Houston, we have a problem
(Read the full episode below, or click here for the list of other episodes)
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Tsubasa and Chris, current status: locked in a duel.
Shirabe and Kirika, current status: also locked in a duel.
Ver, current status: fusing with the Nephilim.
Maria, current status: is baby.
Hibiki, current status: en route to baby, hopefully to smack some sense into her.
Nekekur, current status: fucking dying.
Gulp your heart medication, because here we go! The penultimate episode of Season 2: Striking Spear.
Tsubasa just blocked a bullet with the edge of her sword. Not even the flat, broad part of the sword. The edge. Hang on, I need to gulp more heart medication.
Tsubasa demands to know why Chris is attacking her. Chris refuses to answer. Chris hasn’t said a word this entire duel. Likely something to do with that control collar Dr. Ver snapped around her neck.
Chris is extending her weaponed hand to block Tsubasa’s sword, but this question has broader meaning due to Symphogear’s theme of hand-holding to show bonds between people. Tsubasa is asking why Chris is using her hands for weapons instead of extending her hand in friendship.
This finally gets Chris to say something.
Chris, how does fighting Tsubasa atone for your “cross” of activating the Staff of Solomon that was used to summon Noise to kill people? Tsubasa wants the same thing you do: to protect people and save the world. You two should be fighting on the same side.
Over in soda land, Cherry Coke asks what Sprite meant earlier by the “while I’m still me” comment. Sprite at last, at last, opens up to her partner about what’s been driving her downward spiral.
The unspoken yet astronomical oh for fuck’s sake, Kiri-chan that must be going through Shirabe’s head right now.
Hey, Kirika. Maybe, I dunno, if you had told Shirabe about your fear that Finé is possessing you, Shirabe could’ve helped you figure out a solution before you went ass-over-teakettle down the slippery slope into evil.
It’s unclear how long Shirabe has known she’s Finé’s true host. If it happened a while ago, then Shirabe also bears blame for not telling her partner about it sooner. However, my impression was that Finé’s awakening happened while Shirabe was in the cell aboard Section 2’s submarine, after she and Kirika parted. She hasn’t yet had a chance to tell Kirika about it.
Now they’re face-to-face once more, Shirabe can tell Kirika the truth and set things right.
OR HOW ABOUT INSTEAD, SHIRABE UPS THE ANTE ON THE MISCOMMUNICATION.
GREAT JOB, GIRLS.
Of freaking course Kirika takes “I must stop you” as a threat from Shirabe, as a concrete severing of their relationship. Kirika thinks Shirabe sees her as nothing more than a Finé-monster who must be put down.
Shirabe is phrasing this terribly. What she means is, “I know you aren’t an evil person, Kiri-chan, so I’m going to stop you from committing any more evil acts, so you can return to being the sweet Kiri-chan I knew and loved.”
However, Kirika has little option but to interpret this as Shirabe saying, “The Kiri-chan I knew and loved is already lost beyond saving, so I might as well end you before you sink any further.”
The soda girls miscommunicating this badly is bat-shriekingly frustrating. It’s also fully realistic. Both Shirabe and Kirika are traumatized kids, but there’s a huge gap in maturity between them. Especially since Shirabe now has Finé’s maturity to boot. (Wow, never thought I’d describe Shitlord In Louboutins as “emotionally mature”.) Kirika doesn’t yet have the emotional maturity to see her own actions are a betrayal of her core values. Kirika believes evil is a burden she must bear for the greater good. She doesn’t understand that Shirabe is trying to help her right now.
YOU BOTH LOVE EACH OTHER, PLEASE STOP FIGHTING
POOR COMMUNICATION KILLS
Kirika is not aware that Ver has zero, absolutely zero, zip, zilch intention of protecting the world like Kirika wants.
Ver is currently attempting to fly Frontier away from Earth before the moon crashes into the planet, leaving the rest of us blob-gobblers to fend for ourselves.
Shirabe still doesn’t spit out the “actually I’m Finé” truth, instead choosing to continue their duel.
Not that Kirika would recognize that, but I sure did, and shivered a little. As I said last episode, I fully expect the Shirabe-Finé development to fizzle into nothing like the other big fake-outs this season. But until that point, it’s creepy to see Finé’s evil specter shrouding a hero like Shirabe.
Love isn’t a competition. It’s a partnership. Arguing about “I love you more!” is absurd. All you need to say is, “I love you enough.”
Over with the rest of Section 2, their submarine remains beached on Frontier, so the agents can’t do much in this state.
The agents receive a broadcast from… Maria, of all people.
Diva Baby stopped crying long enough to make a formal statement. She broadcasts it from Frontier’s bridge to the far corners of the world.
Maria tells the world how she falsely claimed to be Finé as part of FISt’s plot to minimize the damage caused by the impending moon-fall. She reveals to everyone that this upcoming disaster was concealed by world elites.
“Bavarian Illuminati” sounds like a pretentious European cigar company.
Since the other two on that list (the U.S. and the U.N. Security Council) are world powers, I’m going to tentatively assume the Bavarian Illuminati is this alternate world’s version of the E.U., or maybe the Brexiteers got really sozzled one night and renamed their country to that.
Maria tells the world that those elites secretly control the global economy and geopolitics. (Careful there, Maria, you’re verging into Lizard People conspiracy territory.) The elites knew about the moon disaster but kept it hidden from the general population, so that those elites could find a way to save themselves and let the common folk perish. In other words, exactly what Ver is currently doing, which you helped enable, Maria.
This worldwide broadcast of Maria dropping Truth Bombs on the population must be part of Mom’s new plan to stop the falling moon.
The moon is… an observation device set up by the ancient aliens that came to Earth? Like, a spy satellite?
You’re telling me the moon is a satellite in both definitions of the term??
Does this mean those ancient aliens, the Custodians, are still around? I got the impression they died out or left long ago. Are they alive and watching us from far away, using the moon to get a live feed of what’s happening on planet Earth nowadays?
I’d switch channels.
Mom tells us that Finé’s Kadingir blast at the moon last season damaged the moon-satellite’s functions. If we can “reboot” those functions, Mom believes this will correct the moon’s orbit and stop it from crashing into our planet.
Sure, I’ll take whatever we can get. Mom’s plan sounds as good as any to me.
Mom projectile-vomits blood. No, she didn’t eat a Walmart rotisserie chicken, it’s just her disease progressing.
She’s been terminally ill since before we met her. Looks like her racehorse is finally entering its last lap. This alarms Maria.
Hilarious to note, the viewers around the world can’t see Mom on the broadcast nor hear Mom’s dialogue. From their perspective, a world-famous terrorist just randomly started calling out for her mommy in the middle of a serious broadcast.
Through the blood-vomit, Mom urges Maria:
Mom doesn’t tell Maria how singing will turn the moon functions off and on again. Diva Baby must figure that out on her own, I suppose.
Maria on the broadcast admits that since she’s an international terrorist, she doubts the world’s population will believe her. However, she wants to impress upon them one thing:
I love me some consistency.
Maria then sings her Symphogear activation phrase for all to hear.
Transformation sequences never get old. The world (and me) watches in awe.
Thank you, Symphogear, for my new favorite reaction image.
MARIA IS FINALLY LEARNING. The core theme of Symphogear, the resounding message this anime has consistently told across all episodes, is that no one can do it alone. The Custodians may have splintered the human race, but goddammit we can come together in defiance of that.
Last time the world saw Maria’s face on an international broadcast, she threatened to flood their home cities with deadly Noise. Now, she’s asking for their help. Hard sell.
Maria sings her bold battle song, praying that through Frontier, her song will reach the moon and have the orbit-correcting effect Mom hoped for.
I’M CRYING YOU GUYS SHE MADE IT
After years of misplaced grief and shame, Maria at long last comes to the exact realization she needed. Serena’s sacrifice isn’t something to feel guilt about, it’s something to feel pride about.
Took Maria a while to make the climb, but she surmounted the peak in the end. Wonderful to see this character arc reach its apex. Though I’ve been pretty rough on Maria these past few episodes, I do sympathize with her pains and understand her tears (I certainly wouldn’t fare any better were I in her situation), and I’m happy she overcame. Well done, Diva.
From Section 2’s beached submarine, Genjuurou and brown-haired guy drive a Humvee onto Frontier. They follow Maria’s broadcast to the source. They hope they can help their heroes in some way.
Brown-haired guy can’t ramp as impressively as Tsubasa on her motorcycle nor Shirabe on her wheely-cycle, but points for style. Honestly, he could fucken flip that Humvee on its ass like the greenest Boot who’s never driven on terrain before, and it’d still look staggeringly epic with Maria’s battle song playing over it.
Hibiki update: Still running toward Maria’s location.
If Hibiki’s ass weren’t already so well-defined, sprinting up giant stone stairs to reach the heart of Frontier would certainly sculpt it to further perfection.
Back with Red vs. Blue, Chris empties mag after mag at Tsubasa. Our favorite angst-ridden Sword-Saint effortlessly blocks every single bullet with her blade. (Yep, really.)
Rather than attacking, Tsubasa stays on the defensive, knowing there must be Something Up with Chris that’s forcing her to fight her comrade. Tsubasa figures out it has to do with the collar around Chris’s neck.
Tsubasa needs to get that collar off Chris immediately. For one, it’s a violation of human dignity to collar a person like a pet. For another, it just plain looks shitty. Clunky lines, no style, doesn’t match Chris’s color scheme. Garbage accessory. Ver has terrible fashion sense. At least Finé dressed Chris better when she kept Chris as her pet.
Never mind.
Tsubasa, I hate to tell you this, but there’s an unfortunate subset of people to whom wearing a dog collar is a reward in and of itself. Welcome to the internet.
NO CHRIS DON’T SAY THAT
YOU DO HAVE A HOME
Chris thinks she has no home (meaning, no people who love her, because that’s what home is, it’s people to come home to), and therefore Chris sees herself as less valuable. Chris thinks her life is expendable if it saves other people.
Same with Kirika, who believes being Finé’s host makes her life less valuable, and therefore Kirika is willing to throw her life away if it’s for some twisted ideal of the greater good.
Chris and Kirika haven’t interacted much, but it’s not the first time they’ve played the Shadow Self role for each other. They’ve dueled one-on-one a few times, even in the OP, and the previous episode showed they hold a similar mindset about resigning themselves to being “bad guys” despite their misgivings.
Surprisingly, when Tsubasa hears that Chris feels homeless and unloved, Tsubasa smiles gently.
Tsubasa gets it. Tsubasa is saying loud and clear, “We are your home, Chris. Your friends. You belong with us.”
We saw this same expression of love between Hibiki and Miku:
Tsubasa understands that concept. By telling Chris she has a place to return to, Tsubasa is telling her you are loved.
And look at Chris’s reaction.
Tsubasa doesn’t say it outright. Doesn’t need to. Their bond is strong enough that Chris is attuned to Tsubasa’s subtleties. Chris fully recognizes that these words are a declaration of friendship and love from her comrade.
Tsubasa isn’t raging at Chris, nor castigating her for her bad decisions. Tsubasa is, without physically doing so, stretching out a hand for Chris to take if she’s willing.
Genjuurou did the same in Season 1, when he had that calm but firm talk with Chris about how life is worth living and dreams are worth carrying.
Tsubasa is echoing her uncle, the man who pretty much raised her as far as we know. Tsubasa knows that sometimes people need harsh justice kicked into them, and sometimes people just need love.
Chris can’t handle this declaration of caring from Tsubasa. Loving someone is hard. Being loved by someone is harder.
Tsubasa flashes back to someone else she loved.
Kanade, the other half of Zwei Wing. She taught Tsubasa that one wing cannot fly alone, but together, joined wings can fly anywhere.
WHERE ARE MY HEART MEDS, Y’ALL, I’M GULPIN’ LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW
Dr. Ver hisses in through the speaker embedded in Chris’s collar. He orders Chris to hurry up and kill Tsubasa, else he’ll detonate the collar around her neck to explode.
Explode. Ver is going to literally blow Chris’s head off if she doesn’t obey him. She’s trapped.
Chris yells at Tsubasa.
Those are tears of fear. Chris is so very scared right now. I don’t think it’s fear of death-by-exploding-collar. It’s something much worse to Chris.
Truth is, Tsubasa does understand Chris. And that’s what frightens Chris so terribly. Just think of Finé, the previous person Chris was fooled into believing “understood” her.
Chris is more scared of undergoing that same pain, the pain of abuse and manipulation and betrayal of trust, than she is of dying. What’s getting your head blown off compared to getting your heart broken yet again? At least if you die, you won’t have to pick up the pieces afterward. Not so with trauma. The worst thing about trauma is that it isn’t fatal. You have to keep living afterward.
Tsubasa here seems genuine, seems to understand Chris and be willing to meet her on her level. But, how can Chris know for sure? It’s a risk. Letting someone care for you is always a risk. It puts you under their power, and our Chris spent half her lifetime the victim of others exploiting power over her. “Collaring” her in literal and metaphorical ways.
Will Chris bring herself to accept Tsubasa’s offer of comradeship, this nonphysical hand extended to her?
Kazanari-senpai.
Kazanari-senpai.
KAZANARI-SENPAI!
CHRIS SAID TSUBASA’S NAME.
Sort of, anyway. “Kazanari-senpai” avoids the intimacy of using given names, like Tsubasa also does with her friends. Still, this is the first time Chris has even said Tsubasa’s surname.
This is massive. The camera nestles in from a wider shot of Chris to an intimate close-up of Tsubasa when she hears the “senpai” from Chris’s lips.
Just as Chris is attuned to Tsubasa’s subtleties, Tsubasa is attuned to Chris’s avoidances. Tsubasa recognizes that despite avoiding given names, Chris has done something much more intimate.
Chris calling Tsubasa her senpai could come across as Chris putting herself beneath Tsubasa, but that’s not it at all. Chris is giving Tsubasa the greatest trust, in Chris-terms, of allowing someone to look after her. The term senpai displays respect but also an inherent, I trust you to take care of me, senpai. That’s what senpai do: take care of their juniors.
Chris could’ve gone with a neutral “Kazanari-san” or just a gruff “Kazanari”. The other girls don’t call Tsubasa their senpai. Hibiki uses a simple “Tsubasa-san”. Chris deliberately chose the term senpai. No one expected it of her or forced it on her. The senpai/kouhai bond is what Chris specifically wants.
Tsubasa and Chris understand each other. Wholly and completely. I’m crying worse than Maria.
Beautiful as this moment is, we’re out of time. They need to finish this duel in one final attack before Ver detonates Chris’s collar.
Tsubasa and Chris agree to unleash their mightiest attacks at each other in combination, hoping the mutual energy clash will be enough to break the collar.
Together. They’re working together. No one can do it alone.
Ver, watching their duel from afar, celebrates at what appears to be Chris and Tsubasa’s mutual annihilation.
Oh, son. You wretched, unworthy, pathetic son. You have no fucking idea the torrent of shit about to burst your lungs.
We chop away from Tsubasa and Chris to catch up with our other two duelists.
Shirabe’s sung her battle song before, but this particular line only now sticks out to me. Is that lyric from Shirabe… or Finé?
If it’s from Finé, it’s immensely creepy. Finé masqueraded as Dr. Ryouko, exploiting her position of trust/power to secretly experiment on and medically abuse the girls under her care, particularly Hibiki.
If it’s from Shirabe, then that lyric is hilarious. Shirabe scolding Kirika for being stubborn, when Shirabe is stubbornly refusing to simply tell Kirika the truth about who Finé’s new host is, which would immediately stop their fight in its tracks.
Their duel is going nowhere. The soda girls are too evenly matched, in their fighting skills and in their love for each other. One partner can’t defeat the other, not when them fighting at all is a defeat of their bond. There can be no “winner” in this situation.
Kirika pulls out her last resort.
Kirika shoots herself up with LiNKER, the drug that boosts a Relic wielder’s power… at a price. She tosses another injector to Shirabe. A silent dare to do the same.
Kirika begins to sing her Climax Song. If completed, this fatal song amped up on LiNKER will end their duel for sure, by her death or by Shirabe’s.
How in colicky zebras did we go from “I love you more!” to “I’ll sever your soul!”?
Shirabe injects LiNKER too, and joins Kirika’s Climax Song with her own. She revs up her strongest attack to counter Kirika’s. Shirabe is desperate to put a stop to this. If either of them completes their Climax Song, they’ll die.
SYMPHOGEAR HOW DARE
Kirika’s soul-cutting scythe swings in perilously close. Shirabe is forced to halt her own Climax Song and instead use Finé’s purple energy-shield to block the scythe attack.
Ten minutes.
It took over ten minutes for Cherry Coke to just flipping tell Sprite she’s Finé’s true host.
Kirika recognizes the purple energy-shield and its implications.
Yeah, Kirika. It – yeah. Yeah. You mucked up. I don’t know what else to tell you, kiddo.
The horror of Kirika’s crimes comes crashing down upon her once she discovers the truth. She sold her soul to evil for no reason. What can she do from here? How can she move forward?
It’s okay, Sprite. You aren’t awful. Now that you’ve acknowledged your mistakes, you can dedicate yourself to becoming a better person and making amends fo–
???
Disapp…
…Oh please don’t let that mean what I’m terrified it means. This episode has been ENTIRELY TOO MUCH ALREADY.
Kirika redirects her lethal soul-severing attack. Toward herself.
DON’T DO IT, SPRITE!
Shirabe roller-dashes in and takes the hit to save Kirika’s life. A literal backstab. But, one Shirabe willingly throws herself into, unlike the metaphorical backstab of Kirika betraying her earlier this season:
WAIT WE CUT THE SCENE THERE?
We leave Shirabe impaled on Kirika’s scythe and check in with Hibiki.
Hamster has spent the entire episode thus far running as fast as her little hammie paws will take her, heading toward Maria. Either to help Maria sing the moon-reboot or to give Maria a deserved whoopin’ for taking so long to get her kitty-eared shit together, I don’t know. Both, hopefully.
A panting Hibiki finally arrives at Frontier’s central structure.
Years on, and I haven’t forgiven Episode 9’s exercise montage for existing. Welcome to Grudgeville, population Nekekur.
On Frontier’s bridge, Maria finishes her battle song to Frontier’s machinery.
Unfortunately, her song is not enough to get Frontier to reboot the moon like Mom hoped. Magnificent a voice as Maria has, she needs others to lend their voices, as well.
Maria reacts by, you guessed it, falling to her knees and crying!
That worldwide broadcast is still rolling. The entirety of planet Earth witnesses Maria Cadenzavna Eve being a huge baby streaming live in 4K. I can hear a million shouts of “Someone clip that” ringing out.
From our perspective, this all makes sense. But from the perspective of Random Citizen #543748 watching this broadcast, Maria must look like a raving lunatic.
“I dunno, man. A few weeks ago, she committed international terrorism in the middle of her own concert. Today, she started rambling about Illuminati moon conspiracies, then she cried for her mommy, then she sang a song to a machine, and now she’s having a complete sobbing breakdown.”
Back with Tsubasa and Chris, Dr. Ver inspects the aftermath of their duel.
The energy burst from their combination attack sent the girls crashing into a cavern in Frontier’s underground. Ver finds Chris standing over a prone Tsubasa.
Ver promised to give Chris the Staff of Solomon if she took out Tsubasa for him. Unsurprisingly, he refuses to honor his promise. Dude’s as untrustworthy as an after-yogurt fart.
Instead, Ver mashes the detonator for Chris’s explosive collar. But… nothing happens.
It worked! Chris and Tsubasa working together freed her from the collar, exactly as they hoped. Their mutual trust paid off.
Now all they need is for Tsubasa to get up from her dirt nap so the two of them can finish off Ver once and for all.
Ver panics. He summons Noise from the Staff to attack Chris.
Pssh. A handful of measly Noise can’t stop our jellyfish!
Uh-oh… but Ver’s red poison gas can stop her. I forgot he had that stuff. Inhaling his anti-LiNKER makes a Symphogear impossible to wield.
Shit, what can Chris do? Wrest the Staff from Ver and use it to un-summon those Noise before they kill her?
OR THAT, OKAY.
Chris decides that since her Symphogear isn’t working right now, just fricken cast it off and go nude!
Wait, shouldn’t the anti-LiNKER gas filling this cavern cripple Tsubasa’s Symphogear, too?
Oh, it does. So, like Chris, Tsubasa casts off her usual armor. Instead of donning her birthday suit, however, Tsubasa dons her…
…armor from last season??
Tsubasa’s special power is… getting her old clothes out of the closet?
That is so meta. I never gave much thought to the girls’ armor being slightly altered between Seasons 1 and 2. Just figured, “The animators wanted to try a different style and/or had more budget to put into drawing new armor.” I never thought armor updates would become plot relevant. Another example of this anime chucking a dodgeball at me in amusingly clever ways.
Wielding the older version of her Symphogear, which isn’t as affected by Ver’s anti-LiNKER poison, Tsubasa slashes up the Noise in the cavern to protect Chris.
This includes HANDSTAND SPINNING SLASHING LEG THING. Thanks Symphogear for my life.
While Tsubasa is occupied, Ver slithers away, soundly defeated. Probably trailing liquid shit behind him. Thankfully, he dropped the Staff of Solomon, so it’s now safely back in Chris and Tsubasa’s custody and can’t be used to harm any more people.
Chris explains how their combination attack freed her from the control collar:
They used the explosive clash of their combination attack as a smokescreen to fool Ver into thinking they killed each other. In reality, the explosion was a cover so Tsubasa could swoop in and cut Chris’s collar without Ver seeing.
This coordination was only possible because the two of them know each other so well and trust each other as battle comrades.
It’s a good metaphor for Tsubasa and Chris’s relationship as a whole. “We may look like we’re always fighting or at odds with each other, but underneath it we’re really working toward the same goal.”
Once all the Noise in the cavern are dead, Chris summons some clothes, and Tsubasa lets go her old armor. Unarmored for each other in more than one sense, Tsubasa and Chris have a much-needed talk.
I should have some intelligent commentary here or something, but I’m too distracted by their height difference.
Tsubasa and Chris head off together to meet up with Hibiki.
The good guys recaptured the Staff, but Ver still has his Nephilim fusion making him a threat. Plus, the moon is still falling, until Maria stops crying and gets someone to sing with her.
Ver cringe-crawls his way back to Frontier’s main structure. He tantrums about losing the Staff to Tsubasa and Chris.
HAH. A few minutes ago, his dumb ass boasted that Symphogear wielders wouldn’t be necessary in his new world:
Now, he comes crawling back to Dame Weepsalot the instant he loses a fight.
Miscalculated.
FECK. I got so distracted by the emotion-blooming splendor of that Tsubasa and Chris scene that I forgot Shirabe took Kirika’s scythe to the back.
Shirabe, unconscious, falls into a vision. A vision of…
THERE SHE IS, THERE SHE IS
Madame Butterfly herself. Finé is so damn awful a person, but I’ve been waiting all season to see her again!!
Oh, I see.
OH, I SEE!
Kirika’s Ultimate is a soul-destroying attack. And there are two souls inside Shirabe’s body.
Kirika just accidentally exorcised Finé from Shirabe.
HAH. Though I did expect Finé’s possession of Shirabe to blow over, I thought it’d be Hamster-Jesus who exorcised her. I didn’t expect it to be Kirika, much less on accident.
Great move, Symphogear. Finé always hurt other people to serve herself. By diving in to take the scythe attack for Kirika, Shirabe did the opposite of her possessor. Shirabe chose to take hurt upon herself to protect another person. What more fitting way to exorcise Finé than for Shirabe to lay down her life for the one she loves?
Finé decides to take the soul-destroying scythe attack upon her own soul, sparing Shirabe’s. This will free Shirabe from Finé’s possession. It will also permanently end Finé.
After thousands of years of hurting people, Finé at long last chooses to do the right thing. The butterfly who continually refused to metamorphose, refused to grow into a better version of herself, is now finally pushing out of her cocoon.
Finé will seize no more of her descendants as unwilling hosts. This is Finé’s final gift to her children.
I talked in Season 1 about how for Finé, there can be no next generation, because she steals it from them. She steals the lives of her future generations, her descendants, by possessing their bodies and erasing their minds, all for the sake of Finé’s quest for immortal power. Now, Finé at last lets go and accepts her mortality.
Symphogear’s resounding theme of “no one can do it alone” also applies in a broader sense to mortality as a concept. Your story ending in a natural death (or a death you willingly chose to protect others, like Kanade and Serena did) isn’t scary, because the story isn’t about you alone. You are but one note in the grand symphony. That is all, and that is enough.
This scene is… surprisingly moving? Symphogear actually giving Finé’s story closure?? Hamster-Jesus really did inspire Finé to redeem herself???
While it’s mighty decent of Finé to spare Shirabe and let go her possession, one act of decency doesn’t erase the metric tons of suffering Finé caused. But, at least she will cause no more. I’ll take it. This resolution is a pleasant surprise.
Freed from the possession and healed from the lethal scythe attack, Shirabe wakes from her vision.
Shirabe hugs Kirika back without hesitation.
Shirabe doesn’t say it directly, but this line and this embrace is Shirabe telling her beloved Kiri-chan, I forgive you. By the look on Kirika’s face, Kirika feels the significance.
Together, Shirabe and Kirika resolve to help save Maria and the rest of this world they live in.
The soda girls are officially back together. Scythe and saw, hand in hand once more. We’re gonna be okay, guys.
Up on Frontier’s bridge, Maria is having a bad time.
Despite Mom’s coaxing voice through the communicator (Mom’s still over in the database room in a different part of Frontier), Maria loses hope.
Ver shows up. Pissed and humiliated by losing to Chris/Tsubasa teamwork. Wanting to feel powerful again, Ver takes out his inferiority complex on Maria. He strikes Maria in the face with his Nephilim hand so hard it knocks her to the floor, Maria’s natural habitat.
Ver rages:
Ver’s grand plan is to let the moon-fall wipe out all but a fraction of the population. He wants to rule over everybody, but he’s too weak to do that, so he thinks a small population will be more manageable.
Core villain mentality. “I don’t have the willpower to better myself, so instead I’ll bring everybody else down.”
Mom, through the communicator, tries to talk Ver out of this lunacy. He rejects Mom’s attempt at fixing the moon-fall.
Ver gets his cryptocurrency memes on and sends Mom TO THE MOOOOON. He hits the ejector button on Frontier’s control panel, which remotely launches the database building Mom’s currently inside UP TO SPACE.
Although Maria’s seen Ver kill countless people already, seeing him rocket Mom off to her death finally makes Maria snap.
Oh yeah, big tough self-proclaimed Hero-Ruler of Humanity readily sends terminally ill old ladies to their deaths, but the instant an actual combatant comes at him, he pisses himself. What a craven.
Hibiki arrives at the bridge just in time.
Hibiki stands between Maria and Ver, protecting him from her fellow Gungnir wielder.
I know I’m a shitlord and no one should look to me for moral advice… but I’m on Maria’s side here. Get his ass.
However, I can see Hibiki’s point. It’s not about Ver, it’s about Maria. Ver 100% deserves to be killed. Hibiki protests because Maria’s doing it for the wrong reason:
Maria’s willing to kill not because she thinks Ver is worthless, but because she thinks she’s worthless. Maria doesn’t care if she loses herself to evil. This is the wrong approach to executing a human being. It should be about making the world a better place, not about making yourself worse. If you make yourself evil in the process, all you do is replace the evil person you just got rid of. Net zero gain.
Hamster-Jesus sees that. Hibiki refuses to let Maria throw her own life away (Don’t give up on life!) for a palmetto bug like Ver.
Maria isn’t feeling the mercy in this Chili’s tonight. She wants blood.
Hibiki saves Ver’s life by blocking Maria’s Striking Spear with her bare hand.
Cool: blocking a bullet with the edge of your sword.
Cooler: blocking a spear with your bare hand.
It occurs to me, does Hibiki know who this “Mom” Maria wants vengeance for is?
Does anyone in Section 2 even know Mom exists?? Miku briefly met Mom when captured by FISt earlier this season. But, did Miku ever get a chance after all that hectic Shenshoujin mess to tell the rest of Section 2 who Mom is and why she’s important to FISt? Or, does Hibiki think Maria has an imaginary mom-friend?
Hibiki sings her Symphogear activation phrase.
…Huh? Hibiki doesn’t have Gungnir anymore. It was purged from her body by Miku’s Shenshoujin beam. Who is she singing to?
BY THE ALLFATHER, SHE’S SINGING TO MARIA’S GUNGNIR
Hibiki just claimed Maria’s Gungnir as her own!!!
I FORGOT THE WORLDWIDE BROADCAST IS STILL ROLLING, HAHAHAH
Maria and Hibiki are buck-ass naked for the entire human race to see. I’m wheeze-howling.
World’s #1 Girlfriend cheers on our naked heroine.
Hibiki transforms into Maria’s Gungnir. However, the Symphogear takes on Hibiki’s white/orange form instead of Maria’s black/pink form. This Gungnir is truly Hibiki’s, now.
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This is the best wretched fucking anime I’ve watched.
What a blast this episode was. Like, rocket-me-to-the-moon levels of a blast.
I certainly didn’t see this episode’s ending coming.
Maria is as flabbergasted by this development as I am.
Does this mean Maria no longer has a Symphogear?
I’m glad this episode showed us Maria’s Gungnir transformation one last time, considering we’ll never see it again after this.
Whatever Maria’s new Symphogear turns out to be, I hope it has a sick-ass vampire cloak like her version of Gungnir did!
I had it backwards. Last episode, I guessed that Maria would pass on Serena’s Symphogear to Hibiki. Instead, Hibiki claims Maria’s Gungnir. This likely means Maria will be the one to wield Serena’s Symphogear from now on.
That’s way more fitting than my guess. Maria in this episode finally figured out how to carry on Serena’s heroic legacy.
Maria has earned the chance to bear Serena’s Symphogear. It’s a clean, symmetrical character resolution and I fully approve.
The shards of Kanade’s Gungnir embedded in Hibiki’s heart were the manifestation of the Don’t Give Up On Life message that Kanade passed to Hibiki in her final moments. Those shards of Kanade are gone now, but her legacy endures through Hibiki’s heroism.
It’s moving how even though Kanade died in the very first episode, Symphogear has kept Kanade with us throughout both seasons.
This episode also showcased Kanade’s other legacy: teaching Tsubasa how to love.
Tsubasa passes that lesson on to Chris, who really needed to hear it.
I didn’t know what a geas was when Dr. Ver said it. Kinda blinked past it. Too much Hot-Hot-Hot-Woo! was happening. When I went back and looked it up, everything clicked.
Turns out, geasa are fateful obligations to always or never do something. For example, a person might bear a geas of, “I must never eat meat,” but also bear a geas of, “I must always accept offered food so as not to violate sacred hospitality.” So, what if your host offers you meat? Your contradictory obligations, your two fatebound geasa, can’t both be upheld. Whichever you choose, you’re damned, despite your best intentions to do what’s right.
This fits Chris perfectly in this episode. She wants to atone for her past and protect her home, but there’s a contradiction here. “I must atone for activating the Staff, by stopping it from hurting any more people,” while simultaneously, “I must honor my bond of friendship with this person who’s part of my new home I worked so hard for.”
Ver traps Chris between these two geasa. He cruelly, deliberately manipulates her into a situation of, “I will only give you the Staff if you kill your friend.”
Chris can’t uphold her two contradictory duties. She must choose one and break the other. What a shitty fork. Get the Staff back and lose your home by killing your friend, or keep your home but allow the Staff to kill more people.
Breaking either geas damns Chris, both in terms of her soul being lost and in a more literal sense of she’ll die via head-exploding. Whichever Chris chooses, there is no good outcome.
I didn’t know what a geas was until today, but I knew who Chulainn’s Hound was. He’s the most famous legendary figure associated with geasa, which adds to my certainty that Symphogear did this for Chris’s character On Purpose.
This man is called Chulainn’s Hound because he takes up a geas to serve as someone’s (Chulainn’s) guard dog. A human being, reduced to a pet. And not a gentle pet, but a living weapon whose purpose is to attack home invaders.
Chulainn’s Hound gets redefined by the “collar” of his geas. It’s literally his new name. He doesn’t get to go by the birth name his family, his home, lovingly picked for him, he becomes known as someone else’s hound.
Dr. Ver’s geas for Chris didn’t need to be a collar. It could’ve been anything else. A bracelet, an anklet, a belt. Ver deliberately chose to fashion his geas into a collar to dehumanize Chris.
Not the first time a twisted person has dehumanized Chris and used manipulation to make her obey.
Back then, Chris wished for the power to kill evil people. It’s not until she meets Hibiki, Miku, and Tsubasa that she realizes her true wish is for a home.
Finé gave Chris a home. For the price of becoming Finé’s living weapon and a pet for Finé’s entertainment.
What does it mean to be someone’s guard dog? “You can be part of this home, but only if you’re willing to throw your life away to protect it. You’re expendable. Your life only matters if you can keep the others – the true home residents – safe.” Chris convinces herself she’s expendable if it saves others’ lives.
The guard dog in the legend of Chulainn’s Hound wasn’t an indoor pet. It didn’t get to live in the home. While the humans are inside feasting and bonding, the dog is out patrolling the edges, ready for violence and death. The beast is part of the home but not part of it. Always outside, even just by a few inches, looking in on what it’s fatebound to protect but never allowed to experience.
Likewise, Ver orders Chris to stand guard at the edge of Frontier, his new kingdom, to block Tsubasa’s entry into his territory.
Chris longs so desperately to be part of the home she’s been adopted into, but that gnawing doubt of “Do I really deserve it?” lingers.
The legend of Chulainn’s Hound ends with the hero defeated by other geasa he holds. Fate forces him into a situation where he can’t uphold two contradictory obligations at the same time and instead must break one, same as Chris in this episode.
For Chulainn’s Hound, being forced to break his geas leads to his death. Ver expected the same to happen to Chris today.
Ver expected Chris to kill and be killed by Tsubasa, with no way to escape his geas trap for her. That’s exactly what would’ve happened, had Chris not had the courage to open up to Tsubasa.
Chris and Tsubasa’s teamwork frees her from the geas. They manage to uphold both obligations: Chris gets the Staff of Solomon back safely and she keeps her teammate, her home, alive.
Ver is the one who chose to call his deal with Chris a geas, a sacred obligation. Yet, it’s Ver who breaks this obligation, by failing to uphold his promise to give Chris the Staff if she fought Tsubasa for him. He’s the one who damns himself. His plan completely backfires: not only does he lose the Staff, but both girls survive the duel he hoped would kill them.
Symphogear has pulled from various other mythologies (Hibiki’s arm bitten off by the Nephilim like Tew’s arm bitten off by Fenrir springs to mind), so I don’t believe the geas reference is an accident.
This episode taught Chris that the only way she could break free from a villain’s control was by synchronizing with a fellow hero.
Opening up, trusting someone. Cooperating instead of trying to go it alone. It’s a lesson Tsubasa needed to learn this season, too.
Tsubasa, like Chris, needed to be reminded of Symphogear’s theme of working together. Tsubasa interprets this theme in her own personal way, by relating it to Kanade. Their idol duo was named Zwei Wing, the two wings. Divided, they fall to earth, but together, wings ascend.
Tsubasa respects Chris’s boundaries for their new bond. She doesn’t force Chris to use her name. She allows the “senpai” compromise, recognizing that, to Chris, this word is more intimate than “Tsubasa”.
Even during their intimate “senpai” scene, Chris and Tsubasa don’t physically touch. There’s no hand holding nor shoulder touching, which they do with Hibiki.
Chris and Tsubasa just aren’t into that with each other like they are with Hibiki. And that’s okay. Not everyone expresses affection as directly as Hugs-for-Everyone Hamster. Tsubasa and Chris connect with each other even without physical contact.
I mean, these two tried to kill each other the night they met. Are we really surprised they choose weapons as their avenue of intimacy?
Look at that blush. Poor little jellyfish-head is gonna overheat.
The soda girls also learned this episode that nobody can do it alone.
Cherry Coke and Sprite’s love for each other overcame their struggles in communication. By working together despite betrayal and misunderstandings and pain, they healed their bond. This act of love also freed them from the curse of their bloodline, by laying Finé’s wretched soul to rest at long last.
HAH, that lyric from Kirika’s battle song. I didn’t notice until now, but Kirika carried out that threat to the letter. Her bladed kiss, the lethal scythe attack, saved Shirabe from the cage of Finé’s possession. This anime, man.
I keep forgetting Kirika and Shirabe are blood relatives. Albeit distantly enough that it doesn’t matter. Still...
I’m amazed this was only the penultimate episode of Season 2. With its potent character drama, well-executed arc resolutions, and bodacious action sequences, this episode could’ve played as a season finale.
Means the next episode, the true season finale, must have a magnificently memorable spectacle in store for us. I couldn’t be more eager!
…Also, please let Mom be okay on her little rocket voyage.
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