The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 2 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear G) [2.4]

(Continued from 2.3)

Part 4: Upbeat Of Understanding

Whew.  We can't rest easy yet, as we left things on a massive and huge betrayal cliffhanger. Hibiki and Miku got blasted by a giant corrupt mirror beam, and oh yeah, what the shit did Chris just do? Because it sure looks like, as episode 11 gets going, Chris has defected to FIS. Her lingering guilt and self-doubt over having let the Noise out with the Staff of Solomon for Finè to begin with has gnawed at her, and she's gone over to their side to help them in exchange for getting it back so she can make things right. A grim and practical noble act, cutting ties with her own friendships and happy life to make things right. That's how low we seem to have sunk. Hibiki and Miku are fine, at least, but the cost was heavy. Miku's no longer controlled by Shenshoujin, and Hibiki has no more corruptive influence in her body. The mirror beam burned both relics away. Hibiki isn't a magical girl any more. For now, she is just glad Miku is okay, and more worried about Chris. Hold on tight, because salvation already came. I told you it happened in episode 9, but we were dealing with Miku so I put a pin in it. Let's pull that pin out. Behold. The way back to utopic idealism.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 2 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear G) [2.3]

(Continued from 2.2)

Part 3: Bolero Of Betrayal


Having made a case for Nephilim's bite creating both a literal and extra-narrative infection, we now have to explore what that infection enables to threaten the narrative beyond just the corruption. Indeed, Nephilim's bite isn't the sole cause of this, as we have seen (and will see) the whiffs of conflict before the big chomp. I actually want to start by talking about a scene that happens earlier, in episode 3. We've not talked about Chris that much, and that's a shame since I quite like Chris. She's now a student at the new Lydian Academy, and isn't the best at being friendly... as is evident by the scene in which she's actively running away from friendly classmates trying to rope her into school festival duty. She and Tsubasa do get roped into it, but it's not all bad. Their fellow classmates have a lovely bit of reflection where they talk about how they felt Tsubasa was this solitary idol, but once they talked to her they found she was just like them. It's understanding by talking, and Chris sighs and says she should try a little harder herself. It's a sweet moment, and the show is full of these. Episode 4's ending has Chris actively recruited as a last-minute entrant in a singing contest, and her song is absolutely beautiful. A heartfelt well-sung narrative about learning to love to sing, and finding a new place to belong. You love to see it. Of course, Nephilim's bite is going to threaten all that, but let's rewind. Before we talk about Chris more, I want to talk about Maria and Finè.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 2 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear G) [2.2]

(Continued from 2.1)

Part 2: Canon Of Corruption

(TW: blood)

In order to define the threat of corruption at the heart of Symphogear G, we must first define what threatens to be corrupted. At first glance, it may seem to just be the utopic ideal that's in danger, and while there's a new set of tensions to threaten that, there are some very specific ideals and ideologies to lay down before we can get into how they are threatened. It's best to start with the group we've been talking about, Maria and her allies. She, Kirika, and Shirabe are led by their "mama", Professor Nastassja (the mystery lady in the wheelchair we've been speaking of). and the enigmatic Dr. Ver has also defected to their side. It's eventually revealed that the Professor and Maria are ex-members of an American Symphogear research group called FIS, which was likely formed in secret by Finè back when she was in her Ryoko body. (As such, for simplicity's sake we'll refer to these five antagonists together as FIS.) Their goal, as is revealed over the course of the series, is simple enough. They're out to save the world. As it turns out, the business with the moon at the end of the last season has decayed its orbit, and now the thing is going to crash into the planet. While government officials either deny such a thing will happen, or plot behind the scenes to ensure that only they survive the apocalypse, FIS is determined to serve the needs of the many, doing whatever it takes to create a safe haven for some of humanity to survive the impending disaster.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 2 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear G) [2.1]

(All my love and eternal thanks to Sean, Alina, Christa, Juli, and Danta for keeping the fires of hope burning in my heart when I doubted the validity of these words. I hope they move everyone, but I hope they move you especially.

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.

Solving The Reflex Puzzles (A Brief Adventure With SNK Fighting Games)

It's been a bit, hasn't it? The last time we were here, I fired off an almighty something or other out of my brains that had to do with magical girls and hope and all that stuff. Then the world went to absolute hell and kind of messed with my writing motivation. We'll get back to the magical girls, believe me, as there's a whole lot of shit to talk about. As a preview: Mirror girls, and Symphogear actually getting a leg up on Sailor Moon. In the meantime, a funny thing about my procrastination over my year. I keep tabs on every game I beat over a year in a little Notepad file, for my own reference in December when I do a Games Of The Year list. January through April are fairly sparse; I only played either one or two games for each of those months. Some of those are big games, like April's sole venture being the Final Fantasy 7 Remake (and oh, the things I could say about that experience). All of this is to say that, in the first week of May, I cleared as many games as I have throughout the previous third of the year. How is this productivity possible? Easy. I started playing a bunch of FIGHTING GAMES. Four of those six games I cleared in May are SNK fighting games, and they're what I'd like to talk about today (For reference, the other two were Streets Of Rage 4 which is fighting-game adjacent, and my friend Thom's RPG Silus which is not fighting-game adjacent but you should still check out anyway). The clearing of these fighting games creates a strange little narrative arc for me, one that's still in progress but that I feel confident in talking about. So, you know, let's do that. THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE HELL OF A WRITEUP! ROUND 1, FIGHT!

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 1 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear) [1.4]

(Continued from 1.3)

Part 4: Finale Of Finè

Ah, Finè. Her name itself suggests endings, but that in itself is an irony. To speak of Finè is to speak of the grand masterminding she's been undergoing throughout the whole series. Even in Episode 1 during the Zwei Wing incident, she was there. She was hiding in plain sight as a character I've not spoken of yet. Sakurai Ryoko is the Second Branch's main scientist, and a genius when it comes to knowledge of Symphogear. There's also just enough suspicion cast on her midway through the show that you wonder what she's up to. She has superpowers, as is made clear during the Durandal incident, but then the boss of the Second Branch is a powerful martial arts fighter, so one can brush it off. Over time, then, the suspicion grows until Episode 10's cold open is literally Ryoko doing things in Finè's mansion and being ambushed by her American conspirators. On initial watch, I was confused by this, but in hindsight the pair sound very similar. Either way, it is a twist, although one that might have been better served if the audience didn't just get to know it point-blank like that. Regardless, Finè has a scheme, and she's used her alter ego as Ryoko to make it happen, pulling the strings behind the scenes to ensure all the pieces come together properly for her to make her move. Let us then square away exactly who Finè is and what that plan is.

The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 1 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear) [1.3]

(Continued from 1.2)

Part 3: Crescendo Of Chris and Minuet Of Miku

Of course, in talking about Chris, we have to deal with just a bit of an eyebrow raise problem. There are a handful of moments of risque content in Symphogear, the usual Japanese cartoon stuff like shared baths and whatnot. There's also the fact that some of the Symphogear armor is a little revealing. For the most part, it's about as much content as, say, your typical Hyperdimension Neptunia game. The exception here is the opening to Episode 5, which opens with a mysterious nude woman talking really bad English to an American over the phone and plotting something. This woman turns out to be in charge of Chris, who starts the episode shackled to an electrocution machine in her underwear. As the nude woman states that pain is the only thing that brings people together, she begins electrocuting Chris. I. Uh. What. What in the fuck? I don't know what the fuck. Well, I kind of do. The notion that pain is the only thing that brings people together will come back to us in the finale of the show, and be resonant with what the climax is doing. Fair enough, but did we have to do it with electrocution torture???