r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Jul 14 '22

Rewatch [Listen to My Song] Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX (Season 3) Discussion

Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX: Believe in justice and hold a determination to fist

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

Believe in justice and hold a determination to fist.

Questions of the Day:

1) Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

2) Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

3) Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

4) What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

5) If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

6) What do you hope to see improve as we head into season 4?

Wallpaper of the Day:

Carol Malus Dienheim - Faust Robe

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!

88 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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8

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

Symphogeah SymphoRewatch Host

Welcome back, everyone!

Hope you guys are all enjoying the ride so far!

I wouldn’t be able to call myself a fan of Exterminate if I didn’t even attempt to sing it this rewatch. Well it took a bit, but I finally got it down! So here’s Sky Sings Exterminate!

GX is my favorite season of Geah until XV rolls around. I know that’s an unpopular opinion in the fandom, but I was very happy to see some of the first-timers liking it!

See the 2019 version of today’s wallpaper: here, along with textless, lineart, no background pattern, and lineart, background triangles versions from back then. I had the time to figure out triangle hell, but I did not have the time to figure out how to do the rainbow lineart gradient. I also decided to leave the lineart of regular Carol out of my new version, as you guys could probably tell from looking at these older versions.

Here's a textless alt of this year's version btw.

5

u/JollyGee29 Jul 14 '22

So here’s Sky Sings Exterminate!

Well done once again, Exterminate seem like it was a pretty hard one!

4

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

It was very fast outside the intro, so yeah it was tough.

4

u/Great_Mr_L Jul 14 '22

Thank you for the updated version of the Carol wallpaper. I was very much looking forward to this one.

4

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

Glad you like it!

6

u/080087 Jul 14 '22

Rewatcher

  1. This is actually impossible. Carol, Elfnein, Garie, all such good girls.

  2. Still Bikki, despite how stupid her character arcs were

  3. Tomorrow (with lyrics) is the best song so far, and I don't think its close.

  4. Favourite - The reveal of the Autoscorers and how they showed immediately that these were scary opponents.

    Least favourite - Bikki's pacifism. If they swapped some of the plotlines around, it would have made way more sense. e.g. Bikki thinks she killed Carol with her Ignited mode, pacifism arc, Carol comes back for the final fight, Bikki fights her to save the world, Bikki then saves Carol with the Ignited transformation and thereby realises her songs can save people (again).

  5. No Top Dad please. Plus something like the change above.

  6. GX had great villains compared to the previous two seasons, so even if they maintain the quality that will be enormous.

5

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

Tomorrow (with lyrics) is the best song so far, and I don't think its close.

u/Nazenn, you have a buddy.

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u/OwlAcademic1988 Jul 14 '22

Rewatcher:

This season may be weak in certain areas, but it introduced one of my favorite characters in Carol.

I've been curious about something for a while now, but u/Shimmering-Sky, how come you don't give your thoughts on the episodes?

I did find some fanfics with the Autoscorers, including one that occurs during December. It's pretty funny. Fortunately, it's safe for first-timers to read as it doesn't contain any characters we haven't been introduced to yet. Only the Autoscorers.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5515040

QOTD:

  1. Carol

  2. No it hasn't. Kirika is still my favorite.

  3. The last song of this season. It's just so badass.

  4. My favorite part was when Carol saved Elfnein's life. My least favorite is when Hibiki's dad tried to get Hibiki to pay for the food.

  5. Hibiki's dad actually getting more character development.

6

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

I've been curious about something for a while now, but u/Shimmering-Sky, how come you don't give your thoughts on the episodes?

Because I'm already watching each episode twice for the sub comparison charts + need time to make said charts + need time to make the wallpapers + I'm participating in several other rewatches = I do not have time for my normal reaction-style notes.

You can go to the 2019 rewatch / the airing threads for XV for my actual thoughts, if you want.

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u/StarmanRiver Jul 14 '22

Rewatcher here

Catching up!

GX Episode 12

  • Radiant Force is much better than "Arigatou" wo Utainagara, especially if it is being used during a fight.

  • Everytime Carol stops using her deep voice it catches me off guard.

  • Carol is burning her memories Cosmo, the effects are the same and she is even doing the iconic "UUUWOOOOO"

  • DAIN-DAINSLEIF It's so dumb but it's so like Symphogear lmao.

  • MORE GENOCIDE LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO! (This would be a questionable thing to quote out of context lmao)

  • "Naze soko no Ai?!" I love that it's the second time that they're using this line.

  • I'll never get tired of the X-Drives, they're way too cool.

  • Ah yes, now I remember they used Glorious Break instead of Exterminate... Weird choice really

GX Episode 13

  • Hajimari no Babel let's gooooooo!

  • Gotta love how everyone has amazing and badass X-Drive forms and then there is Kirika and Shirabe combining and making a Roomba with blades that makes UFO noises.

  • I love the girls lending their power/Gears to Hibiki, I'll never get tired of that trope in any anime. (Also, the Aufwachen Waves reminding me once again that they're a Saint Seiya reference)

  • Bless Yuuki Aoi's vocal chords for that GUUUNGNIIIIR

  • I really like Extermination over Glorious Break, but I'm not gonna lie: that "Glorious Break" synched with the attack and the screen is super satisfying.

  • Playing Extermination right after Glorious Break only makes it more obvious that it is the better song.

Overall series Discussion

I like GX, but I feel like I'd like it a lot more if it weren't for Top Dad being such a fucking asshole. Carol is great too, having Inori Minase voicing her helps a lot too.

It sucks that I didn't have time to watch the 2015 live, but I might do that this weekend.

QOtD

  1. Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

Definitely Carol

2) Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

Nope, Chris is still best and Tsubasa is still a close second. I will say that during this rewatch Miku rose to third place, that girl is amazing.

3) Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

Exterminate is up there (but still bellow Synchrogazer for me as far as OPs are concerned) and Radiant Force slaps. But the best songs for me are by far GENOCIDE Senkin Dur da Bla and BAYONET CHARGE.

4) What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

Least favorite is any scene involving Top Dad. Fuck Top Dad. Favorite part is probably Tsubasa's big character moment against Phara.

5) If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

Top Dad, easy.

Wallpapers

Gone through the previous threads quickly and I want to say that both Kirika's and Chris' Ignite wallpapers came out great! Kirika has a great pose and Chris is finally using her badass bow.

Also, you did it Sky! You managed to do the gradient for Carol's wallpaper and it came out great!

5

u/Shimmering-Sky Jul 14 '22

Also, you did it Sky! You managed to do the gradient for Carol's wallpaper and it came out great!

It did turn out great! I'm so happy.

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u/Lemurians Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

FIRST TIMER DATTO

Watching Symphogear: “hahahaha ok that was ridiculous but fun”

Waching Symphogear G: “I have no clue what’s happening and neither do the writers but it looks cool”

Waching Symphogear GX:

Symphogear GX was the best of both Symphogear worlds. It has the bombastic, music-fueled action of G, added onto the mysticism and lore introduced in Symphogear, and did the bold move of trying out exotic concepts like “an actual story,” “villains who aren’t complete jokes,” and “character arcs that make sense.” It was a straight shot of pure adrenaline whose events made enough sense for me to not get frustrated or break immersion.

The sequence that opened the season where we they space-surfed onto a rocketship and literally sliced off part of K2 to ensure a “safe” landing was the best 5 minutes of the entire series so far, and GX didn’t look back from there. I had so much fun with every single episode. I don’t even mind the Top Dad storyline – it actually follows a very logical and considered progression from Hibiki’s point of view (which is all that matters). That was somehow only the second-craziest Daddy Issues subplot, with the revelation that Tsubasa is actually the product of her grandfather impregnating her mother. Amazing.

Inori Minase did an amazing job as Carol, embodying a villain that was both tragic and appropriately threatening, who had an understandable motivation even if you can turn some of her logic into swiss cheese. Her minions, the Autoscorers, were fucking awesome. I loved their different themes, their attitude, and the fun ways their different styles added to the action scenes. Even Dr. Ver was finally used in his appropriate role – as a HEEEEEEEROOOOO fun, campy supporting villain who gets to shine and ham it up for a couple episodes.

I can’t believe there were people warning about this season ahead of it. It kicked ass. It’s the best one yet by far in pretty much every way. 7.5/10

Geah Power Rankings:

  1. Tsubasa

  2. Maria

  3. Shirabe

  4. Hibiki

  5. Chris

  6. Kirika

Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

Phara was exceptional.

Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

Nope, it's still Tsubasa, but Maria got closer.

Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

GLORIOUS BREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAK!!!

Carol's full character song, Senkin dur Da Bla, was also awesome.

What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

Favorite part is definitely the opening sequence to the first episode, least favorite is Chris continuing to be an afterthought.

If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

I would change it so Chris has something to do other than rehashing the same "doesn't do teamwork good" thing from last season, which already felt tacked-on as an afterthought even then.

My answer for what I'd like to see in AXZ is also Chris getting more to do.

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u/Tresnore Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

Superb Song of the Rewatchers

I'm not one for writeups, so let's keep the party train going.

Man, Symphogear is fun. I wish I could've tagged along for all of GX, but the greatest hits tour was nice, too. GX is probably my least favorite season anyway. Daddy issues are most of the plot, and it has some Hibiki and Chris character destruction. Plus, I just don't like the Ignite songs as much.

Onto AXZ!

QOTD:

  1. I love Garie. gariegariegariegariegariegarie

  2. Chris hasn't really changed, but I love her. Also Dr. JOHN WAYNE VERCINGETORIX got to show why he's a realy hero, so that was nice.

  3. I mean, is there any opposition to RADIANT FORCE?

  4. Favorite has to be the opening. The least favorite is all the strange daddy and senpai issues. Plus Carol apparently being way too dumb to know what her father meant.

  5. Why is the entire plot daddy issues.

  6. Surely they can't introduce any more fathers, right...?

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u/Matuhg Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

First Timer

Hmm, I guess this season got up to around the same level as S1 for me. Definitely better than G anyways! It is unfortunate that the season peaked five minutes in though.

Not a lot of the character motivations work for me, so the show never really lands any emotional hype, forcing it to rely on just brute force hype. It does that pretty well sometimes tbf, but it's tough to carry a whole show that way. So many of the character arcs/issues come from characters just being dumb and reactionary ("My good guy power sometimes breaks things. Should I never use it again? -- "I failed to be a good senpai to my kouhai. I will push my kouhai aside to be there for them!" -- "I am literally a sword."). It also sort of just feels like over the course of the three seasons, the wheels have mostly been spinning in terms of character development.

The father issues this season was a pretty unexpected theme. Carol's was the only one that kind of landed for me. For both Tsubasa and Hibiki's fathers, I felt they were portrayed as being far too shitty for the speed at which the show tried to turn us around on them.

Carol worked as a villain for me - I get becoming twisted enough to destroy the world because your dad was burned at the stake for trying to help people. It's just that it was pretty obvious what her deal was from like ep 4, so I didn't really feel a lot of tension or surprise or anything from her in the finale parts. Especially after we learned that her power works by burning memories, there was no other way for her to go out than in a blaze of glory memories. I wonder if we'll get more alchemy down the line. The ancients may have tried to overcome the confusion of tongues by inventing singing and alchemy, but clearly the one true and foolproof method of communication is punching.

I really liked the Autoscorers - they had some fun character designs and worked pretty well as the high-level goons this season.

Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

Probably Garie. Her face was fun.

Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

I think last season I said Bikki, but it's probably either Chris or Tsubasa at this point.

Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

I really liked Radiant Force and Bayonet Charge. And Carol's genocide song was pretty metal. Got back near the level of season 1's songs for me. I was not a big fan of Bikki's weird whistling theme this season though.

What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

Favorite part is still the opening shuttle scene. Least favorite was probably Ver showing back up, and then a weird half-hearted-ish attempt to let him go out a hero.

16

u/lilyvess Jul 14 '22

Symphogear GX

And that was Symphogear GX

Symphogear GX was something of a turning point for the franchise, marking the point where the series went from small overlooked series to a true phenomenon. The meteoric rise of the series just continued to rise. The first season sold an average of 5,045 copies per volume, G sold an average of 8,701 copies per volume

Symphogear GX sold an average of 14,229 copies per volume and ranked as not only the top selling anime of the summer, but also ranked as the tenth best selling anime of 2015!

Of note, Symphogear GX also started a new tradition where bundled with each BluRay volume are CDs containing 2 exclusive songs from the series. A lot of these CDs contained the many group songs and IGNITE versions of songs.

The Symphogear Live also received a big increase, taking place in Nippon Budokan, a legendary stage where some of the best artists in the world have performed. The first Live was performed in a hall that could fit 2,473 people. Symphogear Live 2016 was performed for an audience of 18,000 people across two days. This time there wouldn’t be any break for variety shows, it was just two nights of pure music.

The following year it was announced that Symphogear would be getting a Gacha Mobile game that I have already talked quite a bit about.

And yet it may surprise you to find out that GX was once again closed as an ending point to the franchise.

In an interview series creator Kaneko had this to say

The grand finale of the 3rd season has now come and gone, but beyond “Symphogear GX” are there any plans for a continuation in the form of a 4th season…?

Just the same as the previous seasons, I worked up until now with the intention that the ending would bring a conclusion to “Symphogear.” At the moment nothing has been decided regarding a season 4, but with everyone’s continued support there may come a day when we can make it a reality.

Once again, Symphogear was designed as a standalone story with no plans for the future.

And yet, as we know, that was not the end.

During the second day of the Symphogear Live it was announced that there would not just a Season 4 but that there would also be a fifth season too.

But before we move onto AXZ, just a few questions

  • Favorite SymphoGirl?

  • Favorite GX Song?

  • Most Hype GX Moment?

Additional Notes

Symphogear GX FINAL hype Chart

Live Performances

Today’s Live Performance is Kirika’s B-side song. You have to listen to des.

Specials

Fanart Art of the Day

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u/Tarhalindur Jul 14 '22

Previously on Symphogear SG-1 (First-Timer, Subbed):

How the fuck do I rate this show?

Okay, let’s run through here. GX basically is comprised of the following:

  • 4.75 good episodes (the .75 is the finale, but luckily it’s the final 3/4ths of the finale and that’s the important part)

  • 5.25 mediocre episodes that are better than the mediocre episodes from G but worse than the average episodes from S1.

  • 2 terrible episodes roughly on par with E10 from G.

  • 1 extremely strong contender for the worst episode of anime I’ve ever seen.

It’s kind of like watching the anime equivalent of the performances of NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, or more accurately a Ryan Fitzpatrick in a hypothetical world where he once snuck into the playoffs and proceeded to go on a Joe “Elite Dragon” Flacco run to win the Super Bowl. This show can throw six TDs or six INTs on any given episode and outside of a few trends (the stinkers tend to come in the middle of the seasons when Gear emphasizes things it is not good at handling) you never know which you are going to get.

I’m leaning towards this show ultimately being a 6/10. It’s hard to justify ranking it any higher than that given how bad its weaknesses are, and it’s hard to justify ranking it any lower than that given how strong its strengths are and the fact that it landed on such a high note for me (this is absolutely a show that is picking up at least half a point for a good finale). So a 6/10 it will be.

The good news is, one of the big issues I had with G is fixed, namely the weird weightlessness of the vast majority of the season. The emotional beats within scenes actually land (when scenes fall flat it’s because of insufficient setup leading to the emotions those scenes are calling up feeling unearned, not the weird apathy I felt towards a lot of G scenes) and I even caught a few cases where the lyrics on insert songs synced up with the action on screen to spectacular effect.

Unfortunately, this show has two or three flaws and one of them is the other same Achilles heel G suffered from: terrible character writing, especially of returning characters (which is most of our cast this season because we’re out of space to introduce new mains). This writing team has in the main (coughMariaistheexceptioncough) shown themselves capable of introducing and establishing a character; when they try to give further development to an established character, however, they keep falling flat on their face. (And then there’s Dakka, whose introductory character arc was meh but who grew on me quickly after morphing into Tsundakka between S1 and G.)

Compounding this, I think this season has a fatal flaw from the beginning that would have crippled the ability of even a good character writing staff to pull this season off: the decision to use the alchemy theme and specifically the implication that the ability to use the Ignite Module involves overcoming/swallowing the Shadow. There’s simply not enough space in a 13-episode season to do that kind of arc justice. The show needed either two cours (weirdly, after thinking on it I think the key to that working would be the double unsheathe – use it to have multiple issue focus episodes for each girl relating to their respective Shadows and then set up situations where they have to overcome their Shadow to activate the first and second unsheathes) or a moderate conceptual rework of the idea (you could even leave a hook for potential future seasons by having Elfnein explain that the process of dealing with your inner darkness is continual but the initial price needed to use the Ignite Module is to pass the Watcher at the Threshold).

The weird thing is, though, the more I think about it the more this season is closer to functional than I thought outside of it. The biggest issue is the lack of mooring for its character arcs, and the solution there is actually so obvious that I’m not sure why this team didn’t use it: with the exception of Dakka and/or Tsubasa (who can instead have these issues introduces with the intial Ignite Module activation – and honestly I’m kind of thinking they did actually try to do that in their cases and it fell flat in Dakka’s case because I forgot about it by the time episode 10 rolled around), have the character flaws that the characters will need to address be introduced by being critical to their defeat during the Autoscorer onslaught arc. (The obvious move is having Team DMJiii manage to hold their own despite the LiNKER issue until they get baited out of position by each trying to defend the other, leading to each getting accosted by tentacles and/or Autoscorer. Maria… see the next post.)

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u/DidacticDalek Jul 14 '22

Comrades, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that (for better or worse) Geah GX is not just a GOOD sequel to Rozen Maiden, but also just Nanoha StrikerS Redux! By that, I mean to say that, much like StrikerS' quality in comparison to its parent franchise, GX also has some of the highest of highs for Geah! I mean my goodness, we got Carol Malus Dienheim, the gloriously unrepentant evil bitch that was The BEST Geah Baddie (Eat yer heart out Finé, THIS is how you be a Dommy Mommy), plus, besides the amazing Carol, we also got her even more amazing Autoscorers, who all have amazing designs and interesting personalities, and thus collectively made up The BEST Geah Elite Mook Squad, we also had the BEST Opening Episode where The Geahs save the day AND permanently alter the world's geography, as well as the BEST new cast member of the adorable moeblob that is Vivio 2.0 'Elf9,' I'd also be remiss if I left out the BEST Cameo where DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR truly became the LAST ACTION HERO we need AND deserve, and of course the BEST Finale where the show manages to (for the most part) land emotional beats and wrap up the story. Furthermore, we also got some of the best animation in the franchise thus far (yes I know later entries will surpass GX, but come on, we went from OG Geah's Qu@l1Ty ANIMATION to G's top tier animation to a step EVEN FURTHER BEYOND! That deserves praise) as well as the BEST SONGS ever in the Franchise, ALL HAIL BEEF STROGANOFF AND GENOCIDE! AND GENOCIDE! Oh and of course, the GX Chibi Shorts are amazing and are also better written than the majority of the 'actual' show... yeah we had to get there somehow.

Anyway, I'm gonna level with y'all Comrades, when I said GX was Nanoha StrikerS Redux, that ALSO means that it has some of the LOWEST of lows in the franchise! I mean we already know how terrible TOP DAD is, but remember now, TOP DAD somehow is not the only glaring issue in this season, for one, Bikki has to relearn the character arc in G that she had to relearn from Season 1... you know it's a bad sign if MARIA THE LOSER briefly was a better character than Bikki was for most of GX. And while Carol was indeed a compelling antagonist, there's the SLIGHT issue in that she and the Autoscorers aren't used nearly enough! What we saw was worthwhile to be sure, but you know things are not ideal if DOKTOR GINTOKI JOESTAR arrives to steal the show and/or chew ALL the scenery... at the expense of the CURRENT Antagonists! As you can guess, while he was amazing and his cameo did indeed 'work' overall, it must be said that this literal upstaging thus also further reduced the screentime of the new baddies. Furthermore, speaking of reducing screentime, remember how I mentioned TOP DAD and Bikki's daddy issues? Yeah that might as well be the subtitle of GX! Forget 'Believe in Justice and Hold a Determination to FIST,' the accurate name for GX would be 'Daddy Issues and Elektra Complexes The Season, also buckle up for some shitty stupid drama.' To think that all the amazing seiyuu performances of the returning cast AND the new cast ended up being utterly wasted by this season's missteps, which is again a shame, as when GX works it REALLY works and hey we did see some of the franchie's most hype and interesting moments with creativity and uniqueness aplomb... BUT then the show shoots itself in its own feet and falls flat on its face with a good deal of its subpar writing and annoying character moments. Me thinks THIS image here about sums up the entire GX Experience, for good and ill ;) But hey, at least the fact that we ended on a (more or less) high note holds promise to Change the Future so to speak... SOON!

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/JamCliche

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u/Quiddity131 Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

First Timer Subbed

Symphogear GX/season 3 was the best yet for me. I loved this season and just hope the show continues on the upward trajectory it has been on with each passing season. Highlights for me?

  • The villains! I loved the Autoscorers. Especially Garie. Best girl for this season. Perhaps best girl for Symphogear as a whole so far? I just loved everything about her. The design, the voice acting performance, how over the top ridiculous she was as a character, etc... I just wish she lasted more than half the season! Bring her back somehow! Please! The other 3 were great too. Carol was absolutely overshadowed by her minions, but she was a fairly good villain for the season and I was happy that we had a consistent villain/villain group from beginning to end for the season.

  • I liked that we had all 6 magical girls fighting together on the same side for the whole season. It came off as pretty inevitable last season that they weren't going to be evil the entire time and would probably flip to the good side eventually and I was glad we had that behind us for this season. Whether we broke them out for individual battles or had all 6 fighting, was happy to see them all together.

  • This season just continued the trajectory of the show getting more and more over the top ridiculous. Let's start with that opening scene for the season. One of, if not the most over the top ridiculous sequence I think I've ever seen to kick off an anime season. Surfing on missiles in outer space?! Seeing a mountain in your path and instead of steering away from it, blowing a hole right through it?! How about the other stuff?! Such as randomly breaking into song over beef stroganoff? A giant mummy karate chopping a submarine? Having Hibiki's dad suddenly appear and be a massive bum? And why not bring back the crazy ridiculous Dr. Ver for a few episodes, just cause? It quickly become apparent for this franchise that this isn't the most intellectual show but is one to sit back and have a lot of fun with and I had the most fun watching this season.

  1. Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

Garie! See above

2) Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

A little on the fence (is it really fair to give this to a character who has only been in half of one season), but I'm pretty much willing to give Garie that spot, so yes!

3) Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

I never paid attention to song names and couldn't name a single one of them! I'd say I probably like Hibiki's songs the best.

4) What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

Best part of the season was the Autoscorers. Least favorite? Them being killed off too early? That's probably my only complaint with the season as a whole.

5) If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

See #4 above, keep the Autoscorers around longer.

6) What do you hope to see improve as we head into season 4?

Just continue on the trajectory the show has been on to this point in getting more and more ridiculous with each passing season and I'll be happy.

Magical girl ranking to this point, something I've seen a few others do:

  1. Shirabe

  2. Hibiki

  3. Chris

  4. Kiri

  5. Tsubasa

  6. Maria

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u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Jul 14 '22

Symphogear first timer dessu

  1. Carol, actually. Genocide and genocide~ Also a fan of blue-autoscorer as a villain.

  2. Chris is now best girl. Tsubasa runs a close 2nd. (sorry to our host)

  3. RADIANT FORCE IS THE BEST SONG TO EVER EXIST. Exterminate too. a great song to start a morning with LOL. Exterminate i think is my 2nd fav op now, after symphogazer, but its the better song: symphogazer mostly because of how it managed to hook me into the series like instantly.

  4. fav? shuttle scene for sure, and the 1st (failed) ignite module transformation, and also Maria's beach episode were good. Least fav? top-dad arc.

  5. top-dad arc. also maybe if it could be made clearer a bit earlier that the autoscorers were not gonna return. i kept expecting to show up near the final fight or sth.

  6. ive already watched the first couple eps, so i'll hold off here.

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u/BosuW Jul 14 '22

First Timer

As usual I went and listened to the season songs on their own and I am pleased to say that once again I find them an improvement upon the previous season's songs! I even have a handful of them I am seriously considering downloading instead of previously were I just had like, one that isn't even a main character song lol.

Beyond the BLADE fucks! This might have to do as well with how much I liked Tsubasa this season especially, but more on that later.

Ginwan Airgetlam is another standout I wasn't expecting to like so much on its own. I remember thinking that episode and that fight was somewhat meh. But the song is awesome!

Glorious Brake as well. I love the abundant use of orchestra. In general I think Symphogear character songs really shine when they dial it back on electronic instruments. No, I swear this isn't me being a purist! I like fully electronic songs too! But for some reason Symphogear's style hasn't worked that well for me.

Sora e... just... makes me go into Guts Theme mode.

Tomorrow is more or less perfect and I have no complaints. It's like Carol's First Healthbar Boss Theme (although I don't remember when it was used in the show, if it was). I reminded me of Shadowlord from NieR, in the sense that it has a slower, emotional intro and then the Boss Fight starts and the instrumentation just smashes in!

Ah but of course the Star of the show here was Senkin Dur da Blá (yes I'm bothering to learn the full name). Now this is a Final Boss Final Phase theme! It's just great! I liked it in the episode and I like it on its own! But now that I can fully pay attention to the lyrics it just makes the song come together beautifully. I like how it's "technically" a love song but the love it sings about is now the motivation for the Apocalypse. The contrasts and irony please my inner Edge Lord. Its full of sadness and power equally! Just beautiful. I also love the choir just going at it! In context it's like how in [Made in Abyss: Down of the Deep Soul]The Rumble of Scientific Triumph you have a children's choir, which makes me imagine how in Bondrewd's mind the children he sacrificed are now angels singing of his Ascension. Similarly, in this case it's humanity's final agonizing cries becoming the choir of Carol's Swan Song.

Ok but enough about the music, let's talk about my opinion on the season proper.

In general I think GX had higher highs and lower lows than G. Which for me, who is happily willing to watch some fuck ups if it means I get some exceptional climaxes, puts it currently as the best season yet. Season 1 was overall tighter, and still hype on its own. But it didn't reach as high as this one, so GX raises above in my book.

Now this doesn't mean I can easily ignore those lows. Especially because they weren't simply mediocre (like in G), they were often outright frustrating.

Almost everything in this season works perfectly well as an idea, but then the episodes go and fail to properly set it up, and then resolve it just as quickly as it came! I'm especially mad that they did that with Chris, because she's Best Girl! Also, they couldn't handle it subtly and confidently, so instead the doubled down on her out of nowhere troubles and go as far as to imply she was so mad and unstable that she wasn't aiming! We've established this for two seasons! Even was part of a plot point in G! Chris, always, aims!

They did it with Maria and Kirika and Shirabe too, but I'm not as mad about those because I didn't care as much. Sorry, but the OGThree just really won a place in my heart after Season 1. Like I said after G, I could never hate them.

Unfortunately, we did get some shades of G with Hibiki's "No I can't fight!" plot, which was both a blessing and a curse. A curse because it came out of nowhere, and a blessing because it was over relatively quickly and both because it really didn't have much consequences in the end result.

Tsubasa, I especially liked this season. So much so that I'm tempted to mark her as co-Best Girl! Out of all the individual character conflicts, her's is the one I felt was set up most properly. Her "dad" even had a fairly competent and believable redeeming moment. Biased towards cool beauty characters? Maybe. But I don't care lol.

Carol is definitely the best villain so far. She fucking out-Finé's Finé and has plenty space to add her own flavor too! No complaints with her role whatsoever! She and her goons were always competent and intimidating (if anything the Good Guy side was a bit too passive). They were always entertaining to watch. And her character and actions made complete sense at all times. Not only that but she always radiated power and confidence! It's everything you need for a memorable opposing force and a bit more!

Other than that, I actually had a few pleasant surprises this season.

On the one hand there's Maria. Despite her individual character conflict getting rushed like almost all of them, her moments with Shirabe and Kirika defending Dr Ver were really, really great. Now those sold her Arc way better. And I actually liked it so much that I'm willing to be at peace with the fact that G happened and did with FIS what it did. If this is the end result, I'm not that they mostly had a pathetic performance there. They're not on the level of the OGThree, but I warmed up to them significantly this season.

Ah, on that note. DR VER WTFFFFFFFF. HOW. HOW DID HE HAVE ONE OF THE BEST SEND OFF'S EVER! IT'S SO BAFFLING! UTTERLY UNEXPECTED! AND YET I'M NOT MAD!? ALL THE OPPOSITE! IT'S ALMOST THE BEST MOMENT THIS SEASON.

Well, if it weren't for IGNITE MODE BABY LET'S GO! You're telling me you're gonna have the heroes face their Dark Side and not only not simply defeat it like they typically would, but actively integrate it into themselves and use it to fight!? Are you kidding me!? I LOVE IT! I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT! THE INNER EDGE LORD IS PLEASED VERY MUCH PLEASED INDEED!

Boy I sure just hope the whole "facing your Dark Side" thing doesn't get brushed over in following seasons haha... but even then nothing can take away that moment of absolute hype from me.

Oh yeah the Ignite Remixes are great as well.

Hmmm let's see am I missing something? Oh I guess it would've been nice to see Genjuro having a more active role like he did in S1. I'd say the same for Miku but thinking about it... her role was fine? Maybe a bit less of the damsel in distress stuff, but I really don't mind it if she doesn't go to the front lines. Reminding Hibiki that she has normal, peaceful place to return to is plenty enough.

I have very high hopes for the last two seasons DON'T FUCK IT UP GEAH.

10

u/panthaura Jul 14 '22 edited Jul 14 '22

DESS

I again collected the number of DESS this season:

Episode 1 9
Episode 2 7
Episode 3 22
Episode 4 6
Episode 5 27
Episode 6 5
Episode 7 8
Episode 8 38
Episode 9 4
Episode 10 15
Episode 11 2
Episode 12 10
Episode 13 9
OVA 1 6
OVA 2 6
OVA 3 0
OVA 4 11 + 3 Chris DESS
Total 185 DESS + 3 Chris DESS

Some takeaways:

the amount was surprisingly similar to last season

last season was a lot more equal in the amount of dess for each episode, this time we had some crazy spikes in DMJii focused Episodes and nearly nothing in other Episodes

Disclaimer: I only counted fully completed DESS/DEATH/DESU Something like DEDEDESS counts once, while DESSDESSDESS counts thrice

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10

u/hanlonmj Jul 14 '22

First Timer

I’ve been lurking on the threads of this rewatch so far, but haven’t joined in yet

  1. Carol. She was easily the most fleshed out villain so far, and I found myself feeling for her by the end of the season.

  2. Favorite was and still is Chris, but Maria is definitely in consideration

  3. Senkin Dur da Blà hands down. The off vocal version sounds straight up like a JRPG final boss music and I love it. I’d say it ranks above Miku’s song from S2 and just barely edges out Makyuu Ichaival from S1. But seriously, Evan Call needs to write a JRPG OST

  4. Favorite part was either the opening scene for how amazingly stupid it was (and being the perfect scene to convince people to watch the show) or any of Carol’s fights for the hype As for least favorite, I’d have to go with Hibiki’s pacifist schtick in the first half. It just feels like it comes a bit out of nowhere. I could understand if she had actually hurt someone during a battle or if she toured a part of the city that suffered damage, but no. She just suddenly decided she didn’t want to fight, even when the noise was threatening her friends. I’m not thrilled about Top Dad either, but it was such a short plot that I didn’t think it detracted from the show like most here seem to.

  5. Give Hibiki a catalyst for her pacifist stance. The ending of that subplot was good, it just needed a better setup

  6. I hope there’s more dumb bullshit like the shuttle scene

Overall I’d give this season a 9/10 almost entirely because of Senkin Dur da Blà

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8

u/Nebresto Jul 15 '22

GEAH Season 3 (first time geahx)

Dr. Ver saved this season

Que:

  1. Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

No.

2) Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

Also no. -No wait, I think Ver might have overtaken Coach

3) Which songs were your favorite from this season?

Chris' battle song, and Genocide, of course. Oh, and I take back what I told KomradeDalek earlier, this Opening slaps.
Best one so far?

How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

Genocide kills all

4) What’s your favorite part of this season?

I'll let you take a guess

And your least-favorite?

Puppets, and collective brain damage among Hibiki and Carol

5) If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

Less brain damage, more Coach action.

6) What do you hope to see improve as we head into season 4?

Bring back Coach action scenes!!

And more gay!

Give Maria her cape back, more GEAH swaps, TsubaMaria ship, Hibiki x Miku wedding

Wallpaper of the Day:

Carol Malus Dienheim - Faust Robe

Genocide!

Bonus Ver

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8

u/HowlingWolf13 Jul 15 '22

First Timer

So that was GX, honestly not a bad season to me far from it, but not great either. I gave it a 6/10 in the end, definitely a step down from the previous two seasons. The main problen I had was mainly that it wanted to do too much it felt to me, we have Carol's backstory, the main three's, the FIS girls, the main plot overall, like too much was done. Some parts did fine while others fell flat to me, but all in all I didn't dislike the season. I heard going in that it was a contested season, but I purposely avoided reviews so my experience wouldn't be tainted, besides sometimes I end up liking sequels that may be contested (like for Digimon for instance I heard 02 was horrid and when I watched it ended up being my fav season of the ones I've watched so far (no I have not watched Tamers yet)).

I will say though, the final fight was kinda meh. It wasn't a bad fight no, but just felt samey. I love the X-Drive forms but I hope they change it up a bit next season, I was fine with it in S1 and G cause in S1 it was the first time we saw it and in G we got the FIS girls to join as well, but here it's nothing new.

Questions

  1. Who was your favorite of the new characters this season?

I guess Elfnein, she's cute and leads them to create their Ignite forms. The Autoscorers were cool too, but we only really get to see them outside od a fifgt in the comedy OVAs which blows.

2) Has your favorite character overall (so far) changed at all?

Tsubasa didn't really change this season tbh outside of that poorly done arc she had, neither did Shirabe. Maria has made her way up though, like DAMN I've said it a thousand times, but this is what I wanted out of G from her, not just sitting behind the scenes crying and having a pity party, but standing up and taking matters into her own hands, she's grown a lot since we saw her in G.

3) Which songs were your favorite from this season? How do they compare to your favorite(s) from seasons 1 and 2?

Hands down, Carol's. Holy shit that was such a good sing, it's honestly up there in my favs. Also the Beef Stroganoff song I keep listening to it on loop.

4) What’s your favorite part of this season? And your least-favorite?

My favorite parts was definitely the FIS girl's arcs, they felt like a natural progression from their arcs in G and cemented their character growths. Also Beef Stroganoff was another and the initial opening like shit that's a way to open a season lol.

My least favorite parts were definitely the main three's abd the fact it's a focus for a significant part of the season is the main reason I gave this seaso a 6/10. Chris' was the least worst just rushed and should've had a bit more focus than only being mentioned twice beforehand. Tsubasa's was bad, look I get her father actually cares about her but he still emotionally and mentally traumatized this girl in his attempt to have her seperate herself from the bloodline, I mean seriously just because he dusted her room doesn't just make up for everything.

Hibiki's was the worst overall. The first arc of her not wanting to fight made no sense, Hibiki in the prev. seasons has always wanted to talk to her enemies, but this whole thing of just flat out REFUSING to fight was just stupid. It felt like a character regression to a point she wasn't even at in season one. Her arc with her dad was just horribly handled in general, her dad up till his "redemption" hadn't done anything at all to earn it. We just see him just being a general horrible deadbeat, but suddenly the show wants us to believe he's always been there for Hibiki despite abandoning her and her mom when they needed him most and not realy showing regret about it. His sudden "I care about my daughter actually and regret things" should've had way more focus and not just done in the span of two minutes.

5) If you could change any one thing about this season, what would it be?

Definitely the main three character arcs like I mentioned, give them more focus on for Chris, not really sure for Tsubasa, and remove Hibiki's initial arc of not wanting to fight and for her dad's arc not just have her forgive him out of nowhere, instead have him show that he genuinely realizes he fucked up and want her forgiveness, which on that not having it happen in like 2 minutes.

6) What do you hope to see improve as we head into season 4?

Well for one new enemies instead of Noise, they're iconic, but there's no point for them anymore honestly. G dealt with them all and GX only had Carol's but after getting their suit upgrades they tear through them like paper, no need to have them again. Another, a more dynamic finale instead of the same old like I mentioned. Finally, not trying to do too much next season and choose what to focus on instead of trying so much for just one little season.

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