Symphogear

Since this was in storage for quite sometime I finally decided to watch, and finished this anime. This is pretty much action-y, but at the same time, it has a pretty deep story to it, and is kind of entertaining. For people that love action, I think you guys may or may not like this anime, since the action isn't really the main focus, cuz they focus more on the plot I would say.. Story 8/10 Started of pretty good on how they kind of went to the future, and then goes back to what happen to get there, like a lot of anime I know. Itmoves at a good pace, and that's good since in my opinion it explained to me more about what's going on. Mostly this anime probably wants the watcher to be sad when they watch it, but it turns out to be a pretty happy story after watching all the episodes. Art 7/10 They could make some more improvements on the way the made the characters, since in some scenes, after they got beaten up pretty badly. They came back fighting looking fresh as new in so little time. Of course, they have quick regeneration skills, but still I don't think it's suppose to be that quick. Sometimes, the motion when the character walks seems kinda unrealistic and that's, for me, a disturbing thing. Sound 8/10 Not bad at the sound. The pitch when the characters scream, sweep, or are cheerful is very good. The best part of the sound I liked is the part where they make the crying of some characters pretty short. In some anime they just made the crying very long, which is pretty annoying, maybe because they want to waste time cuz they can't think of anything. Character 8/10 It's great to find anime were the character doesn't piss you off so much that you just wanna smash your head into your keyboard. The characters are well made. The way they act, and talk to each other seems pretty much like real life. On top of that, a character tries to make this anime sounds like it's really "not" an anime, and that it was real life for them. Enjoyment 9/10 I don't really think I could say much, since I saw the rating on this anime, and it's not that good at all. For me, it was a nice experience watching this, and I don't really think a fan of a serious action would wanna watch this, since the action in this anime is not quite that great, and the moves the characters have are repeated a lot of times, and there a not a lot of new moves. Overall 8/10 I guess this is my final say on how good the anime was during my time watching it. This is, I think, a pretty girly anime.... I say that cuz of the not so violence parts ( even though there was a lot of blood ) in this anime. Maybe if they increased the intensity of the fights, that might have helped to give it a higher rating..

The high hopes I had for this series were dashed after the first few minutes. The storyline felt like someone decided to animate a fanfic for a much better series. There were these honest traces of something better in the storyline. It fell flat because of the cliches within the series and because of how much of a Mary Sue the main character is. In the first episode I was left asking why Hibiki was so special compared to all the other people who exist in this world. She's not special because she has any sort of talent, something she constantly admits. Her childhood is blandand uneventful, yet Kanade sings her Swan song in the first episode sacrificing herself just so Hibiki can live despite the fact it doesn't feel as if Kanade needed to sing her Swan song to save Hibiki's life. Instead, Kanade's death is simply a tool the writer used to give Hibiki her amazing powers so that she can be the heroine of the series. The theme of sacrifice is another place where this series falls flat. At the beginning of the series it is played up as being a very important theme but by the end it honestly feels like a joke. It is instead replaced by the theme that everyone can get along by everyone talking things out. Everyone else has a mind frame that violence will solve everything, but Hibiki is difference because Hibiki is so innocent and naïve that she honestly believes there is a better way when people are human. In the long run, it is Hibiki's character that destroys the storyline. Of course, Hibiki does have a few flaws up her sleeves to make the viewers not think she is a Mary Sue. She is at the beginning of the series horribly klutzy and she can't do anything right. This is fine when she first gains her powers because she has problems in her first fight. However, after this she receives no training from the government so she can fight the noise, she is allowed to run around on her own letting her klutziness in the way. Added to this, Tsubasa wants nothing to do with her because Hibiki reminds her too much about Kanade, and yet it would make more sense for Tsubasa to protect the one thing of Kanade she has left. Many of the characters don't get fleshed out and the way Hibiki gets over her flaw is just ridiculous. Her naivity also isn't played up as a flaw either, but it is actually her strong point as it allows her an innocent outlook on life that is willing to accept everyone who is human with no qualms what-so-ever. The art is really good and the sound is good at points, but they also like to play the main characters songs as being more special then anyone elses, including the other students from a music academy of all things.

Have you ever looked forward to something that looks appealing only to be shot down? Have you ever seen a new series not based off anything else where it's simply stand alone and thought it would be good? I had these impressions only to be gunned down at point blank. One does not simply fail to execute new. Yes, I took that gag straight out of Mordor but seriously though. How do you fail to execute a rare or new idea? You make something like this, I myself thought this would have been interesting but was found on the wrong end of the spectrum. Essentially what wehave here are robotic hybrids pummeling non existent creatures while singing extremely poorly. The pacing of the story jumps back and forth too often. It's just another one of those hero super power themes that the average fanboy/fangirl can add to their fantasies. An approach on the story is pretty poor, you get a glimpse of what happens from the beginning as we hear of misfortune and death. This high-tech organization forces artifacts onto young girls so they can transform into these robotic hybrids and fight the evil known as "Noise". That's the rare or new idea but its executed all wrong. The themes from the plot line like friendship and hard times are cooked over done so not even a bit of juice remains. It has a bit of government espionage but that's rubbish and over done as well. Now the art and music are more on the flashy side and distract quite too often, so much that I'm not really paying attention to whats happening. The art style is definitely flashy with the unique transformations that occur throughout scenes. Another thing that distracts me is the horrible English lines that are spat and literally translated so it makes virtually no sense. Stick to the Japanese guys, sorry if we butcher your Japanese but now we know how you feel. Another poor thing to point out would be the singing. Almost each and every one of these girls cannot sing worth a damn and its ear grinding to hear English verses. Now the characters are about generic as you come. The main heroines trying to save the world from evil is definitely not new by and aspect, look at things like Sailor Moon. The characters themselves almost have a shoujo-ai feeling to them and the hints are fairly obvious to anyone into the genre. The manly girl archetype isn't executed at all, they're still women even in their ancient suits of destruction. Not really any special characters that stick out in my mind. Realistically this failed to meet my expectations because I was somewhat looking forward to it. If you like girls beating things to a pulp though you might like it better than I did.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is an odd musical, action anime featuring girls in colorful sci-fi battle suits who must fight against monsters called "Noise" in order to save humanity. In order to use the relics that power their Symphogear suits, the girls must sing certain songs. The different songs they sing give them different powers ranging from charging up their suit to unleashing their strongest attack which has a recoil effect on them when used. Despite a visually promising concert scene in the beginning of the first episode, the story falls to pieces almost immediately. It seems almost as if the organization working with the Symphogear girlsexpected the Noise to attack the concert where the girls were singing in order to revive a powerful relic. So why risk the lives of thousands of eager concert-goers who get caught in the fray when the Noise do show up? This may seem like a minor plot problem (aside from the hundreds of carbonized dead bodies), but similar plot issues like this build up after a while and become difficult to ignore. The two girls, Kanade and Tsubasa, who had been performing then change their songs and begin fighting the Noise in order to save the frantic mass of people who are all scrambling for the exits. However, our main protagonist, Hibiki, gets trapped while trying to get away and ends up getting injured despite the singers' efforts to save her. Since mentioning some things that happen in the first episode would be a spoiler, I'll stop the initial summary there. There are many more problems with the story, but most of them occur with several sudden changes in characters' personalities in addition to the nonsensical ending. The characters in this show get over their anger at others in the most illogical ways ranging from having someone clean their room to just deciding out of nowhere that they should be friends again. The Swan Songs (which are the girls' ultimate attacks) also deal less and less of a self-damaging recoil every time they occur in the anime for some unexplained reason. As for the characters themselves, they are hardly unique at all. Hibiki is basically a weaker and more annoying version of Kaname Madoka who accepts her power a bit faster (they are also both voiced by Aoi Yuki). As for the other main characters, they are a girl who likes to fight alone and dislikes Hibiki for reasons in their past and a tsuntsun girl who has a hard time understanding other people's perspectives of the world. The villain is just an annoying sadist who enjoys being nude and has no appeal aside from her excellent voice actor (who still couldn't save her from being annoying). Being an anime with a heavy focus on music, you would expect a great soundtrack. While this is the strongest category, it's only barely above average. For much of the earlier episodes, the music plays almost non-stop switching from track to track with hardly any break. It got to the point where I was grateful for some of the scenes later on when they finally paused the soundtrack for part of a scene. None of the tracks stood out much either aside from one hard rock track that was used to accompany Yukine's fights. Much of the rest of the music consists of the j-pop/techno combinations used for both the songs sung by the characters' as well as the background music. There were also some problems with the volume of the music/singing when used while characters were speaking at times. Oh, and this anime has some of the worst Engrish I've ever heard to the point where the subbers provided subs for it and even fixed the grammar at some points to make it more understandable. The animation is the most inconsistent category. It looks like a quarter of the entire animation budget for this show was used during the two concert scenes. Compared to these scenes (especially around episode 3 and 4) the animation takes a nosedive. That's not to say it's all bad aside from those two scenes, however there are some moments where a single motionless shot will stay for almost twenty seconds or the animation just looks like a couple gifs pasted on top of each other. There is also one scene where a character is looking down out of a library window and sees two characters in a hospital room, but when you see out of the window from the hospital room, there is no library (or any buildings at all) in sight. Similarly to Evangelion, this anime also reuses the same shots of the main organization's headquarters many times. Story - 3/10 Animation - 5/10 Sound - 6/10 Characters - 3/10 Enjoyment - 3/10 Overall - 4/10 The many faults in this series build up over time and prevent it from being very enjoyable. It's uncreative premise of saving the world from mysterious creatures which has been done much better hundreds of times doesn't allow for much right from the start. The bland characters, mediocre soundtrack despite being a music anime, and the inconsistent animation don't do much to save it either. I recommend skipping this anime and watching something like Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, or Madoka Magica if you want something similar but much better.