The Harmony Of Hope And The Dirge Of Despair: Part 4 (Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ) [4.1]

(Happy holidays! This, as you'll soon come to see, took me a hell of a time to work on. Between NaNoWriMo and the inherent... prickly bits of the season in question, it took me a month or so just to bang out the words and get it done. I had to just sit on it for a while, let it simmer, and really ponder on what the show was trying to say. I hope the conclusions I came to aren't too disagreeable to you. If they are, well, maybe we can have reasonable discussion. You know, talking to understand one another. Like the cute punchy girl I've devoted a book to! As always, there are full spoilers ahead for this show. As always, thanks to the very special people who support me in these endeavors. As always... let's get into it.)

(Continued from 3.5)

Oh yeah. We're back for Part 4, y'all. In more ways than one, we've come full circle. I say that because of when I'm writing this, in the second week of November 2020. The mists of time have obscured when I started, but I can tell you for sure that as of mid-November 2019 I had finished the very first season of Symphogear. It's been an entire year, off and on, of thinking about this show. of watching it and talking about it with pals, of writing these massive love letters to it. The first season came out on Blu-Ray. It's on my shelf, no thanks to tricky fine print involving FedEx not delivering to rural PO Boxes. I started the journey a year ago, and by the time you read these words I'll be into the weeds of the final season, ending it. I'm probably going to cry when that happens, but we must focus on the season at hand rather than the season ahead. 

So then. Symphogear AXZ. Which... really, the lettering has been kind of weird. At least with Sailor Moon I could kind of make sense of what the letters stood for. Even their season 4 being called "SuperS" kind of made sense as it was a super version of the previous Sailor Moon S. I have no earthly idea what G, GX, or AXZ are supposed to mean. I could come up with them. In fact, let's do that for this one. AXZ could have something to do with the phrase "A to Z". I'm really not sure and I'm spoilerphobic so I don't look up this sort of thing lest I see a big image that says everyone becomes a robot in the final season or something. I bring up Sailor Moon to make an interesting thesis statement, though. Symphogear AXZ is the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars of Symphogear. What the hell does that mean? Sailor Stars was many things. It was Sailor Moon's final season, and it was one gigantic mix of plot elements and tropes that were successful in the previous seasons. Sort of a nostalgic look back at what had come before, in a way. It also broke my heart at the end, but more on that later.

Symphogear AXZ does the same sort of thing in many ways, re-using idelogical conflicts, character archetypes, and lore from the previous seasons. Let's summarize real quick, shall we? We have re-iteration of Finè's grand goal to fuck with the moon and break the Curse Of Balal, the actual literal Tower Of Babylon myth which makes it so humanity can't mutually understand one another. We have a trio of antagonist girls who are convinced the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, working on the dark side in order to save the world. We have their leader, a selfish prick of a man manipulating them like puppets to reach his goal of being supreme ruler over humanity. Oh, and the antagonists are once again alchemists who transmute power creep to negate any advantage the Symphogear users have, necessitating training and self-reflection in order to overcome their foes. The question is, does re-using all these tools from Symphogear's toolbox help this season work? I think so. Well, I think the preamble has already gotten way too verbose. We'll see how it works when we deep dive into it. You know the drill. Get a refill on your coffee, and let me tell you about Symphogear AXZ.

"Then that's your punishment. If you do this, if you kill them all, then that's the consequence. You live. Gallifrey. You're going to burn it, and all those Daleks with it, but all those children too. How many children on Gallifrey right now?"

"I don't know."

"One day you will count them. One terrible night. Do you want to see what that will turn you into? Come on, aren't you curious?"

Part 1: Incantation Of Illuminati

Jesus Christ she's so fucking cool I love her

So, just to recap really quick, the first two seasons of Symphogear began with in media res darkness that made sense later. The previous season was a James Bond opening of wrapping up a loose plot thread from the season that had come before in the biggest and most bombastic way possible. Hibiki punched a goddamned hole through K2, y'all. How, then, does AXZ kick things off? Oh, in the biggest and most bombastic way possible. Unlike the last season, however, this bombastic action excursion is going to be plot relevant. Our Symphogear users are sent off to a politically unstable country in South America, where dictators are using leftover Alca-Noise and other heretical technology to run rampant. I focus on the feelings and not the spectacle, I like to think, but my notes for this section are all-caps shouting about how fucking cool it is. Let me confirm that, in my own erudite way; this shit is really fucking cool. Our girls come in on a ninja kite, they blast away soldier's guns without killing them, the army sends in tanks and Hibiki starts beating the shit out of the fucking tanks before a massive flying fortress is revealed and we take the battle to the air. Kirika and Shirabe, in a helicopter about to be blown up by a missile, open the doors of the chopper to let the missile fly right through. Tsubasa cuts the goddamned flying fortress in half and Hibiki drill punches through the rest, yeeting out of there with the dictator in tow. It is absolutely the coolest goddamned shit, and it'll put a dumb smile on your face and remind you why you like this show. At least, it did for me.

What's interesting, though, is where this is set. It's a politically unstable South American country, but it's not a real one. No, this place is called Val Verde. That name might make you perk up in recognition, like it did for me. Have you heard the name Val Verde before? You might have, but not from a Japanese action/sci-fi/magical girl show. It's a made-up stand in for a typical war-torn Central/South American country invented by American screenwriter Steven E. de Souza for use in late 80's/early 90's action movies. For my money, I remember it from Schwarzenegger's Commando and Die Hard 2. What's it doing here of all places? As far as I can gather, the people behind Symphogear were full-on channeling the late 80's action movie aesthetic and homaging it with Val Verde. The first two episodes of the show are set here, with conflicts and story arcs that will resonate deep. Even when we get back to Japan we'll be thinking of what went down in Val Verde. In particular, we get to see one character react to the suffering of the innocent Val Verde citizens with her typical stoic inner turmoil. Let's have a little chat about Chris again.

You remember Chris, right? The gun-toting badass who used to be an enemy but turned to our side, and has been struggling to belong and find her place in the world ever since? Do you recall her backstory from the first season? It was especially grim stuff. Her parents were humanitarian singers who travelled to war-torn countries, providing aid and uplifting the people with their songs. Then they got killed in a bombing, and a young Chris was captured and basically enslaved, making her believe there was no good in this world and that conflict had to end, thus allying herself with Finè's goal of mutual understanding. We know that she was uplifted and found redemption in the end, but now we're back at the source of her trauma. This is the place. Val Verde was the country in which Chris's parents were killed, and we get to see it via flashback. We also get to see someone else we didn't know about, but we'll have lots more to say about the Chris arc later. For now, this is interesting stuff to me. It's a season about revisiting all these conflicts and plot points, and we have Chris returning to the source of her original trauma, fighting to save the people with her songs in her own way. Granted, this takes the form of blasting Noise with bullets and missiles while singing instead of just playing the violin, but she really has followed in her family's footsteps. That's led her back here, but there's way more going on in Val Verde than just personal introspection. There are some masterminds at work down here.

The Bavarian Illuminati, as we get briefed on in flashback, appear to be the ultimate masterminds behind damn near everything in the series up to this point. As powerful alchemists, they helped construct the Chateau de Tiffauges which Carol wanted to use to dissect the world in her revenge. They also worked with FIS, their go-betweens being Doctors Nastassja and Ver (Prick.) in a bid to arm the organization with everything they needed. They're clearly getting flagged as the ultimate antagonists here, the dark plotters who put us through all the shit we've had to deal with. It isn't long before we get to see them, showing up at a Val Verde opera house where militia leaders are hiding out. They're the ones who helped to arm these banana republic bastards with heretical technology and Alca-Noise to flex their might, and now that there are Symphogears wrecking their big boys left and right they're panicking and wondering what to do. The Bavarian Illuminati, or at least the trio of girls we see here representing their Director, respond by singing a song and melting the militia leaders into life energy which they gather up. Well then. What are they going to do with that shit? For now, they head to the basement to find a lady encased in crystal. As Episode 2 shows us in film reel flashback, this crystal lady was brought to Val Verde by a goddamned Nazi fleeing justice at the end of World War 2. The crystal lady will be important later. So will World War 2. For now, though, when the Illuminati trio discover they're being spied on by SONG operatives, they take it pretty well.

You know, that's about what I expected, really. A different trio shows up to stop this dragon from running wild; the Frontier trio of Maria, Shirabe, and Kirika. They're on their last dose of the Model K LiNKER left over from the old days, so this is their last real shot to battle at full power. Unfortunately for them, alchemy is an absolute bastard with its power creep tricks, and the dragon has the power of a god. Specifically, it can "reverse the irreversible", which is just fancy alchemy talk for negating any damage it might take from attacks. This leads the Frontier trio to the noble King Arthur tactic of RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY. The Kadingir trio's not doing much better, mind. Hibiki, Chris, and Tsubasa attacked another militia guy's base to wreck all his Alca-Noise operations, but the leader got away and fled to a nearby town to take hostages. The three are led there by a local boy named Stephan, and they find this militia bitch with his hostages and his Noise and are caught in a stalemate. Stephan sneaks away before creating a brave distraction by kicking the militia leader in the head with a soccer ball, which is one hell of a distraction. Unfortunately the Alca-Noise shoot a tendril out, wrapping around his leg and starting to Thanos snap the poor kid. In a split second, Chris acts on impulse, and shoots Stephan's leg off before he can be dusted. Stephan's older sister Sonya is horrified by this, and what's worse for drama is that Chris and Sonya know each other. Sonya took care of little Chris when her parents were in Val Verde, and was there when the bomb that killed Chris's parents went off... and in flashback, we can see a tearful little Chris crying over her dead parents and blaming Sonya for it. Well. This will be a bit of an arc.

What will also be a bit of an arc are the Illuminati and their god dragon. The Frontier trio still have a bit of gas left in them, and so they get lured into another battle by one of the Illuminati members. Maria works to fight back the Illuminati girl, her plan being that if she doesn't let up her attack then the Illuminati can't summon the god dragon and fuck everything up. Things are going well until Kirika and Shirabe see a plane in danger, and they have to go and help it take off to save its pilots. Maria can't quite deal with the alchemist on her own, especially when two of them show up, and then the god dragon gets summoned. Sure, the remaining Symphogear users show up, but we're dealing with a god dragon here. We've seen it reverse any and all damage it can take! You can't fool me, show, I know how this alchemy bullshit goes. Hibiki is charging in to punch the shit out of it, it won't work, and we'll have a six episode arc about looking inward to find the power to--

Or that. That works, too. Actually one wonders how in the fuck she did that, but I promise you there's an explanation. We'll really get to play ball with it later, but I want to bail from this tangent for the time being. We've set up quite a lot. We have a trio of Illuminati girls with clashing ideologies and the power to summon a divine being. We have Chris's arc of her split-second decision, and her bad memories of Val Verde. We have the Frontier trio and their arc about regaining the power to fight, since they burned away the last of their LiNKER. There's even more shit we can play with as well. I'll pick a fitting theme to unite the early to middle episodes of the show, and we'll just go to town on it. AXZ has started off strong with these two episodes, raising a lot of potential and making one ask a lot of questions. Let's just... dig on in. 

(Continued in 4.2)