Symphogear Retrospective: Part 2 - Punch it again!

Introduction / Welcome back, do not think you're ready

If you didn't catch my overly long, episode-by-episode retrospective of Symphogear you are likely confused about what's going on. Which is already the right mindset for the show, however if you want you can also go here and read that. This is a direct sequel, after all.

Can't be bothered / need a refresher? This is an anime that I really like, I'm rewatching it and summarising and scoring it as I go. Mostly for my own amusement, but you're very welcome to stick around. Identical to season one, the four point scales I grade each episode on are:

• 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Is it awesome? Add points! Is it boring? Detract points.
• 🎶 MUSIC: Music should be a big deal. New songs, cool musical moments, etc. all get points.
• 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Is the pace a mess? Okay, it probably is. In a good way though?
• 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Eyes rolling because the show is being creepily sexual again? It will happen, I'm sorry. A high score here is for when they don't. Please be better this season...

In the distance, that day, when the star became music...

Ooh, new logo for season 2. I guess it's technically even a new title, though all we added was the letter G (the music note, maybe?). In the last season the subtitle of the show was also the title of the final episode... but not particularly literal, it didn't even mention the moon being shot by a giant cannon!

Speaking of which, let's have a very quick check at the state of the setting, shall we?

Status quo, open points, problems & questions:

1. Noise (monsters that disintegrate humans that can only be killed by symphogear) are still around, despite Finé being dead.
2. Fighting them are a government agency deploying three symphogear warriors. Hibiki, Tsubasa and Chris.
• Hibiki had a few moments during season 1 where she turned into a dark feral monster form, we don't know what it is and she doesn't really have it under control. She also still has relic shards creepily close to her heart, but this hasn't been flagged as a medical emergency.
• Tsubasa has lightened up and opened up a lot and is even finding fulfilment in her idol work again. We might not have that many Kanade flashbacks this season?
• Chris still has her whole war trauma thing that never quite got resolved and is very new to the agency. Last we saw her she was also not a student at the music academy like the other two.
3. The moon is where the Curse of Balal is maintained from, stopping humanity from understanding each other. Finé tried to destroy the moon and partially succeeded, the Curse appears unaffected.
4. Finé can potentially return when one of her descendants (which is quite a few people, she originally lived thousands of years ago) is near a relic when it activates.
5. The agency base, music academy and city at large all got wrecked ~completely in the finale.
6. The entire big finale was noticed on the international stage, which was alluded to in the wrap-up of the season, but we don't really know what (if anything) this means.

So... a lot changed in one season, sure. But I would have no idea where we go from here. The main antagonists from season 1, Finé and Chris, are respectively dead and saved, and I wouldn't expect to just get a season of pure Noise-punching.

I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there? Let's go!

Episode 1: The Gungnir Girl / "We must show everyone the true power of music"

Summary	A burning laboratory in greyscale with a haunting children's song in the background. Okay, this isn't starting the way I expected... amidst the fire and devastation a lone figure stands. She's pretty clearly a symphogear from context though. A monitor showing phonic gain from a relic, her detransforming in the usual way. Something clearly went horribly wrong though. She searches the room frantically as best she can, finally finding what she's looking for, a second girl, similar in appearance, but she is not okay. As if she sang a swan song and is now dying. An older woman tackles the first girl to safety as the roof of the lab comes down and the shot fades on the second girl mouthing an indistinct phrase. For a second I thought we were about to cut to school hijinks of the cast we do know, but no. We get a nice shot of the moon (with the large chunk missing, the debris of which has formed Saturn-like rings around it), music we don't know hits, we get flashes of a performer we don't know (one of the girls from the previous scene grown up maybe?), but more pressingly, aerial Noise closing in on an armoured train. The train, at last, contains some people we know. One of the operators from the agency that we met in season 1 as well as some kind of scientist-guy carrying a case (probably a relic in there, going by season 1) that is addressed as Dr. Ver. The replacement for Ryoko maybe? A door opens and Hibiki and Chris rush in. As we learn that the transported relic is Solomon's Cane (established in season 1 to hold the ability to summon and somewhat direct the Noise) we still get interspersed shots of this new girl performing her song. Hibiki, Chris, Dr. Ver and the agent move up the train. We get some quick catching up on how the world is now more aware of symphogears being a thing before the group gets clearance to engage the Noise. Which means... new transformation sequence for Hibiki! It's a lot more elaborate, with fancy music notes in the background, a cool new scarf that we already saw hinted at in the logo and an unnecessary jiggle shot on this teenage girl. Two steps forward, one step back. Chris and Hibiki jump to the top of the train and start engaging the Noise, really not struggling very much at all despite the large number of them. Chris especially just tears through them with some cool new attacks. A new flying type appears though, fast as a jet with the ability to shape itself into a forward-facing shield. Hibiki jumps up to take it down, but even her fists can't breach its shell. As they enter a tunnel they try to come up with a new plan, and Hibiki claims she has one. They decouple the last train car, sending it at them, which the Noise slowly phase through, bunching them up and keeping the jet-like one in place for long enough for Hibiki to land a full blast punch on it. This destroys it as well as the rest of the pursuing Noise, leaving Chris astounded. The rest of the transport mission goes smoothly, looks like Dr. Ver isn't attached to their unit and was just overseeing the transport to... some other agency, it doesn't matter. He compliments the two girls after seeing them in action, calling them heroes. He then gets a bit too enthusiastic about the concept of heroes and how the world needs them. I'm sure that's not going to come up again. As a reward for a mission well done the two get to use the agency helicopter to go back to the city so they can catch Tsubasa's show. It's going to be nice seeing her again and her performances are alw- the military base they just exited explodes dramatically as a large Noise appears. A wave of Noise is devastating the base, as always all regular (=non-symphogear) weapons are ineffective against them. HALFWAY POINT Hard cut to people preparing an arena for a concert (I know tv broadcasts have a commercial block in between here, but still). Mostly people building the stage and rigging speakers into place, that kind of stuff. In the stands a girl is humming to herself, a children's song that we heard earlier in the episode. She gets a call, shaking her from her thoughts, despite hearing both sides of the conversation it's pretty vague what they're talking about. Setting a plan into motion, setting the stage for the end of the world, I'm sure that's unrelated to the season's plot. Cut to the ruined military base, we've skipped over the fight but it is clear that Hibiki and Chris won again, but the base and a lot of its personell were lost before they could do so. In the chaos Dr. Ver has gone missing, along with Solomon's Cane. I guess it's time for the concert now! And the concert's performers are... the new girl, called Maria, and Tsubasa! The agency is intentionally not telling Tsubasa about the Noise attack, though Tsubasa is suspicious that something is going on when Ogawa (her manager) takes a call from the agency. As the show is about to start Miku (Hibiki's roommate, best friend and confidante) as well as a few more girls from their class talk about Maria a bit (mostly how she is a new face on the music scene but soaring to popularity abroad) and about Hibiki running late (the audience knows why, they don't). Miku is worried about that but trying not to show it. The concert starts and it's great! They sing super well together, though it's also kind of framed as a competition or duel between the two... either way it rocks, pyrotechnics, dramatic posing, it's everything you want from a concert. Their combined speech after the song is nice, Maria calls Tsubasa the most popular singer in Japan (which I guess she is now), but then it dramatically takes a turn for the calamitous, as at the gesture of her hand a line of Noise appear between the stage and the audience. They don't appear to be attacking yet, but everybody is spooked and unsure of what is happening. Some manner of plan is being set into motion, and it's going to be up to Tsubasa to figure it out (a quick aside to Chris & Hibiki reveals that they are 40 minutes away in the helicopter). Tsubasa is ready to fight, dramatically revealing her relic pendant, but Maria taunts her. The eyes of the world are on her, if she transforms now everybody will know she is a symphogear. Tsubasa claims this would not make her hesitate at all, but maybe it kind of does... or at least she doesn't transform for now. Maria turns to the audience/cameras and declares that she has control over the Noise and that she claims rulership of all countries of the world, basically declaring war on the entire world. Which, you know, for episode 1 might be a smidge ambitious. She seems to believe in what she's saying though, and dramatically tosses her microphone cane into the air and claps her hands together. She starts to sing a simple phrase we know well by now, a symphogear transformation song. A deeply dramatic new song starts as her transformation hits, we cut away from the visual (but not the song) to the agency base where they identify the waveform (and through that the relic powering the transformation), it's Gungnir. (The same relic Hibiki uses and Kanade wielded before her). It's a darker rendition of the Gungnir armour, but it unmistakably is a similar design to Hibiki's. Transformation complete she raises her microphone once more and declares "I- We are Finé", cut to credits as her battle theme starts.
Review	Wait, we are bringing Finé back? Immediately? Reincarnated into multiple people? That's insane! I guess that's one way to kick off your season, I'm glad that this show didn't forget how to catch people off guard. Not much else to say, really. It's very clearly primarily a setup episode, which feels like a thing you can start a second season with. That doesn't mean we didn't get a lot of cool stuff though, this was super fun!
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The train fight was so cool already! And even though it didn't quite come to a fight yet, that on-stage confrontation was such an excellent moment too. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Hibiki's new battle theme is so awesome! And we got a full duet concert song, and Maria's battle song over the credits and even that children's song from the opening both as-is and immediately reprised in a hum. 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: The two episode halves are barely connected other than being an excuse for splitting the party. Opening on a weird flashback with people we've never seen, the villains(?) just dramatically revealing themselves to the heroes in episode 1. Yeah, this is all good stuff. Utterly insane, but so very good. 9.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I shouldn't get my hopes up, but this was an almost spotless episode. Maybe some shots that are a touch gratuitous in the transformation sequence, but hardly worth mentioning. 8.5/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Whelp, that sure is higher than all but the final 3 episodes of season 1, including its opening. And honestly? That tracks, this really was a very nicely done episode. And a big promise of things to come, let's see if it can fulfil that promise.

Episode 2: Power and Lies in Her Heart / "Three Gear Users?!"

Summary	We see Maria transform again and everybody react to it in a hyper-efficient recap, like, 20 seconds, and then the new opening hits. The opening shot features a whole 6 relic pendants, which would be an insane increase to the active symphogear count. The rest of the opening is cheerful and fun, focusing on our main trio, their transformations and their relics. ...and also Maria and two other girls, with labelled relics and symphogear outfits. Okay, I guess we are getting six symphogears. Judging by the rest of the opening these will be our new antagonists and the fights will be wild. Back in the (new?) agency base we see Genjuro talk on videocall with (new character) minister Shibata (who won't be very important, but he's funny because he's always eating noodles) that explains that an American lab was attacked several months ago and their research and relics were all stolen. We cut back to the concert arena, where Maria explains that Finé is the name of their "paramilitary organisation", such a copout! ...although they probably picked the name for a reason. She restates her demand, control of the world, with a 24 hour ultimatum after which Noise strikes will attack major cities in all countries that didn't comply and accept her as their new ruler. Tsubasa starts to sing her transformation song, but Ogawa (over coms) stops her with the argument that her non-battle songs also do a lot of good in the world (and somehow being "outed" as a symphogear would mean she can no longer do that?). Maria is itching for a fight and wants to take away Tsubasa's hesitation, so she declares that the audience in the arena is free to go and the Noise won't harm them. As the crowd starts to shuffle out, clearly still terrified, she gets scolded over her own coms by her superior, an older woman with an eyepatch that we saw give orders in several earlier scenes as well. This clearly wasn't part of the plan. Maria refers to her as mom and clearly respects her, but not enough to go along with the hostage-taking plan they originally had. The woman grumbles but concedes, saying she'll send in Shirabe and Kirika as backup (are these the other two girls already?! This is Episode 2!) As the arena empties we cut to Miku and her friends, Miku is hesitant to leave but her friends manage to convince her that they'd just be in the way and that Hibiki will be along any second to save the day. She's still en route though, so Ogawa is doing his best to cut the camera feeds so Tsubasa is no longer blocked from transforming. On his way there he spots two girls backstage, even without the opening spoiling it these are very clearly the two other symphogear users. Pendants visible, same names being used, it's just very clearly them. Ogawa doesn't know this though, and he assumes they are audience members that got lost. Kirika (the spunky/bubbly one) plays along and ensures him that they're getting out of there. Shirabe (the serious/quiet one) lets her do this charade, but was very ready to transform and attack Ogawa if things went south. Meanwhile in the arena, Maria taunts Tsubasa now that the crowd is gone while she still won't fight her and launches an attack using her microphone cane. Tsubasa deflects it as best she can, but a symphogear enhances abilities quite a lot. Quick cut to Hibiki and Chris (who needlessly remind us that Tsubasa can't transform) that are still 10 minutes out. Tsubasa tries to get off stage (and off camera), but is unable to as Maria intercepts her and kicks her back into the arena, right at a group of Noise! Tsubasa resigns herself to her fate. Of giving up on being an idol, of only being a sword, and gets ready to transform mid-air and save herself. HALFWAY POINT Ogawa makes it in time with mere seconds to spare, meaning Tsubasa's transformation doesn't air. We get to see it though, and it's cool! It focuses more on the blades attached to her feet, which were a part of her design in season 1 as well but not really used much. Not this season though, as she immediately uses them (and her regular sword) to tear into and dispatch the Noise in the arena. That just leaves her and Maria in the arena, both transformed, time to see how they match up. Tsubasa wasn't sure just how real Maria's Gungnir was (after all, Hibiki has the Gungnir), but is surprised to find that it is very real, and Maria is using it well. A brief cut to her commander informs Maria (and us) that phonic gain is only at 22%, which worries Maria and gives Tsubasa the opening she needs. (Wait, are they trying to activate a relic?!) With a gorgeously animated dual-bladed flame strike she lands a big blow against Maria. Before she can follow it up though, she is interrupted by... a barrage of tiny pink sawblades? Okay, we really are doing this. Shirabe and Kirika arrive on the scene, fully transformed and battle songs singing out, launching a barrage of attacks that take Tsubasa completely off guard. (Admirably, we immediately cut to Ogawa looking into the arena from above recognising the girls, symphogear don't really do anything to conceal identities after all). The next move is very predictable, but still nicely done. Maria comes in to gloat over Tsubasa, but Tsubasa isn't phased. She has seen the chopper arrive over the arena. Chris and Hibiki arrive in spectacular fashion, hell yeah! ...and Hibiki immediately pleads for them to stop fighting, also hell yeah! The three new girls seem more offended than anything else at the very idea, Shirabe especially, as she launches an attack at Hibiki that Tsubasa has to deflect for her. A full scale fight breaks out, Chris vs Kirika, Hibiki vs Shirabe and of course Maria and Tsubasa continue their fight. Everybody seems roughly evenly matched, but Shirabe continues her conversation with Hibiki while they fight, berating her for her naivety, thinking that she can save anybody without knowing suffering herself. This is very clearly getting to Hibiki and the other two have to jump in to block another attack for her. "Mom", the commander of the three opposing symphogear pulls the plug on the attack though, with phonic gain sitting at a measly 24%. She summons a huge replicator-type Noise to the arena (no clue what that means yet, it's new) and orders the three girls to withdraw. Maria casually summons her armed gear, a dark version of the heavy spear that Kanade wielded, and uses it to shoot an energy blast at the large Noise they themselves summoned. It explodes into a gross shower of bits and they run off during the blast. Before our heroes can give chase the Noise regrows, bigger and stronger than before, and closes in on them. The distraction was picked well, they can't ignore this, especially with the concert audience still right outside the arena. Hibiki suggests trying the new combo attack they were working on powered by their swan songs, which feels like overkill but Tsubasa agrees that a large scale blast might be the only way. As they launch into their swan song we get a dramatic sweeping shot over the arena and the writhing mass of Noise around them. It's an insane attack, both visually and mechanically. The three swan songs are all channelled through Hibiki who tunes them together into one gigantic blast of gorgeous rainbow light. It does the trick though, all the "flesh" of the Noise is destroyed, leaving a weird central spine and what is clearly a heart of sorts. I guess Chris and Tsubasa now take that down, right? Hibiki is clearly spent from that blast. ...no? That blast was just her charging up? ...okay, I guess we're doing things differently this season. She pulls back the rainbow energy, into her fist, which unfolds and charges starts to glow as she rushes in to attack. With a monumental punch she knocks it into the air, a maelstrom of colours and debris flying up with it. It's absolutely insane. As we cut to an exterior view of the arena we see our three new symphogear standing on a rooftop a few blocks away, commenting on this display of power. Kirika asks what the hell it is, Shirabe replies that it's pretty, Maria solemnly declares it won't be the last time they'll have to face those monsters. We cut to "Mom" smiling over a monitor, the relic that had failed to charge was able to feed off of this gigantic blast and is now fully ready. Cut back to the arena, our heroes have untransformed, either because that attack took all of their power or because the fight is over, and Chris and Tsubasa rush in to see if Hibiki is okay. She's crying as she remembers Shirabe's taunts, but assures them it's alright (with a "Don't worry, everything will be fine", told you it'd come back!). Chris doesn't believe her and thinks she's hurt from blast-back of their own attack (they're swan songs, after all), but Hibiki confesses it's about what Shirabe said, asking if she really is naive and doesn't understand. We see brief flashback glimpses of her going through a hard time. Bullying? Unclear, and definitely no idea why yet. As the credits music fades in we pan out over the arena, leaving a sobbing Hibiki behind, to reveal a person standing on a ledge holding Solomon's Cane, a grin on his face, we don't really see him in detail but this is very clearly Dr. Ver the scientist that conveniently "disappeared" last episode. Credits hit! They're nice if a bit simple, nice cityscapes with colour-coded animated silhouettes of our cast moving over it.
Review	I'm sorry, what?! That was an insane episode. We got so many new introductions and reveals and developments. Sure it was "just" the cliffhanger from the previous episode being resolved, but we got so much new stuff thrown our way. New characters, new songs, new moves, new plots. A gambit to take over the earth in 24 hours. I don't know if we will get a break in this pace next episode (surely, right?!) but both we and the show have earned it, I'd say. Since I didn't want to make the recap even longer (it's way too long already), I want to briefly explain these new characters and what they're about, just based on what we've seen so far, because I know it's a lot to throw at you in text, hell it was a lot to throw at the viewers of the show.
A Brief Aside	Maria Cadenzavna Eve Famous idol that is new on the scene, actually the face of the organisation Finé. She wields the Gungnir relic, the same one that Hibiki has and Kanade had. ...is that possible? They're just shards, after all. It definitely seems to be the real thing though. She's slightly older than our heroes, cocky and rebellious, but very convicted to whatever her cause is. In fights she wields a black version of the Gungnir symphogear armour and she has so far mostly used her cool black cape, though it has been established that she was holding back her spear. Shirabe Tsukuyomi Cold and serious, despite being several years younger than our heroes. She is very, very committed to whatever Finé is up to. In battle she wields her Shul Shagana relic (feel free to forget that name) to skate around the battlefield and launch saw blades from the large head-mounted launchers that replace her twin-tails when she's transformed. These can also fold open entirely and be used as circular saw arms. Kirika Akatsuki The breath of fresh air this team clearly needs. Kirika is cheerful and upbeat, seems to be the same age as Shirabe and a quick thinker. Her Igalima (again, free to forget) relic transforms her in a green whirlwind of scythe strikes and scytheblade-shaped projectiles. "Mom" / Professor Nastassja The mysterious commander of this new organisation. We don't even know her name yet (but I'm giving it to you anyway). She is strict but kind with Maria, and happy to have powered up some sort of weird fossil-shaped relic. Other than that, we know basically nothing. She's just been sitting in a support/behind the scenes role.
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: We sure are hitting the ground running. So much new cool stuff and that monstrous attack by Hibiki to kill the replicator Noise (including some weird flashes of her feral mode, I'm sure that's fine though), it's just excellent viewing. 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: We get Tsubasa's new battle song as she is finally able to face Maria, but also snippets of Shirabe's for the subsequent fight between all six of them. And despite being instrumental-only, the music we get for the big attack is super good too. One detail I especially appreciated is Shirabe starting a sentence (mocking Hibiki) and finishing it in song (along the lines of "That is why I will destroy the world"). I think that's a first for the show, and it's super clever and neat. 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Episode 2. An entirely new villain team reveals itself with fleshed out powers and a plan to take over the world in 24 hours. It's an insane gambit, both within the show's narrative and as a structuring beat. My kind of insane though. Top marks. Especially since they wasted zero time just revealing that Dr. Ver is a villain too. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I glossed over exactly how Kirika convinced Ogawa that he should let them go, it was a kind of awkward idea that they were looking for the bathroom for Shirabe. Believable for the character and that it would have worked and intentionally used that being awkward to talk about, but it still felt like a weird beat. No notes otherwise though. 9.1/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Whelp, that sure blows everything other than the season 1 finale out of the water. I knew this show ramped up, but I had clearly forgotten how fast and how hard. Should I have been stricter with season 1 to leave myself some more breathing room? Just how far are we going to keep climbing? Or is this a weird peak and are we going to settle down a bit?

Episode 3: Those Who Long for the End, Those Who Challenge the End / "Temporary HQ! Rapid ascent!"

Summary	The finale was cool enough to just do it again, and we get to see the combination attack a second time, the only way I could tell it was edited down a bit is because the flashes of feral mode were absent this time 'round. It's kind of weirdly long for a last time on (for this show anyway), I hope that won't become a trend. We jump to the opening. We visit the shady coastal hospital/laboratory that Professor Nastassja operates out of, as she analyses and narrates the super attack. How combining swan songs like that reduces train to the singers and how it allowed our three heroes to come back safely from destroying the moon shard. ...and also how she used it to awaken the Nephilim that fell from the heavens. That doesn't sound good! We cut to a far brighter base, that of our heroes. It looks very fancy and new, it's clearly not the one from season 1. A week has passed since the concert, with no follow-up at all from Finé. Ogawa calls in with findings on a raid he is actively performing as they talk. He looked into the origins of Maria's idol trailer that was abandoned at the stadium, tracing it back to a company that also bought a lot of medical and analysis equipment. Yes, while he is performing the raid. We keep cutting to him, phone pressed to one ear as he casually talks, while mobsters around him try to attack him, every time we cut back there's a few less. It's barely commented on and very funny. And as a piano rendition of the Lydian music academy school song starts, we cut to a fancy old building in the city that is now the locale of the school (because it was also destroyed). Hibiki is spacing out during class, worrying about these new symphogear that showed up last week. The teacher interrupts her with some annoyance, it's a fun little catch-up scene. ...three solid establishing scenes under our belt, so let's cut to a shower scene. Ugh, I really hoped season 2 would have grown beyond this. Especially since it's of Kirika and Shirabe. Kirika is being her cheerful self, Shirabe is extra-pensive as she is still angry at Hibiki and (what she sees as) her naivety. Still no hints as to why though. Maria joins them, saying they don't have time to question their motives. Then an alarm rings out. A lot of doors around the base close shut automatically as claxons blare, apparently it's because whatever this Nephilim is is making a ruckus? Professor Nastassja is concerned but Dr. Ver reassures her that it doesn't matter if they can't control it as long as it can perform a heroic deed for humanity. There is talk of an important sounding thing? place? called the Frontier and of how the Nephilim needs feeding. Professor Nastassja and Dr. Ver split the responsibilities, with her and Maria going to check on the Frontier and Dr. Ver, guarded (and maybe surveilled) by Kirika and Shirabe, will look into getting more of whatever a Nephilim eats. The two adults very clearly don't trust each other. HALFWAY POINT Back to Lydian, a student is running frantically in the hallways, we can't really see who it is but she looks familiar. As she rounds a corner she bumps straight into Tsubasa, knocking the two of them onto the ground. It's Chris! She's running from her new classmates that keep trying to involve her in a school fair. Tsubasa is already helping out with it though, reminding us that she has changed. It's a nice bonding scene between the two. A thread that will lie just below the surface for much of this season. So of course we hard cut to the secret hospital base again, at night, where Tsubasa, Chris and now also Hibiki are sneaking into the place. I guess this is where Ogawa's paper trail led. Chris seems eager, Tsubasa prepared, Hibiki doubtful. As they make their way into the building they are immediately picked up by cameras, alerting Dr. Ver who pipes a weird red gas into the hospital corridors and sends a group of Noise at them. So it's time for Chris' transformation scene! I love how she gets the rockier music themes and this is no exception. Not much more to say, really. It's a nice transformation scene, in line with that of the other two. It's a very dark hallway fight scene (which I usually hate), but fortunately the Noise are bright enough that it's still pretty readable what's happening. And what is happening is that they are weirdly not doing enough damage to fully destroy the Noise. These aren't new types of Noise, they should be tearing through them, what is going on here? Okay yeah, we're not idiots. It's obviously the gas, which is messing with the synchronization rates of their symphogear, lowering their power output and even making it hard to sustain the transformation. Whoever came up with this must know a lot about how symphogear work (but I guess they do have three symphogear of their own running around). Speaking of which, the Noise get reinforced by... wait, no. By the Nephilim? It's a grotesque looking dark monster with fiery lines of light over its body. It's not going down easy, despite being small (...for now). Dr. Ver approaches our heroes, revealing himself as a/the villain and taunting them by explaining how he planned his escape and theft of Solomon's Cane (not very interesting or important). Chris seems to agree with me, and launches a barrage of missiles at him and the Noise surrounding him (the Nephilim crawled into its cage, like an attack dog of sorts), this attack takes a lot out of Chris though, with her synchronization rate this low she can barely stand after firing that and the Noise regrow the superficial damage they took effortlessly. As Dr. Ver surrenders (which I hope was his plan, otherwise his plan was garbage) we see a large dorky-looking balloon Noise carry of the cage with the Nephilim. Fortunately our heroes see it too, and Tsubasa tells Hibiki to detain Dr. Ver and look after Chris as she rushes after the Nephilim. The Noise is already out over the water, and we have established that hitting aerial targets isn't really Tsubasa's strong suit (and that she is in a weakened state right now). Commander Genjuro tells her to jump after it though, that she isn't alone. As she clearly doesn't make the jump a submarine breaches the surface of the water, giving her a stepping stone to jump again, this is the new base of the agency! With the extra height Tsubasa hits her attack, destroying the Noise, sending the crate tumbling towards the waves. She blasts after it, confident she can catch it. A spear soars in to interrupt her path though, landing to hover over the water tip-down, Maria's Gungnir spear. As she gracefully lands on the top end of her spear, catching the Nephilim cage in one hand, Dr. Ver calls out that he is glad to see her. Calling her Finé. He calmly explains that Finé is not just the name of their organisation, but also that of this girl, as she is a reincarnated and reawakened Finé. On this rad visual and ridiculous revelation we cut to the credits.
Review	...this is what we're getting as a quiet episode? I mean, it has to right? A lot less happened than the previous two. Still so much though, with the introductions of three new locations (though I don't think we'll get to see the hospital again), the Nephilim and finally that Finé's Maria is actually Finé reborn. Ah Symphogear, you're so delightfully crazy.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: It's not getting points for the cool combination attack a second time. That ending with the submarine though? *chef's kiss* that's what I'm there for. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: There's this one moment in Chris' battle song where the lyrics say "1, 2, 3, you're annoying me" and as 1 and 2 are said, Tsubasa and Hibiki respectively land beside her. That's the second time song lyrics are connected way more directly than the previous season. We get her battle song and Tsubasa's as well as the nice callback to the school song. Pretty good, but not really a standout either. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: I really don't know what you're going to fill the rest of your season with if you keep immediately paying off the things you set up, Symphogear. Dr. Ver confronting our heroes, the Nephilim, the Finé reveal. You're spoiling/overwhelming us! 3.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: *sighs* I knew it was too good to last. We really, really didn't need the shower scene. Or at least, we didn't need it in a shower. I'm already paying attention, it's not as if you'll lose me as a viewer if you don't shove in a minimum of titillation. I really don't get why it's there. 6.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A super solid episode held back by a disappointing amount of sleaze. Please do better?

Episode 4: The Place I Call Home / "Must we fight each other once again, Ryoko?"

Summary	We do the hyper-quick recap again, basically just Maria landing and Dr. Ver explaining that she is Finé. Opening time! I think I like it more than the one for season 1? Maria (Finé? We'll stick with Maria for now) tosses up the Nephilim cage and we see it weirdly disappear. No teleportation effect or anything. Huh. No time to dwell on it though, we're getting a fight! Tsubasa and Maria are going all out on top of the new agency submarine. Maria clearly has the upper hand as her battle song rings out. Her cape is an excellent defence and she can even set up attacks from behind it and take Tsubasa off guard. She carves deep gashes into the deck of the submarine (just from her attempts to hit Tsubasa), causing Genjuro and the others to worry their new base is about to go down. Genjuro tells Tsubasa to get Maria off the deck. She can't manage this though, despite some excellent spinning action with her feet blade (it's not just the transformation that highlights them more), just as Chris is about to step in and save the day, sawblades shoot as if from nowhere at Chris and Hibiki who had been guarding Dr. Ver on the shoreline. Both Shirabe and Kirika come to Maria's aid (...by saving Dr. Ver, they are very much here for Maria though). Chris and Hibiki are still weakened from the sync rate lowering gas they got hit with in the creepy hospital in the previous episode. Tsubasa realises her strength is already slowly returning though, just as Maria reflects that her own strength is fading, in part because of the hits Tsubasa did manage to get in in her weakened state. Dr. Nastassja orders the retreat, the goal was to recover the Nephilim and they accomplished this. It's unclear exactly where she is, she appears to be piloting something? As Maria exclaims in frustration at the order if this is really as far as she can go, Tsubasa has a flash of realisation. The reason why Maria and the others can't stick around for extended periods of time is because they are using the Linker drug to artificially boost their sync rates, these are the same (highly dangerous) drugs that her old partner Kanade used to use. Maria grapples up into a decloaking VTOL aircraft. Before the other two gear users and Dr. Ver do the same, Shirabe answers a question Hibiki put to them. Why are they doing this? Because they are protecting what justice can not. Gee, very helpful and concrete, thank you. Chris tries to shoot them with a new sniper configuration of her gear, but just as she is about to take the shot the aircraft turns its cloaking system back on. On the aircraft we learn that the cloaking is relic-based, that Professor Nastassja is very sick (we already knew that she was wheelchair-bound) and Kirika is annoyed at Dr. Ver for him losing them their base of operations. Especially since this means they no longer have supplies to feed to the Nephilim, and it will start to rampage when it gets hungry. HALFWAY POINT Genjuro learns from noodle-eating minister that Finé (the organisation) was originally a group of American scientists that went rogue. It's mostly a lot of speculation though. Ooh it's the day of the school fair at Lydian! ...are we actually going to get low stakes school stuff? Because yes please! Miku and Hibiki go see a show their classmates are putting on. As they run out of frame the camera lingers, two inconspicuous characters are also there. By which I mean Kirika and Shirabe but they're wearing glasses. I really don't know who they're trying to fool, it's mostly them playing at being infiltrating spies. The show is a type of X-Factor talent show (of course primarily about singing, it's a singing academy after all), with the winner being granted a request from the student council. We get a full-on Sentai opening song from the classmates (this is the same B-list cast that has stuck around since season 1) and it's super fun! Unfortunately a bell rings before they make it super far, indicating disqualification. They take it with varying amounts of grace. Meanwhile Kirika and Shirabe are roaming the fair, Shirabe more seriously than Kirika who is very clearly just enjoying herself. Apparently they're here on some kind of mission? Reconnaissance maybe? A quick cut to a flashback with the two of them, Maria and Dr. Ver en route in the aircraft reveals why they are there. Dr. Ver explains it. What the Nephilim eats is relic fragments! Which (among other things) is the essential thing embedded in the pendants everybody uses to transform into symphogear. Maria originally suggested going in guns blazing (metaphorically) and just stealing any pendants they could off of the other symphogear, but Kirika and Shirabe vehemently object. Apparently Finé hasn't fully revived yet and every time Maria uses her symphogear Finé gets stronger, bringing the day closer that Maria will disappear. Which is why the two of them volunteered. They really don't have much of a plan though. They tail Tsubasa for a bit, but have no clue what to do next. It's charming but also very revealing that Finé (the organisation) is perhaps floundering a bit. They overhear Chris being cornered again by the girls that also wanted her help in the previous episode, and this time she relents. Meaning she is next in the talent show! As the credits start to fade in, and after some hesitation Chris sings a nice and heartfelt song while we flashback to her starting school a few weeks earlier and struggling to make friends. It's a super neat character moment about how she actually really likes singing. Even Kirika and Shirabe who had snuck into the crowd can tell this is a moment for her. The screen fades on the exterior of the theater as her song ends. Aww, nice. Only to immediately and abruptly cut back, Chris has won and is now the reigning Queen of the Stage, the host asks for the next challenger. Explicitly saying that people from the audience are welcome to try as well. We all know where this is going, Kirika volunteers the two of them, and we end on the dramatic shot of them standing up. (Chris obviously immediately recognises them)
Review	Some more breathing room, and I say we could still use it. We still learn a lot though, about Finé not being fully back yet, about what the Nephilim eats, about how Kirika and Shirabe are dedicated but basically clueless (beyond combat). It's a very nice little episode.
Scores	6/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: ...a nice little episode, but not a particularly glorious one. Like, Hibiki has a nice moment where she blatantly exclaims that she doesn't understand what Genjuro means, which is always great, but that's scraping the bottom of the barrel. I feel like perhaps this score shouldn't be super high every episode though? 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Solid! We got Maria's and Kirika's battle songs in the first half of the episode and they're great, and the second had two one-off songs that were lighter. Did it soar? Nope, but it did plenty. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: ...though in this category I could have perhaps used a bit more? Kirika and Shirabe just immediately being at the fair is solid chaotic fun though. 9.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Basically a clean episode? What initially could be interpreted as Dr. Ver ogling the chests of his presumed allies when discussing Nephilim food is revealed in the same episode to be about the pendants they wear, so that's fine. Fine-ish. 7.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Not a bad episode, but I'm eager to get back to the action!

Episode 5: Bloodstained Serenade / "Hero of the lunar attack, what do you seek to protect with those fists of yours?!"

Summary	Hyper-quick summary, basically just the announcer calling out and Kirika and Shirabe responding. You know the drill by now. Cut to the opening. As this nonsense goes on (Hibiki and Tsubasa explain to Miku who these two girls are and why they're upset), we cut to Maria and Professor Nastassja, waiting on the hidden aircraft that they landed in a nearby warehouse. A swat team of sorts is circling their position, apparently the Americans caught up to them. The professor orders Maria to go out and engage them, she hesitates because she doesn't want to fight humans (which, fair, Gungnir would turn them into a thin paste with a single hit). Kirika and Shirabe bicker about their "plan", but Kirika manages to convince Shirabe. After all, the person that wins the contest gets one wish granted, they can wish for the symphogear pendants! (...which can't possibly be how that works, but okay). So they start to perform a song, a Zwei Wing song, from back when Tsubasa and her dead partner Kanade were a pop duo. During this performance we see Maria struggle with her decision, but before she can make up her mind, Dr. Ver steps in, summoning Noise to take out the swat team (he wasn't present up until now). It's quite a gruesome scene. The song and performance from Kirika and Shirabe are awesome though. And all three of our symphogear heroines are clearly at least partially charmed by the performance, wondering why they have to fight. A few random schoolboys hear the commotion in the aircraft hangar and come to investigate, running into Dr. Ver and what he is doing. He is entirely unscrupulous and sicks Noise on them (presumably killing them off-screen) despite Maria's furious and desperate protests. Their cover is very clearly blown though, so Professor Nastassja orders Kirika and Shirabe to retreat and come back to them. So they rush off the stage (before even hearing their scores and if they beat Chris), Tsubasa suggests that they follow them. Hibiki tells Miku to stay here, that they may need to fight them. This worries Miku, because she's the heart of the show and this feels wrong to her. Our three heroes corner the two girls, and try to confront them. Hibiki being conflicted about whether they should fight (which is a change for her, before she was definitely on the "no fight" side). Shirabe and Kirika threaten what it would mean for them all to fight during this busy school fair, and promise in return to have a fair duel with them. Which... I guess is just accepted and they get to leave? It doesn't help that our heroes get a call from Genjuro that Noise signals appeared downtown and they are asked to investigate, even though the signals are gone again. HALFWAY POINT Back at base a discussion about what this new attack means (it doesn't fit any pattern so far) is interrupted by the analysis of the black Gungnir's waveform coming back, it is a 100.00% match to Hibiki's. Which apparently is possible by just using shards of the same relic, the working theory being that Ryoko sold off a bit of the Gungnir shards to the Americans. But in the end they are left with more questions than answers. In the guise of Professor Nastassja reminiscing/worrying about Maria and how she shouldn't have the doubts she's having anymore, we flashback to their past which we already saw a snippet of as the season opener. The two girls, one now clearly a young Maria, and a girl that looks a lot like her (her younger sister Serena), are looking into a lab where an earlier awakening of the Nephilim is threatening to break free. Professor Nastassja and the other adults gathered (mostly people in suits) are worried, Serena suggests that she can reseal the Nephilim using her swan song. Maria does not like this plan. Even if we hadn't already seen how this plan ends up going, we know what a swan song does. It goes very wrong, especially for Serena. We get the same scene as from the opening. This time in colour, with full dialogue. The suits are dismissive of Serena's sacrifice, grumbling about the monetary cost of one of their test subjects self destructing like that. It's starting to become clear why Finé (the organisation) went rogue. The flashback ends (with the Nephilim presumably successfully resealed, to await a proper awakening using phonic gain rather than whatever they did wrong then) as the aircraft arrives at the rendezvous to pick up Shirabe and Kirika. The ruins of the Kadingir tower (/ion cannon) that formed the finale of season 1. Shirabe and Kirika explain that they failed their mission, but promised a duel. Professor Nastassja hears none of it, slapping them each in the face and berating them how combat isn't a game. Dr. Ver (of all people) steps in, suggesting they make use of this promised duel. Using a summoning of Noise to indicate their location, the base is alerted to where they are. The intent is clear, an invitation to duel. The three girls make their way to the Kadingir ruins, to find just Dr. Ver and his summoned Noise waiting for them. Our heroes scoff at him, transforming together in a nice split-view sequence, as Hibiki's battle song rings out they start cutting through the Noise. Hibiki (as she dispatches about as many Noise as the other two put together) asks Dr. Ver where Kirika and Shirabe are. Dr. Ver explains that they are in detention, away from the taint of our heroes' naivety. That their cause is just, that they wish to save humanity from the destruction caused by the moon falling to earth. ...which, okay, that's new information. The group is sceptical, surely the public would know about that by now, people have been studying the moon non-stop since the shard fell from it. Dr. Ver mocks them, what would be the point of revealing a finding (an "inconvenient truth" are his exact words) like that? When instead they could devise a plan that just saves themselves? What would you do then? Damn it, that makes an annoying amount of sense. He proudly proclaims that their answer to this is the Nephilim, which bursts up from the ground and swipes Chris out of the air. An unwelcome return of that glue-spitting Noise from season 1 immobilises both Chris and Tsubasa who had rushed over to catch her. The Nephilim closes in on the pair, but Hibiki jumps in and kicks it out of the way. She's doing super well against it! Dr. Ver is frantically summoning Noise in her way to distract her, but she clearly has the upper hand. He asks her what she hopes to protect with those fists, how many more she will hurt with it. That hits a nerve, she becomes careless, Shirabe's taunt still lingering in her mind as well, using this opening the Nephilim bites her arm off. Yes, really. It's entirely out of the blue, shockingly gruesome, and one hell of a way to end an episode. Which we then immediately do. Cut to credits.
Review	We've seen people die, we've seen Tsubasa be VERY hurt from a swan song, but uh, this sure is something else. I know I asked to get back to the action, but this sure is a monkey paw style answer to that wish. Sheeesh. It clearly establishes that the stakes are real, the Nephilim is a real threat, Dr. Ver is a madman even though his cause sounds just. But... like, her arm is really all the way off. We even see the Nephilim chew and swallow it (after all, it eats relic shards and this is probably a yummy snack for it). Uhh, yeah.
Scores	6/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Not much action this episode. Hibiki being excellent against Noise is nothing new, but still welcome to see. That ending though, I'm almost inclined to penalise it for how cruel that was. And Kirika and Shirabe's performance is excellent in a gloriousness way as well, but also interspersed with too much Dr. Ver to really breathe well on its own. So... Dr. Ver ruins everything? 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: I really liked the performance from Kirika and Shirabe, but unfortunately it's basically the only song of note in the episode. All we get in the Serena episode is her swan song, no battle song or anything. 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Spiking back up again, sheesh this was one jumbled mess. Resolve the cliffhanger, expand on an earlier flashback, set up an encounter, bite off an arm. It's a breakneck pace. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I considered docking points for the arm, but no. That's not something I want to see, but not because of sleaze reasons. Which means this is a clean episode again, even the glue-spitting Noise is fine this time around! Which with one glaring exception makes for a pretty solid streak so far this season. 7.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A strong score, held back only by Dr. Ver (and maybe a lack of cool music). It sure is one hell of a way to end an episode.

Episode 6: A Miracle is a Cruel Thing / "Let today be the last day you spend shackled to your compassion."

Summary	Oh no! We get to see it again! Quick recap of the expected, cut to the opening. Dr. Ver is losing his shit, he is super happy about this development, how the Nephilim just ate a part of a symphogear. His presumed allies approve a whole lot less of this development, Kirika is especially angry. Shirabe is in disbelief that this was included or maybe even meant when talking about feeding relic shards to the Nephilim. Maria turns to get out and interfere. Professor Nastassja stops them though. Her own feelings on this development are unclear, but she clearly pushes them aside for what she believes to be a justified cause. After all, the moon is going to fall. Maria exits the room and falls apart as soon as she is alone, wondering how things could have gotten to where they are now. That's nice and all, but not really the most pressing thing right this very second. Hibiki is HURT. Dr. Ver is still exclaiming nonsense about how this power will raise the Frontier to the sky, as the Nephilim starts to shift and grow courtesy of its gruesome sustenance. Hibiki is losing it. But maybe not quite in the way Dr. Ver expected? Her chest, with the relic shards embedded within, glows as a dark miasma covers her body. We know what is happening, we've seen it many times before, though never in such dire circumstances. Her body is going berserk! As energy swerves around her it coalesces into the shape of an arm to replace the one that was lost. Tsubasa theorises it might be her symphogear shaping what is effectively an armed gear (hah!) to replace the lost arm. Not much time to think that through though, because with a bestial leap Hibiki rushes at the Nephilim. Despite the upgraded form it is thoroughly outmatched, and the bluster and confidence Dr. Ver had a second ago has fully evaporated into wild panic. A fully-grown Nephilim is critical to their nebulous plan. Panicked summoning of Noise does nothing to stop her, the Nephilim seemingly fleeing also matters not. Hibiki literally tears into it and rips out its beating heart before jumping up, reshaping her new arm into the shape of the Gungnir spear and utterly destroying the Nephilim's body. As Hibiki turns to attack Dr. Ver the other two rush in to try to stop her. It would save everybody a lot of hassle if he were to stop being around, but Hibiki wouldn't be able to live with herself, especially since it would prove him right about her taking lives. Dr. Ver beats a hasty and unflattering retreat as Hibiki lets out one last scream of energy-blasting rage to the sky and detransforms. She is unconscious but has both her arms. Meanwhile all the excitement has worsened Professor Nastassja's condition, and the only one that can treat her is Dr. Ver (who the three gear users on that side very much despise and distrust now). As Kirika rushes to retrieve him we cut to Hibiki receiving medical care. We cut to her dreams as she is being treated, much in the same way we did for Tsubasa during her season 1 injuries. We see scenes of her between the concert where she got so badly hurt in the season 1 prologue and the rest of that season. Of how her classmates rejected her for being the only survivor, of getting a big government compensation for being hurt. It's not physical bullying, but it is definitely severe bullying. Her mother and grandmother do her best to console her. As she wakes up the first thing she sees is a get well soon card Miku wrote. Shirabe's taunt is also still firmly in her head, she wonders if for all her attempts to bring happiness, will she still mostly cause pain? As she sits up in her bed a weird dark clump falls off of her chest scar, she thinks little of it, assuming it to be a weird scab. HALFWAY POINT A chaotic number of small scenes happen in relatively quick succession Hibiki cheerfully returning to school, much to Chris' and Tsubasa's concern and suspicion that she is putting on a brave face. Tsubasa seems especially uncharacteristically worried. A large conference call that Genjuro is in where everybody is squabbling about the trajectory of the moon where nothing appears to get done. Genjuro revealing to Tsubasa that Hibiki's symphogear usage is causing a slow but thorough spreading of the Gungnir shards through her entire body. This is the cause of her excessive power, of the "scab" that we saw before the break, and of her impending death if things continue like this. Chris asking Tsubasa if Genjuro told her anything that is causing her to worry so much, revealing that the previous two scenes were mid-scene flashbacks, and she decides not to share what she knows. Instead she lies, (to us) very clearly for Hibiki's sake, that Genjuro complained that Hibiki lost control and is no true warrior. That Hibiki should never set foot on the battlefield again. Hibiki is sad about this, but quietly accepts the news. Though it sure sounds like she's being excluded again for a thing she had no control over... Dr. Ver is still pitifully stumbling around the ruins of Kadingir when he finds and recovers the still beating heart of the Nephilim. Maria sings for Professor Nastassja as she lies down to recover. The professor wonders to herself if it is fair that she is using these three gentle girls to carry her own burden for her. If she is doing the right thing. The two other girls call in to report that they haven't been able to find Dr. Ver yet. They were worried when the Professor answered, their search was on Maria's orders, contradicting their original mandate to just stand by on the plane. The Professor is in a kind mood though, and doesn't scold them. As they continue their search, Kirika exclaims that she is hungry now that the stress of the call is behind her. They decide to stick with the search for now though, but the camera lingers on the restaurant from season 1 that they happen to be walk past. Is this just a weird callback to a small part of season 1? Of course not! We cut to Hibiki, Miku and their three established friends (whose names I refuse to look up). After all, Hibiki finally has more time for them again. In fact, they're going out to eat together. At their usual restaurant. How very coincidental! But before that teased encounter can even happen a series of government cars that passed them explodes in the distance, they rush up to investigate (all 4 other girls know Hibiki's secret by now) only to find Dr. Ver and a swarm of Noise under his control. He is rambling to himself that he won't hand over the Nephilim heart to anybody, looking more and more dishevelled. As Hibiki mentions his name he looks up at the girls and fully takes them in for the first time, he recognises Hibiki and panics. Clearly not expecting to see her again so soon and not wishing it at all. As he panics and orders the Noise to attack, Hibiki jumps in front of her friends, runs into the fray and as she does so starts to sing her transformation song. It seems like she mistimed it, her first punch connecting before the transformation hits, but it didn't seem to affect either her or the Noise she hit. After a brief delay the transformation hits, fist-first, disintegrating the Noise. As Dr. Ver panics she raises her fist, proclaiming it and her to be Symphogear, cut to credits.
Review	Wow, she sure didn't need any time at all to recover compared to Tsubasa in season 1. I know that this is narratively explained by the relic in her chest and she's technically very much not doing well, but she doesn't know it. Miku is suspecting something is up though, ever-observant Miku. The big takeaway, rather than Hibiki being badly hurt and therefore out of action, is that Hibiki is very badly sick and therefore off the team so she can be safe. And nobody told her. If she were aware of it then her situation would mirror Maria's though, who also has an extra risk associated with transforming and using her powers. I wonder if that will come up in the future. Also, I understand why Tsubasa said what she did, and that Hibiki probably would have continued risking her life on the team for the sake of everybody, but this clearly isn't going to work either.
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hell yeah! Less because of the berserk mode fight, though that was cool too, but that transformation at the end was just really cool and badass. ...actually, that's a lie. Regardless of how bad it was for the character, watching Berserk Hibiki tear into the Nephilim was also very cool to watch. 6/10 🎶 MUSIC: Berserk mode fights are always and strikingly free of song, the background music for it was cool though. We also got the lullaby from Maria's past again, it's what she sings for the Professor. Buuut in general not much going on music-wise. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: That little flurry of scenes in the second half where you don't know which scenes relate to each other is such a whirlwind. And Hibiki healing basically instantly, the fake-out with her running into Kirika and Shirabe, the double fake-out of her running into Dr. Ver. Basically peak chaos. 7/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: As Maria sings for the professor we have a long lingering pan over her body that feels entirely out of nowhere and gratuitous. The rest is fine, but it's so jarringly out of nowhere that I can't help but penalise it strongly. 7.4/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A very chaotic episode that stumbles a bit in basically all the other categories. It definitely has me hooked and eager to find out what happens next though!

Episode 7: When You Stop Being You / "Could she have protected us?"

Summary	The last time on quickly reminds us that Hibiki using her powers is killing her and then cuts to Hibiki using her powers. Despite us having already seen how it continues it cuts to the opening right as her untransformed punch connects with the Noise. We see Hibiki tear into Dr. Ver's summoned Noise again, if anything even more overpoweringly than in the closer of the previous episode. Leaves twirling near here are catching fire at the heat that is radiating off of her. Meanwhile the Noise appearing means both sides now know exactly where he is, the airplane (unsurprisingly) gets there before the people dispatched from the submarine can though. And Shirabe and Kirika appear to extract Dr. Ver. They are barely able to hold back Hibiki's punch, she is overwhelmingly powerful. ...but we can see that it's taking its toll. Her chest hurts, she grasps at it, falling to her knees. Kirika and Shirabe are shocked and confused, Dr. Ver sees this as an opportunity. Sneaking up between the two of them he injects them with an additional dose of Linker (the drug they use to keep up their transformations), despite them still having plenty of time left. The two girls are (again, unsurprisingly) NOT okay with this. There are severe side effects to an overdose like that, and they don't actually like him much (or by now, at all). He blackmails them though, saying that he's the only one that can treat Professor Nastassja. With Chris and Tsubasa still en route, we have an unstable Hibiki going up against the uncertain Shirabe and Kirika. Shirabe makes up her mind though, for "Mom" they will risk everything, even if it includes going along with Dr. Ver's plan of using a Swan Song on Hibiki. (The high sync rates should limit the damage they themselves incur) As Hibiki's friends, including Miku, flee the scene so they don't get in Hibiki's way, the other two girls start their Swan Song. As their weapons unfold and expand they (mostly for our benefit) explain what they are doing. Shirabe's Swan Song attack is an inescapable barrage of saw blades that will either take down an opponent or root them in place as they are busy deflecting the blades. Kirika's is one single strike, theoretically easy to dodge but if it connects it "destroys the soul". That sounds bad! How's Hibiki going to get out o- she's singing her own Swan Song? *checks episode number* we really are going hard this season, huh? She actually has a plan though, she is basically using the same attack as at the start of the season, where she draws in the energies of the Swan Songs around her. We see the other two girls power down back to regular output. Did she intentionally save them from throwing away their lives with the Swan Song? No time to overthink it though, Hibiki was already struggling at the insane power output of her relic before and this has now become so much worse. The ground catches fire around her. She unleashes the same rainbow vortex that she used in episode 2, right up in the sky and not aimed at any of her opponents. At the sight Miku gets worried and turns around, fearing she will lose her best friend again. HALFWAY POINT Shirabe and Kirika are ordered to withdraw with the doctor, they protest, wondering if perhaps this is their chance to take out Hibiki (who is in a daze after that attack but still on her feet and transformed). Professor Nastassja is firm though. The two girls are suffering from Linker overdose and she can see Chris and Tsubasa are closing in fast. After they board and the plane recloaks and flies off they wonder why they didn't suffer any damage from their Swan Songs, if Hibiki intentionally protected them and why. We quickly cut back to Hibiki and Miku finding her. She can't even get close due to the heat radiating off of her friend though. A pan around reveals that the wound on her chest is... festering, I guess, with the weird rocks we saw one of earlier as well. Hibiki is very much not okay. Chris rushes in to stop Miku from trying to reach Hibiki again and hurting herself in the heat wave. Meanwhile Tsubasa is rushing in on her motorcycle, transforms while on it, folding her leg blades around the bike into a forward facing blade and jumps up to slide open a conveniently placed water tower. As the water envelops Hibiki a huge plume of smoke erupts and she finally falls over and detransforms, passed out. Tsubasa wonders out loud if she made a mistake in not telling her, causing her to fail in protecting her. Chris catches this and realises that Tsubasa had already known that something was wrong with Hibiki. We see two subsequent medical procedures. One of Dr. Ver treating Professor Nastassja, which goes smoothly, during which she reflects that maybe she is doing the wrong thing. And a far more convoluted one on Hibiki where the external spread of the relic is carefully removed. We cut back to Dr. Ver explaining the situation to the three symphogear users on "his" side. The Nephilim, while reduced to just a heart, still managed to feed enough and is strong enough to fullfil its role with the help of a relic Finé recovered 5 years earlier. ...back when she was embodying Ryoko. And he's expecting Maria to remember this. Looks like he was kept out of the loop that she isn't the fully awakened Finé, how very interesting. Maria plays along, backed up by Professor Nastassja claiming that Finé's memories haven't all recovered yet. The plan is to use this recovered relic (the Shenshou Jing, don't worry about it) to break the seal on the Frontier, which they have by now also located, and then use the Nephilim heart to activate it. ...and this is somehow supposed to save the Earth from the moon falling? We still have no clue what this Frontier is though. It's not going to be another Ion Cannon, right? Dr. Ver presents this in his by-now-default unhinged way, much to the disgust of everybody else in the room. For now at least Professor Nastassja and him share the same goal. As Miku is sitting in class next to Hibiki's empty seat we flashback to her being told about what is going on with Hibiki, including full details of how bad it is and that it's the relic causing it. Chris is also in this briefing, and angry about it. Miku is sad, but grasps the situation quickly. If Hibiki fights more she will die, if Miku can keep her away from that, she can protect her best friend. Tonal whiplash, as we see Shirabe and Kirika casually coming out of a supermarket carrying two bags of groceries each. It's a surprisingly comedic sight. Apparently they have been demoted to kitchen duty until the effects of their Linker overdose wear off. Kirika offers to carry Shirabe's bags for her, saying that she's looking like she's not doing that well. Shirabe says she's fine though, Kirika suggests they both take a break then. It's a sweet scene. A brief cut to Professor Nastassja and Maria at a lake sees Maria apologising to the Professor for her lack of resolve, begging her for permission to do something. It's pretty clear what is meant, fully reviving as Finé. The Professor refuses though, saying this won't be necessary. Cut back to Shirabe and Kirika, taking that break in an abandoned construction/demolition site (the city goes through a lot, after all). Kirika is chatting happily about the amount of freedom they now enjoy while snacking on some of the bread they had bought. Shirabe is looking quiet pensive, more so than usual. We get a glimpse into their past. Much like Maria they were candidates for Finé's revival, which Maria freed them of by becoming the main candidate, basically volunteering herself to become the vessel for Finé's revival. Shirabe really isn't doing well, as she struggles to her feet she knocks against one of the girders they were sitting next to, sending a mass of pipes tumbling down from the top of the building. We cut back to the lake. Professor Nastassja explaining what she meant by Maria's sacrifice being unnecessary. It is because there isn't a single trace of Finé's soul inside her. Their experiments were a failure, Finé didn't reincarnate in any of their potential vessels. We see Dr. Ver standing quietly behind a tree, clearly eavesdropping. The credits music starts fading in, cut back to the construction site. Kirika slowly opening her eyes. She's okay! A single hand stretched upwards, a shimmering shield of hexagons blocking the fall of the debris from crushing her and a passed out Shirabe. She is clearly confused, but we know better. This is the exact shield that Ryoko used to protect herself and Hibiki in season 1. One of Finé's powers. Cut to credits!
Review	Again, this was such a wild episode despite not much happening. I love just how subtly we are learning what things which members of the opposing organisation know, only to immediately resolve/consolidate that within the same episode. In all the (exciting and excellent) excitement with the Finé reveal we haven't actually seen Hibiki wake up yet. I hope she'll be okay soon! It's no fun to see her hurt like this.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki is downright menacingly powerful in the starting fight, but not in any way like in her feral dark mode. It's a sight to behold, especially as she still refuses to launch a full attack at her human enemies. 6.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent spotlighting of Hibiki's battle song, but other than that we didn't get much of anything in the terms of music. The Swan Songs are always a nice "oh no!" moment, but too short to really gather many points. 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: So, so much "people finding out about a thing that was kept from them" this episode. Shouldn't you normally space that out a bit more? That doesn't sound like Symphogear though. In many ways Dr. Ver is especially the right antagonist for the show, he appears to be fuelled by chaos, injecting his saviours with a drug overdose so they fight better, for example. That doesn't mean I don't hate his guts though. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Just a clean episode, hooray! Not even any problematic stuff in the scenes where they operate on Hibiki's chest. 8.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid episode with a lot of reveals. And a lot of setup as well. Wonder if we'll get to learn what the Frontier is anytime soon though...

Episode 8: Hand in Hand for Me, As I Waver... / "One day, when I'm really in trouble... You can save me then."

Summary	The recap is just the Professor confessing to Maria (and inadvertently Dr. Ver) that she isn't and can never be Finé. The opening hits. Wonder if we're getting the construction site again after the opening... We don't! Instead we have Maria having a flashback to a time where she and Shirabe and Kirika were training fighting against the Noise. It's a very nice fight, too! During it we hear a private conversation over coms between Maria and Professor Nastassja, where Maria is ordered to pretend to be an awakened Finé so they can sway Dr. Ver to their side and use his expertise. While Maria is piloting the plane and having this flashback (we're finally going to the Frontier! Which is (or is on) an island), the others are in the back. Dr. Ver is finishing a check-up on the other two girls, clearing them for full duty again now that the Linker overdose has worn off. Kirika is distracted, we can already guess why but we see a quick flash of the shield being projected at the construction site to remind us. She isn't sure if she did that, how she could have, who the person she sees when she closes her eyes is... (It's Finé, obviously. And hey, she's moderately clothed for a change, wearing her ancient priestess robes) Hibiki is awake! And finally being told about what is going on with her. The relic inside her body is spreading further and further, and seems to be creating a new organ inside of her? That's super gross! Hibiki tries to laugh it off, saying that this just means that she has to prevent using the symphogear when possible. This isn't one of those cutesy things where she doesn't fully understand the situation, she absolutely does and is just trying to cheer up the people around her. Tsubasa has none of it though, she lost too close of a friend before to accept that. As Tsubasa storms off upset, Commander Genjuro reassures Hibiki that their doctors are doing their best and using research that Ryoko left behind to find a cure for what is going on and that she should just take it easy. The enemy arrives at the Frontier. Doing something fancy using flying drones, they repurpose the Shenshou Jing relic they have been using to cloak their plane to negate the seal on the Frontier. We see brief flashes of how it was recovered by Ryoko 5 years ago (killing the research team that Kanade's parents were part of in the process) and how it is an ancient mirror that can both bend light and exorcise evil. Dr. Ver hesitates, asking Professor Nastassja to hold off on unsealing the Frontier until they are entirely ready because doing so will reveal it to the world. Professor Nastassja says that they are ready and fires a beam from the mirror relic that gets reflected off of the drone into the sea. As it hits the seabed a shockwave rings out... but nothing else? Dr. Ver starts panicking, Professor Nastassja is more solution-oriented. There's only so much mechanical amplifying that can be done, they have to try something on top of that. Dr. Ver accuses her of having known that beforehand, of this being posturing for the sake of posturing. He is very pettily angry about the whole thing. HALFWAY POINT Back in the submarine the agency has finally gotten back word on what is really going on with the moon's orbit. The actual orbit is a tiny bit off from what the published NASA report said, meaning the moon's declining orbit won't actually be a problem for centuries from now, but rather far sooner. No revised estimate is given, but people seem worried. We cut to a large tower (that people may remember as the downtown Sky Tower Finé used as a fake out Kadingir in season 1), Maria and Professor Nastassja arrive inside it. What are they up to? Maria doesn't know either and tries to bring up their lakeside conversation again, wanting to know what their next steps could be. Before the Professor has a chance to answer they arrive in a boardroom filled with sinister looking business men in suits. The Americans that had been chasing them, Professor Nastassja called them there to negotiate. Hibiki is having a lot to think about, and she does so at an aquarium? She's clearly not at the base. And she's clearly distraught. A lot of her self-worth and perceived value to others recently has come from her fighting skills, and she worries that she won't be needed if she can't fight. Miku shakes her out of her worries by pressing a cold can of soda to her cheek. They're there on a date, their first one in far too long, and she is worried Hibiki isn't having any fun. Hibiki reassures her though, saying that she's having a lot of fun, before dragging her off-screen proclaiming they should enjoy every bit of fun the Sky Tower has in store for them. Wait, Sky Tower? ...what a coincidence! I'm sure that won't cause any crossed paths. Shirabe and Kirika weren't brought to the meeting and are with the hidden plane in some forest. Shirabe made instant noodles for the two of them, Kirika is sitting outside lost in thought. She worries about the vessel for Finé's soul, and if this means that she'll disappear. And also how Maria can be Finé's vessel as well, that doesn't sound like it should be possible. Shirabe calls her to eat, which cheers her right up though. In a throwaway exchange they mention that they don't know where Dr. Ver is but they're glad it's not there with them. The negotiation appears to be going well, Professor Nastassja is proposing an alliance with her former employers and even gives them a full breakdown of their research. ...but unfortunately the other side is a lot less eager to play ball. As soon as they have the data they turn on Maria and the professor. As guns are drawn and taunts are thrown we cut to a side shot with a large floor to ceiling window in the background... where a group of Noise drifts into frame. They phase through the ceiling as well, quickly overwhelming the American agents. We see Dr. Ver sitting in the top floor restaurant of another nearby building as Noise swarm around the tower, clearly summoned by him. In response to the Noise appearing we see Maria transform. This is the first time we actually see her transformation sequence and it's very nice! Parts of it resemble Hibiki's but it is very much its own thing. As her battle song hits she starts to engage the Noise, keeping herself and the professor safe. It doesn't take long until the commotion from the fight and the swarming Noise around the tower are spotted by the people inside, including Hibiki and Miku who had made their way to the observation deck. Miku stops Hibiki from springing into action. No half-hearted protests this time either, she is adamant about not letting Hibiki go. Hibiki promises not to use her symphogear, but she has to do something, anything! Cutting back to Maria, who crushes the SD card that their traitorous negotiation partners had dropped as they were disintegrated by the Noise. She lifts Professor Nastassja out of her wheelchair and flings her over one shoulder while wielding her spear in the other hand, trying to flee the scene. Neither the Noise or the further American soldiers ambushing her stand a chance of stopping her. She only uses her cape to knock out the human soldiers and block their shots, but they are clearly outmatched even when she is going easy on them. Both assaults escalate, with more soldiers filing in and the Noise beginning to divebomb into the tower. Hibiki is keeping her promise, as she and Miku try to help people to the exits without transforming. As a bit of the ceiling collapses it is Miku that pushes her friend out of the way, saving them both. Back with Maria we see the American soldiers catch innocent bystanders in their shots at Maria and the professor. This flips a switch inside her, this is all her fault, just because she couldn't be Finé's vessel. Now people are dying and it's her fault. She rushes the soldiers and is a lot less nonlethal this time around. We don't see any explicit gore, but the implication is clear even before we see the blood splattered over her spear. She is crossing a line and resolves to no longer hold back, using her Gungnir spear to drill the two of them upwards to safety. Back to Hibiki and Miku. Hibiki thanks her friend for saving them. Miku has something she wants to say to Hibiki, it sounds important. Before she can say what it is though, the floor starts to crumble and slip, they're falling! Hibiki goes over the ledge of the tower and Miku is only just able to catch her by one hand. We have the classic trope of Hibiki telling Miku to let go, that the floor is about to collapse sending them both off the tower. Miku obviously refuses. Hibiki tries to convince her. One day she will need Miku to save her, but not today. Today Hibiki has a part to play. As Miku's grip slips she sobs, she wants to protect her friend. But right now she can't save her, and her friend slips from her hand and starts to fall. Hibiki transforms mid-fall, does a cool landing on the plaza in front of the tower, and as the credits music swells she looks up dramatically at the tower, declaring to Miku that she'll come to save her. Right as she does so basically all of the top of the tower, explicitly including the floor she was just on explode. Cut to credits.
Review	It can be hard sometimes to handwave coincidences, and I guess this episode had that a bit more than others. Like, there are other places to have a fun day out or a mysterious negotiation than the Sky Tower, but it sure did work to raise the stakes and immediately confront Hibiki with a situation where her powers are needed but she can't (or, far more interestingly, shouldn't) use them. The fake out with the frontier was kind of mean, but I do like that it didn't immediately work out. Also, what was Dr. Ver's plan here today? Was he trying to kill Maria and the professor? Save them? Did he know about the attack? Would the show really dare kill off Miku? Surely not, right?
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Is it weird that a cool mid-air transformation to stop a lethal fall barely phases me anymore in this show? I think it spoils me too much. Maria fighting for her life and the professor's safety was great though! She has such a fun set of powers, and it helps her find her resolve so it's not just spectacle. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: We really only get Maria's battle theme (a snippet of Shirabe's during the training flashback, I guess) but it really works and gets its moment to shine and it's just really good? 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: I really like how much happens in quick succession and how focused the show is on the bits that matter. Hibiki and Miku, check. Maria and the professor, check. Kirika struggling with the Finé stuff, check. Chris and Tsubasa? Who cares, let's just not have them in this episode. 7/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: That scan at the start of the episode? Blegh. It was clothed, but it sure had a long pan over a skimpily clad 15 year old... 8.0/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: I feel like this season really is only held back by the occasional flash of sleaze (though more music would be great too), this was a very solid episode! Now quickly tell me that Miku is alright please?

Episode 9: The Origin of a Hero / "But the warmest thing I know... is gone."

Summary	Hibiki falling, tower exploding, opening hitting. You know the drill. Hibiki detransforms and starts crying at the thought of Miku being gone from her life. A few Noise drifting by prepare to attack her, but get shot out of the air by Chris. The cavalry's here! As Tsubasa guards Hibiki, Chris does what she does best, which is killing a huge swarm of aerial Noise. As she does (in style!) we get a narration of her frustration. She is finally feeling like she belongs, but something or someone is trying to get between her and her happiness. On top of that she still feels responsible for the use of Solomon's Cane, a relic that she activated for Finé back in season 1 (that Dr. Ver still regularly uses). Chris clearly gives it her all, and the day is saved. After a fade to indicate time passing we see the torn up plaza surrounded by police, Genjuro and Ogawa are also on the scene. Ogawa's investigation has revealed a lot. The Americans being there, probably to strike a deal with Finé (the organisation) and a third party interfering in it with disastrous results. The scene ends with Hibiki sitting in an agency car, crying over Miku being gone. Maria is also distraught, having a breakdown in front of the other girls and the professor and everything, about how she stained her hands with blood. Shirabe asks "Mom" what happened, but Dr. Ver steps in to give his version of events. How the professor tried to sell them out to the Americans rather than work towards saving as many people as possible from the moon falling in 10 years (hey, a timeline, neat!) and he even reveals that Maria isn't actually Finé reborn! Looks like the jig is up, neither of the two women try to argue with him. Maria apologises to the girls. They ask if what he is saying is true, not believing him at face value (good!) but Maria confirms that she is indeed not the host to Finé and that they were having second thoughts about their nebulous plan to save the world. Professor Nastassja speaks up, the first thing she has said so far, throwing a spanner into Dr. Ver's narrative, correctly accusing him of having summoned the Noise to prevent their cooperation with the Americans (who, for the record, are implied to only care about saving America from the moon falling). As the mood grows more confrontational, Shirabe and Kirika especially seem ready to fight Dr. Ver for "Mom"'s sake, Maria steps in, shielding Dr. Ver. She proclaims that half measures won't save the world, that they will have to make sacrifices to save everybody, that she sides with Dr. Ver and his plan. Professor Nastassja asks if that is really what Maria wants, seemingly ready to accept the plan if it is her wish, before having another coughing fit. She's worsening again, reminding us that Dr. Ver is also there for her sake. As Dr. Ver leaves the room we cut to a different part of the plane where, trapped in a cage of pink laser bars, sits Miku. Sadly saying Hibiki's name. HALFWAY POINT During the investigation into what happened at the tower Ogawa also found Miku's communicator, which Genjuro now presents to the gear users. It was retrieved quite far from the tower and its tracking history shows that it wasn't flung from the tower, but rather carried. Suggesting Miku made it out of the explosion. He speculates that she was probably captured by a different party and is being held hostage, but still sees that as a great news. In an attempt to cheer up Hibiki he... suggests some exercise? Which we then get to see? And he's singing? And it's great? What even is this show anymore? It's basically a fully animated reprise of the season 1 training sequence, except Tsubasa and Chris are there now as well, much to Chris' complaint. Hard cut to Maria who is singing the children's song to herself in the plane, as the camera slowly pans we see she is in the room Miku is being held in. She is looking at a weathered, partially cracked pendant in her hand. Her own? Where did it take this much damage? No, she is wearing her own pendant. This has to be Serena's, her sister that sacrificed herself to reseal the rampaging Nephilim. A gesture so selfless that Maria continues to struggle to live up to it. Miku stirs in her cell, Maria asks what's wrong. Miku thanks her, which catches her off guard. We flashback to the Sky Tower attack. Maria drilling her way up to the observation deck, where Miku just dropped Hibiki. The sight instantly reminds Maria of her sister, and she reaches out her hand and offers to take her with her. Miku asks why Maria saved her, who admits that it was because the scene reminded her of Serena. When Miku asks who Serena is, it is Dr. Ver that answers as he enters the room, explaining that it is her dead younger sister. Maria explains that it was Dr. Ver that ordered to bring Miku back to their plane, after Maria had rescued her. He says they can use her to further their plans. ...that sounds more than a little ominous. Miku is also deeply distrustful, but Dr. Ver is doing his best to hide his more problematic traits. Meanwhile Kirika is processing the new information that Finé's soul isn't inside Maria, suggesting that she is the vessel instead. What else could explain the shield at the construction site? She's afraid to disappear, and has nobody to open up to. Not even Shirabe understands. The airplane is making its way back to the Frontier, whatever help Miku can provide is apparently enough that they think it can unseal it. There's a complication though, an American aircraft carrier is patrolling the waters near the Frontier. Dr. Ver suggests a show of force, Shirabe strongly disagrees but Maria sides with him (Professor Nastassja is recovering from her treatment and not in the cockpit). Cut to the agency submarine, which detects the Noise summoning as well as the SOS from the American ship. It's already close by so they rush to assist. Tsubasa runs out of the room to get ready to deploy, when Hibiki considers joining her Chris stops her. Far more serious than she usually is, and asks her to stay here, to not throw her life away. Please. We cut to the aircraft carrier that is under attack, it's a massacre. As this is displayed on the aircraft monitors Shirabe asks Maria if this is really what she wants, if this is really necessary. No reply comes, this is clearly not a good situation for Maria. Shirabe storms off, determined. She throws open a side door on the plane, Kirika asks what the in the world she's doing. Shirabe says that Maria is suffering and that she will set her free before throwing herself out of the plane. Full Shirabe transformation! It's a very cool transformation, and highlights a lot of details that weren't clear in the fights so far, such as that she's actually skating around on gear wheels whenever she zooms around the battlefield. Kirika wants to jump after her best friend, but Dr. Ver stops her, saying he has just the thing for her if he wants to bring back her friend. Ugh, I hate him so much. Shirabe descends onto the deck of the carrier, and starts shooting at the swarm of Noise and cutting them down with her saw blades. It's a very fun action sequence and her battle song is a delight. When a Noise finally catches her off guard Kirika is there to save her, cutting it down with her scythe. Shirabe lets out a sigh of relief, her friend is there to help her. ...except she injects her with a red substance, a short flashback to just earlier, where Dr. Ver gives her the injector and explains that it is anti-Linker which immediately and drastically lowers the sync rate of any gear user (similar to the gas he used on our heroes in the hospital). He isn't wrong (uh, on the technical bits), as Shirabe staggers and detransforms. Kirika tries to explain herself, that she is going to lose who she is and at least wants the memories they share to remain. That that is why she is now following Dr. Ver's plan. Before Shirabe can react a torpedo launches up from the sea! What's this?! It splits open to reveal a transformed Tsubasa and Chris, ready to rock! And rock they do, they immediately start to fight, Tsubasa facing off against Kirika who springs into action. Chris easily spots that Shirabe is in no state to fight, and just restrains her, asking where Dr. Ver is. It's unclear whether it's the result of their training montage or if Tsubasa's style is just far more effective against Kirika than against Maria, but she easily overpowers her. Dr. Ver has another trick up his sleeve though, saying he will turn the tables back into their favour as dramatically and romantically as possible?! We cut to a wide shot of carrier with the airplane hovering above it. A figure falls from it, starting to shine as a transformation song rings out. A strange battle song starts but doesn't quite reach the part with lyrics yet, it's eerie and haunting. We zoom in on the figure that has landed on the deck, buckling it. It's Hibiki (watching on monitors down in the submarine) that recognises her the fastest, Miku.
Review	It's moving so damn fast. Miku goes from being thought dead at the end of the previous episode to being a gear user on the enemy side in this one. Is it of her own free will? Is she being controlled? We'll have to find out! Also, I really like how... non-homogenous both sides are. Even Kirika and Shirabe, despite being presented as a pair all the time, still have very different ideas about what is going on and I really like that. I also glossed over a scene where Chris tries to bond with Tsubasa after the tower attack where their very different viewpoints are also revealed, it's all very good stuff.
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The training sequence is stupid amounts of fun, with a plethora of training montage references to other films. Shirabe's solo outing also absolutely rocks, but the star of the show has to be Miku with that cliffhanger. It's a trope, absolutely, but I am here for it. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: It did the thing again! Chris' thoughts during her fight against the aerial Noise suddenly turned into lyrics as she proclaims she won't run anymore. I continue to love that trick. Also, Shirabe's battle song is excellent. No song from Miku yet, but fingers crossed! I have mixed feelings about the Genjuro song, but it's charming and funny, at least. And Hibiki even joins in towards the end. 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: So many character arcs progressing in parallel, and just jumping from one wild cliffhanger to the next. I know I should leave room to breathe for episodes that are even more chaotic, but it's hard. 6/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Ugh, I cut magical girl transformations quite a lot of slack because of genre conventions, but the Shirabe one feels slightly icky? It just has one spin too many on the pre-clothed bit of the transformation that we really didn't need. 8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: The sleaze is creeping back in more and more, but wow did everything else pick up for this episode. It's really going places now!

Episode 10: Countdown to Loss / "Then I'll come bak alive, even if it kills me!"

Summary	The drop, the transformation, the realisation, the opening. Wait, hang on, Miku is in the opening now! Like, she obviously was already, since she's an important character, but they immediately added her to the line-up of gear users. That's so cool! Professor Nastassja has recovered and rejoins Maria and Dr. Ver in the cockpit, she clearly disapproves of his use of the mirror relic this way. He explains how he did it, with the critical detail being that Miku's wish to stop her friend Hibiki from needing to fight is what made the relic react to her. Oh, and that she was pumped full of Linker, is barely in control of her body and basically a huge liability. (He tries to phrase it more positively) Chris and Tsubasa aren't sure what to do with this new development, even Shirabe and Kirika seem taken aback. Hibiki (who is still on the submarine) is stunned most of all. As Miku snaps her visor shut and moves in to attack, Chris decides that she'll handle this fight (letting go of Shirabe), and starts chasing her away from the carrier. When Kirika tries to jump after them, Tsubasa stops her. She's not going anywhere, but now neither is Tsubasa. Chris is jumping from ship to ship, while Miku can hover/skate over the water, but she still defeats her quite easily despite doing her best not to hurt her too badly. As she approaches Miku's seemingly unconscious form (it's hard to tell with the visor closed) Dr. Ver's voice rings out, warning her against trying to manually remove the symphogear, because it would cause great neurological damage. Chris doesn't even get the chance to try, as Miku (or rather the battle programming inside the Linker / her symphogear) gets up and attacks her with a blast of ray beams. As she starts to unfold an even larger beam array, Chris evaluates her options. The other three girls, including the untransformed Shirabe, are right behind her. She's clearly worried for their safety, especially Shirabe's. As Miku's attack charges she starts to sing! She's charging up a huge beam attack, Kirika yells out in protest, Shirabe only stares in disbelief that this is how it's going to end. Chris isn't giving up yet though, dispersing parts of her gear into the air in front of her to create a shield. We've seen her use this trick before in an attempt to deflect the Kadingir cannon in the season 1 finale. It's clearly only barely working this time though, as the beam hits her full blast and explodes her immediate surroundings (as she hoped excluding Shirabe behind her). Kirika yells out to Shirabe that she should run away but she really has nowhere to go. Right as the beam is about to erode the last parts of Chris' reflector shields a gigantic sword drops in between Chris and the beam, Tsubasa is getting them out of there. In the few seconds it takes the beam to eat a hole through the sword she snatches up Chris and Shirabe and rushes off. Spawning more and more swords between the three of them and the beam in an attempt to slow it down, which is only barely enough to stay ahead of it. As a last desperate measure she summons a sword in front of them instead and uses it to jump up instead, letting the beam pass under them. HALFWAY POINT As "Miku" lines up another shot, Kirika calls out to her to stop. Shirabe is with them who is on their side! Dr. Ver pipes up over coms, asking if she is really still their ally? Did she not betray them? That's the one bridge Kirika won't cross though. She sees the betrayal in herself instead, in her not trusting Shirabe to talk about the Finé stuff. Shirabe calls out to Kirika that Dr. Ver's way won't be able to save the weak, which he doesn't deny. To punctuate the point that the world he intends to create is meant for the strong he uses Solomon's Cane to summon a fresh horde of Noise over the surrounding ships, which immediately start to attack and decimate the troops and crew aboard. Chris jumps up to take care of the Noise, Kirika makes a desperate attack against Tsubasa to reach Shirabe, but it gets blocked easily, putting them in a deadlock. Meanwhile Miku has been charging up her next attack, Dr. Ver orders Kirika to keep them in place while Miku finishes the job. ...that doesn't sound good! But, surprisingly, that means she rushes off away from the battle. What is going on here exactly? Chris is busy fending off the Noise, saving as many of the crewmen's lives as she can, and Tsubasa feels like she can't break free from Kirika because that would mean giving up Shirabe. Always eager to help her remove an impossible choice, Ogawa jumps onto the ship and extracts Shirabe. Tsubasa kicks Kirika, backflips onto one of those jet-launching slings and launches herself after Miku, leaving Kirika standing on the deck by herself unsure of what the hell just happened. With a mutual thought spared for the other girl, Kirika makes up her mind and rushes after Tsubasa. (While Ogawa runs back to the sub over the surface of the water while carrying Shirabe, he and Genjuro are just comically overpowered). Kirika catches Tsubasa off guard, but Tsubasa manages to break free just in time and faces her once more, asking her what it is she seeks. Kirika answers that she doesn't want Shirabe to forget her, even if she disappears. Meanwhile the agency bridge crew (they're regular characters, but I never learned their names) have figured out that the energy from the Shenshou Jing relic Miku is using can negate the energy from any symphogear. That's bad news! Genjuro wonders out loud how they could possibly fight it then, Hibiki speaks up saying that she has an idea. Dr. Ver explains what the hell he's up to to Professor Nastassja and Maria back on the plane (...I guess Chris is too busy to take a shot at it, it can't be cloaked anymore because they were using the Shengshou Jing for that). The phonic gain from a human user should be enough to amplify the output of the relic so that it can unseal the Frontier. Hibiki is standing on top of the agency submarine as it veers into Miku's path, bringing them face to (visored) face with each other. Hibiki's plan is as typical as it is simple, it's to talk to her. And Miku does respond! She's saying that this should create a world where Hibiki no longer needs to fight. Her words make sense. Hibiki asks what warmth would still exist in a world like that, a world where the two of them can't be side by side. Miku restates that in this new world, Hibiki wouldn't have to fight. Hibiki says she will fight Miku to ensure that world doesn't come to pass. It's all pretty huge stakes and emotional stuff, reinforced rather than weakened by the fact that the two of them are speaking plainly about it, rather than screaming half sentences at each other. Hibiki transforms, once again reminding us just how awesome her battle song is this season. The agency is not entirely unprepared for this eventuality, even though they don't have a cure for Hibiki's condition yet, they at least know how long she can fight before she would definitely die from it and they start a clock. ...2 minutes and 40 seconds? Wow, okay. That's a short clock, better get a move on. As we see the two trade blows and Hibiki complain about how hot she is feeling already as the symphogear starts to take its toll we flash back to Hibiki explaining her plan to Genjuro. She wants to use the Shenshou Jing's own beam attack to free Miku from her symphogear. After all, it can negate any symphogear, that should include its own. Genjuro needs convincing, but with the bridge crew backing Hibiki, he allows her to go. Back to the fight, Hibiki is struggling but holding her own. While they fight the plane launches those reflector drones again that will deflect the relic's beam at the Frontier. Time is running out, this isn't just a clock where nothing happens until it hits 0. Huge chunks of relic debris are growing out of Hibiki, it's surprisingly grotesque. The sight shakes Miku though, she realises that this isn't what she wants to do! With her mind freed from the Linker control, she still can't control her body though, which continues to relentlessly harass Hibiki with beam attacks while also charging up the drones around her with enough relic energy for the main attack. Hibiki doesn't care about any of that though, and charges right at Miku, tackling her down to the surface of the water before jumping back up towards the middle of the circle of drones that finished charging. Without a moment's hesitation she jumps right into the laser blast from the drone array, confident that it will free Miku from the relic that Dr. Ver so hastily and shoddily merged her with. The beam envelops and passes them, reflecting off of a final drone to hit the seabed again, which this time immediately responds with a glowing light. This is it! As the Frontier begins to surface and we have no idea what happened to Miku and Hibiki, we hit the credits. In a rare treat we do actually have an after-credits scene, where a gigantic ancient temple surfaces from the water. Is this the Frontier? Oh, and Chris shoots Tsubasa in the back, betraying her.
Review	I'm so glad I didn't watch this live yet, because wow would I be mad at these escalating cliffhangers. They sure want to keep you eager to come back huh? That was insane! In many ways this was the least amount of time covered within a single episode so far, we started with the Miku reveal and basically had a few minutes of in-universe time spent fighting her and that was it, but wow a lot sure did happen! Also, that was one hell of a post-credits scene to drop on us out of nowhere, huh? Like, I know Chris and Tsubasa were struggling to get along and Chris was increasingly frustrating about Solomon's Cane still causing carnage and suffering, but still.
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki risking it all, willing to sacrifice absolutely everything, to get to Miku and save her, sort of from herself. Yes please, that is excellent stuff. We also see a surprising amount of other cool combat stuff, from Chris, Tsubasa, Miku, Kirika, basically everybody except Shirabe who isn't transformed this episode and Maria who is piloting the plane. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Slowly climbing out of that low valley music-wise, huh? Miku's battle song is disturbing but still very cool, and Hibiki's battle song, despite us hearing it several times already by now, is highlighted super well and just so cool this season. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: A pretty focused episode, where all the flashbacks are self-contained and directly related and we stick with a few core conflicts. It's very, very good. But not particularly chaotic. Oh, except for that insane cliffhanger with the Chris betrayal, of course. Wow. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: We get brief flashes of Dr. Ver having Miku in one of those liquid tube things, which isn't the best look, but nothing too egregious. 8.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: That was one hell of an episode, wow. ...are Hibiki and Miku okay? Like, Tsubasa is strong, she's probably fine. I worry more about the other two.

Episode 11: Destiny Ark / "I wouldn't say 'extinct', I'll still be alive after all."

Summary	We get an abbreviated version of the post-credits scene as the pre-credits scene. She really did shoot Tsubasa, huh? Cut to a holding cell on the submarine, Shirabe is cuffed (using the same huge cuffs as episode 2 of season 1, what a fun callback!) and Ogawa has confiscated her relic pendant. Shirabe pleads, but not for anything Ogawa expects, she asks that her friends be stopped, that this will save them. A short scene informs us that a second fleet of American ships is approaching the Frontier, are they planning to take it for themselves? That's a boring question! Quickly cut to people visiting Miku in the medical wing, she's fine! Hibiki and Tsubasa are both pretty beat up, but also fine. Miku begins to apologise for the scrapes on Hibiki, it's from their fight after all, but Hibiki interrupts her. Hibiki claims that in fact Miku has saved her, and the chest picture (that looked VERY worrying only an episode ago) is now entirely clear. The same relic-negating powers that Hibiki trusted on to free her friend from the relic Dr. Ver embedded in her also wiped away all traces of the Gungnir shards and the malignant (and highly lethal) growth originating from it. Hooray! Miku also understands what this means for Hibiki though, the shards were killing her but also allowed her to transform... and with Chris turned traitor, all we have left is Tsubasa. Who without hesitation volunteers to save the day all by herself. Speaking of Chris, we see a small flashback of her explaining her wish to end all war (which, in fairness, WAS established in season 1) to Kirika and then scenes of her and the rest of her new allies (even including the Professor!) making their way into the Frontier. Maria clearly doesn't trust Chris' change of heart, and Dr. Ver clearly states that he intends to discard her as soon as she stops being useful. Did I mention I hate him? They arrive at a generator room, where Dr. Ver pressed the Nephilim's heart to a central orb, to which it quickly fuses. The orb starts to glow and the frontier comes alive! (Like, in the way a facility and an island would. It's shiny though.) After a quick scene back on the sub (where Tsubasa starts to realise why she wasn't more wounded from Chris' betrayal), we see Dr. Ver and Maria in some sort of control room for the Frontier. Dr. Ver is doing a creepy thing with Linker again, but at least it's on himself this time. It makes his arm transform into a monstrous form similar to the Nephilim, which can interact with the Frontier. He is setting a plan into motion, far earlier than agreed upon with the others. Bursts of light shoot up from the frontier, all the way into space, heading (of course) for the moon. ...are, are those light beams forming a giant hand? Like, a really, really gigantic hand? That is now wrapping around the moon? Is Dr. Ver literally pulling the moon from (its already disturbed) orbit? Yes, yes he is. I guess the quiet part of this season is now over. Wait, no. He isn't pulling the moon down, he is pulling the Frontier UP?! By the moon?! That's ridiculous! As the rest of the island rises from the ocean and takes flight the Americans can do little more than watch on (and fire some utterly futile artillery shots at it). Dr. Ver mercilessly destroys them using a gravity pulse weapon from the Frontier, crumpling up their battleships as if they were made of paper. Dr. Ver is very, very much losing it. And the Professor, Maria and Kirika all separate start to realise that perhaps they have made a terrible mistake. HALFWAY POINT We see a quick shot of media coverage of the escalating situation (Hibiki and Miku's friends catch it on one of those big outdoor screens) before we cut to the submarine. Which isn't below anything anymore, it was already above the then-still-submerged part of the Frontier when Dr. Ver raised it, meaning it is now beached/stranded on the edge of the Frontier. As both the bridge crew and Maria separately find out, Dr. Ver raising the Frontier has definitely hastened the fall of the moon. Maria gives up any pretence, this was not the plan. The plan was to evacuate as many people as possible onto the Frontier and use it as a life raft to escape the moonfall's devastation, this is far too fast. But the Frontier won't accept her commands, not while Dr. Ver is still linked with it through his weird arm and the drugs coursing through his veins. He swats Maria aside, makes some very creepy allusions about how they can repopulate the earth and leaves. Meanwhile Tsubasa has suited up, in her motorcycle gear, everybody is hesitant if she can do this all by herself, but she seems confident. After all, she declares, she's used to taking to the stage alone. And she does! We waste zero time as she transforms and rushes into a swarm of incoming Noise, I guess that's what Dr. Ver left the control room to do? It's cool though! She wastes no time, and I think that's a new battle song too! As we cut to the control room Hibiki remarks that Tsubasa isn't the only gear user on their side... Genjuro says that he refuses to let her fight without her powers, but that isn't who Hibiki was talking about at all. As always she believes in other people, even when others wouldn't and she obviously means Shirabe. She must have somehow been able to convince commander Genjuro, because the next scene is of her freeing Shirabe with Ogawa's help and explaining that she wants her to go out and fight at Tsubasa's side. Shirabe is dismissive, chalking it up to her naivety, basically accusing her of the same thing as at the start of the season. But this isn't the same Hibiki we saw then, she has thought about that conversation and how she feels a lot. And she explains about her trauma, how her survival only seemed to make things harder for her family, how it taught her to be honest with herself. And that, if their goals align, she would like to help Shirabe be honest with herself as well. And she totally gets through to her! Commander Genjuro gives Shirabe back her pendant, convinced that she can be trusted. Hibiki pulls her along, saying she'll show her to the exit hatch so she can go after Tsubasa. Sure enough, we see a large pink saw on the monitors before long, heading in the right direction. But in the center isn't just Shirabe, Hibiki is tagging along! Genjuro shouts out in frustration, Hibiki explains that she's not going to fight, she's going to save people! Genjuro is annoyed by the technicality, but Miku has full faith in her friend. As Tsubasa is told the good news over coms she is amazed by what Hibiki was able to accomplish, but before she can set out to join them a rain of arrows rains down around her, even destroying her motorcycle. Chris and Tsubasa stare each other down, we cut to Shirabe and Hibiki, Shirabe suddenly stops. Somebody is blocking their way, it's Kirika! We see her full transformation, and it's cool! wow, her design sure is spiky. As they get into the argument that drove them apart, if Dr. Ver's way is the only way or the worst way, Hibiki urges them to talk things out, giving them the same withering reprimand she got in season 1 when Chris and Tsubasa were facing off against each other. How fitting! Shirabe urges Hibiki to go on ahead, saying that she is sure she can get through to Maria. If only she believes in the song in her heart. ...that's a very particular and specific thing to say, and we flash back to the last person to say it to Hibiki... those were Finé's final words. What is going on here? No time to think it over though, Hibiki rushes off deeper into the Frontier while Kirika and Shirabe start their fight. We cut between their fight and Chris vs. Tsubasa, accompanied by the excellent duet battle song of Kirika and Shirabe and the entire sequence is an absolute delight. The two fights are observed, both by Dr. Ver standing on the parapets, Solomon's Cane in hand, and Maria back in the control room, despairing over the sight of the girls that had clearly become her new younger sisters after Serena's death fighting so mercilessly. As the credit song starts to fade in she is contacted by Professor Nastassja, who has been digging through the information contained within the Frontier. She believes she may have found a way to stop the moon from falling, and she'll need Maria's song to set it free! After a final shot of Hibiki, repeating the mantra of following the song in her heart as she sprints towards the Frontier, the credits hit.
Review	Much like the previous episode, so very little time actually passed. This was maybe half an hour of in-universe time, but it was so very dense with events. And it sure is one hell of a way to set up the penultimate episode. A completely fractured web of allegiances and friendships (but Hibiki and Miku are on the same page!), the moon falling towards the earth, a mad scientist, new doubts about what is going on with Finé, bring it the hell on!
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: We didn't really have any big battle moments (though the animation work on the two duels is astonishingly well done), but there is another clear highlight for me here. And that was Hibiki's plan with Shirabe, it was such a peak-Hibiki thing for her to do and I loved every bit of it. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: Two solid battle songs, but nothing quite exceptional. Am I getting too picky? 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: THEY RAISED THE SUNKEN TEMPLE BY PULLING DOWN THE MOON. And also there's so many moving parts going on at the same time, it's a jumbled chaotic mess and just peak Symphogear. 4/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I was considering whether to dock a few points for Dr. Ver's creepy comment, after all it was very clearly alluding to sexual violence but... it kind of fits? And the show was very clearly condemning it. But fortunately I didn't need to make that call, because during the fight with Chris Tsubasa is thrown backwards into a puddle and there's a long glistening shot of her getting back up again that is so frustratingly gratuitous that the other thing pales in comparison. 7.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Damn sleaze category! Stop ruining these averages! ...which hey, is exactly how I feel about the sleaze in the show so that works. Also, there's no stopping this moon train now, bring it on!

Episode 12: Striking Spear / "It's not a ghost's place to talk about living for the future."

Summary	No opening, no delays. We have stuff to do. So a brief shot of the rising Frontier and we go straight into the fight between Tsubasa and Chris. Tsubasa is trying to talk to Chris, trying to understand why she is doing this, but Chris isn't giving her anything. All she'll say is that she won't let others bear her burden anymore. As Tsubasa spots that Chris is wearing some sort of blinking collar (sleeker than the usual tropey bomb collar, but probably one anyway) we notice that the music behind the fight is actually the opening theme, hell yeah! The fight between Kirika and Shirabe has died down, Kirika is finally explaining to Shirabe what she means when she says she wants to leave behind a memory before she disappears. That she thinks Finé is awakening inside of her and why. Shirabe just sees this as all the more reason for her to stop her best friend from using her gear (after all, that supposedly speeds up the reincarnation), and the two of them continue their fight, declaring in unison that they're doing it because they love the other. Genjuro and Ogawa are preparing to move out towards the central temple of the Frontier as well when a global broadcast starts. It's Maria, and she's putting ALL of the cards on the table. How she impersonated Finé, how the moon falling was kept secret by the American government and, excuse me? The Bavarian Illuminati?! Okay, that sure came out of nowhere. A brief flashback shows Professor Nastassja explaining that restoring the moon to full (universal-language blocking) functionality should also restore its orbit and that the Frontier can achieve this, and also that she is still real sick. Probably dying? After that we continue with Maria's speech, where she explains she holds little hope to be believed, but at least wants to convince people that there is power in song. She demonstrates this in the simplest way she knows how, by transforming into her symphogear form. Whatever cat was still left in the bag, it sure is out now. Her battle song rings out, for once not for a traditional battle, as she tries to use its phonic gain to get the Frontier to do... whatever the Frontier can do to repair and re-orbit the moon. As we breeze past a running Hibiki (she's almost there!) we see Dr. Ver re-explaining the deal he struck with Chris. If she can kill Tsubasa she will get Solomon's Cane in return and finally stop people getting killed by the relic that she activated. And yes, it's a bomb collar, on a timer even! Tsubasa is holding her own but very clearly more interested in a conversation, she promises she will do whatever she can to bring Chris back to where she belongs. Because she knows you can't fly with just one wing (to a quick shot of Kanade nodding, obviously). Chris sighs and proposes ending this duel with the next attack, using the attack she has been practicing. She calls Tsubasa her senior, her senpai, something that clearly isn't easy for her but it seems significant. As they each give it their all and a flurry of missiles is struck by a barrage of blades, the battlefield explodes. Dr. Ver laughs maniacally, clearly loving the show. The bridge crew reports Tsubasa's and Chris' relics are no longer showing up on sensors... The fight between Kirika and Shirabe is still going on full blast, and it's amazing. I just love that their battle song is shared this season, but then I'm a sucker for the songs with multiple vocalists. It's clearly not going anywhere, they are too evenly matched. So, uh, Kirika has a horrible idea? She tosses a Linker injector to Shirabe, injects one herself and starts her swan song. Shirabe follows suit. I guess they also are intent to end the fight with this next move, sheeeesh. Kirika's scythe bounces off of Shirabe's saws several times as their conversation intensifies and they once again present arguments. Finally Kirika's scythe gets through, managing to shatter Shirabe's giant blades. In desperation Shirabe throws up her hands and projects Finé's shield! This instantly ends the fight. Shirabe has no idea what's going and and Kirika is losing it, Shirabe is the person Finé is reviving into. Kirika is despairing, everything has gone wrong, she can't... in her desperation she flings her scythe around in a boomerang arc, intending to hit herself with it, only to (of course!) be saved by Shirabe who (oh no!) is hit instead. Both fights wrapped up, we finally, FINALLY, see Hibiki arrive at the temple. Right after these messages. HALFWAY POINT Maria's song finishes inside the control room, she gave it her absolute all. As her song winds down the sky beam that had been shooting up from the Frontier also dissipates. Whatever she was trying to do clearly didn't work, she despairs with the broadcast still going. Hibiki and Miku's friends pity her, seeing the parallel of a girl wanting to use her songs to save people. Cut to a far less sympathetic figure, Dr. Ver is scrambling through the caverns in the Frontier, giggling to himself at how well everything worked out. He has no place for symphogear in his new world, and now they have destroyed each other. Or have they? As he looks up he sees Chris standing over an untransformed and clearly beaten Tsubasa. She says she has fulfilled her part of the deal, as she does her gear is slowly falling apart around her. The battle took its toll. Dr. Ver clearly has (and never had) any intention of honouring the agreement though, and after saying that to her face, with a smirk on his own presses the detonator... which does nothing. Chris casually tears off the wreckage of the broken bomb collar and starts to approach Dr. Ver. He panics, blind-firing Solomon's Cane and filling the cave with Noise. Chris tries to summon her weapons, but gets blasted by gear feedback instead. Dr. Ver sneakily dropped a gas grenade full of anti-Linker. This is looking bad! Chris has one ace up her sleeve though, a move she only rarely uses, and she detonates the remains of her symphogear, leaving her naked but with most of the Noise taken out. Staying on target, she punches Dr. Ver right in the face, which unfortunately sends the cane flying. As the Noise close in on them she calls out in desperation, for her senior, her senpai, who immediately obliges. Daggers spray into the cave, destroying most of the remaining Noise. Tsubasa is here to save the day! Unaffected by the anti-Linker because she is somehow modulating her gear's output to be so low that it doesn't hurt her (which would also make her considerably weaker than normal, but these are trash-level Noise). As Tsubasa mops up the remaining Noise we flashback to the fight, those final attacks were the ones that they had practiced a lot. Practiced together, meaning they knew each other's moves by heart. Meaning they were able to stage the dramatic finale to their fight and break the bomb collar under the cover of the smoke from all the explosions. Dr. Ver flees pitifully while this is going on, but drops Solomon's Cane, which was their main objective. Chris (fortunately, and I'm not even going to question it) can use her pendant to summon her street clothes right back onto her body. After that there's a cute bonding moment between the two where they talk about how they trusted each other during the fight (it was mostly the senpai thing). Dr. Ver is taking an elevator back up to the temple, intent on pitting Maria against them. But first we cut to Kirika and Shirabe. Kirika is crying over an unconscious Shirabe. We enter Shirabe's mind where she encounters Finé. Apparently Finé from her side had been doing her best not to reincarnate, which would have supplanted the soul of her host body, Hibiki's words from season 1 still fresh in her mind. She only acted to save Shirabe, first in the construction site, then against Kirika and now a third and final time. After all, Kirika's swan song attack destroys the soul, and she has opted to take that hit for Shirabe. Shirabe wakes up, Kirika is confused, they hug and together decide to save Maria. Dr. Ver arrives in the control room, where he interrupts a conversation between Maria and Professor Nastassja. He again casually slaps Maria out of the way, clearly the Professor doesn't have a video feed because she still thinks she can convince Ver to do the right thing. Ver mocks her idea, saying that if she's so intent on repairing the moon she can go up there and do it herself, literally. He uses his Nephilim arm and separates the part of the Frontier that she is in, launching it in the direction of the moon. Dr. Ver laughs maniacally, wow he sure flip-flops a lot huh? Maria isn't taking this, and she is still transformed... she summons her spear and moves to attack. Dr. Ver casually and confidently reminds her that killing him means dooming all of humanity. Maria declares that she does not care, sending him back to panic. Right before she can strike though, somebody jumps in her way! It is Hibiki, blocking the way to Dr. Ver. Maria can't be dissuaded. If she can't save the world then there's no reason for her to go on living, she might as well destroy the man that killed her Mom. She strikes, Hibiki catches the spear with her bare hands, really hurting her hand. She isn't going to get distracted now though, she wants to get through to Maria. Just because she doesn't see the reason now, she can always find it later! She shouldn't give up on living. A wild idea comes to her, a song. Her transformation song rings out, dispersing Maria's gear into particles of light. This shouldn't be possible! Maria is astonished, thinking it's a weird power Hibiki has somehow. She can't be compatible with another person's relic, that's not how that works! What relic can she possibly be attuned to that does this? She doesn't know. Cheered on by Miku (over coms), the particles coalesce around Hibiki, transforming her as she screams out her answer. The piercing spear, Gungnir! Smash to credits.
Review	Aaaaaaaah! This is such an amazing and amazingly stupid show, and I absolutely love it. There's nothing that quite compares when it comes to insane twists and turns or singular moments of awesomeness.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Speaking of which, wow what a way to end the episode. I also REALLY liked the Finé shield moment and the revelation about Tsubasa's and Chris' plan was executed super nicely as well. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Nice battle songs, Maria's is especially always a delight. But that's about it. 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: 2 established fights end, 1 starts and basically immediately ends again (through absorption and theft of gear, that's a first!), actually kind of simple? Pleasant number of twists though! 8/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I was ready to forgive Chris being naked after detonating her armour, but Maria and Hibiki in the same episode? On the unestablished thing where she absorbs the Gungnir right off of her? Like, it kind of makes sense? And there were no gratuitous shots or anything, but it feels... unnecessary? Inelegant? 8.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Much better! But I have this sneaking suspicion that the final episode will blow it out of the water... let's find out!

Episode 13: In the Distance, That Day, When the Star Became Music... / "I just know that songs resound through all our hearts."

Summary	We're skipping the opening! Dr. Ver flees from a transformed Hibiki, she knows what she's capable of (or thinks he does, anyway). Using the Nephilim arm to create a temporary hole in the floor he escapes just before Genjuro and Ogawa arrive in the control room. Maria has collapsed from the exertion, and the shock of having her gear stolen, but resignedly explains the situation. That the Nephilim heart is powering the Frontier and Ver is controlling it using his weird arm. She begs Hibiki to take her place and fight to save the world, that she no longer has that right. Hibiki assures her that she will, after all, Shirabe also asked her to save Maria. After some quick coordination it is decided that Hibiki will regroup with the others and go after the Nephilim heart while Genjuro and Ogawa go after Dr. Ver. After they form up (Hibiki doesn't even bat an eye at Chris rejoining them, trusting it to have been for a good reason) and are told where the largest power reading is they set out. Dr. Ver is monitoring the situation though, and uses the Nephilim heart to bring a part of the frontier rock to life as a new and gigantic Nephilim. And its attacks are overwhelming! Before we can see our heroes really come up with a response, we rejoin Maria in the control room, who debates with an imagined/hallucinated Serena on what she wants to do. She still wants to save the world with her song, save humanity from the fall of the moon. They join together in song, their children's song / lullaby, and this time it does reach the people of the world, sending it to Professor Nastassja's module that was sent in the direction of the moon. This is enough phonic gain! The Professor, the closest thing Maria ever had to a mother, assures her that she can save everybody with this, that Maria has done it and she is free of this burden. That she (has and) can show the world her song. ...I'm really not sure what she is going to do here, but she seems full of spirit and resolve again. Speaking of which! We rejoin our heroes as they go all out against the Nephilim, but to no avail. None of their attacks are doing anything! Just as the situation turns dire, a large punch is heading right for Hibiki, green cables shoot out from off-screen and a large scythe cuts off its arm. Kirika and Shirabe are here to (help) save the day! Though they're not sure how much they can do, even with the five of them. A voice resounds over the battlefield, declaring that they still have their songs. Everybody turns. It's Maria! She's standing dramatically on a floating island overlooking their fight, she's clutching something... a pendant? She explains to the others that Professor Nastassja means to sacrifice herself in order to restore the moon's orbit. Before we can get much further though, Dr. Ver is losing patience and orders the Nephilim to send a huge ball of fire to wipe them all out. It connects dramatically, seemingly taking them off guard. As the smoke fades a transformation song rings out, it's Maria! She is using the fractured pendant containing the relic her sister Serena wielded, declaring that with everybody supporting her a miracle like this is nothing! So the song begins. The 6-way harmonising battle song! Dr. Ver launches another attack, scoffing at the barrier she is projecting using the transformation energy. Hibiki punches it back easily though. Hands are joined, all 5 of the other girls are supporting the shield, joining their energies together, starting their swan songs. Dr. Ver launches a desperate attack, still confident that the Nephilim can overpower them. But no, it really clearly can't. As their swan songs peak, fuelled with the residual phonic gain of everybody that listened to Maria's broadcast, everybody transforms into extravagant angelic forms (even fancier than the ones we saw at the end of season 1), including Maria wielding her sister's gear. The streak across the sky, a rainbow of light, power, hope. Right into and through the Nephilim. HALFWAY POINT Dr. Ver falls to his knees. The heart is still right there with him, but clearly the destruction of this new body was a big blow to his plans. To make matters worse for him, this is exactly when Genjuro and Ogawa catch up with him. Ogawa even fixes his arm in place, using a similar shadow-stitching technique to Tsubasa (who learned it from whom is left open to interpretation, I like either!), but Ver gruesomely pushes through it, smashing his arm into the control pedestal. In doing so he has intentionally removed all restraints from the Nephilim heart, allowing it to feed on the entirety of the Frontier and the energy contained within, the results of this are vague but implied to be cataclysmic. Genjuro informs Tsubasa over coms of this new development and hastily retreats back to the submarine, Ogawa and a shackled Dr. Ver in tow. Ver is disgusted that they are taking him in alive, having preferred to have been martyred to his cause. Which Genjuro very consciously denies him, treating him exactly as the fallible human Ver so wishes he wasn't. All of this is theoretical if they can't stop the Nephilim though, which makes short work of absorbing the entire Frontier (the submarine just manages to free itself by blasting torpedoes around itself, sending it into freefall back into the ocean) and regenerates, or rather generates for the first time, into the full Nephilim. It's the size of a skyscraper, far bigger still than the construct they fought earlier. Kirika and Shirabe strike out at it with everything they have (which in Shirabe's case involves a full mech being constructed under her), but the Nephilim just absorbs the energy, damaging their symphogear in the process. Much more energy like that and it will explode, destroying the planet before the moon ever gets a chance. Chris has an idea though, she spent a lot of effort recovering the McGuffin, after all. Using Solomon's Cane she opens the Gate of Babylon, into the Treasury of Babylon, the realm from which Noise are summoned. She summons the portal between the earth and the Nephilim, clearly she has something in mind. Counter-attacks from the Nephilim almost make the plan fail, but Maria manages to catch the Cane that had gone flying (or floating, I guess. We're well up in space again by this point) and fully opens the gate. As the Nephilim starts to fall into the gate, it lashes out, grabbing hold of Maria. She suggests letting them both go through, have her close the gate from the other side using Solomon's Cane. She is entirely ready to give up her life to protect the lives of everybody on the planet. Defying all reason, as usual, Hibiki interjects. Saying it's only fair if they protect Maria's life then. Declaring that she isn't a hero (a lie), at least she isn't alone (a truth!), and with smiles all around, they fall into the Treasury of Babylon together, with the gate closing behind them. Miku cries out, afraid she'll lose her friend again. The bridge crew tell her to brace as the remains of the submarine fall away below then and the bridge ejects and parachutes to safety. Professor Nastassja finishes the procedure, restoring the moon to full working order and its regular orbit. With a smile on her face she falls unconscious, maybe even dies. The credits theme hits. Credits THEME, not credits. Try to keep up, I know it's a lot. Cut to the inside of the Treasury, which is absolutely swarming with Noise. Everybody is going all-out trying to keep the Noise off of them while Shirabe tries to saw through the tendrils keeping Maria trapped until finally, and at the cost of her cool mech, she finally breaks her free! Maria reflects on their options, the Cane is nowhere near strong enough to control all of these Noise. The others yell shreds of a plan at her, to reopen the gate from this side so they can get out before the Nephilim notices. Using her sister's name as a battle cry, Maria puts all her energy in opening the gate once more, which clearly leads back to earth. No luck on the Nephilim not noticing though, it immediately blocks their path. They join hands, including a transformed Maria this time. And at last we see her summon her armed gear, which is a sword. With this sword at its core, parts of their gear come loose and reshape around them, forming a pair of fists that join together and drill punch a hole right through the Nephilim, launching them right through the gate as well. With everybody trying to get to their feet on the beach they landed on, they are trying to reach the cane that flew off a bit and is sticking up from the sand. The Nephilim is going critical and they need to close the gate RIGHT NOW or things will still take a turn for the apocalyptic. They don't have the strength, none of them do, they can't even stand up. Chris tells them not to give up hope. Tsubasa adds that there is one more strong-willed comrade that can save them. The perspective rotates, we see the landed submarine bridge on that very same beach, a familiar figure sprinting their way. Hibiki manages to get up to her knees. Her best friend. Miku reaches the spear, immediately knows what to do, and throws it like a javelin right back into the gate. It gets there JUST in time to contain the blast on the other side, as if pushed on by all their hopes and dreams. Hibiki lies back down, the pace finally calms down, we get to breathe out. Time passes. Dr. Ver is escorted into military custody. Ogawa reports to Genjuro that the moon is returning to its regular orbit, but Professor Nastassja can't be contacted. Hibiki tries to return the Gungnir pendant to Maria but gets refused, being told by Maria that she is more worthy. The group laments about the reactivation of the lunar ruins, that this means that they are again one step further away from humanity fully understanding each other. Hibiki doesn't seem bothered though, and with a "Don't worry, everything will be fine" explains that this world has songs, and songs already connect people and the future looks bright. NOW the credits finally start, accompanied by a final 6-way rendition of the Zwei Wing song from season 1. That sure was one hell of a ride. ...hmm, there sure are quite a few minutes left, better check if there's something after the credits. There is! A school scene, of Hibiki and Miku greeting Tsubasa and Chris back at Lydian Music Academy. (Wow, we sure barely had any school stuff this season) It's a cute little scene, not sure why they hid it after the credits. People poking fun at Chris for calling Tsubasa her senpai and now refusing to do it again, Miku worrying if Hibiki is okay and Hibiki hugging and reassuring her, saying that the relic  debris has been fully cleansed from her system. And that that doesn't mean that Kanade's song has stopped living inside of her.
Review	*exhales* Okay, yes. This show is amazing. I'm assuming you either know this already or feel like you need to do me a huge favour in continuing to read these. I really like how Symphogear doesn't just kill its villains. Like, it was pretty clear (I would say) that an understanding would be reached with Maria, Kirika and Shirabe, but Dr. Ver not just dying the easy death (that he definitely invites, both from the audience and his opponents, God he is such a monster) but also not being forgiven, when even Finé was, was definitely the right call. I'm kind of sad about Professor Nastassja died, but she literally saved the entire world with her actions, as she set out to do. And much like season 1, this totally works as an ending. There are open questions, plenty of them, I'd say, but this works as a complete narrative. Exactly as a story should.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: So many phenomenal moments. Somehow none quite as big as season 1, but there were more of them. And just the entire concept of Maria wielding her sister's armour to finally live up to her own imagined standard of what she would expect is just peak storytelling. 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: Definitely the best episode of the season for music, a 6-way harmony! (two of them if you count the credits). I kind of would have liked the battle in the Treasury to have more of a special song to it, but that's mostly me being greedy after the two unique song set pieces we got in the season 1 finale. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: It almost, almost makes you believe the fake out that the season ends with everybody trapped in the treasury. Despite that having been a garbage ending. Maria transforming into her sister's gear also definitely scores some chaos points, especially since the transformation shields the heroes somehow, which is barely explained and definitely unprecedented. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Just a clean episode. Maria even got her regular clothes back before the episode starts (...somehow, but I'm not complaining). 9.4/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Unsurprisingly, the highest score of the season. What can I say? I love good endings! And also happy endings! And this was a good happy ending.

Overall Thoughts & Graphs / Graphs again?! 😪

That was Symphogear G, the tricky second season. I love how it's already so much lighter, despite the monstrous Dr. Ver. Is there shocking gore? Yes, sometimes. Is there needless fan service? Yes, more than I'd like. But it feels better, more like Symphogear. Or, less ambiguously, more like what I like Symphogear to be.

Now, let's see those graphs!

• Gloriousness is solid this season, a bit more of a dip in the middle compared to season 1, but a very solid run.
  
• Music was pretty even over the season, and didn't quite soar to season 1 heights, but maybe that will get better.
  
• Narrative Chaos was fittingly spiky, and topped the scale more often than season 1, weirdly not at the start or end this time.
  
• Ah, Sleaziness. The aspect that I like the least, but feel forced to include. Just look at that weird spiky graph, so emblematic of the bumpiness of the ride.
  
• The total scores, as in season 1, are very clear. I really like this show. The ending is a slightly less pronounced spike compared to season 1, but it's a solid uptick, as it should be.
  
• We have two seasons to compare! Season 1 on the left, season 2 (G) on the right:
  
  Wow, I had basically already assumed that G would hit its stride more and the scores would be better, but I love how uniform and large that boost is. We'll have to see if that trend continues.

Next Up! / Symphogear will continue until morale improves!

That's two out of five seasons in the bag. Surely it won't get weirder than this, right? Well, uh, it will. Don't worry. And I hope you'll join me soon to talk through a retrospective on.... Symphogear GX!