Symphogear XV

“Kohinata Miku, you’re my sunshine. I feel warmest when I’m next to you, and I’ll always come back to you. It’s always been that way, and I’m sure that it’ll stay that way.” Symphogear is a series that’s not for everyone. In the words of ANN’s Nick Creamer, it’s “a singing idol mecha yuri romcom battle melodrama with JoJo's sense of irreverence and a lot of fanservice,” and that amalgamation is no doubt going to scare some people off. But considering that this is a review of the show’s fifth season, I’m assuming that everyone reading doesn’t need to be convinced that this combination is actuallythe coolest thing ever. And given that, rather than asking how Symphogear compares to other anime, I think the more important question is how XV stacks up against the other seasons of Symphogear. So then, what are the makings of a good Symphogear season? Through careful research, I’ve narrowed it down to three factors: coolness, escalation, and gayness. As a series, Symphogear is constantly punching past the limits of its internal plausibility, and it gets away with it because it does so confidently and with style. And somehow, it manages to continue to top itself with each consecutive season. And most importantly, it does all this without ever losing sight of its emotional core. I think the best seasons of this show are the ones that have maximized these elements, so let’s see how XV compares. In regards to our first criterion, Symphogear has never been cooler. XV is the final season of this franchise, and the Symphogear Project team didn’t pull any of their punches to make sure that it got the ending it deserved. There's a tangible passion behind every moment; the transformation and fight scenes are the franchise’s best, and basically every other episode was stunning enough to be the finale of a lesser show. What’s more, there’s a lot of fanservice in the form of callbacks to favorite characters from previous seasons, which helps to cement that this really is the end. Managing escalation can be difficult after five seasons. It’s important to continue to raise the stakes so that there’s still tension as to whether our heroes can prevail, but after you’ve already punched God, it’s really hard to do that without moving too far into the realm of abstraction. Fortunately, XV’s writers understand that even when it seems like you’ve reached the top, it’s still possible to escalate past that by changing the focus to more personal conflicts. Like sure, the fate of the world is on the line again this season, but Hibiki is fighting to save something far more important: her wife. Through all of the twists and turns that this series has gone through, the one constant has always been the bond between Hibiki and Miku. Despite that, Miku has far too often been relegated to the sidelines in past seasons, so I’m glad that the final season was created with this relationship at its core. These two have been through too much over the course of this series, and I hope they'll have the chance to be happy together after everything is over. They’re so soft. So Symphogear XV succeeds in all of the criteria I put out at the beginning of what constitutes a good Symphogear, but honestly, those are all arbitrary and don’t really matter. I could spend the rest of my life identifying factors and trying to explain why those are what make Symphogear work, but I think its essence is one that ultimately escapes explanation. It's not a perfect series, but it's one that is always unabashedly itself, and at max volume. It’s brought so much joy to both fans and staff alike, and though I’m sad to see it go, I’m also so happy that it even existed in the first place. Symphogear will always be special.

Now, if you're reading this you're either a Symphogear fan like me or someone completely clueless, wondering "why the hell is this thing rated so high?", "why the hell is this literally nothing anime topping the charts of Summer 2019 for almost every week?". Hell, at the time I'm writing this, it's even in the top #50! ...If you belong to the latter, then this spoiler-free review about the series as a whole is for you! With one of its taglines being something as cool (and dumb) as "Believe in justice and a determination to fist", this show's gotta be good, right? YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT ITIS. It’s got magical girls that kick ass, it’s got catchy as hell songs, it’s got concert choreography better than idol anime (and hell, even better than /real/ concerts), it’s got M A R T I A L A R T S, it’s got toku references, it’s got mechs, it’s got giant monsters, it’s got gay rights AND isn't subtle about any of these! tl;dr WATCH SYMPHOGEAR IT'S GOOD ---- Now, let's go to the basics. What the hell is Symphogear? I'm gonna try to explain it as simple as I can: It's an over-the-top show about magical girls punching the shit out of monsters with mecha fists while singing songs LIVE. Basically it's like if you're watching some hot-blooded shonen anime alongside Precure, Kamen Rider and also Gurren Lagann all at once. If that's still not enough to convince you then I don't know what will. Jokes aside, it's... exactly that. I know that sounds like an abomination of mix-and-matched genres at first, but trust me - Symphogear makes it work in the coolest possible way. Like its main character, God bless her, Symphogear is a show that always punches through its limits, and it does so in such a stylish and confident way that it's hard to not accept it. But that doesn't mean Symphogear is all style and zero substance. No, it's all style AND all substance. Great animation and amazing fight scenes aside, Symphogear is a roller coaster of emotions. I rarely, almost never, get moved to tears while watching stuff, but with Symphogear I've lost count of how many times I've shed tears. Either from the hype, the heartwarming scenes, or the legitimately sad ones... This show punches your heart HARD with a fist full of feels, covering the entire spectrum of emotions that a human being can experience. It's just THAT good. Let's get to the story. The plot is pretty typical - it's not anything groundbreaking, but it's nothing repetitive either. It /is/ dumb, for sure, but in a good way. It is, however, carried by the amazing character writing. I don't wanna spoil anything, obviously, but this show really goes out of its way to make you like every single one of the characters. The character development is also plain to see with each new season, and goddamn does it feel good to see your faves growing up as you continue to watch the show. You will cry with them, you will laugh with them, and you will love them in the end - even characters you thought you wouldn't like at first. Symphogear is pretty heavy on the music theme, and it shows. That said, it also delivers in the music department. I mean, freaking Nana Mizuki sings the openings. This show also has the best use of character songs out of any other anime I've seen in my life. I mentioned this earlier, but the characters sing their songs live during battle. As in, the songs they play aren't pre-recorded! You can hear their voices crack a bit when they take a hit, or you cry tears of hype when one of the girls just freaking screams the lyrics of her character song as she delivers the final blow to an opponent. With such great usage, there's also a variety of genres that the songs come in, each character having a unique one. From Celtic music, to traditional Japanese music, to techno darkwave, there's a lot of variety in here. Not all of them works, obviously, but most of the time they do and it freaking slaps. All five seasons of Symphogear cannot be rated individually, they have to be taken in as a whole. Yes, it's flawed, season 1 especially, but that's the toughest obstacle you have to overcome and power through. It's a slog, sure, but everything beyond it is so, /so/ worth it. Besides, whether something is a flaw or a strength, a curse of a blessing, that just depends on how you view it! But it's undeniably true that Symphogear has a strong message to convey, and it presents that message in such an entertaining and engaging away that it's hard to turn your eyes away from the screen even for a split second. XV is the final season, and while it didn't exactly give me what I wanted, ultimately it was a satisfying journey - one that I highly recommend to other people. If you're a fan of the magical girl genre or shows about Karate Bugmen, then that goes double! Fun fact: The only reason I decided to pick this show up was because a friend of mine promised to give me 60 bucks if I did. But you know what? Symphogear is worth way more than a mere 60 dollars. It's... an experience that just can't be valued in money. It's an amazing experience I urge you all to try.

"Even if that's true" -Hibiki That phrase, every time I hear that damn phrase in hibiki's annoying voice I just wanna take a gun load it with explosive bullets and shoot myself. After torturing myself through 65 episodes it finally comes to an end. It should be obvious I am not a fan of this series. With that said I do think this is the best season yet. However it's still by no means a good series. Throughout all the bs plot devices and cringy twists that they throw at you that seem to come out of nowhere it's hard to find anything good in thisseries. I will say the music is good, and the transformation scenes are amazing to watch and fun as hell. One of the main reasons I did not like this series or any of the series in general is because I knew nothing was gonna happen of importance. The only time I was actually hyped was when hibiki's arm was gonna be bitten off, but then she just regrows another one. Even in this series, Carol's minions make a cameo to help her out, they were just used to stir up hype and be used as fodder for Carol to make it to were she had to be. Many things like this happen throughout the series of convenient bs that just appears outa nowhere. I will say the main reason I liked this season better was because of the villains. This time they weren't overpowered at the start and then through the power of the series ending the main character end up beating them at the end because they need to. They were weak. They were getting whooped by the main characters. When they did lose or win it made sense, and seeing them grow in the series was really fun to watch. Beside that though everything else was still really bad. The plot twists were not exciting everything just felt dull and bland. When it comes to the characters I can't say I like them at all. Especially Hibiki, though I did like Maria and Kirika at the very least. They were all one dimensional, stereotypical, and boring. I don't wanna shit on them to much mainly because I care to little for them anyways to want to do that. In conclusion, there was really nothing of value I found while watching the 65 episodes this series has. There are a few good merits this series has but it was not worth the watch. If you can make it past season one and enjoy it I think you will honestly love this series, so give it a try if you haven't already, you'll either hate it or love it.

The shortest and fastest route, straight ahead!, In a straight line! LA FUCKING LOVES Symphogear and what a way to go out, Game of Thrones' Final Season WISHED it wanted something like this... Senki Zesshou Symphogear's FINAL season and LA is still sad that this series is ending but nonetheless goes out with a bang, righting wrongs from previous seasons, culminating everything from it's previous seasons and tying up loose plotlines in making this final season all the more worth it to this end making it not only LA's favourite anime of Summer 2019 but to this franchise to one the greatest animes of all time (noseriously). See LA only got into the Symphoghear series about 3 years ago when it BARELY known, but quickly over G, LA really got into Symphogear with GX being a stumbling block but still having it's batshit craziness, it wasn't until AXZ that LA was in deep in Symphogear, heck because of it, LA played XD Unlimited (the mobile game and STILL plays to this day) and with XV tying EVERYTHING together while servicing the fans with crazy scenarios that they wanted for YEARS, this final season REALLY drives home how far the Symphogear franchise has gotten to, it's an underrated Fool's Stone but DAMN does it pack a punch when it delivers! Nuff reminiscing, so XV as a final season wraps up everything the previous 4 season culminated in, everything from the Curse of Balal, Tsubasa's family issues, the newly notion of not only Hibiki but Miku being cleansed of the curse and ABLE TO HOUSE THE POWER OF THE GODS because of it and all the while the Symphogear team needs to deal with the remnants of the Bavarian Illumanati, Noble Red. The first thing to note is that Tsubasa's family issues with her grandfather was hinted at multiple times in previous season finally comes into the forefront and we see both a regressions and progression to Tsubasa's character development and it's not to knock it on Tsubasa's regression as it brought up Tsubasa's worries and "duty" over to the forefront as a result, how it was handled was..uhhh aggressive to say the least. The entire deal with Hibiki and Miku being cleansed with the Curse of Balal after Tsubasa's arc (though they are both in tandem with each other) afterwards becomes the central focus and MAN does the plot twist it gives us changes everything about Hibiki's mantra of "to the fastest route, in a straight line" with how complicated Hibiki's arc gets, it's still something fans wanted, just not in the way they wanted but nonetheless. The Curse of Balal or more or less get full world building from what was hinted at in the first season and obviously becomes a HUGE plot point latter on. The only character that really didn't get character development this season was Chris and LA thinks it's mostly because her arc was already resolved in AXZ and this season wanted to tackle the rest of the cast that still had lingering plotlines and yes Chris IS still LA's faovurite character from the series and her not getting enough screentime is COMPLETELY ok, considering how batshit crazy this season gets with it's cliffhangers and plot twists, THOSE sufficed. Now for the villains for this final season, well we have Noble Red, three Alchemists wanting to get their human bodies back and their under the command or a certain bastard father....yeah Tsubasa's father Fudou hired them. Now Noble Red themselves aren't exactly "noble" as they are actually weaker than MOST of the series villains and thus they use trickery and deception in their fights, the worst example being Millaarc voiced by Aimi Terakawa and she HEAVILY gives Tsubasa Cerberus Syndrome as a result of her presences, like Millaarc is an interesting villain, LA just didn't like her tactics. Elsa voiced by Kana Ichinose and Vanessa voiced by M.A.O were cool and were nice contrast to Caglistro and Saint-Germain from AXZ though out of the three, LA liked Vanessa the most. Fudou's purpose was the conflict and regress Tsubasa as a character but also the pinnacle of resolving the entire issue with Tsubasa's crazy family dealings, LA hated the asshole let alone his plans were wonky as hell in his extremist nationalist ideals and to this end, he was probably worse of a villain than Adam was, maybe the worst villain of the series, heck even Dr. Ver had SOME sense of dignity. Now for the "final boss", well without spoilers, it's actually the perfect wall for Hibiki to NOT be able to punch through let alone the final boss brings in plot elements from not only previous seasons but gives the leeway for other underdeveloped main characters to the forefront, mainly Maria , the aforementioned Tsubasa and Fudou who set it all up and Hibiki (since her involvement was slimmed down from AXZ, fighting NOT withstanding). But much like the Bavarian Illumanati, Noble Red for the most part were a nice dragon to the ACTUAL final boss as well as their notions of wanting to be human...Millaarc....ehhh she was fine. Plot twists, man to say that they brought plot elements back and MADE IT AMAZING for this season is an understatement and LA mainly says this for GX, since even LA had problem with that season but XV remedied it as well as the previous seasons (G for it's moon, AXZ with somehow bring back Saint-Germain and the first season with the Curse of Balal to be brought in more detail) in the most batshit crazy Symphogear way possible. GX got most of the redeeming treatment, from Carol, the Autoscorers and heck they even brought back Hibiki's father and actually showed that he's developed out of his asshole father phase and he started being a father to Hibiki!, the rest of the seasons more or less got cameos and callbacks and everyone of them were gloriously done. Nonetheless like SYmphogear's style with plot twists and cliffhangers, THEY DO MAKE sense and only drives the plot to even crazier and crazier scenarios. The callbacks don't even feel like it was pandering to us, as it was more like they wanted to give what the fans wanted all the while solidifying and making the story better in being just Symphogear. LA says this as they DO gives us what the fans what they want, but Symphogear does it in the most awesome but blindsided way possible while giving it that Symphogear flair to it. The plot twists and callbacks were fucking amazingly done. The animation once again done by Satelight is GODLY to say the least, everything from it's addrenaline-music-fueled fight scenes the updated character designs, it being even more bloodier than before and in the backgrounding even. Seriously Satelight gave it their own with XV, even to the point LA seeing this rivaling David Productions' Jojo works or a Bones work. Yes there are the few rare derps but once again it just can't compared to the heart and soul the animation was taken overall...it is seriously GODLY animation, excellent work Satelight. LA KNEW you'd obviously could do it and for a last hooray for the series, even better. Voice acting?, well does LA REALLY need to say?, well give Aoi Yuuki the MVP of the season and LA's favourite seiyuu of Summer 2019, with her focused and honed shouting, Nana Mizuki gets an standing ovation with her much more dramatic tone as Tsubasa and let alone her singing the OP Metanoia, just DAMN, Yoko Hikasa as Maria as result of Tsubasa's arc get something similar to Nana Mizuki and heck even Yuka Iguchi gets to show her multiple cadences thanks to the huge plot twist of the season and man it shows in this season even more so. Another standout is Misaki Kuno as Elfnein and Inori Minase as Carol gets her time to shine as well. Add in Yoshino Nanjo and Ai Kayano as Shirabe and Kirika on comedic relief duty and they both still have great cadences (especially Ai Kayano). Hell add in Noble Red's voice actresses of M.A.O, Kana Ichinose and Aimi as Vanessa, Elsa and Millaarc all have their major strengths, form Aimi really reveling in her smug genki-ish cadence to M.A.O being really moe even as a villain to Kana Ichinose being the calm and collected sisters to Elsa and Millaarc while also having that trickster cadences coming through to Vanessa as a character. Seriously much like it's animation, the voice cast just gets even better to GODLY status. And yes on speaking of the OP, the OP was great and easily took LA's favourite OP of Summer 2019 and maybe for the year, showing off it's the final season. To the ending being an impactful farewell sung by Ayahi Takagaki. THIS IS SYMPHOGEAR so it's a no brainer that LA would gush about the OST and most if not all the insert songs and music in Symphogear was GOD tier with Nana Mizuki and Ayahi Takagaki as always making both OP and ED's GODLY. Essentially if you want Aoi Yuuki, Yoko Hikasa, Nana Mizuki, Ayahi Takagaki, Ai Kayano, Yoshino Nanjo, Yuka Iguchi and Inori Minase singing their bloody hearts out while fighting let alone the awesome OST from their discography added along with the singing. Symphogear is GOD Tier anime music. To say that the majority of this season gives us cliffhangers upon cliffhangers as well as situations that becomes REALLY hard to get back to normal, great resolutions to the majority of the casts that also callbacks to the previous seasons and even giving us one the largest plotlines to rest, Symphogear XV is at it's best to say the least especially for a "Final Season" and for going out like a bang that it did, the moniker as "Final Season" is apt and impactful. The finale, well AXZ's was great in impact and foreshadowing, while GX and G's was it in scale, but XV?, well...it brought the small scale, but large impact of AXZ while bringing in the absurdity of G and GX's final fights all into one AND THEN they went over to an eleven heck TWENTY with it's finale, this finale was utterly glorious and stands for what Symphogear is, if there is anything Symphogear does right it's is climactic final fights and finales in general and this finale definitely delivered in all it's glory! Too say that Symphogear finished that way or not, LA IS sad that Symphogear is finishing but it needs to end to make this finale last, instead of going on forever so LA sees that sentiment and by all means XV went ALL out this season if LA's praying to the Custodians instead proof enough. But what a way to go, from that little anime about mecha girls beating the crap out of Noises with plenty of melodrama, into an anime where mecha girls beat the crap out of a power hungry corrupt GOD with Sentai references. Symphogear as a franchise was just a rollercoaster of a ride in ALL forms of batshit adrenaline pumping awesomeness and craziness is just an understatement but LA said this in LA's Jojo's Part 5 anime review, but Symphogear is one of the current animes to achieve the status of being one of the animes that was utterly jawdropping and stunned and just constantly wanting and waiting for more episodes, heck not only that but Symphogear's discography were such earworms they even became a staple in LA's daily life in listening to the Openings and endings (and some of the batshit crazy battles) on a daily basis (no seriously). Symphogear may be ending but as LA said again...no matter what, Symphogear was a bloody great, no GODLY anime. Maybe a movie but if Symphogear ends here LA is wholly, far exceedingly satisfied with XV nonetheless. Symphogear is anime, Symphogear is music itself, Symphogear is life, Symphogear is GOD...LA is gonna fucking miss ya... Croitzal ronzell Gungnir zizzl Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri Tron Killiter Ichaival tron Granzizel Bilfen Gungnir zizzl Seilien coffin Airgetlam tron Seiwoss Igalima Lyzen Tron Fallian Shul Shagana tron Rei Shenshoujing rei zizzl "The power to kill God exists within this hand that holds others."