The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 1 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear) [1.1]

(Hello! We're just about ready to talk about the first season of Symphogear, but I do feel that a courtesy spoiler warning is in order. The way I've deep dived into this show to talk about it basically means I'm talking about every major plot beat in the season. This first part, 1.1, covers the first episode and part of the second. If this seems like a show you'd like to watch from my writing on it, or you just want to see it first and not be spoiled, then this is your official spoiler warning. Anyway, this came out to just over 7000 goddamned words. As such, I am splitting it into four bite-sized posts over the rest of the week. That should help it be readable and not the stream-of-consciousness unbroken ramblings of, say, a William Faulkner character. I hope you enjoy, this means a lot to me.)

(Continued from Introduction: Elegy Of The Eternals)

So, then. Having framed my own mental landscape when it comes to magical girls in the intro, we finally come to it. It's finally time to talk about Senki Zesshou Symphogear. Part of the reason I did the preamble that I did was to properly express my mindset going in to the show. Part of it was so I didn't have to explain how that mindset informed my initial reactions to the thing. Here's the real deal, then. We have defined the two "modes", so to speak, of magical girls in my head. I even titled the intro after them. Usagi's Harmony of Hope, and Madoka's Dirge of Despair. Going in to Symphogear, I was led to believe that I was getting a show a lot like Sailor Moon. What I ended up getting and how it resonated with that made my viewing of Symphogear, and how it affected me, quite interesting. I am always hesitant when beginning these things because I don't want them to just be overly rambling plot summaries of the show itself. Nevertheless, to find my footing I'm afraid I have to weave into that lane. Take my hand again. It'll be fine. We're going to dive on in, at long last. No more messing around.

"Can you hear them? All these people who've lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you. Can you hear them singing? Oh, you like to think you're a god. But you're not a god. You're just a parasite eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others."



Part 1: Sonata Of Sacrifice

A downpour of rain soaking a girl to the bone as she waits for the bus, holding a bouquet of flowers. This is how Symphogear begins... or ends, really. As we'll soon discover, this is a flash forward to the end of the season. As our soaked girl passes by a city in ruins, she reaches her destination; a memorial to the dead. Falling to her knees at the grave of someone close to her, she sobs in pure despair, a photo showing the innocent-looking friend who died far too young. Far from being a happy-go-lucky magical girl show, this tone is dire. Grim. It is not what one who came to hear a Harmony of Hope expected... and speaking of hearing, we jump back now. Back to the beginning. Hibiki Tachibana, the girl from the photo, is ready to attend a pop concert. A duo of idols, Zwei Wing, is ready to take the crowd by storm... but there are things happening behind the scenes as well. Scientists, a weird relic called Nehustan... whatever is going on is big. Zwei Wing's members, Kanade and Tsubasa, comfort each other before the show. They have hope and faith that it will all work out, and they're lovely together. Their first song goes great, and it's a real hit! I'm not much of an idol anime expert, but this sequence is well put together and the song's really great, with poignant lyrics.

A HOPEFUL SHOW

Of course, then it all goes to absolute shit. Every magical girl show needs its monster to battle, and Symphogear is no exception. They're called the Noise, and we'll learn a little about them later... but here and now, in Episode 1 with no other knowledge? They're almost cosmic terrors. Unknowable things that descend upon the concert when the science experiment with the relic goes out of control, killing people left and right. It is, of course, absolutely horrific. One touch from the Noise seems to have a Thanos snap effect, greying you out before you disintegrate. One poor girl is begging for her life, screaming that she doesn't want to die as her body turns to ash. It's time for some magical girls to get on the case, and Kanade and Tsubasa transform in order to take care of the Noise. As they fight, they sing. Yes, this show's so music-themed that its battles end up being musicals. What of our innocent girl from before, Hibiki? The Noise nearly gets her, and while Kanade defends this bystander, shards of Kanade's magical girl armor blast into Hibiki's chest, appearing to take the girl down. Ah. So that's how she died. Not quite... but this is the end for someone. Kanade, knowing the writing is on the wall, sings a very different song... one Tsubasa pleads her not to sing. This is her Swan Song, a song with great power behind it to destroy Noise... but also something that creates a massive feedback inside the user's own body. Basically it kills you too, and that's just what Kanade does; sacrificing herself to take out all the Noise and save Hibiki.


It is at this point that I felt just a little bit misled and, if we're being honest, distraught. Far from the hopeful idealism I was promised, this was some grimdark nightmare scenario anime. Using the terms that I laid out before... I popped it on expecting the Harmony Of Hope, and instead got the Dirge Of Despair. This can't be Symphogear, right? I mean, Jesus. I didn't know it at the time, but setting up the first half of the first episode with such a grim and moody tone is actually part of Symphogear's long game. Before we get there, some final set up of the status quo. Two years after the Zwei Wing incident, Hibiki survived her wounds and is now a student at the Lydian Music Academy, bunking with her best friend Miku. These two are absolutely adorable together from moment one, it must be said, and their friendship will have its own interesting journey as we go. As it turns out, Tsubasa also attends this school. That will come into play later, but for now we have another desperate situation that shows just how nightmarish living in this world must be.


Hibiki rushes out to buy Tsubasa's new solo CD, only to find everyone in the record shop has been dusted by the Noise. Hearing the screams of a terrified child, she does what Kanade did for her: she does her very best to protect the little girl and rush her to an emergency shelter, as Noise pursue them both for their own unknowable reasons in wanting to end the lives of human beings. Like, fuck. In this world something as innocent as running out to the store could be your last act on this earth, because some dissonant monster can reach out and atomize you as you beg for your life to an unfeeling, uncaring, unknowable thing. It's when Hibiki and the little girl are cornered, and Hibiki then echoes Kanade's own words to her of "Don't give up living" that... something happens to Hibiki. It is, as we'll find out, a magical girl transformation. Remember what kind of show we're in, though, according to the tone of this episode. Far from being a flashy fun transformation sequence, Hibiki's goddamn body goes through the ringer. There are shades of body horror as her very cells and nerves contort and mutate, weaponry bursting from her back and slipping back inside before... a beast stands tall. Her fangs bared, her eyes red, ready to rip and tear the Noise. Everything I just talked about was just episode 1, by the way, so I'd go get a refill on your coffee if I were you.

My particular subs for this season even made the Spider-Man
thing textual.

Anyway, from here we get the setup of a new status quo. Underneath Lydian Academy is a massive underground base where the scientists from earlier are running an anti-Noise operation, and Tsubasa is their main magical girl. Well, now that Hibiki's gained power, things are a little more complicated. I'm afraid I have to go into the lore a bit, and explain how the magical girls of Symphogear work. Certain individuals, referred to as the Attuned, are able to resonate with ancient relics. These relics, despite being thousands of years old, are beyond current technology. Using wave forms and resonances, Attuned can use the relics to transform into Symphogear users. Now, what's interesting here is that Hibiki doesn't have any relic... but what she does have, thanks to the Zwei Wing incident, are shards of Kanade's relic, Gungnir, embedded in her chest. Just enough for Hibiki to transform into a Symphogear user. It almost feels Tony Stark-like, what with shards being embedded in a hero's chest and all, but there's a far bigger Marvel superhero influence when it comes to Hibiki; Spider-Man. Not to pivot into suddenly becoming a comic book post or anything, but a major running theme in a lot of Spider-Man stories is that being Spider-Man absolutely sucks for Peter Parker. Peter Parker, thanks to his secret identity, has to constantly lie to the people he cares about and appear to be the flakiest and most unreliable person on the planet to them. Symphogear adds the turn of this entire magical girl project being top secret government stuff with non-disclosure contracts and whatnot, but the effect is the same on Hibiki.


We're going to see what this does a little later, but before we get into a meatier section, I want to comment on the opening and ending themes for the show. This will become important later. Episode 1 used that extra minute and a half for its cold open with Miku in the rain, but Episode 2 does open with a jaunty and upbeat opening theme featuring some stuff we have yet to talk about. (INTRUSION FROM THE FUTURE: I cannot actually find the proper opening to Symphogear Season 1 on Youtube, but this video has the full opening theme. It also is kind of an AMV, and I'm deliberately not looking at the visuals for fear of spoiling the later seasons. I'd suggest throwing it on in another tab just so you can hear the music to accentuate this point.) Episode 1 used that as its closing theme once Hibiki transformed, which is a clue for later. Anyway, the main ending theme of the series is a moody and dark piece called Meteor Light, its visuals featuring what appear to be a fusion of mannequins and decayed flowery corpses. It absolutely fits the darker tone that Symphogear is going for... but hmm. Is this really what Symphogear is?

(Continued in 1.2)