Reviews for Symphogear

If you hate inconsistencies, stupid plot devices, a horribly flawed setting, and poor characterization, the first season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear is your worst nightmare. The opening episode is deceptively good. We see a concert that's animated brilliantly, and it lays out a high-stake story; we witness Kanade die in the past, and Miku crying over Hibiki's grave in the future. This image the anime painted itself in the first episode is one of the greatest deceptions I've witnessed in any form of media. After the first episode, the animation quality drops dramatically. Epitomizing this is a scene as early as episode 3 where Tsubasa is walkingalong the corridor with her manager, which looks like a GIF pasted on top of a moving background. It's obvious that most of the animation time went to the first episode, leaving them to cut back as much as they could throughout the rest of the series. In fairness, the consistency of the animation recovered in the second half, and it did not detract from the finale.

The soundtrack is quite enjoyable, and goes some way to make up for the animation. The songs they sing as they fight are solid and it can bring an atmosphere to fights that is otherwise missing. The Opening is fine and fits the series very well, but I personally preferred the ED, "Meteor Light" by Takagaki Ayahi. It took a while for it to grow on me, but it's a track that sounds dark and traumatic, which fits the atmosphere the series and the character it represents.

The characterization of the protagonists is done poorly, and their development is haphazard and oftentimes bizarre. There's an instance where a character hates another one so much she's tried to kill her, but her hate is instantly forgotten when the other character points out that her room is messy. However, whilst the protagonist is annoying, the majority of the cast are actually likeable, particularly as the series finds its identity along the way.

Unsurprisingly, the plot is also lacking. It's a very simple, the one plot twist the series has is so obvious that you can identify it 5 episode before. The simplicity works for Symphogear though, as it manages to avoid being too disastrous throughout most the series. However, in the final few episodes, the tone and scope of the story go beyond previous proportion to such a ridiculous extent that you will be blindsided. In hindsight of later series, this ridiculousness becomes a strength of the franchise, but in this first season where the expectations of a more serious and gritty tone have been set, this causes straight up whiplash.

The setting is also so tremendously flawed that whilst you can happily ignore it if you so wish, even minor probing will expose questions to which there are no answers. For example, with the frequent attacks by the Noise, which you cannot defend yourself against and kill everyone in the areas they attack, why do people go outside so casually? Much as I like the outdoors, I can't hep but think that I like living more. Also, much as I love my current house, if there was constantly the threat of death, I think I'd move.

With this all in mind, this is a very bad first season. However, there is one thing that works in Symphogear's favour that saves it from the worst, and that is that it's earnest in it's stupidity. Whilst at the beginning it has pretensions of being taken seriously, by the end all pretention is lost, which means it is very hard to hate. The characters that I hated at the start of the series grew on me, to the point I liked almost all of them. Take the girl who's lines almost solely consist of failed meta-comedy attempts like "If this were an anime" which infuriated me at the start, towards the end I almost found her habits endearing.

It's a strange quality of an anime like Symphogear, which whilst terrible, is still enjoyable to the extent where I looked forward to the last few episodes. I wanted to see if the episodes could outdo themselves in their silliness, but more importantly, in their fun. In future seasons, the franchise found it's identity as a ridiculous tongue-in-cheek show, with plenty of characters to root for. It's a shame that the first entry so badly mistook the tone it should be going for.

So, if you are happy to ignore all that is wrong with this anime, then you will be able to enjoy it. Despite the amount that is wrong with this, it's all surprisingly easy to ignore. However, if you cannot ignore the technical details in anime then avoid this like the plague, unless you wish to see how badly executed an anime can be.

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..

What a mind-blowing anime. Every bit of goodness packed in about 30 minutes of futuristic action packed visuals, eardrum blowing sound and a story that, so far looks to be heading to the right direction for one of the most viewed, most popular, eyes popping anime of the year. Fanboys rejoice, even though its only the first episode thats currently out I can already tell that this is chuck full with allot of emotions that will make you cry both for tears of joy and sadness (I had water in my eyes throughout the whole episode). The gods of anime have answered my prays anddelivered to us his blessing with Senki Zesshou Symphogear.

Not to give too much away. The story is revolved around Hibiki Tachibana who was to go with her best friend Miku Kohinata that couldn't make it to their first live concert to witness "Twei Wing" (the popular vocal group as written in the description) only to have the concert attacked by creatures called Noise. During the attack the group Twei Wing two members Tsubasa and Kanade transformed into their battle gear called 'Symphogear' to defeat and protect the people from "Noise" only to have something go terribly wrong (watch the anime to know what happens).

Story thus far- 8/10 stating a flawless anime right away is just not in me)

Art- 10/10 (the transformations are freaking awesome)

Sound- 10/10 (turn those sub-woofers up)

Characters- 10/10 (it just started and they just lovable) no haters on board this bus

End note

If you love anime allot and don't watch this gtfo (just kidding this is a must see and a great series to open your year with

If your new to anime I recommend this hands down two thumbs and big toes crossed.

you'll not regret you picked this up

I'll be honest, this is probably what I've been most psyched for this season besides Nisemonogatari and I'll tell you why. Magical Girl meets Gundam meets The World Ends With You. Okay so maybe the ties to TWEWY are in the enemy designation only, (They're called Noise in case you hadn't guessed) but I stand by Magical Girl Gundam, even if I wasn't sure of the comparison at the beginning of the show, by the end with that 3rd transformation sequence, I was more than convinced as the parts for her suit grew out of her body. The show starts off with a flash forward, before coming backinto the present within the first 5 minutes, before skipping time again by I'd say a few months, weeks at the least. It took a while, but at least by this point the pace settles nicely.

I don't want to say too much, because I don't like spoiling stuff, but Symphogear is quite an amazing piece of tv deliciousness even if it isn't even nearly the best thing out there. Its stylistic, almost to the point of Shaftyness without the Shaft, fight scenes are well choreographed, the dubbing is done with an amazing grace (Although there is one point where Hibiki is running and her strained breathing sounds entirely too fake) and the musical jams that pop up every now and then brought a smile to my face.

At the end of the day this is only an episode 1 impression and by the end of it my tune might have changed almost entirely, but for now I say give Senki Zesshou Symphogear a shot, a this point, you won't be disappointed, except with how much of a cocktease the damn thing is.

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.

Despite a weak start and a weak team of writers, Symphogear still manages to be somewhat enjoyable if just for the absurdity of it all. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to deliver the type of dark story we are shown in the first episode, rather the show is riddled with Dues Ex Machinas and plot holes. The characters and their backgrounds are written at a barely passable quality, but fortunately this seems to get better as the show goes on (except for the background characters who remain terrible the entire show). Fortunately I found the music, gear design and battle scenes made up for the rest of theweakness - the songs are beautiful (especially in the last episode) and full of energy and the Symphogear units remain fun to watch the entire time.

If you're willing to let the poor writing slide and enjoy the show for it's good qualities you'll find it enjoyable. On the other hand if plot holes, flat characters and contrived backstories are a pet peeve of yours you will probably want to avoid the show.

The amazingly ridiculous, absurd battles in the last three episodes made the entire show worth it for me in the end.

It is said that there are seven wonders in this world, but the eighth and most important one that is often forgotten is a series that from start to finish is just a feel-good brain-off hype-fest. I dunno why all the other scores for this show are so low or what kind of no-nonsense all-business attitudes people had while watching this air, but holy crap are you missing out on a fun time if you judge this based on conventional merits. Let me give you a few tips about watching Symphogear: 1. Get a drink. not a hardcore drink. Nothing with vodka. Just throw some peppermint schnoppsinto a smoothie. Or grab a hard cider. Just make sure it's fruity or sugary and that it tastes good.

2. Set up a BIG SCREEN. Get a projector, or a massive flat-screen TV. Make sure this thing covers an entire wall.

3. Turn UP the volume. Don't worry about your ears, they'll be dead soon anyways with the way our generation listens to music. Within a minute you won't care about the pounding pressure on your eardrums because the singing from the first scene will be like an enchanting siren luring you away from the confines of reality.

4. Don't stop to think about anything unless that thought is incredibly stupid.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear, a title I just shamelessly crl+c'd from the top of this page, is one of the absolutely dumbest shows out there. The show has about 3000 different tones crammed into each episode, the characters spew incomprehensible muddled philosophy and nonsense from long-forgotten action movies, the plot was seemingly written by the same guy who spearheaded Mars of Destruction, and the direction can't decide if this is an idol show or a horror movie. However, in spite of all this, Symphogear is not bad. Yes, you heard me, SYMPHOGEAR IS A GOOD SHOW, because what Symphogear is is fun, and fun is good. There is only one way to watch a show like this: to throw yourself into it completely, to get wildly over-invested in the petty drama and bullshit character turns. You can't half-ass it. I repeat, you CANNOT HALF-ASS THIS SHOW. You cannot wait for it to come to you, to entertain you through your one-in headphone and half-closed eyes. You must cast yourself into the ABYSS, and there you will discover new, nonsensical truths, such as the truth that Hibiki is in fact a Bear Grylls-Ghandi hybrid and a fucking BEAST or the truth that MY GIRL MIKU has all of the chaotic emotional complexity of an especially tormented FAULKNER PROTAGONIST and that she will go down in history as a LEGEND and a TRIUMPH over the darkness of human nature.

It's actually a very difficult thing to achieve, to hit the 'so stupid and nonsensical that it's hilarious' button while also holding down the 'actually care about the characters' lever, but I believe that the key lies in a couple of rather important choices Symphogear makes. First of all, it's not ALL stupid. It doesn't reinvent itself every episode or try to just spam random for kicks. It tries to stick to a central story and some cohesive character arcs that it takes very seriously, and it's the fact that Symphogear is actually tied together by something earnest and traditional that makes all of its dumb, off-the-wall moments so much more effective. Its shockingly out-of-place side plots ARE actually out of place, which makes them MUCH funnier, and the fact that it doesn't take things to the very extremes of "wtf" TOO often means that when it does, it's a golden chocolate treat rather than an overused device. There's an ample amount of petty melodrama in the show that keeps the overarching plot from ever being the backbone the series is resting on, which is very much a good thing. Also, the fact that the show saves all of its biggest cards for the end means that it has a legitimate build with an insane payoff, and you'll likely find yourself cheering and screaming at the screen all at once for the last four episodes straight if you're watching the show properly (as described above.) Finally though, Symphogear's greatest asset is simple and easy: clean, honest positivity. The show never gets nasty or negative, nor does it descend into the world of cheap gimmicks like questionable fan-service or out-of-nowhere dark twists. In an era polluted by cynicism, Symphogear just wants to have a good time with the characters that it loves so dearly, and THAT is invaluable.

So, yeah. Don't listen to the haters. Don't worry about the details. Just jump around, yell at the screen, and aggressively cheer for Chris. This show has no deep message or profound moments or original plot devices.

It just wants to see you grinning like an idiot.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is an anime surrounded by music by Nana Mizuki (not only her, but a large part is). I gave an overall score of 8, which could come from my love for the music of Nana Mizuki, but I do believe there are serious flaws in this anime. Story: The story is the main flaw in Senki Zesshou Symphogear. I actually am impressed that they made an anime of 13 episodes which doesn't feel rushed even though quite some things happen. But the "why" in why are things happening is explained but when you hear it, it's kind of lame. Though the concept aroundthe "true reason" is actually nice. I believe they should have made is 26 episodes and not 13, this way they could have made the plot better.

Art:

The art is not especially impressive, but (and I'm trying not to spoil here) the art while fighting is different and I like it =) Though understand that while I'm saying that the art is not especially impressive, it's just that the art is at a level that I've come to expect and hope from anime. The series is well animated.

Sound:

Well, you've got me there. Nana Mizuki for the win! But seriously, the music is good and it gives something extra to certain scenes. They re-use songs in the anime, but what I also noticed is that some songs actually represent the growth in the characters. So besides the fact that I just like this kind of music, it was also very well chosen.

Characters:

Surprisingly for an anime with only 13 episodes, the characters go through quite some growth without feeling rushed. The feelings they portray are also quite understandable and when you think how you would feel in that person's place, you usually come to the conclusion you would probably feel the same (well, at least a part. I will never end up in the situations they end up in).

Enjoyment:

For some brainless entertainment with good music, I say yes I enjoyed it quite a lot. I found myself craving for the next episode because I just wanted to know how it would go on, but constantly had to wait another week.

Overall:

Like i mentioned before, for some brainless entertainment with good music and without too much going on that you won't understand: it's good. I suppose you have to like this kind of anime, but if you do you will enjoy it. If you want an anime that's very wel thought through, with an in depth story line: this is not your anime. Since I like to have some easier animes once in a while, I enjoyed it quite a lot and perhaps even rewatch it sometime. Even though the rewatch value is quite low, as you will understand after the last episode. ;)

Well that was my opinion on Senki Zesshou Symphogear, hope it helped =)

cheers!

Ok, nothing personal this is just me, as of episode 3, I've decided to drop this anime. This is because, I find the combination of the following genres; action, fantasy, magical girl, music and sci-fi doesn't seem to be properly combined, in fact the genres seem to cancel out each other, this thing can be compared to a good movie being turned into some sissy musical stage theatrics. Ok, so there other animes that do feature songs and actions in them, true, co'z in those animes the musical is not the main genre, here on the other hand the main genres sci-fi and musical seemto don't mix at all. So for the story, I give it a "Fair" number 6, since the sci-fi genre could have made this anime good, but combined with the musical genre and magical girl actually puts the story down.

Art: Mediocre number 5.

Don't ask, I always rate it like that.

Sound: Poor number 3.

Co'z I don't like any of the songs and it inculdes both the opening and closing.

Character: Decent number 4.

I much rather prefer to see Hibiki and Tsubasa fighting those Noise things, than have them singing while fighting them Noise.

Enjoyment and Overall: Poor number 3.

I just don't like the poorly combined musical and sci-fi things that goes with this anime.

By the way, in most anime/manga social sites the sci-fi genre is inculded for this anime. So, if any of you have any fuss about me putting the sci-fi thing here, then I suggest that you guys go and deal with those other anime/manga social sites.

PS: This is just me, if you dawgs like this anime, then you like it and that's that.

OK this is my 1st review so it's going to be really short,so let's get started. Right so you may have looked at the season anime list this year and saw this particular one and though to yourself 'hey cute girls wearing sexy Armour that's pointless cause almost 70% of the body is bare but the sword their holding is awesome' right? So you wait for the 1st to debut. So you watch the 1st episode and if you can tell a crappy anime by from just watching the 1st 5 minutes like me, you high expectations are dropped really low. Basically what you got isGundam meet's magical girls....or so you thought. What really get's under my skin about this anime is that not that's it cliche, but the singing while their fighting. SO instead of Gundam meet;s magical girls, you get K-On meet's Infinte Stratos with a dash of Mega Man Starforce 3.

Story-6- Aliens or some mystical being's called noise (rip off from Mega Man Star force) randomly kill people for no reason and the only way to defend yourself against these monsters is sing, have faith and armor will randomly manifest from your body 0.o.

Art-8- as always the seasonl anime art is very good and i was impressed :). BUT! that's the only thing good about this anime and that's not even much.

Sound-4- sounds like wanting to shove a fork through my eardrums. The singing while fighting is probably the reason why i dropped this (no seriously the have to sing to power up....)

Character-4- cliche female protagonist, nothing special, not even bothering.

Enjoyment-1- pathetic, i tried my best to enjoy this piece of crap but couldn't.

So yeah, this anime at the very least is not what your going to expect period. Whether if ou expected to be good or bad. But when you try to mix moe and action, will singing and fighting you get a epic fail. Dont watch this.... unless your horny.

A hidden gem that shines tremendously bright. Symphogear is pretty much the best Anime I have seen to date, and my immediate pick when asked for an absolute favorite. There are simply so many things done so well, I couldn't hope to cover even half talking for days on end. The show feels powerful to watch, and was absolutely mesmerizing when turned on for the very first time. It genuinely blew me away so far and so fast, it'll be a very tough act to follow. And yet, it does, 4 more times. ---- Symphogear has a good plot, but it doesn't spell out the conflict immediately, and insteadprepares what may appear to be unrelated story elements. It does take a little while before the villains, Finé and Chris, are properly introduced, until which point the B plot is focused on a lot more. Said B plot is still good, but being primarily non-combat-performance segments there isn't much opportunity to use the precise style that make the rest of Symphogear so exceptional. I would say, though, that this hesitance to get going pays off, as it allows for the escalation in the last act to have a much bigger payoff. At the same time, the elements i mentioned being setup each have a logical purpose in the climax, making for very satisfying viewing.

As for characters, there are each written very well. A great part of this is because, I'm led to believe, the central few take inspiration from their actual VAs, most notably Tsubasa and Hibiki. Such a technique isn't too common, but it does work nicely toward making the characters and their actions feel realistic. These two, along with Hibiki's companion Miku and the already mentioned Chris form the most integral characters, and they are given enough time to establish arcs, as well as all to reach toward the same conclusion, which is paced very well, especially as they coincide with the culmination of the plot.

The side characters are also really fun. They're given a lot less screentime, but use it well. Commander Genjuuro in particular is a charm to watch, and he thankfully gets expanded on a lot more in later seasons. Yumi, another of Hibiki's friends, also makes for decent comic relief, and even gets a small joke arc of her own near the end. The final villain Finé is perhaps the weakest significant character, and the large bulk of her defining moments come later in the series.

----

Then, there is Symphogear's greatest asset: the music. It's absolutely godlike, to put it mildly. The only place I've been able to find a better soundtrack is the sequels. Symphogear unveils a new song almost every episode, and the talent behind them is incredible. Each character has a distinct and easily recalled theme, that not only synchronizes with their fighting style but actually represents it. Not only that, but the singing, all expert of course, is integrated really well by being fully diegetic. The VAs stumble a lyric when their characters fall, and just scream the line when performing a powerful move. It manages to fully realise the logistics of singing while fighting and make it believable that the music exists in-universe. And that's not even addressing the OP and ED, a pair of songs that fit the show perfectly and are excellent themselves to boot.

Regretfully, Symphogear has rather sub-par art and animation. I've always attested these are the least important aspects to an Anime, despite the name, and considering how good Symphogear is in all other areas I'm only reinforced of this thought. Nevertheless, I should cover it. While the designs of the characters and especially the Symphogears themselves are really good, they are best seen in the artstyle of the sequels. Critical scenes do maintain reasonable animation, and despite the sparse lighting there are a lot of good set designs.

Which segues of course into the world design. There are a surprising amount of superstructures in Symphogear, and far more show up on the sequels. They do look pretty good, and are distinct enough to be easily recognisable. The Noise are a mixed bag, as I thought the designs of the most common Noise were great, but some of the larger, rarer types I didn't too much of a shine to. Their abilities were very unique, however, making them a suddenly much more formidable force. That just about leaves the lore of the Relics and Symphogears themselves, and as something of a mythology buff I can attest that research was done. The abilities and forms some take match the stories behind them, and others are creatively re-imagined.

I'd also want to take a moment to mention the stylisation of the combat. Most noticeably is the use of showing the attack name on screen rather than shouting it out. After all, it would interrupt the song. Every character has their own individual font, audio cue and naming convention, not to mention a unique way of using their weapons. Just flashing the name long enough to read it is a very good way of keeping the flow of a fight intact while still giving the intended impact to powerful moves, and something that I'd like to see other series do more often. The pacing is also absolutely exquisite. Tying each battle to a song makes a lot of sense, as the structure of verse and chorus translates surprising effectively. It prevents anything from being too drawn out, and makes an unexpectedly good tracker of when a character is gearing up for a powerful move just from where they are in their lyrics.

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And that's the crux, I think. Singing and fighting go together far better than anyone would think, and bringing them together along with fun characters, a great world, lots of style and making sure that said fighting and singing is just a sight, or rather sound, to behold, makes a show that's as close to perfect as can be.

I would absolutely, in case it wasn't profusely obvious already, recommend Symphogear.

Fellow anime connoisseurs,earlier this year we were graced by a torrent of new anime like Aquarion Evol or Guilty Crown though the latter had its obvious weaknesses I agree that it was worthwhile watching,However this is not the case for all of this season's new anime namely Zesshou Symphogear'whats bad about it wasn't the 'Noise' (and no im not talking about the monsters, im talking about the 'Noise' that the characters call singing.)or the fact that the main character is a mutated pikachu with the depth of a sheet of paper nor the fact that the best character died a martyr to save this lowly abomination from the apparentlyREAL"Noise".

No no no the problem lies when all of these elements combine into a thirteen episode animation,then eagerly advertised to us,anime enthusiasts

only to totally annihilate those high expectations we built up for it.I no longer acknowledge Symphogear as anime,for doing so is

an insult to anime itself.

Story:1

The Story very inconsistent though this normally doesn't matter for the earlier episodes where it usually builds up suspense,

the problem is that those inconsistencies don't get resolved either, Like why didn't Tsubasa die when she sung her swan song?

this is probably what the writers were thinking:"Tsubasa gets the high ratings,Screw the story we can't kill her off"

im sure everyone else is trying to be politically correct by giving it a three or four out of pity but I'm giving it a one because 'Pathetic'

is the perfect adjective to this story.

Art/Setting:4

I will admit Tsubasas gears (despite the training wheels on the back)is designed well and the cityscape as well,take the concert hall,it looks awesome but on

closer examination I think the only reason the crowd is getting excited is for the constant Tsubasa Up-skirt throughout the concert...

But thats ok,so the architecture is bad,the art is still OK right?

N.O. they spent their entire design budget on Tsubasa and the concert hall,just look the commander hes an part Irish part Zimbabwean part Japanese dude,they basically

used 'Paint'(the Application) to draw him.

Sound:1

IM TIRED OF LISTENING TO YOUR DAMN SONG!and the transformation sequences - un en iwe an en we tuo...are you sure

that's still Japanese?Like I think it would make a lot more sense to say:"I will Digivolve too!".

Character:2

I said before that Hibiki had the depth of a sheet of paper,well if you put the entire cast together, you will have a small stack of printer paper about 2mm

in total depth.

I mean how much do you know about each individual character,Lets take Yukine Chris because we haven't mentioned her yet-

Chris's past is a series of unfortunate events,Her parents died so she stole and eventually turned to terrorism.THE END.

wow so complex*cough*.

Enjoyment:1

I was actually forced through this anime,one of my friends forced me to watch this on a weekly basis,im serious he was like-"I know where you live,so you better

watch it"so partly because of that I didn't enjoy this abomination too much.

That said this anime was an Abomination with or without my friends help,it helped me define the new limits of bad in the anime world.

whenever my friend gives me anime I would ask:"is it better than Symphogear?"

Symphogear is simply that bad.

Overall:I actually want to give this a negative score because I want my 6.5 hours I spent on this anime back, but since I can only give it a one as a minimum

the anime got off easy.

Quite frankly from an economic students point of view this anime should be classed as a "demerit good"in that it is detrimental to society itself,in fact one day

im sure it will replace that atomic bomb as a new weapon of mass destruction.I Loath it ,I Hate it ,I Pity it for becoming so deformed.

To my patient anime brethren I bid you adieu for I will see to it that 'Senki Zesshou Symphogear' Burns in Hell.

As me not being a big fan of animes like Senki Zesshou Symphgear I never expected I'll watch it or even like it but it became one of the exeptions that I end up enjoying. At the start I thought this anime was going to be like all of those generic magical/sci-fi fighter girl animes. When I saw the summary I thought "Hmm they sing and fight this is a silly plot, I may try it though. I don't realy have allot of animes to watch this season ." Then I learned that Nana Mizuki(wich is one of my favorite singers) willbe one of the VA's I decided to check it out since it won't be that bad if she is perfectly matched with her character.

It turned to be better than I originaly expected. The songs were perfectly matched with the fight scenes and characters. It also didn't have those long a*s(couldn't find a better expression) transformantion scenes wich show EVERY SINGLE CURVE(not that I hate it, it's kind of annoying and embarrasing to watch) of the body while transfering to the next piece of clothing they kept them short and relatively fast. They decided to bet more on the songs than fanservice wich magical/sci-fi fighter gril animes have. Aoi Yuuki and Ayahi Takagaki aren't as good singers as Nana Mizuki they still had enjoyable songs for their characters.

Thanks to those things the stuff I was able to ignore the generic elements that made up the rest of the anime like monsters and big baddies. Personaly I think they should have concentrated more on the reason they need to be kept secret and the quarrels with America but then they would have needed more episodes. It ended like every other anime like it though with a big monster bad guy.

The main characters were realy likeable but the personalities are not that unique. Miku felt like the producers were trolling and thinking "Kekeke! We will make you think that we will develop her more but that won't happen!" Genjirou was a badass but get's a bit overdramatic and felt like he is here only to add some diversity from the all girl fighter atmosphere. The other supporting characters were realy annoying I'm glad they didn't give a bigger role than they already had.

Overral a realy enjoyable anime despite the major flaws that magical/sci-fi fighter girl types make me ususaly stray from them.

PS: This is my first review and since English isn't my mother's language I may have spelling gramatical mistakes and typos.

Well, Senki Zesshou Symphogear is one of the first anime to begin airing in 2012. A good head-start to gain fans' attention. This anime can combine two different anime fields : shojo with music and shonen with battle and mecha. This makes the whole anime became Divine Intervention The story is scored A, thanks to radically different story compared to any other anime. All anime have their unique stories, but this anime featuring music and battle simultaneously instead of mere music competition. This item makes the SZS anime stands out compared to any other anime as an intersection of battle anime and music anime. Whole animethemselves is already radically different from any similar anime.

The story swings from fighting against enemy (creep in DotA) then internal conflict. After the conflict resolved, encountering the real boss and case closed. All this in 13 episodes, less than adequate for the whole three major arcs while normally three major arcs will require two periods (one period == one season).

Art is rated as A. Nothing much different from any other mecha anime. The design is somewhere a mixture of futuristic and present design. All futuristic anime usually discard the present technology, saving spaces for hi-tech which is included in the far future sub-chapter or even not written in "Physics of the Future" book written by Michio Kaku. This balances the penalty given in the fields of character design due to overly standard.

The armor is quite similar to Infinite Stratos with minimum torso protection and good extremities protection while differs only in size and capability. With this armor, it should be easy to re-draw the characters (excluding the other class of armor which provides extra armor).

One can easily distinguish the differences between concert scene and street pursuit scene from the side of animation itself. The concert scene (only twice in whole anime) is very well-drawn, almost divine intervention. On other hand, the street pursuit scene is very similar to almost identical to GTA San Andreas-era video game. Those two aspects are offsetting each other with advantage in the concert which is the main theme for the anime.

Sound is rated A. Guaranteed by Elements Garden and Nana Mizuki, Synchrogazer stands out a lot for any other anime Opening track. The other songs featured varies in type, from upbeat in 'Gyakkou no Flugel' or something likely to an aria song which is the Zesshou.

Other songs also gained high value because of the interest of those song (proven by high traffic in my blog for those entries). Say like 'FLIGHT FEATHERS' by Nana Mizuki and 'Tsunaida Te Dake ga Tsumugu Mono' by Ayahi Takagaki that is very well-sung.

Characters is rated A due to the standard design. Play it safe, S.S.D.D.. On the one hand, there is a characters dead early in the anime which can be a severe penalty. This penalty is offset by further development which result in more or less idealistic characters.

Enjoyment is also rated A. Nothing much to be commented except the elegant battle. In some parts, there are yuri scene which can raise the score for enjoyment or reduce, depends on how one sees yuri scene. This enjoyment is also offset by partial nudity and NSFW (for some countries) battle dress.

*Review contains minor spoilers, nothing major, but proceed at your own caution.* Senki Zesshou Symphogear... I've never been so happy to have accidentally stumbled upon an anime in my life. Also, I will be speaking mainly of this anime, but I will be mentioning the following 2 seasons as well. Now, before we get going, I'd like to make it clear that this anime is nowhere near perfect. It most definitely has it's flaws, some bad animation here, some poor plot choices there, plot armor galore over yonder, I could go on. But that doesn't change the fact that this anime does one thing, and it doesit incredibly well:

FUN.

When a lot of people complain about Symphogear, I always see that they seem to take it too seriously. With that, I tell you, that you should watch this anime for pure, unadulterated, fun, explosions, and a kickass soundtrack that you're probably going to be wanting to locate and download. Which I have. All of it. So good.

Anyways, on to the actual review.

Story:

It's certainly not a bad story, there are worse ones out there, however you will see that it's rather cliche once you start getting a few episodes in. One of the worst parts about Symphogear, is it's rather cliche story, and this applies to the following seasons as well, since they all follow the same rough format that season 1 does. However, while looking at it by me saying that, it may seem rather uhh... "meh". But, I should also mention, that Symphogear KNOWS that it's bad. It knows that it's cliche, and it uses that to it's advantage. Yes, it's a cookie cutter that was built out of the body of season 1, and yes, seasons 2 and 3 were made with that exact same cookie cutter, but DAYUM is that a nice cookie cutter. Normally, if an anime is too cliche, it dies because the audience has seen it before (which admittedly, may very well still apply to some people when they decide to watch this) however, the other aspects of the show are what genuinely carry this anime to glory, the characters, the music, the important animation, all of that combines to patch up those nasty things that the plot just literally can't even. I should also mention that the overlying plot is only affected by this. There are a bunch of sub-plots which are actually quite unique and well thought out, for example, the backstories of the main characters.

Overall, you've seen this plot before, and you'll know it when you see it. But the rest of the anime will more than make up for it, which is impressive considering how important plot tends to be.

Art: 7

I admit, the animation for this anime kinda dies at points. There's a scene where Tsubasa and her Manager are walking down a hall and rather than an animated walking animation, it is merely their unmoving bodies swaying in a small figure 8 pattern. Now, remember what I said about this series being fun? Yeah. It is. "Bu-but, HOW could it POSSIBLY be fun with animation like THAT!?" you may ask. Well I'll tell you, the animation for unimportant things like that walking scene, or someone writing something down on a piece of paper, THOSE are animated quite poorly sometimes. HOWEVER. The producers of this anime were smart, and funneled most of what little budget they had into the action scenes, and other important scenes. A lot of anime, even high budget anime that have all-round great animation, tend to have action scenes that are simply just as good as the rest of the anime, and when you're expecting MORE from an action scene, it can be a little underwhelming. Symphogear, with it's poor budget, knocks up the budget big time for their action scenes, making amazing looking scenes that are animated fluidly. I should also add that this anime liked to have it's action scenes on the go. While a lot of anime take a lot of camera cuts and angles in rapid succession to show a fight, which works well don't get me wrong, Symphogear does it itself a whole bunch, but they ALSO love to follow the action as it moves, meaning you'll get panning action sequences at high speed that look simply amazing (not to mention badass as hell) and really gives the viewer an impression of the speed at which the Symphogear users are fighting. While they obviously don't do this all the time, you'll see it used quite a bit, and it's a nice addition. Back to that bad animation for a moment, and also referring to when I said that people always take this anime too seriously if they hate the anime. The bad animation that pops up? It's reaally bad. So bad in fact, that it's laughable. I actually laugh at this animation, it is so bad. Now I can't forgive it for these atrocities of animation, but hey, you can always get a chuckle out of it! I should also mention that while this anime DOES have some very bad animation issues, those absolutely horrendous only pop up around 3 or 4 times in the entire anime, so they don't overly take away from it as a whole. Seasons 2 and 3 undergo a SERIOUS budget boost however, and nearly every issue that season one had in regards to animation was fixed, or improved past that.

Overall, while this anime has some undeniable animation issues, it isn't bad enough to take away from the series enough to ruin the experience.

Sound: 10

I'm including the soundtrack in this, it's a must. This anime is one that is in the "Music" genre, and normally, when you see "Music" tagged on to an anime, with a premise like that of Symphogear, you get frilly cute J-Pop songs, or at least, expect them. That is far from what you'll be getting out of Symphogear. Let's lead in to the music by starting with the voice actors! Tsubasa is voiced by Nana Mizuki, whom is a very well-off musical artist in Japan. Not only does she do an excellent job of voicing the stoic Tsubasa, she carries that voice into her songs which all have an oriental theme. Nana Mizuki also created and sings the OP of each of the seasons, season 1 being "Synchrogazer". Aoi Yuuki voices our main Character, Hibiki Tachibana. Perhaps you've heard Aoi before, she's done quite a few roles. Tornado from One Punch Man, Madoka from Madoka Magica, Victorique from Gosick, the list goes on. Aoi isn't a song artist, however in this series, she sings all of her own songs, which is a rather impressive feat for anyone. This adds to the immersion of the series, since there is no clear difference in voice, unlike when another person sings a song in place of a voice actor. This applies to every single character in the entire Symphogear anime. Each voice actor does all of their own singing, and they do a damn fine job. Each character even has songs that are styled towards them. As mentioned, Tsubasa sings what I call "Technoriental" and Hibiki sings "Electroceltic" technobagpipes included. Other characters are introduced later on, one of which sings aggressive rock, and in season 2, another which sings pure electronic, as well as another that sings perhaps a more punk-style of rock. Mentioning the characters further would be too large a spoiler however. Back to the actual music. Every song was crafted FOR the anime, none were taken from elsewhere. The producers made it a priority to make the music as excellent as they possibly could, as the anime revolves around music, and make it well they did indeed. I should now mention that all of these amazing songs are placed in as character songs (songs which are sung by the characters) and of course, since having characters singing all of the time would be stupid, there is regular soundtrack to go alongside it. Nothing too special about it, in all honesty. The background music you hear in scenes without characters singing is just sorta there, nothing too memorable, but not bad either. Just there. As far as voice acting goes... really well done! They got a very solid cast of voice actors, they didn't lose out anywhere there, however I should mention that ONLY the first season... has the most horrendous case of Engrish that I've ever heard. Thank god for subtitles. They gave up on attempting English in the following seasons, for good reason. As for the Japanese voice acting, emotions are portrayed very well, Hibiki always sounds like she should, cheery and upbeat, Tsubasa sounds like a strong "don't mess with her" type, the list goes on.

Overall, the character songs make this anime absolutely amazing, and are one of it's biggest selling points. The background music and such isn't so up to par, but the sheer quality of the character songs truly outshine the little problems that the background music brings forth. While there was a bit of laughably bad Engrish, the voice acting was excellently done, especially with how each voice actor sings their own songs.

Characters: 9

Each character is very well made, and while maybe cliche in a sense, they use cliches that haven't been milked to death. Hibiki is outgoing and cheery, which is the worst offender, however Tsubasa is a strong, stoic type, with more behind her exterior than first meets the eye. Another character may simply be passed off as a bit of a tsundere, but actually isn't, far more complex than that. Each main character has a backstory, not all of which are fully gone into in-depth, but all are at least mentioned at one point or another. Furthermore, these backstories can do a great job of defining why a character acts the way they do, and if this process ins't the one that explains it, you'll simply find out later on. Every character has a unique purpose, and each characters continues to fulfill that unique purpose effectively, without giving too much attention to any singular character. Even the side characters are well thought out, they don't FEEL like complete side characters because they actually get quite a lot of interaction with the true main characters as well as major plot elements. The villain however, is quite cliche. Like mentioned previously though, this hardly counts since the producers did this on purpose. This anime is supposed to be stupid, but handled well.

Overall, the characters are all well thought out, and despite being less-used cliches, they have reasoning to back themselves up. Every characters does exactly what they're supposed to do, with a high degree of effectiveness, no single character could replace another. Even the side characters are given a good amount of attention. The villain is rather cliche, but it doesn't hurt too much.

Enjoyment: 10

As I have been consistently mentioning, this anime is FUN. Don't go into it for serious plot developments and incredible levels of character development, go and watch it to watch your favourite heroes beat the crap out of a bad guy. With music. I have given this anime a nickname, as have other people. "Micheal Bay: The Musical" There isn't a whole lot of down time in this anime, for the most part it splits up action and comedy, however it also has a few much darker elements in store for you to keep you on the edge of your seat. Drama is a thing as well, it may have been kind of forced, but it changes up the pace, so see that as you will. Regardless, the main point of this anime is lots of bright colors, explosions, awesome fight scenes, badass soundtracks, hell, even moments that could make you tear up a little bit.

Overall, watch this for fun! If you go in expecting something serious from an anime about magical girls blowing up monsters with the power of songs and friendship, you're gonna be sad. You'll be happy to know that if you enjoyed this series the first time, it doesn't get boring easily either. So feel free to rewatch it!

Overall: 9

Culminating everything I've mentioned... this anime is just jolly good fun. Over-the-top fight scenes, an incredibly enjoyable soundtrack, equally likeable main characters, which all excel at doing their own thing. It's a giant blob of stupidity and cliches, yes, but it knows that and uses that as a grounds for making itself more awesome. "Ah well, we've already used this many cliches, let's overcome this insurmountable feat with an attack powered by friendship and unicorn souls!" and as dumb as that sounds, it doesn't get boring, it is truly something you just have to experience for yourself to understand. This anime is a great watch for practically any age, as it covers a lot of things, however, there's no real nice pretty age to acceptable watch it at. If a kid tries to watch it, there's some pretty bloody stuff that happens, if an adult watches it... it's an anime filled with magical girls! Perhaps teens can get away with it. Disregarding social standards however, this anime IS a great, fun watch, for all ages!

Extra note:

While this anime may seem to be the type, it VERY rarely sexualizes it's characters, I can recall a total of 5 scenes throughout all 3 seasons, one of which was a beach episode, another was a bath scene, both of which are anime staples. Even during transformation sequences, season 1 has next to no sexualization at all, the camera doesn't even zoom in on the characters body. Season 2, with their updated budget, opted to have a fancy camera-spinning close-up transformation scene, but even still, the camera never clearly focused on anywhere such as the butt or breasts, it just panned over them as though they were any other body part such as an elbow or a foot. Season 3 starts getting to borderline as it adds in a bit of jiggle to some characters during these sequences, but thinking realistically... I think some jiggle may happen... they certainly didn't blow it out of proportion, and even further, they kept the camera moving with no clear fanservice shots. As for actul in-fight scenes, the rules apply as if it were anime men fighting, nothing is sexualized or focused upon, if you want to see something you can look for it obviously, but it isn't shoved into your face. There are a few instances of blatant fanservice as I previously mentioned, but that count is very low. A good job goes to the producers for that decision as well, the quality of this anime would have dropped big time were it made as an ecchi.

NOTES: This cover only Season 1 in my input of what happened in 2012 and not much else will happen. Not gonna spoil what happens because i am gonna give you my depth of what happened in the production. Also, keep in mind that i will explain why it was badly subbed since that is like a total red flag for me because i know one guy who is that dumb to talk about translations you know him well as he is- the problem is why I don't consider it's translation to be the fault, but rather it's hellish production to make it a finalgood product.

So, what do you call a magical girl anime that mixed multiple genres, but has the nerve to be bonkers with flaws and well-balanced lore? You get Symphogear or what i call shojo in a nutshell.

''This is like an anime!'' - Meme Girl.

You know I am gonna be completely fair with everyone. I hated Magical Girls a lot while i was in High School and hated them a lot, this one, however, opens itself to me during it's original broadcast but it took me years to complete only to find out it's last two seasons (AXZ and XV) sucked like dog shit. Here is the thing. Magical girls are more of a sub-genre than a main one since most of them tend to be just silly and stupid depending on what it happens. While i am aware of Toei did to the Precure series over the years becoming it's cash cow like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. Madoka and Nanoha are edgier twisted to put it politely. But, here is something i never expected to watch. A magical anime that actually has good writing for once. Symphogear is a well-made magical girl anime that took it's own in the industry and loves to be creative, but over the years it's fandom has become too annoying to tolerate and i don't want to into the full details i will not explain why.

Origin:

Around the time my final year in year in middle school started in 2011 and this was in development so i decide to check it out, since my favorite anime Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's came to a conclusion one year before this premiered which they share no connection since Zexal around it's time made me want to just rage quite at it's terrible MC who i still to this day hate i gave Symphogear a chance, but to be clear this was years ago so my memory is not 100% since it's been years. Anyway, it made developed by Studio Satelight. It was written by Akifumi Kaneko and directed by Tatsumi Ito. But here is where it's real problem begins.

Production hell:

For years, Symphogear has been thru mostly bad production hell and it took them about 7 years to complete it not that it was bad, but mostly the fault came in the production since it's the staff was passionate but mostly lazy to start work, it leads to it's first season knowing the most mix-bag in terms of production and yet Attack On Titan is so overhyped and turned to crap in the end! Anyway, when it came to Season it had mostly sub-par animation, pacing problems, plot holes and mostly bad writing left and right, so why do people blame it for it's translation but doesn't explain it's production hell? Because people always point out the most obvious shit. Blame whatever it's trending. Hell, i wasn't even sure why the fault always gets blamed on the sub-translation in a modern society where everything is just incomplete. To make a small list of reasons why production hell is a thing i got plenty of reasons because it either depends on the length of the show or it's success. Any hiccups before or after is common (Looking at you Pokemon Journeys), but what really makes it feel flawed it's it's staff understanding it to be what it's supposed to be and not some mainstream anime like EVA who turns out to be complete garbage or something like One Piece that doesn't ever end because pointless filler. Heck, what happens in a show's development is mostly animation problems and writing problems and not endless hell holes left and right, but to make it so good have people come back to it. The actual problem with most anime in terms of production is the whole ''miss information'' which is often the problem why anime can't be accepted with open arms. One can pinpoint the origin of anime production, but never accept it and only resolve to lie and lie about it - getting people made and accepting the false truth. Hell, people being mad at Symphogear is mostly Season 1 for it's bad production and late completion deadline since it was in development hell for months and unlike the later seasons, this one was in fact the most honest.

Let's divide this into smaller topics to understand what i am referring to, despite it can get messy from here.

- Plots are mostly bad because of writing problems in the staff due to budget cuts or heavy laking elements.

- Pacing problems are mostly made to be that way because it depends on the script and the writing as a while

- Animation is based off its resources and not it's money since most newer projects start off with less production quality

- Writing issues can be from either goofing off or being too pretentious and not lacking fundamentals to keep your staff in check

- Narrative problems can from mostly what the pacing or writing tends to become and not be allowed free staff

- Storyboard comes off either half-baked or semi-limited because it makes it more clear why it has to be sorta polished over time to not let it stagnant with lower C-tier production

The sole fault of a show depends on whether the writers or the director are not doing their job right can resolve in a show being made into literal shit in the end unless it's proven to be handmade by its producer.

Tatsumi Ito. Before his death in 2020 never worked on Symphogear again because he left due to his own reason or was hired prior to G because he kinda fucked up the first season due a rumor i first heard in 2019 he got into a fight with Katsumi Ono who also worked on the show and made things looks worse but it was either clear or confirmed since i can't tell if this true or not. Two if it's good episodes are the only thing that stand-out from the rest in terms of production quality. Heck, Ono Katsumi was original gonna be the director, but Ito was first. That would of mean something i call the paradox-loop.

The Cast is good:

Hibiki may be a mary sue, but she is not like Madoka or bad Precure leaders who are just terrible and fucking suck, she is based off a tragic character who suffers life crises after the incident in the show's opening round to the point she developed the most in terms of real guts. Aside from her. Yukine and Tsubasa are both likable but get sidelined in the for first half a lot.

The Music is Lit and it's good:

Do i need to point out how it's music is well made even for it being 11 years old? Sounds like modern music at its peak for once we get to listen to amazing soundtracks. Heck, you thought Metal Gear Rising had peak music, so why not get a load of Symphogear's music?

Final Verdict: Decent and well-made. Give it a chance if you're interested in memes and silly shojo with YGO-esqute hair styles.

TL;DR version: Not worth watching unless you get enjoyment from girls battling with some good weaponry and/or a huge fan of Nana Mizuki's music. Symphogear gives us the premise of an alien race that is causing havoc. The only counter to these strange creatures is the Symphogear weapon system which the female protagonists equip themselves for battle. While this formula for a battle anime has been done a countless number of times, what really matters is "how" it is done, rather than the "what". Unfortunately, Symphogear clearly lacks the direction and the refinement seen in other series such as Madoka. Firstly, there is thematter of the story which is fairly average on the whole, but is destroyed by a major plot hole and the lack of refinement in the direction. We are greeted with a significant death in the first episode, which we fully know about from the summary of this anime. This death is caused by Kanade using "Zesshou", the final attack available that uses up all of one's life energy. Unfortunately, this significance is cheapened in later episodes. Therefore, Kanade's death becomes a rather forced plot device to get the ball rolling, rather than a necessary and significant event.

Then there's the clear lack of refinement in the direction, as there are occasions where we get bombarded with the most terrible ENGRISH. I mean absolutely horrific. While the context of including the English was justified (Japanese dealing with Americans), the catastrophic lack of care in its execution just goes to show a lot. Surely, Microsoft Word would have come up with a whole load of green wriggly lines in the planning phase of the script.

Then we move onto the art. Symphogear's characters have a fairly retro look with the use of strong colour shading for the hair, unlike the lighter colour tones that is more prevalent today. While this is not bad in itself, there are issues with the use of shading, which gives an incorrect perception of a lack of detail. Mouretsu Pirates, whose character art is far from groundbreaking uses a very simple, but effective style that shows the detailing in the character's hair. While I am not expecting something crazy on the level of Key/KyoAni collaborations, Symphogear's shading deficiency was clearly evident in the first episode where production values was at their highest. The fluid animation, combined with the excellent camera angles and background art looked a little odd when it was just hard to notice the character detailing. Then we have the main character whom we of course spend a long time staring at her. Her eyes seemed just too narrow and horizontally challenged. This just makes it a little hard to stare at the screen, because the level of distortion was beyond tolerances that is usually seen.

To make it all up though, the background scenery was extremely well done with plenty of detailing and shading. The weapon and attack design and choreography was excellent and fun to watch. The stills, showing the main attacks of the character was a nice touch, using differing art styles that represented the character in question.

Characterisation. We love seeing great characters. Now, a significant number of teenagers tend to have mood swings and can be unstable due to the sudden rush of hormones during puberty. Symphogear's representations of teenagers in distress seemed highly plausible. The way they interacted and reacted were extremely appropriate and on the whole, done fairly well. While Mary Sues on the one hand are boring, there is also unfortunately the case of annoying naivety which we see with the main character. This naivety causes grief for the sake of it. Her thoughts seems to mature though, and her sense of empathy is highly improved after receiving appropriate information.

(Personal Opinion: While I don't mind seeing naive supporting characters giving the slightly more mature main character annoyance, I cannot stand it being the other way around. Simply because the main character gets most of the screen time. Having to live with it is just painful.)

The villain's characterisation unfortunately left much more to be desired. The behaviour, course of action, and reaction felt highly amateurish, considering the number of years' life experience the villain has had. Even the highly egotistical and corrupted Gilgamesh from the Fate universe knew when to do Ego and when to do serious battle. Gender not revealed to prevent spoiling.

The sounds are the strongest point of Symphogear. This is especially exaggerated in my case as I click extremely well with Nana Mizuki's music. The way the music was composed suited Nana's singing style perfectly and was built around the character exceptionally well. (I seriously believe Symphogear was made solely to make some cash out of Nana's talent). The ending result was Macross F on steroids with highly enjoyable battles. Not only that, but Yukine's "badass rock" also suited her character and attack mode extremely well. Battle sounds were generically good, and nothing seemed amiss. Unfortunately, the main character's music, battles and singing was just weak. It is rather loli-ish, something which really has its place in Lucky Star, rather than a battle.

At the end of the day, Symphogear was built on a highly average premise. While they did a good job with the music and weapon design, the aforementioned plot inconsistency and unpalatable main character destroys much of the viewing experience.

For those who click with Nana's music, her outstanding performance is more than capable of temporarily taking the viewer's attention away from the glaring flaws. However, for those of other taste, the sound and enjoyment score would surely be lower and therefore, Symphogear is essentially 3 or 4/10 material. Which goes back to the TL;DR version of the review - if you don't like Nana's music, don't bother with Symphogear.

Symphogear is cheesy. It’s a story where at it’s core is about friendship, protecting your loved ones and believing in your own strength. Like I said in my previous post about it, Symphogear is like animated Tokusatsu with music as the main motif. It’s silly, but frankly a lot of shows could learn a lot of things from Symphogear. You know what? I feel like breaking this down in the classic way by categories. Let’s start with the most important/the best part about Symphogear. The sound department. You know how music can affect a story greatly? Sad music will make you feel sad, happy music willmake you feel happy, but it can also affect the tone of the story. Spooky music will make the scene/story spooky, intense music will make a battle intense and so on. Well, thanks to one Motoyama Satoshi Symphogear has one of the best music uses I’ve seen in a show my entire life. Everything about the music and it’s execution made this show way better than it could/should be. Because of the music and it’s execution all other elements of the show that are affected by it get this boost of energy and tone which they wouldn’t necessarily achieve solely by themselves. The voice acting is also worth mentioning. The VA’s in this show give some of the best performances I’ve seen them give. It’s easy to forget how important sound can be in a show. Symphogear does well to remember it’s importance.

The art department. I’m just going to outright say it: The art in this show is beyond superb. Whether it’s the amazing Symphogear designs (shoutout to my favorite desgin: Yukine Chris) or the detailed backgrounds. It’s amazing. Even the simple enemies are unique and stand out on their own. And the animation in this show is downright fantastic especially in battles. For a modern anime this has some of the best fights I have seen. The art department in this show have done an amazing job and barely cut any corners.

The story. This one here is a mixed bag. On the one hand the story is similar to a cheesy B movie, but because of the important role the music has and how much it supports the story, the story ends up being better than what it actually is, which is a cheesy B movie plot, but in the end of the show the whole story comes together in an enjoyable way and it actually feels like something was accomplished by the end of it. And despite it being so cheesy in it’s way Symphogear ends up being a lot better than quite a few AAA/S titles. A lot of the story elements in Symphogear are just the right enough amount of cheesy to make me smile with joy. I like cheesy/silly stories, they are the ones that end up being the most enjoyable. So, yeah despite being cheesy Symphogear has a very good story, with some slight pacing issues.

The characters. The characters in Symphogear is another one of my favorite parts. A lot of the ideals that the characters represent are ideals I can get behind. Friendship? I’m all for friendship. Protecting your loved ones? Heck yeah I can get behind protecting one’s loved ones. Believing in your own strength? At this point it could be considered pandering. Sure you might call them cheesy, but these characters are in the end loveable. The main villain is one of the best villains I’ve seen in a B movie esque story. The whole “What is giving you your strength” lack of comprehension on the villains part is so incredible. And of course I can’t go talking about the characters without mentioning the one, the only Kazanari Genjurou!. One of the most likeable side characters I’ve had the pleasure of liking.

Symphogear may not be for everyone. But it is for me. I like, no I love Symphogear a lot, and I love it enough to consider it one of my favorite shows. So, as per usual, do I recommend Symphogear? Absolutely. Go watch it. If it doesn’t click with you completely right away the same thing that was with me, but you still want to give it a try episode 6 is where it finally clicked with me, and it was only uphill from there.