Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Since this was in storage for quite sometime I finally decided to watch, and finished this anime. This is pretty much action-y, but at the same time, it has a pretty deep story to it, and is kind of entertaining. For people that love action, I think you guys may or may not like this anime, since the action isn't really the main focus, cuz they focus more on the plot I would say..

Story 8/10
Started of pretty good on how they kind of went to the future, and then goes back to what happen to get there, like a lot of anime I know. It ... moves at a good pace, and that's good since in my opinion it explained to me more about what's going on. Mostly this anime probably wants the watcher to be sad when they watch it, but it turns out to be a pretty happy story after watching all the episodes.

Art 7/10
They could make some more improvements on the way the made the characters, since in some scenes, after they got beaten up pretty badly. They came back fighting looking fresh as new in so little time. Of course, they have quick regeneration skills, but still I don't think it's suppose to be that quick. Sometimes, the motion when the character walks seems kinda unrealistic and that's, for me, a disturbing thing.

Sound 8/10
Not bad at the sound. The pitch when the characters scream, sweep, or are cheerful is very good. The best part of the sound I liked is the part where they make the crying of some characters pretty short. In some anime they just made the crying very long, which is pretty annoying, maybe because they want to waste time cuz they can't think of anything.

Character 8/10
It's great to find anime were the character doesn't piss you off so much that you just wanna smash your head into your keyboard. The characters are well made. The way they act, and talk to each other seems pretty much like real life. On top of that, a character tries to make this anime sounds like it's really "not" an anime, and that it was real life for them.

Enjoyment 9/10
I don't really think I could say much, since I saw the rating on this anime, and it's not that good at all. For me, it was a nice experience watching this, and I don't really think a fan of a serious action would wanna watch this, since the action in this anime is not quite that great, and the moves the characters have are repeated a lot of times, and there a not a lot of new moves.

Overall 8/10
I guess this is my final say on how good the anime was during my time watching it. This is, I think, a pretty girly anime.... I say that cuz of the not so violence parts ( even though there was a lot of blood ) in this anime. Maybe if they increased the intensity of the fights, that might have helped to give it a higher rating..

What a mind-blowing anime. Every bit of goodness packed in about 30 minutes of futuristic action packed visuals, eardrum blowing sound and a story that, so far looks to be heading to the right direction for one of the most viewed, most popular, eyes popping anime of the year. Fanboys rejoice, even though its only the first episode thats currently out I can already tell that this is chuck full with allot of emotions that will make you cry both for tears of joy and sadness (I had water in my eyes throughout the whole episode). The gods of anime have answered my prays and ... delivered to us his blessing with Senki Zesshou Symphogear.

Not to give too much away. The story is revolved around Hibiki Tachibana who was to go with her best friend Miku Kohinata that couldn't make it to their first live concert to witness "Twei Wing" (the popular vocal group as written in the description) only to have the concert attacked by creatures called Noise. During the attack the group Twei Wing two members Tsubasa and Kanade transformed into their battle gear called 'Symphogear' to defeat and protect the people from "Noise" only to have something go terribly wrong (watch the anime to know what happens).

Story thus far- 8/10 stating a flawless anime right away is just not in me)
Art- 10/10 (the transformations are freaking awesome)
Sound- 10/10 (turn those sub-woofers up)
Characters- 10/10 (it just started and they just lovable) no haters on board this bus

End note
If you love anime allot and don't watch this gtfo (just kidding this is a must see and a great series to open your year with
If your new to anime I recommend this hands down two thumbs and big toes crossed.
you'll not regret you picked this up

I'll be honest, this is probably what I've been most psyched for this season besides Nisemonogatari and I'll tell you why.

Magical Girl meets Gundam meets The World Ends With You.

Okay so maybe the ties to TWEWY are in the enemy designation only, (They're called Noise in case you hadn't guessed) but I stand by Magical Girl Gundam, even if I wasn't sure of the comparison at the beginning of the show, by the end with that 3rd transformation sequence, I was more than convinced as the parts for her suit grew out of her body.

The show starts off with a flash forward, before coming back ... into the present within the first 5 minutes, before skipping time again by I'd say a few months, weeks at the least. It took a while, but at least by this point the pace settles nicely.

I don't want to say too much, because I don't like spoiling stuff, but Symphogear is quite an amazing piece of tv deliciousness even if it isn't even nearly the best thing out there. Its stylistic, almost to the point of Shaftyness without the Shaft, fight scenes are well choreographed, the dubbing is done with an amazing grace (Although there is one point where Hibiki is running and her strained breathing sounds entirely too fake) and the musical jams that pop up every now and then brought a smile to my face.

At the end of the day this is only an episode 1 impression and by the end of it my tune might have changed almost entirely, but for now I say give Senki Zesshou Symphogear a shot, a this point, you won't be disappointed, except with how much of a cocktease the damn thing is.

It is said that there are seven wonders in this world, but the eighth and most important one that is often forgotten is a series that from start to finish is just a feel-good brain-off hype-fest. I dunno why all the other scores for this show are so low or what kind of no-nonsense all-business attitudes people had while watching this air, but holy crap are you missing out on a fun time if you judge this based on conventional merits.

Let me give you a few tips about watching Symphogear:

1. Get a drink. not a hardcore drink. Nothing with vodka. Just throw some peppermint schnopps ... into a smoothie. Or grab a hard cider. Just make sure it's fruity or sugary and that it tastes good.

2. Set up a BIG SCREEN. Get a projector, or a massive flat-screen TV. Make sure this thing covers an entire wall.

3. Turn UP the volume. Don't worry about your ears, they'll be dead soon anyways with the way our generation listens to music. Within a minute you won't care about the pounding pressure on your eardrums because the singing from the first scene will be like an enchanting siren luring you away from the confines of reality.

4. Don't stop to think about anything unless that thought is incredibly stupid.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear, a title I just shamelessly crl+c'd from the top of this page, is one of the absolutely dumbest shows out there. The show has about 3000 different tones crammed into each episode, the characters spew incomprehensible muddled philosophy and nonsense from long-forgotten action movies, the plot was seemingly written by the same guy who spearheaded Mars of Destruction, and the direction can't decide if this is an idol show or a horror movie. However, in spite of all this, Symphogear is not bad. Yes, you heard me, SYMPHOGEAR IS A GOOD SHOW, because what Symphogear is is fun, and fun is good. There is only one way to watch a show like this: to throw yourself into it completely, to get wildly over-invested in the petty drama and bullshit character turns. You can't half-ass it. I repeat, you CANNOT HALF-ASS THIS SHOW. You cannot wait for it to come to you, to entertain you through your one-in headphone and half-closed eyes. You must cast yourself into the ABYSS, and there you will discover new, nonsensical truths, such as the truth that Hibiki is in fact a Bear Grylls-Ghandi hybrid and a fucking BEAST or the truth that MY GIRL MIKU has all of the chaotic emotional complexity of an especially tormented FAULKNER PROTAGONIST and that she will go down in history as a LEGEND and a TRIUMPH over the darkness of human nature.

It's actually a very difficult thing to achieve, to hit the 'so stupid and nonsensical that it's hilarious' button while also holding down the 'actually care about the characters' lever, but I believe that the key lies in a couple of rather important choices Symphogear makes. First of all, it's not ALL stupid. It doesn't reinvent itself every episode or try to just spam random for kicks. It tries to stick to a central story and some cohesive character arcs that it takes very seriously, and it's the fact that Symphogear is actually tied together by something earnest and traditional that makes all of its dumb, off-the-wall moments so much more effective. Its shockingly out-of-place side plots ARE actually out of place, which makes them MUCH funnier, and the fact that it doesn't take things to the very extremes of "wtf" TOO often means that when it does, it's a golden chocolate treat rather than an overused device. There's an ample amount of petty melodrama in the show that keeps the overarching plot from ever being the backbone the series is resting on, which is very much a good thing. Also, the fact that the show saves all of its biggest cards for the end means that it has a legitimate build with an insane payoff, and you'll likely find yourself cheering and screaming at the screen all at once for the last four episodes straight if you're watching the show properly (as described above.) Finally though, Symphogear's greatest asset is simple and easy: clean, honest positivity. The show never gets nasty or negative, nor does it descend into the world of cheap gimmicks like questionable fan-service or out-of-nowhere dark twists. In an era polluted by cynicism, Symphogear just wants to have a good time with the characters that it loves so dearly, and THAT is invaluable.

So, yeah. Don't listen to the haters. Don't worry about the details. Just jump around, yell at the screen, and aggressively cheer for Chris. This show has no deep message or profound moments or original plot devices.

It just wants to see you grinning like an idiot.

Despite a weak start and a weak team of writers, Symphogear still manages to be somewhat enjoyable if just for the absurdity of it all.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to deliver the type of dark story we are shown in the first episode, rather the show is riddled with Dues Ex Machinas and plot holes. The characters and their backgrounds are written at a barely passable quality, but fortunately this seems to get better as the show goes on (except for the background characters who remain terrible the entire show).

Fortunately I found the music, gear design and battle scenes made up for the rest of the ... weakness - the songs are beautiful (especially in the last episode) and full of energy and the Symphogear units remain fun to watch the entire time.

If you're willing to let the poor writing slide and enjoy the show for it's good qualities you'll find it enjoyable. On the other hand if plot holes, flat characters and contrived backstories are a pet peeve of yours you will probably want to avoid the show.

The amazingly ridiculous, absurd battles in the last three episodes made the entire show worth it for me in the end.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is an anime surrounded by music by Nana Mizuki (not only her, but a large part is). I gave an overall score of 8, which could come from my love for the music of Nana Mizuki, but I do believe there are serious flaws in this anime.

Story:
The story is the main flaw in Senki Zesshou Symphogear. I actually am impressed that they made an anime of 13 episodes which doesn't feel rushed even though quite some things happen. But the "why" in why are things happening is explained but when you hear it, it's kind of lame. Though the concept around ... the "true reason" is actually nice. I believe they should have made is 26 episodes and not 13, this way they could have made the plot better.

Art:
The art is not especially impressive, but (and I'm trying not to spoil here) the art while fighting is different and I like it =) Though understand that while I'm saying that the art is not especially impressive, it's just that the art is at a level that I've come to expect and hope from anime. The series is well animated.

Sound:
Well, you've got me there. Nana Mizuki for the win! But seriously, the music is good and it gives something extra to certain scenes. They re-use songs in the anime, but what I also noticed is that some songs actually represent the growth in the characters. So besides the fact that I just like this kind of music, it was also very well chosen.

Characters:
Surprisingly for an anime with only 13 episodes, the characters go through quite some growth without feeling rushed. The feelings they portray are also quite understandable and when you think how you would feel in that person's place, you usually come to the conclusion you would probably feel the same (well, at least a part. I will never end up in the situations they end up in).

Enjoyment:
For some brainless entertainment with good music, I say yes I enjoyed it quite a lot. I found myself craving for the next episode because I just wanted to know how it would go on, but constantly had to wait another week.

Overall:
Like i mentioned before, for some brainless entertainment with good music and without too much going on that you won't understand: it's good. I suppose you have to like this kind of anime, but if you do you will enjoy it. If you want an anime that's very wel thought through, with an in depth story line: this is not your anime. Since I like to have some easier animes once in a while, I enjoyed it quite a lot and perhaps even rewatch it sometime. Even though the rewatch value is quite low, as you will understand after the last episode. ;)

Well that was my opinion on Senki Zesshou Symphogear, hope it helped =)

cheers!

A hidden gem that shines tremendously bright.

Symphogear is pretty much the best Anime I have seen to date, and my immediate pick when asked for an absolute favorite.

There are simply so many things done so well, I couldn't hope to cover even half talking for days on end. The show feels powerful to watch, and was absolutely mesmerizing when turned on for the very first time. It genuinely blew me away so far and so fast, it'll be a very tough act to follow. And yet, it does, 4 more times.

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Symphogear has a good plot, but it doesn't spell out the conflict immediately, and instead ... prepares what may appear to be unrelated story elements. It does take a little while before the villains, Finé and Chris, are properly introduced, until which point the B plot is focused on a lot more. Said B plot is still good, but being primarily non-combat-performance segments there isn't much opportunity to use the precise style that make the rest of Symphogear so exceptional. I would say, though, that this hesitance to get going pays off, as it allows for the escalation in the last act to have a much bigger payoff. At the same time, the elements i mentioned being setup each have a logical purpose in the climax, making for very satisfying viewing.

As for characters, there are each written very well. A great part of this is because, I'm led to believe, the central few take inspiration from their actual VAs, most notably Tsubasa and Hibiki. Such a technique isn't too common, but it does work nicely toward making the characters and their actions feel realistic. These two, along with Hibiki's companion Miku and the already mentioned Chris form the most integral characters, and they are given enough time to establish arcs, as well as all to reach toward the same conclusion, which is paced very well, especially as they coincide with the culmination of the plot.

The side characters are also really fun. They're given a lot less screentime, but use it well. Commander Genjuuro in particular is a charm to watch, and he thankfully gets expanded on a lot more in later seasons. Yumi, another of Hibiki's friends, also makes for decent comic relief, and even gets a small joke arc of her own near the end. The final villain Finé is perhaps the weakest significant character, and the large bulk of her defining moments come later in the series.

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Then, there is Symphogear's greatest asset: the music. It's absolutely godlike, to put it mildly. The only place I've been able to find a better soundtrack is the sequels. Symphogear unveils a new song almost every episode, and the talent behind them is incredible. Each character has a distinct and easily recalled theme, that not only synchronizes with their fighting style but actually represents it. Not only that, but the singing, all expert of course, is integrated really well by being fully diegetic. The VAs stumble a lyric when their characters fall, and just scream the line when performing a powerful move. It manages to fully realise the logistics of singing while fighting and make it believable that the music exists in-universe. And that's not even addressing the OP and ED, a pair of songs that fit the show perfectly and are excellent themselves to boot.

Regretfully, Symphogear has rather sub-par art and animation. I've always attested these are the least important aspects to an Anime, despite the name, and considering how good Symphogear is in all other areas I'm only reinforced of this thought. Nevertheless, I should cover it. While the designs of the characters and especially the Symphogears themselves are really good, they are best seen in the artstyle of the sequels. Critical scenes do maintain reasonable animation, and despite the sparse lighting there are a lot of good set designs.

Which segues of course into the world design. There are a surprising amount of superstructures in Symphogear, and far more show up on the sequels. They do look pretty good, and are distinct enough to be easily recognisable. The Noise are a mixed bag, as I thought the designs of the most common Noise were great, but some of the larger, rarer types I didn't too much of a shine to. Their abilities were very unique, however, making them a suddenly much more formidable force. That just about leaves the lore of the Relics and Symphogears themselves, and as something of a mythology buff I can attest that research was done. The abilities and forms some take match the stories behind them, and others are creatively re-imagined.

I'd also want to take a moment to mention the stylisation of the combat. Most noticeably is the use of showing the attack name on screen rather than shouting it out. After all, it would interrupt the song. Every character has their own individual font, audio cue and naming convention, not to mention a unique way of using their weapons. Just flashing the name long enough to read it is a very good way of keeping the flow of a fight intact while still giving the intended impact to powerful moves, and something that I'd like to see other series do more often. The pacing is also absolutely exquisite. Tying each battle to a song makes a lot of sense, as the structure of verse and chorus translates surprising effectively. It prevents anything from being too drawn out, and makes an unexpectedly good tracker of when a character is gearing up for a powerful move just from where they are in their lyrics.

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And that's the crux, I think. Singing and fighting go together far better than anyone would think, and bringing them together along with fun characters, a great world, lots of style and making sure that said fighting and singing is just a sight, or rather sound, to behold, makes a show that's as close to perfect as can be.

I would absolutely, in case it wasn't profusely obvious already, recommend Symphogear.

Well, Senki Zesshou Symphogear is one of the first anime to begin airing in 2012. A good head-start to gain fans' attention. This anime can combine two different anime fields : shojo with music and shonen with battle and mecha. This makes the whole anime became Divine Intervention

The story is scored A, thanks to radically different story compared to any other anime. All anime have their unique stories, but this anime featuring music and battle simultaneously instead of mere music competition. This item makes the SZS anime stands out compared to any other anime as an intersection of battle anime and music anime. Whole anime ... themselves is already radically different from any similar anime.
The story swings from fighting against enemy (creep in DotA) then internal conflict. After the conflict resolved, encountering the real boss and case closed. All this in 13 episodes, less than adequate for the whole three major arcs while normally three major arcs will require two periods (one period == one season).

Art is rated as A. Nothing much different from any other mecha anime. The design is somewhere a mixture of futuristic and present design. All futuristic anime usually discard the present technology, saving spaces for hi-tech which is included in the far future sub-chapter or even not written in "Physics of the Future" book written by Michio Kaku. This balances the penalty given in the fields of character design due to overly standard.
The armor is quite similar to Infinite Stratos with minimum torso protection and good extremities protection while differs only in size and capability. With this armor, it should be easy to re-draw the characters (excluding the other class of armor which provides extra armor).
One can easily distinguish the differences between concert scene and street pursuit scene from the side of animation itself. The concert scene (only twice in whole anime) is very well-drawn, almost divine intervention. On other hand, the street pursuit scene is very similar to almost identical to GTA San Andreas-era video game. Those two aspects are offsetting each other with advantage in the concert which is the main theme for the anime.

Sound is rated A. Guaranteed by Elements Garden and Nana Mizuki, Synchrogazer stands out a lot for any other anime Opening track. The other songs featured varies in type, from upbeat in 'Gyakkou no Flugel' or something likely to an aria song which is the Zesshou.
Other songs also gained high value because of the interest of those song (proven by high traffic in my blog for those entries). Say like 'FLIGHT FEATHERS' by Nana Mizuki and 'Tsunaida Te Dake ga Tsumugu Mono' by Ayahi Takagaki that is very well-sung.

Characters is rated A due to the standard design. Play it safe, S.S.D.D.. On the one hand, there is a characters dead early in the anime which can be a severe penalty. This penalty is offset by further development which result in more or less idealistic characters.

Enjoyment is also rated A. Nothing much to be commented except the elegant battle. In some parts, there are yuri scene which can raise the score for enjoyment or reduce, depends on how one sees yuri scene. This enjoyment is also offset by partial nudity and NSFW (for some countries) battle dress.

As me not being a big fan of animes like Senki Zesshou Symphgear I never expected I'll watch it or even like it but it became one of the exeptions that I end up enjoying.

At the start I thought this anime was going to be like all of those generic magical/sci-fi fighter girl animes. When I saw the summary I thought "Hmm they sing and fight this is a silly plot, I may try it though. I don't realy have allot of animes to watch this season ." Then I learned that Nana Mizuki(wich is one of my favorite singers) will ... be one of the VA's I decided to check it out since it won't be that bad if she is perfectly matched with her character.

It turned to be better than I originaly expected. The songs were perfectly matched with the fight scenes and characters. It also didn't have those long a*s(couldn't find a better expression) transformantion scenes wich show EVERY SINGLE CURVE(not that I hate it, it's kind of annoying and embarrasing to watch) of the body while transfering to the next piece of clothing they kept them short and relatively fast. They decided to bet more on the songs than fanservice wich magical/sci-fi fighter gril animes have. Aoi Yuuki and Ayahi Takagaki aren't as good singers as Nana Mizuki they still had enjoyable songs for their characters.

Thanks to those things the stuff I was able to ignore the generic elements that made up the rest of the anime like monsters and big baddies. Personaly I think they should have concentrated more on the reason they need to be kept secret and the quarrels with America but then they would have needed more episodes. It ended like every other anime like it though with a big monster bad guy.

The main characters were realy likeable but the personalities are not that unique. Miku felt like the producers were trolling and thinking "Kekeke! We will make you think that we will develop her more but that won't happen!" Genjirou was a badass but get's a bit overdramatic and felt like he is here only to add some diversity from the all girl fighter atmosphere. The other supporting characters were realy annoying I'm glad they didn't give a bigger role than they already had.

Overral a realy enjoyable anime despite the major flaws that magical/sci-fi fighter girl types make me ususaly stray from them.
PS: This is my first review and since English isn't my mother's language I may have spelling gramatical mistakes and typos.

Symphogear is cheesy. It’s a story where at it’s core is about friendship, protecting your loved ones and believing in your own strength. Like I said in my previous post about it, Symphogear is like animated Tokusatsu with music as the main motif. It’s silly, but frankly a lot of shows could learn a lot of things from Symphogear. You know what? I feel like breaking this down in the classic way by categories. Let’s start with the most important/the best part about Symphogear.

The sound department. You know how music can affect a story greatly? Sad music will make you feel sad, happy music will ... make you feel happy, but it can also affect the tone of the story. Spooky music will make the scene/story spooky, intense music will make a battle intense and so on. Well, thanks to one Motoyama Satoshi Symphogear has one of the best music uses I’ve seen in a show my entire life. Everything about the music and it’s execution made this show way better than it could/should be. Because of the music and it’s execution all other elements of the show that are affected by it get this boost of energy and tone which they wouldn’t necessarily achieve solely by themselves. The voice acting is also worth mentioning. The VA’s in this show give some of the best performances I’ve seen them give. It’s easy to forget how important sound can be in a show. Symphogear does well to remember it’s importance.

The art department. I’m just going to outright say it: The art in this show is beyond superb. Whether it’s the amazing Symphogear designs (shoutout to my favorite desgin: Yukine Chris) or the detailed backgrounds. It’s amazing. Even the simple enemies are unique and stand out on their own. And the animation in this show is downright fantastic especially in battles. For a modern anime this has some of the best fights I have seen. The art department in this show have done an amazing job and barely cut any corners.

The story. This one here is a mixed bag. On the one hand the story is similar to a cheesy B movie, but because of the important role the music has and how much it supports the story, the story ends up being better than what it actually is, which is a cheesy B movie plot, but in the end of the show the whole story comes together in an enjoyable way and it actually feels like something was accomplished by the end of it. And despite it being so cheesy in it’s way Symphogear ends up being a lot better than quite a few AAA/S titles. A lot of the story elements in Symphogear are just the right enough amount of cheesy to make me smile with joy. I like cheesy/silly stories, they are the ones that end up being the most enjoyable. So, yeah despite being cheesy Symphogear has a very good story, with some slight pacing issues.

The characters. The characters in Symphogear is another one of my favorite parts. A lot of the ideals that the characters represent are ideals I can get behind. Friendship? I’m all for friendship. Protecting your loved ones? Heck yeah I can get behind protecting one’s loved ones. Believing in your own strength? At this point it could be considered pandering. Sure you might call them cheesy, but these characters are in the end loveable. The main villain is one of the best villains I’ve seen in a B movie esque story. The whole “What is giving you your strength” lack of comprehension on the villains part is so incredible. And of course I can’t go talking about the characters without mentioning the one, the only Kazanari Genjurou!. One of the most likeable side characters I’ve had the pleasure of liking.

Symphogear may not be for everyone. But it is for me. I like, no I love Symphogear a lot, and I love it enough to consider it one of my favorite shows. So, as per usual, do I recommend Symphogear? Absolutely. Go watch it. If it doesn’t click with you completely right away the same thing that was with me, but you still want to give it a try episode 6 is where it finally clicked with me, and it was only uphill from there.

*Review contains minor spoilers, nothing major, but proceed at your own caution.*

Senki Zesshou Symphogear... I've never been so happy to have accidentally stumbled upon an anime in my life. Also, I will be speaking mainly of this anime, but I will be mentioning the following 2 seasons as well.

Now, before we get going, I'd like to make it clear that this anime is nowhere near perfect. It most definitely has it's flaws, some bad animation here, some poor plot choices there, plot armor galore over yonder, I could go on. But that doesn't change the fact that this anime does one thing, and it does ... it incredibly well:

FUN.

When a lot of people complain about Symphogear, I always see that they seem to take it too seriously. With that, I tell you, that you should watch this anime for pure, unadulterated, fun, explosions, and a kickass soundtrack that you're probably going to be wanting to locate and download. Which I have. All of it. So good.

Anyways, on to the actual review.

Story:

It's certainly not a bad story, there are worse ones out there, however you will see that it's rather cliche once you start getting a few episodes in. One of the worst parts about Symphogear, is it's rather cliche story, and this applies to the following seasons as well, since they all follow the same rough format that season 1 does. However, while looking at it by me saying that, it may seem rather uhh... "meh". But, I should also mention, that Symphogear KNOWS that it's bad. It knows that it's cliche, and it uses that to it's advantage. Yes, it's a cookie cutter that was built out of the body of season 1, and yes, seasons 2 and 3 were made with that exact same cookie cutter, but DAYUM is that a nice cookie cutter. Normally, if an anime is too cliche, it dies because the audience has seen it before (which admittedly, may very well still apply to some people when they decide to watch this) however, the other aspects of the show are what genuinely carry this anime to glory, the characters, the music, the important animation, all of that combines to patch up those nasty things that the plot just literally can't even. I should also mention that the overlying plot is only affected by this. There are a bunch of sub-plots which are actually quite unique and well thought out, for example, the backstories of the main characters.

Overall, you've seen this plot before, and you'll know it when you see it. But the rest of the anime will more than make up for it, which is impressive considering how important plot tends to be.

Art: 7

I admit, the animation for this anime kinda dies at points. There's a scene where Tsubasa and her Manager are walking down a hall and rather than an animated walking animation, it is merely their unmoving bodies swaying in a small figure 8 pattern. Now, remember what I said about this series being fun? Yeah. It is. "Bu-but, HOW could it POSSIBLY be fun with animation like THAT!?" you may ask. Well I'll tell you, the animation for unimportant things like that walking scene, or someone writing something down on a piece of paper, THOSE are animated quite poorly sometimes. HOWEVER. The producers of this anime were smart, and funneled most of what little budget they had into the action scenes, and other important scenes. A lot of anime, even high budget anime that have all-round great animation, tend to have action scenes that are simply just as good as the rest of the anime, and when you're expecting MORE from an action scene, it can be a little underwhelming. Symphogear, with it's poor budget, knocks up the budget big time for their action scenes, making amazing looking scenes that are animated fluidly. I should also add that this anime liked to have it's action scenes on the go. While a lot of anime take a lot of camera cuts and angles in rapid succession to show a fight, which works well don't get me wrong, Symphogear does it itself a whole bunch, but they ALSO love to follow the action as it moves, meaning you'll get panning action sequences at high speed that look simply amazing (not to mention badass as hell) and really gives the viewer an impression of the speed at which the Symphogear users are fighting. While they obviously don't do this all the time, you'll see it used quite a bit, and it's a nice addition. Back to that bad animation for a moment, and also referring to when I said that people always take this anime too seriously if they hate the anime. The bad animation that pops up? It's reaally bad. So bad in fact, that it's laughable. I actually laugh at this animation, it is so bad. Now I can't forgive it for these atrocities of animation, but hey, you can always get a chuckle out of it! I should also mention that while this anime DOES have some very bad animation issues, those absolutely horrendous only pop up around 3 or 4 times in the entire anime, so they don't overly take away from it as a whole. Seasons 2 and 3 undergo a SERIOUS budget boost however, and nearly every issue that season one had in regards to animation was fixed, or improved past that.

Overall, while this anime has some undeniable animation issues, it isn't bad enough to take away from the series enough to ruin the experience.

Sound: 10

I'm including the soundtrack in this, it's a must. This anime is one that is in the "Music" genre, and normally, when you see "Music" tagged on to an anime, with a premise like that of Symphogear, you get frilly cute J-Pop songs, or at least, expect them. That is far from what you'll be getting out of Symphogear. Let's lead in to the music by starting with the voice actors! Tsubasa is voiced by Nana Mizuki, whom is a very well-off musical artist in Japan. Not only does she do an excellent job of voicing the stoic Tsubasa, she carries that voice into her songs which all have an oriental theme. Nana Mizuki also created and sings the OP of each of the seasons, season 1 being "Synchrogazer". Aoi Yuuki voices our main Character, Hibiki Tachibana. Perhaps you've heard Aoi before, she's done quite a few roles. Tornado from One Punch Man, Madoka from Madoka Magica, Victorique from Gosick, the list goes on. Aoi isn't a song artist, however in this series, she sings all of her own songs, which is a rather impressive feat for anyone. This adds to the immersion of the series, since there is no clear difference in voice, unlike when another person sings a song in place of a voice actor. This applies to every single character in the entire Symphogear anime. Each voice actor does all of their own singing, and they do a damn fine job. Each character even has songs that are styled towards them. As mentioned, Tsubasa sings what I call "Technoriental" and Hibiki sings "Electroceltic" technobagpipes included. Other characters are introduced later on, one of which sings aggressive rock, and in season 2, another which sings pure electronic, as well as another that sings perhaps a more punk-style of rock. Mentioning the characters further would be too large a spoiler however. Back to the actual music. Every song was crafted FOR the anime, none were taken from elsewhere. The producers made it a priority to make the music as excellent as they possibly could, as the anime revolves around music, and make it well they did indeed. I should now mention that all of these amazing songs are placed in as character songs (songs which are sung by the characters) and of course, since having characters singing all of the time would be stupid, there is regular soundtrack to go alongside it. Nothing too special about it, in all honesty. The background music you hear in scenes without characters singing is just sorta there, nothing too memorable, but not bad either. Just there. As far as voice acting goes... really well done! They got a very solid cast of voice actors, they didn't lose out anywhere there, however I should mention that ONLY the first season... has the most horrendous case of Engrish that I've ever heard. Thank god for subtitles. They gave up on attempting English in the following seasons, for good reason. As for the Japanese voice acting, emotions are portrayed very well, Hibiki always sounds like she should, cheery and upbeat, Tsubasa sounds like a strong "don't mess with her" type, the list goes on.

Overall, the character songs make this anime absolutely amazing, and are one of it's biggest selling points. The background music and such isn't so up to par, but the sheer quality of the character songs truly outshine the little problems that the background music brings forth. While there was a bit of laughably bad Engrish, the voice acting was excellently done, especially with how each voice actor sings their own songs.

Characters: 9

Each character is very well made, and while maybe cliche in a sense, they use cliches that haven't been milked to death. Hibiki is outgoing and cheery, which is the worst offender, however Tsubasa is a strong, stoic type, with more behind her exterior than first meets the eye. Another character may simply be passed off as a bit of a tsundere, but actually isn't, far more complex than that. Each main character has a backstory, not all of which are fully gone into in-depth, but all are at least mentioned at one point or another. Furthermore, these backstories can do a great job of defining why a character acts the way they do, and if this process ins't the one that explains it, you'll simply find out later on. Every character has a unique purpose, and each characters continues to fulfill that unique purpose effectively, without giving too much attention to any singular character. Even the side characters are well thought out, they don't FEEL like complete side characters because they actually get quite a lot of interaction with the true main characters as well as major plot elements. The villain however, is quite cliche. Like mentioned previously though, this hardly counts since the producers did this on purpose. This anime is supposed to be stupid, but handled well.

Overall, the characters are all well thought out, and despite being less-used cliches, they have reasoning to back themselves up. Every characters does exactly what they're supposed to do, with a high degree of effectiveness, no single character could replace another. Even the side characters are given a good amount of attention. The villain is rather cliche, but it doesn't hurt too much.

Enjoyment: 10

As I have been consistently mentioning, this anime is FUN. Don't go into it for serious plot developments and incredible levels of character development, go and watch it to watch your favourite heroes beat the crap out of a bad guy. With music. I have given this anime a nickname, as have other people. "Micheal Bay: The Musical" There isn't a whole lot of down time in this anime, for the most part it splits up action and comedy, however it also has a few much darker elements in store for you to keep you on the edge of your seat. Drama is a thing as well, it may have been kind of forced, but it changes up the pace, so see that as you will. Regardless, the main point of this anime is lots of bright colors, explosions, awesome fight scenes, badass soundtracks, hell, even moments that could make you tear up a little bit.

Overall, watch this for fun! If you go in expecting something serious from an anime about magical girls blowing up monsters with the power of songs and friendship, you're gonna be sad. You'll be happy to know that if you enjoyed this series the first time, it doesn't get boring easily either. So feel free to rewatch it!

Overall: 9

Culminating everything I've mentioned... this anime is just jolly good fun. Over-the-top fight scenes, an incredibly enjoyable soundtrack, equally likeable main characters, which all excel at doing their own thing. It's a giant blob of stupidity and cliches, yes, but it knows that and uses that as a grounds for making itself more awesome. "Ah well, we've already used this many cliches, let's overcome this insurmountable feat with an attack powered by friendship and unicorn souls!" and as dumb as that sounds, it doesn't get boring, it is truly something you just have to experience for yourself to understand. This anime is a great watch for practically any age, as it covers a lot of things, however, there's no real nice pretty age to acceptable watch it at. If a kid tries to watch it, there's some pretty bloody stuff that happens, if an adult watches it... it's an anime filled with magical girls! Perhaps teens can get away with it. Disregarding social standards however, this anime IS a great, fun watch, for all ages!

Extra note:

While this anime may seem to be the type, it VERY rarely sexualizes it's characters, I can recall a total of 5 scenes throughout all 3 seasons, one of which was a beach episode, another was a bath scene, both of which are anime staples. Even during transformation sequences, season 1 has next to no sexualization at all, the camera doesn't even zoom in on the characters body. Season 2, with their updated budget, opted to have a fancy camera-spinning close-up transformation scene, but even still, the camera never clearly focused on anywhere such as the butt or breasts, it just panned over them as though they were any other body part such as an elbow or a foot. Season 3 starts getting to borderline as it adds in a bit of jiggle to some characters during these sequences, but thinking realistically... I think some jiggle may happen... they certainly didn't blow it out of proportion, and even further, they kept the camera moving with no clear fanservice shots. As for actul in-fight scenes, the rules apply as if it were anime men fighting, nothing is sexualized or focused upon, if you want to see something you can look for it obviously, but it isn't shoved into your face. There are a few instances of blatant fanservice as I previously mentioned, but that count is very low. A good job goes to the producers for that decision as well, the quality of this anime would have dropped big time were it made as an ecchi.

I am just here trying to balance out the amount of negative reviews of this anime.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear (I am just gonna call it Symphogear) wasn't a very bad anime, if you want sci-fi action based anime, Symphogear is worth trying out.

My first experience watching the first episode of the anime was like "Wow, this is the real stuff people needs to watch these days." Of course it was quite a let down as animation quality was dropping episode by episode but it was still watch-able to the point that you can still cope with the animation. The art style in some point would change ... drastically but I think it was to create visual effects to cope with the music.

Speaking about music, apparently the characters sing songs when they are fighting, it was quite a hilarious concept where you're with an angry face and still managed to somewhat sing songs while fighting. The naming of the enemy units, Noise, also gave me a good laugh. The first thing in mind was that the human races doesn't like "noises" which was quite a pun but of course you'll get what I mean as the anime moves on.

Body proportions in the anime are quite realistic as well each character are able to represent their personality and motive quite well. Colour can be interpreted as a strong theme as it really represents something which I would prefer the watchers to see by themselves. The animation was mind-blasting if any of you watched the 1st episode. Though don't get discouraged by the degrading of animation quality as episodes come by or so. It is still a pretty good anime with its cool moments as well as tragic touching moments.

The story is quite well-created in my point of view. Although it didn't reveal too much background information but it was enough to allow the story to continue. Though there are moments in the anime where there was too much talking that you pretty much made yourself to skip ahead and see if there's any more mind-blasting battle scenes. Its been hilarious everytime a character uses a special move, its like one of those Fighter games where the gameplay freezes and a banner of the move name comes flying onto the screen.

The music and songs are quite good. I especially liked the daft punk genre musics used in Symphogear. Generally the music is good to a point its worth downloading the character albums and put them into your iPod.

Story - 6
Art - 7
Sound - 9
Character - 8
Enjoyment - 8
Overall - 7

The reason why I gave Symphogear a 7 was really because of its downfall in its animation degradation as well as "plot-killer" moments where everything becomes boring that makes you want to skip ahead. Otherwise all other aspects were quite fascinating to watch. Though I would love to give Symphogear a rate of 8/10 due to the fact after finish watching it, it certainly does make you feel like asking "Is there Season 2?" (which I don't think there will be) as it left quite an imprint in memory.

Symphogear is the kind of experience that you'd get if you were watching Futari Wa PreCure and King of Braves GaoGaiGar at the same time while listening to Nana Mizuki music in one ear and Fripside in the other.
In short, it's AWESOME. But those that are expecting it to make sense will be badly disappointed.
Gonna say this up front: The plot is stupid. It's /unbelievably/ stupid.
This however doesn't matter because it's carried by loveable characters and awesome action scenes.
Every episode has at least one fight scene, always with fight music, and the action is completely over the top.
Bottom line: This is a show you will ... either love or hate. There is no in between.
Also it's VERY GAY. There is only one heterosexual woman in this show, and she doesn't show up until season four.

Symphogear is literally one of the best anime I've ever watched. The story was laid out amazingly and the characters were awesome.

Starting off with the story, it was truly awesome. So, the story basically starts with ZweiWing performing a concert, but suddenly the Noise attack and nearly kill the protagonist however, Kanade sacrifices herself using her “Zesshou” to save Hibiki’s life. This is, truly, an amazing way to start off the story as it introduces the viewer to the main characters but also creates an uneasy and upsetting atmosphere.
Then, as the story continues, Hibiki (now ... with Kanade’s power) and Tsubasa encounter Chris Yukine who uses the Nehustan Armor but later the relic Ichaival. (I’m really trying not to give any spoilers) And later (AKA the final episode) they sacrifice themselves to stop the chunk of moon from destroying their town, only to have faked their death in order to protect their friends. This made me cry so much ) ;

Now going to the characters, let’s start off with the main protagonist: Tachibana Hibiki. Hibiki, two years ago, nearly died due to the piece of the Gungnir Relic entering her heart tissue. Hibiki is one of the coolest I have seen in an anime, however, she can be rather annoying. Then we go to the veteran user of the team, Kazanari Tsubasa. Tsubasa, before Kanade’s sacrifice, was originally shy and introverted but usually depended on Kanade to lift up her spirits. Then, after Kanade’s sacrifice; Tsubasa became, how she describes, “like a sword” being cold and independant. I find Tsubasa really cool, and now we go to the most awesome of the team: Yukine Chris! *gives Chris a medal for being the most awesome Symphogear character in existence* Chris is truly pure awesomeness.

And then finally: the music The music in this series has no other word to describe it but utter awesomeness. By the way, Chris' songs are the best; no joke

Symphogear combines music and action something thats quite unique in the anime industry, drawing ideas from the magical girl, drama and action genre, the story bascially comprises of singers who battle against coal-inducing "noise".

Story: 8/10, An creative concept with a clear direction of plot thats understandable and interesting.

Art: 9/10 top notch fluid animation, with marvel comic style frames at times.

Sound: 9/10 As expected of a music heavy anime, the music rather fitting to the events that occur. And let me just say, singing songs halfway during an epic battle is just hands down badass.

Characters: 8/10 For just the first 30 ... minutes of the show, the characters are surprising likable and tolerable despite looking like female versions of shouma and kamba

Enjoyment: 9/10 the show starts with a bang, a captivating and thrilling start to a new series. Hopefully it shines until the very end of the performance.


Thoughts for now: 8/10 an anime worth following, Expectations are set up extremely high in just the first episode, a very promising, action packed, at times very dramatic and sad but still very enjoyable to watch. Be sure to check it out.

Senki, while really not the best magical girl show out there, is an interesting bag of tricks. It's interesting in that it seems like the show changed story lanes a couple of times and ultimately failed to hit a perfect medium, while still hitting a nice somewhat-below that. Basically if you just pay attention to the action, you'll enjoy.

Story (6/10): If you break up the show into thirds, you can clearly see that they show's writing changed slightly. The first half was much more 'darker and trying to be realistic', the middle became the 'school drama and getting to know you' stage, while the ending ... was the 'free for all battles'. Was this a good idea? ...meh? There are a lot of places where the story falters (especially with no real definition of the relics that we can follow so as not to allow the inevitable Deus Ex Machina), but it does have it's moments.

Art (7/10): The best art is very obviously used on the battles, which all look interesting and are fun and all that, along with giving the Symphogears their awesome appearances (save for Tsubasa's weird leg-blade things). There is some wonky perspectives here and there, but overall the show looks pretty nice.

Sound (6/10): For being a show with music as the vehicle...I kinda didn't like the songs. The opening is the best out of the bunch, with the music in the last 3 episodes redeeming the weaker bits that persisted though the whole thing (for sure when we finally get to hear all three main protagonists sing). One thing I noticed is that I liked the actual music of the songs, with the singers voices actually taking away from my enjoyment of the songs. Weird, I know. But like I said, the opening is easily my favorite bit of music in the whole show.

Character (7/10): This is slightly hard to talk about. On one hand, the 3 main girls are interesting to watch and have some good development over the course of the show, along with Genjiro and some of the staff that works for him just being some good stable characters. On the other...our main villain is a little confusing, with her having some REALLY weird mood swings throughout her existence. The girls at the school are also pretty flat and have no real connection to the story until, again, the last 2 or so episodes. Miku is also kinda useless as a character, since she just falls flat as the 'magical girls best friend'.

Enjoyment (8/10): Even with all the problems that the show has, it's fairly entertaining to watch. Well...at least all the battles were. Seriously, the last 3 episodes (yes, I've been singling them out as the best parts of the show, even with the weaker story) are just so cool and fun to watch that I rushed through them as fast as I could. To go with the thirds example that I brought up in the Story section, the first third and ending third are the best, with the second just being really weak.

Overall, Senki is a fun little show, though I wouldn't try and follow the story by any stretch of the word. Watch it for the fun fight scenes and the main girls just being interesting. Would I recommend it? I'd say no unless you really like the magical girl genre, and even then that's kinda pushing it. Hopefully the second season will turn out much better, so here's hoping.

If you are the type of person that likes singing along anime songs, and you know NANA MIZUKI, this is a great anime for you.

I find that symphogear is one of those animes people don't normally see, but as the story goes own you find yourself in a really motivating anime. Which has a lot of music-fight mecha scenes, school scenes where c¡you can ship characters in a yuri way and even have fun with each characters own story, apart from the group one.

I find that this anime, can somehow , like with other animes, motivate me to move ford wars, as the girls ... in the anime do so. Fight for my dreams, cause as Hibiki says: "its alright, keep moving" . I really think the main character hibiki, is the one that pushes her friends, (rest of characters) to see her reality, how to fight for what you want and how to not give up.

My friends deem this unwatchable, and I don't blame them, nor would I anyone else who says it's unwatchable.
However I find it somehow enthralling. Something about the combination of the music and the fight scenes generates an exaggerated hype that I love.

There is lots of edge and qq, which would normally ruin a series, but its done in a way that either the scene can be skipped without missing anything important. Or it's so overdone that it's funny, using tropes like 'They are powered by friendship!'

The art style heavily reminds me of Megaman, while still being original.
The nameless villains look like some sort of ugly ... kidsmeal toys that were likely designed by a different artist.

There is lots wrong with it, especially the angsty character development, but the ultra-flashiness of the fights makes up for it.
The macro-plot is surprisingly very good, although there is very little of it.

As long as you don't take it too seriously then it's very enjoyable.

Very interesting mix of genres. At first I didn't expect all the action that was to come and then "BANG". It seems like just a drama at first but then it kicks into high gear. I love the characters and it was sad what is happening to the characters. To be as ambiguous as possible there is one unfortunate occurrence and one unfortunate foreshadowing within the first episode. This seems like it's going to take a much darker tone than the introduction may make one believe, with the pop singing duo and all. Great art, the sound quality on the streams i'm using are ... not that great but being in the music genre I can only assume the sound to be above par, but mostly I like the charterers and can't wait to see them develop.

People who watch this anime tends to miss some subtle expositions and deems it a plot hole. For example, as to why people still goes outside when noise attacks are so frequent, because it is not suppose to be frequent. Why its so frequent was one of its plot point. I don't blame them because I missed such details the first time I watched it, too, and the dialogues can be quite confusing since they like to use a lot of hard to remember and pronounce names from myths like "Nehushtan." I'm not saying there aren't any plot holes, but not as much people claims ... there to be. The plot was pretty good in my opinion until the last few episode.

The positive of this show it is total eargasm. They are militarized mechanical magical girls that gain their powers from singing! Also, its not afraid to get bloody. First episode, there was a massacre. The animation quality was good for its time, but later seasons, they became top-notch. However, they seemed to have spent a lot of their budget on the first episode for this season, making the later few episodes a bit lacking in quality, animation wise. However, they fixed that in the blu-ray, so try to watch that version instead.

Overall, its a good watch, especially if you like, sci-fi/mech themes, and good music. However, proceed with caution if you are expecting a oscar winning plot.