By the power of underboob.
(Read the full episode below, or click here for the list of other episodes)
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(The following is a re-upload of my original tumblr post. I’ve altered it in the following ways: fixed typos/grammar/punctuation, made image edits easier to read, clarified confusing sentences, streamlined extraneous content, and added stickers to nude scenes to comply with Blogspot policies. The rest of the original madness is preserved as-is.)
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Last episode ended with an awesome chaotic climax, where Hibiki slaughtered a bunch of Noise after descending once again into her red-eyed rage and going full-on Frothing Berserker.
Well, either that or the dub-variant cover of Violence Jack.
Yeah, let’s…. let’s stick with the Frothing Berserker reference, instead. The less I have to remember about Violence Jack, the better.
At the very end of the episode, after Hamster snapped out of her rage, Tsubasa landed on the scene, and the two girls were approached by a new Symphogear wielder. I expected some plot to descend last episode, and holy moly this show did giveth unto us two big heaving plot devices.
Anime is art.
I’m super excited to watch this coming episode and learn more about who this mysterious, villainous-looking new character is! Her short introduction last episode was really fascinating and unusual. Mainly because her most noticeable feature (well, perhaps her third most notable feature) is that unique mask.
Literally the first thing we saw of her was this mask, when she stepped out of the shadows.
When introducing an antagonist, or just a generally dangerous character, the camera usually pans upward, starting at their feet and moving up. Let’s use Shady-mura as an example:
This type of shot is sometimes called a “Hitler cam” after the famous Leni Riefenstahl style of propaganda footage, where you set the camera’s perspective low in order to make the person look taller, and therefore more powerful and intimidating.
Symphogear went with the opposite of that. For Madam Underboob here, they introduced her by her masked head and moved downward, showing the rest of her outfit only after the mask had been established.
This type of visual doesn’t happen by accident. Symphogear’s storyboarders and animation directors deliberately chose to compose the shot this way. Introducing this girl by her mask instead of your traditional villain-upward-pan leads the viewer to focus on that mask. Which I believe means it will be important to her character and/or her role in the story, and not just a pretty accessory.
Also, it sets her apart since none of the Symphogears we’ve seen so far wear masks. Kanade/Hibiki’s headgear takes the form of big bulky DJ-style headphones and white pikachu ears (which double as horns when Hibiki is in Frothing Berserker mode), while Tsubasa has the DJ headphones plus whatever weird shit is going on with her hair, girl I don’t even know…
…Wait, hang on, oh my god you guys, I just now realized.
I just fucking now realized, the whole time I thought those were supposed to be DJ-style headphones, because the girls are musical, ya know – but NO, those aren’t DJ headphones the Symphogears are wearing, they’re noise-canceling headphones.
NOISE-CANCELING headphones.
HhhHAHHAHAH oh my god I GET IT, four episodes in and my slowpoke ass finally got it, HAHAHA, THEY ARE FIGHTING THE NOISE, THEY WEAR NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES FOR PROTECTION.
ANIME IS ART
Anyway, back to Madam Underboob.
Masks serve a couple purposes for a character’s role. Masked heroes are a different subject entirely, and this girl gave off a heavy antagonist vibe to me, so I’m only going to make predictions based on villain-related mask tropes.
Hiding part of your face, particularly the eyes, removes you from the people around you. Much of our communication comes from facial expression and eye movement. If people can’t see your eyes, they can’t see your mind. You feel protected from the consequences of your actions. And, if you’re a bad guy, hiding your eyes means your victims can’t make eye contact with you, which removes you from “connecting” with them in an emotional way, such as having compassion or trust. Bad guys, which Madam Underboob sure looks like, hide their eyes because it allows them to distance themselves from the people they hurt and not feel bad about their own evil actions.
Hah, this is also why Anons, who wear black shades, can send virulent hate mail that they would never dream of doing under their real username. Something I think gets overlooked sometimes about the Stanford Prison Experiment is the fact they made the “warden” students wear big, tinted shades to cover their eyes even indoors.
The “prisoner” student on the left also demonstrates the other use of face-coverings: to remove identity and personhood. Masks can mean no identity, a.k.a. fungibility. This is why in fiction, bad guy minions often wear masks/hoods/helmets that make them indistinguishable. (Think Star Wars stormtroopers.) This is the same reason the Noise don’t have faces, and why I didn’t think they’d be the main villains. They don’t have identity. They’re communicating to the viewer, “Don’t focus on me, I’m not a character/person, I’m just one of many.”
With a character like Madam Underboob, you can tell she is, well, a character, seeing as the anime took the time to compose her introduction like this and give her a… memorable… outfit. Lack identity she does not. Therefore, her mask will fall under the other option.
So, either she’s wearing that mask because she is an ill-doer, OR, she’s wearing that mask because she is not fully in control of what she does, nor of her identity.
One guess last episode was that she might not be the villain, but be under the villain’s control. If this turns out true, then her eyes are covered up because her will is not her own. Her eyes and her identity are subsumed by the villain’s influence. Even an old French legal term for a married woman, i.e. a woman under a man’s control, is femme covert – a covered woman. Who she is as a person is “covered over” by her connection to the other person.
If this girl ever breaks free of the villain’s influence and joins the hero’s team (a common character development for an evil magical girl in any anime), she will likely “un-cover” herself by taking off her mask, to present to the world and the audience as being in charge of her own alignment now.
…
…Or, you know, maybe all this speculation is bullcrap, and she’s just wearing a mask because she found it at a beachtown dollar store and thought it was Too Cool For School. It’s not like I haven’t been disastrously wrong about characters before.
Jeez, for being excited to start this episode, I sure wasted a lot of time talking about it before actually pressing Play. All right, here we go! Let’s dive in and see what will happen between Hamster, Tsubasa, and Madam Underboob!
Oh hey look, the third episode in a row that starts with an unrelated scene instead of picking up at the tense climax of the previous episode.
Why the fuck am I even surprised any more.
In this five-year flashback, we start off with… Kanade?
Wait, Kanade? We’re getting a Kanade backstory episode? Sure, okay, I’m happy to learn more about her, but I thought this episode was going to be about the new character. Are these two characters connected?
We see Kanade’s introduction to the special Noise-fighting crew led by Snoop Oni. It turns out that Kanade was the sole survivor of an excavation team trying to find new Relics, the ancient magical stones that power the Symphogears. But, Everything Changed When The Noise Attacked and killed the entire team, including Kanade’s family, leaving her with nothing to live for except VENGEANCE. So, she’s eager to become a Symphogear wielder and get to monster-slaying.
Wow, this is quite a different character from the valiant lioness from the first episode. Kanade in the first episode served as the upbeat, affectionate, reassuring leader of her and Tsubasa’s partnership, and also showed compassion and heroism toward Hibiki by willingly dying to save her. Five years (well, I guess three years, since the concert attack happened two years ago from main-plot time) can change a lot about a person, especially a teenager.
This wasn’t what I was expecting from this episode, but it’ll be interesting to see how Kanade grew from “kill ‘em all” into a level-headed hero. Not to mention it’ll likely show us how she and Tsubasa came to be so close, and how they helped each other grow into the people the audience sees five years later.
Kanade demands Snoop Oni let her join their agency in fighting Noise. He accepts… with a caveat.
Whoa, slow down there, man. Just make her read the Symphogear Terms and Conditions or something before you lay out the “going to hell” shit.
Yikes. You and me both, tiny Tsubasa.
(Sidenote: LOOKIT TINY TSUBASA OMG)
In order to, I guess, get attuned to a Relic in order to wield it, Kanade must undergo scary medical procedures and drug injections. Does every Symphogear girl need to do this, or is it because Kanade came to it late instead of starting when she was small? (Damn, did they put tiny Tsubasa through this shit, too?? Fuckers.)
The scientists’ efforts don’t seem to be working. Gungnir just isn’t resonating with Kanade yet. This frustrates her, since she wants to get her vengeance on real quick. She recklessly injects even more of those weird scary drugs into herself without Dr. Perv’s approval, hoping that will do the trick.
This reckless move actually does seems to work.
For a particularly brutal definition of “work”, that is. Good grief, take me back to the moonlit underboob shots, I’m scared of where this scene is going.
How do the wielders just instinctively know these activation phrases?? Girl is half-mad with grief and fury, has shot herself up with who-knows-what terrifying apothecary drugs, just vomited a kegger’s worth of blood, and through this chaos she somehow still manages to clear her throat and sing out perfect gibberish.
Tsubasa, narrating, explains that Kanade’s Symphogear power was different from her own for this reason, that Kanade actively wanted power:
Holy shit, is THIS the root of Hibiki’s Frothing Berserker mode?? Was Kanade’s inner rage when she first became a Symphogear wielder so strong that it permanently tainted Gungnir with a darkness that will infect all future users of this Gear?
Flash forward to a bit later, and Kanade and Tsubasa are now fighting the Noise together.
They kill a bunch of monsters and save a group of people all heroic-like. One man thanks them for saving him, and tells Kanade that when he was buried beneath rubble and fearing he would die, hearing her sing amid the battle inspired him not to give up.
Ohhh, so is that where this phrase from the first episode comes from?
That’s poetic. And now, Kanade has passed that legacy phrase on to Hibiki as well as passing her Gear on to her.
Hearing that people enjoy her music calms Kanade the fuck down from her blood-vomit personality, thank gawd. She suggests to Tsubasa that they take up singing even when not fighting Noise. Tsubasa agrees, and this is how they become the idol duo named Zwei Wing.
That sounds familiar…
Goddammit, Symphogear, must every single flashback drive the pain-needles in even deeper?
We finally cut back to present day, with Tsubasa and Hibiki confronted by the new girl.
I’m guessing not from the Victoria’s Secret winter catalog?
She’s wearing the Gear of a Relic called “Nehushtan”, which Tsubasa tells us was stolen from the good guys two years ago during the concert attack. I guess while Tsubasa and Kanade were busy fighting Noise at the concert, someone stole Nehushtan from their base? So… does this mean Madam Underboob really is working for the villain, and the villain really is the one causing Noise attacks as a diversion to gain power?
Tsubasa draws her sword and gets ready to FITE.
Hamster, being a perfect pure cupcake, can’t imagine using their powers to fight another human instead of fighting monsters. Tsubasa and the new girl scoff at this in unison. They’re both quite willing to fite.
They both say this exact same line at the exact same time, which amuses Tsubasa.
Apparently, “get along” means “I want to put a sword through your throat” in Tsubasa-talk.
Gay.
Tsubasa shoves Hibiki aside in a clear “move bitch get out the way”, and now Everybody Is Kung-Fu Fighting.
We get a pretty vicious and awesome fight scene. This is the first time we’ve seen Symphogear wielders fighting each other. It’s much more involved, graceful, and tense than seeing them just hack up a bunch of monsters.
It’s a rough fight. Despite their back-and-forth taunting, things start to turn against Tsubasa.
Hibiki tries to intervene, but Madam Under-Bane shoots beams of light at her that summon Noise.
Well, I guess that clarifies that the villain is indeed the one causing the Noise attacks! Does this mean the villain is some ancient evil, since the Noise have been around forever? Or, is the villain new and has only recently learned to control the Noise?
Tsubasa does her BAMF-est, but she just can’t get the upper hand on this girl, nor stop Hamster from getting overwhelmed by Noise. Then, in typical gloating villain fashion, this girl drops a bombshell.
Insert that “I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going” meme here.
Okay, okay, I’m having way too much fun watching this scene, I know I should be thinking critically right now. So, presumably they want to kidnap Hamster in order to steal her Gear? If they stole Nehushtan, it makes sense they also want Gungnir. But, why just Hibiki, why not steal Tsubasa’s Gear too while you have her here?
If the villain truly does mind-control their henchmen like I was wondering about earlier, it’s possible they wants Hibiki taken alive to be brainwashed into another of their minions.
Ow. Ow ow ow. Even though she despises Hibiki, Tsubasa just cannot bear the thought of failing to protect someone, to protect Gungnir’s wielder, not again. Ow.
With new determination, Tsubasa charges back into battle. Hamster, still trapped by the Noise, tries to summon Gungnir’s spear to break herself out, since her usual punching tactics don’t work so well when your hands are tied. But, for some reason, she still can’t call the weapon forth.
Under-Bane summons more Noise in her fight against Tsubasa, but our blue badass just slashes through them and goes back on the offensive. It’s still not enough though, as the new girl just knocks Tsubasa down yet again.
Yes, Symphogear, framing this shot around Tsubasa’s crotch was absolutely essential to the plot and doesn’t detract from the tension of the scene at all.
Anime is art.
Tsubasa’s not giving up just yet. (Don’t give up on life!)
Taking Nehushtan back would require defeating Under-Bane, and things aren’t looking good for Tsubasa on that front.
Gayer.
Tsubasa sees only one way to finish this. She must use her Climax Song (…gayer still), that mighty final attack which overpowers all others, at the cost of the Symphogear wielder’s life. The same attack Kanade used with her last strength to save Hibiki’s life. It’s an awful symmetry – Kanade, full of love, laid down her life to save Hibiki the stranger, and now Tsubasa, although full of disdain for Hibiki, will attempt the same, joining her departed lover at last.
Tsubasa sings her Climax Song. It destroys the remaining Noise minions, frees Hamster from their clutches, and wounds Under-Bane badly enough that she needs to retreat. Under-Bane disappears into the night, and Snoop Oni and Dr. Perv drive up in time to assess the damage.
Yeah right, you can’t fool me, anime. Like you’re really going to kill off Tsubasa in episode 4. We already had our early-game sacrificial lion back in episode 1 with Kanade. I expect we’re safe from major character deaths until, like, episodes 8-11. When Gotham is in ashes, then you have my permission to die.
Like you would really do it, Symphogear, pfft.
…you… would really do…. it…
….
By baby Jesus’s dirty diapers, what the FUCK, Symphogear.
(How could this happen to me, I made my mistakes......)
Seriously, how did we get here, you guys? How did we go from singing magical girls to “the Lannisters send their regards”??
Tsubasa will survive this somehow, she must, but that doesn’t make this scene any less unsettling. I mentioned Violence Jack off-handedly up at the top, but now it looks like we may be approaching that kind of guro. All we’re missing are motorcycle gangs wielding chain-link whips.
Zwei Wing, everyone.
But, you know...
You know what really terrifies me about all this?
We are only 4 episodes into this pain-fest.
There is no way this is the worst of what is to come.
This is like when the Rebellion trailers hit and everyone lost their shit over footage of Homura putting a gun to her own head, but then we saw the actual movie and it turned out Homura blowing her brains out was the least upsetting thing that happened to her. Are we going to reach that same point with Symphogear, where we will look back on Tsubasa leaking blood out every facial orifice with fond “oh, how naive we were!” memories, and long for the days when “suffering” meant a simple “bleeding out the eyes” and not whatever horrors we later come to associate it with?
I am afraid, people. I am very afraid. I don’t think my hatches can be battened down any tighter than they already are. We’re gonna have to build a full-on tornado cellar packed with can openers and MREs, at this point.
I’m scared to push the Play button again, but… the show must go on.
Valentine’s Day is coming up. Send this to your bae with no context, even if they don’t watch Symphogear. Especially if they don’t watch Symphogear.
After the battle, Tsubasa is rushed to the hospital. Doctors are able to save her life, just barely, but she’ll be unconscious for who knows how long, and even after that will remain bedridden for some time.
Hamster is understandably traumatized by tonight’s events. She breaks down in tears outside Tsubasa’s hospital room, wracked with pain that Tsubasa has to live this type of life where she must do battle and take wounds and possibly die violently. It’s just not right.
One of the MIBs tries to console Hibiki. He makes her promise that although she can never replace Kanade, she should still do her best to stand by Tsubasa as an ally and not abandon her.
Gonna be real with you folks, I have no idea who the fuck this is.
Why does this guy suddenly get this important scene where he talks to Hibiki about Tsubasa’s personal life and her struggles? Why isn’t Snoop Oni or Dr. Perv the one delivering this dialogue, instead of some random dude? He kind of tickles my memory, we did get a few lines from him in previous episodes, I think?? He flew completely under my radar though, so I don’t think I’ve brought him up in the recap before.
Honestly though, too much Crazy Shit has happened lately:
On top of that, I usually max out pretty low when it comes to male supporting cast in yuri anime. Snoop Oni and his pink tie take the lion’s share of attention in that department. So, unless you’re somehow plot-relevant or a villain in disguise, don’t expect me to remember you, plain brown-haired normal guy.
Hamster realizes she has a lot to learn about Tsubasa, about what it means to wield a Symphogear, and what it means to carry on Kanade’s legacy through Gungnir.
We see the injured Tsubasa lying in her hospital bed having a dream where she is swimming and reaching out to Kanade, but can’t get to her. Her dead partner refuses to talk to her or even face her. Tsubasa chokes on the water and is pulled down, calling out for Kanade.
Well, that was cheerful. Apparently, Tsubasa can’t escape her own issues about failure and self-loathing even when she’s comatose. Somebody give this poor girl a little yellow Get Out of Angst Free card for a day.
Back at the base, Snoop Oni, Hamster, and Dr. Perv try to figure out what Madam Underboob’s plan was. Snoop Oni is determined that their team recover the stolen Nehushtan Relic before she can use it for more harm. Both he and Dr. Perv are also troubled by the fact the girl said her goal was to kidnap Hibiki.
Shit, so much madness has happened since that line that I totally forgot she revealed kidnapping was her plan.
They speculate that since Hamster is a new addition to their team, there’s only one way this enemy girl could have known about her existence.
A traitor?
FUCK, IS THAT RANDOM BROWN-HAIRED GUY REALLY A “VILLAIN IN DISGUISE”? Hah, oh my god. I’m watching you, buddy. (⌐■_■)
Hamster is still upset, and blames herself for the whole disaster. She thinks her weakness as a fighter is what led to Tsubasa’s near-death. It hurts to see Hibiki so down on herself, but I don’t think she’ll stay that way long. The position of “sustained brooding and self-ingrained sense of inadequacy” role is already filled.
Every hero goes through what Hamster is currently going through, where they are so damaged by a lost fight that they start to question whether they’re a worthy hero at all. Hibiki agreed to fight as a Symphogear wielder in the first place because she wanted to help others, because that’s her defining trait as a person. Once she gets reminded of this, that she really can protect what’s precious to her, I’m sure she’ll snap back to her usual optimistic self. She just needs somebody to come perk her back up.
For now though, Hibiki is in self-flagellating mode. I guess she figures since Tsubasa is out of commission, somebody’s gotta fill the daily angst quota.
WELL WHADDAYA KNOW, somebody to perk her back up!
Miku asks what’s wrong, and Hamster starts babbling about random stuff, trying to deny there’s any problem. There is no deceiving The Gay, however. Hibiki’s attempts are cute, but she really is a terrible liar. Miku sees right through her.
Hamster is grateful for Miku’s comfort, even though she’s not allowed to tell Miku about the whole Symphogear thing. Miku tries to be understanding, and promises that no matter what, Miku will always support her as long as Hibiki stays her sweet, hopeful self.
Hibiki is dead.
Hibiki is dead, folks.
Sometimes I forget that. Sometimes I honestly get so distracted by the fuck-gibbering jabberwocky insanity of an experience that is watching an episode of Symphogear that I forget this anime literally opened the first episode with Miku visiting Hibiki’s grave.
Then, lines like the above happen, and that fact suddenly rushes back to your awareness like the Taco Bell you had for lunch.
Hibiki will die, Miku will lose her, and cute, loving scenes like this won’t happen for them anymore. Whether Hibiki is really dead or if she somehow gets resurrected is irrelevant, because the heartbreak and grief on Miku’s end is still going to occur.
Y u do dis to me, Symphogear?
It turns out a reassuring conversation with Miku was all Hamster needed to railroad her back onto the Hero tracks. She is filled with new determination to fight as a Symphogear wielder. See, told ya it wouldn’t take long!
That’s it, that’s the anime.
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This episode was fucked up. It fucked me up.
I came for the underboob, and I got a sword through the throat.
After chugging a few painkillers, I can see that this was a good episode. Symphogear has its problems, but when it gets its radness on, it really hits its mark.
Our first Symphogear-on-Symphogear fight did not disappoint! The action was great, the episode’s developments were merciless, and the Hibiki/Miku scene to cap it all off was sweet and painful at the same time. Learning more about Kanade’s backstory was, while vicious, really interesting, and added layers to a character we previously didn’t know much about.
The angst after the main battle diverged us from the plot a bit. We still don’t know what Madam Underboob’s real deal is, who she’s working for, why she wants to kidnap Hamster, what her name even is, how the villain controls the Noise, or why we needed that panty shot of Tsubasa.
I’m almost certain the masked madam isn’t working alone, but rather at the direction of the as-of-yet-unrevealed villain. (Brown-haired guy? Brown-haired guy.) I’m also not sure whether my guess that she might be under some form of mind control was true or not. She didn’t present the way thralls usually do in sci-fi/fantasy, just based on her dialogue and facial expressions. So, maybe she really is just an asshole who’s doing this of her own free will. I’m not writing her off just yet, though. Despite her savagery, I can still see a possible redemption arc for this girl.
I will laugh forever if she ends up joining the team and then she and Tsubasa must learn to fight alongside each other while slinging more of those gay-laden catty taunts back and forth but simultaneously growing to respect each other as matched badasses. Please, Symphogear, do this for me.
Still, we’re only about a third of the way through the season, so I can’t expect Symphogear to answer all my questions yet. Next episode will probably focus on Hamster learning to fight on her own while Tsubasa is out of commission, as well as them trying to bring Tsubasa back to working order.
I’m looking forward to see where we go from here!
Pretty much.
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