Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Symphogear AXZ, as our team stands on the brink of battle with the nefarious Bavarian Illuminati. Granted, that’s not really saying anything, considering our team has either been on the brink of or fully engaged in battle for basically every single moment of this season so far. AXZ’s first two episodes have been one continuous, ever-escalating action sequence, as the show seemingly attempts to construct an entire season with the no-brakes pacing and rolling action setpieces of your average Symphogear premiere. The show will undoubtedly have to catch its breath eventually, but right now it is soaring like a majestic eagle, scattering narrative tidbits like “the illuminati want to control history” or “Chris’ childhood trauma still haunts her” in the margins between its true passion: illustrating Symphogear users and alchemists beating the ever-loving crap out of each other. I salute Symphogear in its noble mission, and support its efforts to make a season-length run-on sentence out of one continuous action scene. LET’S GET TO THE FIGHT!

Episode 3

“A Horoscope Drawn By Gears.” This show has some delightfully nonsensical episode titles. I think my favorite is “Fate Keeps Firing” from the first season – it doesn’t really mean anything, but it feels super Symphogear, you know? That rascally Fate, of course it keeps firing

When last we left off, Hibiki had just broken through the enemy’s allegedly invincible giant snake by Just Punching Harder. This or holding hands is her solution to all problems, but to be fair, it’s pretty much always worked so far

“This is the end for you, Bavarian Illuminati!” Tsubasa just can’t help talking like that, huh

A slow establishing pan up their school and light piano carry us out of the OP, making it clear the show’s finally pausing to breathe. OPs are an interesting dramatic tool; here, the dramatic distance created by the OP is able to smooth what would otherwise be a jarring tonal clash

I appreciate that even in this slow montage of school activities, the emerging narrative is “Hibiki gets in trouble, her wife looks on in horror”

Miku brushing Hibiki’s fluffy hair is good

The alchemists do a little more explanation of their plan, but to be honest, my eyes glaze over the moment any Symphogear villain begins explaining anything. Symphogear villain plans tend to be total nonsense, generally only relevant in terms of setting absurd challenges like “we have to stop them from destroying the moon.” Rather than giving them coherent, sympathetic goals, Symphogear builds sympathy for its villains in a very different way: by demonstrating their endearing casual dynamic and clear concern for each other

Hibiki looks so dumbfounded after they disappear, like a puppy wondering where the ball went

Hibiki tries to hide her other worries, but Miku sees right through her. It is amusing to me that Symphogear is one of the few anime that actually celebrates the emotional give-and-take and navigation of trust inherent in a committed romantic partnership, through the vehicle of these extremely married girls. Miku has already entirely domesticated Hibiki at this point; there’s no dramatic will-they-or-won’t-they here, just the cozy warmth of two people who’ve been together forever

Pretty wild design for this resort the alchemists are staying at. While Symphogear’s visual design has overall improved significantly from its early seasons, one thing it unfortunately lost was the first season’s stellar background and architectural design, when the irreplaceable Thomas Romain stepped away as art director

Oh shit, Tiki’s an autoscorer

Convincingly staggered, doll-like motions for Tiki’s reawakening, and I like these planetarium effects for her booting process, which seem appropriate for her purpose and also just beautiful in the abstract

“So you’re still doing all that gloomy stuff about releasing humanity from the bonds that control it?” Tiki is just here to have a good time. Really great character acting for her; her playful attitude comes through clearly in her body language, while her movements remain true to her doll nature

Apparently Adam is their leader?

I love that they just keep their old-fashioned rotary phone on the railing of the balcony, where wind can make the curtains billow dramatically around it every time they receive a call

The phone isn’t even plugged into anything. Fine, magic phone, whatever

Tiki trying to figure out which end of the phone to speak into is adorable

Oh shit, Adam is played by Shinichiro Miki

“A strike that can overcome an irreversible invincibility that rises to the level of pseudo-godhood.” Yep, Hibiki punch good

But enough exposition, Tsubasa and Maria are under attack!

Once again, terrific new transformation sequence, for Tsubasa this time. I appreciate how the updated transformation sequences have essentially become one of this show’s seasonal promises

The lack of LiNKER is actually facilitating some unique action setpieces, as the main trio are essentially forced into a sort of escort role for their unpowered friends

“May your blood rust on the blade of my resolve!” Nana Mizuki just wilding out with the singing here. Tsubasa would not work if her voice actor did not have such a booming, enka-ready singing voice

After doing a bit of research, apparently Mizuki started training for enka singing when she was five years old. So yeah, Tsubasa’s got the stuff

Oh, damn. “The nazis gathered lots of magical relics” is a pretty classic conceit, but Japan’s alliance with Germany is rarely so directly acknowledged

Oh my god, Miku’s lock screen is Hibiki in a swimsuit. And while waiting for Hibiki, Miku just stands there smiling at it. Mikuuu

It does seem like Symphogear is attempting to at least somewhat pull its various worldbuilding threads together now, as opposed to just inventing new villains to stack on top of the old ones. There’s a sense of a larger global situation now, whereas before the show’s drama just sort of occurred in a generic near future

Some nice Inhuman Anime Girl Sounds as Hibiki realizes Chris is right behind her

Hibiki tries to think of ways to cheer Chris up, but then Chris actually cheers herself up by bullying Hibiki. FRIENDSHIP

This show’s storytelling is so absurd. Normally, a good metric for guiding your narrative is creating a sense of inevitability – once your inspiring incident is established, actions should generally feel like they are natural consequences of prior actions, creating a continuous chain of “therefore, this happens” events. But in Symphogear, we just have Palling Around Time for a while, and then Oh Shit the Noise Attacked, We Gotta Go! Rather than conventionally coherent narratives, Symphogear seasons feel like slice of life adventures that are perpetually coming under attack by swarms of angry birds

Of course, that’s far from an issue unique to Symphogear. Plenty of episodic narratives are constructed that way, and storytellers in general understand that willing audiences will bring a certain degree of credulity to your story, which you can either respect or strain to the breaking point, depending on your dramatic goals

Granted, some people make a big performance out of offering no credulity to narratives. That’s when you get stuff like CinemaSins, media responses by people who refuse to actually buy into what a story is selling, and then attempt to frame their refusal to engage as a marker of their critical acuity. If someone is actively seeking reasons to stop caring about a narrative, they will rarely be disappointed. Narratives are magic tricks with obvious strings, and while pointing out those strings can feel empowering, appreciating what those strings are attempting to achieve, and actively collaborating with them in embracing a well-executed fantasy, will generally result in a far richer relationship with art

The Alchemists use some power that seems to transport the Wielders to a private dimension, surrounded by glowing stars on a barren planet. Nice new backgrounds for this, and also animation-friendly ones; in space, rather than a city, it’s much easier to present dramatic camera movements while maintaining fluid animation

Hell yeah, Ignite Module time

The Ignite Module hearkens back to the hints of genuine horror built into season one’s transformations. I also appreciate that the soundtrack shifts to a chugging guitar riff and relentless double bass pedals for this extremely metal transformation

Chris can apparently fire speakers that resonate with their voices, allowing them to define the limits of this space through sonar-like means. A trick that feels just clever enough to mitigate the immediate “what, Chris can do what” reaction

“Let’s fire Hibiki like a bullet from a railgun” is one of my favorite Symphogear attacks

“This looks like a great place to pick a fight with God!” I love this show

And Done

What a beautiful, ludicrous show this is. Symphogear AXZ at last paused for a breath this episode, but really, it was more of a brief gasp than anything; in spite of featuring some welcome downtime with the main group and nonsensical exposition with the villains, we still had time for “Tsubasa slices through an exploding plane and catches Maria mid-flight,” as well as “the gang fight their way out of a pocket dimension.” For all that action, my favorite beat from this episode had to be Miku’s locked screen; absurd action scenes are fun and all, but it’s the overflowing love these characters have for each other that really makes Symphogear shine. Here’s hoping they continue to embarrass the heck out of Chris with more lovey-dovey shenanigans.

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