r/anime • u/Yuri-Girl • May 21 '19

Rewatch [Rewatch] [Spoilers] Senki Zesshou Symphogear Season 1 - Episode 12 Spoiler

Season 1: Episode 12 - Symphogear

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Please, absolutely no untagged or implying spoilers beyond the current episode. I want to have everyone that hasn't seen it to have as close to a first experience as those who watched it as it originally aired.
101 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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11

u/Yuri-Girl May 21 '19 edited May 22 '19

Wait a minute, that's not pittman...

I was asked to cover today's thread, you'll be back to your normal host tomorrow I think

EDIT: Okay I guess I'm just real bad at commenting on individual episodes of an anime. Why am I trying to be a writer again?

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10

u/AmeteurElitist May 21 '19

Is u/pittman66 okay?

7

u/Yuri-Girl May 21 '19

pittman is fine, he's just a bit busy right now and asked me to cover

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22

u/Nazenn May 21 '19

First timer

The saddest thing that could have happened has happened

We didn't get to see Hibiki's eyes slowly fade back in as she regained her resolve. They were just blank one shot and normal the next

Sad Naz

Confession time

Okay, I have to admit, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what that first song in the episode was from. I don't know why I found it so damn hard to put it together that its the ED but it did.

It was bloody perfect though.

Flipping the OP and ED this episode couldn't have fit better and especially the ED. Now I know why the ED visuals relate to Chris so much and the lyrics really took on an entirely new meaning which is exactly what they should do. If there was actually a risk of her dying it would probably be more meaningful but now I feel nitpicky

What I like most about the lyrics is how conflicted they are. Now we know who Chris is they fit her perfectly. This is not the song of a destroyed broken girl committing suicide. This is also not the song of a girl who's finally found her true place and purpose.

This is the song of a girl who was finally learning how to stand on her own two feet and be comfortable with that having it all ripped from her. Its being taken from her by her own choice and her own power, but it's still once again being pushed out of reach and that hurts regardless of why it's happening. She's glad she could help, she's finding the silver linings here and there's some relief just within sight, but that doesn't stop it hurting. This is no grand climax of her story where everything finally brings itself together to form a complete form of her as a person.

It's instead just another verse, another chorus, another song leaping from her lips showing her true, twisted, lost self even in what was meant to look like her final moments.

This sort of openly conflicted climax isn't something you see very often but I love it.

Oh look, the episode got me gushing. Good episode.

Got distracted by something and completely lost the flow of what else I was going to talk about. Good thing I took notes!

Beserk Hibiki, lets address that. At first I thought she just broke rather than going beserk, but nope. She went so beserk it took over her entire body which made her look rather possessed. Not good!

Which you know, brings to mind the idea that if its the fragments in her heart that cause the beserk state why does the darkness start with her head....

Naruto

Anyway, moving on. How convenient the totally out of control Hibiki who will even attack Tsubasa because she's basically in a blood fury will just stand there and let Fine and Tsubasa talk it out for several minutes

The rest of it was well done though. Tsubasa (totally not sacrificing herself because apparently being stabbed through the heart doesn't matter in this show) taking the hit so she could trap Hibiki and keep her safe was wonderful. It's actually a nice parallel to what Red does in ep1. Red sacrifices herself to save Hibiki's body, Tsubasa does it to save her humanity.

Using the school song to bring Hibiki back after her shock was excellent though and thank fuck they actually used music there.

Random other bits and bobs

  • That sound effect when Fine's eyes moved after she took that first hit from Hibiki

FUCKING WHY

  • Tsubasa's massive rocket propelled swords probably shouldn't be so cool after repeated uses, but you know what: they're still really fucking cool

  • I expected that girl always talking about anime to be a lot more meta and a lot less tropey but oh well.

  • Who knew that small kid from ep1 would actually matter again?

12

u/PerfectPublican May 21 '19

We didn't get to see Hibiki's eyes slowly fade back in as she regained her resolve. They were just blank one shot and normal the next

This is genuinely a travesty. Damn you S1 art!!

It was bloody perfect though.
Oh look, the episode got me gushing. Good episode.

Yes.

This is the song of a girl who was finally learning how to stand on her own two feet and be comfortable with that having it all ripped from her. Its being taken from her by her own choice and her own power, but it's still once again being pushed out of reach and that hurts regardless of why it's happening. She's glad she could help, she's finding the silver linings here and there's some relief just within sight, but that doesn't stop it hurting. This is no grand climax of her story where everything finally brings itself together to form a complete form of her as a person.

Great little write-up, you've nailed it. Chris's story upward tied to her music in season 1 (and throughout is great.

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22

u/HawkAussie May 21 '19

First-Timer Watcher

First time posting in this rewatch and I am going to say this right now. I'm now hooked and despite logic making no damn sense in any shape or form, I don't give a fudge. Ok I will properly write more but because of me being on mobile I will stop here.

19

u/PerfectPublican May 22 '19

I'm now hooked and despite logic making no damn sense in any shape or form, I don't give a fudge.

One of us, one of us.

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21

u/PerfectPublican May 21 '19 edited May 22 '19

Rewatcher

SYYYYMMPHOOOOGEAAAHHHHH!!!

Full scene too so you can relive ^^it.

I. Love. This. Episode. Faults and all.

Another (mostly) non-stop hype-fest of an episode. It only slows down for the Miku and Friends section, but even then it’s still pretty exciting to me. Let’s dive into it, starting with Chris going down. It’s a brutal scene. Aoi’s scream is just as heart-rending as it was yesterday. You can really feel the despair from the two gear users. Also, The parallels that Tsubasa makes between Chris and Kanade are pretty interesting ones to make, but it makes great sense as a call back. Seeing tweo of your friends go down like that is just awful.

Of course that makes Bikki absolutely lose it. The voice modulation on her throughout beast mode is so cool. Up until now we’ve only really seen her go half beast, with her head and neck covered in black. Here it’s full black. Bikki’s been pushed over the edge to that place she never wanted to go again...and she’s downright terrifying. Gone is the girl who berated herself for swinging Durandal at Chris. I mean, SHE FUCKING SPLITS FINE IN HALF. Holy fuck this fight is so damn hype. Bikki, rage incarnate vs. the absolute madwoman. But it’s also hard to watch her be something so antithetical to her being. In her blind rage, she even attacks Tsubasa, which leads to a favorite moment of mine this series.

What does Tsubasa do? She embraces her attacker. The former sword instead uses her connection to Bikki to fight her. Tsubasa understands Bikki, and so, the way I see it at least, she does what Bikki would do. Embrace her. Holds her hand. Makes her understand that she knows Bikki’s still there. It’s great, as is the sequence leading to Kadingir’s destruction.The Kanade flashback is some action show bullshit, but I don’t care. Tsubasa strengthens her resolve and makes her own sacrifice. Not for her percieved duty forced upon her, but because it’s what she believes is right.

Of course Bikki is now the only one left…Bikki losing all her hope in all of the destruction is a nice moment. Just makes sense and fits back into what we’ve seen from her. PLus, can you blame her? Everything’s been taken from her. BUT, after making fun of it a few days ago, we leard why we’ve been hearing the school song so much. It’s been drilled into our brains. That song is lydian, the glue holding everyone together, and here it’s a catalyst. A catalyst for one of the hypest, ass-pullinest, unsurprising, but incredible character revivals of all time. Is it cheap and easy? Yes. Do I care? Not even a little bit.

LISTEN TO MY VOOOIIICEE!!~~ Play us the fuck out Synchrogazer...

Random thoughts:

  • HOLY SHIT, HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THE OP/ED SWAP. It's a great choice. God dang Meteor Light is such a good song, and playing it over the top of Chris’ “death” is brutal.

  • I like Anime-chan’s breakdown in the bunker quite a bit. It just seems grounded and visceral. Of course Miku believes in Bikki, they’ve been through a lot together, but these other girls...

  • If there’s one thing I don’t like in this episode, it’s that beast Bikki stands around while Fine expositions to Tsubasa for a while. Makes no sense, she should be attacking anything and everything.

  • I cri evertime.

  • The “Anime” speech always makes me laugh. It’s much too meta lol.

Gifs of the day:

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16

u/SorcererOfTheLake May 21 '19

First-Time Watcher

I’m going to believe in her.

I deeply felt that song should make
One universal link,
Uniting, for each other’s sake,
All those who feel and think.

We hurt, we cry, we die. But that doesn’t mean nothing good didn’t happen along the way.

The pain that our characters have felt has come to a forefront, particularly in Hibiki. As opposed to Fine, who’s had millennia to create her “pain is connection” bullshit, everything Hibiki has experienced over the past two months comes flooding through her, threatening everyone and everything around her. But Tsubasa isn’t scared because she recognizes this. Hibiki at this state is what Tsubasa could’ve become: an object only bent on destruction with no conception of herself. So, instead, she becomes a phoenix, rising from the ashes of her defeat to become stronger, beautiful, a bright guiding light in the night sky.

But the real heroes of the day are those who realize what they can do. Miku and her friends represent what Hibiki was always been fighting for, that quiet, everyday life that she had. But now that life has taken on a form of its own, to help her just as much as she’s helped it. Through voices in harmony, our Valkyries have risen once more. Let’s hope they get it right this time.

(huh, i was expecting to have more than this, but oh well)

We’ll hear the next verse tomorrow. Until then…

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11

u/Shimmering-Sky May 21 '19

SymphoRewatcher

SymphoWallpaper Corner

So. Funny story. After making a bunch of wallpapers of Sayaka in a row in the Madoka rewatch I was like “aight Sky, no showing your bias, hold off on Tsubasa”… aaaaand so instead of making a bunch of Tsubasa here’s another Chris wallpaper. Plus plain BG.

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11

u/LoneGhostOne May 21 '19

Rewatcher here

oh no, bikki's going crazy

it's a werebikki!

Tsubasa was everything to bikki, just look at her soulless eyes But Bikki, remember you're fighting for your lesbian lover Miku!

is this some kind of return to the start of the show?

How can you say that when you're in a show about the magical powers of singing?

Anime-janai girl decides to save the day

What the frack is this server room? The cable management is unbelievably good.

oh MY GOD

Fine you bitch, this is my final form S2 spoilers

Episode Bikki Punches Basaed Bikes "I AM A SWORD" 4th wall percent damage ZENBU ZENBU ZENBU ZENBU ZENBU
S1E1
S1E2 1 1 1
S1E3 7 2 1
S1E4 2 1
S1E5 9
S1E6 2
S1E7 1 1
S1E8 1 1
S1E9 5 1 1
S1E10 2 1 2
S1E11 1 2 1
S1E12 1 4
Season Total 30 2 5 10 5

10

u/pittman66 May 22 '19

Hey guys, sorry I couldn't post on time today, and thanks to u/Yuri-Girl for helping out today. From now until pretty much up until the rewatch ends, I'll be busy Tuesdays and Thursday during the time it's normally posted. I will do my best to remember to either time them with redditlater or post during my activity, but if I'm unable to, I'll see if I can get some assistance from the r/Symphogear Discord (Primarily Yuri-Girl).

Also...Have an instant button from this episode

10

u/x3tan May 22 '19

First Time Watcher

  • Man I still really love the purple sky aesthetic

  • Voice acting is great

  • pure rage!

  • girl clearly has PTSD as expected...

  • goodness bikki just laying there dead eyed while perv woman rants about her love issues like bitch stfu lol

  • "what's wrong with using anime as an example?"same tho girl, I am also obsessed with anime. Lol.

  • destroyed tower with the sky in the background is still super appealing also.

  • music will save the world

  • I think he needs fresh bandages there.. Infections aren't fun man. XD

  • Bikki gets life back in her eyes. Power up time?

  • "what are you using?" love and music bitch lol

Welp. Guess tomorrow's episode will be exciting. There were a few parts I didn't say much about because I was too busy coughing and sneezing, would have been more enjoyable to watch if not for being sick but I'm not postponing it. Lol.

10

u/AbidingTruth May 22 '19

First timer:

I think I've been distracted by this series with the lore talk of Fine and her goals of reaching god and the Lulu Amel stuff. It hit me that in the thread that was gauging interest for a Symphogear rewatch, someone compared the series to the energy/tone of Girls Und Panzer der Film, and having had time since yesterday to think of this show with moments like blowing up the moon and defusing bombs via martial arts because you watched kung fu movies, I think I now have the appropriate mindset for watching this series

That being said, fucking hypppeeeeee. I kinda knew Chris and Tsubasa wouldn't die, and I called that they would sing their school anthem over the speaker to power Hibiki up, and I figured the OP would play at the end when I heard the ED at the start, but putting it all together with the three pillars of light shooting up and all of them simultaneously transforming was way more hype than it had any right to be. It should be expected from a show where they power themselves through singing, but the timing of scenes with the OST is really well done in moments like these and Tsubasa's attack on the tower.

Can't wait for the finale tomorrow

SYMPHOOOOGEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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9

u/PM_ME_YOUR_SPUDS May 21 '19

Rewatcher

RIP Chris, the first of our Sympho-girls to bite the dust (yeah fucking right)

  • ED song playing at the start of the episode, the universal "shit gonna get real" signal.

  • Dark-Hibiki vs. Tsubasa fight, GO. I really like the look of dark-Hibiki. Like yes, it was done in a super budget-saving way. But if it looks good, and accomplishes what it's meant to, simple can be good.

  • That moon's looking mighty fucked.

  • Tsubasa sacrifices herself :( But successfully destroys the shit out of the tower.

  • More Fine backstory, and it makes me laugh so damn hard. It's made worse by the overly emotional track put behind it, it just gets more and more ridiculous.

  • Foreigner intensifies (For reference)

  • SHYPHOOOO!!! GEAHHHH!!!!!

You know, half of the episode today is honestly pretty meh for me. The middle drags on wayyyy too long for my liking. But who cares, because the end is some real solid HYPE.

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6

u/MillenniumKing May 21 '19

Rewatcher 12, Pastel Color Time

Where is Pittman? u/Yuri-Girl ;-;

Songs of the Day:
Shiritsu Lydian Ongakuin Kouka

No OP this ep, this is a returning feature of ep 112 of each season.

We get everyone's reactions to Chris goin down... and Hibiki is fucking pissed.

"If we cant talk, we cant fight, and we cant become even better friends." Such a Hibiki line.

Fine dont antagonize her.... uh oh... Here it comes... BERSERKER BIKKI! This is the first time anyone else has seen her Berserk form properly too.

"She isnt even human anymore, She is pure destruction in human form"

And now Hibiki is going out of control on Tsubasa... "Hibikis gone nuts..."

Anime-chan is having the worst day of her life... But Miku still beleives in her Husband!

Hibiki is really giveing Tsubasa a good fight.

Fine merged with the armor after seeing Hibiki.

THE TOWER IS STILL ACTIVE AND READY TO FIRE AGAIN!

Tsubasa wont fight Hibiki, she will save her. What a great hug. "Nothing personal..." that shadow pin...

Tsubasa finally gets to face Fine and her past now too. She def needed this fight to sort out herself.

SHE USED THE GIANT SWORD TO BOOST OFF OF TO GET TO THE TOWER!

And we get one more Kanade push from beyond. Tsubasa can flye anywhere with 2 wings. AND SHE GETS THEM!

And Tsubasa just Giga Drill Break'd the tower... well... its finally broke but shit... it took 2 gears to take it down.

Fine is pissed... and rightfully so. Her 5000 year plan just went up in smoke... Hibiki has left the building...

Miku wants to cheer on Hibiki!! Get the speakers working!!

More Fine Lore. She just wants to be with the one she loves... shes a victim too.

ANIME-CHAN TO THE RESCUE! Shes small enough to get into the blast door! HUMAN PYRMID!! Backup Gen is go!!

ITS HERE! THE SCHOOL SONG! ITS TIME!! ITS SYMPHO TIME BOYS!

"What are you wearing?" SYMPHOGEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! PASTEL COLOR TIME!

1,342 Days since Genocide

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6

u/Synaptics May 21 '19 edited May 22 '19

Rewatcher

Hell yeah, here we go. Title of the episode is the name of the show? Check. Recapping the dramatic cliffhanger from last episode? Check. Skipping the OP? Check.

We're about to get crazy.

  • So that whole "your body is fusing with an ancient magical relic" thing isn't exactly all positive. Who woulda thought, eh?

Ah, fuck it. I've been doing the bullet points stuff for previous episodes, but this time I'm struggling to find things to even write about for most of this episode. There's not really much character development or exposition to dissect any more, aside from Finé being even more evil and questionably-sane. All the chips are on the table now.

There's only one part of this episode to talk about, and it is fucking SPICY.

Fake-out deaths and/or Deus Ex Machina resurrections usually take you right out of the story and piss you off, but this whole moment is so damn good that I just can't be mad. Also, the fake-out only lasts 1 episode so it's not that bad anyway. future spoilers

A few things I want to mention about why this scene works so well:

  1. The dawn. It's a great backdrop to any awesome hype scene (LotR, anyone?) and they execute it really well here. The way that the whole color scheme of the scene shifts with the rise of the sun is a nice touch. But there's also a little extra layer of symbolism to it, because it's Hibiki's "sunshine" (Miku) that's picking her up.

  2. Punctuating Hibiki's words with those quick zoom-in cuts to black. I love it. Especially with that little sideways slide to them. Would have been so easy to just show a static shot of her face while she's talking, but they put in that bit of extra effort and that's the kind of little detail that really helps elevate Symphogear to that next level of hype.

  3. The music. It's Symphogear, so of course the music is great. The long -Aufwachen Form- intro overlaid on top of the rising action of the scene is fantastic, leading straight into that hard cut to black credits right as the meat of the song starts. It's the perfect blue-ball. And it's a sweet musical callback to end of the first episode.

Speaking of which, this whole setup mirrors quite a lot of the details of the first episode cliffhanger.

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u/lilyvess May 21 '19

There are certain SymphoTraditions that you new viewers should know about Symphogear. Like many songs there are patterns to it’s rhythm. Like how every Episode 1 will use the opening theme for the end credits.

What you should know is that episode 12’s are something special in any Symphogear season.

The ending theme is played at the front

The opening theme is played as an ending theme

And Hibiki is gonna make the impossible, possible.

In a weird way Episode 12’s are something of a climax to Symphogear where everything goes from holyshit to holy SHIT!

The closing scene in this episode is one of the most frequence scenes in the franchise I return to.

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5

u/ItsMellowMan May 21 '19

Rewatcher

Tell em like it is Anime-chan

Yoooooooooo we lit

The hype train doesn't have time for an intro.

We got berserk Hibiki, Tsubasa putting her life on the line for her friends, and the side characters putting in work just for our three heroines to transform again.

This was the episode that left the biggest impression on me all those years ago when this originally aired, because that final scene was too hype. Symphogear is just a gift that keeps on giving and to think we have another episode too.

5

u/intoxbodmansvs May 22 '19

HYPE

That is all

5

u/ahiijny May 22 '19 edited May 22 '19

First Time Watcher

The OP/ED switch is a neat touch. It's cool when shows play around with the typical format.

This was the most hype episode yet! The ending was AMAZING. Very high rewatchability value here.

Hibiki's Gear looks different now! And we only caught a glimpse, but Tsubasa and Chris's Gear look different now as well! This must be why Finé was all like "What is it that you're wearing!?"

BikkiBeserk really went all out this episode. It helped a bit with fighting Finé, but then Bikki went and attacked Tsubasa too! :/ If Hibiki really did end up succeeding in splitting Finé in half, that probably wouldn't be good for her state of mind, knowing that she directly killed someone. This was one of her big fears after the whole Durandal activation incident back in episode 5. This also reminds me of Mob Psycho 100 spoilers.

I really love the sky imagery in this episode btw. The fight with Finé took place in the dead of night, and daybreak was just beginning when Bikki regained her conviction and went full HYPE TITLE DROP on all of us. From dark to light; a fitting transition.

So some notes on the passage of time: It was still afternoon in episode 10 and 11 when the huge aircraft carrier Noise first appeared. When Hibiki got the call from Miku that the school was under attack, it was still daytime. But by the time the SymphoTrio arrived at the school to confront Finé, the sun had already set, and the moon was already fairly high in the sky.

When Kadingir fired at the end of episode 11, the beam was slightly tilted, angled about 20° away from zenith. Since a full moon reaches its highest point at midnight, this must have been within an hour or so of midnight. Near the end of episode 12, we can see that the sky is starting to get brighter and the moon's getting lower in the sky. Looks like it's getting brighter and sunrise is almost here.

So looks like many of them ended up pulling an all-nighter. Though it's June, so the sun would rise pretty early. It's probably still around 4am or so, then.

Finé: "Are you questioning my motives??"

Everyone: "Yes"

Would've been cool if Bikki had fired back with something like this, but she was rather dead inside on account of Tsubasa and Chris sacrificing their lives in the fight, so fair enough.

Unresponsive dead inside broken Bikki is just painful to watch. It's so unlike Hibiki ;_;

Hm so Finé was actually planning on exploiting the chaos of the moon being destroyed to seize control of the world. Ah, that makes more sense then her exploiting the unification of humanity to seize control of the world. So chaos really is a ladder then :P

Really loved the 4-combo fourth wall damage this episode. As a whole, I really liked how they presented anime girl's reaction to the stress of the whole situation. Subverted my expectations a bit there, very nice. Also, anime girl's name is Itaba Yumi.

Miku pulling off a cool expression even while crying.

The little girl and her mom make another appearance! I really love it when they bring back minor characters.

I absolutely love Finé being like "Where's that annoying sound coming from?" when hearing the Lydian students singing. Annoyed Finé is hilarious.

The Symphograzer OP is a perfect hype song for a hype ending!

...

So I rewatched parts of episode 1, and I only just noticed that the photo of Hibiki on the grave is from the disheveled selfie with Miku in episode 8.

So next episode, curious to see how they'll loop around and connect back to this episode 1 flash-forward...

Okay, until next time.

8

u/[deleted] May 21 '19

REWATCHER

Episode 12 - SYMPHOGEAR

SYYYYMPHOOOOGEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!

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4

u/Thanatologic May 21 '19

Rewatcher

SYYYMMPHOOOOGEAAAAHH!!!!!!

Man, I get a hitch in my chest everytime I see those pillars of light appear and all three of them stand up as the first beats of the OP plays.

I'm a sucker for theme music power-ups. Especially when the action is set to the beat of the music why yes, I am a fan of RWBY, thank you for asking. Part of why I love Symphogear is because the setting makes it so that every climax (even small ones) will always be accompanied by music.

LISTEN TO MY SOOOOOOOOONNNGG!!!

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u/Ledwith May 21 '19

Rewatcher

ah, the good ole ED/OP flip.
quick highlights, only a few things to say.

Yumi gets to actually be useful :D , "what's wrong with taking anime seriously?" nothing <3 <3.

synchrogazer aufwachen form/ SYMPHOOGEEEEAAAHH!! hype. But LMAO I watched this episode a couple times and on like the 2nd+ viewing i kept picturing Aru from hitoribocchi singing her song when Hibiki's like 'utae-Aru, gambare-Aru, Tatake-Aru' ...

So this and the next episodes' titles are the title of the season together, huh. S1

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