Symphogear Retrospective: Part 1 - Diving Off The Weeb End

Introduction / Wait, what's this now?

This is Symphogear! A weird, semi-obscure anime that I like slightly too much for reasons that I will go into in a bit. Because first, I want to quickly explain what I'm doing here, because it's something new for me!

What I will be doing is go through this series episode by episode, fail to briefly recap and review them and actually score each episode on a number of traits, both positive and negative. These are:

• 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: I like this show a lot, and this is the trait that most reflects this. Points are awarded if stuff happens that make a viewer go "oh hell yes!" This won't just be cool combat stuff, but probably mostly cool combat stuff.
• 🎶 MUSIC: This is a show about music! Well, saving the world by punching evil fuelled by song. But basically, there are a lot of songs in this show, and they're basically all diegetic. By which I mean actually happening in the world. It'd be weird not to highlight it, even if it wasn't also one of the things that I love about this show.
• 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: This is a weird one to grade! Also, this is a weird show, so that fits super well. Basically, Symphogear doesn't care about regular pacing. It regularly goes full throttle in getting stuff done, just going from development to development. A high score here is things being frantic in a good way, where it is possible to follow along (with a bit of effort). A low score is things devolving into too much/fractured nonsense, or I guess things being overly slow and boring, though I don't expect that to happen much.
• 🧼 SLEAZINESS: *sighs* I guess it's fair to bring this one in too. No show is perfect, and that goes double for anime about teenage girls. Symphogear doesn't start great on this scale, and we're going to have to cringe through some stuff here, but I'd say that is both worth it and it thoroughly gets better as the show goes on. In this case a low score is frustrating sleaze and a high score is a clean show, or one with restraint.

Meteoroid-falling, burning, and disappear, then…

Just look at that cool logo! What even is that? The silhouette of an angel? And... are those supposed to be piano keys? And a mysterious subtitle about meteoroids? That doesn't give us much at all!

Giving a brief introduction to the world of Symphogear would help keep the recaps of the first few episodes a bit sleeker, so here goes. Just assume that this stuff is slowly revealed to the viewers over the course of the first few episodes:

The world of Symphogear is a lot like our own contemporary world, maybe set back a few years based on how fancy phones are and our heroine being interested in buying physical copies of music. There are two critical differences though:

1. Monsters are harassing and attacking humanity on a regular basis, they are called Noise, wildly alien-looking monsters that regularly (but not systematically) appear as if out of nowhere to attack people.
   Their very touch is enough to kill people, causing both the person and the Noise to disintegrate (like they're made out of Antimatter or something?). Some of them are vaguely person-shaped, a lot of them are very much not and they can sort of fuse together to make stronger forms.
   
   
   Conventional weapons are basically entirely ineffective to Noise, and the existence of this menace is widely known and feared by humanity. There are shelters in place that people flee to when Noise show up (it is unclear and unimportant how these are protected).
   
   
2. The one weapon that does work against the Noise are the Symphogear. This is a closely held secret of the Japanese government (...screw the rest of the world, I guess?), they are ancient weapons (or usually just parts/shards of ancient weapons) that are activated by symphonic resonance of song to imbue girls with the power to fight the Noise.
   Yes, this means that our heroes are magical girls that literally sing inside of the universe of the show to transform and power their weaponry. It's delightfully ridiculous, and I love it!
   These weapons are a relatively new and unknown development within the government, the research is led by a small government agency, and is a closely guarded secret from the general public (...for some reason?).

Alright, I think that will do as a preamble, let's get this delightful and slightly problematic clown show on the road!

Episode 1: Awakening Heartbeat / "I think there's a curse on me"

Summary	We start with a sad schoolgirl (Miku) putting flowers on her best friend Hibiki's grave in the partially wrecked world as she narrates on how Hibiki never gave up. We are clearly being told we are in for a ride. Then we flashback two years. A fancy city, far less in ruins, we meet an alive Hibiki as she queues up to see a concert. Miku cancels last minute (family emergency) and we get a background detail about a Japanese girl rescued from a civil war in South America having gone missing... We cut to the performers that Hibiki is there to see, one is feisty and in control (Kanade), the other timid and nervous (Tsubasa). They are clearly not just there to put on a show, something sciency is going on, the fate of the world is mentioned, a weird relic in a lab is shown. After Kanade giving Tsubasa one last pep talk (that highlights how together they can do anything, because this show is far from subtle) the show starts. We just get a whole song from the concert, and it's great! The arena opens up dramatically, Hibiki cracks a glowstick to join in with the rest of the crowd, choreographed dancing, it's just a performance like you'd see it in any idol anime. It is only then that we cut back to the science-part, phonic gain is in the expected range but something goes critically wrong with the relic. An explosion goes off in the middle of the crowded arena, Kanade's look hardens, the Noise are coming. By which I mean they immediately descend upon the arena and start tearing into the crowd. A good chunk gets away, an also significant chunk gets disintegrated in a gruesome manner. Kanade transforms into a badass spear-wielding magical girl that charges the Noise without hesitation, Tsubasa transforms off-screen and is a cool sword-wielder. Hibiki is absolutely dumbstruck and in shock at the carnage going on around her. She falls down to the main floor of the arena (she had one of the cheaper tickets up on the wings of the arena). Kanade jumps in to save her from the noise, holding back an attack, her gear clearly well past its limit, this is killing her. Some shrapnel flies off of Kanade's symphogear and is thrown backwards, horrendously piercing Hibiki right in the chest. Kanade rushes over to catch her, and decides to sacrifice herself for the sake of Hibiki, a total stranger to her. As she sings her swan song she sacrifices her life and kills all of the Noise in the arena. Tsubasa takes this hard, but the focus is on Hibiki who is bleeding out. We cut to her on a surgery table as she proclaims in narration that she is alive. INSANELY, THIS IS THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE EPISODE Hardcut to the entrance ceremony of a music academy, Hibiki and Miku are classmates, roommates and still great friends. Hibiki is a big fan of Tsubasa, the surviving member of the duo. She reflects in narration on her surviving the Noise and whether the symphogear she saw were even real. We see the regular military unit ineffectively trying to fend off a Noise attack on the outskirts of a city, Tsubasa gets airdropped in and absolutely destroys the Noise. We don't see a detailed transformation but the focus of the fight is on her, she has hardened, gotten stronger but colder. As we cut back to the next day and Hibiki and Miku discussing that Noise attack we have Hibiki meet Tsubasa in the school cafeteria, turns out she goes to school here and she has the reputation of being hard to approach. Hibiki fumbles through their meeting with the usual comedy ineptitudes and rushes off after school to buy Tsubasa's new album! Clearly we are getting to the slow bit of the episode now, right? Wrong! Noise have attacked that exact neighbourhood and she has stumbled right into it. Tsubasa and the agency supporting her are still trying to triangulate where the Noise are exactly while Hibiki runs from the Noise with a small girl that she has rescued off-screen in tow. Hibiki tries to get away, but can't. In a final act of desperation a song comes to her, Kanade's transformation song, and she sings out. A beam shoots up in the sky, the science team immediately notices, a transformation is happening. A transformation with a signature similar to Kanade's Gungnir symphogear. Tsubasa is visibly distraught, but Hibiki is in pain as this weird transformation happens. As the transformation finishes she looks more like a shadowy beast than a girl and we cut to the credits.
Review	Either I'm very bad at summarising 23 minutes of television or so, so much happened for a first episode. And I arrogantly like to think it's the latter. We learned so much about the world, got introduced to Hibiki, Tsubasa, Miku and (briefly) Kanade. The stakes are made clear, the interest is sparked. I'm always caught off-guard by just how gruesome the Noise attack on the arena is portrayed as, and in general the show goes in for a far more serious and tragic mood at the start here. Still though, this episode was good enough to get me to push on when I first saw it, and I can still easily see why. The efficiency of storytelling on display is astonishing, and I could easily see how a regular anime would have spent 2-3 episodes cramming all of these events in.
Scores	6/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: As a first introduction to the world it's solid, but there weren't really any moments that gave me goose bumps. Closest we got was Hibiki's transformation at the end. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: On the one hand, there weren't really any standout tracks. On the other, we got a full idol song, Kanade's battle song, Kanade's swan song AND a battle song for Tsubasa. Quality is more important than quantity, but that's a whole bunch of pretty solid songs. 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: I promise, I did my best with the summary. I really, really did. There is SO much being thrown at the viewer that is just expected to keep up. 8/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: A pretty clean start! We have one rather disappointing shot straight down Hibiki's shirt to show off her gnarly chest scar right over her heart from where Kanade's shrapnell got stuck in her chest, but I guess it could have been a lot worse. And unfortunately it will get a lot worse. 7.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Does it make sense to take an average of the 4 scores? Probably not, but I wanted to anyway. And hey, that's a pretty excellent start!

Episode 2: Noise and Disharmony / "Kohinata Miku is the sunshine that warms me up"

Summary	We get a hyper-efficient 20 second recap before the opening credits. Hibiki is transforming, Tsubasa is shocked because it reads as Kanade's signature. The primary point of interpersonal conflict for the episode is clearly established. The opening! It's weird that first episodes don't really have these. It's a pretty standard opening as such things go, introduce all the characters, show some cool action, tiny hints at the primary antagonists, so far so standard. The song's nice though, and they go out of their way in one shot to have Tsubasa and Hibiki actually visually sing along with the song, hinting at the diegetic nature of songs in this show. The beastly aspect of Hibiki's transformation is no longer a thing, guess she got that under control. The girl she saved comments on how cool her new form is, Hibiki reaches out and takes her hand, starts to sing and starts to flee from the Noise using her new symphogear armour. Which, unlike Kanade's and Tsubasa's, does not come with a weapon. Her fleeing isn't very effective as her new form is far stronger than she expects, jumping out of the way turning into leaps into/off of buildings, etc.. When she is finally cornered she reflexive jabs out at the Noise, turning it to dust. She doesn't have time to reflect on this though, Tsubasa is here! And I mean she ARRIVES, crashing her motorcycle into the Noise that explodes dramatically, fancy flip, the works. After transforming she easily disposes of the Noise, deeply impressing Hibiki. We cut to the aftermath, Hibiki gets a hot drink, the little girl is reunited with her relieved mother, the mother gets to sign an NDA so she keeps quiet about the symphogear, Hibiki detransforms (back to her school clothes, yay restraint!), Hibiki gets handcuffed and taken into custody by the government agency (boo, restraints!). She gets taken to... her own school! Where an elevator takes her (comically) deep below it, the elevator shaft is huge and ancient-looking, as the doors finally open they reveal... a joyous welcome party! Hibiki is decuffed and we are introduced to the government agency (for now just remember Genjuro the boss and Ryoko the (annoyingly horny) chief scientist). HALFWAY POINT Hibiki returns home, Miku was worried but doesn't tie Hibiki's absence to the Noise attack she heard about on tv. There actually is a follow-up conversation about this, where we see Hibiki struggle with not being allowed to tell Miku about symphogears, Miku restating her worry, Hibiki explaining that Miku is her sunshine. You know, usual friend stuff. Dramatically countered by Tsubasa reminiscing about Kanade... in the shower *eye-roll* The next day Hibiki turns down a social invitation from classmates (don't worry, they'll show up again) because she has secret agency stuff. Tsubasa escorts her down again, and we finally get explained what is going on. Tsubasa owns the first relic, Heavenrend. A tiny shard of a legendary sword, encased in a pendant that powers her symphogear transformation (along with songs, obviously). Relics can only be activated by a very select few, called the Attuned, which makes it weird that Hibiki can activate one. The relic she uses are the shards of Gungnir that were lodged into her chest in episode 1 (Iron Man style!). As this is revealed to the cast, Tsubasa is upset. To her Gungnir belonged just to Kanade, she has a hard time opening up to Hibiki who is offering to work together with her as fellow symphogears, so she doesn't, at all. Fortunately, to break the awkward silence and outstretched hand, an alarm rings out through the base, the Noise are here! Tsubasa springs into actions, Hibiki wants to help too! Genjuro and Ryoko muse about how that isn't a normal thing for a random schoolgirl to take upon herself, but do not stop her. We get the full Tsubasa transformation sequence! Hibiki shows up to help, and seems to do okay, but it's very clear that Tsubasa both doesn't need or want her there. It even ends on a cliffhanger that Tsubasa admits that she wants to fight Hibiki! Oh no! Smash to credits! Wow, I had forgotten how creepy the credits are. Lots of broken mannequins and statues doing dramatic goth symbolism. *sighs* I guess it could have been worse. Though they could have dramatically cut down on the amount of visible nipples.
Review	Looks like we're finally getting a few brief moments to catch our breath! Whew! I guess there is a bit of an unwritten rule that we spend the first episode selling a show to people and the second episode actually explaining it, and I guess this counts as an explanation episode for Symphogear. So much less actually happens in this episode, but we get to learn a lot. A lot of new characters, an important new location, a lot of mechanical information about symphogear. At least it was bookended by two cool Tsubasa fights!
Scores	5.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Not enough going on here to really excite me. Though Hibiki being clueless about what is being explained to her is charming and endearing, it speaks so much to her sincerity. 6/10 🎶 MUSIC: We get two nice Tsubasa songs for her fight scenes and a nice swansong motif as Tsubasa remembers Kanade's sacrifice, but that's about it. Quite an underwhelming episode for music. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: In a way it's good that this was a slightly slower episode with less going on, but this isn't quite the mad pace that I'm here for! 6/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Speaking of not being here for things... between the needless shower scene, the pervy head scientist Ryoko (just implied, Hibiki's medical checkup happens offscreen) and the first appearance of the credits, yeah this wasn't great. 6.1/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Clearly an inferior episode to the first one. Humble beginnings, I guess!

Episode 3: Passing in the Night / "How can I come to terms with something I know nothing about?!"

Summary	We join Tsubasa and Hibiki mid-montage as they face the Noise. Tsubasa is effortless, Hibiki struggles,  but does her best. They don't cooperate at all. It is established that they have been working beside eachother for a month now (and the thing about them fighting that the last episode ended on is dropped like a brick again. Guess it was just a cliffhanger tease), the opening hits! Hibiki is dozing off while doing her homework, Miku is worried she's not getting enough sleep. Hibiki brushes it off with a "Don't worry, everything will be fine" which will become an astonishingly stable mantra of hers as the series continues. As she dozes off we flashback to the night where Tsubasa challenged Hibiki to a duel! We are getting to see this! Tsubasa's motivations become clear, she wants Hibiki to understand what it means to be a symphogear, to use her armed gear, Kanade's armed gear, the mighty Gungnir spear, in battle. Hibiki doesn't understand, she can't summon a spear. Tsubasa is upset, she doesn't understand and launches a full-blown attack at Hibiki that is stopped by (boss of their government division) Genjuro, who in a trowaway line is also revealed to be Tsubasa's uncle. Tsubasa cries covertly, she can not accept anybody replacing Kanade. Hibiki entirely misreads the situation and promises she can replace Kanade. They are clearly miscommunicating! Scene switch to Tsubasa alone in a temple, she remembers Kanade's sacrifice again, we do focus on her perspective this time and it is utterly heart-breaking. We better understand why Tsubasa is as focused on perfection now. Hibiki gets called in for symphogear stuff late at night, Miku offers to cover for her in exchange for the promise that they can go see the shooting stars together (which is somehow tied to Hibiki having her schoolwork in order). It's a cute exchange, and Hibiki confides in Miku on an abstract level. HALFWAY POINT In the base, Genjuro asks what Hibiki thinks of a radar overview of the city, Hibiki charmingly exclaims "Lots of blips", this is the point of the series where the audience gets to learn about Noise. I'm not sure why this had to be late at night either. Turns out that Noise are likely to have been a thing forever, and a reason for many of the myths in the world, but the string of recent and localised attacks are an oddity. The theory is that these are targeted attacks to get at Durandal, an almost complete relic that the agency is in possession of and keeping safe deep within the base. We get a brief scene with Tsubasa as she shows disinterest in her music career, which is just a front to power up relics I guess? It does highlight nicely that being conflicted about Hibiki isn't the only thing going on in her life. Hibiki and Miku have some school stuff together, but Hibiki gets called away again for symphogear stuff. Miku is worried, but continues not to push her for what is going on. What is going on is that the Noise are attacking a subway station, and we go from "Aww, they're struggling because of the secret" to "Aww yeah, let's do this!" in a single motion of Hibiki hanging up on her call with Miku, glancing at the Noise coming out of the station and going into *drum-roll* her first proper transformation scene! I forgot just how simple the transformations in season 1 really are. Tsubasa's from the previous episode was also quite utilitarian. Not in a bad way, just an interesting contrast to keep in mind. The fight starts simple enough, Hibiki sings, punches some Noise types we've already seen, she's told Tsubasa is en route and she just needs to hold out, she says she'll do her best. But as she fights (especially against a new type that uses explosive eggs that can also hatch into new Noise that keeps running away from her) frustration begins to show, at her having to stand up Miku for this, at not being able to go see the shooting stars with her. This isn't just in what she says either, her fighting style turns more feral, more brutal, she stops singing, she even regains some of the traits from the shadowy beast transformation we saw at the end of episode 1. As the new Noise escapes to the surface Tsubasa arrives and dispatches it easily. Hibiki calls out to Tsubasa that she has things she wants to protect. Tsubasa looks like she's about to react when... a mysterious figure rudely interrupts them! She is wearing the Nehushtan armour, the relic that we thought to have exploded during the prologue in episode 1.
Review	In many ways this feels like the second episode of catch-up after that hectic first one, we learn about the Noise (or as much as we're going to get for a good long while anyway), make the Hibiki-Tsubasa and Hibiki-Miku relationships clearer. It also is the first sign that this show doesn't do things arbitrarily, with both of the previous episodes' cliffhangers being addressed (or at least referenced). I had forgotten that the mystery girl (who we will soon learn is called Chris) already shows up in episode 3, that is still a pretty good pace. But overall, perhaps not a super great episode? We did see some nice solo Hibiki fighting though, both the regular way and the dark feral way, and I liked the opening montage a lot as well.
Scores	6/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Again, kind of underwhelming as episodes go. Tsubasa's entrance towards the end is solid though. And in a non-combat point, I love how much "Hibiki sincerely admitting she doesn't understand something" we're getting. 5.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Barely any songs at all this episode! We got the school song reiterated and a nice focus on Hibiki's combat song (before she turns dark) and of course Tsubasa sings during her bit as well, but not really any standouts. 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Wildly grabbing back to earlier cliffhangers and then having the audacity to end on an entirely new cliffhanger again? Yes please. And the montage was also really economical in catching us up. Not quite as hectic as episode 1, but I guess that might have been too much to ask for. 7/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: It's not as if we're seeing anything problematic, but head-scientist Ryoko sure continues to be uncomfortable. Allusions to Hibiki's virginity, biting her ear, it's all very cringy. 6.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Slightly better than the previous one! But during my first time watching it, I was really coasting on how much I liked the chaos of the first episode and how likeable Hibiki was to me.

Episode 4: Falling Tears / "I am a guardian who has pledged to defend humanity"

Summary	Oh hey, we're flashing back to how Kanade joined the agency. Her parents got killed by Noise during a relic excavation and she signs up for creepy experiments to become compatible with the Gungnir relic. Tsubasa just being compatible with the Heavenrend is apparently a freak occurence, the "normal" way is through lots of drugs and gruesome experiments. Genjuro, Ryoko and Tsubasa all witness Kanade going through her first transformation, who is very much pushing for this herself. It's so much darker than I remember. We see the pair fight Noise, train, decide to also sing as performers, it's a lot of establishing things that we didn't have time for up until now. Then just the title hits, no opening this episode. We jump back to the present, exactly where we left our previous episode. Tsubasa and (mystery girl named) Chris are raring for a fight, but Hibiki tries to stop them. Chris is human and she doesn't want to fight her if there's a chance they can come to an understanding. The other two don't listen to her and they begin to fight. Tsubasa is clearly outmatched, which surprises her. To even greater surprise, Chris summons Noise using a staff she was carrying. The Noise immobilise Hibiki, and both as a taunt and to show her hand Chris explains to Tsubasa that she is here for Hibiki. Tsubasa is just in her way. Tsubasa kind of has a thing for being a bystander that is unable to save her ally, so she goes all out. And I mean, all out. She is very clearly outmatched in speed and power, but holds her own. When she gets pushed back anyway she manages to use a technique to bind Chris into place and starts singing her swan song, which gives a great explosion of power at the expense of her own life. Chris is defeated, her armour cracked, we see it do very disconcerting things where it's trying to bury into her skin as she flees the scene. But of course the focus is on Tsubasa. She is hurt, like, bleeding a ton and collapsing into unconsciousness. The implication is dying. Hibiki screams her name. HALFWAY POINT We return to a hospital, where we're told they were barely able to save her life. She will need time to recover though, and not an amount that can be hand-waved. Swan Songs are a big deal and a bad idea. Hibiki is in the hospital waiting room and feels guilty about what happened to Tsubasa, but gets comforted by Ogawa, (Tsubasa's manager for the music side of her life, he is also just an operative of the government agency) that it isn't her fault. We get a concise explanation of Tsubasa (and Kanade's) past and what swan songs are, both for Hibiki's sake and the audience members who weren't pay attention until now. Hibiki begins to understand why Tsubasa went as far as she did and why Tsubasa wasn't happy when Hibiki told her she can replace Kanade. Hibiki is trying to process this across several scenes, we see her blame herself while the agency discusses why Chris was targeting Hibiki, speculating that maybe there is an informant in their midst. We stick with Hibiki though, to a scene where she tries to put on a brave/cheerful face to Miku and fails spectacularly. Talking things through with Miku (in vague terms again, of course) helps her find her resolve, we are clearly being told that Miku is good for her, and Hibiki decides that she will become stronger to protect the ones she cares about while staying true to herself. Cut to credits. But the credits this time are her starting her training! She goes to Genjuro (who she saw stopping Tsubasa's swordblow effortlessly in the previous episode) who puts her on a regimen of action movies, workouts and singing.
Review	In a way very little happened this episode. Tsubasa and Chris fight to a destructive draw, Hibiki deals with the fallout, that's it. But there is so much narrative stuff going on here this is sorely needed. We (and separately Hibiki) learn more about Kanade, swan songs get explained more, we are introduced to the idea that there is an opposing faction of sorts, Hibiki gets serious about protecting people. And through it all is Hibiki's relationship with Miku, woven through it intricately, always close and never the focus. Tsubasa's swan song is way, way more brutal than I remember though (and if I recall spawned quite a few memes), it really feels weird to revisit this first season knowing where the show will end up, which is a far brighter place.
Scores	6.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Not for the swan song or the fight leading up to it, but for the excellent training montage we get under the credits. It's mostly stills, but it conveys so much and was really well done. 6/10 🎶 MUSIC: Again kind of an underwhelming episode for music. We got the swan song again, by Tsubasa this time, which was very nice, and there was a nice instrumental reprise of the concert song from episode 1, but we didn't really have much in the way of fight-songs. (Of course Tsubasa was singing during most of her fight with Chris, and we do get to hear that, but still) 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Blind opening on a flashback is such a Symphogear-move. And I like the economy with which they go from the aftermath of the battle to the hospital to Hibiki gaining her resolve and starting her training. But this was a comparatively quiet episode. 4/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: A new noise type spits glue over Hibiki, resulting in a visual we really didn't need. To add insult to injury, we get an extended shot of Tsubasa's crotch as she struggles to get up after being hit by Chris that is just wildly unnecessary. At least Ryoko sticks to the side-lines this episode. 5.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid if unremarkable episode brought down by the sleaze factor quite a bit. I also really look forward to this show shedding its edgy seriousness, but it will unfortunately be a while yet.

Episode 5: From the Bottom of Darker Depths / "Why do you have to rely on a high school girl for help?"

Summary	Not much happens before the opening, Miku finds out through a note that Hibiki is skipping school for training and we see her making progress learning to punch. We cut to a villain having a sinister phonecall, speaking American, which is super weird and confusing to hear (because it's Japanese actors, and the English is... patchy) but kind of cool? Less cool is that she sure is completely naked. *rolls eyes* And she's being mean to Chris, who turns out was working for her. It doesn't appear to be a good arrangement for Chris, a lot of electrocution is involved. Back to Hibiki, who is skipping class to train, it kind of feels like the agency could have informed the teachers that she was allowed to do this somehow... oh well. Also, we get a nice explanatory conversation about the secrecy of the symphogear project and how people that are in the know look down on the agency. As a part of this conversation we see Ryoko come back from meeting some government minister. We cut to Tsubasa in a dreamscape, she's still seriously hurt and dreaming about Kanade. Her deciding on whether to be more like Kanade and embrace life (which is left ambiguous but a "yes" is strongly implied) causes her to wake up for the first time since the fight. We cut to the government minister Ryoko had a meeting with as he's being driven somewhere when he suddenly gets ambushed by American-speaking gunmen and killed. We hard-cut to Ryoko arriving at HQ, almost as if the show is trying to tell us something... she says her phone was broken and that's why they couldn't reach her, but she has the confidential orders that the just-assassinated minister gave her. The camera slowly pans down to reveal bloodspatters on the back of the case she is carrying them in... HALFWAY POINT We are introduced to Durandal, a complete relic in possession of the agency that is theorised to be the target of the Noise attacks in the neighborhood. It is going to be transported the next day to a secure facility. Hibiki will be running guard duty for it. During the short night she has a small argument with Miku over her absence and talks to (Tsubasa's manager) Ogawa about Tsubasa's condition slowly improving. Hibiki, the relic and Ryoko are in Ryoko's car for the transport. Four nondescript cars are running escort and Genjuro is up in the sky in a helicopter. Before long they get attacked, and the escort cars are pretty unceremoniously destroyed by Noise one by one. With the trap pretty thoroughly sprung, Ryoko suggests making a run for it to Hibiki, leaving the relic in the now-broken car. Hibiki refuses and they try to get away with the relic. When the Noise launch an attack at them it is Ryoko that blocks them, using some kind of magical barrier. No time for questions though, and Hibiki uses the precious time this has bought them to transform. She faces down the Noise and it is very, VERY clear that her training has paid off. She basically carves a path through them. Upon seeing this, Chris (who had been watching secretly from the side lines) joins the fight and still appears to outmatch Hibiki, swatting her away without issue. Something is happening to Durandal, it is reacting to something, resonating with something. An extraordinary amount of phonic gain is required to active such a complete relic, so Ryoko is taken off guard by this. As it breaks from its case and starts levitating, Chris jumps to make a grab for it... Only to be interrupted by Hibiki who gets there first! Sending out a weird pulse as she grabs hold of Durandal. Turns out this may not have been the best move on Hibiki's part, she goes full beast mode, uses a single Durandal strike to wipe out the remaining Noise, drive off Chris and exhaust all of her own power, passing out and untransforming. Ryoko, the agency and Durandal are there when she wakes up. Ryoko brushes off her part in what just happened and takes a call from some government official, cut to credits.
Review	In many ways this was a very focused episode. We see Hibiki focus on symphogearing (it's a verb now!) at the cost of her school life and it paying off, Tsubasa regains consciousness, a villain above/behind Chris is introduced and Ryoko is almost definitely the informant inside the agency and/or connected to this new villain. We didn't really get a lot of answers, but we did get a lot of good stuff!
Scores	7/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki having learned how to fight is treated as a big deal by the characters around her and it's presented rather epically, yes please! 5.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Barely any music! Hibiki's battle song is still great, but that and the school song in the background of Tsubasa waking up is all we got this episode. 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: The audacity of introducing the subtle hints of Ryoko being the informant just in the very same episode as her outing herself as some kind of witch, with at least the audience clearly being telegraphed that her and Chris are on the same side. Introducing and killing off that minister in a single episode, introducing our mystery villain being an absolute monster to Chris without any context. It's insane and exactly the type of nonsense this category is here for. 5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: To kick off the scene between Ogawa and Hibiki, Hibiki reads in a newspaper that it has been announced that Tsubasa (who, as a reminder, is a celebrity idol) is taking an extended leave for medical recovery. The first thing she sees in that magazine though as she browses through it, is a bikini idol, which flusters her. Like, what is the point of that? It feels so needless. Oh also, our villain is literally entirely naked save for over-the-knee stockings. Ugh, not a great episode for sleaze today. 6.5/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: I feel like the scores are slowly drifting apart, with the sleaze and music both getting worse but the chaos and gloriousness are improving... let's see if this trend continues I guess?

Episode 6: Where Omens Lead / "You're seriously asking a hospital patient if they're all right?"

Summary	We start our episode with Chris in the evil place and receive a name for our primary antagonist (her naked torturer from the last episode), Finé. Chris is frustrated that Hibiki was able to both wield and unleash Durandal's powers during the previous episode, while she had to train for months and months to be able to wield Solomon's Cane (which we presume to be (and in fact is) the staff she has been using the summon Noise). Opening credits! After the opening we, by some miracle, are still in the same scene with Chris. She fears Finé's desire to kidnap Hibiki is because she is planning to replace Chris, and we see some flashbacks of Chris' tragic war past. Her lamenting is interrupted by Finé joining her wordlessly, Chris throws Solomon's Cane at her, proclaiming she doesn't need it and can crush anybody on her own and prove herself. We're seeing Tsubasa struggle with her continued recovery, she can still barely walk. Through the window she sees Hibiki run track with Miku (I guess the hospital is also at the school? ...sure), jealousy clear on her face. After their workout we have a nice scene between Miku and Hibiki where they basically make up for the misunderstandings and growing tension between the two. Hibiki promises to take Miku out for pancakes. ...the only downside about this scene is that *sighs* it's of the two of them in the bath. It's vaguely justified by it allowing for Miku to discover Hibiki has a lot of recovering wounds and built up muscle, but still. We really, really didn't need that. Cut to the agency, with a nice long pan down the weird elevator shaft. They are upgrading security at the base to safeguard Durandal, the budget for which now passed because the minister that died during the last episode was no longer blocking it. Ogawa is doing something agency-related (some kind of raid? maybe sniffing out the mercenaries that attacked the minister) and calls Hibiki for a favour to do in his place, presumably something related to Tsubasa. This causes her to have to cancel on Miku again which she appears to take in stride, but who knows? We cut to Hibiki visiting Tsubasa in the hospital, she is shocked when she enters her room, but we don't get to find out quite yet because Tsubasa is standing behind her, still in her hospital robe. Hibiki explains that she assumed Tsubasa had been kidnapped based on the state of her room, which Tsubasa gets flustered about. Turns out she's just been kind of a slob these past days? Weeks? It's the first real cute bonding moment between the two. HALFWAY POINT During the break Hibiki helped Tsubasa clean up her room. Tsubasa is embarrassed by the whole thing and even compliments her on how Hibiki has been doing in her absence because she read the reports. Meanwhile Miku is picking up a book at the library (a chore she established earlier when assuring Hibiki that it was fine that she had other plans, hilariously/cutely the book she is picking up is called "Be Honest With Yourself"), but it just so happens that the library is right across from the hospital wing and she can clearly see Hibiki and Tsubasa bonding! With a sad sigh she puts the book back on its shelf. Back with Hibiki and Tsubasa, they talk about why Hibiki fights. She isn't entirely sure, either to help people or because she feels obligated after Kanade's sacrifice. They even touch upon her concerns over her losing control when wielding Durandal and how she can't summon an Armed Gear from her symphogear (like Kanade's spear or Tsubasa's sword). It's a good scene and really makes the two grow closer to each other. Miku decides to go eat pancakes by herself and opens up to the cook about her problem, eventually resolving to confront Hibiki after all. Meanwhile the conversation between Hibiki and Tsubasa wraps up, this might have been the longest conversation we've had in the show so far, wow! ...rather rudely, Hibiki suggests that they could go eat pancakes at the same place she stood up Miku to (which Tsubasa also can't really go to, since she's still hospitalised). Fortunately this doesn't quite run the risk of turning into a soap drama, because Chris is directly attacking the agency in broad daylight. Hibiki gets called to the scene and starts closing in on Chris when she runs into Miku, who she tries to warn off but it's too late. She gets hit by a stray attack from Chris. She isn't badly hurt, but definitely roughed up, and there is another attack incoming, an entire car is thrown her way! Hibiki does the only thing she possibly can, and without hesitation, transforming (we're skipping the sequence) and catching the car. Miku is learning some context today! Especially as Hibiki casually tosses the car to the side. After a heart-breaking apology to Miku she rushes off to face Chris. After luring Chris away from Miku she starts spouting out personal information about herself in an effort to forge a bond with Chris, who finds this horridly naive. At the same time Hibiki does WAY better at dodging Chris' attacks than previous showdowns. Chris is getting furious at her audacity and strikes out with all her might. Not only does Hibiki shrug off the attack, she is trying to multitask, gathering phonic energy to summon her Armed Gear. She even effortlessly catches Chris' whip attack and rushes in for the attack, with a single punch cracking Chris' armour and presumably ending the fight. Miku looks on from a safe distance and sheds a tear at what her friend has become.
Review	Such a comparatively slow episode! It's almost jarring. But wow, I sure had forgotten that Miku finds out about Hibiki's this early. This feels like the kind of grand reveal to put at the end of your season (or Spider-Man film :P), and I'm so excited that we're getting it this early. I guess with any other show I'd be worried that Miku would now also join the squad (even in just a civilian capacity) and we'd get all the explanation stuff again. But surely Symphogear wouldn't do that kind of nonsense...
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki outclassing Chris is partially framed as a bad thing, but it is still so very satisfying to see her hard work having paid off. And just the reveal of her symphogear form to Miku, it was great! It feels like the show is figuring out what it wants to be. ...for this category anyway. 5/10 🎶 MUSIC: ...did we have anything beyond Hibiki's battle song here? I know we only really had the one fight, but still. I didn't even catch any fun instrumental remixes or anything, kind of underwhelming. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: On the one hand the first 70% of this episode was very traditionally paced, with a clear narrative structure (mostly centred around Hibiki and Tsubasa growing closer), but wow that final burst of action clawed some points back on the chaos scale. 4.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Honestly, it's not even as if we got to see all that much in the bathing scene, but it just... feels icky, especially with Hibiki restating in her barrage of personal information to Chris that she is 15. It just feels so very unnecessary and bad? I'm not here for it. 6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Not quite as bad as episode 4 but still a pretty underwhelming score, mostly off of the sleaze and the underwhelming music. Let's see if we can salvage this, shall we?

Episode 7: Fate Just Keeps Firing / "When do you plan on living up to my expectations?"

Summary	We continue EXACTLY where the last episode left off, with Miku expressing "Hibiki" in concern. It's just the last 8 seconds of the previous episode, then wham to the opening. Chris slowly gets up from Hibiki's punch, her armour again recovering in a creepy organic manner, and muses that that punch was almost as strong as Tsubasa's swan song. Hibiki makes no move to follow up with another attack though, again trying the diplomatic route. In doing so she even gets Chris' name, which is a start I guess. Chris goes on the offensive, but Hibiki doesn't really seem phased by the attacks. As a seeming last resort Chris detonates the relic armour around herself, sending shards of it flying at Hibiki. This isn't her trump card though, her actual goal is to sing out (the first time she has done so that we get to see) and transforms into a proper symphogear rather than just a relic user. (Her relic is called Ichaival, which is unlikely to come up again, but the agency recognises it by the waveform). To Hibiki this is just another sign that they are the same, to Chris this is almost an admission of defeat since she hates singing and would really rather not have used this power. Her song rocks though, and her armed gear (various types of fire arms, from crossbows to miniguns to missile pods) are brought to bear against Hibiki who can't do much except dodge them as best she can. As the smoke of her last salvo clears and she catches a breath a large metal object blocks where she expected Hibiki to be standing, she incorrectly calls it a shield and is corrected, by Tsubasa, explaining that it is her sword, that she is standing on top of. Now that's more like it! Tsubasa asks Hibiki for help, very much a first, as she starts to engage Chris. Chris is caught off-guard, less by Tsubasa having shown up and more by her fighting style being so different (she still uses her cool modular sword, but it's a thinner form that she didn't use against Chris before, making her far more agile). Chris appears to be on the backfoot, even without Hibiki's help, and Tsubasa agrees with Hibiki that she would much rather not fight Chris. Before she can act upon this though, 3 Noise projectiles (we've seen these in past episodes, they're small-ish Noise twisted up into missiles of a sort) rain down from the sky. The first two take out Chris' miniguns, the third is clearly aimed for her but Hibiki jumps in at the last second and saves her, getting a bit hit herself. The perpetrator reveals herself, it's (obviously) Finé, who mocks Chris for her failure. Chris objects, saying they don't need Hibiki, she can put an end to war and unite humanity as Finé wishes. Finé isn't having any of it though, declaring that she is done with Chris. She recovers the shards of Chris' armour that she jettisoned, summons some distraction Noise and warps out, Chris chases after her in disbelief. Now that we have Chris' name the agency looked her up, turns out she was on the agency's radar already as a potential Attuned (the people that can wield symphogear) and disappeared two years ago. On a monitor we see a group of agents escort Miku into the facility. HALFWAY POINT?! No, we're 8 minutes in. But this is where the ad-break is, because screw the rules? During a checkup with Dr. Ryoko (with a big scanner, pleasantly clean) that reveals Hibiki is fine but exhausted, she expresses worries about Miku and what is going to happen to her. Turns out, nothing much. Just a non-disclosure form. When Hibiki comes home Miku is upset with her though. Less about the whole symphogear thing and more about it having been a secret from her. We cut to Chris, roaming the city at night, wondering why Finé abandoned her and uttering frustration at Hibiki. She has a little adventure where she sees two children, misreads the situation as bullying and ends up helping them find their dad. Inconsequential on the surface, but the subtext about reconciliation is very, very blatant. So let's cut back to Miku and Hibiki and see if they can figure that out too. And of course they don't, not yet anyway. Hard to blame them. We cut to a scene of Ryoko explaining symphogear in narration, as she muses on its strengths and weaknesses, while also weirdly recapping the show up until this point? Something that is focused on a lot is how Hibiki is special, unique even, due to the relic being embedded in her chest Iron Man style, giving her far more potential than an Attuned. Is this why Finé wanted to kidnap her so badly? Miku is ignoring Hibiki at school, as some of their mutual friends notice and start theorising about it Miku storms off the roof, as Hibiki chases after her and confronts she declares that she can't be friends with Hibiki anymore. This hurts Hibiki more than any fight or disaster she has been in up until now. Cut to credits. We get a scene after the credits (the first so far) of Chris interrupting a phone call Finé is having (with her mysterious American contacts), demanding an explanation of her abandonment. Finé sighs and summons Noise to attack her. Finé taunts her, saying that with what Chris was doing there was no way she could have ended any wars, let alone all wars. She materialises the Nehushtan armour around herself (gold on her compared to silver on Chris, and hopefully becoming her new outfit rather than have her be naked all the time), babbles something about living forever and her plans almost being complete, before Chris flees under the noise attack and the episode ends.
Review	When you get down to it this is an episode about two relationships breaking down and falling apart. Miku and Hibiki's as well as Chris and Finé's. In both of them we follow only one character's internal reasons (Hibiki and Chris respectively), leaving the motivation of the other pretty nebulous. ...although it's not an unsafe bet that Finé's motivation is just that she's crazy and evil and Chris has just outlived her utility to her. I'm weirdly annoyed at this cliffhanger since it's such an emotion-based one, I'm fine with it if it's a twist in a combat thing coming up right at the end, but here I just want the sad people to get along again already!
Scores	7/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Tsubasa blocking Chris' attack was an excellent reveal and the sudden twist of Chris being a symphogear user as well was great. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: Ooh, that's more like it! We got a nice battle song from Hibiki and Tsubasa, and a surprise one from Chris that was a lot more rock-y. Also, Chris was humming to herself while trying to help those kids find their dad, suggesting maybe she has complicated feelings about singing rather than just hating it. 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: In many ways this was almost too much chaos. Whirling through an excellent fight full of twists and turns, just to have a slower, longer second half that crescendos (right before and then right after) the credits with somebody storming off. It's messy, but still (just) on the good side of it :P 7/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Are my standards lowering? Ryoko had some mild sleaze going on to fluster Hibiki and Finé was obviously still naked, but nothing felt particularly exploitative or bad. Even the brief moment between Chris launching the Nehushtan armour at Hibiki and transforming into a symphogear, in which she is technically naked, also isn't lingered upon or given any problematic focus. 7.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A weird episode but a good one? That average is higher than anything we've seen since episode 1, but mostly I'm just sad about Hibiki and Miku.

Episode 8: No Shadows in the Sunlight / "Kanade was much better than me at cheering people up"

Summary	It's raining and Miku can't sleep, she's having a rough time of it as well. We have a quiet moment where we can see Hibiki is awake in the other bed and doesn't say anything. It's sad. So we hardcut to symphogear-Chris being chased by Noise in the city, only just defeating them before detransforming and collapsing in an alleyway. Only to be spotted by Miku (after the transformation bit) who had gone out to clear her head (presumably, this whole episode so far has been dialogue-free except for Chris swearing at Noise). The opening hits! During the morning, Genjuro calls Hibiki right before class to explain that there was Noise activity in the city during the night, they were even able to tell that it was Chris fighting them. As she hangs up and heads to class she notices Miku is absent. When asked by their friends she explains that Miku left before her... Cut to Miku, who is nursing Chris back to health, right as she wakes up from having passed out. Chris is sceptical, but it's hard to be suspicious of a saviour this innocent. She thanks Miku, and comments on her being so quiet, at which Miku opens up about her having messed up her friendship with Hibiki. As Miku and Chris open up to each other, we see Tsubasa (still using a crutch to get around) try to cheer up Hibiki. We're doing the neat parallel scenes that are roughly about the same thing again! Except Chris' scenes come with a bonus(?) of some more of her tragic backstory. How she was alone after her parents died as they were half a world away from home, and the implication from the visuals we are shown is that she was basically trafficked, sold off and assaulted. As Miku and Chris open up to each other more, they exchange names, and Miku expresses that she wants to be Chris' friend. Chris is taken off guard by the idea, "after all she has done to her." Sounds like Chris does recognise Miku from a few episodes ago after all. Before they can continue a siren rings out, a Noise attack! Genjuro and Tsubasa speak on the phone, he orders her not to engage because she hasn't fully recovered yet, Hibiki manages to convince her comrade that this is the right idea and heads out on her own. Meanwhile, we see that Miku and Chris are right in the center of the Noise attack (Miku took Chris to the pancake shop downtown rather than back to the music academy). Chris is confused by what's happening, Miku is confused that Chris doesn't know the Noise siren. Chris makes up her mind and runs towards the threat rather than away from it. HALFWAY POINT Chris feels responsible for the Noise attacks, which I guess she might have been, we don't really know yet. As the Noise close in on her she tries to transform and fails, having a coughing fit from being out in the rain all night. After all, you need to sing to transform. She is saved at the last second by... Genjuro?! Huh, I was expecting Hibiki. He does a fancy thing where his impact knocks up a piece of the pavement to block the Noise, because anybody other than symphogear users are disintegrated on the touch. After jumping the both of them to a nearby rooftop (which I guess he can just do?!), Chris catches her breath and tries to transform again. This time it works, and we see her transformation sequence for the first time! She urges Genjuro to worry about other people in need, that she can take care of herself, and makes that very clear as she leaps off the building and starts engaging the Noise, drawing them in to focus on her (and taking out whole swaths of them). Hibiki is still en route, but is distracted by a scream coming from a condemned building, she rushes in, ready to help and is ambushed by a weird new octopus-like Noise. She just manages to dodge out of the way, and is about to call out when a hand covers her mouth. It's Miku! Who shows her a message she has hastily typed on her phone that the Noise only reacts to loud sounds. ...such as singing to trigger Hibiki's transformation. We sure are being shown a lot of downsides to song-based powers today. Hibiki and Miku start to talk back and forth using text messages (just showing it to each other on their phones) but we aren't shown what they are writing each other yet. Hibiki looks worried, Miku looks... happy? content? Resolute! She whispers an apology into Hibiki's ear, and as her voice gets louder and louder proclaims that she will fight too. Intentionally drawing the attention of the large Noise and running off, giving Hibiki a chance to transform. Hibiki leaps after Miku, as she does so (Miku is fast, she was on the track team, after all, and Hibiki had to get a civilian to safety that I glossed over) she reflects on how she isn't the only one fighting. We cut to Miku, who is finally running out of stamina, as she has a harder and harder time staying ahead of and dodging the Noise. She's not giving up though, even as the road they are on crumble from the Noise's impact and they both tumble off of a cliff face. Hibiki arrives in the nick of time, defeats the octopus with a single punch and catches Miku. Hooray! Hibiki untransforms after they land, and the mood lightens. They finally, finally are honest with both each other and themselves. How they were both scared just now but had faith in the other to do their part. How Miku hadn't been angry about the secrets, just worried Hibiki would get hurt again like on the day of the concert. It's a scene that has been long overdue, but the relief is immense (both for them and for me). They finish off this cute scene by taking a picture together to show each other how smudged their faces are. We cut to the clean-up the agency is doing down town, Hibiki confessing to Genjuro that Miku saw a LOT of her symphogearing (Genjuro seemed fine with it), Ryoko arriving late as usual, Miku asking after her friend she got separated from... by which she means Chris, who she mentions by name. Genjuro keeps a straight face, and only tells her that she isn't on the list of casualties and that she'll probably be able to get in touch with her soon (we get a quick cut of Chris standing by the waterfront to punctuate this, efficient!). We cut forward to Hibiki and Miku, back in the same bed again, they have clearly made up and even framed the picture of that day. Roll credits!
Review	That's more like it! Hibiki and Miku are supposed to get along, they (and their relationship) are the heart of the show, after all! I'm so very relieved that their falling out only lasted as long as it did, different shows probably would have spent a lot more time on this. And I really liked the way they had Chris meet Miku and Genjuro rather than anybody she has faced in battle like Hibiki or Tsubasa. Though that will undoubtedly change soon.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: There we go! A last-minute rescue as climactic moment of a chase that we all see coming but love to see anyway. That's the stuff. I don't even care that the rest of the episode was slower. 6.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: We "just" get Hibiki's and Chris' battle songs, but they're done well and the scenes they are under last a long time which is good so we can listen to more of the song. There's also a nice, quiet instrumental remix in the conversation early in the episode between Tsubasa and Hibiki (of Tsubasa's battle song). 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Same score as the last episode, but for opposite reasons. This one slightly undershot the perfect amount of chaos (whereas the previous one overshot), but it was still solid! Hibiki just running right into Miku was especially chaotic in a great way. 8/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: ...is this, is this the first entirely clean episode? Oh wait, no. There is some unnecessary stuff where Miku changed Chris into her gym shirt (off-screen) because her clothes were drenched and she inadvertently flashes Miku. It's kind of an eye-roll, but still not a very egregious one. And I'm beyond relieved that we didn't see much of Chris' past traumas that would need to be discussed in this bullet point. 7.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: The previous episode thought it was second-best, well now it's third-best. I'm pretty sure that we'll top the opening episode before long at this rate. Keep 'em coming!

Episode 9: Protector's Song / "I want to sing to all the people of the world"

Summary	We're starting in a flashback / dream, Tsubasa is working on her bike at a military base when Kanade interrupts her and talks about her singing. I had really forgotten how much Kanade is still in this season. Turns out the flashback was Tsubasa spacing out during her final medical checkup in the big scanner, she's back to full health and cleared for duty. Time for the opening! Hibiki is showing Miku the underground base, sounds like she's being assigned as some kind of helper? They run into Tsubasa, which is the first time they have really met. They get along well, cracking some jokes at Hibiki's expense (which Tsubasa initiated, even. Which Ogawa is surprised by). Either way, it's Hibiki's two worlds colliding, it's a nice scene, and the three girls decide to hang out together on a "date" soon. Then Ryoko butts in to turn it into an opportunity to allude to her grand love life that made her start her research into the relics in the first place. Can't have it all, I guess. Genjuro was notably absent and we see him approach a high-rise building, looks like he tracked down Chris and came with an offering of food and a request to talk. As they eat together he tells her her own backstory (kind of a weird move, but okay). Turns out her parents were musicians who were helping an NGO in an unspecified South American country, they got killed and Chris was taken by the local gangs for a time. When she was rescued she was flown back to Japan where Genjuro had planned to take her under his wing as an Attuned candidate (apparently musically inclined folk make for better Attuned? I guess that kind of makes sense), but she disappeared as soon as she got there. All this is a very roundabout way of him offering his help. Chris isn't having any of it though, as she somersaults out of the (closed) window, transforms mid-jump and runs away. We cut to Tsubasa, Miku and Hibiki as they spend time together, somebody really went all-out designing new "day out" outfits for all of them. We get a full montage of their day, shopping, movie, ice cream, some fan-dodging because Tsubasa is a famous idol, and ending in karaoke! HALFWAY POINT After the long day (we get a bit of day out wrap-up after the break as well, but nothing big) we join the three of them the next day where Tsubasa tells them she's going back to performing as well. She even gives the two of them free tickets, the show is in 10 days... at the same arena the attack in episode 1 took place in. This is going to be something of a trial for both her and Hibiki, but Hibiki seems ready to face it head-on. 10 days... that's what? 2-3 episodes probably? Of course not, hard cut to Tsubasa finishing her final rehearsal on the day of the performance. Looks like she is getting some attention as an artist from different labels, and she's not saying no (like she used to), but also not yes yet. We join Hibiki as she is running late for the concert. Genjuro calls, there is a Noise attack. Hibiki requests that he doesn't pull Tsubasa out of her concert and lets her handle the Noise. Genjuro asks if she can handle it, Hibiki gives an empathically shouted yes, so it's on! Wait, this is awesome. We are getting two scenes woven together, Tsubasa's concert and Chris fighting off wave after wave of Noise, with Hibiki closing in as well. During Tsubasa's first verse, Hibiki arrives, saving Chris from a particularly nasty attack by kicking the Noise to dust last-second. Chris quickly returns the favour as Hibiki over-extends and gets caught off-guard by a large Noise's ranged attack, but in the end the two of them are able to overcome it. After the song ends we stick with Tsubasa, who holds an emotional announcement to the crowd that she has missed singing so much and that she decided to also start singing overseas. Her allowing herself this is so much growth for her, it's so nice to see. We cut to Chris who has clearly fled the battle after the Noise were under control, having super mixed feelings about having fought together with Hibiki and cursing Finé for how things turned out this way. We end on a nice shot of the moon and roll the credits.
Review	So much different stuff in this! At its core it was about Tsubasa choosing who she wants to be post-recovery, but we got a lot of Miku, a lot of Chris, some excellent fighting. Just, yes. This is why I love this show so much, basically all of this worked for me.
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The fight and the way it was interspersed with the concert was so cool! Not quite "catching Miku out of the air" cool, but definitely a highlight so far. Also, the montage was again a delight. (The previous one was of Hibiki training) 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: Tsubasa's concert is the song we hear during the combined setpiece, so unfortunately we don't get any Hibiki or Chris songs, but it totally works and yay! Also, we just get a whole over-serious (in a funny way) karaoke song out of her as well before the break, a shame we didn't get to see Hibiki or Miku's (they're in a music academy, after all) but it's Tsubasa's episode, so I guess fair's fair. 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Having such a slow first half, spiced up only by Chris throwing herself out of a window, that then turns into an excellent montage, that is just the calm before the Noise storm for a glorious set piece (that we just fast forward to) is just peak Symphogear. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Getting cleaner and cleaner! We had some superfluous sideboob at the start when Tsubasa gets out of the medical scanner, but honestly? Thoroughly fine. 8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: And so episode 1's throne is toppled, wow that really was a good episode huh? I'm impressed with how seamlessly they merged Hibiki-Miku and Hibiki-Tsubasa into a trio for this episode, it felt almost completely natural. It felt rough for a bit in the middle of the season there, but I am having so much fun again.

Episode 10: What Only Clasped Hands Can Create / "You're not as alone as you think you are"

Summary	We see Finé's base of operations being surrounded by military folk, maybe the mercenaries that killed the minster for her? They all look pretty generic, which is bad news for their chances. Speaking of bad news, we cut to the interior where Ryoko is working on... something science-y involving Hibiki's files. She gets rudely interrupted by the attack force, by which I mean they shoot her as they barge in. Disconcertingly, she heals herself and gets back up, taunting them about how they're amateurs. They open fire again and the opening starts. After the opening we have a complete change of pace (of course), with Hibiki in Miku after class talking about how they've been at Lydian (the name of the music academy they've been attending for two months now) and how it really feels like home. ...and then the scene just ends? Okay! Cut back to Finé's mansion where Chris rushes in (I guess she found out about the attack somehow?) only to find the room full of dead mercenaries, she's confused at what is going on. A noise (not Noise) behind her, she turns to see Genjuro. She starts to explain that it wasn't her as agents rush into the room and secure the scene. Genjuro doesn't need convincing though, he's well aware that it wasn't her. he starts to explain that it was somebody that has been with them and with Chris since the beginning when one of the agents finds a farewell note pinned to one of the mercenary's corpses, when he removes it he trigger a boobytrap, blowing up the whole room! Genjuro casually saves Chris from falling debris and most of the agents appear to be alright as well, but as Chris asks and we all wonder, what the hell is going on? Chris is also mad at Genjuro for saving her, but he manages to get through to her and explain his convictions. Not quite enough for her to come back with them, but baby steps. She does accept a communicator so they can reach her (that doubles as a rail pass and limited-budget credit card, how practical!) in exchange Chris gives Genjuro a word that Finé used when alluding to her evil plan, Kadingir. Genjuro seems to know what it is though, and is concerned about Finé referring to it as complete. Back at base he has a videocall with Hibiki and Tsubasa where they discuss next steps, Ryoko was also supposed to be on the call but she's late. Hibiki casually mentions that she isn't worried about her because of the magic she can do, which Tsubasa is confused about. Before an explanation in either direction can happen though, Ryoko joins the call (with just audio). Genjuro wastes no time and asks her about Kadingir, which Ryoko explains is a Sumerian concept related to divinity, a tower reaching to the heavens. The camera switches to her perspective and she's still very badly hurt from her showdown with the goons, sitting in the stairwell of an abandoned building somewhere, doing her best not to bleed out. As the agency starts to research Kadingir in earnest, suddenly four huge flying Noise appear over the city. Time to get to work! Tsubasa rushes out of her manager's office with a motorcycle helmet. Hibiki parts ways with Miku, asking her to go to the school where it's safe (since that is where the base is located there is also a large Noise shelter). Miku protests, she wants to be more involved, but can be convinced. As the two symphogear-wielders rush to the scene (as of yet untransformed) the huge flying Noise all seem to be heading for the same place, the Tokyo Sky Tower, raising the suspicion that perhaps this is the tower Kadingir refers to? If it is they could have featured it up until this point more... though, come to think of it, isn't it in the opening? Hmmm... we end on a shot of the four airborne leviathans circling the tower. HALFWAY POINT We return to the same shot, but now the leviathans open up and just a flood of regular Noise start raining out of them. At the same time hundreds of flying Noise also take off from the top of it. Hibiki, who was running on foot but then got picked up by a helicopter, dives out of it and transforms in air. Are... are we sure this is episode 10? This feels very, very finale-esque. She divebombs her way straight through the first of the four, destroying it. Tsubasa also arrives, transforming in a sweet flip from her motorcycle, and launches an energy-based swordstrike-blast thing at the closest leviathan. It decimates nearby noise in its path but doesn't reach high enough to hit the leviathan. With their helicopter now destroyed (by the Noise) they don't really have a way to counter these things, if only they had- Chaingun fire rings out and several regular flying Noise are taken down, Chris is here! Genjuro called her in. She's being stubborn/tsundere about it all, but she is legitimately here to help, even if she isn't quite ready to be a team player yet. Airborne swarms are her specialty, and Tsubasa and Hibiki work together to keep the ground clear. After some bonding and planning (very reluctantly on Chris' part) they come up with a plan where Chris charges up a super powerful attack to take down the remaining leviathans, but during the charging phase she will be defenceless so the other two will need to protect her. The plan works and the day is won! Chris is still being stubborn about it, but Hibiki is stubbornly being cheerful right back at her. Their revelry/shenanigans are interrupted by a call from Miku, the school is under attack! Smash to credits!
Review	I love this show! Everything is just ramping up, and it's both mad and great in equal measure. When I started this rewatch project I was worried I had condemned myself to a very rough start as the season started off rather underwhelmingly, but they are soaring now. The team has come together, the first big threat has been defeated and the stakes are clear. We somehow have a whole three episodes left, but it sounds like we're ramping up to a finale at a breakneck pace.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Casually jumping out of a helicopter to punch your way through a gigantic monster, transforming on the way down, Ryoko's taunting, Tsubasa's flip off the motorcycle, everything about Chris' big attack, yes. So many small parts coming together and making me happy. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: Pretty standard fare, with a nice focus on the school song at the start of the episode to get it some more points on top of the three battle songs we've all heard before. And then Chris starts charging her big attack and sings an entirely new song for it?! Hell yeah! 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: I can not stress how much this is already having finale feels. Despite Finé being unaccounted for at the moment and the stakes not being that clear (something-something tower and divinity?), it's ramping up everything at the same time and it's exactly what I'm here for. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Speaking of what I'm here for, this was just a clean episode? Like, sure, Chris had a subtle boob jiggle once, but I don't think I'm going to dock points for that. Took 'em long enough (and I know they'll probably sink back down before long) but yay! 8.4/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: ...are we just going to climb forever now? Is that what we're doing? Because I'd be down for that, you know.

Episode 11: Shoot the Moon / "Your ambition's so petty it hurts!"

Summary	The military is defending the school, or at least distracting the Noise while the students flee to the shelter. Miku is doing her part in coordinating the evacuation. The established classmate friends of Hibiki and Miku get a gruesome reality check as a soldier is struck down right in from of them. Smash to the opening! Miku is in trouble but gets rescued by Ogawa, they flee together and take the long, long elevator down to the shelter and base. Ogawa calls Genjuro to update, mentioning that he has figured out what Kadingir is. Before he can tell Genjuro though, the call gets cut off and Finé smashes into the elevator. She is annoyed that he has figured it out, because he is correct. This long elevator shaft they are riding is Kadingir, the tower is underground! Ogawa tries to fight her, but is hopelessly outmatched. Miku tries to help, but gets little else than mockery and an explanation that the agency was just using her and the other music academy students for their phonic gain to experiment on relics. Oh, and a slap across the face. If Hibiki finds out about that... Things are looking dire, but fortunately(?) Genjuro shows up, busting through the ceiling and addressing Finé as Ryoko. Apparently Genjuro had figured out they were the same person a while ago and was trying to counter her schemes without revealing his hand. They fight and it very, very clearly favours Genjuro. Finé is only able to get the upper hand by calling out to him in her Ryoko voice and stabs him right through the gut. Not fatally, but he's definitely out of the fight. With this last obstacle out of the way, Finé/Ryoko claims her prize, the Durandal sword that Hibiki wielded a few episodes ago. We cut to agency members that are regrouping and treating Genjuro, sounds like most people didn't know it was Ryoko that was the traitor in their midst. They manage to establish contact with Hibiki and this is where we find out that we flashed back a bit and this is the call we saw Hibiki get at the end of the last episode. Right after Miku's single sentence of explanation the call is cut off by a technical blackout. HALFWAY POINT Hibiki, Tsubasa and Chris run up to the school in ruins, night has set and the moon is out, making for a dreary sight. There are no signs of life, Noise or human, except for one person standing on the edge of a building, Ryoko. Chris isn't fooled though, and calls her by her real name, Finé. With her cover blown anyway she dramatically (but without a full sequence) transforms back into her Nehustan armour Finé form. Hibiki refuses to grasp the situation quite yet and asks after Ryoko and Finé launches into backstory mode. Ryoko's body is what she is using, but Ryoko the person died 12 years ago as she witnessed Tsubasa accidentally activate the Heavenrend relic shard (which is now her symphogear), to replace it with Finé's revived personality and abilities. She is a Sumerian priestess from ancient times that Ryoko was a descendant of. The group is obviously not too pleased with this news but doesn't have much time to speak back to her, let alone act (they aren't even transformed yet), especially as Finé begins to yell that this whole thing was for the sake of the Kadingir and the earth begins to shake... A giant, brightly coloured tower begins to rise from the ruins of the school as the Kadingir is pushed up to the surface through some secret mechanism, reaching for the heavens. Chris mocks Finé and her tower, questioning how this is supposed to unite the world in peace. Finé calmly, insanely, explains that this tower is an ion cannon that will pierce the moon. Turns out Finé back when she was a real person built the tower of Babel to meet the God she was in love with and was punished for it not just by the destruction of the tower but also by taking from mankind the gift to understand one another, the Curse of Balal. And somehow this curse is being sustained by the moon so Finé plans to destroy it and take control of the world. Some final mocking from Chris and it's finally time for the trio to transform all in one nice sequence of all their transformations spliced together. It's quick but it really works and they immediately spring into action. As the fight starts we cut to agency members (basically everybody, including Miku) saving Hibiki's school friends from a blocked in room in the base, quickly revealing in order, the agency existing, Hibiki being a symphogear and Miku's knowledge of this to their friends. But mostly this is about the fight, this is only the second time they've worked together but already they work together super well. Communicating nonverbally so well that Fine doesn't even notice when Chris falls back and Hibiki and Tsubasa push the attack to distract her... clearly she's charging up her big attack that she also used last episode again. Her target, however, isn't Finé, it's the Kadingir! Finé is able to dodge the first giant missile and intercept the second as she realises it is heading for the Kadingir as well, but this means she lost track of the first one and Chris is literally riding it up over the tower as we see the cannon charge up. Finé mocks her, saying that the symphogear are just toys that couldn't do anything against the Kadingir. As if in response we hear Chris start her swan song... It's a gorgeous attack with a butterfly motif that culminates in her firing a giant beam attack to counter Kadingir's, the two beams clash in the middle and appear evenly matched. Chris' symphogear and weaponry begin to shatter as she sacrifices herself and she is engulfed by the beam of Kadingir and it strikes beyond her, hitting the moon and tearing off a large chunk (think, an 8th maybe?) out of it. As we get a rendition of Chris' battle theme on a church organ she falls from the sky, everybody is in shock, Hibiki especially, the camera lingers on her, her pupils shake, she screams, we cut to credits.
Review	Some bits of this episode were rather clunky, especially when it comes to shoehorning in Finé's backstory and motivations, but make no mistake. This is it, this is Symphogear at its most Symphogear. Ridiculous stakes that come out of nowhere faced with a song in your heart. Future seasons will tone down the gore a lot, and swan songs will (thankfully) kind of phase out of popularity, but in many ways this is the show firmly standing on its finished foundations and showing what it can do. And that turns out to be almost blocking an ion cannon shot intended to destroy the moon using the power of song.
Scores	8.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Why isn't this a 10 when I'm gushing so much? Oh you'll see, you'll all see. 7/10 🎶 MUSIC: The funereal remix of Chris' battle theme is heartbreaking and awesome, buuut not much else going on musically. Even the three-person battle against Finé is "just" set to Chris' battle theme. 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: We don't even cut back and forth between viewpoints that much, but this episode managed to be a rush regardless. Blasting through an attack on the school and into a history lesson about Finé, the summoning of a giant cannon and one of the best fights we've seen so far in the show. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Some needless shots of Finé's ridiculously exposing outfit, but nothing that lingers too much. And Ogawa does try to shoot her in the underboob, which kind of mocks their own design choices. 8.5/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: We are climbing higher, like a tower that you're extending from underground where it worked as an elevator shaft somehow. None of that makes sense, but I am here for it.

Episode 12: Symphogear / "A sword to the end, huh?"

Summary	We rewind a few seconds as credits are overlaid on Chris' sacrifice again. Fair enough, it was a good moment, and we're clearly skipping the opening. We're seeing people react to it with a bit of monologue from each, Miku, Genjuro, Tsubasa, Hibiki. Wait, no. Hibiki just screams and breaks down into a sobbing mess. She is not okay. Finé dares mock Chris and the choice she made. Hibiki grits her teeth, her visibly elongating teeth. Tsubasa also isn't having any of that as it reminds her of Kanade's sacrifice, but no, the focus swiftly returns to Hibiki who is in full feral dark beast mode. Finé seems more amused than anything else. Hibiki goes all out and attacks, breaking through Finé's armour but she doesn't care, any damage she takes just means she'll get healed by the Nehushtan armour faster, bonding it more with her. Hibiki is out of control and even striking out at Tsubasa. Hibiki's classmates are panicking, except for Miku who has faith in her friend. As Finé finishes regenerating, Tsubasa falters under Hibiki's attacks and the Kadingir charges for a second shot at the moon, all hope seems lost. After learning from Finé's taunting that the large relic sword Durandal is what powers Kadingir (I know, so many proper nouns, try to keep up!) she knows that Finé is the weak spot of this plan and tries to face her down, but Hibiki stands in her way. As Hibiki moves in to attack Tsubasa plants her sword in the ground, takes hit full on and embraces Hibiki. Explaining to her that her power is meant to bring people together before using the same trick she used on Chris many episodes ago to bind her in place. With the way to Finé clear, Tsubasa goes all out and manages to drive her back, launching her into the base of the tower. After a failed attack with her largest sword at Finé's psychic shields she launches herself at the tower, confident to take it down. But she doesn't make it, Finé's whips strike her down mid-jump. One final(?) cut to Kanade cheering her on as she gets up again, jumps again, musters all of her strength and wards off all of Finé's attacks and she manages to strike at the tower, obliterating it. HALFWAY POINT The tower has been destroyed, (most of) the moon is saved, Finé is distraught that she once again did not get her wish. Meanwhile the dagger pinning Hibiki into place dissolves, implying bad stuff about the shape Tsubasa is in. Hibiki is released and as she regains her freedom her symphogear form dissolves as well. Chris and Tsubasa are both gone. Finé takes out her anger on the only person left on the surface, Hibiki. She kicks her around a bit, Hibiki doesn't resist. It's not pretty. Hibiki no longer knows what she's fighting for, now that the school is in ruins and her two comrades are gone. Finé is about to finish her off, her goal accomplished of becoming a relic fusion herself and no longer needing Hibiki for research. As if in response to Hibiki's despair (okay, literally in response to her despair, there's a b-plot I'm skimming over where her friends restore the power) the ruined school's broadcast system activates and the school anthem rings out. The very song Hibiki said so recently made her feel like home. Phonic gain shimmers in the air, Hibiki is finding her resolve, gaining strength from the song, of what it means, of the bonds she has created. Finé realises too late that songs are power. The sun rises, Hibiki clenches her fist and starts to glow. A transformation is starting, a shockwave sends Finé flying. She is in disbelief, this can not be, she designed the system, there should be nothing left. The opening theme hits as three beams arc out to the heavens, flash cut to Tsubasa transforming, flash cut to Chris transforming. A fully transformed Hibiki jumps up and sprouts wings, with an equally winged Tsubasa and Chris by her side. Smash to credits.
Review	Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! How very dare they! This is how you do a comeback to an underdog story, it's so very well done. Could I have done with less gore? Yes please. But other than that? Yes, just yes. They even brought the little girl Hibiki saved in episode 1 back for a bit (she didn't do anything very important). It just continues to ramp up, and we have one hell of a starting position to roll into our final episode.
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Almost entirely on the back of that final moment. Though Tsubasa's sacrifice was also very well done. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: An excellent secondary battle theme for Tsubasa when she faces Finé alone, but I'm a sucker for a properly placed "opening theme as backing track" moment and they really delivered here. Good stuff! 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Preposterous to sacrifice two characters in a single episode (I guess Chris was during the recap) and bring them back right at the end already, but it works! Somehow this mad ride works. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Slightly more boobery when we see the trio mid transformation, but nothing too egregious. 8.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Surely they can't top this. I know it's the last one next, but surely. What card could possibly be left to play?

Episode 13: Meteoroids Falling, Burning, Disappearing, and then... / "Before I can entrust the future to you, I must protect the present!"

Summary	Finé is annoyed at this new development (she's annoyed quite a lot!) and speculates where this power comes from. Hibiki knows though. This is her friends placing their trust in them. We get some backstory about the Noise shoehorned in (now? Really?!) about how they were created by humans after the Curse of Balal was set up to kill each other. This was basically her buying time though, the moment she has gathered enough energy she uses Solomon's Cane to summon an absolutely preposterous amount of Noise. Like, fill the city and the sky over it with them. Chris rushes of to deal with them, Hibiki hesitates. She wants to apologise to Tsubasa for what she did in her beast form. Tsubasa says she has nothing to apologise for and she came to her senses in the end. As they leap up and fly after Chris the new background music turns into new foreground music and the three of them start to sing. All of them, together. This amplifies their power absurdly (and makes me very happy) and they basically make short work of a whole city full of Noise, including all of the weird variant types that we have seen as one-offs all season. They have clearly and utterly surpassed where they were before. Finé has one move left to try, she smirks. If being fused to a single relic isn't enough, maybe two will do the trick, and she impales herself onto Solomon's Cane, absorbing it into her. As she does, the remaining Noise in the city converge on her and swarm over her, being drawn in to form... something. As the gooey mess she is becoming expands she extracts Durandal from the ruins of the tower, giving her a third complete relic. She... forms a kind of tower of regenerating Noise around her with tremendously powerful beam attacks. The trio has a plan though! Chris and Tsubasa take point and go all out on Finé, with each of them opening up the way for the other to attack. At Tsubasa's strongest attack Finé is forced to use both of her hands to summon up a shield and defend herself from the explosion, sending Durandal flying. We know how this is going to go. Hibiki is going to catch it. The opening music is already starting again, Chris is juggling it along from the ground, and Hibiki does catch it! But the overwhelming power of the complete relic triggers her dark beast form. At the sight of this Miku makes up her mind to head to the surface to help Hibiki. At the sight of her best friend and the encouragement of everybody else (in reverse order, for dramatic effect) she gets it under control right as the shield around the three of them breaks, shining a bright light over the battlefield as an impossibly long blade of pure light is raised which all three of them strike down on Finé, causing her to explode dramatically and very clearly finally. HALFWAY POINT The city is in ruins, people are coming out of the shelters to a sight of devastation. Hibiki joins the others, a limp figure carried with an arm around her shoulder. It's Finé. Because Hibiki is Hibiki, she is going to talk sense into her. She is sure they can still talk to each other and understand each other, curse or no curse. Finé is sceptical, she doesn't believe people can ever truly understand each other with the curse in place. As if to illustrate this she has one last attack as she lashes out her chainwhip-thing at Hibiki. Hibiki effortlessly dodges, rushes in but holds back her punch. Finé is beaten already. Or so she thinks! Finé wasn't aiming for her at all, but for the moon?! The chain latches onto the large chunk of moon that her giant cannon tower dislodged and with a huge grunt of effort she pulls it out of orbit, destroying the Nehushtan armour and any strength she had left. She sees this is a victory though, she is convinced she will be reborn once again and this move is a step further in her plans. Hibiki was still holding her punch, and taps her on the chest with it, interrupting her victorious ranting, to request that when Finé is reborn that she tells everybody that understanding and unity can be achieved without a shared language or a show of force. That she won't be there to say it herself. Finé is taken aback, and a little bit of her Ryoko persona comes out with her disbelief. She fully understands what Hibiki is about to do and leaves her with one final piece of advise before crumbling to dust dramatically, believe in the song in your heart. As Finé/Ryoko is mourned and quick trajectory calculations are made (impact is unavoidable) Hibiki steps forward. Miku stops her with a word and Hibiki explains, she'll stop the moon shard somehow. She promises Miku she'll be right back and asks her not to give up living before jumping off, spreading her wings and soaring up towards the falling moon shard. Tears flow down Miku's face, she doesn't believe her best friend. Maybe with good reason as, at last, we hear a swan song rise. As the song peaks, and Hibiki readies her attack a voice calls out asking if she wants to be a hero that badly. It's Chris and Tsubasa that followed her up into space! As the three rise up further and further we get a second song with the three of them together as they say their goodbyes to each other. Their combined swan song results in the biggest dumbest attack we've ever seen out of each of the three of them and the moon shard explodes in a gigantic blast. Back on the surface everybody is shocked, Miku falls to her knees as debris from the blast starts raining down as shooting stars. Hard cut to the scene of Miku laying flowers on Hibiki's grave that the entire series opened on. Hibiki and the others have been declared dead, rather than missing. We now have the full context of why the city is in such a ruined state, and why Miku is in such a state as well. Even the picture of Hibiki on her empty grave is the one they took together after they defeated the large octopus Noise together. Where the scene originally ended we now are interrupted by a woman screaming for help. On the nearby road a woman was ambushed by Noise and crashed her car. Miku doesn't hesitate, grabs her hand and together they make a run for it. The Noise are in pursuit but she won't give up. The woman she saved isn't nearly as in shape as she is though and they are surrounded before long. Even now, and knowing that a single touch will dissolve her, Miku positions herself between the Noise and the woman. All hope seems lost, but Miku does not waver. Suddenly a shockwave blasts through all of the Noise, destroying them. Only a symphogear can do that! As Hibiki untransforms, flanked by Tsubasa and Chris, she apologises, explaining that everything was too classified for her to make contact before. Miku runs at her friend as the camera pans up to a cityscape and Hibiki narrates the ending monologue, how the Noise are still a threat and the fight continues, but hope remains because we have songs. As we get a final shot of Hibiki and Miku holding hands looking at the proper shooting stars together the performance song from Tsubasa and Kanade hits and the credits roll.
Review	I would have been content with the big final Finé fight or the moon attack, and we got both!! With a separate team song for each, and Hibiki stuck to who she is and managed to win over even her greatest enemy (so far). This is how a season should end. And while I am glad that the series got a second season, it actually totally works as its own standalone thing! Bit of an open ending with the fighting continuing, but that's fine.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: What more can a show possibly do to please me?! I guess we'll find out (I'm not even sure myself yet). This was so damn good though. Just basically everything. 10/10 🎶 MUSIC: What am I here for? Cool songs. What did I get? Cool songs! No notes, or rather, lots of notes but just the musical kind. 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: You have defeated me and are now offering mercy? How quaint. Hold still for a second while I DRAG DOWN A PIECE OF THE MOON OUT OF ORBIT. Just... two finales in one, and finding time to cut back to the opening with Miku, and somehow smushing in Noise backstory. It's so much. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Just a nice, squeaky clean, (mindbogglingly awesome) finale. Finé's costume is still a mess, etc. but nothing new or particularly exploitative anywhere. Even the mini highlight reels our heroines got as they monologued during their swan song moon run cut around the more problematic bits neatly. More of this please? 9.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Sheesh, not leaving much room to the top huh? Oh well, that's a problem for future Mara. This was such a damn good way to finish off the season.

Overall Thoughts & Graphs / Oh goodie, graphs... 🥱

So, that's season 1 of Symphogear, it's amazing how much it managed to build up and improve upon itself after just a single season. It's madly paced, sometimes awkward or problematic, but it has its heart in the right place and I really like what they're creating here.

There really is nothing quite like it, please prove me wrong if there is.

And hey, I gathered some nice numeric opinions about this! Let's see how it did overall in a very quick overview, okay?

• Gloriousness basically just kept rising and rising as the series went on, getting more and more epic. No real dips or problems.
  
• Music was a bumpier ride, and struggled for quite a while to really rise up in quality. For a show about the power of song I was expecting more. Until the ending, of course. It all came together in the end.
  
• Narrative Chaos was kind of a weird one to gauge, and I hope it is at all clear what I even mean with this category. It did pretty great though! Never dipping below a 7 and peak chaos at the start and end.
  
• Sleaziness was something I knew I wanted to include, because wow this show has (and will continue to have) issues in this regard. It already went better towards the end, but it sure was rough for a bit there.
  
• That just leaves the total scores, and they paint a very clear picture. It suggests I really like this show, despite its shaky start, and I absolutely love the ending. And I sure do!
  
• Season averages are an interesting thing to look at as well, then we can compared them to later seasons and see if things got better! It looks like this:
  
  So plenty of chaos, kind of underwhelming music for most of it, run of the mill glory and sleaze.
  Let's see if we can do better!

Next Up! / Wait, how much of this nonsense is there?

So yes, I'm definitely going to keep this going. This is the first of five seasons of this show, it's going to get more convoluted, wilder, weirder, and hopefully a bit cleaner and more musical.

I hope to see you soon for my retrospective on.... Symphogear G!