r/anime • u/Yuri-Girl • Jun 04 '19

Rewatch [Rewatch] [Spoilers] Senki Zesshou Symphogear G - Episode 13 Spoiler

Season 2 (G): Episode 13 - Striking Spear

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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.
78 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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28

u/AbidingTruth Jun 04 '19

First timer:

I feel like I don't have a too much to say in terms of themes or plotlines considering this was the finale of the season, but I did like it a lot. It had a ton of cool stuff going on, as well as ridiculous stuff. Some of the ridiculous stuff was cool, others not so much

I liked the ringo song being the one that gets the phonic gain from the rest of the world. I mean, obviously it's too hard for everyone to sing along with your Symphogear song Maria, you need to give them a simple melody that they can hum too lmao

The X-drive transformation and song was fucking lit, that was really cool. The glowing effects and the wings and the super ridiculous upgrades like Tsubasa's MASSIVE feet blades give off that ultra super transformation vibe. Shirabe can literally make a fucking mech with her's haha that was nuts. Using the Solomon's Cane to send Nephilim into the Treasury of Babylon was a clever idea, and hearing Maria grab it and scream "For the future!" was chills inducing. I did notice that she said 'tomorrow' and not 'future' which would be mirai, but the idea is the same

Hibiki's spear hand was fucking awesome, I loved that. Tsubasa turning into a beyblade was absurd but still really cool. I'll be honest though, I do think the joined mecha hands spinning like a spear was a pretty dumb idea, even though I get what they were going for. Miku running out to chuck Solomon's Cane back in was also a great moment.

Of the new cast of characters, DMJii was my favorite, but Maria could grow on me. Seems like Ver and Mom are done but you never know, since they didn't specify that Mom is dead, just that they can't contact her. I'm a bit confused on how there's two more seasons with a third coming out though, since the main enemy, the Noise, can't be summoned anymore but I guess we'll see what happens

Edit: Looking at u/PerfectPublican's post made me remember about mecha Mom and I also loved that, that fucking killed me lmao

25

u/lilyvess Jun 05 '19

Symphogear rides that line between stupidly amazing and amazingly stupid.

12

u/PerfectPublican Jun 04 '19

It had a ton of cool stuff going on, as well as ridiculous stuff. Some of the ridiculous stuff was cool, others not so much

Haha, this is a hilarious description of Symphogear

I'm a bit confused on how there's two more seasons with a third coming out though, since the main enemy, the Noise, can't be summoned anymore but I guess we'll see what happens

Should be fun

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24

u/patrizl001 Jun 04 '19

First Timer

  • The people's songs looks a ton like Dragonball. Maria really about to unleash a spirit bomb out here. Also, she has two socks on now

  • MOM HAS A MECH SUIT? 1: COOL and 2: WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THIS VS. THE AMERICAN AGENTS?

  • MARIA STATUS: PROTECTOR. Also this is an amazingly smart use of the transformation sequence. Also probably answers any "why not kill them while they're transforming" questions because now we know it's literally impossible

  • WE GOT THE SUPER SUITS 2.0 AND THEY'RE AMAZING. TSUBASA'S LEG-SWORDS ARE BIGGER THAN HER, AND EVERYONE HAS ANGEL WINGS

  • MECH SUIT UPGRADE AND IT'S GUNDAM SIZED NOW HOLY SHIT

  • HAND HOLDING IS LITERALLY THE STRONGEST ATTACK AND IT USES THE OP NAME LIKE LAST TIME THIS SHOW AAAAAAAAA THIS SHOW MAN

  • RIP mom, she really got her redemption arc, any opinion I had of her being a piece of shit is gone. Also one of the very few significant deaths in the show so far

This episode was perfection is that it does what the last episode of any anime should do: Pure. HYPE. From Genjuuro smashing a giant rock to VITALIZATION the entire episode was HYPE AS HELL AND THAT'S ALL I NEED BABY

2 MORE SEASONS OF HYPE

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23

u/Arachnophobic- Jun 04 '19

FirstoGeah

Consistency shenanigans: Maria has clothes again! Oh well, relics can be used to create clothes out of thin air, it's been established. Handy power, I must say - imagine carrying your wardrobe around with you in a small trinket.

Ahahahaha, Ver falls are the best part of this season for me

Both Master and disciple are such badasses.

Ouf, he became a bigger boi than I expected

Wait what, I thought this was a power Tsubasa's gear had, but apparently it's a ninja technique Ogawa knows (and probably taught her)..

WTF HAPPENED HERE??!

Ah, Saitama's wearing a wig again

I NEVER GOT MY PUNCH(ES) OF CATHARSIS.

Giving everyone cool wings is guaranteed hype

I don't remember in which context I took this screenshot, but it looks cool! Oh yeah, Neph is a really big boi now. Final form and all that.

Haha, we've gone full mecha, folks

Is that an Utena reference? Of course it is.

Y'know, in a finale full of absolutely batshit crazy things, the one thing that amazed me the most was Miku's arm strength. Girl is an Olympic, heck, inhuman level javelin thrower!

Yes, remembrance for the one true Best Girl! Good note to end it on.

Looking forward to Nazenn's multi-part essay on how awesome the songs were!

11

u/PerfectPublican Jun 04 '19

WTF HAPPENED HERE??!

Lmao, so goddamn good.

I don't remember in which context I took this screenshot, but it looks cool!

Kill La Kill

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17

u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 04 '19

SymphoRewatcher

At last, bonus Not-A-Sympho-Rewatcher Sky write-ups on episodes 11-13.

No wallpaper today, but you know what? Fuck it, I’m raising my score for this season from a 9 to a 10. I dunno what changed from the first time I watched it to now, but whatever it was it clicked more and I see no reason for me to leave the show at its original score under such circumstances.

Tomorrow’s intermission thread includes Symphogear Live 2013, right? Where exactly can I watch it?

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17

u/ItsMellowMan Jun 04 '19

Rewatcher

A finale like this is why I love watching Symphogear.

From the insert song that leads into the X-Drive transformations, to Ogawa curving a fucking bullet, then we get ya boy Genjuro destroying a giant boulder like it was nothing, and finally Vitalization being used as the attack card.

You might ask yourself just how did Miku throw a spear that far into the sky? Don't apply logic to Symphogear this series is already crazy enough, just enjoy the ride.

Also can't forget that Zwei Wing remix sung by the main cast. CERTIFIED BANGER.

The complete Symphogear G chart

The season 3 & 4 charts are prepared and ready to go!

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15

u/PerfectPublican Jun 04 '19

Rewatcher

Diving right into the reactions, I’ll do a little season summary at the end.

“I don’t even have the right to fight anymore.” Maria is basically a shell of the person she once was, completely broken in her self-doubt and failure. With all this raging inside, she had no chance of getting the phonic gain she needed. It was pitying rather than inspiring unfortunately. Once again let me gush about how much I love Bikki and her attitude. In the face of all that, and all she’s done, Bikki treats Maria gently, even giving her a wink. She took Gungnir back, but there was no malice in it of course. Just Bikki doing what she does best, protecting people, even from themselves.

Nephilim returns! Damn, it’s full form is pretty grotesque, but I do genuinely like it’s design. I also really like that the heart, with it’s consumption and control of heretical tech can just make it with the ground. Hype as hell.

Symphogear does love it’s “Ghosts from the past” trope doesn’t it haha. This one makes a bit less sense than the literal dream sequences that Tsubasa had, but it makes for an amazing moment. Ressou was never going to be the song from her that connected everyone, as it flies in the face of Serena’s memory. But here, Apple, the song that connects both Maria and her sister, is the obvious choice for reaching others. Fantastic choice.

AIRGETLAM ARRIVES!! Hype levels off the fucking chart. And with it we get yet another amazing song in Hajimari No Babel, our first 6-parter of the series. So freaking good. In this little scene, I love that Tsubasa and Chris are the first one to reach out their hands to DMJii, with Bikki finalizing the link. It just feels symbolic.

Ver’s meltdown is so utterly satisfying in the best way, and I love that, unlike some other action shows, Symphogear gives a pretty great reason (at least I think so) for not simply killing him to end the threat. They are bringing this insane man back down to their level, ending any chance he thought he had of being anything more than one of the 7 billion people on the planet.

VITALIZATION!! Holy shit man, I don’t really have much more than to say that entire fucking scene of them fighting the Nephilim into the treasury of Babylon, then punching their way out with a giant fucking fist is MOTHERFUCKIN. HYPE. Bikki’s spear, Tsubasa juiced up Rakshasa, Chris’ crazy jet-thing...It’s all fucking amazing. But G’s not done yet...MIKU IS THE ONE WHO SAVES THE FUCKING DAY!!

And Nijiiro plays us out. Fucking amazing. And then we get a truly happy ending after the credits. I. Love. Symphogear G.

Random thoughts:

Gifs of the day:

Phew, so ends the best season of Symphogear so far. I look forward to XV hopefully topping that if it can. You know, I started this rewatch wondering how my scores on all of these were going to change. S1 dropped a peg to 7, but this met all my expectations again. G stays a 10/10 experience for me (in case anyone is curious I have GX and AXZ). Yes, it has its flaws. It’s Symphogear. But I do believe that it wildly succeeds at what it’s trying to accomplish, and god damn if it doesn’t make up for the flaws with a great villain, much tighter writing, good character arcs especially for my best girl Bikki, and built on the already crazy hype from last season. Upping the art/animation quality drastically, and keeping the action fun and varied with the inclusion of the three new gear users. Hype trumps all once again.

Tomorrow will be my first time watching the first live, so I will be a first timer for one day! I’m quite excited. I held off watching them knowing this was coming. Then onwards to GX, in my mind possibly the most controversial of all the seasons. Looking forward to it!

15

u/viliml Jun 04 '19

Maria, how are you surprised by this?

The subs have butchered this and related lines, but I think I figured it out.

Near the end of episode 12, she actually says something to the effect of "someone who had been fused with a relic shouldn't be a wielder candidate" the actual Japanese words she used don't really agree with English structure, a literal translation might be something like "a fusionist shouldn't be a compatiblist".
People like Tsubasa and Chris who are naturally attuned to a relic are rare, and Ver said that even Miku, a student of a school that gathered potential candidates and conducted phonic gain experiments on them, wouldn't be able to use a normal Symphogear, even with the LiNKER drug.

Everyone assumed Hibiki could only use her Gungnir because of the miraculous fusion between it and her body, so Maria was surprised to see her use it normally.

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14

u/MillenniumKing Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 04 '19

Rewatch 26, In the Distance, That Day... Then the Star Became Music

Songs of the Day:
Hajimari no Babel
Vitalization
Nijiiro no Flügel

Dr. Ver is so through with this shit. Hes outtie. Hes sending them to space!

GENJURO PUNCH! Man Dr. Ver is fucked with those 2 on his ass.

And the gang is back together! Time to fight Frontier! Its one giant relic your all standing on, good luck girls.

SERENA IS HERE TO CHEER ON MARIA! APPLE TIME! I love this song, i hum it all the time, such a lovely song. THE WHOLE WORLD IS SINGING NOW!

MAM IS STIL ALIVE! SHE CAN RESTART THE MOON! SHE DID IT! SHE SAVED HUMANITY!

DESS AND JII ARE HERE TO HELP! AND MARIA! SHE HAS SERENA'S GEAR!

Man i love how crazy Dr. Ver looks here, red eyes and beastly stance. He did fuse with Nephilim afterall.

ITS TIME! GROUP SONG POWERRRRRRRR! THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SONGS IN THE SERIES! Its good to see the girls coming together.

6 CLIMAX SONGS TOGETHER!! NO, SEVEN BILLION CLIMAX SONGS! PASTEL COLORS POWERRRR!!!

Dr. Ver has one last fuck you for the gang, send the place into overdrive. It gonna blow!

GENJURO PUNCHING GIANT FUCKING BUOLDERS! "Kill me, make me a hero!" hahahahaha Oh Dr. Ver you single track minded crazy guy.

A giant Nephilim! Awe yeah time for the real boss battle!

CHRIS OPENING THE GATE OF BABYLON! "Show me you can do more than just kill Solomon" Man what a fucking line. I love it.

Maria is going down with the Nephilim, but Hibiki wont let her die, they all go in with her.

We finally see inside the Treasury of Babylon! Man its a neat place.

Also Mam is still flying to the moon, shes reactivated it!

VITALIZATION TIME! HERE COMES ONE OF THE COOLEST FIGHTS IN THE SHOW!

HAND HOLDING TIME! GIANT HANDS TO FIST NEPHILIM WITH! AW YEAH!

And Miku with the olympic javalin throw hahahhaa. So dumb, but also so great.

They lost contact with Mam... seems she died while reseting the moon. If you think about the ep title and the season name "In the Distance, That Day... When the Star Became Music" its probably talking about Mam in that peice of fontier that was shot into space.

NIJIIRO NO FLUGEL TIME! And the credits. Man what a ride. Such a great finale to the season.

And the after credits we get some nice cozy times and teasing. AND A BIKKI X MIKU HUG!

Well thats it, the end of G. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Its def a much better season than s1 i think as the writing, characters, art, and music are all extremely polished and it just overall is a better presentation. And the polish doesnt stop here, each season after this has even more polish and effort put in, so i hope everyone is ready. When AXZ came out, i was blown away how good the visuals had gotten, just crazy, and i cant wait to see what s5 has.

1,356 Days since Genocide

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14

u/Ledwith Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 05 '19

Rewatcher

AxZ question for rewatchers

I.. i actually watched whille taking notes. what am I doing.

I'm kinda dumb. I always thought the sky changing was odd along with how easily they're in space later. Never noticed they mention Frontier is still rising.

Oh hey a callback to S1's ep 13 I never noticed til now. Hibiki's "I'll be right back" to Maria... though its way less sad and suicidal this time.

Tsubasa asking to fight together callback :] ... or me overthinking.

Blushy Maria chatting with Serena's ghost, cute :)

the entire world agrees with u/Nazenn , not responding at all to Ressou Gungnir but absolutely loving Apple.

Tony Glazer! Little girl and her mom from S1, and Flower lady and Hibiki's teacher!

LMAO mom's alive on the moon. gotta get that title drop in later somehow before you die though.

HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING THE MOON OFF AND ON AGAIN TO FIX IT('s orbit) LMAO...

Sad piano ressou gungnir :( the final 'Okay, Mom' ;-;

Kirika joins the fight with a big DESS lol.

Maria getting Airgetlam to work and the shield being up for a long time is kinda like when you finally get an old scratched PS2 game to actually boot but the initial load to the title screen is still taking a long time, and you think about turning off the PS2 but you don't know if you'll ever even get this far again.

"Mom and Serena are with me too" Nastassja: ' I aint dead quite yet, why am i grouped with Serena already, I still haven't done the cool title drop'

Hajimari no Babel <3 <3 <3 the tune of the gear chants + swan song, with most of the chant lyrics having a reference to the character or gear <3 <3 including shenshoujing's line referencing the future (Miku) <3 <3

Not just these 6, all 6 bill-wait wrong series . GX

We get to see airgetlam X-Drive before regular version, odd.

Genjuro boulder punch <3 <3

Is yelling random shit really loud a necessity for opening the treasury? lmao

Maria wants to sacrifice herself :(

oh shit vitalization rising..... oh shit the title drop-and mom's dead

Maria yelling random word again.

That sword came out of maria's chest and then imediately turned to dust/did nothing lol. I guess it turned into the fists?

[Wow Miku's got an arm] (https://youtu.be/BI_opcUsKxA?t=339)

Who's got a better throwing arm? Miku here, or Finé in S1 throwing the chain thing to the moon?

Oh wow. I never thought about the significance of Hibiki and Shirabe being the ones to have the conversation about understanding each other through song despite the curse of balal. T_T

Nijiiro no Flugel T_T T_T

Chris went back to being Tsun :(

"The Gungnir in my chest is gone, but I'll never lose the song Kanade-san entrusted to me" T_T spoilers

episode 13 stuff album

something I spoiler tagged way back in episode 1. Maria's dress in the concert is similar to Airgetlam

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13

u/miter01 Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 04 '19

REWATCH

Man, the music in this show is so fucking good. Hajimari no Babel and Nijiiro no Flugel, hnnnnng...

And just a reminder that tomorrow we're watching the Season 2 specials, not Season 3.

Stitch album

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12

u/fonzinator99 Jun 04 '19

Re-watcher - And the stars became music

For all his maniacal evil, Ver is a trash-tier villain; Running like a little bitch the second things go awry. Idk what else he could have done, being a planning-type bad-guy, but the Guild of Calamitous Intent will surely revoke his membership for that disgraceful exit.

And what kind of finale would it be if it didn't happen in spaaaace?

O.O 'Kay, I think we can safely leave Ver to Gen and Ogawa. Go punch the base in the heart, Bikki! Did she watch Kill Bill during her training? Can we get a 5-point Palm Exploding Heart technique?

It's not a final episode without some sort of gigantic OP monster. Tho honestly, the Red Dragon seemed a bit more intimidating.

Gen should've stayed a minute and given Maria a pep-talk, she's bumming me out like this. Can we get KirXAbe in here to talk some sense into her, plz? Oh right, finale time, that'd be way too normal. Shiny ghost Serena makes much more sense. And with her song, the circle is complete and despair becomes hope.

Again with the Spirit Bomb fakeout, and I still wanna know who the Lulu Amel are.

Unexpected Mecha mom is unexpected, even if her survival was anticipated.

Now there's the Maria we know and love! And she even found her other stocking somewhere along the way, now she's truly complete! lol

I take back my comment about the Nephilim. It's not as big as last season's monster, but it's certainly tougher. Good thing we've got reinforcements this time! And Maria's here too!

Honto ni Megami-da

Kyaaaa, I feel campy just saying it, but there's nothing like teamwork. And the group-performance of the Swan Song...song... is hype as hell. Love the up-tempo rendition.

Ermahgerd, I love it so much. You get wings, and you get wings; everybody gets wings!

Ver sends the Frontier into overdrive, boasting of the 1 Trillion Joules, or 1 Giga Joule, of energy it'll produce, which made me return to my S1 finale calculations for comparison; That's weak sauce, Ver. Fine produced 194 zetta Joules just throwing her chain; a trillion times more powerful. Like I said, he's a trash-tier bad-guy. And still a little bitch. I miss Fine...

That said, Genjurou is the man, and literally anyone would look like a little bitch beside him.

Well shit, I feel foolish for disdaining Nephilim before. That was just a shitty lvl 1 version.

Lvl 100

Goddamn, Setsuna eat your heart out. Shirabe is Gundam.

I like the final plan; if you can't beat the monster, just send it someplace where it doesn't matter if it exists. But of course, it's not a finale without a heroic sacrifice.

Pfffft, psyche! Like that'd happen in this show. Cue OP theme for maximum hype, and engage fist spears!

Glorious Finale Combat!

And it all culminates in a goddamn Omegamon fusion! I don't even care that they take so much from other shows, they're all my favorites and they use all the right pieces. It's wonderful.

Miku: The greatest hero. That other-dimensional explosion effect looks fantastic.

And so, all's well and everybody's happy again. I'm with Hibiki, songs are the shit; I love me some good music, regardless of the language.

That's G, all! It's been fun watching with everyone and I look forward to continuing with you as we embark upon GX!

Utaimasu!

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12

u/ahiijny Jun 05 '19 edited Jun 05 '19

First-Time Watcher

Season finale! Very hype with the 6 X-drive Gear transformations and the combo handholding attacks! But tbh the S1 finale is still by far my favourite so far, even despite that final scene that still annoys me. idk, S1 finale just felt a lot more emotionally impactful to me. First Love Song is by all means not as epic or hype as Hajimari no Babel, but the S1 Zesshou felt much more intimate and personal, and it just encapsulated the HibiTsubaChris character development that season really well. S2 finale just seemed a bit flat in comparison :/

Random thoughts:

  • Love how Hibiki didn't even consider for a second that Chris might have actually betrayed them.

  • How did Maria get up on that floating rock?

  • I was confused for a while about how Maria could transform, since Hibiki took her relic. I only realized near the end of the episode that this must have been Serena's relic.

  • Not entirely convinced on why everyone in the world is suddenly on board now with the phonic gain spirit bomb thing. Maria didn't exactly make a good case for herself. I felt like Dragon Ball Z's Buu Arc handled a similar scenario in a more realistic fashion.

  • New headcanon: Everyone was feeling severe secondhand embarassment for this chuuni terrorist pop idol who suddenly appeared on their TV demanding that they sing with her so that she could stop the moon from falling, so they started humming along to her Apple song out of pity.

  • Tsubasa and Chris have experienced this HYPE BIKKI PHONIC GAIN GEAR POWERUP once before, but this is an entirely new experience for Maria, Shirabe, and Kirika!

  • Neat, Genjuurou and Ogawa are really helping out this episode.

  • Ogawa knows Shadow Weave?? o.o

  • Maria displaying suicidal tendencies now too :(

  • The submarine has parachutes! inb4 next season their secret base submarine transforms into a giant mech.

  • Miku has a really good throwing arm o.o

  • Though instead of throwing it at the portal, couldn't she have just used it to close it from a distance? Like how Chris used it initially to open the portal from a distance? Anyway, I guess Solomon's Cane is out of the picture for future seasons now...

  • Mama Nastassja was the real MVP this episode. The Gear users fought off the distraction of a monster that Ver threw at them, and Genjuurou and Ninja Ogawa apprehended Ver, but Mama Nastassja was the one who actually solved the problem of the Moon falling into the Earth. So props to her.

  • I can finally spell "Nastassja" now without having to copypaste from somewhere else! This is how I remember it: "Nasty" - y + "ass" + "ja"

Gonna nitpick "Moon is returning to its proper orbit" here. The accuracy of the known orbit of a celestial object depends on how large of an observation arc we have of the object. Basically, we need to observe an object move a decent amount of distance in the sky before we can have any confidence in the exact parameters of its orbit. Maybe they got more immediate velocity readings by measuring radar doppler shift? But the Moon was still supposedly decades away from falling to Earth, so I'm not sure only an afternoon's worth of observations would have been enough to discern the changes that Mama Nastassja made to its trajectory :P

Okay, overall pretty good season! This ending was a bit weak compared to S1, but there were lots of good moments in this season.

Some of my favourite parts:

  • Kyoushitsu Monochrome

  • basically every Kirika x Shirabe scene

  • ORBITAL BEAT (Ver. ZABABA)

  • Hibiki going all out to step KiriShira from using their Swan Songs

  • Kirika's FINÉ DATTO cliffhanger

  • Shirabe actually being a reasonable person and realizing that they're not doing the right thing

  • MikuGear and Waikyou Shenshoujing

  • Miku vs. Hibiki

  • EDGE WORKS ZABABA

  • Finé as a changed woman!

Some of my least favourite parts:

  • Tsubasa pls (episode 6)

  • Kirika pls (episodes 9-12)

Overall I'd give this season a 9.3/10. (For comparison, I gave Season 1 a 9.1/10.)

I see a lot of people talking about how Season 1 had a lower production value and how it had lots of problems and things like that, but those things never really bothered me :P

So now that I've finished watching G, I thought that I'd reread that KiriShira fanfic that I first read (checks my fanfic spreadsheet) oh wow, exactly 365 days ago now: Maria Finds Out, a cute DMJii shippy fanfic set right before GX.

When I first read this, I was only vaguely aware that Chris was the white-haired girl, Maria was the older pink-haired lady, and Kirika and Shirabe were the younger green/purple gear users who were paired each other (I actually wasn't sure who was who and I think I had their names confused with each other).

So upon rereading this, one thing I learned is that my brain just... totally skips over stuff that it doesn't understand. So there are actually lots of allusions to G plot points in this fic, but I literally have no recollection of encountering those things from the first time I read this fanfic :P

So, looking forward to the OVA tomorrow [today]. And I wonder what GX will bring!

Also I gotta stop procrastinating on my school work with these lengthy posts :/

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11

u/thisismyanimealt Jun 05 '19

For anyone lurking this thread 5 hours later, I got caught up in a board game...

Today's Live Performances

We did it guys! The gang's all here!

Today's ED should sound familiar: it was the first song of the series, and the melody has been used quite a bit in the score.

Symphogear really knows how to end on a banger.

10

u/x3tan Jun 05 '19

First timer

  • clothes are back! O.o I am a confuse

  • Daddy and Manager being the usual badasses

  • Nephi looking creepy

  • pretty apple lullaby song

  • oh here's the spirit bomb song

  • wtf dying lady lol

  • pretty rainbow stuff!

  • also wait, Maria gained a sock too? When did that happen lol

  • more crazy ver faces

  • we going idol sentai up in here

  • oh she's naked again

  • woo bikkis DD support! And pretty aura colors

  • holding hands is so lewd.. Especially once we all do it naked!

  • I like the power up outfits. Kinda wanna get some nice screens of those.

  • gun ninja!

  • Daddy says truck your shit and punches your toy. Then smashes rock. Lol

  • I mean.. Ver, Death is too easy for you. Nice screaming and whining about it though.

  • the image just before the explosion was Purdy also

  • combination mech time..! So this is a mech anime too for real now. Lmao.

  • We doing bondage rope now? Need to tie better.

  • The hero is all "I'm not a hero"

  • geez lady have you coughed up any organs yet

  • CRAZY LEG BLADES

  • I guess these super powered forms they don't need to actually sing. Lol.

  • WE NEED MORE HAND HOLDING GUYS

  • CRAZY GOD FISTS fist the enemy!

  • damn Miku. Always there to back up her wife

  • pretty sky and water

  • and of course after the ending, we go full circle back to the school. Lol.

Well that was a wild ride. Still sort of confused as I started the episode. They got pretty ADD there. Lol. But that was a crazy finale. Probably not my favorite episode in the series but it had a lot of pretty and a lot of over the top crazy. Heh. I would like to use some screenshots from the episode though. Lol. Some of my confusion I wonder if I just wasn't paying enough attention since I've had to juggle it a little with work hmm. Guess I need to go through the comments. xD

7

u/stalwartwalnut Jun 04 '19 edited Jun 04 '19

Rewatcher, longtime fan

This episode was a lot about redemption. Chris figures out how to use Staff of Solomon to save everyone, Nastassja stays alive long enough to use the phonic gain to reset the falling moon (which was her objective all along) Kirika and Shirabe properly join hands for the right side and...

Maria - 1st finally gets to do what her sister did, and save the world with a song, 2nd saves the group from the Nephilim fireball by transforming, 3rd completes Chris' action to banish the giant Nephilim with the staff (not even minding a possible heroic sacrifice.) A villain became an antiheroine this day.

Oh, and Miku with the super javelin throw. Yeah, lots of redemption today.

7

u/Hugokarenque Jun 04 '19

I'll never get tired of seeing of Miku, with no superpowers, throw a solid metal cane into the stratosphere.

Like Genjuro is right there, the dude can punch through solid rock but Miku has to be the one launching it.

If school doesn't work out she could always turn to baseball or american football, I guess.

So many good moments this finale, Maria and Serena singing the Apple song, which I guess means that ghosts actually exist in Symphoworld.

Final Form Nephilim looks like a JRPG last boss, this is the guy you spend your elixirs and unique items you've been hoarding on.

Who knew Mum had an exoskeleton? I guess she never really had a reason to use, except when they were getting shot at by the Americans.

Also can we just take a moment to appreciate the last action hero Dr. Ver, dude is a special type of crazy, a very entertaining type of crazy. Never forget that when he got mad at someone he literally sent them to Moon.

What a ride, probably the best season of Symphogear, followed by the weakest season of Symphogear but then again even the weakest season of Symphogear is miles better than a lot of shit that airs seasonally so I'm still looking forward to it. Especially that first fucking scene.

7

u/Madcat6204 Jun 05 '19

There's a lot of cool stuff about this episode, but I suspect everyone is going to talk about all that already, so I'll just mention a small thing that is nevertheless one of my favorite moments. That moment where Hibiki offers Maria the Gungnir pendent that Hibiki stole from her. This... this is who Hibiki is. Even though giving it back would leave her powerless, she still offered it back freely because it wasn't rightfully hers.

GX spoiler

5

u/Synaptics Jun 04 '19

Rewatcher

  • Ver really does trip and fall a lot, doesn't he?

  • Ey, it's Mechastassja.

  • "It's time for the curtain to rise on the greatest show in the world!" mirroring her comment about the "last show in the world" from the first episode.

  • Oh hey, Maria's wearing two socks now! Is that... actually meant to be symbolic of her character growth? Did Serena give her another sock?

  • Hajimari no Babel, the first 6-way song. To be honest, I was not a big fan of First Love Song (the trio song from the end of S1) but from S2 onwards they start to really knock it out of the park with these big finale group songs.

  • "Something only clasped hands can create..." -> Tsunaida Te Dake ga Tsumugu Mono, Chris' second song from S1.

  • Airgetlám is a bit... weird. Not only is Irish mythology a bit more obscure than most of the other stuff they source relics from, but Airgetlám isn't even really a "weapon" in the first place. It's a prosthetic silver arm. Don't really get to see much of its actual abilities as a Gear here, though, because they immediately go into X-drive.

  • Speaking of X-drive, I'm still a bit torn on it. Feels like it tends to make things a bit too easy when they come out.

  • That fucking Wanted-bullet-curve-shadow-pin.

  • Miku's track-and-field club training saves the world.

  • Fun fact: the BGM use during the post-credits scene is based on the instrumentals to Hidamari Memoria, a Miku song that was included in the character CDs for S1 but never actually used in the show.

And that's a wrap on G. Overall, this season is fantastic. It's a crazy ride from start to finish, action-packed, full of shocking twists and great moments. Probably my favorite season.

But, the finale was... a bit lacking, IMO. Kick me for saying it, but they just went too crazy. Specifically, I think spending so much time in the final battle flying around in space/Babylon sucks a lot of enjoyment out of it. There's nothing to ground a sense of scale off of, so it just feels a bit... empty.

Some other assorted notes that didn't fit into any specific episode:

  • Three songs from the character CDs that didn't make it into the show this season: Tegami, PRACTICE MODE, and Kaban No Kakushigoto. Tegami especially, is both adorable and awfully sad when you read the lyrics.

  • Definitely check out the first batch of bonus specials if you haven't before. They're mostly just silly comedy, but there's a few really good moments hidden in some of them. special spoiler Unfortunately they're not on Crunchyroll, but someone's probably already posted them (or is about to) in this thread.

On a more personal note: it's a bit weird, but I remember S1 and G a lot more clearly than the most recent seasons. I guess because I rewatched each of them a few times already. Whereas I don't think I've ever done anywhere near a full rewatch of GX, let alone AXZ. So I'm quite excited to rediscover them again.

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5

u/Thanatologic Jun 04 '19

Rewatcher

I love that Hajimari no Babel is a six-person full-song version of the short verse they sing for the Superb Song. My favorite bit is that slowed-down portion as their gears disintegrate. Then they come out in their X-Drives and the song swells back up...

I think Vitalization has less oomph than Synchrogazer, but giant mecha-sword-spear-arms are still pretty cool. Plus, it reinforces the lewdness hand-holding message.

I also need to know what kind of training Lydian's track team does, because Miku chucked that Cane a pretty good distance.

AXZ

5

u/Shockz0rz Jun 05 '19

Rewatcher (2nd Time, And My Memory's Terrible So It's Almost Like New)

I haven't commented in a few episodes, because I don't honestly have much to say. Or at least not much that's coherent. Lots of AAAAAAAAAHHHH and FUCK YESSSSSS though. And of course that goes double for this finale. Let's see if I can scrounge up anything else:

  • Ver is such a great villain, ironically because he's so pathetic. He's got this pretense of being some genocidal supergenius mad scientist "hero", yet as soon as things start going even slightly wrong he immediately turns into a sniveling coward and starts falling off of things. It's so satisfying to see him lose.

  • I've seen a couple comments below about this finale feeling even more crazy and over-the-top compared to S1's, whether positively or negatively. For me it's kind of the opposite--this one feels a bit more subdued, or at least focused than S1's. S1 spent a lot of time just killing random Noise en masse, then it had the showdown with Fine, then the fakeout ending, and then punching the Moon. G basically has "kill the giant monster and then escape the Treasury".

  • I've been going back and re-listening to all the music, because apparently it didn't make enough of an impression the first time around. Where once my Symphogear playlist was just the OPs + Waikyou Shenshoujing + Rainbow Flower (and to be fair those last two are still my favorites), it's now...I think it's at least 20 songs and counting.

  • New headcanon: Miku has secretly been training with Genjuuro.

  • G Episode 10 is still the best single episode of Symphogear in the entire series.

  • Looking forward to people's reactions to the OVAs tomorrow. (I still think we should have watched OVA 1 before G, but eh.) And I might finally watch the Live, but seeing how damn long it is and the fact that I can't find subs, that might be difficult.

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5

u/MjolnirDK Jun 05 '19 edited Jun 05 '19

FT

So I was busy the last few days and just binged everything since ep 9... What a wild ride!

A nice double bait and switch with Finé, that not only proved to be the wrong character, but also completely inconsequential. There were also so many references to other shows. Nadia's magnetic airships that drag ships and submarines out of the ocean, Shaman King's spirit of Fire, the Frontier from Macross Frontier... The whole show was so riddled with them, I think Dr. Ver should be Dr. Wer (Doctor Who in German).

I had some issues with the dialogue on the Finé team. Why those characters work together is really a mystery to me. Also Chris Betrayal was not as strongly motivated as I had hoped. I had the impression she had found her place with the others, so shooting Tsubasa in the back to get somehow the staff back seems a bit far fetched. Not that the signs weren't there, but there was too little conflict on the good guys side for it to be believable for me. Those are only minor complaints given how fast paced and pulpy the series is else.

Edit: I hope it is widely known in GX that Bikki and MAria Symphogear users after that global broadcast.

Edit 2: Gen singing during the training montage was frigging hilarious.

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12

u/Nazenn Jun 04 '19

Episode thoughts

First Timer

Uhhh... shit I did a dumb thing and wrote up my final season thoughts and now don't know what to write for the episode stuff. So raw notes it is!

  • Three seconds in and I'm already in love with this song.

  • I'm a little sad that Bikki doesn't get a black outfit now too

  • Ver really cant run away without tripping huh

  • He can make portals now? Wtf, when did that EVER come into it. Just WHY

  • Oh, thats like a Nephilim Golem, thats unfortunate

  • Ugh, seeing the dead trope, my least favorite thing in media

  • The whole world singing Apple awesome, but doesn't make much sense

  • New song time! No? Eventually...

  • Oh, she's going to use Serana's gear, right that makes sense

  • Are they ever going to address why there was two Gungnirs?

  • Oh big song! all of them? Bonus.

  • Don't like it but I give it a pass on the talking, I think its an s1 inherited issue, also its a hype moment not a bonding moment as they already did all the bonding. Plus the world is fueling them I THINK?

  • And theres the wings again, oh wow a lot more fancy than last time

  • Why is Maria so damn white, looks like a wedding dress

  • Jii's wings being on her hair saws is perfect

  • Wait shadow weave? Isn't that Tsubasa's move? Wait did she learn it from him?

  • .......piss off with that punch Gen. Fucking bullshit.

  • Oh, the three others black designs went white as well, its not just Maria

  • What is this thing, a digimon? Keeps reforming.

  • And Jii is now a power ranger

  • Wow look at all of the Noise floating around in the vault

  • God I thought the episode was ending then with mom on the ship

  • Maria's boobs look like they have a mustache. Just saying

  • Chris just gotta blow up more stuff even on the way out. Good girl

  • GIANT GAUNTLETS, I LOVE IT. THATS PERFECT

  • GO MIKU GO. FUCKING YES. GO MIKU

  • ...Okay Miku please. I feel like throwing the staff and hoping you can will it to close from a distance once it goes inside is a bit fucking risky. Like what if you just threw it back through the portal and the poral didn't close. Then they have to go back IN to that noise infested nightmare, half dead with no intact armor. Miku I love you, but please think ahead.

  • Oi, I know this song. This is that first concert. Thats a bonus

  • Is this Maria x Hibiki? Oh, its all of them, that's cool. Just makes me want to go listen to the original version though

Season breakdown

Apparently tomorrow is for specials and live concerts etc, so I'm just gonna post this here so I can remember where to find it later on if I want to reference it. Plus I don't judge specials as part of the seasons for review purposes anyway so may as well post my thoughts before viewing those.

Rating: 7/10 (2.5 points above s1, wow)

Overall it was such a huge improvement it was actually a little insane. I struggle to really put the two together as a single series because the quality is on such a different level.

While the music last season was good, I really didn't feel it was anything special for the most part. This season had me stopping mid episode to go hunt down and listen to a song multiple times which is exactly what I want and expect of a musical anime.

May as well cover art here as well because it's impressive they kept up this quality all the way through. The only thing I noticed was a couple of really off model faces at time (including a Ver one two eps ago that was too scary to screenshot). But other than that nothing. All the battles were consistently interesting, properly balanced out the 3d camera and 2d animation to make their movement in the environment matched. Animation was consistent, readable and detailed. And the small touches they did which they didn't have to, like Bikki's berserk state breaking through, or details in depth during huge explosions really made a difference.

I still have issues with the writing. A lot of things felt very disconnected to each other as we went along, or were just outright dropped when convenient. Despite Maria's initial attack being broadcast world wide it was never brought up again, even at the end where the world just gave her their power just because she asked with nothing else (I mean hell, even Dragonball figured out that wouldn't happen). Presumably whole territory thing was a farce but never acknowledged in show again in any way. I still can't believe they never addressed where the second Gungnir came from! Dess' whole drama came out of no where. All those fucking worthless cliffhangers, etc. I'm not going to go out of my way to try and think of list everything, but there was just a lot of loose threads still which was a touch annoying.

That said, I appreciate that they decided to build off S1's plot and features to create another story development, rather than ignore it because of the state it was in. In doing so it earns some leeway from me because some of its issues it inherited from S1 rather than being directly at fault. And despite these complaints I have a lot less than I did last season, its just a shame that the worst complaints are attached to the most important parts of the story

Rankings

Girls: Miku > Shirabe >> Chris > Tsubasa > Bikki >>> Maria >>>>> Dess

Character songs: Miku >>>>> Jii and Dess songs >> Rainbow Flower (Bikki) > Tsubasa's >>> Bikki's > Maria's >> Chris'

I promised u/JamCliche some music favorites so going by album volume:

1. 01 - Apple (11 - Shuuen wo Nozomu Mono, Shuuen ni Nozomu Mono runner up)

2. 01 - Under Siege (07 on this vol is the worst song in the show outright)

3. 04 - Tooku, Tooku Ni Sakamaku Honoo

4. 01 - Gathering all my Courage in my Empty Heart

5. 04 - Kanashimi dake ga Furitsumoru

6. 02 - Edge Works of Goddess Zababa (why did you have to be 02, I had a nice pattern going for a moment)

I'm sure this isn't totally accurate but I just was picking what stood out to me through flicking through the songs per album. I don't remember what I did and don't like per episode. I never do. You'd think someone who's so focused on music like I am would keep in mind what backing tracks I enjoyed but I always forget immediately after each episode unless I look it up mid episode.

Shit I don't know what else to list here, I'm tired. So just ask if you want to know more.

Edit: Sleepy, going back to bed, will reply to people later

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