magical Girl show that has traded the traditional frilly costumes of the genre for cool looking, form fitting power armor. From tense one on one battles, to smaller meaningful paired team ups, to the whole team squaring off against armies of minions, to exciting season ending boss fights, Symphogear has it all. There’s a lot of variety across the five seasons and the show is constantly able to one up itself while still remaining consistent with what came before.

One of the coolest things Symphogear does with its combat are the stylized freeze frames it holds for a second or two when one of the heroines utilizes one of her signature special attacks. These named attacks become integral parts of each character and are a joy to watch even if they only last a brief moment at a time.

Oh, and hold onto your hat for each season’s opening episode. Starting with the second season, the show goes all out with its first episodes to remind you just how awesome Symphogear is. We’re talking about extended action sequences that could easily be the finales of other shows!

2. It Has Awesome Music

All those actions scenes above? They are all of them set and choreographed and timed to various forms of awesome music. And it’s not just music. They’re all set to singing. You see, the Symphogear armors that our heroines wear are powered by myths and songs, with the songs felt deep within each wearer’s heart being the far more important of the two. Inevitably, at least one of the heroines in any given combat sequence will be pouring her thoughts and feelings into her singing in order to fuel her powers. This leads to some pretty powerful lyrics that express the main characters’ hopes and fears and doubts and dreams all while they are fighting for what they most believe in.

Each of the Symphogear armors emerge from pendants that contain fragments of a different relic from the pages of history, so likewise each of the wearers personalities and combat styles fit into a theme that draws heavily on the history of their relic. One relic’s origins came from the remaining fragments of a legendary Japanese sword, so its wielder naturally comes from a traditional Japanese family and uses a powerful nodachi as she sings lyrics with a traditional Japanese bent. This kind of thing goes for all of the Symphogear users and it affects the feeling of each combat scene. One battle might feature J-Pop, while another might be steeped in heavy rock music. And the thing is, the fights really do match up to the music. Sword slashes, heavy punches, missile barrages, and more are all well timed to the songs being sung. It can be a sight to behold as attacks, dodges, blocks, and special techniques all flow in time to the various beats.

Symphogear has a lot of songs sung by its core cast of characters, but even so, there’s more combat sequences by far than there are unique songs in each season, so you will hear some repetition. Fortunately, the show varies up which parts of the songs you hear in order to keep things fresh. More than that, the series also does a pretty good job of introducing new songs right when they are needed. Getting a powerful new song at a turning point in the plot or after a key moment in a character’s growth can be quite the thrill.

There’s also a handful of songs separate from the combat that I really love. Most notably are the concert scenes that show up roughly once per season. One of the Symphogear users truly loves to sing as a profession, not just as as part of defending the world from evil, and her concerts throughout the series are masterful showcases of music and animation.

3. It Has Awesome Characters

Symphogear’s action and music would be pretty soured without a cast of awesome characters to hold things together. Fortunately, the series doesn’t slack in that regard, either. Each of the handful of Symphogear users are interesting, fully rounded characters. They face their own personal problems on and off the battlefield. Sometimes they fail to meet their own expectations. But they also have plenty of instances where they triumph or support each other in their times of need.

Take Tsubasa Kazanari, one of the first Symphogear wearers we meet. As a shy child growing up, she was found to be compatible with a Symphogear relic and was trained over the course of the next decade or so to help defend the world from threats no one else could face. Tragic events early on in the first season see her abandon her normal wants and needs in order to shape herself into a self described sword. For the next couple of years she lives as a shell of a person whose one and only stated desire is to become strong enough to make sure nobody else under her protection is ever harmed again.

Tsubasa is a powerful warrior who is capable of being an excellent mentor and a true friend. In her ideal world, her singing would be used to comfort and entertain and would not be needed for combat. Thus, she tries all the harder to fight for that ideal world when it becomes necessary. Special note should be paid to Tsubasa’s phoenix imagery which, on occasion, sees her rise up from her own challenges and defeats to some of the show’s most inspiring heights.

In practice, Tsubasa acts as a brooding warrior who is highly protective of her friends even to a fault. She can be encouraging and occasionally her words are enormously helpful to those around her, but sometimes she is too caught up in her own troubles to help others. Though the Symphogears don’t really have a team leader, Tsubasa might be the closest thing to one as she is often the one calling out strategies during battle.

Or, take main character Hibiki Tachibana who only gains the use of her Symphogear after being injured in a rescue attempt by Tsubasa and her partner. Though she struggles during her two long years of recovery, Hibiki somehow manages to maintain her fun loving nature and her deep desire to help others.

Where Tsubasa is heavily themed after the concept of blades and swords, Hibiki takes on a unique role among the Symphogear users as the only one who doesn’t wield a separate weapon. Though Hibiki fights her battles with some truly impressive punches and kicks, her true power is that of carrying the show’s core message of reaching out to one’s enemies in an attempt to bring peace through understanding. Sometimes she struggles with upholding her ideals. Sometimes she laments the fact that that her Symphogear powers only seem good for dealing with the “little problems” of villains who want to destroy the world. Super strength and a punch that can smash nearly anything aren’t much help when she alienates a friend or when she has to face down long lingering family issues. But, when push comes to shove, it’s Hibiki’s mighty clenched fists that can be opened to form helpful, outstretched hands that ultimately win the day.

In practice, Hibiki is the naive, hopeful goof of the team. She is always encouraging others, always pushing her more serious teammates to live a little and have some good, wholesome fun. At school, she is perpetually behind on her homework because she takes any and every opportunity to help those around her. On the battlefield, she is often the team’s ace in the hole, especially once the final boss is in sight.

It’s not just the core group of Symphogear users that makes Symphogear great. There’s a small but fun cast of secondary characters and some terrific villains as well. The villains in Symphogear range from cruelly self absorbed to frighteningly focused to uncompromisingly righteous to scarily silly. Each of the main villains is memorable and distinct, and they really round out the show by providing excellent foils to the Symphogear users.

4. It Has Awesome Messages

Consistent across the seasons of Symphogear is an oft repeated core message that says understanding one another and working through our conflicts peacefully is the only true way forward. Sure, the show features tons of combat and explosions, but in the end, every single time, it’s this message of compassion and forgiveness that is the real way out of conflict. It doesn’t mean the show is timid by any means. This core message is sometimes delivered in some pretty awe-inspiring ways. What better way to show an enemy the error of their ways than to reach out to them when they are at their most vulnerable? Similar messages are at the hearts of many of the best magical girl shows, but Symphogear puts this theme so front and center, and expertly integrates it so directly into its plots that it’ll have you cheering for that inevitable outstretched hand.

Additionally, the show puts forth a handful of other themes that have a bit less focus but are still pretty inspiring. Themes like redemption, renewal, and admitting one’s weaknesses come up again and again. While the overall theme of reaching out drives the biggest moments of the plot, these lesser themes lead to some pretty powerful personal moments for many of the show’s main characters over the course of the five seasons.

5. It Has Awesome Stories

The first season of Symphogear would be one of my favorite anime if it simply stood alone. It does a good job balancing excitement, sorrow, humor, and touching moments. That the series has five awesome seasons produced back to back, all of which at least match the first season story wise, just kinda blows me away. Each season is its own story and has its own set of villains, but the main and secondary characters remain and certainly the show’s themes form a repeating through-line across all the seasons. While each story does largely stand on its own, key events from past seasons do frequently come back in neat ways that make the series as a whole feel cohesive. The fifth season, in particular, is something of a victory lap that pulls back in elements from the other seasons in pretty awesome ways.

It’s not just the show’s immediate plots that are awesome. It’s the way the series emotionally resonates by leveraging all the other pieces. Whether it is referencing events from the previous season or from the previous episode, Symphogear has this knack for landing strong, uplifting emotional beats again and again based on what came before. Pulling off moments that warm your heart is almost as much a part of Symphogear as the fight scenes are. And you don’t get that in what is predominately an action series without the show being willing to take the time to tell good stories.

All in all, Symphogear is a show that saw me fist pump the air in overjoyed excitement several times throughout the seasons and had me leaping to my feet on occasion as it drove home its climaxes. It’s a show that has quite a bit of goofiness but mixes that with a well-appreciated maturity of storytelling. While its cast does face down some serious troubles and doubts from time to time, it’s not a show that is overly dark or depressing or filled with gore like a lot of magical girl shows seem to be these days. I wouldn’t want every show to attempt to be Symphogear. It has a direct, almost over the top, complex-simplicity that I think might be impossible to replicate. But it also knows that it wants to be an awesome action show with a big heart and good message, and it pretty unfailingly hits its desired mark again and again.

If you are at all interested in Symphogear or the magical girl genre, I’d recommend you give the first season four episodes to win you over. By then, the show will have given you a full taste of all it has to offer.