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: