Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are absolutely continuing our journey through Symphogear AXZ, as our last episode left us on a… hm, is there a unique word for a positive cliffhanger? Like, normally “you need to know what’ll happen next” is something relevant to a moment of great narrative uncertainty and distress, but in this case, we’re not hanging on to see “how will the good guys get out of this one” – the good guys are fine, and actually just resolved their whole LiNKER subplot last episode. We’re instead in the reverse case: “wait and see just how badly the good guys beat the crap out of the villains.” I’m actually pretty certain that’s still just a cliffhanger, but either way, with all six wielders now at full strength, episode six left us with the promise of a full ensemble battle, or at least an immediate forced retreat by those dastardly alchemists. Let’s see where our journey takes us in another episode of SYMPHOGEAAAR!
Episode 7
Our cold open is pure catch-up. Once again, they’re hoping to break the “Curse of Balal” that Fine was fighting against as well. It might help us to invest in these folks if we had some understanding of the negative consequences this “Curse of Balal” has inflicted upon humanity – then again, Symphogear’s villains have always been made sympathetic through their personal bonds, not through the righteousness of their cause
Symphogear occupies this interesting space where Hibiki is constantly attempting to reach out to her opponents, but her opponents pretty much uniformly pursue vague supervillain goals, thus making it difficult to reach any sort of understanding in terms of their motivations. Because of this, and because of the show’s general style of characterization, it instead tends to forge these connections on purely personal, emotional grounds – “you care about your friends just like I do,” “you seek a family just like I do,” and stuff like that. It works well enough, and allows the villains’ actual objectives to be bombastic shit like blowing up the moon
Ooh, “Arcana No. 00.” This show has mastered the art of episode titles that sound like speed metal songs
So apparently our unequal world order, where humans control other humans, is caused by “the Curse of Balal carved into our souls.” Hell yes, the alchemists are space communists
“But that doesn’t give you the right to sacrifice others!” The age-old conflict, capable of carving a divide between any groups of do-gooders: “do sufficiently righteous ends justify morally abominable means?”
Goddamn alchemist bullets, undergoing alchemical transformations halfway through their flight
I am in love with this croquet mallet/croquet ball combo that Prelati uses as a weapon
Oh no, the babies are Ignite Moduling! DON’T DO IT BABIES
“For the sake of tomorrow, my bullets will not hesitate.” An epic declaration from St. Germain, only slightly undercut by the immediate butt shot afterwards
Hibiki is in part a useful protagonist precisely because she’s kind of an idiot. Her virtuous ideals are undeniable, but her perspective is very limited; her only response to Cagliostro explaining the unfairness of the world is to say “but we should all be nice to each other,” which obviously isn’t a convincing argument to someone attempting to address human suffering on a global scale
Then she shoots a bullet that turns into an energy dragon. Love this show
“You can’t make a tomorrow where no one hurts anyone by hurting someone today.” Hibiki’s actually do a far better job of debating here than she usually does
And yeah, it seems like she’s actually rattled St. Germain, who calls off the attack
“Could it be the ley lines that Carol was using?” This season is actually doing a pretty reasonable job of following up on the inventions of prior seasons, incorporating bits of Fine, Ver, and Carol’s plans and tools into its own drama. It’s a fair enough way to retroactively add a sense of cohesion to this world
Kirika and Shirabe doing sad puppy pouts as they apologize
Miku and Hibiki being adorably domestic together has become one of this show’s signature treats. Miku in both an apron and slippers here, really leaning into her supportive housewife role, as she scolds Hibiki for not telling her how she was doing
“If you want something, does that mean giving up something else?” I love Miku’s look of shock at Hibiki presenting this Deep Thought
“Is it selfish just wanting to make everything work out?” “I like it when you’re selfish, Hibiki!” This is so good! Genuinely great character work here, as Hibiki actively works to puzzle through her misunderstandings with St. Germain, and Miku supports her by reminding her that her stubbornness is generally only a result of her kindness. These two really possess the deep, abiding fondness and support of people who love each other. Narratives demand conflict, but I am consistently grateful that Symphogear chose for its central relationship to be one of already-present love and mutual support
This episode is also using Hibiki’s backstory from season three to strong effect, both in her St. Germaine argument and this scene here. It’s actually used better here than it was back in season three!
“On that day, I decided I didn’t want to run in front of someone, but walk beside them together.” Even back in middle school, Miku had come to understand that she was Hibiki’s Wife City
Oh my god, Miku looks at Hibiki with such love in her eyes. THESE TWO
“If doing what you want to do makes you selfish, I’ll support you in being selfish.” They have such supportive, honest conversations now. We so rarely see this kind of relationship growth in anime – generally “they finally admitted their feelings” is as far as shows go. It’s actually in these sorts of slice of life-styled relationships, where a relationship isn’t necessarily underlined in the dialogue, but is obviously, deeply coded into the text, that we often get a fuller picture of an ongoing, healthy relationship. Neither conflict nor relational growth end when two characters actually get together, and I love how Symphogear keeps celebrating the continual growth of these two
Meanwhile Adam is lounging in a jacuzzi with his cowboy hat on
It seems Cagliostro and Prelati are loyal to St. Germain, not Adam. Their organization is pretty loosely defined
“This was left over when Hibiki fused with Gungnir and became a living generator.” Hearing the characters casually recount the absurd events of previous seasons is always a good time
“The Philosopher’s Stone was created by viewing the entire world as one single life form. But this garbage was created from a single life form: Hibiki. In other words, they were created in a completely opposite manner.” And THAT’s their explanation for how they counter the Faust Robes – because they can counter a force composed of All Things with a force composed of its exact opposite, One Thing? Symphogear, you really test me sometimes
And so they head off to the Undersea Dragon Temple, to recover the Fool’s Stone
Returning to Undersea Dragon Temple reminds Chris of another time she just blew something up to solve her problems. Chris having a growth arc of “maybe violence ISN’T always the answer” seems about right
Still, once again, I appreciate them finding some tethers of continuity among the show’s prior seasons, rather than just sending them on vaguely defined missions and having the Noise appear
Oh shit, the Noise appeared
“A happy-go-lucky girl from the depths of hell!” Kirika’s theming isn’t the most coherent, but she owns it
I really like the unique alchemy powers they’ve created for each of the Illuminati members. Cagliostro’s water wall is a very visually compelling trick
Chris keeps trying to intimidate Cagliostro, but Cagliostro interprets all of it as flirting. A good dynamic, those two
“Calamity Ring Tinkerbell” is an incredible attack name
Gosh, their lyrics are so adorable together. “The moon can never shine on its own” versus “what can I do to be a sun that protects the moon?” Anime and musical theater are two of the mediums that most naturally, eagerly embrace melodramatic storytelling and emotional self-expression, and Symphogear is the natural, brilliant result of their synthesis
The power of true love seems to have… blown up Prelati? Like in season three, this is one of the sadder consequences of Symphogear’s ever-expanding scope – they can’t really add more leads at this point, so eventually we need to say goodbye to each season’s new array of charming villains
And now Adam wants St. Germain to sacrifice Cagliostro! The fiend!
And Done
Well, that sure was a characteristically action-packed episode of Symphogear. Once again, the action highlight this week went to Kirika and Shirabe, who frequently earn some of the most dynamically choreographed combo attacks of the overall production – but there were fun cuts to spare this week, from the beautiful impact frames of Hibiki’s clashes with Germain, to the satisfying combination of fluidity and impact provided by Prelati’s fantastic croquet weapon. Additionally, this episode spoiled us with one of Miku and Hibiki’s most charming domestic vignettes yet, with both Hibiki’s honesty and Miku’s gentle support demonstrating how much their relationship has matured over time. And with the Undersea Dragon Temple mission nearing its conclusion, I’m guessing the time is near when we’ll get to see our original leads power up into brand new forms!
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