Special apologies to Rhete for this taking so goddamned long.
As always, this massive writeup will contain spoilers for the Symphogear series, so watch it beforehand if you care about that. It's well worth it, as my gushing hopefully demonstrates.)
(Continued from 1.4)
Well then. Here we are, at last and yet again. When we left Senki Zesshou Symphogear previously, what we got was a show about holding on to hope in the darkest of times, in a world that seemed ruled by despair. We got a show where utopic idealism won out over grim determination, and even made those grim determined people warm their hearts and turn towards the light of redemption. We got a show that stood steadfast in its belief that people can understand each other, if they earnestly talk to one another. It was brilliant, it was beautiful, and it was exactly the right escalation that I needed as someone who came to it from a watchthrough of Sailor Moon. In many ways the second season, Senki Zesshou Symphogear G (hereafter referred to as simply Symphogear G) is a further escalation of this. Throughout 13 more episodes of magical girl action, this show builds its own new ideological conflicts while also offering new challenges to its hopeful idealism. We're here to break those down, analyze them, and see just what makes them tick... but let's not get too heavy from the get-go. Remember our coffee shop analogy. It's been a while, we need to catch up. You and I, we're just going to take it easy here, and start by laying out how Symphogear G kicks things off. Once we have a proper framework, then we can delve into those heady themes and their detailed subject matter. Get a refill on your latte, dear... and let me tell you about Symphogear G."I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you! I am not a good man! I am not a bad man. I am not a hero. And I'm definitely not a president. And no, I'm not an officer. Do you know what I am? I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them. Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise."
Part 1: Aria Of Apples
An obvious critical statement to make, at the top of this: how a show opens is important for setting its tone. Symphogear's first season began with Miku's silent rainy vigil to the grave of Hibiki, setting a grim tone of despair over the proceedings. Pairing this with the violent and horrific slaughter committed by the Noise later in episode 1, the tone was clear: Despair is inevitable, and we are irrevocably fucked. The show then, of course, subverted damn near all of this and had Hibiki Tachibana's hopeful idealism win out in the end and save the world. Even her supposed inevitable death was subverted, and she and her pals were just fine all along. With all that in mind, how does Symphogear G begin? Well, in the broadest strokes, it goes the other way. Whereas the first season began with a flash forward, Symphogear G begins with what we later learn is a flashback. I named this section Aria Of Apples because... that's what we get over this. As a black and white scene plays, a poor girl stands in flaming ruins as another girl silently cries out to her. Our pool girl turns, blood flowing free from her eyes and mouth; the telltale sign of an Attuned having burned their life away with a Climax Song. The rubble collapses as someone moves to save the second girl, the first implied to have been crushed to death. All the while, we hear no dialogue. We only hear a melancholy melody about an apple falling from the sky, a song that is actually called "Apples". (Just gonna TW: blood for the thumbnail of the video that hyperlink leads to.)
We will deal with that, but for now it's an enjoyable return to form. It's Hibiki and Chris, working together to protect a scientist named Dr. Ver on an armored train. Dr. Ver is escorting an important artifact, the Staff Of Solomon. This thing is used to actually summon Noise, and it's what Finè (and Chris, when she worked for Finè) used to wreak havoc on the world back then. Getting it under lock and key is a good idea, but first the oncoming Noise must be dealt with. Hibiki and Chris are quite adept at working together, which is quite nice since it's only been three months since all that business with Finè and the Kadingir. Sure, Chris is a little apprehensive at the mention of the Staff of Solomon, considering, but who wouldn't be? The pair are great at working together here; Chris doesn't hesitate in asking Hibiki to watch her back, and Hibiki shows some quick thinking and powerful punching, making even Chris impressed by her power growth. The mission's a success and Dr. Ver praises Hibiki and Chris for a job well done, specifically complimenting how good a job the heroes of the Lunar Attack did back there. Yes, to Dr. Ver, the world's in dire need of a great hero who everyone can believe in.
He's the main antagonist of this season, by the way, and just an absolute piece of shit who uses this hero ideology as justification for all the reprehensible vile acts he will commit. I don't want to get into that just now, but we'll have so much more to say about him and his crimes as we go on. I just want you to know up front that I hate this fucking man. Keep that in your back pocket. Anyway, not two minutes after saving Dr. Ver, there's a Noise attack on the army base they escorted him to, soldiers get dusted, and Dr. Ver and the staff have vanished. It's here that the darkest joke in the show's history plays out, by the way; in the aftermath of the attack we see a guy vacuuming up the dead soldier dust. Holy fuck. Anyway, the second half of episode 1 is a big big event; a special worldwide simulcast concert duet between this mysterious new idol, Maria Cadenzavna Eve, and our old friend Tsubasa. It's one hell of a song, a spectacle for the ages and a real banger... but remember how the first season started. Grim eventuality, an idol duet, and then Noise all over the stadium. Well, things should be okay here, we already had Noise show up so--
Son of a bitch, they did it again. Actually, the shocker here isn't that Noise just appear. Maria, under instruction from a mysterious woman in a wheelchair, appears to actually summon the Noise herself. She then proceeds to tell everyone to stay calm before holding the world at ransom? Tsubasa, of course, has all eyes on her since this is a worldwide simulcast. She can't exactly transform and have a grand sword fight with Maria... but then the end of episode 1 hits and we get a double bombshell. As we'll see, Symphogear G is very good at hitting you with absolute jaw-droppers of episode-ending cliffhangers. I can only imagine how this made people feel on broadcast, having to wait a week to see just what in the fuck they were going to do with this. On a binge watch like I did, there were several points where an episode ended and I went "OH HOLY SHIT THEY'VE GOT ME HERE, I'VE GOT TO FIRE UP THE NEXT ONE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!". To end our episode, then, Maria activates a Symphogear of her own and transforms... and it's Gungnir. A black Gungnir, to be sure, but it is absolutely the same power that Tsubasa's old partner Kanade had, the power that lingers on as a shard in Hibiki's chest. That Gungnir. Before one can process what in the fuck, Maria also claims that she... no, "we"... are Finè. Holy mother of god what. We'll deal in our own time, but weep for brevity. We've only covered the events of one episode. I really hope you got a refill on that latte. Well... let's continue here.
Let us try, then, to shotgun through the climax of this opening arc, and get to the real meat of what this season does. As we've mentioned, Tsubasa can't transform without revealing herself as a magical girl. This would no doubt ruin her idol career, and as such we have an interesting tension at play. As is stated textually, Tsubasa's songs are meant for more than combat. That's the lesson we learned last time, the result of healing her wounded heart. To risk taking that away creates a whole different and layered form of narrative tension, of which I'll have a great deal more to say. Lucky for her, her manager manages to cut the camera feed, and Tsubasa can fight back. Unlucky for her, Maria has backup; two younger girls who we see earlier, Kiraka and Shirabe. They have relics as well, and now it's three on one... or it is until Hibiki and Chris finally arrive. It's here that we get a major and interesting challenge to last season's lessons, as Hibiki immediately launches into the whole "we don't have to fight" utopic ideal. Shirabe in particular takes offense to this, but not in the usual way you'd expect. Rather than call it naive wishful thinking or anything like that, what she says is...
These accusations cuts deep at Hibiki, in ways we will delve into... but for now, it's time to retreat. A big big Noise that can regenerate is summoned, one which will put the evacuated concert goers at risk. No worries, though. Hibiki has a plan. Hold hands and sing a Climax Song in order to blow the regeneration Noise to bits. What's that, you may ask? Don't Climax Songs make you bleed from your eyes and mouth? Yes, but... They're holding hands. Hibiki has a new power... or more accurately, a better-explained power. By holding hands with Chris and Tsubasa, Hibiki can channel their Climax Songs, harmonize them with her own, and then blast the stored power out in a big big punch without any damage to the three of them. Do you get what I'm putting down here? Holding hands isn't just a metaphor for Hibiki making friends and building bridges. It is actually, canonically a part of Hibiki's magical girl powerset now. (This is also used as a semi-retcon to explain how they lived through that whole thing with the moon at the end of Season 1.) This massive influx of power is enough to complete the plans of the mystery woman in a wheelchair who was commanding Maria and pals, though. Much like the tragic Zwei Wing concert of Season 1's opening, her plan was to use phonic gain from Symphogear users to awaken the power of a relic... and blasting three harmonized Climax Songs is as good a wakeup call as any. The day is saved and all is well... but Hibiki is still a little fucked up from Shirabe's accusations of hypocrisy and platitudes. There's a little cryptic flashback, and from there we move on.
From there we also move on. We have established a new status quo, a new threat, and a new ideological conflict in the form of the hypocrisy accusation. The 11 episodes that follow will layer these things on, add to them, and create entirely new conflicts and threats that put basically all one's investment in this show and its world at risk. Lucky for us, I've been able to compartmentalize these into four distinct little sections. Over the next little while, we will speak of corruption. We will talk of betrayal. We'll chat about understand. We will converse about heroism. Those, I think, are the four core tenents of what make Symphogear G's conflicts and crunchy bits resonate. Enough stalling. Let's get into it. Let's start by talking about corruption...
(Continued in 2.2)
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