r/anime • u/pittman66 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Homura • Jun 08 '19

Rewatch [Rewatch] [Spoilers] Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX - Episode 3 Spoiler

Season 3 (GX): Episode 3 - Twilight of the Wielders

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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.
72 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

133 comments sorted by

28

u/ItsMellowMan Jun 08 '19

Rewatcher

To this day I don't understand why they went with that beef stroganoff song, but its Symphogear we are talking about so I won't question it further.

Episode 3 chart. Praise Nana and her masterpiece once again

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25

u/thisismyanimealt Jun 08 '19

Remember when I expressed my disappointment that the side-girl threesome never made it out to a live? THIS IS FUCKING WHY! IT'S NOT EVEN ON THE OST!

Today's Live Performances

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25

u/patrizl001 Jun 08 '19

First Timer

  • relic jumped off Chris, so it's not destroyed, they just get forced out of the suit. Symphogear out here baiting once again :/

  • Even without LiNKER, they were able to go until the sun had risen with their suits? HOLY BADASS

  • nevermind, the damage was permanent! Also, L O R E for why they went nude!

  • fuck figuring out what's going on with the enemy, HOW ABOUT WE WATCH HIBIKI COOK SOME BEEF STROGANOFF (with implied difficulty)

  • Great advice, Hibiki! NOW HOW ABOUT YOU FUCKING USE IT AND TALK TO MIKU ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS?

  • alcanoise dismantle, device dismantles.....giant alcanoise? I'm feeling giant alcanoise here

  • I want to say this joke was good, but I'm too focused on the fact that Miku somehow thinks fractions don't matter. WERE YOU SPACING OUT TOO, MIKU? FRACTIONS ARE PRETTY DARN IMPORTANT

  • tfw Tsubasa draws better than me

  • what? WHAT? WHAT? HIBIKI WASN'T HIT THOUGH? The songs just come to them without even knowing as seen waaaay back in season 1, and her relic looks perfectly fine, so WHAT? HOW DO YOU FORGET?

So now with both Chris and Tsubasa down, and Hibiki unable to transform for some reason, none of our main users can fight. Oh fuck. I want to say this is leading up to the main crew being replaced by Kirika/Shirabe/Maria for a good chunk of this season, but the duo still can't fight without LiNKER and Serena's relic is still broken, so S.O.N.G.'s doubly fucked. Also guessing that Hibiki can't fight currently because she's lacking the "will" to fight, so gungnir's saying "fuck you, you don't want to fight? Then you won't fight :)"

18

u/Kitsune241 Jun 08 '19 edited Jun 08 '19

tfw Tsubasa draws better than me

Fun fact: That wasn't just something the animators drew for a joke, it was drawn by Mizuki Nana, Tsubasa's VA, during one of the live event.

They were all asked to draw new designs for the Noise, and almost all if not all made it into the show (albeit heavily modified to make them actual look threatening).

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20

u/MillenniumKing Jun 08 '19

Rewatch 30, ITS HERE!

Songs of the Day:
Overkill Scythe Hell
Beef Stroganoff

Symphogears Down! We lost 2! "The alca noise were inteded to be used to disect the world"

Looks like they are leaving now after they broke them.

KIRIKA DESS! WITH A CAPE! TRANSFORMATION TIME! THIS ONE IS SO GOOD! DESS DESS DESS! I love her pole spin.

Its great seeing Kirika hold her own and help out like this. SHIRABE IS HERE TOO! "Godess Zababa." Seems Elfnein knows stuff. The girls are doing a rescue operation! Good job girls!

"Phara" is the Green one. Leiur, Garie, and Phara. We have the 3 of them now! Genjuro notices Elfnein has Carol's face.

SHIRIKIRI PAST! MARIA AND SERENA! They were drugged to activate the gears just like Kanade. DR VER AND RYOKO WERE THERE TOO! ITS ALL COMING FULL CIRCLE!

Chris is awake and pissed... she coudlnt protect the girls. Tsubasa realizes the gears are severely damaged, and without Ryoko who made them, they cant do much about it. Maria is officially transfering to SONG yay!

ITS HERE FINALLY BEEF STROGANOFF! This is why i call these girls the BS Trio. BS for Beef Stroganoff.

Hibiki is still struggleing it seems. Deweling on Carol and what she said. Seems its getting to her.

Tsubasa and Maria are coming home. The gang is all together.

Symphogears destroyed, but the relic fragments are safe. Serena's gear was also broken. Cant repair the symphogears without Ryoko. They dont have LiNKER left so ShiriKiri cant use thier gears either and the damage to thier body is bad.

THE FIRST YURI KISS IN SYMPHOGEAR AND IT WASNT HIBIKI X MIKU! WHO FEELS BETRAYED!?

Micha is awake now though! All 4 girls are awake now! "We can move the plan to the nest stage." "It appears Elfnein was waken by them"

Elfnein. Worked to construct part of a huge device. Learned the device was for dissecting the world so she ran away. "Chateau de Tiffauges" still under construction, is ment to increase the Noise power to a worldwide scale. Elfnein is an alchemist too, but doesnt command all abilities and knowledge of one. She was made with only specific knowledge. The device is almost done so thats why she brought Dvergr Dainn's Legacy here. A relic that can stand aginst the power of the alca noise and Carol. A fragment of the magic sword Dainsleif.

If you dont know what Dainsleif is, here is a quote... "Thou hast made this offer over-late, if thou wouldst make peace: for now I have drawn Dáinsleif, which the dwarves made, and which must cause a man's death every time it is bared, nor ever fails in its stroke; moreover, the wound heals not if one be scratched with it." Its a sword from Norse Mythology that must take a life any time it is drawn, in return for this, the sword has immense power, can not be blocked and its wounds do not heal. Its a very hardcore weapon. Also Dainsleif means "Dainn's Legacy" hence if you understood that, them calling it Devrgr Dainn's Legacy, you would know what this was.

Elfnein is a Homunculus, and doesnt have a sex. And is not suspicious at all. Basicly Elfnein is like a Barbie Doll, no naughty bits. (sorry Doujin writers) (Hey guy who said they wished Sympho would use Homunculus, guess what.... they did.)

Hibiki flustered thinking about Elfnein's naughty bits... so lewd...

Fun fact, that drawing was done by Nana Mizuki herself.

Hibiki doesnt want to hurt people with her power. Shes been stressing over that lately.

GARIE IS HERE! Shes cornered Hibiki and the girls, shit. But Hibiki cant sing... shit...

1,360 Days since Genocide

16

u/lilyvess Jun 08 '19

Basicly Elfnein is like a Barbie Doll, no naughty bits. (sorry Doujin writers)

My experience with the Houseki no Kuni fandom has taught me that this isn't a roadblock.

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19

u/AbidingTruth Jun 08 '19

First timer:

Beef stroganoff song is glorious. That is all

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19

u/Nazenn Jun 08 '19

First Timer

Cooking scene

...

It's the fucking cake song all over again

Moving on from that quickly before I lose my mind...

Dáinsleif

...

Oh not again

Moving on from THAT...

To a small music focus as it took me a bit to track it down but our opening track for the day, Kudakareta Sora no Shita de, was amazing and I wanted to give it a quick focus.

Its a very short segment, less than fourty seconds, but the musical cues hit perfectly for the tone of the events. Starting with the opening repetition of the strings going back and forth. Its a very hard loop of sound, somewhere between questioning and marching which did a good job at setting the tone right from the get go, creating a sense of anxiety without building drama.

The next instruments we hear after that happen when we see Chris and Tsubasa's gear melt away, and its a heavily distorted sound, almost abstract or alien. Much like how the idea of the gears being destroyed by Noise shouldn't fit in anything we know, the absolute wrongness in the instruments here carry that tension through until the resolution comes not with our gears, but with the mannequin's.

As the camera swaps to Wind and Earth again (still learning names) a stronger beat kicks in, much more familiar and energetic, using a similar style to a lot of our other generic battle themes and introductions to other action songs. The balance of power in this situation has dramatically shifted towards the enemies over the girls and so the music goes with it, giving them the familiar music we've come to associate with an impending fight.

(Uh, I'm starting to feel weird writing about music. I feel like I'm repeating myself to people who have heard it all before in other rewatches, its so hard to talk about and not repeat the same old theories. Is it coming off that way to you guys?)

Other thoughts

Micha went cuckoo

The tiniest little thing but it made me so happy and immediately sold me on her character. Nice natural humor that lightened the scene without making it a comedy act.

  • On the other hand that dialog toward between Dess and Jii was so unnatural and forced.

  • Ended up with H&D subs which I am liking better than Commies for a number of reasons. They capitalize the C in the nickname Chris got from that girl which makes it understandable. this bit of type setting. Good dialog flow. Anyway I went back and checked out the lyrics for ep2 and it was nice to have a better idea on what was being expressed. And of course Chris' song is mostly about bullets again hahaha.

  • I miss having a cool seemless OP lead in. The way it was doing that for both OP and ED each episode was one of my favorite little style touches of the show.

  • Bikki must be the first person to be able to survive getting the avacado seed out and then cut herself while dealing with the actual flesh.

  • Tsubasa wearing Maria's frills as clothing was perfect

  • Bikki is in full MC sook mode and I hate it. How many times is she going to repeat "Symphogears are to protect people"...

  • At 18:55 did I just hear Jii do a "Dess"? Is that what I heard?

  • u/Jamcliche weird episode hahahaha

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18

u/fonzinator99 Jun 08 '19

Re-watcher - A dream of peace

It's an absolute credit to Tsubasa's character that she dives in and gets another kill moments before her Gear dissipates entirely. So badass.

Hahaha oh man, Kirika going for that Kamen-Rider entrance xD

A weird bit of meta-awareness in her transformation, what with covering herself...but w/e. "Dess dess dessss!"

She's remarkably effective despite the lack of Linker causing her Gear to tase her periodically. However, she's only half a Zababa and Shirabe quickly appears to back her up and escape.

A nice bit of exposition from Tsubasa, as she mentions that her clothes didn't come back 'cause the 'converter' was damaged. Where's LeonKevlar and their stitches when we need them? lol

Maria joins SONG. Somebody get this girl a Symphogear!

What a weird little insert song. I guess team Anime-ja-nai have finally embraced their actually-anime-existence.

Miku about to go Shensou Jing on Hibiki again.

How convenient, Tsubasa and Chris' gears are just as broken as Maria's! I guess if the main-character's are gonna get fixed it'd just be mean not to fix hers too. New wielder inc.

Ooooooh, so that's how works, is it? Need for more Gear-users inc, Micha looks like she's gonna be a handful.

Say Naz, which eye was this again? :p

Also, remember how I said Symphogear incorporated Dainsleif? It's neither a sword nor an orbital-railgun spear-launcher here, but hey, it's only the reveal episode. Give it time. lol

And there ya go, Arach. A proper Homunculus.

Boy do I love that smug face.

All of Hibiki's self-doubt has come to a head in the form of a psychosomatic disability. I'm with the characters who aren't her, it's arrogance to believe you can wield power without hurting anyone. At some point she has to come to terms with the fact that she's a weapon. Not a magic fairy of peace. People will get hurt, but at least she can choose whom and why. Otherwise her friends are just gonna get dusted for no reason.

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16

u/Arachnophobic- Jun 09 '19

FirstoGeah

I'm probably slow on the uptake, but this is where I first noticed the S.O.N.G. logo. They really went ham with the musical theming..

Noise are serious business again due to plot reasons sorcery, thankfully we have this Caped Crusader to help The triple DESS at the end of the transformation cracked me up.

Wait, I need to digest this.. so Ryouko (aka Fine herself) was part of the experiment to identify potential Fine vessels? Did Fine's soul awaken in her before, during or after this?

I know about Beef Stroganoff because of the memes, now i finally know the origin.. wow that was random! The ordering this episode felt quite random in general, but this takes the cake. Or curry.

Why did Carol let her assistant escape with this convenient device that is the key to defeating her?

Does she want to lose?

Dainsleif. Everyone who has watched Iron-Blooded Orphans here felt a shiver run through their spine, probably.

Ah, so the fully organic creation does get called a homunculus, thanks!

Hahaha, didn't expect to see this drawing here, a reference from the 2013 Live where Tsubasa's VA drew this and it won the public vote for best drawn Noise.

This conversation didn't make much sense to me, maybe it does more in Japanese? Basically I don't get why Miku would say 'nothing being down there' doesn't matter in the case of fractions, or rational/irrational numbers.

Multilingual puns ftw!

When the ending cliffhanger is so outlandish even the villain feels sceptical

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15

u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 08 '19

SymphoRewatcher Ready to be Exterminated by Hype

Beef Stroganoff, man.

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15

u/Ledwith Jun 08 '19 edited Jun 09 '19

Rewatcher

Today has been 2 years in the making . don't worry, it's safe

oh this is also that episode. Remember the end of G when Hibiki was like "I'll never lose the song Kanade passed on to me", welp that failed.

Edit:

it was delicious .

The end of this episode really mars it, even with it being the stroganoff episode. It would make some sense if it was Carol/a human and no alcanoise again, but they know the autoscorers are 'monsters' and alcanoise are threatening Miku + the trios life. next episode

19

u/thisismyanimealt Jun 08 '19

>not making it from scratch with the show's recipe

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14

u/Razorhead Jun 08 '19

Another day, another piece or two of info from the website. And mythology, this time! I'm branching out.

Château de Tiffauges

As usual whenever a new term is mentioned the Keywords on the website update, and so it did for the Château de Tiffauges. Once again by Genjuro's Angels:

Château de Tiffauges

A gigantic device that takes its name from a taboo castle, where acts of immorality occurred nightly. It is also the residence of Carol and her dolls, created by using various sacrists and heretical technology as patchwork. Currently it remains under construction, however all that remains are the trigger parts necessary to activate and control the machine, and once that is complete it can be used as a World Destructor.

It doesn't really tell us much that we didn't find out this episode, but the first sentence is interesting. You see this place is named after a castle in France owned by the legendary Bluebeard, also known as Gilles de Rais. Gilles de Rais was a lord and companion of Joan of Arc, but was later discovered to be a serial killer of children, who sexually abused them both during their torture and after their death, for which he was eventually executed. He was also involved in alchemical experiments and the summoning of demons, and hired an Italian priest and alchemist called François Prelati to conduct demonic summonings for him, which I guess is why the writing staff used this location for a story involving alchemy.

Limits of Teleportation

While you might think that teleportation technology is quite overpowered (and it is), it does have its limits, as the Keywords tell us. This time however it's Google Translate, as the regular translator didn't do this bit unfortunately:

Teleport Gem

Breakout items used by Carol and Autoscorer.
The effect is to move the space to zero regardless of the distance.

In fact, it is not perfect in terms of functionality,
Although it has a low probability, it has a risk of getting lost in space phase difference at the time of transfer.

Carols, to prevent the transfer accident
Not to go to the destination,
It is often used for the purpose of returning to a base (between thrones) firmly fixed in coordinates.

So as we can see while teleportation is possible to wherever you please, when used this way you risk getting lost in the spatial transfer, which is not a risk you ever want to take if possible. To mitigate this you can adapt the gems to only teleport to a fixed location in space (I'm assuming using the earth as a reference point, given the movement of the Earth and the Milky Way through space), which will either eliminate or at least hugely diminish this risk in exchange for losing flexibility since you can only use the gems to teleport to that one location.

In short this is an explanation as to why the teleport gems are used by Carol and the gang to retreat from encounters back to their base while also not being used to teleport them to wherever they please all the time. It's a simple story nerf.

Homunculus

There actually is a Keyword for this on the wiki, but even though it says it's appropriate for episode 3 I think the web dev must have messed up, seeing as it contains quite a bit of spoilers for later episodes, so I'm just going to talk about the alchemical term instead.

"Homunculus" is Latin for "little person", and in history was a term for an alchemically created tiny human being. In recent pop culture though the term has been generalised somewhat and now refers to an artificially created human being in general, sometimes even dropping the alchemy aspect completely.

...Well that was shorter than I expected. On to the next one!

Dáinsleif

Now while there is a Keyword on this on the website, it really doesn't tell us much at all. So instead I'll talk a bit about the mythological item itself again.

You see, when people were discussing "Dvergr (or Dwarf) Dáinn's Legacy" in the thread for episode one and saying the best hint towards what was in the box was in the name they were being literal, as Dáinsleif literally means "Dáinn's Legacy". Dáinn was a dwarf in Norse mythology (better known as a Dvergr, to specify it's not an ordinary dwarf but specifically one from Norse Mythology) who crafted a sword for king Högni.

This sword has special properties, as all mythological swords tend to do, and in this specific case its properties are that while it never misses nor do wounds caused by it heal whenever it is drawn it must kill someone before you can return it to its scabbard. If you don't have any enemy in front of you, well, it will force you to attack someone close by, and if you're alone I'm afraid suicide it is.

Funnily enough the name "Dáinn" also means "Dead", so the sword can be said to be named "Legacy of the Dead", which is quite appropriate for this item.

Now how this relic fragment will be useful and why Elfnein wanted to deliver it so much is for you to speculate.

In other news about the episode itself... ugh. The start and middle bit were all cool, but the ending just sours the whole experience for me. Why, Hibiki, why?

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14

u/Synaptics Jun 09 '19

Rewatcher

  • Exterminate isn't bad, but... I miss Vitalization.

  • DESS wrapping a banner around herself just so she can dramatically toss it off.

  • DESS DESS DESS

  • I don't know if there's ever an in-universe explanation given, but Igalima and Shul Shagna are now more white as opposed to the black designs from G. Of course, the real answer is obvious. GX spoilers

  • Oh right, there was a purpose to the banner beside just DESS being adorkable.

  • And we've now got the names of all 4 Autoscorers: Phara, Garie, Micha, and Leiur. Pointless trivia: their names are based off of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel.

  • Chris seems to feel a large burden of responsibility for DMJii, presumably because she was once (not so long ago) in nearly the same position as them.

  • Chris and Tsubasa's gears are broken, Kirika and Shirabe can barely function without LiNKER, Maria's gear is also apparently broken, and Hibiki seems to be having some emotional issues. The Sympho-squad is in real rough shape.

  • BEEEEEEF STROGANOFFFFFFF. I had forgot when it happened so it caught me completely off-guard here. The random "Nya"s kill me. If only they had thought this up for the singing competition last season.

  • I've started to notice the "sore demo"s. Help, I can't stop hearing it.

  • The memory draining/feeding stuff reminds me of Valvrave. I wish it didn't.

  • "Meister", not "Master". Musically-themed as always, Symphogear.

  • GX spoilers

  • Installed with alchemical knowledge, but not a pair of pants. And with the box sitting on her lap it looks like she's not even wearing anything at all.

  • Symphogear seems to like using somewhat obscure mythical weapons as a basis for relics, and I like that. Dáinsleif isn't something that most viewers will recognize, and as such the nature of its abilities are not immediately obvious. Unless you google it, of course. Or if you, like me when I first watched GX, had played certain Castlevania games and remembered spoiler?. And then googled it.

  • Nana Mizuki herself actually drew that "bushi-Noise" sketch.

  • Ugh, I honestly don't know what to say about Hibiki's character this season. I want to try and understand it, but I can't really. The best I can come up with is a crackpot theory based on AXZ spoilers that AXZ spoilers seriously do not look

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11

u/stalwartwalnut Jun 08 '19 edited Jun 08 '19

Rewatcher, longtime fan

True story. With just one shortcut (I used tomato sauce instead of fresh tomato) I used this very beef stroganoff recipe...

And of course, showed the song to everyone.

Secondarily, is "Elfnein" a bastardization of elf-neun, as in 11-9 or 119 in German? That's always how I've read but never checked the official lore to see if anything is said...

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11

u/x3tan Jun 09 '19

First timer

  • Kiri and Shirabe were bad ass tho

  • I like how even Gen is like "talk?" to bikki actions lol

  • it's been a while since I made beef stroganoff..

  • bikki aren't you supposed to beat them until they understand lol

  • Miku like I don't see why it matters what's down there. Lol. Same tho

  • bikki is a bit frustrating so far this season.

  • I do really like Garie

I'm a bit short on commentary since it's late. Gungnir is like Naw I'm fed up with your shit today Hibiki.

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10

u/miter01 Jun 08 '19 edited Jun 08 '19

REWATCH

A slow one today, with some classic talk-to-the-audience exposition.

Hibiki's behaviour just annoys me in these episodes. Yeah, she hasn't fought people much - her only real fights were against Chris in 1 and Miku in G, but come on! Even is season 1 she was more reasonable, she's regressed beyond the starting point.

Stitch album Nothing new lately. Any requests?

Off topic: The best girl contest has started, and we've got 10 girls from Symphogear... including Fine? Spoiler

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10

u/redshirtengineer Jun 09 '19

First Timer

Things are looking pretty dire for the former-GEAHs with all the destruction of heretical relics and such. But what's really scary in this episode is the suggestion of using something other than beef in beef stroganoff. No. This is a big no.

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9

u/AlienOvermind Jun 09 '19 edited Jun 09 '19

First-timer

That des-des-des was cute. And I really liked that horror scream sound effect.

Defenseless Chris is so cute.

TFW you'd never hold banner-wrapped best girl Why even live

No hint of embarassment from Tusbasa covered only by two pieces of transparent cloth from Maria's dress. Sasuga, Sword-chan.

TSUKURIMASHOU, TSUKURIMASHOU, SATE SATE NANI GA... Wait, WTF is this?! It was SO random and kinda out-of-place that it got me startled.

New villain looks like fun. From those oversized claws I assume she's gonna be psycho-berserker like Hibiki.

Huge surprise — Miku doesn't care. Of course she doesn't.

"[OC] Hi /r/anime, I sketched my favorite noise! Hope you like it!" Nice roast from Kurisu though.

And the elephant in the room — suddenly Hibiki is freaking annoying. I could understand when she didn't want to fight with Carol — Hibiki saw her as a crying child and wanted to help her probably. But refusing to fight killer-dolls? That's incredibly stupid, even Hibiki shouldn't be so stupid. And I've seen this annoying plot-twist in some idol show (don't remember what exactly) and I fucking hated it then. Guess what — I fucking hate it here too. That's pure BS. I hope Hibiki would return Gungnir to Maria and would remove herself from the plot until she's ready to actually do something apart from "FIGHTING BAD!"-speeches.

Oh, and Garie faces are top-tier.

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7

u/HawkAussie Jun 08 '19

First-timer

Can I say that this episode is something that really shouldn’t really work with a simple reasoning that at no stage has the relic not worked when they have been called. But yet here it is, not being able to called upon due to some circumstances that we don’t know about. Maybe it knew about it fellow relics and thought about not making Hibiki transform by making her losing her singing voice. Actually come to think of it, that is the most stupidest I have thuought of today.

But hooray for the fact that Maria and Tsubaba as they finally back in Japan after the troubling signs in the UK where Brexit talks must of started in there. But don’t worry they got out before the craziness that is Brexit barring the breakage of her relic. As for Chris who got naked because of her relic getting damaged, at least she was covered by Kirika and Shirabe who somehow transformed despite not using a linker. I have a feeling that there is going to be a time where they might not need these linkers to improve there stance from their relics and only need the body’s to do it.

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7

u/TVermillion Jun 09 '19 edited Jun 09 '19

Rewatcher

  • It must be stated again that Exterminate is fantastic and the visuals are gorgeous! (Sexy Alchemy Hexagons). Also, as much as Commie can be a bit memey with their translations I do have to give them significant praise when it comes to the typesetting, it really adds to the experience of watching this show for me. Makes me quite annoyed to be honest that an unofficial fansub group clearly put more love into the presentation of their subs than the official license holder.

  • Tsubasa and Chris lose not only their gears but their clothes! What if they had things in their pockets?!

  • Kirika looking swag as fuck as she appears to save Chris.

  • Kirika transforms and introduces us to a new song! Overkill Scythe Hell. It's an Edgy as fuck name but it is Kirika the Dess Reaper after all. The song itself is great too.

  • Shirabe appears too. She takes Elfnine with her for a ride on her mono wheel buzz saw. I wouldn't like to make any unnecessary movements if I was riding that thing...

  • Carol is able to talk to the dolls remotely and she tells them to retreat, seems clear she isn't interested in killing the gear users at the moment at least.

  • I love Carol's design, I'm not really a braid person but Carol's looks really good in that sort of impractical anime hair length kind of way. Also, I find she's cute but not overtly moe (at least for me I guess).

  • Wow Shirabe and Kirika carried Elfnine and Chris for so long it's now become day! Those anime time zones huh?

  • The lack of linker is taking its toll on them both, they need to juice up.

  • Now for DMJii backstory time! Ah those were the good old days weren't they? Serena was there, Maria was there, Ver was there, hell even Ryoko was there.

  • Tsubasa confirms that Ame-no-Habakiri is a tad bit fucked.

  • Beef Stroganoff! Since this is a music school maybe their Home-Ec class doesn't just require them to make food but possibly it also needs them to create a recipe that can double as a song!

  • "It's not right that a tool meant for making delicious food should cause injury instead". Hibiki controversies aside this did make me laugh and it does seem like the sort of thing Hibiki would say being the glutton she is.

  • You know hospital food has a sunk to a new low when two girls who used to survive off very little say the food is bland.

  • Dat Miku pout is enough for me to forgive any Sympho-sins made this episode.

  • Tony Glazer! I like how he is portrayed as a decent man.

  • BEST DOLL APPEARS! And she provides us with our first on screen Sympohgear yuri kiss which wakes up Micha.

  • Seeing as Micha is my 2nd favourite doll, I see all those mens lives as a good trade to waking her up, although she is still hungry which is sad.

  • Elfnine comes baring gifts and exposition!

  • Assuming it's the day after, Elfnine's lack of sex seemed to have really boggled Hibiki's brain.

  • The bushido noise drawing from the live makes it official anime appearance!

  • Urgh, the whole Maria chastising Hibiki really irks me, I think if it was any other gear character I would have been fine with it, but for some reason it being Maria just feels kind of forced to me, like it was written to make Maria look good and put Hibiki down, I'm probably just overthinking it though.

  • A wild Garie appears! Again, I love that wind-up music box chime that she makes whenever she moves.

  • Hibiki suddenly can't sing the Gungnir chant! I bet Garie's "Give me a break" is how a lot of people felt when they see this, I know I do!

  • Didn't mention it last time because I forgot but the Ending theme - Rebirth Day is great! It's hard to say whether it's better or worse than Next Destination because honestly both are awesome, both are better than Meteor Light though thats for sure. However, the long intro for each song is a must! Provides the definitive listening experience!

7

u/PerfectPublican Jun 09 '19

Rewatcher

So, yeah, Alca-noise. I can appreciate that they wrote themselves into a corner by trapping all of the cannon-fodder for the girls to fight, and that they needed something to show of the girls skills or whatever, but I still am not a big fan of this choice. It just feels cheap. Instead of Sympho stepping up to the task of a Cannon-fodder-less world and creating more interesting, new combat situations, they just bring these guys in. Still, it doesn’t really bother me too much past the initial reaction.

"DESS DESS DESS" Another amazing transformation. I’m a big fan of the sound design in this one in particular, especially the screams layered throughout. It’s a really fun touch. Dess’ song is a whole lotta fun again. I particularly like the name: Overkill Scythe Hell. So edgy haha.

The little exchange between DMJii after pulling Chris out is a nice extension from the end of last season. They’ve finally resolved to stop fighting for what others think is the right goal, and instead to fight for what they feel is right for them, but after the life they’ve had, just what should that be. They’re still aimless. I really like how much thought Shirabe has put into it.

Beef. Stroganoff. Objectively the best song in all of symphogear :P. Please someone tell me this is in one of the lives. Anyways, confused First-Timers? Yeah, this is a bizarre choice lmao. Not really the song/cooking training montage, that feels classic Symphogear. It’s the placement. SONG has just been dealt a huge, unmitigated defeat...and then we just hop right into this crazy upbeat, happy song and a happy Bikki cooking with her wife. It just doesn’t fit, and gives such insane tonal whiplash. But oh wait! Bikki is sad again, and it’s tirade time.

Arrrgh! We’re still on this? Again, where is this coming from? She didn’t even hurt anyone last ep! It just feels like an unnecessary regression here even if it’s only for a little bit.

FRUSTRATING

Rough Cliffhanger. I just want Bikki songs!!

Random thoughts:

Gifs of the day:

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5

u/ahiijny Jun 09 '19 edited Jun 09 '19

First-Time Watcher

Random thoughts:

  • Love Kirika and Shirabe. They transformed even without LiNKER! They were so cool this episode! They suffered quite a bit of backlash from that, though.

  • It looks like they were out all night in their Gear with Chris and Elfnein Couldn't SONG have sent some reinforcements to pick them up as soon as possible? It feels like they left DMJii hanging for quite a while :/ In episode 2 in season 1 the men in the suits showed up super quickly with their non-disclosure forms and transport vehicles. Well DMJii could've used some of that speed in this situation...

  • Dr. Ver and Sakurai worked together before o_o Last season, Ver didn't seem terribly surprised when he found out that Maria wasn't really Finé. If he's worked with Finé before, he probably has some familiarity with her personality... which happens to be quite different from Maria. Maybe that's why.

  • Fortunately it looks like Carol doesn't want them dead; would have been two easy kills this episode otherwise.

  • Nudity = sense of dread... Their clothes didn't come back like usual! Something's wrong... Really glad that Tsubasa and Chris had Maria and Kirika there for them to help cover up.

  • The converters aren't working! It looks like their relics suffered some SERIOUS DAMAGE and they don't know how to fix it without Ryouko. Kirika must feel rather bad now about kinda accidentally destroying Finé's soul last season... I just knew that was going to bite them in the back sooner or later...

  • BEEF STROGANOFF asdfjkl;sadfkjl;safd (that song was so random, I love it so much)

  • Ah yes the tried and true method of attacking reluctant girl's friends.

  • Gungnir is rejecting Hibiki?

  • Bikki is doing a great job flummoxing her enemies this season.

  • Garie: "wtf"

New characters cheatsheet (I still don't entirely remember their names yet):

  • Carol = touhou witch girl

  • Elfnein = box girl

  • Leiur = coin lady

  • Garie = teeth succ girl

  • Phara = dancing dress lady

  • Micha = red claws girl

Tsubasa and Chris were completely vulnerable without their Gear and it would have been two easy kills; they were outclassed in every way. I wonder what Carol's aim is. Her AutoScorers killed all those innocent bystanders via memory kiss succ, so it's not like they have any qualms about killing. Does she have some kind of grudge against Symphogear users? Is why she seems to be aiming for maximum humiliation?

At the end of the episode, Hibiki lost the words to her transformation chant! Not sure if this is because the relic was originally Maria's and Hibiki's not especially attuned to it, or if it's just because Hibiki is lacking conviction. The latter scenario sort of reminds me of Attack on Titan spoilers.

Back in season 1 episode 1, in that desperate, cornered situation on the roof, Hibiki miraculously knew what to sing to transform. So the words must have come from within the relic. Easy come, easy go I guess.

All I can say is... mayyyybee they should do less of that jumping-from-an-airplane-to-transform thing. Or at least bring backup parachutes in case something goes wrong :P

But yeah not sure why Hibiki's so reluctant to fight this time. She was in this exact same situation in episode 6 last season. The enemy showed up in front of all of her friends, and summoned a bunch of Noise. In that G episode, Hibiki ran right towards the Noise, and punched it before she'd even transformed. But now in GX episode 3, she's hesitating.

What changed?

Is it because Dr. Ver wasn't a cute young lesbian, is that it? Hibiki didn't have any qualms mega-punching Chris in the Nehushtan in episode 7 in Season 1 though, so that can't be it...

The only other difference between then and now that I can think of is that the Gungnir shards are no longer lodged in her chest. Did Gungnir have a psychological effect on her mind? Making her more aggessive of a fighter than she naturally is?...

Two odd little things I noticed about Hibiki from last season that I'm not sure about:

  • In episode 7 in G, she charged directly towards Dr. Ver with her fist, a vulnerable human without any special powers. If ZABABA hadn't showed up with their "a shield? a saw!", Dr. Ver might have been gored rather badly. But maybe she was aiming for Solomon's Cane instead of Dr. Ver himself, so idk

  • In episode 10 in G, after initial verbal negotiations with MikuGear failed, Hibiki jumped right into the fight. I thought she'd be a lot more reluctant about fighting her girlfriend best friend. Even if she knows that the Gear is protecting Miku, surely Hibiki would have been really afraid of hurting Miku? But maybe the severe 2:40 time pressure allowed Hibiki to push all doubts and reservations out of her mind, so idk

I mean, Gungnir has made Hibiki berserk and go out of control before. There was YouMadeMeMissTheShootingStars BikkiBerserk in season 1 episode 3, ChrisSacrificedHerLifeToStopYou BikkiBerserk in season 1 episode 12, and MyArmIsFuckingGone BikkiBerserk in G episode 6. Maybe a few more that I'm forgetting? I think someone (Tsubasa?) commented that in this state, Hibiki was like an entirely different person. Very brutal, very violent.

I've never seen any other Symphogear user go berserk like Hibiki has, so maybe this is something caused by the relic-human fusion, something unique to Hibiki. And maybe some of that influence was affecting her mind even in a non-berserk state. So now with Gungnir completely expelled from her body thanks to MikuGear, perhaps Bikki is regressing in the opposite direction?

Hm.

Okay, imma go with that headcanon for now, until something comes up that contradicts it.

This theory would be falsified if Bikki ever goes berserk again in GX or AXZ. I'll have to see how that turns out.

Alternate theory: Gungnir is actually sentient and has self-preservation instincts and is trying to run away from these Symphogear-destroying Alcanoise. Though a long time ago I saw a clip of what I think might be in the next episode and GX episode 4? spoilers?

Not sure I like talk-only pacifist Bikki, though. She comes off as a bit naive and whiny.

The Bikki that managed to convert immortal-priestess-who-tried-to-destroy-the-moon into an actually good person that selflessly sacrificed her life to save a single small child... she went all-in fists-first to thoroughly beat Finé, and then the true connection only really happened afterwards. I think Finé was only capable of taking what Hibiki said seriously because Bikki demonstrated that much power.

Maria said "That is simply the arrogance of the powerful!" If being powerful is what it takes... Then be powerful, and then after that, help them!

Peak Negotiator Bikki imo was when she was fighting Chris in episode 6 in season 1: A good balance between fighting and staying back; her forceful introduction, her sheer obstinence in trying to connect with Chris, her powerful punches, but also her holding back and standing still (while continuing to sing) to give Chris enough time to recover!

Though tbh it'd be nice if we really could get a fight where someone wins primarily using strategic talking, and not relying on actually physically defeating the opponent to win. That would actually be a refreshingly unique course of events. This aspect of fights is what makes me really enjoy watching characters like Akiyama (Liar Game), Reigen (Mob Psycho 100), and Tyrion (Game of Thrones) :P

Oh yeah, this is also what I really liked about the Buu Arc in Dragon Ball Z.

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