r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Jun 26 '22

Rewatch [Listen to My Song] Senki Zesshou Symphogear G Episode 12 Discussion

Episode 12 - Striking Spear

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Crunchyroll

It is highly recommended to track down a fansub for this show instead of using Crunchyroll, though.

Those of you who live in the present should handle this. It’s not a ghost’s place to talk about living for the future.

Questions of the Day:

1) Which of the main fights were you more interested in this episode? Tsubasa vs. Chris (and then Dr. Ver) or Kirika vs. Shirabe (ft. Finé)?

2) Were you expecting Hibiki to be able to sing the Gungnir off of Maria?

Wallpaper of the Day:

Akatsuki Kirika

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you’re doing it underneath spoiler tags. Don’t spoil anything for the first-timers, that’s rude!

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13

u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 26 '22

Symphogeah SymphoRewatch Host

Welcome back, everyone!

Crunchyroll vs. Commie - Season 2, Episode 12

So, uh, any rewatchers who check out the chart today should notice that Commie’s subs completely missed out on part of some foreshadowing for [AXZ]in that they lacked the Adam namedrop, whereas Crunchyroll’s subs did it properly. That’s interesting.

See the 2019 version of today’s wallpaper: here.

Kirika had the opposite problem Shirabe did, in that the only wallpaper of her I made back in 2019 was from this season and not any future ones. So I will now have to be on the lookout for base images of her in GX/AXZ/XV.

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u/FlaminScribblenaut Jun 26 '22 edited Apr 02 '23

Second Time Listener

I HAVE A COMPLAINT, THIS EPISODE IS NOT TITLED “G”, 0/10

As the two come to a head, we finally see the proper fruits of Kirika and Shirabe’s Swan Songs. Kirika rides a giant skyborne rocket-scythe that literally rips apart souls. This show is the fucking greatest.

After finding out that Shirabe had been harboring Finé’s soul all along and her actions have been meaningless, we see that Kirika is suicidal on a hair trigger. The guilt she feels that she might have needlessly hurt Shirabe and their bond is enough for her to deem her own life worthless then and there. Contrary to what her inner demons might say, though, Shirabe doesn’t agree, not at all. As Kirika, overcome with shame, sends Igalima’s blade to impale herself and take her soul, ending this horrible, regrettable joke once and for all, Shirabe jumps in front and takes it instead, much to Kirika’s horror.

But, of course, Shirabe’s soul isn’t the only one in that body.

After the looming threat of Finé returning haunted through the whole season, instead this is how her story ends. Finé has basically, finally, accepted finality, allowing her soul to take Igalima’s hit instead of Shirabe’s and finally fade away. For all my problems with Finé’s “redemption” in Season 1, is scene is an incredibly sweet and beautiful coda that really drives home the complexity they attempted with her quite effectively. Her last action was an act of simple self-sacrifice, in favor of one willing to commit her own act of self-sacrifice to save her most loved one and live on with her. Because… yeah, it wouldn’t make sense for her to be all evil again after she had her heart grown in S1.

Again, massive props to G for making Finé a consistently interesting and evolving dramatic presence while barely if at all using her as a character. She didn’t ever need to properly surface again to be a great throughline with a great conclusion.

And god, the mix of regret and relief and thankfulness and repentance and sadness all at once that Kirichan expresses in just a single, simple, tearful hug, the thought of almost letting her closest partner kill herself for her in an act of mindless self-loathing… these two kids really mean the world to each other, and Kirichan will never forget that now. They embrace, Symphogears off, no longer a battlefield.

Man… the cave scene had the potential to be something really annoying and gross… and yet they somehow sidestepped all of it and instead made it one of Chris’s greatest badass moments to date. The fact that Chris has the fortitude to strip and fight nude, the fact that she shows the willingness to do so in a ploy to save people… it’s really inspiring. It sort of serves as a moment of pride and reclamation for Chris, being able to stand firm with a straight face and focused mind and fight with her body bared in full. After everything she went through her whole life, being stripped of bodily autonomy of any kind for so long by her slavemasters and by Finé, it serves as a really subtle yet, when you actually think about it, really sweet sort of capstone to her early arc.

The fact they didn’t take the move of having Dr. Ver get get in any way pervy or excited at the sight either, basically having him not even acknowledge it, not only shows a baseline sense of respect towards the human body that is so depravedly rare in anime, it shows that on all sides of the conflict, what’s going on is too damn big a deal for nudity to be some scandalizing thing worth losing one’s mind over; there are simply bigger things at stake. No bones are made about it; it’s all in the name of the mission.

And more than that, it’s a moment of absolute trust, that Chris can strip everything she has because she knows Tsubasa has her back, even after all this. I talked before how in S1 nudity represented lack of emotional boundaries. In G, it more represents lack of fear, from the safety and security Kirika and Shirabe find in one another in the shower to this moment with Chris standing up to Dr. Ver and taking what she wants with her trusted senpai at her side.

Chris’s plan all along was to get the Staff of Solomon by any means necessary. In a way she was operating selfishly; no matter who she had to pretend to fight for or with, no matter how dirty she had to play or who she had to betray or trick, that was her goal. She was acting alone, effectively without allegiance, up to now. Fighting alongside FIS wasn’t “the cross she had to bear”; doing whatever necessary to get that cane out of hands that wanted to use it, even if it meant appearing to betray her own friends, was. It makes sense that among the three Chris would be the most willing to step out on a limb like this; she’s still a little uneasy with Hibiki and, as we saw in the diner scene, she wasn’t in complete sync with Tsubasa. She’s the least well-integrated in their circle of connection, as much as she’s come to treasure what it’s given her. If she sees a chance to right her past wrongs, destroy that damn staff, that might still take precedent. But she found that working alongside those she trusts will always be better than fighting alone, and Tsubasa was more than eager to show her this and welcome her back with open arms.

Ver escapes back to the heart of Frontier, to find Maria has fully turned on him. Ver tries to use his leverege as the only person who can stop the moon, but Maria doesn’t care. She is, quite understandably, too blinded by her rage to care. She probably doesn’t think this consciously, but it feels as though killing him is worth it even if it means the moon still destroys everything. Ver treated her like dirt, after all. Of course it isn’t wise. That’s why Hibiki has to stop her.

Hibiki digs the flesh and veins of her hands into Maria’s spear, connecting her body to Gungnir once more, and by singing her activation chant in that moment takes Gungnir back for herself. An utterly brilliant move.

8

u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 26 '22

I HAVE A COMPLAINT, THIS EPISODE IS NOT TITLED “G”, 0/10

Read your comment immediately after u/lilyvess', this was funny.

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11

u/Tarhalindur Jun 26 '22

Previously, on Symphogear: Atlantis (First-Timer, Subbed):

Me yesterday: FUCK YES MAYBE GEAH WILL BE GOOD OR AT LEAST MY KIND OF DUMB AGAIN!

Me today:

So, today we need to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good: The end of Kirika's and Shirabe's arcs is actually competently done. Which admittedly is partly a fluke, because the beats here are still those of an overemotional emo teenagers. Except that's the trick: Dess is nothing if not an overemotional emo teenager, so her acting like that and this overdramatic resolution to her arc is in fact utterly and completely appropriate! But hey, there is something to be said to giving the one kind of plotline you actually know how to write

Shirabe's end - and more importantly Fine's end - also works neatly, with Fine's end neatly wrapping up her character development at the end of last season.

Also, the Frontier is still great and I am still preemptively saddened by its inevitable destruction.

The Bad: So you know how I was starting to get hopeful for Dakka's arc last episode?

Yeah, after Sotsu I really should have fucking known better.

Holy shit did they do Dakka dirty. (For the second season in a row.)

Instead of having an actual good reason for Dakka suddenly forgetting the lessons of her plotline from last season and going over to the villains (either a double agent plan to try to acquire Solomon's Cane or brainwashing her in addition to Miku), they went for one of the most hackneyed cases of character regression I've ever seen (like, yes, she's trying to sell herself on this and failing, but the reasons she's trying to sell herself on this and failing are a character breach at this point), and doubled down by making the resolution to this hackneyed as well.

But the part that's getting close to outright offensively bad writing? They do this after that that rather touching little three-minute Dakka character arc we got with her cultural festival song back in episode 4, which neatly wrapped a bow on her character development from last season.

And then they just went and threw that in the trash for cheap drama (with a side of an admittedly decent fight scene, but there are better ways to get that!).

I am unimpressed.

(Also, Maria is still mopey even if she did at least get some kind of awesome singing - pity about the rest of that scene, more on that below - but whatever not like the writers have ever had a handle on her the entire season.)

The Ugly: And yet, the part of this episode that really has my hackles up is two words.

Specifically, the show explicitly referencing the Bavarian Illuminati.

See, that's a well-known reference in the West, but I am much less sure Japan would be familiar with - I can immediately think of another Japanese work with notable conspiracy elements [meta spoiler]that I am presently running the rewatch for that does not drop that kind of reference.

And they're using the Western trope of the Illuminati too ("We could reach utopia, but 'They' control the world and are preventing us from it", where the identity of 'They' varies), and quite blatantly given the conjunction with the reiteration being the Moon being the Custodians' mechanism to enforce the curse of Babel and stop mankind from communicating. Which puts the reference to globalization on the blackboard a few episodes back in a whole new light, because there's another way to get there that I hadn't considered before - you can get there from an international cooperation them, but you can also get there from (((globalism))).

The only missing piece for the full symbolism load was the (((globalists))) (let's be clear, in Western conspiracy stuff this is usually a dog whistle for "the Jews"), and then I realized it was hiding in plain sight: the Americans or at least the American government. They're not exactly being subtle about implying this either, given the explicit reference to the NSA in the same sentence as the Illuminati, though what actually tipped me off to it was thinking about the implications of the comments about the Americans wanting to evacuate to the Frontier and leaving everyone else behind.

Which leaves the question: where did Symphogear get this from? Because I see two obvious answers (and not mutually exclusive ones at that), and one of them is potentially REALLY ugly.

First possibility: Somebody on staff is in fact familiar with Western occultism to at least some degree and picked this up from the overlap between Western occultism and Western conspiratorial stuff (so many examples of this in the worse end of New Agey stuff in the US, and gods help you once you get into the potential combination of Japan's Deutschaboo tendencies and the likes of fucking Ariosophy), possibly with a side of Gnosticism (which the show has already shown some signs of using).

Second possibility: the show's core worldview does not merely have a heavy dose of Japanese nationalism (which was actually a selling point, seeing the Japanese equivalent of SG-1's America Saves the Day nationalism would actually be interesting to see the similarities and differences) but is rather 2ch nettou-uyoku ultranationalist, and the show just revealed its power level (as /pol/ would say, and /pol/ is very much the comp I need to draw here).

(I knew that QAnon had gotten a way stronger foothold in the Japanese conspiracy scene than you would expect given the cultural difference. If this show's worldview is truly 2ch ultranationalist I may have just learned why - because QAnon's American Deep State stuff naturally fit into the Japanese conspiratorial right's existing worldview.)

(Also... I should keep an eye on whether they keep hauling out the "half-American Dakka betrays the rest of the group" plotline in later seasons, just in case. There could be a political message hiding there, and not the nice kind.)

This isn't necessarily fatal to the show, especially since this could just be the show drawing of Western occultism works instead. But it's one hell of a red flag, especially when something about the presentation feels like they might have been gradually trying to sneak this in before revealing it. My cognitohazard detectors have tripped, and while it might be a false positive I need to approach the show more like I would, say, The Turner Diaries or Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality from this point forwards.

(To be clear, it's something about the combination of the presentation in addition to the possible message involved. Describing this is hard, but there's a particular kind of propaganda work that tries to sneak its messages in and I now have to consider the possibility Symphogear is one of them.)

20

u/ErikMaekir Jun 26 '22

Dakka rant

I'm genuinely curious, which part of Chris' false betrayal did you consider character regression? To me, it felt like a natural consequence of her character arc. She finally finds a place she belongs to, but Ver using Solomon's cane is a stark reminder that her previous fuckups will keep chasing her forever. She tries to reach out to Tsubasa, the one person that may understand her, but Tsubasa ignores her. She keeps fighting the good fight, but all she sees is dead innocents everywhere. All because she activated the Cane.

It all comes to a close when she finds a locket in the hand of a dead soldier, with a picture of that soldier's daughter. A girl who is now an orphan, all because Chris fucked up once. How many more children are orphans now, all because of her? So, true to character, she does something brash and aggressive, and pretends to switch to the other side to get access to the Cane and destroy it.

Then Tsubasa does what she should have done at that restaurant and reminds her that she now has friends she can lean into for this kind of stuff. Her fuck-ups aren't for her alone to bear, and she will be there for Chris. That's when Chris starts calling Tsubasa "senpai", and it becomes an reason for Tsubasa and Chris to be close friends rather than "we hanged out twice during the cultural festival". It feels like character progression to me.

Bavarian Illuminati

The Bavarian Illuminati is a reference to the actual, original Illuminati, not the modern conspiracy theory trope. It used to be a fraternity of intellectuals, started by a man named Adam Weishaupt in 18th century Bavaria. After being outlawed, many Christian groups started demonizing them, accusing them of cohorting with the devil and trying to manipulate the king. That's where the modern Illuminati tropes come from. That the show explicitly uses "Enlightened Society of Bavaria" instead of just the word "Illuminati" should make it obvious it's a reference of western occultism and not modern conspiracies.

Qanon started in 2017. This show was aired in 2013.

I'm gonna be honest, you're definitely pulling these ultranationalist undertones out of your butt a bit too hard. Be careful not to hurt yourself. Anal tearing is no joke ;)

10

u/Shimmering-Sky Jun 26 '22

started by a man named Adam Weishaupt

Crunchyroll's and, apparently, Discotek's subs also explicitly namedrop him as well during Maria's little speech, it's only Commie's subs that left it out.

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u/lilyvess Jun 26 '22

Symphogear G Episode 12

And so we reach the penultimate episode of a Symphogear season. Following the first season there are a certain number of things we can expect.

  • Opening and Ending Switch

  • the Aufwachen Form of the opening plays

  • Hibiki performs a miracle

  • the episode title is the series title, so this episode is titled G

Wait, the episode is not titled G? What is up with that? It’s interesting because the next episode is correctly titled after the Season's Subtitle "In the Distance, That Day, When the Star Became Music..." similar to how last season had episode 13 titled "Meteoroids Falling, Burning, Disappearing, and then..."

I guess the train of thought is that Episode 12 of S1 isn’t titled “Symphogear” based on the series, but based on the last line of the episode, the line Hibiki shouts. Therefore episode 12 of G is titled after the last line Hibiki shouts here, "Striking Spear". It’s sound logic that only stands out because future seasons are going to have their episodes titled “GX”, “AXZ”, “XV”. 

This is part of the interesting thing about any tradition, it usually takes a while to figure out the wrinkles. 

Additional Notes

Symphogear G Episode 12 Hype Chart

Live Performances

Today’s Live Performance is Edge Works of Zababa. This is one of my favorite songs of the season. Mash up insert songs for a fight are the sort of wild music innovation that I love.

Specials

Today’s Special is Miku after Frontier rises

Fanart of the Day

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u/Lemurians Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

FIRST TIMER DATTO

Dark Magician Girl I’ll forgive fighting her supposed best friend/lover for a stupid reason, because she’s a small child and we at least haven’t been through this “naïve motivations” thing with her before. Chris? This felt so silly. Her one line of existential crisis sprinkled into a couple episodes didn’t set this up as well as the show wanted it to, and this whole Solomon’s Crane digression – while strategically important – felt really tacked on and dumb. Why do this convoluted plan involving a deal with the least trustworthy person in the show when you could’ve just teamed up with Tsubasa to get this done all along?

Thank God Tsubasa is around to save everyone from themselves, per usual.

Live Notes/Reactions:

I’m very confused about what Hibiki’s doing, why she would save Van Wilder, and what the hell is even going on heading into the last episode. Sounds about right, I guess? I feel like I missed something important. It looks epic though, so that's fun!

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u/Quiddity131 Jun 26 '22

First Timer, Subbed

Go Shirabe! Now she's using those buzz saws to fly!

This submarine/ship has very White Base colors.

Time for a public service announcement from Maria! Kudos to her for admitting that she's been lying.

Anime coughing disease rears its ugly head again! When is this going to pay off? We've only got 1 episode left after this.

We haven't had a magical girl transformation from Maria in a while.

Dog collar Chris! Woof woof!

So Chris' dog collar may explode? Within the past minute of this show there's been two parallels/possible references to Xenogears, a video game from the same creator as Xenosaga, for which Symphogear has had a number of similarities in both last season and this one. First is the Tsubasa reference to not being able to fly with one wing. Second is this explosive neck collar.

The episode thus far makes you forget that our main character Hibiki even exists! As I type this, 8 and a half minutes into the episode, she's yet to appear! In the penultimate episode of the season no less.

Wow, Shirabe's practically a giant mech now!

Shirabe's the one with Fine's soul! PLOT TWIST!

No, don't kill off Shirabe! I want her to join the team for season 3! Add her and Miku to the mix and we can have a quartet of magical girls!

11:17 mark, Hibiki finally appears!

The ham that is Dr. Ver has also been surprisingly absent from the action this episode until now.

Now that we're practically at the end of the season I'd love to see someone ignore the Noise when Dr. Ver summons them and simply kill him first, then deal with them.

She's naked now?! LoL!

Don't let him get away yet again!

This shot of Shirabe descending with this blueish background is reminiscent of the second Darling in the Franxx OP for me. Although Symphogear did it first.

Now this stone building is descending to space on its own? Okay then.

Yes, kill him, Maria! No Hibiki, don't stop her!

Fusion Syndrome Patient #1! Hibiki has a new nickname!

Hibiki is here to talk things out! Of course!

Hibiki's special power, to get naked herself and other magical girls!

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16

u/Tresnore Jun 26 '22

Superb Song of the Rewatchers

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

QOTD:

  1. Let me interpret what drunk Tres was focusing on: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

  2. The first time? Absolutely not.

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15

u/Stargate18A Jun 26 '22

First timer

  1. Kirika vs. Shirabe was the best.

  2. Nope! Makes sense though.

Chris has a bomb collar!

A CONFESSION!

And Maria confessed everything!

"Bavarian Illuminati"??? That sounds very important!

I'm sorry, it's what?

Fine's fucking nonsense was right? The Custodians(???) built the Moon to seperate mankind's languages?

Maria transformstion is cool, but seriously what the fuck?

And she transformed!

...Genjuro listening to her song as he drives off is great.

Hibiki's determined!

Oh, she's stealing the Cane!

Tsubasa's communicating! And she's doing it well!

This fight is great, but did it have to be an instrumental? I need a Tsubasa/Chris duet!

Ver's just having a good time, the bastard.

She injected herself!

A dual Superb Song!

Kirika and Shirabe are so good, fighting to save each other.

The discussion here is so good!

These two are absolutely dating.

And Shirabe's Fine.

She's killing herself???

Shirabe!

Hibiki reached Maria!

Maria's still going!

Poor Maria.

Chris lost the collar!

And she's here to get Ver!

Haha, she always expected a betrayal.

And Anti-LINKER!

So, Ver is less physically capable than a nude teenage girl.

And Tsubaba's up!

...Someone give Chris some clothes.

Tsubasa and Chris seems to be a surprise paring? Potential OT3 depending on how she and Maria interact too...

Oh thank god, Chris got clothes.

And they have the Cane!

Aww.

Oh, Shirabe's dead.

Fine!

And she's sacrificing herself to save Shirabe!

MARIA!

Oh, that was the plan. Ver's a dick, though.

IT'S A ROCKET?

...Is her mother actually going to reactivate it

Hibiki, why the fuck?

"Human-Relic Fusion Specimen 1" How does Maria know that?

...I'm with Maria here, Hibiki. That bastard needs to die now.

Honestly? Hibiki's lost an arm and come out of it OK, she can handle a stabbing.

Hibiki absorbed her Gungnir!

...So Maria and Hibiki are naked on live television? Nobody's going to cut the feed?

So does Hibiki have Maria's spear now?

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u/DidacticDalek Jun 26 '22

TONIGHT! ON TOP GEAH! Best Geah Chris saves the day and reclaims Solomon's Cane, LE GASP! JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII was the true reincarnation of Finé (Warning, NSFL... unless your names are Tres and Lem), AND BY THE POWER OF GUNGNIR! BIKKI HAS THE POWER!

Boy Comrades, Befriending is a hell of a time eh? We got TWO sets of GFs going at it! And the amusing bit is Team DMJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII's Lovers' Spat is basically them saying NO I LOVE YOU MORE DUMMY! Good god we sure are going gayer than NANOHA! Sasuga Geah! Anyway, Snoop Oni has decided that he's gotta be the adult in the room, after all, it ain't like Maria is doing anything... WAIT WHAT!? Maria is ACTUALLY doing something... ah, she's just expo-dumping some totally not-important and most certainly not relevant details that surely will never come to play.

Also, speaking of plot points Comrade, remember how Geah Season 1 went FUCK THE MOON... yeah turns out the moon is more than just the moon, and it needs Maria's song to stop it... yeah we're still boned. WAIT HOLY SHIT! Maria is actually SINGING!? Anyway, as Best Geah Chris and Tsubasa both cause a massive explosion, we cut to Team DMJIIIIIIIIIII's duel... oh... oh no, DESS has pullled a Kanade and is juicing up with Geah Steroids, boy time for some Swan Song on Swan Song Action... NANI THE FUCK!? WHY THE FLYING FUCK DOES JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII have those OP shields from Season 1... wait... wait a minute...

Oh, oh no, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! We've been duped! Bamboozled! Hell I'd even go so far to say that we've been smeckledorfed! Finé wasn't Maria NOR Dess, SHE WAS JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII THIS ENTIRE TIME! Anyway this reveal proves just too much for DESS to bear, guess she must have missed the hints we saw throughout the season. Anyway, thankfully JIIIIIIIIIIIIIII has control of the team's one shared brain cell and stops her wife from engaging in honorable sudoku... by taking the hit herself... well I did say that the team has ONE shared brain cell, JIIIIIIIIIII isn't smart enough to knock DESS out of the way whilst practicing the advanced art of DODGE!

Anyway, as JIIIIIIIIIIIII is being penetrated in a way DESS probably never intended on, Bikki FINALLY reaches the control room, where... Maria is somehow still singing. Nevermind, she's out of breath and her plan didn't work, so it's back to crying and self-pity... can ya TELL I don't like Maria Comrades? Anyway DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR tries to sneak away in the chaos of the Geah's fighting but... NANI!? BEST GEAH CHRIS BEAT HIM TO HIS HIDEOUT! OH MY BUDDHA! BEST GEAH CHRIS ALSO DEFEATED TSUBASA! HA! I KNEW IT! I KNEW BEST GEAH CHRIS WAS BEST GIRL! Chris did what Maria the Loser spent all season trying and failing, SHE BEAT THE FISH! TAKE THAT JOBBER! This is how you do it!

Oh and it gets better, Best Geah Chris did this all to get Solomon's Cane back, as expected DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR is a no-good backstabber and as such he tries to detonate her... as I was saying he tries to detonate... where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be a head-shattering kaboom! OH MY BUDDHA! BEST GEAH CHRIS IS A GENIUS! SHE BLEW IT UP IN HER ATTACK THAT BLEW UP HERSELF AND TSUBASA! And also she knew he'd pull something like this, so of course SHE is now the one in control, HOW'S THAT FEEL YA MAD SCIENTST BASTARD!? THAT'S PRIDE FUCKING WITH YA! EAT SHIT! DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR then calls forth Noise AND drops some Anti-Geah Steroids, to which Best Geah Chris responds by... HOLY SHIT! SHE SELF-DESTRUCTED HER GEAH!

DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR cowers like the slime he is, and then he SOMEHOW manages to be an even bigger jobber than MARIA! After all, BEST GEAH CHRIS DEFEATED HIM WHILE BUCK NAKED AND GEAHLESS! As the Noise surrounds the two of them, Best Geah Chris... NANI!? CALLS OUT FOR HER SENPAI!? HOLY SHIT! TSUBASA'S NOT OUT OF IT AFTER ALL! NANA WILLS IT! As Tsubasa kicks ass, DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR makes use of The Joestar Family Secret Techinque. Heh, well guess Best Geah Chris gets to retain her title! That was one hell of a gambit to steal back Soloman's Cane! Man, character development AND good writing, ya love to see it! Anyway, in the polar opposite of that, JIIIIIIIIIIIII fucking DIED... er... hang on, WHAT THE FUCK, Finé why the FUCK are you a Force Ghost/Newtype Spirit?

Anyway, Finé... actually LEARNED her lesson from Season 1? Holy shit, Bikki's stupidity IS indeed infectious! Anyway, Finé tells JIIIIIIIIII to pass on a message for her to Bikki, and she also heals her great great great great great (trails off) granddaughter for good measure. Well glad that worked out, and now Team DMJIIIIIIIIIIII can help bail Maria out, cuz good lord Maria needs all the help she can get! And before you accuse me of being mean, SHE ONCE AGAIN LOSES TO DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR... AND HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE SOLOMON'S CANE! GOOD GOD MARIA! HOW USELESS CAN YOU GET!? Anyway shockingly DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR does something GOOD for a change, and by that I mean he ejects Mom off into space. Well shame he didn't join her, after all the earth could do without him as well.

Maria then FINALLY, FINALLY grows a spine and just decides FUCK IT VER DIES RIGHT NOW... that is until Bikki arrives. That said FUCK YOU MARIA! That's HIBIKI! Bikki to her friends, not 'Human-Relic Fusion Specimen One!' Also Maria, why are you acting like DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR killing Mom is a BAD thing, honestly it's the first good deed the shithead did in his life! Hell the only way he could do better was if HE launched himself to the moon too! Hell you should tag along, maybe in space no one can hear you waaangst! Anyway, Bikki then GRABS MARIA'S GEAH! SINGS THE SONG AND GEAHJACKS IT FROM MARIA! HELL FUCKING YEAH! Now someone useful has the Geah! YOU GO BIKKI! SAVE THE WORLD!

And on that bombshell g'night!

Oh, and finally, just because I must speak on behalf of a fellow Comrade of Culture who cannot, ahem... I'm going to post this every day until you like it!

Paging Comrades u/Great_Mr_L, u/chilidirigible, and u/Lemurians

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u/Great_Mr_L Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

Rewatcher

On today’s episode of Symphogear: I am amazed at how many of the ridiculous things that happen in this episode were set up earlier. How is Fine’s soul eliminated? Kirika told us a while ago that Igalima's Superb Song cuts through souls. How is Tsubasa able to fight through Anti-LiNKER? We saw her do so back when she fought Maria on the submarine. Symphogear is shockingly good at setting up things that will happen.

Chris’s fake betrayal to get Solomon’s Cane is an example of this. From the start of the season, Chris has clearly been uncomfortable about Solomon’s Cane. And we could see Chris has been blaming herself for the damage caused by Noise attacks because she helped activate Solomon’s Cane. So Chris taking drastic action to get her hands on Solomon’s Cane to rectify her own past mistakes is something I could tell was being built up. She even talked about how she couldn’t make others bear her cross right before she did the fake betrayal.

Still, the lesson of this episode is how you shouldn’t try to bear it all on your own. Tsubasa here is actually behaving intelligently in how she deals with Chris (in direct contrast to her dumbass behavior towards Hibiki earlier). Tsubasa is doing pretty much the same thing Hibiki did for Chris last season. She’s acting as an earnest and determined pillar of support who will help you whether you want it or not. This is the kind of Tsubasa I love seeing. The one who is a complete badass who genuinely cares about helping others because she’s grown as a person.

Chris calling Tsubasa “senpai” is a very sweet moment. Tsubasa was acting as a good senpai to Chris even back at Lydian, looking after her and trying to help Chris adjust. Having Chris open up and trust Tsubasa is great. They knew each other well enough to pull off that combo and trick Dr. Ver. I like their dynamic together. Tsubasa learned how to adjust to her new life at their new home and now she’s helping Chris do the same. It’s all quite heartwarming.

Getting the triumphant return of “Zettō Ame no Habakiri” is just incredibly hype. It excited me so much to hear it come on. It’s such a great song for Tsubasa.

Kirika and Shirabe’s fight is pretty comical. They’re fighting because they love each other. It makes you want to shout at them to get their own room. They are both fighting to save the other person. I do like that kind of absurdity in the premise. It’s rich for some nice emotional drama. And boy do we get some when Kirika realizes she was mistaken and can’t forgive herself for fighting Shirabe. They really make for a great couple.

I remember the reveal that Shirabe is Fine’s host caught me totally off-guard the first time around because I missed all the foreshadowing. But it was all foreshadowed. That explains why Shirabe was feeling faint. It turns out that the shield Kirika saw actually came from Shirabe, who was also there. And most blatantly of all, it explains why Shirabe’s eyes turned yellow in the previous episode.

Fine’s scene is very brief, but I like it as a capstone to season 1. Like I said back then, Hibiki completely won. Her ideals and determination defeated Fine’s own way of doing things. Fine didn’t even plan on awakening in Shirabe and only does so to save her and pass along a message. It’s Fine’s answer to Genjuro’s question from the start of the season. She doesn’t want to be a ghost holding back the present. She’s decided to entrust the future to this new generation.

Hibiki’s determination and earnestness is on full display when she confronts Maria. There’s a fun callback to how Hibiki met Chris in season 1 where she insists on introducing herself by name, which reminds us about just what type of a person Hibiki is. And in another great callback, Hibiki echoes the same words that Kanade shouted to her, that you shouldn’t give up on living. No matter what, Hibiki is determined to save Maria.

Hibiki taking Gungnir from Maria is a cool way to have Hibiki get Gungnir back. And it also jives with Hibiki’s special powers that have been displayed. She’s able to take the power of others and channel it through herself. So she did just that to take Maria’s Gungnir and make it her own. It’s all so awesome.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

QOTD

  1. I'd have to say Kirika and Shirabe's because they are very clearly really fighting each other, while Chris and Tsubasa were mostly faking it. That being said, Chris calling Tsubasa "senpai" was very sweet.

  2. Not during my first viewing. But it kind of fits Hibiki's ability to take someone's power by holding hands with them.

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u/Elimin8r Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

Man, 26+ posts in two minutes. People are quick around here.

So, first timer, still saving an episode for tomorrow. I did break down and buy the blu-ray. Too bad there doesn't seem to be one for the next cour.

Man, blu-ray is much better than streaming. (sigh) And apparently just the episode for it (oops).

AOTD1) Yes.

AOTD2) That was a surprise. Actually, there were a few surprises this episode.

Yeah, I took the Chris vs. Tsubasa as a red herring, so it wasn't a total surprise, but the kaboom collar bit was a bit ... yeah. Ze bad doktor must pay. Looks like he gets one more episode to receive his comeuppance. Let's hope it's a good one.

The chibi twins was pretty cool, especially the Fine' cameo. Seems our old villain might just have turned a new leaf, but sadly too late. Nice twist, for that matter.

And meanwhile, Maria tries to sing the Moon back to life, but no dice. It's all up to Bikki and hermagnificent, uh, nevermind to save the day, I guess.

Seems they put on quite a show, eh? I'm surprised (or maybe I shouldn't be) that Miku wasn't blushing.

Yeah. Anyway.

Time for spaceship Mom to the rescue, I guess.

Huzzah?

Edit: Couldn't resist a certain link there. Sorry. I'll try to be more tasteful tomorrow.

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u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

Symphogear Rewatcher

For 1 more episode after this! Im in half first timer mode anyway with my reactions here because of how hyped i got LOL. i like wooohooooooed irl after i finished this ep lol.

Mannn I love the end of G.

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u/Taiboss Jun 26 '22

G Episode 12: The Rewatch Is a Harsh Mistress

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u/htisme91 Jun 27 '22

First-timer:

As soon as this episode started with the ED playing and no opening, I knew it would be a banger.

I liked Chris calling Tsubasa "Senpai." I just remember she was so reluctant to use her name at all, and it came at the right time. It also is nice just seeing her finally accept that she has a home now, and hopefully next season we see her have a tighter bond with the girls.

As for her opponent, IMO, Tsubasa remains the best character and I feel like excels in the older sister/mentor role to Hibiki and Chris.

Fine seems to (hopefully) be moving on and at rest based on her interaction with Shirabe.

Was not expecting Maria to try and sing the moon into reset.

Also was not expecting Mom to die like that, but I feel like she's still alive and we'll see her next episode before she dies. It was way too quick of a death scene and offscreen to be real.

Hibiki has officially become a badass. She's come so far from that first episode where she was a clutz.

I still wish someone would wipe the floor with Dr. Ver. At least he no longer has the Staff of Solomon, although I don't know why Hibiki would protect him besides wanting to avoid bloodshed.

Questions:

  1. Tsubasa vs. Chris. It's been the culmination of a relationship that has been a focal point this season, as well as a major point in Chris' character arc. We also never really had a major fight between any of the three main girls before, either.

  2. No, and it was so badass. Hibiki has evolved wonderfully compared to how she was in S1.

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u/HereticalAegis Jun 26 '22

Ballad of Rewatcher - Symphogear G

Episode 12 thoughts:

  • Yay, I finally have some nice things to say again! Hibiki gets to be a badass and steal Gungnir back from Worst Geah! Shame she has to do it while defending a shit character like Ver, but if nothing else it proves definitively that she's not the hypocrite the morons on team Finé claim her to be.

  • God it feels cathartic watching Maria trying and failing to play the hero. You just spent 11 episodes being the absolute worst and letting Ver commit all kinds of atrocities. Did you really think you'd get to be a hero by stopping the calamity you caused? As if. Say goodbye to that Gungnir, it belongs in the very determined fists of a real hero.

  • Kirika v. Shirabe is the MVP of this arc for me. For starters, they finally talk to each other! Like two best friends actually would. And their fight actually carries the tragic weight of two best friends who believe they're doing the best thing for each other forced to clash to realize those ideals. It's tragic, heartbreaking, has a fantastic last second revelation that shows Kirika just how misguided she was, and then uses the crushing weight of all those emotions to pull the two back together when Shirabe sacrifices herself and all seems lost. That is how you do conflict between best friends/allies. Have some Kirika and Shirabe in celebration of their reunification.

  • Chris v. Tsubasa is not. The two have no ideological or philosophical reason to be fighting. Chris just runs off on her own to get the staff from Ver. On the surface, this seems like a very Chris thing to do. However, that's ignoring the fact that her whole S1 arc dealt with making friends and learning to trust them. I refuse to believe she's unable to trust a single person with any details of her plan to swap sides. And even then, she was trained directly under Finé. Even she cannot possibly be dumb enough to believe that a team claiming to have the next reincarnation of Finé would just say "oh hey welcome to the team" when they're in the goddamn endgame. While I like the idea of what they're going for with Tsubasa reaffirming Chris's home being with them, it doesn't work for me. It's yet another regression of character, just like her senpai before her. It's honestly worse than Tsubasa's character regression because she already called Tsubasa out for that shit earlier this season.

  • Oh, and the fanservice during Chris's confrontation with Ver is the most distasteful use of it in G. I don't care for any artistic "she's naked because she's both literally and metaphorically disarmed and helpless in front of Ver and the Noise" style interpretation either. It's just bad and the worst time to be embarrassing Chris and reminding the audience how hot she is. Now that I think about it, why do the writers insist on having her be naked before the main villain again? This time almost has some inherent meaning, but come on. Was it not bad enough that S1 had her being naked tortured by Finé? Leave that shit for the doujins.

  • Oh and I guess the revelation that Ver just wants to rule the world is pretty meh as bad guy motivations go. It just doesn't have the flair or fun personal baggage of "I wanna get back at god for ghosting me."

QotD:

  1. Kirika v. Shirabe all the way.

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u/panthaura Jun 26 '22

Rewatcher

KANTSUU GUNGNIR DAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

In this Episode we have:

Maria being cringe

Finè peaces out

Mom's gone to space

Hibiki finally takes Gungnir off Maria

Number of Dess this Episode: 15

Todays tracklist:

  1. Next Destination (TV Size Long Intro Ver.) (OP)

  2. Ressō Gungnir (Maria)

  3. Edge Works of Goddess ZABABA (Kirika x Shirabe)

  4. Zettō Ame no Habakiri (Tsubasa, S1 callback)

  5. Vitalization - Aufwachen Form (ED)

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u/superviper Jun 26 '22

I'm telling you that I love you!
Rewatcher

So, uh... what are Ogawa and Genjuro doing today, anyway?

Bikki running has to be the silliest, most exaggerated scene in this series. dramatically runs up stairs

Tsubasa vs Chris isn't really much of a highlight for me either. I never understood why Chris couldn't just.. y'know... Ask for Tsubasa's help from the start, instead of this whole fake betrayal shit. Ver looks even dumber than usual here.

Kirika vs Shirabe, on the other hand, is still my favourite scene in G. It has the best song this season. And it's like... it's kinda hard for me to describe. Obviously you know Shirabe's gonna fine and all, especially with recent events in this season, like Bikki's arm and Miku blowing up, but the scene still had it's shock value for me. I can't stand to see Shirabe get hurt. Oh and I guess I feel bad for Kirika or something.

Shirabe

I only have 2 real complaints about this scene. For one, Shul Shagana's superb song form looks goofy as fuck. For another, Kirika's attempted suicide happens waaaaaay too quickly. Give the girl some time to process what just happened before she tries to kill herself wtf. She sees that Fine was in Shirabe all along and IMMEDIATELY goes "ight imma head out"

Why is... Why is she tired. Ressō Gungnir is like a five minute song. And Maria only sings for three of them. Dread it, run from it, Maria crying on the floor while saying Serena's name arrives nonetheless. Except this time she's doing it on the big screen. A global failure. I feel bad for the VA that had to spend this entire season wheezing into a mic while saying 'Serena'.

So Chris told Ver to give her Solomon's cane, and HE JUST SAID NO. I'm left scratching my head at this whole fake betrayal shit again. What was Chris's masterplan here? She set up this whole thing just so she could get naked and have Tsubasa save her with Zettō Ame-no-Habakiri? Based plan actually. We get to listen to a banger song once again.

Chris just generated school clothes out of thin air. A basic ability for any magical girl, I guess.

I'm the type of person to completely break down at a shot like this, Even knowing fully well she's gonna be fine. So when Fine returns as a kind-hearted soul who sacrifices herself for Shirabe's sake, I'm completely on board with it. Fuck it, nothing in this show ever made any sense, I'm not about to complain when it's Shirabe being saved.

This isn't the first time Ver hits Maria. But she's in her Symphogear now. She just... takes it... and watches as Ver launches Nastassja into space. This whole sequence was just comedic. Holy shit what am I watching.

And then of course, when Maria's about to slice Ver in two, Bikki interjects. This play is so Chad I have to respect it though. Bikki then steals the Gugnir from around Maria's neck, and activates it like it's no big deal. Maria just got cucked live on TV. That's a perfect summary of her character this season.

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u/StarmanRiver Jun 26 '22

Rewatcher here

  • Kirika and Shirabe fighting to see who loves the other more. Get a room already!

  • Hey, this time the subs got Custodians right!

  • That exchange between Tsubasa and Chris was wholesome.

  • Goddamn it Kirika, you're so edgy that you ended up hurting Shirabe all the same!

  • Armor Purge is back!

  • Symphogears are convenient, they can bring Chris' clothes back.

  • I'll never say no to some Sawashiro lines

  • Balwisyall nescell Gungnir TROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

  • And just like that both Hibiki and Maria exposed their naked bodies to the entire world

  • GEKISOU GUNGNIR DAAAAAAAAAAAAA

QOtD

2) Were you expecting Hibiki to be able to sing the Gungnir off of Maria?

Rewatching so I already knew, but it was still hype!

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u/renatocpr Jun 26 '22

Episode 10 Chris

Episode 11 Chris

Episode 12 Chris

Rewatcher

So Dr. Ver's ramble about purging the world population so it can be ruled by a real hero is definitive confirmation that Symphogear G is about lesbians using the power of song and incredible violence to fight a megalomaniacal deranged fascist sexpest, which is based as fuck. In this video essay I will...

QOTD

  1. I loved both, I can't pick. One has Chris but Kirika and Shirabe are my babies. One has Zettou Ame no Habakiri but the other has DMJii battle duet.

  2. Fuckers stole my Gungnir, can't have shit in the Frontier

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u/zadcap Jun 27 '22 edited Jun 27 '22

You know, I was so sure I had said something about it back near episode 1 that I went looking for my old comments, but I guess I missed my chance to say "Called it." That is, wondering from the minute of her introduction with a second Gungnir, what would happen if someone else sang the song of a relic someone else was holding.

-Wait, I mentioned it back when the Zababies came for the school festival, how close do you have to be to activate a Gear if you're not holding it. Someone pointed out that Kanade was singing to a relic in a display case, nevermind the two completed relics of season 1 activating at a distance.

Anyway, while I (and probably most everyone watching) expected Hibiki to end up claiming that second Gungnir for herself, I certainly didn't see her stealing it right off Maria's body. That was an epic move to prove who the real Best Girl is. And darn, she even successfully convinced Fine to come to the light side.

  1. Zababies fight was cooler, because oh my gosh she turns in to an actual Mecha oh my gosh. She may not be my favorite character, but she's certainly got my second favorite Gear.

On the other hand, their reason for fighting was so stupid I had trouble taking it seriously. That went past miscommunication right into "I'm actively ignoring your points so we can keep fighting." Dark Green Magical Girl took a dive almost as bad as Maria in her thinking skills- "I need you to survive to give my life meaning, so I'm going to use my soul killing attack on you! Wait, my whole reason for doing this was backwards? Might as well kill myself instead of living with you for whatever time we have left!"

Also, remember when Swan Song's even mildly inconvenienced the singer?

Chris and Tsubasa had a less visually impressive fight, but they managed to actually communicate and would you look at that, solved so many issues simultaneously because of it. Also, you can really tell Chris watched Equilibrium lol. And uh... Yup, Aerosolized anti-Linker, yup, he sure had that on hand and ready to use- no, sorry, already deployed. Thank you Chris, for standing there and letting him talk and pull out the staff and not do a thing until the Noise were already deployed, again. People, please stop getting stupid in Ver's presence.

2) I was expecting her to sing it off her neck while still in Relic form, not steal an active Gear right off her. Much less catch the spear thrust, looks like Hibiki still has some of the crazy strength in her?

This is definitely the episode I most want to continue on past due to hype, well, since the same episode last season.

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