Challenge accepted.
(Read the full episode below, or click here for the list of other episodes)
------------------
(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.)
------------------
Chris finally found some peace at the close of last episode, after a soft fuzzy blanket of a song where she realized she finally has a place to call home with people who love her.
That warm, filling happiness lasted shorter than the average bite of cheeseburger, due to our friendly neighborhood terrorists Kirika and Shirabe crashing the school music show to challenge Chris.
Kirika and Shirabe came here on a mission to steal Team Rainbow’s Symphogear amulets to feed the terrorists’ pet monster Nephilim, and they’re willing to use whatever method they need to. This could get real nasty real fast.
I love how Kirika takes off her glasses with a dramatic flourish as if it’s some huge reveal to the other Symphogear wielders, as if they wouldn’t recognize her with them on.
So begins today’s episode, titled, uh…
Ah yes, this will end well.
Is Miku in the loop? Last season, she was taken in by Section 2 as an “external agent”. But now, she seems out of the loop again. I hope she gets to return to a more active support role.
Even Miku, who hasn’t met Maria in person as far as I know, calls her “Maria-san”, because no one wants to wade into the bog that is “Maria Cadenzavna Eve-san”. Mom must’ve dumped her leftover Scrabble tiles on Maria’s birth certificate.
“Congratulations, it’s a beautiful baby girl! What will you name her?”
“I dunno, Zs and Vs are worth a lot of points, right?”
Hibiki remains reluctant to fight the terrorists. Even after the reminder that her beloved Miku was among those threatened by them at the concert. Hamster just wants to be friends with everyone.
WAIT WHAT GO BACK
Why are we cutting away right at the tense part where Cherry Coke and Sprite were about to challenge Chris in an auditorium full of potential victims?
This group of commandos sneaks up on abandoned warehouses. Inside one warehouse is a hangar where the terrorists are hiding their Osprey plane.
Mom has the roomiest damn Osprey I’ve ever seen. Thing has more square footage than a ranch house. Maria and Mom aren’t even sitting in the bay, the widest part of the plane. They’re just hanging out in some kind of side lounge. In an IRL Osprey they’d be knocking knees close enough to count the threads in Maria’s lone sock.
Maria and Mom get some rare alone time while the soda girls are off on the mission and Dr. Ver is who knows where, probably vigorously polishing the Staff of Solomon and cooing to it about how someday they’ll understand what we have together.
I wonder if this scene will finally give us an actual caring conversation between Maria and Mom.
Or we could Angst instead, that’s just great.
Maria is troubled, thinking about how her only friends are out there risking themselves on the Relic-stealing mission to protect Maria. Kirika and Shirabe insisted Maria stay behind. They didn’t want Maria having to use her Symphogear, since using Gear is how we’ve been told Finé is slowly taking over Maria.
Mom sees the commandos creeping into the base on her security cams. She tells us these guys aren’t from our heroes’ Section 2, they’re from America, same as the terrorists. Maria leaps to her feet in alarm.
I’m going to call these American commandos Seal Team Six until proven otherwise.
Maria has shown unwillingness to kill a few times now. I’m relieved she’s not as much of an asshole as some of the people she’s surrounded by. But, I’m still confused as to whether she, Kirika, and Shirabe are aware of the people their terrorist group killed in the first episode.
I know I harp about this, like, all the time, but NONE of the three girls of Team Black has shown any unease over all those killings. Either the girls aren’t aware that people died that day, which is ridiculous if they thought stealing the Staff from the good guys would be bloodless, or else the girls just don’t care about these people.
Uh, I don’t think “afraid” is the correct term here, Mom. How about “have the barest conscience”? Same as the night of Maria and Tsubasa’s concert, Mom is trying to push Maria into becoming a killer to suit Mom’s plans, with no regard for how much this will damage Maria’s wellbeing.
We still don’t know if Maria is Mom’s blood daughter. Regardless, Mom has practiced shitty parenting of Maria in every episode so far. Like dismissing Maria’s worries about the Nephilim, never comforting Maria in all Maria’s struggles, and stand-out awful examples of parenting like Mom telling her daughter to kill, or losing her five-year-old in a Costco are you reading this Dad because that was really fucking scary okay I had to hide behind a pallet of cleaning supplies and wonder if I could survive off free food samples the rest of my life.
Maria doesn’t know how to handle this dilemma. Not only is she reluctant to kill, but also if she uses her Gungnir to fight off the attack, that defeats the purpose of her staying behind on Kirika and Shirabe’s mission. But, Maria can’t just let the American commandos capture her and Mom, else the two of them will wake up in Gitmo with a snarling Alsatian two inches from their face.
Maria’s other main struggle, that of giving in to Finé’s corruption, is also pushed to the fore in this scene, noticeably because Finé’s leitmotif plays while Mom orders Maria to eliminate the commandos. Maria being Finé reincarnated is a development that still yarn-tangles my brain, but Symphogear deserves credit for its dedication to little Finé callback moments, like weaving Finé’s musical theme into scenes where Maria is doubting herself.
Torn between two bad options, afraid of both, trying to do the right thing… What will Maria decide?
AGAIN WITH THE ABRUPT SCENE-CUTTING-AWAY
ESTABLISHING TENSION AND THEN BLUE BALLING ME
Kirika pulls a childish rude taunt at Chris.
Pictured: international terrorists.
Kirika, you adorable dolt.
CUT AGAIN GOD DAMMIT
WAIT WE ONLY CUT TO THE OSPREY FOR THAT ONE LINE AND NOW WE’RE BACK AT THE SCHOOL?
The editing in this sequence is darting back and forth like a squirrel trying to remember where it buried its acorns.
But hey, good news! Kirika and Shirabe don’t want to fight the good guys, at least not yet. They just want to challenge Chris by trying to out-sing her in the music competition. Hopefully, this won’t end in a violent brawl in the auditorium while students and other festival visitors run screaming from the barrage of sawblades, bullets, and however many swords Tsubasa can bear to limit herself to in an enclosed space.
I’m actually looking forward to seeing Kirika and Shirabe perform a duet. These two are a solid pair in a fight and while supporting each other in their everyday lives, so they’ll probably sync well singing together. Music in Symphogear is an intimate way for characters to show their true hearts and beliefs. If two people can sing side by side, they can probably conquer anything together.
You know what, scratch that thought. Just delete fucking everything.
The announcer tells us what song Kirika and Shirabe will perform.
HOW DARE
It’s provoking me, that’s for sure. The terrorists made a corrupted copy of Kanade’s Gungnir, now they’re taking her songs, too? Kanade’s legacy belongs to Tsubasa and Hibiki. Not to Maria, Kirika, Shirabe, and anyone else working for a terrorist organization that threatens and murders people. Kanade didn’t die for this, dammit.
They’re good singers. The song is fast and energetic, and the girls put a lot of passion into it. They even dance next to each other. Clearly, Kirika and Shirabe already knew this song by heart. I wonder how long they’ve been Zwei Wing fans, and how they feel about fighting Tsubasa.
The students and other festival attendees in the auditorium are blissfully unaware of who Kirika and Shirabe really are and how much danger they’d all be in if these terrorists decided to get rough in their mission of stealing Team Rainbow’s Relics. Everyone enjoys their song. Even the heroes are surprised by how good it is.
Do… do I know this song?
I’m gonna shit a stag. Antlers included. The song sounds a little different but… don’t tell me this isn’t just a Zwei Wing song Sprite and Cherry Coke are performing, it’s the Zwei Wing song, the one Kanade and Tsubasa performed at their fateful concert, the last song they ever sang together??
I’m probably wrong, I hope I’m wrong, as I have been so many times before. I was ready to enjoy this duet, Symphogear, then you do this to me.
Wretched fucking anime.
Kirika and Shirabe’s song intercuts with Seal Team Six attacking the terrorists’ plane hangar.
Explosions resound, and Maria is out of options. She needs to make her decision on just how dedicated she is to Mom’s terrorist group, no more hesitation.
But, looks like it’s Maria’s lucky day! And a spectacularly unlucky day for Seal Team Six.
Dr. Ver hauled his ass out of whatever spiderhole he was lurking in to do the terrorists’ dirty work again. Puts all the murders on him, just like the earlier killings, leaving Maria clean.
This will make an eventual redemption for Maria a bit smoother if Symphogear goes down that path. However, it does feel like the easy way out for the anime to take in this scene, instead of forcing Maria to show her true colors and make her decision about what kind of person she wants to be. Sooner or later, Maria will have to stand up to Mom if she wants to seize any of her own agency, or else fall in line with Mom’s evil plans for her.
Dr. Ver talks to Maria and Mom over a communicator, saying there’s no need to risk “the reborn Finé”, so he’ll deal with this attack himself.
Seal Team Six just listens to him talk for a while instead of shooting him, so by the time they open fire he’s already used the Staff to summon more Noise to shield him.
What exactly was the commandos’ plan? They had to have known they’d be going up against the Noise. The terrorists made it clear they could summon the Noise to do their bidding, during the international concert where Maria took thousands of her fans hostage. The whole world was watching that broadcast. The fucking Dalai Lama was watching that broadcast.
Mom and Maria watch the commandos getting slaughtered on the security cams. Maria grits her teeth and clenches her fists, but doesn’t tell Dr. Ver to stop. Even as she hears the men screaming in horror and pain as Ver kills them with Noise, Maria is still torn on her decision.
It’s pretty disturbing to listen to the commandos dying. Especially as Kirika and Shirabe’s song continues to play over the fight, making it all the more jarring to hear their upbeat music over the screaming carnage.
Mom notices Maria is upset, but says nothing to comfort her. Maybe Mom thinks it’s good for Maria to watch all these deaths, as if it’ll harden Maria into being more loyal to the terrorists’ plans. Honey, it’s probably only going to harden her heart against you. You are losing Maria and you have no idea why.
Back at the school, Kirika and Shirabe finish their song, unaware of the Great Disturbance In The Force while they were singing, as if voices Cried Out In Terror And Were Suddenly Silenced.
Everyone claps and cheers for them. The soda girls look surprised by this, and actually seem happy with themselves. How depressingly rare must that be for them? Do they ever get praise and appreciation? Someone like Mom clearly isn’t big on the whole Positive Reinforcement thing, despite being the leader of their group.
Wow, even Tsubasa was impressed by their song. Maybe choosing a Zwei Wing song didn’t turn out a provocation, after all. Maybe it helped Tsubasa feel less alienated from Kirika and Shirabe.
In the hangar, Ver mops up the few commandos who aren’t already dead. But then, right outside the hangar appears a group of…
…oh no.
Oh shit no.
DON’T GO WHERE I THINK YOU’RE GOING, SYMPHOGEAR
These kids passing through heard the commotion from the explosions. They bike up just in time to see a stray commando run screaming out of the hangar and watch him be torn to disintegrated fragments right in front of their eyes.
Fucking wow. Have a nice day, children. Symphogear sends its regards.
Dr. Ver comes out of the hangar as well, shambling like a drunkard as he approaches the kids. His face is slack and he’s glaze-eyed from all the killing, but not as if he’s remorseful, more like he’s high from the power.
Now Maria decides to say something. Twenty bucks on just how effective her pleas will be on Dr. Trigger Happy. Fuck’s sake, Maria, run your one-socked ass out of the plane and try to stop him!
GOD DAMMIT DR. VER
Mom watches impassively as Maria falls to her knees yelling and weeping over the kids’ deaths, with Mom once again making no move to comfort Maria or lessen her pain.
We return to the school, where the judges are about to deliver their verdict on who won the singing championship: Chris, or Kirika and Shirabe.
Mom breaks in on her girls’ communicators and tells them to drop everything like a hot plate out the microwave and return to base. Kirika protests being told to leave. They’re so close to completing their mission of stealing the Relics, she says. Mom coldly overrides her and sends them coordinates for rendezvous.
The background score takes a mournful turn. The soda girls look disheartened, and no wonder. They were actually enjoying themselves for a brief while, away from the hell of their everyday terrorist lifestyle. Their unhappiness is interspaced with more shots of Maria crying.
Sure, the terrorists defeated the attackers, but they didn’t actually Win today if it means Team Black was driven further away from loyalty to Mom.
Shirabe takes Kirika’s arm, and they exit stage left. Heh, literally. Shirabe admits to her partner that she’s worried about what emergency would make Mom order them to abandon their mission. But, Shirabe is confident it can’t be too bad, since Maria is there to handle anything that might come up.
Yeah, Maria really looks like she can handle things right now.
Team Rainbow won’t let Kirika and Shirabe escape that easily.
Miku can only watch them go and pray everything will be okay. Relax, Miku, I’m sure everyone will be just fine…
Kirika and Shirabe run through the festival grounds toward the school gate. They’re delayed by a…
…wailord parade?
The wailords distract them long enough for the other Symphogear girls to surround them.
So, if Kirika, Shirabe, and Chris left the competition before a winner was announced… who wins it after all?
The true champions.
Hibiki calls the soda pair by name, with a friendly “chan”. Hey, it worked on Chris. Maybe Hamster can convert these girls, as well.
Shirabe points out that Team Rainbow may have them outnumbered, but Team Rainbow also has more to lose if they start a fight in this crowded place. Shirabe glances meaningfully at the civilians around them.
Chris tries to appeal to their shared love of singing. If even someone as rage-frothing as Chris can calm her tits and learn to work as part of the heroes’ team, Kirika and Shirabe definitely could.
Kirika wavers at this. She admits she doesn’t want to fight at the school. But then, Kirika pulls a surprise out of her sleeve. Or, her detached arm-warmer thingy.
Over Hibiki’s protests, everyone agrees to a duel. Shirabe takes Kirika’s arm again and leads her away.
How the heck is Shirabe gonna tell them that? Will the good guys get Utena-style duelist letters in their lockers while Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku plays?
We transition to Section 2’s submarine base, some time later. Team Rainbow and Snoop Oni gather for a briefing with the other agents.
Analysis? Of what, I wonder. “Deep Computing Lab”, hmm? Sounds important. This must be some pivotal information we’re about to learn.
The Deep Computing Lab, after weeks of careful study and analysis, discovered that…
…Maria’s Gungnir Symphogear matches Hibiki’s Gungnir Symphogear.
Uh. We… already knew that? That Maria’s Gungnir was genuine and not some fake. I’m not sure why all the characters are shocked. Tsubasa already figured it out just from seeing Maria’s combat abilities.
Good job, “Deep Computing Lab”. Thanks for telling the heroes what they already knew. Next, you can do some “deep computing” for us about whether pickles and cucumbers are a match.
I think this top-secret, high-tech Deep Computing Lab must actually be one rando with a sweater over their laptop.
The good guys speculate that Maria’s Gungnir was created using information Ryouko-Finé gave the Americans when she was secretly working with them. The terrorists are rogue members of the American government’s group for studying Relics, called the FIS, but like last episode, we’re sticking with FISt.
Team Rainbow and the rest start to wonder if maybe it wasn’t just a few stray members of FISt who went rogue. Maybe the entire FISt organization went terrorist, and the American government has now lost control of them and all their Relics and Symphogears.
Explains why the American government sent Seal Team Six after the terrorists. For all the good that did them.
This screencap is not at all relevant. Tsubasa just looks really handsome and I wanted everyone to know. Proceed.
Snoop Oni worries what the FISt could be plotting that is so important to them it would cause them to turn against their own government and become terrorists.
Welp, with that foreboding thought, it’s time to catch back up with the FISt terrorists themselves.
Mom flies the Osprey in its invisibility mode over the city, headed to the rendezvous with Kirika and Shirabe.
Whatever her mysterious Frontier plan is, seems our heroes still have some time to stop it.
Mom looks at Maria on her security cameras. Maria is still downcast over all the killing done today. Done in her name, even. Dr. Ver’s excuse for slaughtering everyone was that he didn’t want Maria to bother herself to do it.
Maria can’t be blamed for Dr. Ver being a gopher-gargling shitlord. Wouldn’t surprise me if she still feels culpable. Which she kinda is, but maybe “complicit” is more accurate than “culpable”. And, Maria is still putting off her decision she needs to make about where her priorities lie.
Whoa there, who in the beak hole is Serena?
Is Serena the dead Gal Pal from the season prologue? Are we finally going to find out her story and what her relationship with Maria was?? This should be fun!
Wow. Fun for everyone.
This flashback takes us years into the past, to the American research base where FISt first activated the Nephilim.
A young Maria, the Gal Pal who must be Serena, Mom, and other FISt researchers watch in fear as the unstable Nephilim rages and ruins their base.
Serena offers to use her Symphogear, in hopes the energy released by a Climax Song will deactivate the Nephilim and return it to its tiny dormant form.
It’s that easy to defeat the Nephilim? Just sing a Climax Song at it?
TEAM RAINBOW, NOW IS YOUR TIME, MAKE US ANOTHER GAY-NADO
I shouldn’t shrug it off like this. Climax Songs were fatal or near-fatal until Hibiki invented a way for the singers to survive it using Hibiki’s unique power of joining hands to share the strain.
Serena knows full well her Climax Song will probably kill her. She’s willing to sacrifice her life if it means she can use her power to protect others. Holy crap, Serena is exactly like our Hamster.
Little sisters in anime seem to die a lot. Oh well, there are worse fates to befall a little sister. Poor girl could have suffered Maria brushing her teeth for her or something.
Serena runs into the chaos to face the Nephilim. Maria calls after her, but Mom holds Maria back.
Serena transforms into her Gear and becomes…
…Mercy?
Serena’s gamble works. Her Climax Song deactivates the huge, terrifying Nephilim, returning it to its tiny, harmless state. We now come full circle to the flashback we saw in the opening episode. Maria stumbles through the rubble toward Serena, but can’t save Serena from the wounds of her Climax Song.
Maria pleads for the FISt researchers to help her save Serena. They ignore her, instead complaining that their expensive “experimental samples” are now destroyed. It’s clear they consider Serena an experiment as much as the Nephilim.
Go FISt yourselves, scumbags.
Serena’s last words are to tell Maria that she’s happy. Serena saved all those people just like she wanted. The fact that none of the FISters proved themselves worthy of her sacrifice doesn’t mean her sacrifice wasn’t meaningful.
Mom dives in at the last second to shield Maria from the collapsing building, because shit you can’t lose BOTH daughters in one day, that would just be incompetent.
After that charming little vacation to happy town, we return to the present. Maria clutches Serena’s Symphogear amulet while Serena’s voice sings over the scene, and Maria despairs that she’ll ever protect people like Serena did.
I’m kinda surprised Maria doesn’t wield her sister’s Symphogear. It would fit the idea that Maria is trying to live up to Serena’s legacy. Why the Black Gungnir, instead? Especially with its time limit handicap. Maybe Maria would have a time limit on any Symphogear she wields, I don’t know.
I wonder if the anime will eventually tell us what Serena’s Relic was called. All the Relics we’ve seen so far are named after various mythological references, which is always a rad naming convention I love seeing done well.
Now that we’ve met Serena through that flashback, I want to know what bullshit Mom was talking about earlier about “Serena’s will”.
We didn’t know Serena well, but from what we just saw, Serena was a total cinnamon roll. Pretty sure “Serena’s will” wouldn’t include killing bystanders like the FISt terrorists did today. Nor would Serena want Maria to suffer like she is now, being so torn about what her purpose is.
Mom, brisk and unsympathetic as usual, speaks on the plane’s intercom.
Maria’s voice here is so quiet and tired and subdued and, and… just, so very small. Mom’s evil has robbed Maria of her voice in more than one way.
THAT’S THEIR RENDEZVOUS POINT WITH KIRIKA AND SHIRABE?
THE RUINS OF FINÉ’S KADINGIR?
Mom truly surpassed herself this time. She picked this place. They could’ve met up anywhere.
What a stomp on the toes this is for Maria. “Hey Maria, I know you’ve had a really shitty day already, but let’s go park in front of this shattered ruin of devastation to remind you what will become of you when that reborn demon inside your head eventually completes her possession of you. I brought snacks.”
Maria, looking zombified after all of today’s distress, walks out of the plane to pick up Kirika and Shirabe. The girls smile and run to hug Maria, relieved that she’s okay. They were afraid she might have fallen to Finé’s influence already.
You don’t seem to grasp the concept of possession.
Embracing her friends, possibility the only people in the world who give a damn about her wellbeing, puts some life back into Maria.
A happy Maria. Incredible. I think the last smile she gave us was…
…when Tsubasa was trying to stick a sword through her.
Team Black’s brief moment of love is quickly shuffled into the discard pile when Mom and Dr. Ver come out of the plane. Kirika and Shirabe are still disappointed that Mom ordered them to abandon their Relic-stealing confrontation with Team Rainbow.
Kirika calls her “Mom”, too? First time we’ve heard anyone except Maria call her that. Okay, so it’s a code name for the leader rather than a biological tie. I wonder if this means Serena and Maria weren’t biologically related, either?
It changes nothing either way. Biological or not, Mom is the parent of these teenagers in every way that counts, and she is failing at it in every way that counts.
Does everyone in the terrorist group call her Mom? Does Dr. Ver call her Mom? If Dr. Ver calls her Mom, I’m kink-shaming.
The fact Mom has the girls call her that means she’s trying to evoke a familial relationship. If she wasn’t, she would just go by “Boss” or “Ma’am” or similar. Why is she trying to cultivate family bonds with the girls when she clearly isn’t interested in playing a parental role for them? She does have rare moments of parental affection for Team Black, but they’re so short and far-between.
OH YOU DID NOT JUST
Mom slaps Shirabe across the face for questioning her, then backhands Kirika when Kirika gets protective of Shirabe.
Un-goddamn-acceptable. I wonder if Mom has ever heard the quote, “To lead is neither to push nor to pull.” Parenthood is just another form of leadership. Guiding young people until they’re grown enough to be their own leaders. Mom clearly doesn’t understand leadership of her terrorist group any better than she understands parenthood of her three daughters.
Four daughters if we count Serena, who is dead because adults like Mom only valued her life to fuel their experiments. Maybe Mom felt for Serena, but we haven’t seen Mom express regret or grief over her death like we saw Maria do.
There’s a huge difference between letting your girls run off into battle because you respect their own agency to fight for what they believe in, like how Snoop Oni treats his three daughters, and doing what Mom and FISt do, which is let their girls run off into battle because the girls’ lives are expendable pieces of some grand plan that involves killing even more people.
Kirika and Shirabe’s eyes water from the abuse, Maria glares at Mom, and Mom berates all three of them for not taking The Plan seriously enough.
You know what? You know fucking what? I have Had Enough of this terrible, terrible parent. I don’t want the girls to do anything violent to Mom or anything, but I want Maria to walk up, take Kirika and Shirabe by the hands, fucking turn around without a word, and just plain walk away from Mom and Dr. Ver and the awful shriveling disease of a family these two adults have created for these girls.
Maria couldn’t protect her little sister. But now, she has two little sisters to protect. For their sake if not her own, I hope Maria finds the courage to stand up to Mom.
It’s not like Mom could stop Team Black if they did decide to leave her. What’s she gonna do, have Dr. Ver shoot Noise at them? Slap them around some more? Take away privileges to Maria’s other sock? What hold does she have over them?
Of course, it’s not that simple, it’s never that simple, as “Just walk away from the abusive parents.” The girls have nowhere to go. Maria is an internationally wanted terrorist who can’t show her face in public after that concert, while Kirika and Shirabe probably have no family or friends or means to support themselves. Also, the FISters have no qualms about killing people who get in the way of their objective. Team Black might be too afraid to leave, or they might feel obligated to stay and fulfill Mom’s plan. Especially if she has convinced them it’s for their own good, or for the greater good, or some other crap.
Ver tries to salvage things.
I’m amazed, Mom. You somehow made Dr. Ver look like the reasonable one.
DR. VER
Dr. Ver suggests they go ahead with the duel with Team Rainbow. He even says he’ll take part in it. I imagine this will Not End Well for anyone involved, not even Team Black.
Symphogear girls: We’re gonna have a duel!
Dr. Ver:
The night of the duel arrives.
HAH. Tsubasa is so used to it by now. We can’t see her face in this shot, but we know it’s 100% Done.
Team Rainbow follows the signal, knowing it’s bait, and heads to the place chosen for the duel.
Fucking hell. The foot of Kadingir is where they faced some of their worst defeats. Chris and Tsubasa died to stop Finé, the moon was shot, Hibiki almost lost control and was consumed by her berserk Gungnir… This place has bad memories.
But, it’s also the place of their greatest triumphs. This is where Hibiki resurrected Chris and Tsubasa with the power of her determination and love, where they flew off together and joined hands to shatter the falling meteoroid, where they defied death a second time by surviving their own Climax Song.
If Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris defeated Finé together here, then they can defeat these terrorists who bear Finé’s name. The ruins of Kadingir should embolden them. Come on, team. We can win this! I believe in you!
Dr. Ver is waiting for the heroes. He clangs up a round of Noise to greet them.
‘Bout that time again, folks. TRANSFORMATION TIME!
Can I get a FUCK YEAH.
Dr Ver. apparently didn’t bring his Symphogear-weakening poison gas tonight, like he did last time he faced Team Rainbow. The girls can fight unhindered.
They fight the Noise together, to the tune of Hibiki’s battle song.
You fool. Friendship is the most powerful force in the magical girl universe! Disparage it at your own risk.
Wat.
…Wat.
I am so confused, but I gather this scene is telling us that Finé’s attack on the moon three months ago didn’t destroy it like she wanted, but it did disrupt the moon’s orbit enough to cause the whole moon to start falling to earth, not just that one chunk of falling meteoroid the girls already stopped.
This is the Nephilim’s cue to come bursting out the ground, knocking Chris into the air as it does, like reverse whack-a-mole. Tsubasa rushes to the side of her unconscious comrade.
Symphogear, I admire your dedication to continuity, but there are some Season 1 callbacks I could do without:
Ver is still flapping his meat pancakes at us while Tsubasa struggles with the… restraints, we’ll call them.
Okay hold on, hold on. I’m gonna need a wider spade to dig through this amount of bullshit from Dr. Ver.
How are we supposed to take him at his word here? He has lied to us so many times.
So, Dr. Ver is telling us the moon is falling toward earth, world governments are keeping it a secret from the population, the FISt terrorists know the only way to survive this impending disaster, and their survival plan is to use the Nephilim to “bring people together”. What the big, squishy HUH?
Bear with me here, because I’m a History degree’d person about to attempt Astronomy thoughts, but why would the moon be falling toward earth? The moon has been slowly spiraling outward from us for billions of years. Finé didn’t yank the whole moon down, she only yanked the chunk that had already been detached from the moon. So, why would the main bulk of the moon be headed downward?
Maybe… the moon now has less mass without that sizable chunk, therefore less gravity of its own, therefore less resistance to earth’s gravity pulling it closer?? Is that a thing? Or, is Carl Sagan spinning in his grave right now over my astronomy ignorance?
Anyway, even if the moon did reverse its slow outward spiral, at its current speed wouldn’t it take, like, millions of years before the moon got close enough to our planet to cause significant tidal changes and resulting climate changes that would threaten our lives?
Okay, let’s choose to believe Dr. Ver. The moon really is falling, and it really is going to reach us soon and kill everyone from direct impact or from getting close enough to the planet to ruin our environment to the point humans can’t survive. So, how is the Nephilim the solution to this problem?
He said FISt would use the Nephilim to “build a country” to save people’s lives. Where, though? If the moon falls, the whole planet is fucked. There is no safe place to hide from that. What is FISt gonna do, build a moon-survivalist bunker stocked with MREs and can openers? Or, evacuate a chosen few people from the planet and watch the destruction from space? Is this Moonraker?
It’s fucking Moonraker isn’t it.
How does the hungry hungry hippo of a Relic-monster “build a country”? Will FISt simply use it to terrorize people into obeying them? Join our wacky moon-survivalist group or we let the Nephilim eat you?
Maybe the Plan is to make everyone so scared of the Nephilim that they band together to defeat it and also the falling moon, somehow? That type of plan could easily backfire. Fear doesn’t bring people together reliably, fear often just makes people close off to each other more, and be less likely to trust and cooperate.
Heroes don’t use fear, they use love and friendship to bring people together. Hibiki, Chris, and Tsubasa use hand-holding and gay singing to bring people together. Give me another gay-nado Climax Song over the Nephilim any day.
My head’s in a high-heat dryer spin. I hope the last few minutes left in this episode give us clarification on the terrorists’ plan, or that the following episodes do. Just gotta be patient, I guess.
Hibiki has had enough of Dr. Ver’s maggotry.
She pulls a flying kick to save her teammates, and proceeds to punch the crap out of the Nephilim. Hell yes, that’s our Hamster!
Tsubasa is still wrapped up in the restraints. Chris stays unconscious in Tsubasa’s arms, which I envy Chris for. Not for being in Tsubasa’s arms, for being unconscious and not having to listen to Dr. Ver.
Hamster racks up some Thunder Punches against the Nephilim and more waves of Noise that Dr. Ver shoots at her. He taunts her that fighting the terrorists will only cause more deaths, since he claims the terrorists are the real heroes trying to save the world. He even flat-out asks Hibiki, “What do your fists protect?”
Asshole, they’re protecting her friends. Something you obviously don’t understand the importance of:
This is often the problem with people who say they want to create a new world. They could only create a shitty new world, because they don’t understand what makes this world good in the first place, which is the people we share it with.
Who do they plan to have live in their new world with them? Fellow awful people like themselves? Finé had the same problem. She talked big about how she would free humanity from the cursed moon, yet she believed love and friendship were worthless and that hurting each other was the only way people could connect.
Actually, this whole scene calls back to Finé.
Both Finé and Ver give wild, unbelievable dramatic speeches at the foot of Kadingir, about the moon and how they’re each going to change the world by destroying it if necessary, and both of them ignore the fact that they’ve already killed a ton of people themselves. Parallelism like this never fails to satisfy me. Symphogear always delivers on this front.
With Finé, her speech was even more bizarre than Dr. Ver’s, and like him, she didn’t give the viewers any evidence to back up what she was claiming. But somehow, I never doubted her. Consummate liar that she was, it never occurred to me Finé might be lying about her obsession with her god or her belief the moon was cursed.
Lying to and manipulating other characters was Finé’s deal, but the difference between her and Ver is that she didn’t lie to the audience. Ver lied to us about important plot reveals like Maria being Finé reincarnated, and that development was structured with really awkward information drops which made the reveal difficult to believe and frustrating to find out the truth about the following episode.
That fumble made me skeptical to believe other Big Shocking Developments the anime throws at us. Why should we trust Ver tonight after he deceived us before? He hasn’t offered us any evidence that the moon is falling, any more than he offered evidence that Finé possessed Maria.
Dr. Ver, getting more insidious by the minute, continues trying to fling self-doubt in Hibiki’s face, because honestly he has no other weapons. Weak-souled people like him could never truly defeat our heroes, they can only trick our heroes into defeating themselves.
His words cause Hibiki to flashback right in the middle of throwing a punch at the Nephilim. Hibiki remembers the night she met Shirabe, when Shirabe accused her of being a hypocrite who doesn’t really save people. Hibiki is suddenly overcome by the doubts she’s been struggling with ever since that confrontation.
That moment of hesitation, that one hideous moment, allows the Nephilim to strike.
------------------
This some bull shit.
Why should I believe anything Symphogear told me in this episode?
Why should I believe the moon really is falling, why should I believe the FISt terrorists really are justified in murdering people in the name of stopping this moon-fall, and above all, why in utter goat hooves should I believe Hibiki really lost her arm?
I mean yeah, considering Symphogear took the time to show us not only the arm getting torn off in a grisly spray of blood, then gave us a close-up of the monster fucking munching on and swallowing a piece of our precious brave Hamster, I don’t doubt the arm is gone, G-O-N-E.
What I doubt is that the arm is gone for good. Symphogear has a long history of fooling us.
“Chris and Tsubasa sacrificed their lives to stop Finé!” Ha, just kidding, Hibiki resurrects them.
“All three girls sacrificed themselves to stop the meteoroid!” Ha, just kidding, they were only pretending to be dead.
“Maria is Finé reincarnate!” Ha, just kidding, Finé isn’t even awake yet and Maria shows zero signs of Finé’s memories or personality.
“Kirika and Shirabe challenge Chris!” Ha, just kidding, all they do is sing and then leave the school peacefully.
“Hibiki lost an arm!” …How do we know this won’t be another “just kidding, she’ll get the arm back somehow” moment?
If the power of J-Pop can return life to the fallen, like Hibiki did for Chris and Tsubasa at the end of Season 1, why can’t it magically give Hibiki her arm back? Failing that, she could take the Skywalker route and get some kind of mechanical Gear replacement arm or something. Based on what Symphogear has shown us with previous plot developments, the odds of Hibiki spending the rest of her life with only one arm are low.
I will dutifully eat my apportioned crow if this turns out incorrect. If Symphogear makes the commitment to actually have this happen For Realsies, She Really Is Maimed Forever Now, that would be a huge new angle to Hibiki’s character and her role as a hero. Watching Hibiki learn to balance her impairment and still fight for what she believes in would break my pathetic heart and make me cry in pride for her.
Hibiki’s defining trait, apart from Loves Everyone No Matter How Scummy, is her unfailing determination. Losing an arm won’t hold her back, not forever. Hibiki survived her own death last season finale, even letting Miku believe she was dead for three weeks. If Hibiki can make it through death, she can make it through dismemberment.
Fuck, speaking of Miku, how are they gonna break the news to her?
While I don’t doubt Hibiki will get her arm back or get a replacement, that doesn’t lessen the extreme trauma of losing it to begin with. When did Symphogear turn into fucking Berserk?
I couldn’t possibly imagine how Hibiki will cope with being maimed. Losing a piece of her self, a piece of her person… “Demoralizing” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Not only was there the extreme physical pain of having her arm ripped off, she also had to endure the nightmare of watching the monster chew up part of her body and swallow it, hearing the crunch of the Nephilim munching away, seeing her own blood ooze out of its disgusting maw.
The scene itself is well orchestrated. Hibiki’s resounding battle song stops playing right at the moment she flashes back to Shirabe, right before the Nephilim clamps down. There is complete stillness for a moment, broken only by a soft, disbelieving “huh” from Hibiki, then comes the wet crunch of the bite, and the camera swaps to red-silhouette as Hibiki is torn apart in sprays of blood. The episode closes on a slow shot of the wounded moon hovering over the ruins of Kadingir as Hibiki screams over her own wounding, then we tumble down into the ED.
Symphogear took some fucking pleasure in putting this scene together. PLEASURE IN BOILING MY BONES AS I WATCHED EVERY AWFUL FRAME GO BY AND SHRIEKED BEHIND MY EYES.
I’ve never seen a scene so impressively done that also somehow managed not to leave an impression. The impact was there, but it was scrubbed away soon after by that skepticism I was talking about before, due to earlier shocking moments in this anime which turned out not as weighty as they appeared at first.
Hibiki’s strength as a warrior is in her hands. More importantly, so is her ability to connect with others. Hamster-Jesus’s open hand has always been her true power, not her fist.
Team Rainbow’s strength comes from their union. Union will now be a hell of a lot harder to achieve. Without her hands, Hibiki can’t link her power and her heart with the people she loves. By taking her arm away, Dr. Ver has not only de-powered Hibiki, he has also isolated her.
Dr. Ver claims the Nephilim will bring people together. But, he uses it to devour Hibiki’s hand, her way of bringing people together. The thematic significance is ringing strong: a monster like the Nephilim, controlled by a monster like Dr. Ver, could never save the world.
Frick, now I realize Symphogear even made sure to foreshadow it was Hibiki’s left hand that Miku holds last episode during the festival!
Wretched fucking anime.
In addition to Miku, how will Tsubasa and Chris cope with tonight’s terrible defeat? Hamster-Jesus is their friend, their team captain, their personal savior. Tsubasa and Chris are pretty prone to seeking vengeance, in contrast to Hibiki’s preference to always offer mercy.
With Hibiki crippled physically and emotionally, doubting herself as a hero, who will guide Team Rainbow down the right path? Without Hibiki’s steadying hand in theirs, what’s to stop Chris and Tsubasa from snapping back to their old selves and descending into self-destructive revenge against the terrorists? Or, they might lose heart completely and be unable to go on without her.
We didn’t get to see Chris’s reaction, due to her being unconscious, but Tsubasa sure was devastated.
I MEAN HAHA IT’S NOT LIKE TSUBASA WATCHING A GUNGNIR WIELDER SHE CARES ABOUT BE SERIOUSLY INJURED IN BATTLE WHILE TSUBASA IS POWERLESS TO SAVE HER WILL STIR UP ANY TRAUMATIC MEMORIES OR ANYTHING
Poor Chris was unconscious for this whole disaster, after the Nephilim knocked her out early in the fight. She’s gonna wake up like, “Whoa guys what happened, one second I was firing off enough bullets to make Rambo cry, then the next second I was knocked unconsci– holy shit dude where’s your arm??”
I can’t believe how foolish I was to go into this episode thinking Chris’s singing competition with Kirika and Shirabe would be the violent scene.
That scene was as peaceful as a mouse fart. Well, apart from the intercut shots of Seal Team Six getting slaughtered.
Hey, at least Hibiki’s injury means the two Symphogear trios are more balanced. Instead of Team Black vs Team Rainbow, we now have Team Only Five Socks vs Team Only Five Gloves.
Hibiki’s Relic is Gungnir, the spear of Odin. The loss of her arm is most likely a reference to another Norse god who you might already know about, named Tew. Also called Tiw, Tyr, and like twelve hundred other variations of the name, because that’s how gods roll.
Tew was a brave god of warriors who protected people.
But, being a war god also meant Tew had his moments of battle frenzy.
And, like Hibiki, Tew’s arm was bitten off by a vicious, world-ending monster while he and his fellow gods were trying to find some way to stop it from killing everybody. For Tew the monster was Fenrir, and for our Hibiki it was the Nephilim.
Tuesday happens to be named after this god. Tew’s day → Tue’s day → Tuesday.
Tew willingly sacrificed his arm so the monster could be bound, thereby saving lives. Hibiki likewise has shown again and again that she is willing to sacrifice herself to save others, whether they’re people she loves or just random strangers in need of help, like the little girl Hibiki carried to safety on her back before Hibiki even had any magical powers to fight with.
That’s the difference between our heroes and our villains in Symphogear. The heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves, while the villains demand other people sacrifice their lives for the villains’ goals.
Dr. Ver talks up a grand storm about how he wants to save the lives of as many people as possible, but he doesn’t mention the fact that he’s already killed bystanders needlessly. Similarly, Mom talks crap about how Maria needs to strap up and become a killer so Maria can carry on “Serena’s will”, forgetting that Mom and the other FISters were the ones who allowed Serena to die and didn’t help Serena even when Maria was crying for them to do something.
We finally got a peek into Maria’s heart in this episode, after her spending her previous screentime cloaking her true self. It feels like we know her better after this episode than we did after all previous episodes combined.
Seeing Maria’s vulnerability and self-doubt over what path she wants to follow, as well as her grief over losing her sister and struggling to live up to Serena’s legacy, opened Maria up to us a lot. The love she shares with Kirika and Shirabe was heartwarming, soothing some of the heartache of watching that painful flashback with Serena.
Look at this wonderful moment of unicorn-rare happiness for our girls. More, Symphogear, please more.
Heck, though. Despite all the time we spent with Maria this episode, we still don’t have confirmation that Finé really is inside her. We know the other terrorists believe it, but we haven’t seen why. What put the idea into their heads that Finé is dormant inside Maria? What symptoms of Finé-rrhea has Maria displayed to the other characters, and why have those symptoms not been displayed to us, the audience?
I’m also confused about Dr. Ver’s motivation toward Maria. On one hand, he seems to think highly of a reincarnated Finé. He kills the commandos himself to avoid risking “the reborn Finé” as he says. He doesn’t even call Maria by name, instead directly addressing her as “Finé” over the last couple episodes, which clearly doesn’t please Maria.
So, if he supports the idea of Finé coming back… why shoulder this episode’s killing himself? Finé won’t complete her possession of Maria unless Maria keeps using a Symphogear. If he wants to see a reborn Finé, why not stay back and force Maria to be the one to use her Symphogear to kill the commandos, like Mom was pushing her to do. Do you want Finé to be reborn or not, man.
On the other hand, why does Dr. Ver hold Finé in such high regard? During tonight’s battle he told us his goal is to save lives from the falling moon. The falling moon caused by Finé.
So, why would Ver be happy to see Finé reincarnated? Is he pro-Finé or anti-Finé?? There is no third party on the Finé ballot, Ver.
Maybe he’s hiding some ulterior plan from his fellow FISt terrorists. He might be a new member of their organization. I didn’t notice him with Mom and the other FISters during the Serena flashback.
Applause to Mom for wearing the exact same dress for, like, five years. I was wrong, she really does love Maria after all – Mom clearly sacrifices all her clothing budget toward Diva One-Sock’s wacky ensembles.
It’s the same Nephilim we’re fighting today as it was years ago during the Serena flashback.Yet, the current monster looks different from how it looked during the flashback.
The flashback version of the Nephilim looks like…
Well, it looks like Serena.
White armor on her, white hide on the monster. Red accents on her armor, glowing red accents on the monster. This Nephilim even has slender arms with articulated joints similar to Serena’s bony-looking Gear.
In contrast, our newly re-activated gray version of the Nephilim doesn’t have red glowing lights on its body. It has orange lights.
Orange. Hmm.
In addition, the gray Nephilim’s posture is different from the white Nephilim. The white one stood upright, while the gray spends more time crouched on all fours like a beast, with fangs bared.
Also, the gray Nephilim’s build is pretty different from the white. The gray is more muscular, and very front-heavy with those big, bulky forearms. Almost like… fists.
Huh. This is intriguing. Seems the Nephilim takes on aspects of whichever Relic-wielder activated it?
Serena was the FISt researchers’ go-to person to deactivate the white Nephilim after it got out of control. Therefore, it’s not unreasonable to guess that it was also Serena’s power the researchers leeched off to activate the Nephilim from its dormant state in the first place. Which would explain why the white Nephilim had aspects of Serena and her Relic.
Likewise, the gray Nephilim was activated by the power of the rainbow tornado of lesbianism that resulted in Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris being nicknamed Team Rainbow by me. Hibiki was the one who led the team’s efforts and focused their joint gaynergy, so Hibiki is inadvertently the one who activated the gray Nephilim.
Yikes, I wonder if the Nephilim will take on further aspects of Hibiki now that it has consumed more of her than just her energy.
Damn it, Symphogear. I want to believe what happened tonight, but I’ve been fooled by you before. Kind of a Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario. Or a Girl Who Cried Fenrir scenario.
So much for no one being able to control the Nephilim.
Dr. Ver seems to control the Nephilim without trouble. He even trained it to attack at appropriately dramatic pauses in his Grand Evil Speech. Maybe Ver thinks he is the super-human hero with the power to control the Nephilim and save the world.
I can’t believe I thought fighting him at the ruins of Kadingir would embolden our heroes. Instead, they faced one of their worst losses.
Hibiki’s moment of self-doubt was the only thing that allowed Dr. Ver to win. Her brief flashback in the middle of the fight shows how she’s been plagued by these doubts ever since Shirabe called her a hypocrite who doesn’t actually help others.
Even so, I don’t blame Shirabe for Hibiki getting maimed tonight. Shirabe wasn’t deliberately trying to sow doubt. Shirabe was being honest about how she feels. She’s not faking it, she really does Have Issues, whatever those issues are, that cause her to distrust Hibiki and other heroes. Shirabe is misguided, but she’s not a liar or a manipulator.
UNLIKE A CERTAIN SOMEONE
Holy moly does Dr. Ver get more evil by the episode. He’s been dehumanized and desympathized further and further. This episode alone showed us a basket of horrors, from his bloodlust-slack face when he approaches the kids he’s about to kill, to the way he shambles drunkenly at them and ignores Maria’s protests that there’s no reason to kill them, then later his careful manipulation of Team Rainbow to syringe-stab some doubt straight into their hearts, and finally his ghoulish grin as he watches Hibiki’s arm torn off in sprays of blood.
I was hoping for a redemption arc for him and Mom. Unfortunately, his evil and Mom’s complicity in it make redemption depressingly unlikely for either of them.
For Dr. Ver and Mom and the rest of FISt to claim they’re only committing murder and these other terrible things in order to save the world from the falling moon is a hollow excuse. The flashback with Serena takes place years ago, long before Finé’s attack on the moon, yet the FISt researchers still treated Serena like an expendable resource rather than a person. So, the FISters were an awful bunch even before this moon disaster they’re now claiming as their justification.
Tell that to the innocent lives you took needlessly today, Ver:
What a forked fucking tongue this guy has.
None of this is unconvincing writing on Symphogear’s part. There is painful accuracy to these antagonists. Accuracy to how screamingly frustrating it is to live beneath large, powerful organizations who feel righteous about themselves regardless of all the crap they do to other people. Dr. Ver’s moon-fall and Mom’s mysterious Frontier plan confuse me, but Symphogear’s writing of Dr. Ver and Mom as awful, villainous people is spot-on. Frick, I am still fuming over Mom hitting Cherry Coke and Sprite.
All I can do is let out a quiet, distressed hooting over all the misery visited upon our six Symphogear girls this episode.
A “Bloodstained Serenade” of an episode, indeed. How will we even begin to recover from this?
Even the Ragnarok story eventually leads to a new rebirth for the world out of all the destruction. Hibiki has always been a Rebirth figure. We’ll just have to keep soldiering on through Symphogear’s suffering, and find out how Hamster copes with A Farewell to Arms.
------------------
