Part 3: Cacophany Of Curses
We're going to have a lot of fun quantifying what the powerup arc means for Symphogear GX. Before that, though, we have to set the terms and settle up the "weakness" arc with Tsubasa and Chris here fighting back. They're quite effective at dealing with the Alca-Noise now, and thanks to alchemy enhancement they can't have their Symphogears shattered again. Which is a plus! Okay, maybe we can deal with this shit! Or, you know, Carol could show up to kick everyone's asses as the final boss of alchemy. She's got lots of tricks up her sleeve. Like playing a harp and Symphogear transforming while also turning into a grown woman, Hyperdimension Neptunia style. Okay then. She's not singing, but she is shitblasting Tsubasa and Chris with alchemy. Something we neglected to mention regarding alchemy: you remember how the Autoscorers siphon memories to power themselves? Well, as it turns out, alchemy is powered by memory... such that, when you use it, you burn away a memory in equivalent exchange. The Autoscorers are clockwork so they've been just burning away stolen memories. Carol's been alive for hundreds of years, so she's burning up her own with every burst of magical energy. Scary stuff. The only way to match it is with a powerup. Let's see what Project Ignite can do.
Some pretty fucked up stuff, if you're not careful. As we've said, Elfnein brough a fragment of a cursed sword relic called Dáinsleif. Project Ignite infused Tsubasa and Chris's relics with Dáinsleif's power. This made them shatterproof as far as Alca-Noise are concerned, but it also allows them to activate something called the Ignite Module. What's that do? Oh, that's simple. It stabs you with the accursed power of Dáinsleif, amplifying the darkness in one's heart. The effect, as Tsubasa and Chris are engulfed in shadow and scream in agony, is quite familiar. We've seen this shit before. It's the relic corruption which made Hibiki go apeshit in her shadowy form, both at the rise of Kadingir and when Nephilim bit her fucking arm off. A dark corruptive force that was a terrible thing, and now we're desperate enough to try and tame that portion of the Dirge of Despair. The effect is enough to drive Tsubasa and Chris to each face a nightmare of their own worst fears and anxieties. Tsubasa's fear that she is a sword only good for fighting and her dream of singing is a doomed one because she can only sing to defeat the Noise. Chris's fear is that this cruel world which took her parents will take her new friends she cares dearly about, and she has to protect them from the misery of the true world. Project Ignite hasn't worked at all. Well, we forgot something very important, as Chris is stuck in her hellworld nightmare.
Yes, good. Just like Hibiki taught you. Speaking of, she shows up right after this failed attempt, riding a fucking missile to punch a massive Noise. Our girl's back in the fight with her new and improved Gear, vowing to never let it or her hope be shattered again. If the Symphogears can save people, then surely they can save their own wielders. So it is that Hibiki, holding hands with her friends, helps them along with the Ignite Module. It's just for now, as we still need to power up... but it does work in this moment. Bam. Super Saiyan Symphogear. I really love the design of the Ignite Symphogears, with their black color scheme and the radiant orange glow coming from them. They take on Carol, Hibiki singing a new song and singing her heart out. She's done exactly what Carol asked her to do, after all. They've met again, and now they're going to fight. It's okay, though. You can fight and still save people, like we learned with Miku. Miku's still worried Hibiki is hiding her pain, but with one hell of a punch she beats Carol! Carol's far from defeated, though. She calls the power Hibiki just used a "cursed melody" and then commits alchemical suicide. Fun fact: I missed the cue that Carol had done some alchemical shit and really thought Hibiki had accidentally killed her. Thank God I was wrong, because that would be horrible. She'll be back in a few episodes time, having moved her memories to another body, but anyway. We've proven that the Ignite Module can work, but now we need to be able to master it. We need to train. We also need to discuss, here and now, what Symphogear GX brings to the training arc. To do that, let's frame the "train" module against its iconic example. We talked of Sailor Moon many times before, but let's discuss its 90's anime boom brother. Let's talk about Dragon Ball Z.
Look, this really isn't my scene. I watched some Dragon Ball Z back in the day, but it didn't light my imagination on fire like Sailor Moon would do. Still, let's poke at what I do know about training in this world. DBZ is very much an escalating power level model, to the point that they had to retire numerical power levels because they were approaching absurdity; by the time you hit Cell you're dealing with power levels of billions and they stop seeming like real numbers. Training in DBZ has been a "work really really hard physically" mentality that rewards such physical prowess with being able to withstand the might of whatever super foe is in the way. There's also the iconic Super Saiyan transformation, which from what I can recall was initially triggered in the show by negative emotions over Goku's dead friends. Even so, characters like Vegeta had to train to be able to gain the power to go Super Saiyan. Symphogear GX is about to devote four of its episodes to a somewhat formulaic arc in which our main girls gain mastery over their Ignite Modules. How do they train in order to gain the strength to do that?
Well, they start with... a beach episode. Okay. We've hit peak anime right about here. This is some sort of special training to soothe the minds and bodies of our Symphogear users, but c'mon. It's anime. They just wanted their beach episode. I'll live with it. This first episode is devoted to Maria, and we soon find out that all the Symphogears have been repaired and upgraded, including Serena's old Airgetlam. Maria is back in the game, but the Autoscorers are still out there creating havoc. Garie, who previously overpowered Maria with superior alchemy, shows up to gloat and fight her again. It's here in this episode that we get a glimpse into Maria's state of mind right now, and her current laments and regrets. Last season was all about the dichotomy between the weak and the strong, and despite the Frontier incident working out in the end Maria still feels like a prisoner to circumstance. Gungnir answered Hibiki's song, Dr. Ver was in total control of things and backhanded her over and over (the prick), and she was basically forced into the idol life as per her plea bargain, made to lie about the truth of the Frontier incident to save face for the government. Maria wants to stand against toying fate, and she wants to be strong, and so...
Mmm, that's bad. Garie beats her again, basically just fucking off instead of killing anyone there. After the battle, the girls will wonder exactly why this is... but Maria can't handle her curse. She's still weak. The key to all of this came from the beach setting earlier, where Elfnein was too short to serve a volleyball properly so Maria taught her to serve underhanded. That advice is what Maria needed for herself, as it turns out. Maria was trying to overcome things by being strong, but it's in accepting your own weakness and remaining true to your own ideals that leads to true strength. That moment of facing her own weakness and accepting her flaws allows her to activate Ignite Mode and definitely beat Garie. Yeah, Garie's like dead. Almost seems a little harsh for Symphogear GX to create a set of clockwork villains with personality solely so it's okay to kill them, but we'll let it slide. Some other big stuff happens this episode, but I want to save that for later. The point here is the powerup, the training that Maria underwent to gain her transformation... was all about overcoming her own personal flaws, fears, and anxieties. It was about healing herself and gaining strength from that. That's such a unique way of doing the powerup arc, and it's very Symphogear. Let's move on, and see how the other girls handle this.
The basic formula we just set up is repeated another three times for Kirika and Shirabe together, followed by Tsubasa and then finally Chris. The girls have their own inner turmoils and anxieties, face an Autoscorer and try to go Ignite Mode, fail to do so, self-reflect on their own internal hangups, then come to a breakthrough of emotional healing that allows them to power up and overpower their Autoscorer rival to defeat them. The cursed melodies that they sing via the power of Dáinsleif are their own acceptance and healing of the Dirge of Despair within us all. We're not perfect, we have our own hangups... but we can learn to accept that darkness within us, and get stronger from it. I actually want to save Tsubasa's cursed melody arc for next time, since it dovetails into a running theme of Symphogear GX. To finish off here, we can delve into what Kirika, Shirabe, and Chris have to deal with. Starting with the duo, then, the pair of them are anxious about being burdens and just getting in the way all the time. Shirabe is also very protective of Kirika, risking her life in a battle with Micha to block an alchemical flamethrower attack with her saws, and that reckless selfless risk-taking makes Kirika really mad. The pair actually start arguing after that, and Hibiki does her best to heal the rift between them by having them hold hands. As it turns out, Kirika's so mad that Shirabe keeps being protective because she loves Shirabe and doesn't want to see her getting hurt. The pair snap through their anxiety over being burdens, and realize that people care for them (and they care very much for each other) and their teamwork defeats Micha with a pincer attack. The lesson of acceptance here is that not being a burden takes more than strength, but responsibility for your actions as well. That leads to a regret Shirabe has, and it makes me tear up every time:
The ideological challenge from last season hurt the person who became her friend and trusted ally, and Shirabe regrets doing that. She was wrong about Hibiki after all, but couldn't see it due to her mistrust at the time. The pair have mastered their Ignite Modules, though, and have really grown in the time they've spent with their new friends. Particularly protective of them is Chris, which leads very nicely into her hangups this time around. We've already seen it in pieces; Chris's lament when rescued by the pair, as well as her anxiety nightmare when first trying to use the Ignite Module. Chris is still dealing with her lone wolf nature, like she was way back when she was doing bad shit back in the first season. As Kirika and Shirabe's senpai, she's assuming a protective role over them and trying to solve everything on her own. Trying to be a strong cool role model they can look up to, who can do everything herself. As she laments to herself later, this cruel world will take away her friends if she allows herself to not be alone. It's Kirika and Shirabe who help her realize that she's not alone, and they do rely on her... but she can always rely on them. Not because they're her lowerclassmen. Because they're her friends. With that, Chris is able to get through her hangups, and she understands the ideology of her long-dead parents, the ones who travelled the world and used their songs to try and bring peace. It's a lovely bit of healing that calls back to the very beginning of this character's arc, and strengthens her bond with Kirika and Shirabe.
Well, that's most of the overcoming curses dealt with. We still need to deal with Tsubasa, but we have a problem. Two big things happen during these episodes which inform the next thematic relevance I have to bring up and create ripples which coast through the rest of the series. The first happens in Maria's Ignite episode, at the very end. We brought up Hibiki's father before, in Part 1. While Hibiki was unconscious after having Gungnir shattered, she once again dreamt of that dark time after the Zwei Wing incident where everyone harassed her and called her a murderer for being the only survivor. It's in Hibiki's memory that we learn what happened to her father. He didn't get dusted by the Noise. He walked out on his family because the targeted harassment of his daughter was too much for him to deal with. At the end of the episode, Hibiki and Miku go into town to get snacks for a beachside fireworks party... and Hibiki comes face to face with her estranged father and runs off. Her arc with her father will be important going forward, but there's something far worse that happens later. It's at the end of the Tsubasa episode, but the way things are structured both her plot and Chris's are happening at the same time.
Right, so Kirika, Shirabe, and Chris are trying to stop Carol and Leiur in this place called the Undersea Dragon Palace, a top-secret vault for dangerous relics. Carol wants a relic here to complete the Château de Tiffauges and destroy the world, but the three of them destroy it. Chris is being very liberal with her explosions, and gets ready with a big missile to blast away Carol and Leiur, when this happens...
What?
No no no...
Please no. Not that, Symphogear GX. Anything but that. For the love of God and man, Please not that.
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PRICK! PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK FUCK YOU PRICK PRICK PRICK GOD FUCKING DAMN IT PRICK PRICK OF ALL THE FUCKING TWISTS PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK PRICK--
(Continued in 3.4)
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