Symphogear Retrospective: Part 4 - Let's get Divine!

Introduction / Love in Your Heart and a Song in Your Fist

This would be a very weird starting point to find this series of articles, but just in case, this is a detailed episode by episode recap and retrospective of season four of my favourite anime, Symphogear. Here are the links for season 1, 2 (G) and 3 (GX).

You don't need to read any of those though, I can give you a brief catch-up. In this article series I go through the season, scoring every episode on four different metrics:

• 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Do something cool to score high.
• 🎶 MUSIC: Have awesome music in the music show.
• 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Be a delightful breakneck-speed mess that is still followable.
• 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Stop showing us the teenage girls through a sexualised lens, please. (Higher score = better behaviour.)

By shedding many tears, the reality you face is...

And this time we're covering AXZ. Up to three letters in the subtitle now, but the G disappeared. The darker Hibiki from the GX logo is gone as well, replaced by a more fiery silhouette. Less of a focus on the Ignite Module maybe? I guess we'll have to find out together!

First let's have a quick look at the state of the series as we go into this fourth season:

Status quo, open points, problems & questions:

1. Noise (monsters that disintegrate humans when they touch them) were weaponised by alchemists in the previous season, this stronger form are called Alca-Noise. Since there's barely any functional difference (and the regular Noise don't show up again, I think) we'll be referring to all of them as Noise.
2. Fighting these Noise and any other problem that threatens the world is a United Nations task force called SONG. Their main tool to do this are the symphogear users, there are six of them by now:
• Hibiki had a big arc last season where she reconnected with her dad (who we hate). She is doing her best to juggle her mundane responsibilities and her world-saving.
• Tsubasa had a little arc where she reconnected with her dad (he was cold but not the worst). She is in a good place, expertly balancing her pop idol life with her world-saving responsibilities. I guess we did establish her having a scary grandfather last season...
• Chris is defining herself a lot as the mentor or role model of Kirika and Shirabe and learned lessons about that last season. I guess we're just not going into her tragic past?
• Kirika & Shirabe are doing their best at SONG despite still requiring the creepy drug Linker to sustain their transformations. The legacy of Dr. Ver (who seems to finally be dead, thankfully) has been handed to them though, which might help find a solution to that.
• Maria is using her sister's relic, which got fully repaired by Elfnein, but she is also still reliant on Linker to use it. She is also a full SONG member now and continues to be a mother figure (or larger sister) for Kirika and Shirabe and a peer to Tsubasa.
3. Somehow nothing new or weird happened to the moon last season! The Curse of Balal is in full effect, stopping humanity from understanding each other. Carol was too busy trying to deconstruct the world to care about that, I guess. (The damage of which was reverted but isn't forgotten.)

Good enough! Let's get this train on the road, which isn't where trains go but that's just how Symphogear rolls!

Episode 1: Val Verde Hell Screen / "Your lives will lay the foundation of a worldwide revolution."

Summary	We start on a sweet slice of life classroom scene, Hibiki trying to work on her summer homework all by herself. Miku warns her that at this rate she won't be done until the new year starts, maybe not even before her Birthday. This cute scene is interrupted by Chris, Shirabe and Kirika picking Hibiki up in a helicopter for an emergency mission, time to switch to a higher gear. Cut to the South American jungle where Tsubasa directly attacks a military installation on her motorcycle. What is even going on here? This isn't the type of mission that SONG is usually about... oooh, the enemy is deploying Alca-Noise from dedicated summoning devices. I guess it kind of makes sense then. After Tsubasa slices her way through some AA cannons Hibiki and Chris air-drop into the battle, where they absolutely devastate their opposition. Not just taking out the Noise, also slicing tanks apart, deflecting artillery shells with their gauntlets, taking enemy fire head-on. They are shown to be overwhelmingly powerful, all while singing a three-way song, of course. The enemy captain, who is more than a little fascist-coded, flees to his last resort, a gigantic summoned airship. Our trio takes to helicopters to reach the airship, by which I of course mean riding on top of them. This over the top set piece concludes with the largest sword we've ever seen from Tsubasa slicing the airship in half, Hibiki drilling into it with her arm to capture this captain before Chris blows it up. After a refugee camp scene where we see Chris take the damages of war extra hard we flash back to just before this whole operation took place to introduce the Bavarian Illuminati and how they were behind the FIS (the villains from Symphogear G) and they also assisted in the construction of Carol's citadel (in Symphogear GX). Now they are implicated in this conflict in the fictional South American country of Val Verde, which Chris immediately recognises. Back to the present and... *sighs* a shower scene. In the season opener? Really?! All it really does us give us more backstory (e.g. reminding us that Maria, Shirabe and Kirika still need Linker) and showing Chris being angry at Alca-Noise being used. None of this needed to be in the showers! HALFWAY POINT We're staying in Val Verde for a bit, our core trio is attacking a chemical plant. We see some interspersed Chris flashbacks, this is the country her parents died in. No time for a full tragic past sequence though, their infiltration attempt is discovered and Hibiki shows off her new transformation sequence! It's good, slightly longer, calmer at the start, with more showing off of her moves. The base deploys a large number of Noise as well as humans, which our heroes cut through with zero effort (non-lethal disarmament for the human combatants). The guy in charge here summons a swarm of "unprogrammed" Noise that attract indiscriminately. It doesn't matter though, not even a huge missile-shaped Noise is enough to form an at all serious threat. We cut to the newly instated president of the country in an empty theatre where he is ambushed by three girls. He knows them, they are three alchemists from the Bavarian Illuminati: Saint-Germain, Prelati and Cagliostro. It looks like they made a deal with the new Val Verde government and provided them with their Noise weaponry in exchange for free reign to search for something. They have now located whatever they are after, making short work of the top brass in front of them (singing a transmutation on them, basically making them evaporate into energy) they descend into a secret basement under the theatre. In this basement we see them discover what they are after, a figure encased in a large yellow crystal. Before we can find out what that is a team of SONG agents that we saw shadow this whole scene so far gives away their presence and tries to flee the scene. Saint-Germain stops Cagliostro from engaging them directly, instead using the energy from their transmutation upstairs to summon a gigantic dragon monster. The SONG agents (including two show-regulars from the bridge crew) try to get away in a car, but quickly get overtaken by the dragon and the car gets flipped. Right as the dragon is set to strike at them, a transformation song resounds, Maria, Kirika and Shirabe to the rescue! With that we cut to the credits.
Review	We continue to drift further and further away from the tragic and at times grim way in which this show started. Despite it surprisingly taking place in a warzone this episode showed off everything that Symphogear can be. ...which tragically included sleaze as well.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: It doesn't get much better than this. Two large set piece battles that are inventive and gorgeously animated. They really put their all into the season openers. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Not one but two three-way songs for our core trio, a promising start to the season! Kind of sad that we didn't get a concert though, all three previous seasons had a concert performance in the first episode... 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: From interrupting the mundane classroom scene with a helicopter in front of the window to the ordering of sequences around the attack, this is basically perfect breakneck-speed Symphogear pacing. 4/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: So needless, so prominent, so very unwelcome. Why did we have that shower scene? The evil president commenting on how it feels good when he was being transmuted wasn't great either, but the shower scene is what's causing this score. 7.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Only just above season 1's opening episode, I really hope this shower scene was an anomaly. Let's see where we go from here... probably into Chris' tragic past, right?

Episode 2: Last Resort / "Just punch through the impossible! Fist 1, reason 0!"

Summary	A sepia-tone flashback of German soldiers seeking refuge in Val Verde with their war spoils, including the crystal-encased figure we saw in the previous episode. Guess she's going to be important! Time for the new opening first though, which is a fun showcase of the athletic prowess of our core cast where they each do a sport before focusing on our trio of villain girls. Looks like they'll also have a transformation of sorts later on?! Interesting! Though I guess Carol also transformed in the previous season. After this fun new opening we have a very quick rethread of the finale of the last episode. A SONG team gets discovered, a dragon gets summoned, Maria's trio rushes in for the rescue. A quick cut shows that the core trio is still in their own time-sensitive situation chasing the boss of the chemical plant that got away in the last episode. So it's down to Maria, Kirika and Shirabe. Using their very last Linker to save the day and save their friends. With a very cool new Maria song in the background they engage the dragon (with basically no effect) and the Noise that the alchemists summoned. Maria unleashes a powerful and impressive-looking attack that deeply wounds the dragon, but the dragon reverts time itself (or something) to undo the damage. It's a precarious situation! But the goal was to save to their friends, so they team tries to flee. Successfully jumping everybody to safety onto a speeding train. The alchemists don't give chase, prioritising retrieving "Tiki", which involves a cut to the crystal-bound figure. Cut to the main trio, who have stumbled onto a hostage situation with the chemical plant director. He has taken several townspeople hostage using summoned Noise. A distraction from a local boy (Stephan, he was also in the previous episode) gives our heroes the chance to transform and save the day, but at the cost of losing his leg in a pretty gruesome way. People blame Chris, including Chris herself. HALFWAY POINT Back at HQ Elfnein is feeling guilty for not figuring out the secrets to Linker yet using Dr. Ver's data, but Maria's trio reassures her that they know she's doing her best. Saint-German flashes back 400 years to where she was just alive and in a dramatic naval showdown with Finé (dressed in an awesome pirate outfit) where they lost Tiki to the sea. Looks like they've been searching for her for a long time, and this is doll is an astronomical observation tool somehow? Looks like their plan is as convoluted as any that came before them. One of the three, Cagliostro (the more vain and more fiery one of the three) leaves the doll retrieval to the other two, going to seek out the symphogear users for another round of battle. This takes the form of attacking an airport using Noise to draw out the gear users, and it works! Maria, Kirika and Shirabe arrive by leaping out of a helicopter and we see Maria's transformation, our second of the season. It's just as good as Hibiki's! From that we immediately launch into intense Noise combat accompanied by an amazing group song from all three of them. Their plan is to push the attack so the alchemists don't have a chance to summon the dragon, but their dropping sync rates from the Linker wearing off are hampering them. There's a crazy set piece where they almost get hit by an airplane taking off where Kirika and Shirabe help launch the escaping plane after the Noise take out the wheels. Even these three have gotten a LOT stronger between seasons. This leaves Maria facing the two Illuminati alchemists by herself, which she is struggling to do but she is holding her own, a mysterious blue flash passes over her gear, drawing Elfnein's interest... a gigantic cannon blast from Maria at the two opponents takes the last of her energy, but they are unharmed. With the trio untransformed (and back in their regular uniforms) the alchemists freely summon the dragon spirit. As it rises from the ground a cry resounds across the battlefield, a fully transformed Hibiki springs into action, punching the dragon god in half. The alchemists are shocked, it's not reverting the damage. Cagliostro bemoans what happened to this thing being invincible, to which Hibiki cockily replies that they're looking at her. Credits hit.
Review	The stakes for the season slowly become clearer, the Bavarian Illuminati alchemists are trying to use this doll that they lost centuries ago to... change the future somehow? And they're not stopping at anything to get it. And Chris is being put face to face with her traumatic past. Is that enough for a whole season? Are we getting more? I guess we'll see!
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Does it beat the opening episode in gloriousness? No, but it still kicked ass. Hibiki punching her way through the dragon against all odds, Maria's team pushing through the Linker wearing out and still doing her best, it's all excellent. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Two great new songs, one for Maria and a group song for her team. Nothing spectacular but if this is the new normal then I'm all for it. 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Relatively normally paced, which for this show means that it's still a breakneck speed. Slightly clunkily worked in flashback, I guess. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: 0 notes, more of this please. The worst we had was a (clothed) shot of Maria's chest during her transformation. 8.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Now that's more like it! Just an excellent time, more of this please.

Episode 3: The Horoscope Drawn By Gears / "So you're still always going on about boring stuff like freeing mankind from the yoke of oppression?"

Summary	We have some taunting back and forths from the people squaring up to fight each other, mostly from Chris on the heroes' side and Cagliostro on the alchemists' side, interrupted by Saint-Germain warping in (and then the opening). Let's return after the opening to a barely animated slice of life school life bits, the start of the school year. Interspersed with Hibiki telling Miku about what happened we see the resolution of the showdown, Saint-German explains calmly that they are trying to regain the future, and then they warp out. Such a bait and switch! The retrieved doll is being activated by Saint-Germain in a hotel resort, it's a nice dramatic activation sequence. She appears to be... a star map of sorts? Fascinating! She awakens to also be a person though, a very bubbly and cheerful one at that. She's cheerfully rude to Saint-Germain and very focused about finding somebody called Adam, who she calls her beloved. A perfectly timed phone call, it's Adam! Lodge Master of the Illuminati. The ensuing conversation (or the part with Saint-Germain, at least. Tiki is mostly gushing.) sets up the next set piece neatly, which is an attack on a plane carrying Tsubasa, Maria and relic data from Val Verde. They are ambushed as they come in to land by flying Noise and the plane goes down. Tsubasa transforms, giving a nice focus to her also wielding dual blades now (not counting the ones on her feet), before she rushes down trying to catch a falling Maria (who is dependent on Linker). It's a nice catch too! Very dramatic, even if Hibiki and Miku do it better. Frustrated at the attack's failure, the two alchemists retreat. HALFWAY POINT After a brief "this is what the heroes know" back at base Hibiki continues her explanation of what happened to Miku at a restaurant, focusing on how she's worried about Chris. Chris is in the booth behind her though! And says that she's worrying too much, trying to brush it off, deflecting by reminding Hibiki that she has a ton of homework left and it's only two weeks until her Birthday. They then get a call of another nearby Noise attack! Our trio rushes to the scene and we get Hibiki's cool transformation again. I feel like this season is finding a bit more opportunities to just throw fights at our heroes. Saint-Germain joins her two allies and they summon an experimental Noise that warps our heroes into a subspace pocked full of Noise, oh no! Within this space all the Noise are stronger than usual, which they counter by triggering their Ignite modules and to transform into their edgy dark forms that they gained last season. This doesn't solve the problem of the main Noise being hidden from them, a clever idea from Elfnein for them to use triangulation saves the day, revealing a large (and kind of derpy-looking) Noise that was cloaking its presence. With a ridiculous team attack they save the day, taking it out. As the alchemists lament that this weapon didn't get rid of the symphogear users either, Tiki joins them on the nearby rooftop from which they were observing the battle. She gets reprimanded from not staying in the lodge, which she dodges by saying she was hoping to see Adam and offering the astonishing closing line that their current line is a the best possible place to pick a fight with God.
Review	Somehow not a whole lot happened, for Symphogear standards this was a positively slow episode. But everybody's back in Japan, Tiki has been activated, Adam has been teased, I guess not every episode can have a dragon god being punched in half.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The return of the ignite module was fun, though I hope they won't rely on it too much, it's a sometimes food. Tsubasa catching Maria was good stuff, Tiki's closing line is storytelling gold. For a quieter episode, excellent stuff! 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: A solid Tsubasa song, a nice team up reprise for our core trio, then an Ignite remix of that team up song. Even a little return of the school song during the "we're back at school" montage. 7.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: It's not bad, but it really mostly was two fun fights to prop up the episode between the fun opening and the dramatic Tiki line at the end. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Tiki is... very into Adam, which might spell trouble on the horizon once he shows up, but for now the show continues to be spotless! 8.5/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: An inoffensive episode with some fun bits! Now what the hell was Tiki talking about?

Episode 4: Gold Making / "The harsher a tomato's environment, the sweeter it grows."

Summary	I guess it's time for the obligatory tragic backstory, we see a tiny Saint-Germain in ancient times plead for the life of her sick mother. Clearly she has seen the cruelties of this world. Is this what she wants to change? Back in the present she looks at three heart-shaped gemstones, calling them Lapis... After the opening, which sure also features these Lapis stones, we join the other alchemists and Tiki in their hideout / fancy hotel room. They're waiting for Saint-Germain to finish their Faust Robes, whatever those are (Wasn't that what Carol had for her transformation last season, hmmm...). Cagliostro continues to be impatient and heads out to attack the symphogear users. Speaking of which, we join our heroes as they move to a more fortified position, an underground storage vault which contains a decoder that they need to unlock the cypher on the Val Verde documents they retrieved. The two trios patrol the perimeter, Hibiki's squad for intruders, Maria's for civilians in the area that didn't evacuate (after all, they can't (responsibly) transform now that all the Linker is gone). We follow Maria's squad as they walk through a tomato farm where Kirika comedically mistakes a scarecrow for a person. They do find somebody though! An old woman that is worried about her tomato harvest and ignored the evacuation order, or so she claims. This just reeks of a Snow White style trap, they even try some of the tomatoes when offered (and they're delicious), but it turns out that it's not Cagliostro in disguise, because she interrupts them moments later, tauntingly calling them Team Neapolitan (after the resemblance between the ice cream and their hair colours). Maria holds back the other two from transforming without Linker. Cagliostro takes the opportunity to try to get rid of them, summoning Noise to attack them. Chris is closest of the other three and says she'll handle it, transforming. Looks like it's focused on her hand-crossbows this season. She takes zero time reaching her friends, riding one of her missiles into battle. After dispatching the Noise effortlessly she engages Cagliostro, charging up a big bow attack. But it was a fake-out to leave herself open like that, Hibiki and Tsubasa arrive! Cagliostro gets reprimanded telepathically by Saint-Germain and retreats. HALFWAY POINT Maria's team helps evacuate the tomato farmer lady, which very bluntly imparts the lesson for these three girls this season. That her tomatoes are so good because of how much the plant struggled to get where it is, almost like a metaphor or something. We have a quick scene where Commander Genjuro is reprimanded by a shadowy figure in a video call on the bridge. Guess we'll have to wait to find out who this is, he's being very unreasonable though. More Noise are attacking the evacuation shelters, but Hibiki and her friends are prepared this time, immediately triggering their Ignite modules to give them zero chance to get close to the civilians. This unfortunately plays right into the hands of the enemy alchemists, who use a big Ignited attack from Tsubasa to absorb the power, pulling her out of Ignited mode (to regular transformed mode) and using that power to transform into their Faust Robes (no fancy sequence). These Faust Robes are overwhelmingly powerful and the alchemists quickly disable all three of their opponents, gloating over them. Hibiki tries to do what she always does, reason with them to find common ground. Saint-Germain explains that she is trying to break humanity free from oppression. Theoretically that could be common ground, nice! Hibiki should have no problems with that goal. Cagliostro starts to impatiently suggests to Saint-Germain that they finish them off, but gets interrupted herself by something happening in the sky... a bright light? A quick cut to Tiki as an sinister choir starts to sing, it's Adam, charging up a huge transmutation spell. He is charging up a gigantic blast that he claims will turn everything to gold. The alchemists teleport out in the face of their leader's overwhelming attack. Our heroes are just barely saved by Maria's team, transformed without Linker, to get them out in time. As the blast clears we see that the entire facility has been destroyed, leaving a gigantic crater and pitiful few gold flakes in Adam's hand. Roll credits.
Review	Kind of surprised we didn't get more Chris story this episode, it was mostly centred around Maria's team and the struggles they're facing in not being able to transform. I'm not complaining though, it's a simple plot but an excellent one. And we have our powered up enemies, joined by their overwhelmingly strong leader that has arrived. How's our gang going to get out of this one?!
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Solid action with some good moments for Chris, who is getting a lot more focus this season (which is nice!), and as much as I hate Adam already, his entrance was pretty excellent. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Nothing to write home about, a solid Chris song, a solid Ignite remix, an excellent choir behind Adam's appearance 6/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: A downright calm and coherently structured episode, what is going on here?! 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Getting pretty tired of Tiki and Cagliostro skirting the line of what is sleazy and what is merely almost sleazy, but I guess it was still a pretty clean episode. 7.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: In no way a bad episode, but it doesn't quite dazzle. Fortunately it looks like the show is going to ramp up the stakes from here though.

Episode 5: Risking Your Life in a Fictional Theater / "You don't have to win. Just don't lose."

Summary	Not much before the opening other than a confirmation that our heroes are all alive and relatively unharmed. Maria is the worst off of the group and needs medical attention. Elfnein explains to everybody how they got so thoroughly defeated, the alchemists' Faust Robes use philosopher's stones, which drain and absorb the Dainsleif relic's energy underlying the Ignite module to use it as their own. Kirika and Shirabe face a horde of Noise (and we see Kirika's cool transformation!), where did they come from?! Also, isn't that a horrible idea for them without Linker?! They are clearly suffering from the symphogear's rejection, but still they fight on. Turns out this was a holographic training program, but their transformations and the harm it was causing them was real. They are sick of relying on Linker to fight and want to get stronger on their own. The others don't understand why they push themselves so hard, to the point that it could kill them, there's clearly friction there. Even a reopening of the rift between Shirabe and Hibiki where Shirabe accuses Hibiki of her powers coming so naturally to her that she doesn't understand what it's like. Elfnein deftly redirects the conversation by explaining that she might have found a way to resolve the Linker issue. Maria's gear and the weird blue glow she observed several times around it, apparently it can lead to the parts of the brain that Linker has to interact with, which is exactly the missing part that Elfnein is looking for. This means a mindscape plot! Elfnein will go into Maria's mind where together they try to find out what this missing piece is. HALFWAY POINT The Kazanaris (Genjuro, Tsubasa, Tsubasa's dad) are summoned to the angry mystery old man from earlier, it's pretty clear by now that this is Tsubasa's grandfather. He is rude and dismissive of all three of them, and I would have glossed over this if he wasn't going to be important later in the series. It's time for the mindscape half of the episode now! Which follows Elfnein as the travels through Maria's past, showing the harsh upbringing she and her sister had in the FIS. As Elfnein travels through Maria's memories she encounters Noise but is saved by Maria, not just a memory of Maria but the real Maria. After some fighting they reach Maria's unconsiousness. Back in the real world the alchemists summon a large hydra to face the symphogear users and they even managed to find another one of those large airships from the opening episode. It has a nice exchange between the alchemists showing off that Cagliostro and Prelati care about following Saint-Germain more than anything else. After Miku reassures Hibiki that she can do this she rushes off to save the day, credits roll. Slightly early for credits... ah there we go, an after-credits scene that reveals... oh hell no! Dr. Ver, I really wanted you to stay dead and gone forever. At least it's "only" in Maria's mindscape, but still.
Review	Dr. Ver jump scare aside this was a solid enough episode, it still feels slightly quieter than the breakneck pace of the start of the season and the series as a whole. And I have no clue what the Tsubasa's grandpa plot can really add, but I like what Chris, Maria, Shirabe and Kirika are doing this season. Which does kind of highlight how little is going on with Tsubasa and Hibiki this season.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Shiriba and Kirika trying so hard was good to see, as was mindscape Maria letting loose. The latter's traumatic past was significantly less fun though. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: No musical standouts, Kirika's song and Maria's song and not much else happened on the music front. 7.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: ...why would you enter the mindscape at the halfway point and then not wrap up that storyline? That's chaotic but not necessarily in a good way. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: As Elfnein enters the mindscape there is a brief flash where she is naked, it doesn't really feel gratuitous but it does feel confusing and unnecessary. 7.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid enough episode, but between this and the previous one it definitely feels like something of a mid-season slump in the pace. Do something cool and unexpected, Symphogear! That's what we're here for!

Episode 6: Emerging From the Deathbed / "You were the very worst of the worst, Dr. Ver."

Summary	Mindscape, Hydra, a brief re-establishing of the stakes. Let's do this! At least Maria and Elfnein are mostly annoyed at Dr. Ver being there and don't have much patience for him. As they just about manage to stick together they dive deeper into Maria's mind. While this is going on Hibiki's team rushes into battle, engaging the swarms of Noise that the hydra is producing. Other than (intentionally) not using their Ignite modules they go all out and strike the hydra with a devastating team-up attack... which it obviously regenerates from, into three smaller bodies, which each of our heroes chasing after one of them. Meanwhile in the mindscape Elfnein and Maria find her emotional centre, which also holds a lot of uncertainty and fears and the two get separated because of Maria having a panic attack. HALFWAY POINT Hibiki, Tsubasa and Chris are holding their own against the hydra but it's clearly taking a lot out of them, they're not used to an enemy this resilient (though they are clearly making progress, turning the hydra into smaller and smaller monsters). Breakthrough time for Maria where her tragic flashbacks show that her "mom" that put her through hell to get her and the other Receptor Children (e.g. Shirabe, Kirika, her sister Serena) to be able to use symphogear was always sad about the harm she was inflicting. I'll talk more about how much I hate that messaging in a bit. Maria equates her past trauma to the tomato metaphor, and Elfnein explains that this caring for others is the brain area she was looking for. Sure! With that they exit the mindscape and Elfnein rushes off to implement the discovery. The alchemist airship uncloaks and summons a whole bunch more Noise, some of which are heading straight for the school where Miku is taking cover. Hibiki is torn, she needs to take care of the Noise here and then rush off to save Miku. She is about to trigger her Ignite module, despite that being a horrible idea, but is interrupted by Shirabe and Kirika who arrive in style. With these new reinforcements and Maria having headed to the school to keep it safe, Hibiki is spared her dilemma. Hooray! Kirika and Shirabe steal the show and the only reason they're not singlehandedly victorious against Cagliostro and Prelati is Saint-Germain showing up to shield their attack. Saint-Germain's counterattack is blocked by Hibiki, catching a bullet in her open palm. It's a 3 on 3, except Chris, Tsubasa and Maria also arrive so it's more like a 3 vs 6. With everybody assembled Saint-Germain boldly declares their goal, to claim the lunar ruins and deactivate the curse of Balal! Roll credits.
Review	The show is spinning its wheels a lot less than the past two episodes, but it's definitely not perfect. Oh boy that "message" Maria learned sure is hot garbage. Forgiving and even appreciating your tormentors because they felt bad about it? Eew and no thank you. That's horrible and I don't like it one bit. Fortunately the rest of the episode was solid, and we didn't even have that much Mindscape Ver!
Scores	6/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: This episode has 3+ absolutely excellent combat scenes full of inventive moments, but I have to penalise it for its garbage message/point somewhere and it sure wasn't glorious. 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent Hibiki song, a solid Shirabe song, a gorgeous special credits song for no particular reason. I'll take it! 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Mindscape episodes in all media tend to be on the more chaotic side, jumping around in the owners' past. I did appreciate Elfnein's finishing of the Linker taking under a minute of runtime, all of it happening off-screen. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Spotless, no notes. 8.1/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: I guess the "forgive people that were bad to you" was also kind of a thing with the two daddy-issue plots of the previous season, but this one was somehow a lot worse. I really hope that won't get more focus as the season continues... let's just focus on the alchemists being nefarious, shall we?

Episode 7: ARCANA No.00 / "We'll never let go of each other's hands."

Summary	After a brief restating of the alchemists' goals and the opening we resume their conversation. Saint-Germain wants to make humanity more perfect by getting rid of the curse of Balal. Her methods are too cruel for our heroes to accept though, and they fight! The Faust Robes are on a different level compared to the symphogear though, and our heroes are pushed back. An impulsive attempt by Shirabe and Kirika is also quickly countered and defused. The only person whose attacks seem to be getting anywhere are Hibiki's, but she's mostly focused on trying to convince Saint-Germain that they don't need to fight. Even to the point of saving her from one of Cagliostro's attacks gone astray. This puts Saint-Germain off balance to the point that she retreats from the fight, the other two alchemists obviously follow suit. Back at base the mood is grim, they got away but they were clearly outclassed. Hibiki is doing her homework back home and also down in the dumps, but Miku's cooking and a nice little backstory flashback about how she used to run in junior high but now has somebody she wants to walk alongside of helped her mood a lot. Even if Miku couldn't quite find the courage to admit that that person was clearly Hibiki. HALFWAY POINT Adam is displeased at his alchemists for failing to defeat the symphogear, he seems obsessed with defeating them. But also very focused on completion a ritual, something about the power of the Gods... After Adam and Tiki leave the room Prelati and Cagliostro complain about him and how much they hate him, they're here for Saint-Germain and nothing else. They head out to strike at the symphogear one more time while Saint-Germain goes to prepare the ritual. Elfnein has made a breakthrough! All the way back in Symphogear G there was a time when the Gungnir relic was fusing with Hibiki, critically endangering her life with horrible spikes growing inside of her. A shard of that remains and is somehow so special that it can counter the Philosopher's Stone. After dubbing this the Fool's Stone (after Hibiki who produced it) our heroes start a retrieval mission to dredge it up from Neptune's Palace, a now-destroyed underwater research facility. Unfortunately Cagliostro and Prelati are there to mess with these plans! Kirika, Shiriba and Chris are the three girls who are up on the surface (and we follow Kirika's transformation and get a song from her) and they engage the Noise sent out to attack them. If 6 vs 3 didn't work out last time then 3 vs 2 is even worse, and our trio is clearly on the back foot. They have a plan though, singing in unison! (Hell yes!) Kirika and Shirabe sing together in unison, skyrocketing their phonic gain and drastically improving their power without using the Ignite Module. It works well and is super fun and they strike a devastating blow to Prelati, causing Cagliostro to take her and evacuate. As the final reveal of the episode we learn that the alchemists' ritual requires a lot more energy than what they had hoped. Adam savagely suggests using Prelati or Cagliostro as a sacrifice, saying their perfect alchemical bodies should be sufficient, and leaving the choice with a clearly disgusted Saint-Germain.
Review	That was a very fun Miku flashback and an absolutely excellent highlight moment for Kirika and Shirabe, but none of the big plot threads had much progress. I guess we're taking things a bit more slowly at this point in the season. I'll take it over horrible messages about forgiving monsters though!
Scores	8.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: That Hibiki-Miku scene in the middle of the episode was SO good and makes up for us not having seen them much these past few episodes. And the Kirika-Shirabe fight was excellent. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: That duet was so good! There wasn't really any other standout music though. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Almost surprisingly straightforward and slow, at least for this show. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Two 10s in a row again?! Hell yeah! Please keep that up. 8.4/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid mid-season episode, though I'd have loved for slightly more to happen. Bring on the next one!

Episode 8: Between the Past and the Future / "If this were a movie, do you think they'd cut straight from finding some rock to the happy end?"

Summary	Kirika finds the Fool's Stone! How fitting, in a way. And a good way to kick of the episode. After the opening we tragically switch to a shower scene, really wish we had seen the end of these. It doesn't even move the plot forward that much! Fortunately next we have a fun training sequence on the holodeck-equivalent, after a warmup against the Noise it's Commander Genjuro that faces them. The girls don't take him seriously but he is overwhelmingly strong and each of them fails to land even a single unblocked hit on him. Looks like he's trying to teach about working in unison, like Kirika and Shirabe did last episode A brief check-in with the Alchemists shows that Prelati is recovering but still badly hurt, that Cagliostro knows about Adam's suggestion to sacrifice one of them and that the ritual is almost done. Cagliostro sets out once again to attack the symphogear users, proclaiming that she'll fight dirty. HALFWAY POINT Elfnein works fast, she has already finished the integration of the Fool's Stone in the symphogear pendants. Carrying these Chris and Tsubasa go meet with the boy from Val Verde who was in Japan to get a prosthetic leg and wanted to reassure Chris before he left that he doesn't blame her. Of course this is the exact place that Cagliostro attacks, Chris is angry and transforms and they engage in battle. The bridge crew worries that it's a trap or distraction since it's just Cagliostro, but she needs to be stopped regardless. Some cheap positioning where keeps herself between Chris and a building full of innocent people as well as two of those experimental Noise that warp people to a pocket dimension ensure that she stands a chance after the other 4 symphogear users show up. She was even smart enough to split up Kirika (with Hibiki) and Shirabe (with Tsubasa) in the pocket dimension so they can't sing in unison. That leaves Chris and Maria to face Cagliostro who clearly didn't expect her Faust Robe to be countered by the Ignite Module. We get an excellent unison song between Chris and Maria, looks like the training paid off! With a dramatic clashing of attacks the two girls triumph over Cagliostro, seemingly evaporating her. The others manage to break out of their pocket dimensions and Shirabe seems sad that for some reason. Was she not able to sing in unison with Tsubasa? Tiki confirms by reading in the stars that Cagliostro is dead, which causes Adam to declare that they'll have to use Prelati now. To open the doors to heaven and acquire divine power.
Review	Some unnecessary bits aside this was a fun and strong episode with a few nice highlights for various characters. I'm not exactly going to miss Cagliostro but she was definitely pleasantly over the top.
Scores	7/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The alchemists' ritual involves some creepy etching into Saint-Germain's back, it wasn't particularly sleazy but it is definitely some minus points here. Which is a shame because the training sequence was fun and the Chris-Maria fight absolutely excellent. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent unison song between Chris and Maria, not that much music otherwise though. 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Sure, it was mostly linear. But it was swiftly linear. The Fool's Stone being implemented, the training only showing the minimum required to get the message across and have fun. Feels like we're speeding up again. 6/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Tempted to penalise it more harshly than this because of how rare shower scenes have become but it wasn't that bad as such things go. I just really don't see the point of them. 7.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Somehow the weakest episode of the season so far, I guess that's what you get for being sleazy and unglorious in the same episode... Let's hope for better on both fronts in the next one!

Episode 9: Blue Rabbit / "I have to tell her that Adam means to kill us!"

Summary	Shirabe is struggling in training with Tsubasa, lamenting that she never had trouble synching up with Kirika. Guess we're getting a little arc here! The opening hits. Ogawa is helping Shirabe with her training now, giving the pair a chance to practise against a fast target. Shirabe is still struggling to work together though, Tsubasa recognises herself in how closed off her ally is. It looks like everybody else has had no trouble training to achieve unison with the others... As a change of pace everybody drives out to some shrine in Saitama to learn about ley lines and the legend of the Divine Gate. Shirabe flashes back to the first time she met Kirika, back in the FIS, where it is revealed that she didn't remember her name when she arrived and she was given her current one (and similar for Kirika and her Birthday, making them bond). The priest at the shrine is a kindly old man that happens to sneak in the pertinent detail that his granddaughter and her parents died in a car crash years ago. Nobody ever said that this was a subtle show, I guess. He also has actually plot-relevant stuff to say though! The shrines in the region are laid out in a mirror of the constellation of Orion and are said to allow passage for the Gods. That is definitely what Adam is also after. Meanwhile Prelati is awake and recovered, we have a brief flashback of her recovery where Cagliostro told her about Adam's plan to sacrifice one of them... which by process of elimination now means her HALFWAY POINT Shirabe can't sleep and has a conversation with the old priest. She takes a while to open up to him, but eventually does. He shares his perspective that her shutting people out is a way she thinks that she is keeping people safe, which makes her think about her actions... Prelati confronts Adam about his plans, who doesn't deny a word of it. She flees after a brief skirmish, but Adam lets her go. Her telepathy to Saint-Germain is blocked and he is confident that the the symphogear users will be on her tail soon enough and stop her. Frustratingly, he's right! She is spotted on cameras almost immediately and every sets out to chase her, Tsubasa on her motorcycle and Shirabe on her skates are the fastest and catch up to her. Tsubasa shares the pain of her grief for Kanade's death and how she got through that. It's a touching scene that ends in a spectacular Ignite transformation at the last second, if only it didn't play right into Adam's hands. Their unison is absolutely excellent and ends in a silly improvised vehicle showdown duel between them together and Prelati on her staff-broom-toy thing, which Prelati loses, going out in a blaze of glory just like Cagliostro. Adam and Tiki waste no time informing Saint-Germain of this development, conveniently leaving out the bit where they fought Prelati and drove her off to do this. Credits hit. After the credits we get a brief sequence of our heroes leaving the shrine. the camera lingers suspiciously long on the shrine's name, which starts with Shira-, the only fragment of Shirabe's name that was still legible in her flashback. All but confirming that yes, this was her grandfather.
Review	That's more like it! Growth, betrayal, song, a thrilling highway chase, yes please! And our heroes now have a very clear idea of where to find Adam, Tiki and Saint-Germain at these Orion-shrines, so it feels like we're heading for a showdown!
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Solid stuff, the fight was great and I liked Ogawa in the training bit. Nothing phenomenal but solid entertainment nonetheless. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent Ignite Unison song for Shirabe and Tsubasa, a nice solo Shirabe song in the training bit. Solid as well! 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: A simple structure, but I really appreciated how standalone this little story for Shirabe was. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Perfectly clean again! This season is giving me whiplash. 8.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: An excellent episode that neatly clears the way for a spectacular finale. ...we still have a whole 4 episodes left though, finales usually take about two episodes. Are we going to have a complication of sorts? Hmmmm....

Episode 10: An Tiki Tira / "Using a godlike power break a curse created by God is wrong."

Summary	Saint-Germain has resigned herself to her fate of being a sacrifice for the ritual. Tiki and Adam could be nicer about it, they clearly look down on her. So rude! Time for the opening. Hibiki is done with her huge pile of homework! Miku is there to share in the moment with her. And not a moment to spare, only two days until her Birthday! Kind of a hard shift in tone compared to the ritual thing, but I guess this is Symphogear after all. Back in HQ everybody discusses what it might take to stop whatever is summoned from Heaven's Gate, they speculate that with a name like that it might be a god... To counter that they put their hopes in the power of deicide, which they think Adam actively hid from them by destroying the Val Verde documents. Tsubasa, Maria and Chris wonder if it's the Gungnir that holds this power, but legends don't back it up... Saint-Germain casually clears out government agents infiltrating the area and starts the final preparations for the ritual... the constellation of shrines mirroring the constellation of Orion, Heaven's Gate is opening. HALFWAY POINT This ley line activity is immediately noticed. As Saint-Germain burns her life away to open the gate a counter-plan is put into motion. A silly keystone activation sequence follows that blocks the ley lines in a circle around the Heaven's Gate shrines. It's presented as a super cool thing, but it's mostly just silly. To add insult to injury the symphogear users airdrop into the ritual site. Saint-Germain dons her Faust Robe and engages Hibiki and Kirika who immediately sing in unison and trigger their Ignite Modules. It's a very cool fight! The fight ends decisively (but not lethally) in our heroes' favour, Saint-German can't continue fighting. Hibiki reaches out to her, as she explains her perspective. Using the power of the gods to stop the Curse of Balal (itself a power of the gods) is wrong. People need to overcome it by themselves. And Saint-Germain listens and reaches up to take her hand! So obviously Adam shows up to ruin this moment, using absurdly strong alchemy to finish the ritual and open Heaven's Gate. He isn't using the shrines representing Orion, he is using the actual stars in the sky. Saint-Germain voices her doubts if these powers can really free humanity from oppression, asking Adam directly. He smirkingly answers that maybe it can, but he had no intention of ever using it this way. With Heaven's Gate open, Tiki has gained tremendous power and fires a devastating laser attack at Hibiki, Saint-Germain and Kirika. It is the latter that saves the day, using a Swan Song (from this season onwards renamed to Superb Songs) and her new Linker to block the attack at great power to herself. That leaves Saint-Germain and Hibiki to face Adam and this empowered Tiki. It builds up the moment super well, you really feel their resolve as they are about to face him together. But that is the end of the episode. So mean!
Review	Hell yeah! That was a lot of stuff that I really enjoyed, though I'm obviously worried for Kirika as well. Surely they wouldn't kill her off, right? She's the chaos gremlin of the group!
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The fight against Saint-Germain was excellent, Hibiki saying goodbye to Miku as she heads out to face Saint-Germain was wholesome, Kirika's sacrifice dramatic. And that cliffhanger, excellent. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: A solid and fun unison song but not much else, continuing the trend of solid music but nothing phenomenal. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: So this is where the hectic chaos went. Hell yeah! Bringing back the Swan/Superb Song (which I'm pretty sure we barely had for well over a season) was especially dramatic. 8/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Before Adam arrives to open Heaven's Gate there's a sequence of Tiki absorbing the holy power through tendrils of light snaking into her eye sockets and mouth. It's not particularly sleazy but disturbing enough that I want to dock points for it somewhere. 8.5/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid episode, yet I'm still not sure how we have three more episodes after this. Let's find out!

Episode 11: Pinnacle of Divine Might / "Only an immaculate soul can serve as a vessel for the divine power!"

Summary	Kirika's sacrifice is repeated, Saint-Germain deciding to oppose Adam as well, Hibiki joins her. We're all caught up! After the opening we see that a SONG emergency team has successfully extracted Kirika from the battlefield. All the other symphogear users are staying put at base because their battle with the alchemists apparently damaged their gears (specifically the new expansion that Elfnein built into it to counter the Philosopher's Stone). The battle starts! Saint-Germain is surprised that Hibiki deflects an attack aimed at her and they decide to truly fight together. Saint-Germain even shares the fact that Hibiki should be targeting Tiki before she gathers too much divine power. A few feints at Adam, a nice combined attack at Tiki that gets deflected at the last moment by Adam as he sees through their plan. Saint-Germain taunts Adam, asking where his gold-creating transmutation powers are, correctly estimating that opening the Divine Gate in the previous episode cost him a lot more power because the ley lines were blocked. Another round of attacks at Adam (that end in Saint-Germain almost taking off his arm) reveal that he is a puppet like Tiki. At the shock of seeing people find out about her beloved Adam, Tiki finishes absorbing the divine power and takes on a monstrous form divine form with overwhelming laser attacks and dramatic choir music in the background. She is doing a LOT of collateral damage. Adam reveals that he is a creation of the custodians, made thousands of years ago as an overseer of Earth in their absence. Tiki prepares to launch another massive attack, which Hibiki deflects into space with a well aimed but costly punch. The blast does take out a communications satellite though, knocking out the video feeds of the battle back at base. HALFWAY POINT Turns out that the satellite that was hit belonged to the American military, that can't be good. The base scrambles searching for a way to get signal again but are interrupted by Tsubasa's horrible grandfather asking for an update and being scolded over their loss. He claims that this incident will be used as grounds for an invasion of Japan, much like how Val Verde was "liberated" at the start of the season because it was gathering dangerous relics. This is no problem for Tiki and Adam though, or at least not one that they care about right now. Saint-Germain attacks Tiki directly but in this form she shrugs off all damage, regenerating it in the same way the dragon god at the start of the season did. Adam spouts some garbage about wanting the divine power to unite the Earth under his rule and menacingly closes in on Hibiki. Back at base the video feed is restored but they're not sure what they can do. A mysterious voice contacts them though, dumping the fully decoded Val Verde documents that they thought lost into their lap. Revealing that the Gungnir is in fact also the Spear of Longinus, which definitely has god-slaying capabilities. Having learned this Hibiki finds her second wind and charges towards Tiki, meanwhile Saint-Germain keeps Adam busy. Adam is fighting her off using his own severed arm as a sword, it's silly but also awesome. Now that she knows that her Gungnir has god-slaying powers it does (apparently that's how conceptual weapons work or something) and the damage she does doesn't regenerate. As a last resort Adam orders Tiki to disperse the divine power she has absorbed in the sky and abandon her gigantic form. She happily obliges but it makes no difference, Hibiki punches both the large form she was "piloting" and her regular form that is floating down from it towards Adam straight in half. The gigantic divine creature falls apart into sparkles and Tiki's upper torso flops down to the ground in front of Adam, who has the nerve to be disgusted at the sight. But he has what he wants, the divine power is floating through the air in a cloud of glowing particles. He searches for a container to absorb it into, cruelly discarding Tiki as an option and kicking her away before deciding on his own severed arm. He raises it and the energy surges towards him, he thinks himself victorious. The energy passes him by. The music swells. We follow the cloud. It surrounds Hibiki, who is as confused as anybody else. A lattice grows around her, stretching out to the size of a large building, a glowing heart. Adam and Saint-Germain know the most about this power and are the most shocked. Humans are affected by original sin and should NOT be able to absorb divine power like this, especially accidentally. Credits hit.
Review	Oh no! As twists go our hero being trapped in a weird cocoon of accidentally stolen divine power is definitely up there. Also, if you're confused about the mysterious voice handing over the Val Verde documents, the episode vaguely hints at this being payback for the time the symphogear users saved that space shuttle, almost two whole seasons ago. A wild pull, but sure!
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The team-up was excellent and the way Adam had victory snatched away from him right as he thought he had it was just perfect. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent Hibiki song during the fight with Adam, but I'm getting spoiled by all these unisons and duets. Give me more of those! 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: This was SO much! Even before the mystery voice thing. It was hectic and grand and weird. Yes please. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Perfectly clean, no notes. 9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: That sure is the highest score of the season so far. Not sure if that's entirely deserved but it sure was one hell of an episode! And immediately makes me wonder if we'll have enough time now in those last two episodes.

Episode 12: AXZ / "``Even So``, wasn't it?"

Summary	No time for opening credits today! A quick replay of Hibiki chrysalising up and that's it. Adam swears that the divine power will be his despite this outrageous setback and teleports away. We skip ahead two days, Hibiki is missing her Birthday! The threat of invasion turns out to be more real than expected and if it comes to this SONG is expected to operate on the UN's side as usual despite it being Japan. There is talk of nuclear weapons being deployed against the chrysalis. It's a dire situation indeed. A desperate plan is forged involving Miku and a lot of Anti-Linker, the drug that makes a symphogear user detransform. Elfnein theorises that this can also sever the connection between the host and the divine possession. On top of that she has also fully repaired everybody else's relic pendants, putting them back to full capability. This was possible thanks to data that Saint-Germain shared with them, who won't join them but is definitely on their side in this. Tsubasa's horrible grandfather makes things worse again, announcing that a full strike by the Japanese military will happen against the Chrysalis in an attempt to destroy it and prevent the UN's invasion. Miku stands up to him (because Hibiki is in that thing!) and Tsubasa surprisingly finds the courage as well, even saying to his face that she doesn't care about her connection by blood to him, what courses through her are the memories of Kanade. Hell yeah! This announced strike happens (in the form of a row of tanks firing at the crysalis) and actually cracks the surface, causing it glow, snap loose, descend and hatch. Tiki's divine form was already large and monstrous, but Hibiki's is even larger and only barely more human. She's clearly not in control and she unleashes a huge beam attack levelling the already ruined city around her. The symphogear users and Saint-Germain arrive fully transformed and save the tank battalion. After some political pushback from them the tanks leave. This is a SONG operation now, and they're going to try their rescue plan. Three large trucks are rolled out that are apparently part of this plan. HALFWAY POINT Attempts are made to restrain the Divine Beast and it sort of works as they all work together! There are large guns on top of the trucks now that fire monster-sized injectors into the beast to administer the Anti-Linker. A video call from Tsubasa's father reminds us of the stakes, nukes are about to be deployed. They have to get this right. So of course the Divine Beast breaks free and only a swift block from Saint-Germain saves our heroes. Miku cries out from one of the trucks, reminding Hibiki with tears in her eyes that it's her birthday. (Technically twice now, I guess!) These words reach her friend, Hibiki wakes up inside the Divine Beast. There is a heart-warming exchange between them and Hibiki breaks free from the Divine Beast which evaporates in the same way Tiki's gigantic form did. Miku runs out and catches her friend before she hits the ground. The day is saved and the UN invasion is called off! Humanity can work together without nuclear weapons! So of course we instantly cut to a nuke being launched from a submarine. The American president is shown, authorising this strike from a poolside lounge chair at a golf resort. 330 seconds until the nuke hits, there is no time for anything fancy. Kirika considers flying out to cut it down but this won't contain the blast. Saint-Germain steps up. She says she can do this. Channeling alchemical power she takes to the sky. And she sings! As her voice rings out it is joined by two others, Cagliostro and Prelati! Are they visions Saint-Germain is having? They look as real as she does. How are they here?! As the trio rushes towards the nuke we are seen brief flashbacks of how Cagliostro faked her death in that explosion and then in turn saved Prelati. With a super special bullet from Saint-Germain's gun that unites all of their alchemies (and isn't explained beyond that) the nuke is contained at the moment of detonation. Suppressing the blast is taking everything, but it's working! They put their very lives into it and are now fading into glowing particles, but with a smile on their face they win the day. Dramatic music surges, Shirabe says that all they need to do now is gather up the Divine Power, but she isn't the only one with that idea. Adam appears from nowhere, absorbing the divine power into his arm as he had originally planned. He freezes five of the symphogear users. He missed the most important one. He launches a desperate flurry of attacks at Hibiki as she rushes in but is brought off balance by Tiki's torso grabbing his leg in undeterred adoration. He falls over, begging and pleading with Hibiki to not destroy the Divine Power. That there are Millennia of curses and beliefs in that power, that destroying it will curse Hibiki. She yells back that she will punch it apart with a song in her fist. I love this show. Especially since what directly follows is her doing exactly that. She punches the arm that had grown to a monstrous size cleanly in half, destroying it and ending the episode. We are treated to non-standard credits (just a black screen with text) over which the opening theme plays.
Review	Hell. Yes. How is the finale supposed to top this?! This already had everything! ...I guess I'll take more group songs. And it would be refreshing to see an enemy just get destroyed, or maybe I just really hate Adam.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Miku catches Hibiki. A nuke is stopped. A horrible man is defied. Yes, this is just full capacity awesomeness. 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: The alchemists' song was so good! There was also a nice song in the background when Miku was convincing Hibiki inside her Divine Beast form. Just generally excellent stuff. 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: A "normal" show would have the chrysalis be the finale. Symphogear season 1 would have sprung the surprise nuke on us as a twist in the final episode. This was crazy in all the right ways. 7.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: 3 of the Anti-Linker injectors are shot into the beast's upper chest near her shoulder. This is fine. The other two go into her buttocks which jiggle which just completely destroys the moment. 8.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: An absolutely phenomenal episode held back by a handful of seconds worth of unnecessary butt jiggle. They could have just not! But also, the finale has one hell of an uphill battle to top that.

Episode 13: By Shedding Many Tears, the Reality You Face is... / "One last punch from everyone!"

Summary	We get to see the alchemists fade away, Saint-Germain dramatically drops her magic gun. Adam steals the Divine Power and gathers it into his severed arm, Hibiki destroys that arm. Let's do this! Hibiki is upset that she couldn't save Saint-Germain, that she didn't have more time to understand her. Adam interrupts her grief, saying that she can't even understand anybody under the Curse of Balal. He also casually name-drops the custodians again and crushes Tiki who is still clinging to his leg. Only when humanity unites as one can they rise up against the custodians, under his leadership of course. I don't think he's expecting Hibiki to be listening, but she is. She disagrees, despite the Curse of Balal it is never meaningless to reach out to people and try to understand them. At this proclamation her five allies join her and agree. As an excellent song starts Adam does the traditional Symphogear finale thing of summoning a city full of Noise for our heroes to annihilate in a spectacular fashion. Kind of weird that they're in their normal forms for it for a change, but they still are awesome and singing together! A six-way unison is already a sight to behold, and Hibiki unleashes a huge strike on Adam. Who grows a monstrous arm to block her and replace the one he lost. He is giving up his human form, revealing his monstrous puppet form. A segmented beak, horns, a dozen eyes, it's vaguely demonic. And FAST, far faster than his large size would suggest. He tears into our heroes, getting in solid attacks on everybody. A voice calls out over the battlefield, or at least in Hibiki's head, Saint-Germain telling her that it's not over yet. Her eyes are drawn to Saint-Germain's gun, but Adam notices her interest, claiming it for himself and launching a devastating beam attack. To block and absorb this attack we pull out an old trick, the S2CA Hexa-Conversion from Symphogear G, which combines Swan/Superb Songs into Hibiki. I didn't know she could do that without the relic shards embedded in her! Elfnein redirects part of the strain from that into the Dainsleif, implying that this will incinerate and destroy it. As the Ignite Module activates for the last time and the music swells into the opening theme, Adam launches a huge fireball at them from the sky, only for our heroes to escape the blaze riding Chris' rockets with colour-coded glows around them. They've managed to use the move and power up despite all odds! No X-Drive, no Ignite, just them. Everybody gets strong attacks in and Hibiki goes in for a finishing blow- and collapses. Elfnein had time to decontaminate everybody's relics except Hibiki's, who was stuck in the chrysalis with her. Hibiki struggles to get up while Adam charges up a massive beam attack from his mouth. At the sight of this the other five reach out and send their energy to Hibiki right as the blast hits her. As the smoke clears a triangular shield is projected from Hibiki's outstretched hand to block the attack which we recognise as Maria's. Her outfit is white with a rainbow aura around her. Further attacks from Adam are deflected with other various moves from her friends, she is able to use them because of her connection to them. Adam grasps her in his weird monster hands, crushing her. He will not tolerate this setback, it won't be long until the advent of the Custodians. We get it show, you're foreshadowing. Chris calls out to Hibiki to use her armour purge move, which detransforms the user in a big radial attack, which Hibiki does. As she runs up Adam's arm she apologises to her relic, saying she knows she's asking for the impossible but she needs one more transformation. The transformation chant is barely a song anymore, she's practically shouting it at this point. The alchemists' spirits swirl around her, speaking of one last gift. The transformation hits, or should we say transmutation. She is clad in alchemised gold and with a flurry of blows she carries Adam into the air before piercing right through him. With a final cursing of their futures, saying that all hope dies with him, he explodes. HALFWAY POINT We time-skip three days! Elfnein has fixed Hibiki's gear and is investigating something peculiar, she's trying to figure out how Hibiki could absorb the Divine Power. We see Ogawa lead a strike forcing rounding up the remnants of the Illuminati. Tsubasa's horrible grandfather muses to her (less horrible) father that maybe they should seek out divine power from themselves which sounds like a horrendously bad idea. And then it's finally time for Hibiki's Birthday part! Everybody's here and Shirabe made a ton of food from tomatoes (and also other stuff). It's delightful and everybody's having a good time. After a fun montage we see Hibiki stepping out onto the balcony and Miku finding her to bring her a drink. They discuss that it's a shame Elfnein isn't here, but also openly talk about Hibiki's worries about not being able to solve every problem, and Miku saying she'll always be there for her. They've come so far from season 1! Credits roll, it's nice to have a light finish to a season for once! ...that is a lot of runtime left though... There we go. Elfnein is going through the records of earlier seasons. Specifically Symphogear G where Hibiki was still walking around with relic shards in her chest that were slowly killing them. She got rid of those by getting caught in a purifying blast, which is of great interest to her. What if this purifying blast didn't just remove her relic infection but also freed her of "original sin"? Which she theorises is the same as the Curse of Balal! As she explains this to Commander Genjuro he looks up in shock. There was another person hit by that beam... the scene shifts back to the party, zooming in on Hibiki and Miku. And with that the season ends.
Review	Aaaaaah! I don't know what that cliffhanger will mean exactly yet but I just know it's going to be super dramatic! It felt kind of weird to only have one "stage" of finale this time around, but the fight against Adam had so many dramatic reversals that it still worked and was satisfying. Let's see those final scores for the season:
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: It was very good! But part of me did miss that second stage of escalation, but I guess if you have a twist like that every season it will start being less of a twist every time. And it was an excellent fight and excellent cliffhanger at the end. 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: Yes please on that 6 way unison song, that was so good. The little transition song on the Last Ignition was super good as well before it hits that opening theme. Excellent music all throughout that first half, I barely care that the second half didn't have songs. 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: The fakeout with Saint-Germain's gun, the multiple stages of "oh no, but wait!", the second half of the final episode being a Birthday party. Yeah, this was delightful chaos. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Perfectly clean, despite a solid amount of girls taking big hits, transforming and detransforming. Thank goodness! 9.4/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A worthy episode to go out on! It's a bit more clearly open-ended than the seasons so far, but it was an excellent time regardless. Let's see how the graphs did.

Overall Thoughts & Graphs / You love the graphs, right?! 😟

Goodbye Symphogear AXZ, I'm very glad that you managed to not show Hibiki's dad at all AND just fully killed off the horrible man you introduced.

The show really is changing its shape as it goes along, I feel like it's getting lighter yet wilder, and definitely more colourful. And I'm here for every single one of those developments.

I just wish we had still gotten a full concert again this season, I really missed that element.

Now, let's see some graphs!

• Gloriousness was pretty steady but quite flat in the middle of the season. That dip at episode 6 was a poorly handled forgiveness message that I really hated and hopefully not going to come up again in the next season (it didn't in the rest of this one, at least).
  
  
• Music was pretty solid throughout, which was always going to happen with this many group songs, but it never quite soared as previous seasons did. Where was my concert?!
  
• Narrative Chaos has never dipped that low, but recovered very nicely as the season continued.
  
• Sleaziness breaks a record for the most 10/10 episodes in a season so far. That's a good thing! But it makes the transgressions a lot more glaring. That shower scene in episode 1 stung though.
  
• The total scores look solid, kind of weird to not see a spike at the start or end, but I'll take it over a dip anywhere.
  
• The season averages back up my vague impressions quite well:
  
  A dip in chaos and music and a commendable improvement in the sleaze department while gloriousness ticks up a smidge.
  Only one left!

Next Up! / The stage is all set...

That was season 4 out of 5! That's right, the next season is going to be the finale and I am so excited to get to it. Join me soon as we close out this series with... Symphogear XV!