Symphogear Retrospective: Part 3 - Is six heroes too many heroes?!

Introduction / The road is long, but we have songs

It's time for more Symphogear! This is the third part of a five part series on what is probably my favourite anime? Definitely at least the one I go to bat for most. Part 1 about season 1 can be found here and the far longer part 2 about Symphogear G can be found here.

...speaking of it being a lot longer, I may have gone a bit overboard there. It definitely started entering novella territory there. This really wasn't supposed to be a bullet-point-formatted retelling of the whole show, more of a review and retrospective. How do people balance this?!

I will try to be a bit more concise for this third season, Symphogear GX, but no promises I guess.

So we'll go through all the episodes, give a probably-still-not-very concise summary of what happens, my thoughts on the episode and then the scores on the same scales as last time:

• 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: For being glorious!
• 🎶 MUSIC: For nice music or fancy music things!
• 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: For the good type of chaos!
• 🧼 SLEAZINESS: ...for not being horrible about the young girls the show is about.

Believe in Justice and Hold It Close

Ooh, the new logo for season 3 goes for a darker Hibiki! Fascinating!

No clue what the GX could imply, are we getting another 4 Gear users to bring the total to 10 maybe?

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

Status quo, open points, problems & questions:

1. Noise (monsters that disintegrate humans, they can only be killed by symphogear and are the primary antagonist/threat so far) have been sealed within Babylon's vault, with no known way for them to be released again.
2. ...which raises the question what our secret government agency does now. What will they get up to next? And let's very briefly talk about our gear users:
• Hibiki saved her (girl)friend Miku from an evil gear experiment, this process also "purified" her, meaning she has been freed of the relic shards that used to be embedded in her chest. She got Maria's Gungnir relic pendant though, so she can still transform.
• Tsubasa is focusing more on her idol work, including an international push. She's doing well!
• Chris is still lugging around her mysterious trauma past, maybe we'll just never see it? She found her place in the group and the school though.
• Maria, Kirika and Shirabe were taken into custody at the end of G but I'd be shocked if they don't end up joining the team. Especially since they're on the poster for the season too. The latter two are reliant on the drug Linker to maintain their transformation, but that sounds like a solvable problem. The soul of Finé has sacrificed herself and is no longer inside Shirabe.
3. The moon is back in its regular orbit and the ancient Curse of Balal is full functional, stopping humanity from understanding each other. Professor Nastassja (The "Mom" to Maria, Kirika and Shirabe) sacrificed herself to restore this status quo and stop the moon from falling..

Good enough as an establisher! Let's get back to it and see what our excellent girls are up to!

Episode 1: Murderer of Miracles / "The moment we clashed swords, I knew... That thing is a monster"

Summary	Dramatic music plays, we're in the agency submarine that is monitoring a disaster in progress. A space shuttle that was sent up to the lunar ruins to investigate its status and recover Professor Nastassja's body has run into trouble on the way back. Debris has hit a critical system and it is now crashing back down to earth. Furious action is being undertaken in the form of... bureaucracy? Looks like they're trying to get clearance to engage. And they finally get it (it's all digital paperwork, we don't see any calls going on), meaning they can finally do something about the situation! A hatch slides open on the submarine and a dangerous looking missile is launched. We cut to the astronauts, desperately trying to brake or at least alter course to aim for a less populated area, anything. Their futile efforts are interrupted by the missile showing up on their radar, they understand the calculated decision that was made. Their two lives don't weigh up to that of a whole town. They resign themselves to their fate, when the radio pipes up. "Don't worry! You'll be fine!" As the dramatic music breaks into something more poppy we cut to to our trio of heroines starting their song and the missile dramatically bursts open, revealing the three of them! They ride Chris's missiles towards the shuttle, grapple on and begin to use their gear's jets to slow down its descent. It's a ridiculous set piece and we cut to the agency bridge, the noodle-eating minister and even Maria, Kirika and Shirabe from a holding cell, looking on in tense concentration. (After all, the body of their "Mom" is on board) Hitting the ground running doesn't even begin to cover it, the trio work together to guide the shuttle down. Destroying most of a mountain and a forest as they go, before ending with Hibiki jumping in front of it and suplexing it over a large building. I'm not kidding, it's the biggest, loudest way they could possibly have started this season. With that wrapped up we jump ahead a whole three months and are introduced to the new name and role for the agency, they are now the United Nations Paranormal Disaster Relief Task Force, SONG, with international jurisdiction and a fancy shield-shaped logo. A weird blip on their scanners suggests that something is up in a Japanese port town. We cut to it, where a small hooded girl carrying a mysterious box is being chased and shot at by a mysterious woman. She lets her get away though... mysterious! Cut to the music academy, we get some cutesy shenanigans but the main takeaways are that Shirabe and Kirika are both students as well now, that Hibiki's dad is out of the picture and that there's evening plans with the group. Turns out they're watching a charity concert being broadcast from London, it's Tsubasa and Maria performing! I guess we're sticking with the trend of having a concert to kick off a season, and wow! Water walking, tower bridge as a backdrop, fountains, no real life concert is ever this elaborate, but it's super fun. HALFWAY POINT We get some wrap-up from the concert, but nothing particularly consequential. Far more pressing is somebody shooting coins at a fuel truck back in Japan, causing it to explode! As the blaze spreads, Chris and Hibiki are sent in to support fire fighting efforts, Kirika and Shirabe want to help too but aren't allowed to go because they don't have Linker (a drug they need to transform). Do they just not have it on them tonight or is this generally a thing they no longer have access to? Hmmm. At the same time, Maria (and her two bodyguards / escorts) are ambushed by a flamenco-dancing sword-wielder. Not the same mysterious woman as before though, this one's in London, and the other one had different hair and we cut to her chasing the little girl again. As she does, a panning shot reveals a figure in a witch's robe and hat looking out over the blazing inferno. A quick division of labour is established, Hibiki will go into the last building where people are still trapped and Chris is sent to investigate what is causing this fire, since it is mysteriously stubborn and hard to put out. Hibiki jumps out of the helicopter and transforms! It's a super cool and fun transformation. As she smashes her way into the building and starts saving people, Tsubasa arrives fully transformed to save Maria from her assailant. The attacker identifies herself as an Autoscorer, and with almost inhuman movements lunges at Tsubasa. Both scenes go so damn hard, pulling out all the stops. The day is won, Hibiki saves everybody and Tsubasa manages to knock down the attacker. In the aftermath of the fire, Hibiki spots the girl dressed as a witch looking mournfully into the parts of the building that are still burning. We flashback, and learn that this girl is called Carol and her father was burned at the stake?! ...okay, that's a wild backstory. Hibiki misreads what she's doing up there and offers her help, only to get a blast of wind magic shot her way for her trouble. Looks like the witch outfit isn't just for show. As Chris reports in that she is under attack as well and we see Tsubasa's opponent get back up from getting knocked down, barely worse for wear, Carol launches a huge wind attack at Hibiki and we cut to the credits.
Review	So... when I started this rewatch project I was absolutely confident I'd have to sit through a season or two of slightly weaker, slower, less chaotic stuff. As I actually rewatched the seasons, I figured I must have been mistaken. This was already great and plenty hectic enough. But... holy shit, this throws a lot at you. From the amazing shuttle opening, to the school stuff, to the concert, to the three action set pieces. It's almost too much. And everything just works and clicks together. Could just be that they poured everything into this first episode, but WOW what an episode it was.
Scores	9.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Even just the shuttle by itself would have given this episode a great score, but it's just the beginning. Even just simple things like having Hibiki jump up through the roof of the burning building with the final person to rescue in her arms and shooting it so her silhouette is in front of the moon, it's just... it's so good! 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: An amazing three-way song for the shuttle sequence, an excellent duet at the concert, Hibiki's new battle song, it's so much amazing stuff all at once. 10/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: *gestures in despair* Just look at it! A 3 months time jump, new villains, concurrent fights across the world, it's madness! 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Somehow also just a clean episode! Though that might be because there was far too much else going on, so I'm not holding my breath yet. 9.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: ...uh, that sure is the second-best score ever for an episode. What a way to start off GX, it's astonishing.

Episode 2: Before I Destroy the World... / "Something feels terribly off"

Summary	Hibiki refuses to fight Carol, and won't even transform. She takes the attack and asks why Carol wants to shatter the world. Carol says she has a cause worth fighting for. The new opening starts with a lot of the alchemical glyphs that we just saw Carol use to cast her magic spells, before going into a nice rundown of the cast. All 6 of the gear users and Miku get top billing. We also see Carol and the mystery girl (who sure looks a lot like her) as well... huh, a lot of Noise. I thought we took care of that problem? We also get a look at 4 autoscorers working for Carol, they look wild! After the opening we do a small jump back in the timeline! We get to see Chris' fight with the autoscorer. This means that the transformation we get to see this episode is hers! As the fight starts Chris quickly realises that her opponent isn't human either (much like Tsubasa did). As the fight rages on, we learn that the mystery girl is nearby watching the fight. She comments on Chris being unable to touch her opponent (Leiur, feel free to forget the name, I will.) despite her excellent phonic gain output and offensive capability, she is clearly very well informed. Apparently she wants to give the mysterious box she has to the heroes? The girl warns Chris from a surprise attack, some manner of giant beast in the nearby harbour that is barely visible has thrown boats her way! Yes, this is very random and out of nowhere. No, we're not getting any answers about that right now. The autoscorer seems done for now though, and retreats. (After a brief aside about Kirika and Shirabe reminiscing about being treated kindly by their former enemies) we see the mystery girl introduce herself to Chris. She already knows everything about Chris, and introduces herself as Elfnein and claims she wants to help protect the world from Carol's alchemy. HALFWAY POINT Alchemy is very real in this universe, and is an ancient power from back when magic and technology were one. Hibiki is still refusing to fight Carol, despite Carol being very antagonistic and actively attacking her. She refuses to engage, instead wishing to understand Carol. Carol explains that her task of destroying the world was a task her father left her. She idly wonders if Hibiki doesn't have a father, which seems to hit a nerve. A third autoscorer appears at her side to escort her to safety, which they do using alchemical teleport vials. Always convenient when villains have an easy out. That's one fight dealt with, but the other two aren't quite over yet. We see the autoscorer facing Chris launching a surprise attack on her and Elfnein and Maria and Tsubasa commandeer a car to chase their autoscorer (who dramatically cuts it in half!). We also get a quick flashback of how Maria got roped into being an idol again as a part of her "sentence" / name-clearing, but it's mostly just time to fight. We also get to see Tsubasa's transformation and it's neat! The leg blades take a back seat again, but it's a nice classy transformation. Her opponent has a lot of surprises up her sleeve though. Her weapon is apparently called the Swordbreaker, and is very effective against any sword, even a Symphogear's relic blade. Furthermore, she throws a handful of marble-like alchemical containers around, which summon Noise! A quick cut to Chris reveals that this is also what she is dealing with. Something is different though! Are these not regular Noise? The two of them are each cutting through them with ease, but the first attack their way that actually manages to connect starts disintegrating their gear! These are Alca-Noise (presumably a portmanteaux of Alchemical and Noise), a far more dangerous form of them. We see Carol taunting them from a throne room where a fourth Autoscorer waits on a pedestal, asking the symphogear what they will do now. Cut to credits! They're simple but nice. Lots of stills of characters, flower petals, mirror shards.
Review	On the one hand, it's kind of lazy to bring the Noise back (even if you tweak the name a smidge). On the other, they are an iconic enemy for the series. And on a third hand somehow, wow that sure was three excellent encounters that we got to see. Carol and these autoscorers are clearly up to something, but it's still very unclear what. I like how they wove the flashbacks into the story, rather than grinding the episode to a halt and it had some excellent action beats.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: It's easy to understate just how fun and dynamic the two fights are, there's a lot of fun stuff going on already for what isn't really a combat highlight episode. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Two solid battle songs, with Chris' being a standout as usual. But nothing particularly interesting going on beyond that. 8/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: It's basically just cutting back and forth between 3 scenes, with some flashbacks in there for good measure. And the bridge crew reacting to it all, of course. The random kaiju definitely adds some chaos points as well, I had entirely forgotten about that aspect. 7/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Chris has the largest chest size of the core cast, and her transformations sure like reminding us of that fact. There's also some needless jiggle in the (otherwise super fun!) shot of the car being sliced in half where Maria just manages to dodge the blade. Nothing too bad, really. Especially the Gears disintegrating could have been so much worse. 7.6/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A whole 2 points lower than episode 1, but in a way it's kind of a relief that we aren't able to sustain that level. ...okay no, that's a lie. I'd love it if we could. But it makes sense that we can't. Still though, on we go!

Episode 3: Twilight of the Wielders / "Which makes me an enemy you must fight."

Summary	...I guess I spoke too soon. The disintegrating attacks force a detransformation and both Chris and Tsubasa end up naked. Tsubasa's opponent withdraws, pleased to have completed her objective (it is shown that both relic pendants also took a lot of damage). Chris' opponent was also after Elfnein though, but fortunately Kirika arrives on the scene in style and transforms! Backed up by (an also transformed) Shirabe they start to take out the Alcanoise together. They're not using Linker, so it's taking a LOT out of them to do this, but they're doing their best. At this new interference, the autoscorer requests updated orders and gets told by Carol to retreat. (Apparently they can just talk to each other regardless of distance, convenient!) During the wrapup / aftermath we mostly get shown how everybody feels. Tsubasa is pragmatic, focusing on how her gear no longer works. Kirika and Shirabe reminisce about how things were before they were with SONG and how they fear things might become that bad again. Chris is annoyed that she couldn't protect Kirika, Shirabe and Elfnein and instead needed saving herself. Maria requests to be transferred to SONG as well to help out. And of course Hibiki apologises for not being able to get through to Carol with her words. HALFWAY POINT We return to... the C-level cast of Hibiki and Miku's established 3 classmates singing an elaborate recipe song on how to cook beef stroganoff. It's one hell of a change of pace, but also super wholesome and cute. Hibiki and Miku are there as well. After the song they talk about the Symphogear situation (including a great comedy shot of Kirika and Shirabe being annoyed at being hospitalised for tests), and it is very clear that Hibiki isn't backing down from wanting to go the nonviolent route and Miku is worried about her for this. But, more importantly, they are communicating this clearly and understanding what the other means and feels. It's such a nice change of pace that they can be open about this to each other! Tsubasa is back in Japan as well, having put her international touring on hold. It's time for a debriefing with the whole group. Bad news first, the pendants for Chris and Tsubasa's gears are entirely broken (the relics at their core are still good though). Maria remarks that this is similar to the damage her sister's relic pendant sustained many years ago. And repairing them without Ryoko is basically impossible for now. Research on the relics is progressing quickly now that their existence is more public, but it's not there yet. Genjuro proclaims that that means Hibiki is the only gear user they have, much to Kirika's protest, however without Linker (something they don't know how to make without Dr. Ver (please don't bring him back...)) the damage they sustain while transformed is too great. Meanwhile, back in Carol's throne room, the final autoscorer (Micha) is activated using memories gathered by the other autoscorers. She is welcomed as the strongest fighter. With that all autoscorers have been revived and their plan can move to the next phase... whatever that is. Ooh, Elfnein is ready to spill the beans on the plan. Apparently she helped Carol design... an apparatus? And when she found out that its use was to dismantle the world, she ran to get help. The Châteu de Tiffauges, a weapon with enough of the same disintegration power (that the Alca-Noise used to disintegrate the two pendants) to take apart the whole world. She sure is dumping a lot of information on us. She is also an alchemist and a homunculus, Carol created her, she was given a part of Carol's memories and skills. Oh, and the box that she was carrying contains a relic shard capable of countering the disintegration power. How convenient! On their way to school, Hibiki, Miku and their friends stumble onto a grisly sight. One of the autoscorers has absorbed the memories from everybody around (did I mention this kills them? This kills them). It's the one of the original three that we haven't really seen fight yet. And she seems to be itching for it, proclaiming to Hibiki that they have to fight. She summons Alcanoise around the friend group to force Hibiki to transform, Hibiki sadly complies... but can't! The transformation song won't come to her, her voice is silenced. Gungnir remains silent. Cut to credits.
Review	Aaaand we have our stakes for the season. A giant apparatus that can destroy the world that is near completion, a mad alchemist intent on using it with four constructs in tow. Not the most complex premise for a season, but it's not bad. ...though with how many people we're putting out of action, I wonder if this will be a less action-focused season. Or maybe whoever gets to wield the Dainsleif shard will be the focus. Hibiki maybe? If she just lost connection with the Gungnir... I guess we'll have to see!
Scores	7/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The battle against the odds for Kirika and Shirabe is good stuff, and I really appreciate that Hibiki is sticking to her guns on the nonviolence thing. But a pretty tame episode for gloriousness. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Kirika's battle song is very nice, but the standout is definitely the beef stroganoff insert song. It's just so weirdly out of nowhere and fun. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Pretty straightforward. Efficient and some wild cuts, but nothing too chaotic. 5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Oof, Kirika's transformation sure is showing a lot of skin... add to that the naked Tsubasa and Chris (even if that could have been shot worse) and a weird extended bit about Elfnein not having a gender because she's a homunculus and the whole episode feels a bit... icky. 6.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: And we continue to dip. It was a fun episode though, just held back by weird sleaze. And I'm excited to see where we go from here.

Episode 4: Gungnir, Once More / "I know you don't sing your songs to hurt people."

Summary	A quick flashback of Professor Nastassja giving Maria Serena's broken relic after her passing as a kindness turns into Maria on the base being alerted to the appearance of the Alcanoise, which quickly turns into the opening credits. There isn't much the base can do though. Hibiki is already right there, unable to transform. Meanwhile Maria, Chris and Tsubasa have damaged gears and Kirika and Shirabe are dependent on Linker. A tricky situation! The autoscorer is annoyed that Hibiki won't sing and transform, does she need her to transform for some reason? It sure looks like it... Meanwhile Ogawa (Tsubasa's manager / an organisation operative) rushes from the base and bumps into Maria responding to the alert, eager to help. Hibiki, Miku and their friends pretend not to know each other to confuse and run from the Autoscorer, it's a dumb plan but the Autoscorer falls for it. Or pretends to, anyway, looks like she has a cruel streak to her and is eager for the chase. The chasing Noise lash out, Hibiki is tripped up, the Gungnir crystal flies from her hand... a car spins to a halt, a figure jumps out, it's Maria! She sings the words as we are all remembered that she too once wielded the Gungnir. Such a cool sequence! This is as precarious for her as transforming is to Shirabe and Kirika though, she also needs Linker to maintain this transformation. She struggles through it and carves a path through the Alcanoise, Hibiki looks on in awe with very mixed feelings. She is still outclassed by the Autoscorer though, who uses ice and water powers to block her attacks and blow her back. Before she can strike a blow similar to what damaged Chris' and Tsubasa's gears, Maria detransforms from the strain of using Gungir unassisted. Frustrated and disgusted, the autoscorer warps away. After this battle, Maria returns the Gungnir crystal to Hibiki who frustratedly takes it, saying that it's hers. Maria tries to encourage her though, yes it is her power, and she should embrace it! Hibiki is lying in bed, unable to sleep. Blaming herself for not being able to protect Miku and her friends. Miku says that Hibiki HAS saved her, many times, and she knows that she has always used her powers to save people. HALFWAY POINT Maria, Kirika and Shirabe are visiting Professor Nastassja's grave and reflect on wanting to be strong and grow, and what their "Mom" did for them. It's a moment of melancholy that definitely isn't just there to set them up as being far away from the city centre. Back at base Elfnein introduces us formally to the Autoscorers, now that we've seen most of them in action. There are four of them: Garie, who has water and ice powers and has the strongest connection to Carol, even if it isn't always the friendliest bond. Leiur, who throws coins and has some kind of large monster at her command. Chris fought her at the start of the season. Phara, the sword wielder with wind powers that Tsubasa faced in parallel while she was in London. Micha, who has yet to show herself in battle, but we've seen her be revived in Carol's palace and be called the strongest autoscorer... Do you need to remember these? Not really. They're fun characters but not particularly deep ones. It's nice to know the enemies though, and having a moment to breathe between high stakes fight scenes is nice too. Elfnein has more to say though, she hasn't just come bearing information, she has a plan. Project Ignite! It's a way to use the relic she brought, the Dainsleif, together with Alchemy to improve the performance of the symphogear relics, though there's a vaguely specified greater risk that comes with this greater power. Did you enjoy your break? Good, Garie and Micha ambush Hibiki and Miku on their way home from school, with Micha taking point. They flee into a construction site and Micha separates the two using Alcanoise. Hibiki still can't sing to transform, even when Micha threatens to order the Alcanoise to attack Miku, but Miku yells out again, that Hibiki doesn't sing her songs to hurt people, that even the ones she has fought have been saved by her. Even Miku herself (but it's also true for Chris, Maria, Shirabe and Kirika). As the Alcanoise close in around Miku and Micha's strike knocks her from the building. Hibiki cries out, first in shock, then in song. New music starts, Miku falls in slow motion, we are treated to flashbacks of a sample of the times Hibiki has saved her, as the music reaches its peak a transformed Hibiki catches her. No more holding back. Micha summons a bunch more Alcanoise, but Hibiki tears through them, Micha might be the strongest Autoscorer, but Hibiki is the strongest of the Attuned, all that had been standing in her way was herself. After trading some blows, she lands a strong hit on Micha, causing her to explode into water droplets?! Hibiki is shocked, we see Garie standing behind a pillar, taunting her, that Micha was a reflection, the real one is right below her charging up an attack, which hits Hibiki right in the chest, launching her several stories into the air, detransforming her in the process. As her seemingly lifeless body falls to the rough ground, Miku cries out, credits hit.
Review	The heroes really can't catch a break this season, huh? I get that we need stakes, but right after Hibiki gets her powers back, that happens. But the Autoscorers really are fun villains and I like what we're doing with them. And I suppose we do have whatever this "Project Ignite" is to look forward to that should put our heroes back on equal footing, assuming it works and isn't a trap.
Scores	8.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: I loved the rescue by Maria, everybody was unable to fight, but for different reasons, and Maria transforming with Hibiki's crystal was an option that was on the table but I didn't spot it! That's fun and awesome and it recycled her season 2 song which was a very nice one. Also, Hibiki catches Miku in mid-air and that will NEVER stop being amazing to me. 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Getting Maria's song again was a delight, and Hibiki's new song was absolutely excellent. The ambient music, especially around Carol's scenes is also very strong, as if we're foreshadowing something... 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: We get the established problem, the hero can't sing, an intermediate solution in Maria's arrival, people coming to grips with this (it's Miku that figures out what Hibiki needs to hear!), the problem being resolved, and then the hero being badly hurt and taken out of the fight. That's so much! 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Detransformed Hibiki at the very end is basically naked, but it's not shown in any detail. That doesn't excuse the choice, but it could have been a lot worse. 8.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: This was just a really strong episode. I dislike the cliffhanger ending where we're not told just how hurt Hibiki is, but she'll be fine... right? Right?!

Episode 5: Edge Works / "It is finally ending. All of creation will be part of my apocalypse."

Summary	Not much new before the opening, the Autoscorers retreat after hurting Hibiki and we see Tsubasa and Chris at the base urging Elfnein to finish Project Ignite so they can get out there. Hibiki is retrieved and given medical attention, but it is Miku that we follow (and even get narration from). A week passes without Hibiki waking up, and it's clearly getting to Miku. As SONG has nothing to do other than wait for Hibiki to wake up and support Elfnein with Project Ignite, they use this opportunity to do maintenance on the nuclear submarine, putting it in port. After a week of this, Tsubasa's and Chris' relics are almost finished (they are the ones the agency had access to the longest). In discussing their situation a politician comes up, one that has helped them for a while now, Tsubasa hesitantly admits that this is her father. Looks like there's a complicated past there. Speaking of complicated pasts, we get a flashback for Carol's life with her father, a failing alchemist and cook, and their slice of life silliness. It's cute! ...and surprisingly, these memories are felt by Elfnein, turns out Carol gave her more than just a part of her alchemist knowledge, she also possesses part of her memories. We don't get much time to dwell on the implications of this though, Alcanoise are attacking the docked base! We follow Shirabe and Kirika as they sneak off of the bridge to the medical room, they're up to something... Looking for something in the medical bay of the submarine... The military is having a hard time fighting back against the Alcanoise (even though they are for some reason susceptible to regular weapons, unlike earlier Noise), but a transformed Kirika and Shirabe appear to back them up. They seem to be doing well, and when questioned communicate that they're trying to buy time for the gear upgrades on the others to be done. HALFWAY POINT Wild tonal shift over the break, we're getting Hibiki's tragic past where she got bullied for surviving the concert, and also her dad left over it? Or at least that's how she's framing it herself. But, she finally wakes up! The bridge is confused that Shirabe and Kirika aren't suffering from the gear recoil, and they quickly realise that they have stolen experimental Linker that was a leftover from Ryoko's days. We see the autoscorers as they work to attack power facilities in the surrounding area, the assumption being that they want to depower the submarine, but a cutaway to Carol would suggest that something larger is going on, something about the freeing of ley lines. Micha faces Shirabe and Kirika directly, who respond by taking another dose of Linker, it's an act of desperation and clearly bad for them. This powerup is putting them on seemingly equal footing to Micha though. Their fight is awesome! They use not only the Linker but also the harmony between the two of them to keep up their synch rates, and almost get the drop on Micha, who summons a crystal shield which then explodes. She's full of tricks! Her counterattack takes out Kirika's symphogear crystal, making her detransform and pass out. Shirabe stands in front of friend to protect her as Micha summons a swarm of new Noise to take her out. Shirabe does her best, but it's not enough, she's not even able to sing anymore. One of the Noise strikes a critical blow to her crystal, also taking her out of the fight, as the Noise descend on her, Kirika cries out for anybody to help, anybody at all. Their call is answered! They bought enough time, Tsubasa and Chris are here to save the day, taking out all the noise in one fell swoop. They pose heroically and the credits roll.
Review	Now we're talking! We have some upgraded gears out in the field, this should give our heroes more of a fighting chance. And that was a very good episode, even if not that much happened, it's always nice to see Kirika and Shirabe highlighted.
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Seeing Kirika and Shirabe struggle during the fight was equal parts scary and awesome, in this show you can never let your guard down after all. But no big standout moments either. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: We got both Kirika's battle song and Shirabe's battle song, both of which are more like duets meaning I love them, and Tsubasa's battle song over the credits. No standouts, but all very good. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: A pretty straightforward episode, really. The Elfnein/Carol flashback was a lot ofcompressed information, including into the reveal of who was having it, but that's about it. 5.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: I would love to find whoever convinced the creators that detransforming from gear damage should result in the girls being naked and slap them. It's distracting and disappointing and actively makes this show harder to recommend. 7/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A pretty okay episode, but it's mostly just there to push the plot forward. Now let's see where it goes...

Episode 6: Drawn Blade / "If you won't sing for me, then the people's dying screams will be your elegy."

Summary	More Carol flashbacks of the time with her father and his desire to understand the world. It's a nice little scene, but who is remembering this? It's Carol this time! Somehow her father's wish to understand the world has directly resulted in her wish to destroy everything. The credits hit. Yukine and Chris are still facing off against Micha. Kirika and Shirabe are still naked. Really didn't need to be reminded of that last thing. But, let's see those upgraded Symphogear in action. They look identical to before whatever Elfnein did to them, but their output seems greatly increased, they are now immune to the Alca-Noise disintegration attacks and Elfnein hints at there being even more to it than that. All this is shown and told to us during an excellent fight scene where Tsubasa and Chris sing together, yay! And they seem to be pushing Micha back, wow! A big attack lands, and the only thing saving her is a strong yellow shield... projected by Carol that has shown up herself to relieve Micha. Micha retreats, Carol boasts, she summons a relic-like Lyre from the aether and transforms?! The transformation ages her up considerably but more importantly she is strong. She sends elemental blasts out and Chris and Tsubasa struggle to dodge them. On the bridge the question is raised how she can be this strong without singing (we do hear something that is undoubtedly her theme music in the background), and Elfnein explains that she is burning her memories rather than generating it through song. Even with their new Symphogear our heroes are immediately on the back foot again. Fortunately they have a trump card to play! They activate their ignite modules. This detaches their symphogear crystals and stabs them right into their chests, ow! Elfnein explains, this is a semi-controlled process to harness the berserk state that Hibiki showed in earlier seasons (using the relic Dainsleif that she brought with her when she escaped Carol). Now all Tsubasa and Chris need to do is overcome the murderous rage that the Dainsleif is sending them into and fully activate the Ignite module. Easier said than done, and we go to Tsubasa's mindscape where she is doubting herself, her role as a daughter, the role of her songs, how Kanade died. Oof! HALFWAY POINT After the break we see Chris' perspective, where she mostly laments on being so close to having what she wants (friends, peace and quiet, people that depend on her and vice versa) but not being strong enough to protect everybody. She is roused from her visions by Tsubasa grabbing her hand for support, they're in this together. But, activating the modules didn't work, and this took a lot out of them. Elfnein is sad that she failed to stop Carol, Miku and Hibiki promise that hope isn't lost. After all, she also managed to get the Gungnir repaired... Carol is mocking Tsubasa and Chris, summoning Alca-Noise to attack the city and saying it's their fault that they can't stop her. Hibiki to the rescue! Riding a missile strike and punching straight through one of the larger airborne Alca-Noise. Hibiki suggests that they try to use the Ignite Module again! That the Symphogear is there to save people, including themselves, so we do the creepy stab thing again, this time including Hibiki. Dark smoke tendrils cover their bodies, but this time they are able to conquer it. New music hits, more dubstep-y than usual, we get new transformations for each of them. Darker forms, Ignite forms. As they open their eyes they begin to sing a remix of the shuttle crash song from episode 1! Carol summons more Alca-Noise, numbering in the thousands, but our trio tears through them. The fight is flashy, fast and very clearly in favour of the trio, they strike down Carol herself who detransforms (with clothes, thankfully). Hibiki tries to reach out, asking her why she wanted to destroy the world. Carol admits that she can no longer remember, that she lost those memories. With one final taunt she triggers and alchemical suicide capsule and takes her life, which triggers... something in her throne room. Colour coded banners descend from the ceiling, the autoscorers react to it, was her death part of the plan? Credits hit.
Review	This is episode six! Did we really just lose our villain for the season?! What is even going on here? The new Ignite forms are kind of brutal and I had hoped that we were done with the more edgy nonsense like this, but I do like the new looks even if they look like edgy teenager fan-art.
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: The ignite modules were cool, Hibiki's arrival was cool, the fight scenes were cool. Nothing huge, but all of it was solid. 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: A cool duet from Tsubasa and Chris, a fun reprise of the episode 1 song (which has all three of them) and an excellent instrumental theme for Carol. Hell yeah! 9.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Having the module fail only to immediately get retried and then succeed is very Symphogear pacing, but that decision to (seemingly) kill off Carol is crazy. What is even going on anymore?! 6.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Some needless shots, especially of Chris, but I guess it's better than the last one. 8.1/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid episode where a lot happened, excited to see what happens next!

Episode 7: Carry on the Shining Light, and Stay True to Yourself / "Aren't we supposed to be training?"

Summary	So, our villain is dead, we have half of a season left... what are we doing next? Maria is reminscing sadly about something... while on the beach. Beach episode?! Credits hit. The relics of Kirika and Shirabe are also repaired and upgraded and Serena's old relic that Maria now wields has been fully restored (and partially replaced) as well. We very briefly set up that everybody needs to train with this new power and are then off to the beach. I guess this is going to be a light filler episode... Not even data about a weird "Photosphere" that was discovered in the data of the Frontier wreckage can dissuade me from this. Everybody is doing beach volleyball and Elfnein is lamenting not being as good at it as she feels she should be (she knows how professionals do it, why can't she?!). Mention of a typhoon passing through the area the day before, nope, still no sign of anything nefarious going on. Three of them go out to get food. A shrine got heavily damaged in the typhoon, there are weird ice shards everywhere. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure! Garie (the blue autoscorer) shows up and ambushes the people that stayed behind on the beach (Chris, Hibiki, Miku, Maria, Elfnein). ...was that all the beach episode we were getting?! Huh! Garie summons Alca-Noise to keep Chris and Hibiki busy and runs after Maria who has fled with the other two. Looks like she has a score to settle. Unfortunately for her, these are Maria's feelings exactly. She transforms into her sister's gear, now fully tuned to suit her, and tears through the Alca-Noise Garie summons. Unfortunately she still isn't at Garie's level. We have a solution to that problem now though, and she triggers the Ignite Module, in all its creepy chest-stab-iness. And it doesn't go great for her, she goes into a full Hibiki-style berserker rage, which Garie is dodging and countering easily, breaking the failed transformation. Disappointed, Garie retreats. HALFWAY POINT The autoscorers deliberate, Garie is set on being "first" at something, glancing meaningfully at the banners in the throne room. The green one is getting impatient herself though. Maria is recovering from the fight, mentally more than physically, and is joined by Elfnein who is working on her beach volleyball skills (which I guess is becoming a full B-plot now). Oh wait, nope. Garie is back. We get the full transformation for Maria this time, and it's cool. I'm not sure why Garie continues to bother sending out Alca-Noise first, but at least it's flashy. As they fight and the others rush to Maria's aid the green autoscorer sneaks into the base, looks like Garie is a distraction and it's working. Garie taunts that Maria is took weak to use that new power of hers, Elfnein encourages her that (much like her own volleyball thing) it's okay to not be perfect, it's fine if you just do your best and do things your own way. Very cheesy, but sure! Unsurprisingly Maria tries again at this encouragement and successfully transforms this time around. Her dark form is fun! More focused on a single sword that can also shoot projectiles and has jet engines and stuff. It's like a fun little fusion of our core trio's skillsets. With an upgrade this strong she beats Garie without any real trouble, and when I say beat I mean destroy. At a triumphant yell of being the first she explodes. As we see the green autoscorer retreat with a stolen USB drive we see the blue banner in Carol's throne room become etched with alchemical runes. ...only to return to beach adventures. Really?! Okay. Hibiki and Miku are the ones sent to get food now, where they run into a guy we spotted earlier in the episode as a tour guide (he was annoying and a coward and he didn't seem very important). Turns out that's Hibiki's dad and she is NOT happy to see him, she runs off upset.
Review	In a way it's surprising that we didn't have a beach episode until now with how this show continues to overdo it more on fan service than I'd like, and it was kind of a half-hearted one where they still wanted to push the plot forward. We're down one auto-scorer, Maria has mastered her Ignite Module and drama is about to unfold with Hibiki's dad, who I hate.
Scores	7/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Seeing Maria in full force was fun! Other than that though, nothing too special going on. Her "I can't do it, oh wait, I can." kind of mirrors the exact arc the others had a single episode ago. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Maria has good songs, but we didn't get much more than two songs for her all episode. 7.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Did we need a beach episode? Because I didn't... It being a weirdly half-filler episode was definitely chaotic though. 5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: This category's nemesis, the beach episode. And it was bad, with lots of needlessly gratuitous shots of swimsuits. I guess it could have been worse? Still though, no thank you. 6.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A pretty weak episode, mostly because of the sleaze. I did like seeing growth for Maria, but I am already dreading the Hibiki's dad storyline...

Episode 8: The Courage to Face It / "Is it only the simple problems I can solve with my fists?"

Summary	At Miku's request Hibiki is giving her dad a chance and having lunch with him. We get the backstory for him, he left his family because of the bullying they were receiving because Hibiki was one of the few survivors of the instigating attack in season 1. Hibiki is upset at him for such an excellent reason, but her dad almost seems dismissive of it. On top of that he expects her to pay for lunch. He really is a jerk! Hibiki storms off, upset, after paying for him. The Photosphere map was on the usb drive that the autoscorer stole, and they reveal that it is a map of ley lines spreading across the world. Apparently they need to be disrupted somehow for their plan to work? A cute little scene between Kirika and Shirabe (Kirika impulsively buys a drink she hates, Shirabe offers to switch) is interrupted by Alca-Noise appearing underground near them. Hibiki arrives in the scene to back them up and is clearly still upset from meeting her dad. Hibiki recognises that she is being blunt and unreasonable though, and apologises to the other two. They transform and head underground where Micha (the red autoscorer) is up to no good. Hibiki has little patience for her antics and goes all out, still in her head about her dad. That lack of attention costs her dearly, Micha lands a strong hit her, requiring Kirika and Shirabe to jump in and shield Hibiki, before pulling back. Things could have gone a lot worse if Micha hadn't retreated, apparently whatever she was down there to do has already been accomplished. In the aftermath the whole group tries to figure out why the autoscorer was there in the first place, most of the damage to the tunnel was caused by the girls trying to stop whatever was going on. Ogawa spots a weird device on a pipe, recognises it (but rudely doesn't name it out loud) and orders for the commander to be contacted. HALFWAY POINT Hibiki is recovering in the sickbay of the SONG submarine. She's doing fine and will make a full recovery. Kirika and Shirabe are fighting, disagreeing about who should be protecting who, it is clearly their love for each other that is creating this difference of opinion, but they stubbornly refuse to see this. When Hibiki tries to stop their bickering she is asked again what was up with her, and Hibiki explains the situation with her dad. With that secret out in the open the rest of the team reflects on what it means to have a father (in the shower, infuriatingly). Maria, Chris and Tsubasa all have complicated lacks of father figures. Micha is heading out again, despite a mysterious "memory transplantation" almost being done. The autoscorers are clearly up to something. Looks like she has some unfinished business, as she tracks down and attacks Kirika and Shirabe. The two transform (we are shown Shirabe's, it has a fun focus on her yoyos!) and they start fighting, in order to cut off any reinforcements the gigantic figure that supports the yellow autoscorer (you'll likely have forgotten about it, it briefly showed up to throw a boat at Chris at the start of the season) attacks the sub. But the focus is on Kirika and Shirabe, who are finally being honest with each other and themselves. As they realise that they love each other and the people around them love them they try the Ignite Module and successfully transform. They appear to still be on the back foot, Micha has subtly transformed as well (more glowing, open hair, more doll parts showing) and she taunts them for their weakness. But she is wrong! An unexpected combined attack where her two opponents are perfectly in synch is enough to destroy her. Cut to Chris and the Commander scolding them for the danger they put themselves in, underscoring once again that they care about them. We follow Kirika and Shirabe as they walk home in a gorgeous sunset, reflecting on their newfound perspective. The episode isn't quite over yet though! As Micha's pedestal lights up in Carol's throne room gears start churning and a door opens up revealing... Carol?! And not only that, we also get a fancy zoom-in shot revealing that she can look through Elfnein's eyes! Maybe even control her? Who knows!
Review	It's a solid episode about Kirika and Shirabe! Are we getting personal growth episodes for everybody on the team as they take down an autoscorer every episode? That's... a very weird structure for the second half of the season, but sure. And hey, Carol is back again, maybe the autoscorers can also come back in a similar way? I don't think so though. The twist with Elfnein is a solid one though, and does neatly explain how Carol has often been one step ahead of everybody.
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki letting loose is always VERY fun, even if she wasn't doing great emotionally this time around. But the real highlight was Kirika and Shirabe having two excellent battles. 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: And two excellent songs! Basically the only highlight, much like Maria in the previous episode, but these were duets and that makes them better. 8.5/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Sure, let's immediately being back Carol! She's been dead, what? Two episodes? And just keep taking out autoscorers while you're at it. 7.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Some needlessly framed shots of Shirabe and the shower scene could have been anything else (lunch, for example), but all in all not the worst I guess. 7.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid episode! It helps that I've also just really come to like these two characters that were highlighted this episode. And fortunately Hibiki's dad was more on the sidelines than I feared... for now.

Episode 9: The Middle of a Dream / "Don't ever be afraid to hold on to your dreams."

Summary	So, Carol's back! It looks like she had backup clones of herself that she could transfer her memory into. And this is the last one, but she's confident it will suffice for her plans. Meanwhile Hibiki is still ignoring her dad, which Miku is worried about but she doesn't want to pry. Hibiki is still recovering from the Micha fight and has a medical checkup upcoming, she's putting on a brave face about  the whole dad stuff. Wow, lots of little cuts to start off the episode. In the submarine we are shown Neptune's Palace, an underground government facility that stores relics and other dangerous things. It is one of two potential target locations, the other being Tsubasa's childhood home. Tsubasa, Ogawa and Maria go to the latter, while Chris, Shirabe and Kirika head for Neptune's Palace. Tsubasa's father greets the group and is cold and dismissive of Tsubasa, how rude! Maria steps up to defend her friend, but Tsubasa holds her back. Before more can come of it the green autoscorer appears! Tsubasa and Maria transform (we follow Tsubasa's, this is very much her fight) and they start to tear through the Alca-Noise. Unfortunately for Tsubasa this was the autoscorer that had a weird thing where she is able to break any sword. And she really is, taking out Tsubasa's big sword attack, Tsubasa herself, Maria's counterattack (her new Symphogear also uses swords) and even the keystone keeping the ley line sealed. She really doesn't mess around, huh? With a taunting comment that she'll be back for Tsubasa when she wakes up (presumably in the hope of facing a strong enough adversary to destroy herself to, like the others) she retreats, her mission complete. Meanwhile we are shown surveillance footage from Neptune's Palace, Carol and the yellow Autoscorer are already there, seemingly looking for something without bothering to hide their presence. Elfnein speculates she is looking for something that would help in her plan of destroying the world. HALFWAY POINT Back with Tsubasa and Maria, Tsubasa's dad is rude again, Maria stands up for her friend again. There's a cute scene afterwards where Tsubasa's childhood room is a complete mess, which Maria misinterprets (much like Hibiki did in season 1). And we get the reason why Tsubasa's father is so cold to her. Her grandfather, and head of the family, passed over her father and uncle (Commander Genjuro) to succeed him and instead appointed her. Worse still, this is because her grandfather sired her, rather than her father. That's very messed up! Back in the submarine they are looking through a long list of relics kept there. Elfnein spots a scroll that is a likely candidate and where it's kept in the facility, convinced that it would be a potential candidate for Carol's purposes. And sure enough, Carol changes direction and starts heading for it, as if she suddenly knows where she's going. As Chris and the others arrive we cut back to the mansion to find... The green autoscorer is back to face Tsubasa again! Maria and Tsubasa transform and are immediately in trouble again since they're both sword-based. Hell, Tsubasa basically sees herself as a sword. Sure enough, the autoscorer's swordbreaker does a number on her Symphogear. Encouragement comes from an unlikely direction! Her father encourages her and Maria points out that he kept her childhood room in exactly the same state for many years while still having it dusted. He cares, and is just bad at showing it! Shocking nobody this gives Tsubasa the conviction and passion to use the Ignite Module, transform without any problem and face the Autoscorer in battle. She is still a sword though, and her swords are easily deflected, until she finally declares to herself that she isn't just a sword. Her blades are her wings with which she soars. (I guess that's a downside of conceptual weapons, huh?) With one large final attack she finish off the autoscorer, who laughs gleefully in defeat. Meanwhile, in Neptune's Palace (we've been cutting back and forth all along, this summary is just already running long) Chris, Shirabe and Kirika are facing off against the revived Carol and the yellow (and presumably final) autoscorer. They're doing well! Even without their Ignite Modules they seem to have the upper hand, and even manage to destroy the scroll their opponents had retrieved. A large volley of rockets from Chris manages to eventually overwhelm the autoscorer's defence (of shooting them out of the air with flicked coins!) and one heads right for Carol, only to be stopped in mid-air by a very familiar-looking fist! It's not Hibiki (where even is Hibiki this episode?!), tragically it is Dr. Ver, using his monstrous arm to absorb the attack (it's a piece of symphogear and the arm is sort of the nephilim, after all). With this dramatic declaration of his return, the episode ends. (I guess he was held prisoner here and broke out during the battle?!)
Review	Such a lot going on this episode! I really liked the back and forth we had between the groups, even if it made for a lot of recapping. Still not much screen time for Hibiki's dad (yay!) but Dr. Ver is back (*deep sigh*). I do really like a lot of the small touches in this episode, like Elfnein seeing the relic and that directing Carol (still no hint if Elfnein knows, or maybe even doesn't exist and is just a hivemind with Carol). Oof, that Tsubasa reveal is rough though. Her grandfather sounds like an absolute monster. I'm sure that won't come up again further down the line.
Scores	7.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Many fun fights! Even if the autoscorer dispatching is kind of becoming formulaic. Just one left though, and she has a kaiju. 7.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Solid songs, focusing on Chris and Tsubasa. Tsubasa's never really work as well for me as the others but they're still good. 7/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Not much chaos this episode, despite the two interwoven plotlines. All pretty standard. Kind of weird to basically have no Hibiki around. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: ...is this just a fully clean episode?! Yes please! 8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: A solid episode that makes a lot of good progress, so let's keep going!

Episode 10: It's So Cruel, But... / "Could there be a mole amongst us?!"

Summary	Dr. Ver! He's still a creep with delusions of heroism. A small flashback of him indeed accidentally being blown out of his prison in Neptune's Palace and then deciding that this was his time. Fortunately interrupted by the opening. Darn, we're still at Dr. Ver, who immediately starts mocking Kirika and Shirabe for using previous generation Linker rather than his version (that they no longer have access to). In fact, they're almost entirely out of Linker, so Shirabe and Kirika are considering sparing the Doctor and finding a way where he can make Linker for them. They aren't happy about it though! Chris is also not happy, at Dr. Ver showing up, at her friends backing out of the fight, mostly/actually at herself for not getting the job done. She shuns her two juniors, pushing on alone to redeem herself (in her own eyes). Flashback to Carol and Elfnein! Elfnein asks what the plan is, because destroying the world wasn't the mission that Carol's father tasked her with (it was knowing the world). Carol calmly explains that the Château de Tiffauges (a word that has come up a few times before, but I try to spare you the wild terminology until necessary) is a destroyer of worlds. The main thing we learn from Elfnein standing up to Carol, tossing their shared memories of Carol's father into her face no less, is that Elfnein is definitely actually opposing Carol and doesn't want to see the world destroyed. Present-day Carol questions Dr. Ver, she has heard of him but wants to know his motives, and especially how this Nephilim arm of his works. An uneasy alliance is formed, Carol brags that she knows everything her enemies are up to. Chris gets reprimanded by Commander Genjuro for going all out against Dr. Ver, Carol and the final autoscorer. They're in a research facility at the bottom of the ocean, if the walls are breached the damage would be enormous, she continues to be very frustrated. Over to Tsubasa and Maria (and Ogawa), where they examine the wreckage of the autoscorer Tsubasa sliced in half. It's still capable of speech! And she's apologetic about being so rude?! Carol's boasts weren't for nothing, they are easily able to stay out of Chris' group's reach as they are always one step ahead of them. The theory is suggested in HQ that they've been hacked or infiltrated! HALFWAY POINT Hibiki is calling Miku from the hospital, late at night. She has decided to see her dad one more time. She's still scared, but Miku assures her, saying not to worry, everything will be fine! An exact phrasing Hibiki uses quite regularly when things are looking dire, since the very beginning of the show. She doesn't even remember where she picked up the phrase. Tsubasa's slain autoscorer confirms the commander's suspicion, she claims there's a mole in their midst! The viewer is pretty sure that it's Elfnein, nobody else has a clue so far. Elfnein assumes that she will be suspected though, and pre-emptively starts pleading her case to Genjuro and the bridge crew, only to be interrupted by... Carol! Carol is astral-projecting herself from Elfnein's body, onto the bridge, taunting everybody there. Meanwhile the autoscorer wreckage explains what Carol was after to succeed in her grand plan: The cursed song of the Dainsleif artifact, which was gathered by the three defeated autoscorers so far (after all, the Ignite Module uses the Dainsleif). She explodes into a shower of EMP chaff, blocking the group from immediately communicating these findings to the rest of the organisation. The commander and bridge crew ignore Elfnein's pleas to be locked away where she can't betray them further and instead accept her presence, regardless of who might be listening in. This frustrates Carol and she disperses the projection (but continues the tracking, surely). Since Carol had to stand still to do her astral projection trick Chris and the others finally caught up to her! We follow Kirika's transformation and get her song, it's very fun and light-hearted! The final autoscorer covers the retreat of Carol and Dr. Ver, who teleport out, it's time for her to shine (and potentially go out in a blaze of glory, which would be very bad if it's by way of the Ignite Module). We see a ton of new tricks from her, all revolving around coin manipulation. Tonfa made out of coins, summoning giant coins, it's a lot of fun! Fun to watch, that is. She's clearly winning, managing to knock out Kirika, Shirabe and Chris. As Chris comes to she sees the state of the other two and despairs. She's still not strong enough to protect her friends, her allies, those that rely on her. She has pretty severe abandonment issues. At the peak of her panic, the autoscorer lunges at her, taunting her to sing in order to stop her. But Kirika and Shirabe jump into her path and block the attack! They already rely on her, they already trust her. Chris is ascribing emotions to them that they're not actually feeling, those are just her insecurities. Chris has her emotional breakthrough and learned a lesson, hooray! Chris unsheathes the Ignite Module and transforms, hooray! Wait, no, that's a bad thing now that we know the context! Oh no! She easily dispatches the autoscorer, trusting her friends to pull her out of that section of the facility and close the blast doors to limit the damage to only a small part of the facility and ensure they get out okay. It would be an amazing victory if they hadn't just doomed the world. Ah, except that we also had a kaiju didn't we? As the autoscorer's gigantic "little sister" chases the sub that is the SONG HQ they escape the facilty just in time, but she's following them, even as they breach the surface and delivers a huge blow against it, seemingly cracking it in half! Credits, because the show creators love a cliffhanger.
Review	And so falls the final autoscorer, and we are given the knowledge that no, that's horrible actually and plays right into Carol's tiny homunculus hands. Such a lot going on, and I continue to not love that Dr. Ver is back, but this was a great episode! Let's see if the scores agree:
Scores	8/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: This autoscorer was so fun to fight against, it was so inventive! And Chris' breakthrough was one of the more genuine that we've seen this season. Good stuff! 8/10 🎶 MUSIC: Chris and Kirika have the more rock-y musical genres, and I had an excellent time with them, even if it was "only" their battle songs and a new Ignite arrangement of one of them. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Plant the suspicion of a mole, immediately reveal the mole. Explain why the autoscorers shouldn't all die, immediately kill the final autoscorer. Hectic antics and sweeping reveals, while still keeping its emotional core. Well played! 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Kirika's transformation could have been a smidge less skimpy, even within the context of the genre, but other than that, clean! 8.8/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Yeah, my hunch was correct. This was a great episode. Let's keep going! Will the submarine be okay?!

Episode 11: It's All Right. Everything is Just Fine. / "Now, witness the dissection of the world!"

Summary	We are NOT wasting time, the submarine bridge evacuates after the impact, Chris is launched by missile tube to fight the Kaiju and she's already (or still?) in her Ignite form. Let's do this! She fires a gigantic arrow, a weapon form she doesn't use very regularly, and strikes down the gigantic figure. On the bridge Elfnein threw herself into the path of falling debris to save one of the familiar faces that work there, getting hurt in the process. The opening hits! Hibiki and her dad meet up in a different restaurant. It's not going well, Hibiki suggests that if her dad wants to get back together with her mom he'll need to take the first step. Her dad admits that he's scared and that he still has his "pride as a man" (God, I hate this man). Even after Hibiki explains that she was scared to even come here today, he's still indecisive. Fortunately the sky rips open as if the borders between realities has shattered and a gigantic fortress appears in the sky. The Châtteau de Tiffauges has arrived! A cut inside reveals that Dr. Ver is able to control it using his Nephilim arm, or at least activate it to go into automatic mode. Carol reveals that she will use it to take apart the world so she can analyse it and know it, as her father instructed. Dr. Ver doesn't love this, tension rises between them. So Carol literally stabs him in the back while taunting that a side character like him can never be the hero and throws him over an internal railing of her throneroom. Hooray! With one horrible man removed by her hands she tries to go for the combo and descends, facing Hibiki and her father! HALFWAY POINT She pulls a cheap move, blowing Hibiki's pendant away so she can't transform. Her father runs away in a panic as Carol tries to shoot him down. She mocks Hibiki that her father is pathetic compared to what she remembers of her own. As an elemental shot grazes him and he takes a fall he gets up, saying to himself not to worry, that everything will be alright. Hibiki's mantra, her words. Learned from a man like this. The show has the gall to give him a dramatic moment where he stands up to Carol, throwing stones her way, none of which come so much as close to hitting her, but it's a fake-out where he actually throws Hibiki her pendant with the last throw! Meaning she transforms! A close-to-the wire attack of Carol at Hibiki, but it's too late. Hibiki transforms, and we see a flashback of how her mantra has helped her when times were tough. Which she interprets as her father always being there for her. Carol summons a pile of Noise, way more than is usual for this type of encounter, and Hibiki tears through them with ease. She even manages to bust through Carol's alchemical shields and only directly trying to attack her father allows Carol a moment's rest. The others arrive just in time though! Saving Hibiki's dad (and removing him from the battle) and cutting off Carol's escape. Carol is outraged, she will not be defeated this close to her moment of triumph! We see her transformation once more. It's subtly different, slightly more like a symphogear, in fact, she SINGS. A dark song, full of hatred for the world! She takes them all off-guard with her overwhelming power, casually matching the output of any swan song thanks to amplification from the Châtteau de Tiffauges, which itself becomes charged up from Carol's song, enveloping the Earth's ley lines in green light. A quick division of priorities is made. Hibiki, Chris and Tsubasa will face Carol while Maria, Shirabe and Kirika will attempt to take down Carol's fortress. Both battles heat up and are amazing, but the three facing Carol are struggling to even survive! The episode ends. After the credits we have an impossible reveal! Maria waking up inside the Châtteau, we last saw her entering it with the other two, and seeing Professor Nastassja, who we are pretty confident is dead!
Review	God, I HATE Hibiki's dad and how easily he is forgiven. I really don't feel like he deserves it at all. Which is a shame, because the rest of this episode? Absolutely amazing! Instantaneous raising of stakes to season-finale levels, which will presumably stay up at that level as we ride out GX. It's going to be a wild ride, please just keep Dr. Ver and Hibiki's dad away from the camera.
Scores	8.5/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Hibiki's dad legitimately counts as anti-gloriousness in my book, but the rest is SO GOOD that it's still a high score. Just excellent battle stuff. 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: Hibiki's song is passionate, Chris gets a snippet of Ignite stuff at the start, all great stuff. But Carol's big song? Carol's big song is AMAZING. Despite us having had singing villains in the past, this was the first one that felt at all like a villain song. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Carol immediately betraying Dr. Ver once the Château is activated, everybody immediately coming to the rescue when needed, Chris taking out that Kaiju at the start with barely any ceremony. This train has places to go and it is NOT slowing down. 9/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Some incredibly unnecessary shots of Hibiki's butt as she fights off Carol's Alca-Noise stained what was otherwise a clean episode. 8.9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Second-best episode of the season so far, despite the prominent presence of Hibiki's dad. I was dreading seeing his plot beats again, but am glad the rest of the episode salvaged things so spectacularly.

Episode 12: GX / "Then I shall abandon the past and crush the present!"

Summary	No opening today, we are going right in. Credits over the losing battle against Carol and the weird reveal of Professor Nastassja inside the Châtteau (with a larger pan to reveal Kirika and Shirabe are there as well). Kirika and Shirabe don't believe the Professor is real, but her words still get to Maria. As the ley lines wreak havoc on the earth, Carol starts to monologue about alchemy and songs, both tools created to bridge the gap of understanding created by the Curse of Balal. Maria's group run into Dr. Ver and take him along, he's not doing well but still speaking (sadly), as they do their best to find a way to shut down the destructive engine, even reverse the damage that is done already. Dr. Ver is crucial to their plan to reprogram the weapon, even if it is very clearly going to explode because of this. Dr. Ver is unphased at the prospect of dying (and hey, I'm all for him being gone too!) Hibiki wants to use the Ignite module, but the other two warn that this might be exactly what Carol wants, Hibiki hadn't received the memo about this up until now. In the fortress, the fake Professor Nastassja transforms into a fake Maria wielding the Gungnir, it's time for our trio of newbies to face the darkness in their past! New music starts, a song for all three of them. It's sad and glorious and powerful. As they fight, Elfnein gets a data connection to the Châtteau over Maria's communicator, assisting Dr. Ver in the reversal of the weapon's effects. As the trio apologises to Tsubasa, Chris and Hibiki they fight on, the weapon exploding around them, hurting Carol since she is still linked to it. Carol, wanting to stop the pain and the interference sends out a beam attack, destroying the Châtteau which goes down in flames. HALFWAY POINT The deconstruction is reverting! The world is saved! But... at what cost? Everybody tries to convince Carol to stop, it's Elfnein's words that get through to her. Carol admits that this plan is mostly about her getting revenge, finding closure for her grief. Elfnein claims that the answer is forgiveness, before collapsing from her wounds. Carol declares that she will let go of the past and destroy the present, burning more and more of her memories to power up devastating attacks against Hibiki and the others. They trust in Elfnein, in the power that she gave them, and activate their Ignite modules! It's no match for the alchemical shields, not when she's burning this many of her memories, as she starts singing her own song once more the trio unleash all limiters from their Ignite module and try for a combo attack, but it is still absolutely outclassed by Carol's power. Hibiki doesn't want to give up, she can't, she never would. But she doesn't see a way forward. In her despair she hears three swan songs cry out. The smoke clears, revealing an Ignite-transformed Maria, Shirabe and Kirika. A brief flashback shows how they had to abandon Dr. Ver, crushed under some rubble, who entrusted them with his research on symphogear and Linker, leaving a cryptic message about symphogear compatibility coming from love. Back to the present, each of the three new arrivals has helped up one of the others, and they are joining their swan songs together, all six of them. Carol mocks them, it wouldn't be enough, that'd be impossible! And lashes out at them with a beam attack. They hold hands, and attempt to absorb the energy of Carol's attack using Hibiki's/Gungnir's energy conversion capabilities. As they redirect the blast up into the heavens they descend, transformed into new forms, almost angelic to behold. With that we hit the credits, with a new song compared to usually.
Review	Aaaaaah, that's what I'm talking about! Sure, we had some Hibiki-Dad and some Dr. Ver where both were shown in a far too positive light, but the rest was so good, I don't even care anymore! Appealing to Carol's humanity, facing her when she rejects it. Is it trope-heavy? Sure! Am I entirely, entirely here for it? Yes, so very yes.
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: A dramatic sacrifice, a dramatic showdown, a dramatic rescue, a dramatic transformation. It's all just so good! 9/10 🎶 MUSIC: Carol's song again, an excellent Hibiki song for their Ignited attempt to stop Carol, but the highlight for me was the Maria-Shirabe-Kirika song. It was excellent! 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: Did we really need the Carol-monologue about the power of song? Or rather, did we really need it right then?! Right after the Châtteau was destroyed? Good stuff all around though, very much including "killing off" the B team and immediately bringing them back in the same episode. 10/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Just a clean episode! 9.3/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: This. This is Symphogear firing on all cylinders. It's fast, it's dramatic, it's silly, it doesn't know what the word cringe means. Bring on that finale!

Episode 13: Believe in Justice and Hold It Close / "That's never stopped me before!"

Summary	We get shown the absorption of the beam attack and transformation into their angelic forms again. With overlaid credits, of course. After some pace-breaking monologuing by Carol about her dead dad (she explains that her father was burned at the stake for his alchemy, despite it only ever being used to help people), Carol summons a near-endless swarm of Alca-Noise. Looks like she isn't out of the fight just yet. The bridge reports in that Elfnein has collapsed and is crying, the collapse is from the injury she sustained last episode, the crying is because she is tied to Carol who is crying. Hibiki decides to try to reach out to her, and the other five are there to back her up. First though, those Alca-Noise. As a new, six-way song starts up, we are treated to an amazing action sequence. Everybody has fancy new powers, and it's a delight to see, even if it's partially very silly. As they emerge victorious, they turn to Carol again, who has been charging up her phonic gain, using it to summon... a gigantic demonic robot lion? Unexpected, but not unwelcome! It's incredibly strong, and seemingly impervious to their attacks. As a move of desperation they channel all of energy into their X-Drive, their ultimate attack, as Hibiki blocks Carol's beam attack. The spectacular rainbow-coloured barrage of attacks strikes the lion, cracking it open to reveal Carol who taunts them, saying they were one Armed Gear short. Only to see that Hibiki is channelling the energy from all the others into her hand, Carol unleashes a gigantic attack against her, but Hibiki blocks it with an oversized mechanical hand as new music for her hits. As she launches herself (giant) fist-first at Carol, the others channel their power directly into her again, transforming the fist to envelop Hibiki. She wins this test of strength, striking a critical blow to Carol! And as the opening theme fades in, Carol starts to lose control of her powers. The blast radius is projected to be 12 kilometers! The lion rises into the air as it starts to break apart and fold in on itself, getting ready to explode, Carol tumbles from the wreckage and Hibiki dives after her, still intent on saving her. Carol is dismissive to the very end, saying that Hibiki's songs can't save her, or anybody. Hibiki refuses to accept this and triggers her Ignite module one final time, increasing her speed. With one final vision of her father, Carol finally reaches out and allows herself to be caught, right before the lion explodes into a gigantic mushroom cloud. HALFWAY POINT The city is in ruins, there's a huge crater right in the middle. We have flashed forward a whole 72 hours. Everybody we care about is fine and accounted for, even Hibiki, who apparently shielded herself and Carol with her symphogear, but in the direct aftermath Carol has gotten away and the trail has gone cold. Meanwhile Elfnein is in a proper hospital (the submarine got destroyed, after all) and everybody has been visiting her every day. We're shown a cute light-hearted scene of everybody explaining the concept of summer vacation to her. After the visit Hibiki leaves the others with the excuse that she needs the bathroom and runs off. The others see through her, having understood this for what it is, and leave Miku to take care of it. She finds her friend crying in the bathroom, sink running to mask the sound. Hibiki isn't surprised that it's Miku that came. She explains her despair at not being able to do anything for Elfnein, who isn't doing well at all, that only the simple problems of the world can be solved with fists. Miku knows just what to say though, that Hibiki's fists are the kindest in the world and can solve any problem. Yes, that's a super weird thing to say, but it's a sweet moment, I promise. Cut to later that night, Elfnein alone in her hospital room. Carol enters, seemingly not remembering anything. Elfnein recognises that she burned all but tiny shreds of her memories in the battle. Her mind is fading and she beseeches Elfnein to tell her everything about the father she has forgotten. But just as Carol's mind is fading, so is Elfnein's body. It's a heart-breaking scene, as she bursts into tears, and Carol kisses her, proclaiming them, once more, together. Elfnein's heart monitor flatlines. This sets off all sorts of alerts and everybody rushes in to see what's going on, only to find Carol standing over an empty bed. She seems different though... and the group (Hibiki first) quickly realise what has happened, Carol has absorbed Elfnein into herself, bequeathing her body to Elfnein as she faded away. We cut to Hibiki running through town, talking with her father. They're heading somewhere together. As this unwelcome subplot plays out we get cute cuts to the other girls in the group. Kirika and Shirabe struggling with summer homework while Chris shows off that she actually gets great grades. Tsubasa being seen off by Maria, Genjuro and even (briefly) her father. The latter two wait by the car and discuss some sort of magical girl incident that happened in Europe... a tease for the next season? Probably! Elfnein joining the SONG bridge crew where they start to analyse the data Dr. Ver left them. With a dramatic long shot on that USB drive the credits roll with a delightful group rendition of the concert song that kicked off the season. But, we did need to finish off Hibiki's arc I suppose, so after the credits we are shown her dad awkwardly trying to try again with Hibiki's mom, but Hibiki grabs their hands. It's very in character for Hibiki, and I hope we never see the dad again.
Review	Again, the horrible dad kind of holds back the episode, but it was a super fun and explosive finale! Kind of a step down compared to seasons 1 and 2 in that it was only one tier of fighting. Just the big fight against the lion, rather than a second separate struggle after the fighting appears to have been over. But I did really like the Elfnein resolution we got in the second half of the episode, it was such excellent character work. And I had forgotten about the tease for AXZ that got snuck in there. Let's see about those final scores...
Scores	9/10 🌟GLORIOUSNESS: Big upsets, excellent new forms, a great time! Though perhaps not the flashiest of season finales. 8.5/10 🎶 MUSIC: Excellent new music, use of the opening theme, having a new song as the end credits, yeah this is all great stuff. Can't give it more than this score since there's no songs in the second half of the episode though. 9/10 🎬 NARRATIVE CHAOS: We really just have our heroes win before the middle of the episode and that's it, huh? I suppose we might have come to expect a second stage by this point. 9.5/10 🧼 SLEAZINESS: Almost perfect! One needless "press boobs together as part of this attack" for Maria and Tsubasa that we really didn't need, but it could have been (and has been) so much worse. 9/10 🧮 TOTAL SCORE: Surpassed by two other episodes this season and lagging quite a ways behind both other season finales, but still a solid way to wrap up the season! I had a very good time with it.

Overall Thoughts & Graphs / Graphing dreams 😴

And that's a wrap on Symphogear GX, the midway point of the show. It's weird and light and still slightly too sleazy for me but it's slowly turning into something more special with each and every season. In the end Hibiki's horrible dad was relatively absent throughout most of the season, I just really hate how he was forgiven despite not "deserving" it.

Now, say it with me: Graphs! Graphs! Graphs!

• Gloriousness didn't quite claw its way back to the heights at which the season started, but it also didn't have any real dips. Solid throughout!
  
  
• Music is consistently higher than in previous seasons. Slight dip at the end, but again very consistent throughout the season.
  
  
  
  
• Narrative Chaos continues to be a spiky mess
  
  
• Sleaziness definitely got its shit together as the season developed. Could we please just have more of the latter half and fewer shower scenes, fewer beach montages, less jiggling during the transformations? Pretty please?
  
  
• Total scores are unsurprisingly very positive and also show that slight fizzling out towards the end of the season. Definitely good, definitely fun, definitely not the best finale.
  
  
• That just leaves the season averages, this was a marked improvement across the board from season 1 to 2, but I feel like that might not be the case for season 3... Yeah, it's ever so slightly better on average, but it got less chaotic and the only real improvement was in the music department.
  
  
  I really hope we see a larger spike for season 4, though I'll settle for things not getting worse of course. This is still an amazing show.

Next Up! / Magical girls? In Europe?! It's more likely than you think!

Hell yeah, another part done! And I think it's less humongous than the one I wrote for season 2? Fingers crossed. And of course after this we will push on and get started on... Symphogear AXZ!