You know what, screw it, we’re watching more Symphogear. Everyone’s presumably still stuck inside due to COVID, and at this point, it’s beginning to feel like time has no meaning, and the world has spun off its axis entirely. Fortunately, that’s precisely the right attitude to take into Symphogear, which concluded its last episode on the line “believe it or not, this is a great place to pick a fight with God,” and has refused to make much more sense than that at any point in its distinguished run.

I could tell you that last episode helped clarify season four’s narrative trajectory, but you’d know full well I’d be lying. Symphogear narratives are essentially driven by a massive switch labeled LOVE EACH OTHER and KILL EACH OTHER, which seesaws between modes seemingly at random, while ensuring each episode receives its allotted combination of charming relationships and thundering explosions. Symphogear is the anime equivalent of an adrenaline shot and a warm hug, and I think that’s a combination we could all use in these dark days. Let’s get to it!

Episode 4

This episode’s title is “Golden Transformation,” which almost makes an inappropriate amount of genuine sense, given alchemists’ historical preoccupation with transmuting gold

Looks like we’re getting St. Germain’s backstory, from back when the whole world was grey and dreary

She was the daughter of a slave who was left to starve, and now presumably wants to stop similar injustices

“The technology of alchemy exists to fix a world controlled by others…” If there were any indications of this “control” that villains like St. Germain or the original Fine were rebelling against, Symphogear might possess some genuine moral ambiguity, and perhaps even a sense of larger purpose and structure. But the fact is, the show just wasn’t designed that way – no one could have forecast it would last two, three, or eventually five seasons, and thus the seasons don’t really have much sense of larger congruity, and any sense of narrative holism or inevitability must be assigned in this retroactive fashion

Symphogear’s situation is something pretty common to any sequentially released art, be it a weekly comic or a series of novels. The holism of narrative design that we often associate with great storytelling isn’t necessarily based in a writer knowing everything they want to depict before starting to write – often, it is actually the process of writing a story that clarifies that story’s shape, offering lessons which you can then apply to your revisions of the overall structure. But for works that are released sequentially, one chapter or season at a time, it’s impossible to revise the first act in order to better fit the last act – and so we often end up with somewhat messy narratives, which seem to paddle in circles before eventually deciding what they’re “really” about

I’ve actually recently been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and its followup Legend of Korra, and those properties demonstrate this issue with crystal clarity – The Last Airbender knows its full running time and uses it to fullest effect, whereas Korra, which was renewed on an unstable seasonal basis, has no real sense of larger purpose or structure

Ooh, some really nice architecture for the alchemists’ skyscraper lair

Tiki is Bored. I like the subtle rattling noises they include for her mechanical limbs moving

“Saint Germain is doing the final tuning on our Faust Robes.” This show’s haphazard historical and literary references are going to kill me. What exactly is a Faust Robe – a robe you have to make a deal with the devil to wear? I feel like I’m supposed to just treat terms like that as cool foreign words, but it’s hard

Cagliostro decides to go fight the wielders without her robe, because Sex Joke Sex Joke Sex Joke. This is what I meant about Symphogear’s giant switch-based storytelling

Not a fan of Tiki’s total preoccupation with this Adam character

Apparently S.O.N.G.’s predecessor was the Kazanari Organization, which began collecting relics as far back as WWII. It remains refreshing to see an anime so directly and centrally acknowledge Japan’s alliance with Germany – most references to that era, particular in the context of an action show, tend to just celebrate famous military hardware

Incidentally, if you want to see an anime that REALLY Gets Into It regarding WWII, you absolutely need to see In This Corner of the World. Heck, if you’re just a fan of anime that are good, you really need to see that film

The chief states that the government’s thinking must be “what we need to protect isn’t people, it’s the country.” We’re even getting some moral ambiguity regarding their current role! Genuinely excited to see the story add some texture in this way

With no LiNKER, Maria and her daughters are relegated to marching around and warning civilians to get out of the area

Kirika Loves Tomatoes

Shirabe and Kirika really do compliment each other wonderfully. This show understands chemistry and character contrast extremely well; as unique as its fights are, it wouldn’t be nearly the phenomenon it’s become, and absolutely would not have lasted this long, if it didn’t have such investment-worthy central relationships

Nice visual gag here, as Kirika pushes a splitscreen open to complain about being called a dango

The three of them kinda are dango colored though, Cagliostro got ‘em

“I’ll take you out before the traffic lights start flashing!” Cagliostro just laying waste to the Symphogears with these color-based nicknames

Time for Chris’ transformation, which is appropriately heavy on chugging guitar riffs and crunchy metal noises – more like a mech assembling than a graceful costume switch

“The hit girl, giving you kisses with my bullets until the very last one runs out.” Chris lyrics are so good

Nice narrative of combat to Hibiki’s appearance, as Cagliostro uses the obvious opening of Chris drawing her bow, which turns out to be bait in order to open her up for a Hibiki counter. Efficient, well-illustrated little combat beat

“Movies teach you everything you need to know!”

Maria’s hair and eyes compliment each other so well. This show’s color theming is top notch

“The trick to raising sweet tomatoes is to put them in a harsh environment.” This is a charming moment for Maria, and I even appreciate that in extremely Symphogear fashion, this on-the-nose metaphor concludes with the old lady outright saying “I bet tomatoes and people are the same”

We finally get a call from Genjuro’s boss, Kamakura. Symphogear has never really possessed a political dimension before, or any real ambiguity in terms of its moral sides, so I’m interested in seeing where they go with this seemingly antagonistic government official

“You are to drive these barbarians from the land of Japan.” What a loaded closing line! Alluding to “barbarians,” and specifically saying they must be driven from Japan, calls directly back to pre-WWII assumptions of Japanese martial and cultural supremacy. It seems their overseer is a pretty hardline nationalist. Wild to see Symphogear, of all shows, delving into Japan’s ambiguous relationship with its historical identity, where a return to prewar pride is often explicitly tethered to a rejection of Japan’s twentieth century atrocities

We flash back to Maria’s torturous training under “Mom.” I really hope they’re not trying to imply Maria being tortured was actually something Mom did out of kindness, to make her strong

Terrific flame animation for Tsubasa’s attack on the alchemists here

And some nice impact frames for Tsubasa being blown back. The filter effects here really emphasize the distinct contrast of energies

The Faust Robes totally wipe the floor with the Ignite Modules

The alchemists begin to explain how they made such powerful robes, but it’s all nonsense. Symphogear is pretty terrible when it comes to tactically grounded combat – characters tend to scale on a linear “their power has outgrown my power” metric, meaning strategy isn’t a key part of conflict in the way it is in something like Hunter x Hunter. Symphogear stakes its fights’ drama on very different variables – the emotions of its characters, and the sheer excitement of its visual spectacle

At last, Adam arrives. “Controlling Director Adam Weishaupt,” to be precise

Aaaand Adam immediately gets naked

And Done

Welp, I’m pretty sure Adam just dropped a nuke on our heroes. I assume they’ll find a way to escape this one, but still – nuke, directly on their heads, while half the cast is unconscious and the other half is actively destroying their bodies. That aside, this was altogether a bit of a transition episode, though in Symphogear’s case that meant we still got multiple dazzling fight scenes. My biggest current concern is that the absence of LiNKER that is currently handicapping the B team just isn’t that compelling of a conflict; Kirika and Shirabe have dealt with anxieties regarding their weaker powers all throughout the series, and keeping them from fighting just to revisit that well seems like a poor use of the show’s resources. Still, the appearance of Adam means the story is at least moving along, and I’m particularly intrigued to see if this season goes anywhere with its political commentary. With three seasons of madcap adventure already in the bag, is Symphogear at last deciding it really has something to say?

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