#i did some drawing tho and watched a few episodes of jojo

[rinhaler]

feel like i havent talked to u guys for so long i hope ur all doing good :3

[funkaliciousfrog]

I’ve finished Symphogear! I have a lot of thoughts and mixed feelings and it all ended up pretty long so it’s under the cut. Spoilers for the whole series ofc.

The more stuff I watch, the more I think that maybe straight-up action just isn’t for me. I can still appreciate a good fight scene, and some of my all-time faves are battle shonen like Jojo and Hunter x Hunter. Even so, whenever there’s an extended stretch of straight-up fighting, like a tournament arc or a 3+ episode long boss fight, my eyes tend to kind of glaze over. Action alone is just kinda boring, to keep my interest there’s gotta be something else going on like character development, or clever strategies, or humor, or really anything. 

I think that disdain for pure action is the main reason why I didn’t get as much out of Symphogear as other people seem to have. It's main draws are really 1) hype 2) cool over the top fights and 3) the music (I’ll get to that later), and all the other parts of the show are the bare minimum necessary to keep it from falling apart. This especially showed in seasons 2-4, where the bulk of the episodes followed the same structure: the enemies to show up in the middle and start attacking something, the heroes show up to stop them and we get a ~cool fight~, and then one of the parties retreats. There’s still plot and character progression, but it’s sprinkled in around and in the fights. It’s a very 90s Sailor Moon filler episode vibe for me... which is a little concerning considering that Symphogear has 13 episodes per season and Sailor Moon has 50. 

Some people clearly enjoy these episodes for their cool fights, but they wore on me after a while. It even took me out of the show a bit by reminding me that it owes its existence largely to character song CD sales. By the second season we’ve got 6 main characters who all need at least one new song every season, and only 13 episodes to get them all in. So, it felt like a lot of these fights were just there to get in the obligatory character song of the week so they can slap it on the CD. 

The first season seems to be universally agreed to be the roughest, with dated animation, lots of edge, and bad writing. But, I actually enjoyed it the most. The messy plot and excessive amount of blood and explosions contributed to the show’s wacky over the top tone, even if in a so-bad-it’s-good way at times. Personally I don’t go out of my way to hunt for plot holes, and I can deal with some nonsense if it makes it more fun. And so, I had more fun on season 1′s wacky wild ride than with the more polished but also more formulaic later seasons. 

Another thing I liked more about season 1 was the extra focus on a smaller cast of main characters. Like I mentioned earlier, by season 2 we’ve got 6 characters. So, each one only gets a few of dedicated scenes each, which isn’t really enough time for an actual character arc. And then after Maria’s group joins the heroes in season 3, our 6 main characters have to split time even further with the villains. It doesn’t help that I didn’t care much about most of the villains, with the exceptions of Dr. Ver (although mostly on a meme level since he’s just Sugita set loose in the booth) and the Illuminati (I’m a bit biased there as a Shouta fan but I did genuinely like them). There’s just not time to give meaningful attention to allllll those characters in 13 episodes.

But, in season 1 the main cast is smaller and the final villain only shows up near the end. So, we’re pretty much dealing with just Hibiki, Tsubasa, and Chris (and Miku ig). They all get enough time for a decent character arc, be it Hibiki finding her reason to fight, Tsubasa moving on from Kanade’s death, or Chris learning to play nice with others. As mentioned the writing isn’t the best, for instance even I have to agree that Miku getting angry at Hibiki for hiding literal classified military intel from her was pretty stupid. But, I still enjoyed the main trio’s arcs a lot and they got me more attached to them than any of the characters introduced in later seasons. 

Although I’ve been complaining about the later seasons quite a bit, I do agree with everyone who has commented on how well the writers managed to pick up old plot threads and bits of lore and incorporate them into the current story. They even managed to make Fine’s crazy rant about being in love with God that came out of nowhere at the end of season 1 kinda make sense in XV, which is really quite a feat. 

Now of course I have to talk about the music! My favorite OPs remain the two I already knew before watching the show, Synchrogazer (LISTEN TO MY SONG!) and Metanoia (LIIIIIIIVE!). None of the other OPs or EDs really stuck out to me, but admittedly I have a bad habit of skipping them if I don’t like them immediately. I do plan on eventually going back and giving them another listen to see if any of them grow on me. 

To be honest most of the insert songs didn’t stick with me either. They were all fine enough and worked well in the context of the show, but over time it all starts blending together and they’re just not really something I’d listen to on my own time. The exception would be Tsubasa’s songs, since I always love a mix of pop/rock and traditional Japanese music, and Nana is in her element sounding great. For me no other insert song ever managed to top her first song, Zettou Ame no Habakiri. But I also liked the lyrics for Chris’s songs cause they were funny, Tsubasa and Kanade’s duet from the very first episode, and both of Carol’s songs. 

Speaking of Carol’s songs, Minase Inori really surprised me there. I had checked out some of her own music before, but none of it was really my thing so I kind of forgot about her even though she was clearly a pretty good singer. But, she sounds even better singing in a more dramatic and aggressive style as Carol. Just listen to her performance at the Symphogear live! I think it would be cool if she got a chance to show off those chops and sing some more aggressive songs in her solo career. King Records has done the same transition from cutesy upbeat jpop to hard rock/jpop before with Nana... just saying... (tho like I said I’ve only listened to a few of Minase’s songs, so maybe she does go hardcore at some point idk)

And to wrap things up... that very last scene was kind of BS. What is this vague Legend of Korra nonsense, just admit it! Hibiki and Miku are IN LOVE!!!