Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV (Symphogear XV)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 戦姫絶唱シンフォギアXV

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 7, 2019 to Sep 29, 2019

Premiered: Summer 2019

Broadcast: Sundays at 01:00 (JST)

Producers: Memory-Tech, Bushiroad, MAGES., King Records, Kinyosha

Licensors: Discotek Media

Studios: Satelight

Source: Original

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi

Themes: Idols (Female), Music

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.19¹ (scored by 12,778 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #367²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3392

Members: 36,621

Favorites: 843

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@SYMPHOGEAR

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Crunchyroll

8.19

Ranked #367Popularity #3392Members 36,621

Summer 2019TVSatelight

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Episodes: /13

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Synopsis

Humanity is finally confronted with the threat of the Custodians—the ancient, sentient species held responsible for cursing humanity to speak different languages thousands of years ago. The Symphogear wielders—Hibiki Tachibana, Tsubasa Kazanari, Chris Yukine, Maria Cadenzavna Eve, Kirika Akatsuki, and Shirabe Tsukuyomi—are sent to the Antarctic in order to retrieve an ancient relic. After securing it and rescuing the scientific staff present there from a Coffin, the automated defense mechanism protecting it, the relic is given to American researchers due to international agreements.

The criminal organization Noble Red, a remnant of the previously fought Bavarian Illuminati, starts targeting the relic. Will the Symphogear wielders and their supporting organization S.O.N.G. be able to foil the plans of the organizations conspiring against them?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Prequel:	Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ
Side story:	Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV: Senki Zesshou Shinai Symphogear

Murase, Michiyo
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Ono, Katsumi

Director

Motoyama, Satoshi

Sound Director

Kouta, Fumiaki

Episode Director, Key Animation, Assistant Director

Mishio, Tenpei

Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"METANOIA" by Nana Mizuki

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Ending Theme

	1: "FINAL COMMANDER" by Nana Mizuki (eps 1)
	2: "Lasting Song" by Ayahi Takagaki (eps 2-6, 8-11)
	3: "Sforzando no Zankyou (スフォルツァンドの残響)" by Inroi Minase (eps 7)
	4: "METANOIA" by Nana Mizuki (eps 12)
	5: "Ashita e no Flügel (未来へのフリューゲル)" by Aoi Yuuki, Nana Mizuki, Ayahi Takagaki, Yoko Hikasa, Ai Kayano, Yoshino Nanjou, and Yuka Iguchi (eps 13)

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Reviews

Sep 28, 2019

SanaeK10

Recommended

[Note: This is a review that encompasses my feelings towards the entire series including XV]

Meteoroid falling, burning, and disappear, then...
In the distance, that day when the star became music...
Believe in justice and hold a determination to fist.
By shedding many tears, the reality you face is
Create a history, with a light God could not know.

What is Symphogear? For the longest time I've never bothered engaging myself in this franchise. I never understood what is was, and I was naturally repulsed by all things mecha. Now that the series is having its final season and its a dry season, I decided to finally give in and give ... Symphogear a try from the very beginning.

I wondered how have I missed out on the Anime of the Decade all these years.

I honestly didn't know what to expect watching the very first episode knowing absolutely nothing about the franchise. The show toyed with my emotions so much in that opening setpiece. When Kanade bit it I thought would be a grimdark Madoka ripoff ended up being one of the most life-affirming shows out there. A stunning display of idiocy and action that is both charming and captivating. It's confident in its strengths and parades its weaknesses proudly, a show that is both all style and all substance.

But most of all, it's a true roller coaster of emotions, and I don't use that term lightly. I laughed, I cried, I got frustrated at the ineptitude and stupidity of both the characters and the creators, but most of all, I loved. When the curse of Balal fell in place, songs still managed to bridge that gap and connect us all together.

The one emotion the series never fails to deliver is Hype. The surge of adrenaline and endorphins and all those chemicals in your brain whenever something awesome is happening onscreen is a rare treat in most other anime, but a constant occurrence in this series. The hype does occasionally fail to deliver, the heightened expectations can sometimes be too much, but still, when you hear Hibiki scream DATOSHITEMOOOOOO, you know she means business and join her in song.

And those songs are precisely what keeps Symphogear in the minds of many all this while. I'm not an idol anime person, I despise most idol anime and yet. And yet. The moment I hard Gyakko no Flugel for the first time right there on the idol concert, I was enthralled. I knew that regardless of how the series turned out, it would have great music. Covering many genres, the series has a diverse palette of songs ranging from Hibiki's celtic rock to Tsubasa's enka-inspired tracks, there's no shortage of variety. Yes there are songs that don't work well, but the ones that resonate far outweigh the occasional crap Ignite remix or whatever. XV is no exception to this, and, this is a rarity coming from me with regards to this series, but I actually fully enjoyed the OPs AND the EDs this time round.

The plot and story are fairly typical, but they feel like they belong in a JRPG. Every beat you'd expect is there, mini boss, dungeons, rivals, all those stuff. It's not particularly fantastic, but it works well. Not surprising seeing as Kaneko was a JRPG writer.

More specifically for XV, XV is mainly about redemption. Not just about the characters, but also in a meta sense. I certainly have had my gripes with GX and AXZ being particularly weak, but XV comes along and somehow redeems them both in my eyes and I just can't hate them anymore.

Symphogear has to be taken in as a complete package. It truly is more than the sum of its parts. Looking back, yes I can agree on all the flaws (some major) the series has had. Yet in spite of it all, across 7 years and 5 seasons. It's why I ultimately decided in awarding it with one of my rare 9s. Something this special, this inspirational, this long-lasting is truly an experience to behold. For better for worse, it is the definitive anime that represents the 2010s. It may not have ended in the way I wanted, and it may not have that one kiss I was looking for, but it filled the hole in my heart, and with it ending, the gaping wound in my soul may never heal.

Maybe, for now at least, I can say that the series ended with dignity. It wasn't perverted into a zombie franchise like Madoka or Fate, nor did it stumble hard in its final moments and is struggling to reclaim its past glory like Nanoha. It has its shortcomings, but thinking back, the journey to the end has been a satisfying romp throughout.

So what is Symphogear? It is a mecha-mahou shoujo-idol hybrid anime. It is Mizuki Nana's autobiography. It is an anime about fisting. It is 5 seasons and 7 years long and has captivated the hearts of many.

But most importantly, it is Believing in the Song of your Heart.

9/10

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Sep 28, 2019

RiverRode

Recommended

“Kohinata Miku, you’re my sunshine. I feel warmest when I’m next to you, and I’ll always come back to you. It’s always been that way, and I’m sure that it’ll stay that way.”

Symphogear is a series that’s not for everyone. In the words of ANN’s Nick Creamer, it’s “a singing idol mecha yuri romcom battle melodrama with JoJo's sense of irreverence and a lot of fanservice,” and that amalgamation is no doubt going to scare some people off. But considering that this is a review of the show’s fifth season, I’m assuming that everyone reading doesn’t need to be convinced that this combination is actually ... the coolest thing ever. And given that, rather than asking how Symphogear compares to other anime, I think the more important question is how XV stacks up against the other seasons of Symphogear.

So then, what are the makings of a good Symphogear season? Through careful research, I’ve narrowed it down to three factors: coolness, escalation, and gayness. As a series, Symphogear is constantly punching past the limits of its internal plausibility, and it gets away with it because it does so confidently and with style. And somehow, it manages to continue to top itself with each consecutive season. And most importantly, it does all this without ever losing sight of its emotional core. I think the best seasons of this show are the ones that have maximized these elements, so let’s see how XV compares.

In regards to our first criterion, Symphogear has never been cooler. XV is the final season of this franchise, and the Symphogear Project team didn’t pull any of their punches to make sure that it got the ending it deserved. There's a tangible passion behind every moment; the transformation and fight scenes are the franchise’s best, and basically every other episode was stunning enough to be the finale of a lesser show. What’s more, there’s a lot of fanservice in the form of callbacks to favorite characters from previous seasons, which helps to cement that this really is the end.

Managing escalation can be difficult after five seasons. It’s important to continue to raise the stakes so that there’s still tension as to whether our heroes can prevail, but after you’ve already punched God, it’s really hard to do that without moving too far into the realm of abstraction. Fortunately, XV’s writers understand that even when it seems like you’ve reached the top, it’s still possible to escalate past that by changing the focus to more personal conflicts. Like sure, the fate of the world is on the line again this season, but Hibiki is fighting to save something far more important: her wife.

Through all of the twists and turns that this series has gone through, the one constant has always been the bond between Hibiki and Miku. Despite that, Miku has far too often been relegated to the sidelines in past seasons, so I’m glad that the final season was created with this relationship at its core. These two have been through too much over the course of this series, and I hope they'll have the chance to be happy together after everything is over. They’re so soft.

So Symphogear XV succeeds in all of the criteria I put out at the beginning of what constitutes a good Symphogear, but honestly, those are all arbitrary and don’t really matter. I could spend the rest of my life identifying factors and trying to explain why those are what make Symphogear work, but I think its essence is one that ultimately escapes explanation. It's not a perfect series, but it's one that is always unabashedly itself, and at max volume. It’s brought so much joy to both fans and staff alike, and though I’m sad to see it go, I’m also so happy that it even existed in the first place. Symphogear will always be special.

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Oct 2, 2019

ProtoDrive

Recommended

Now, if you're reading this you're either a Symphogear fan like me or someone completely clueless, wondering "why the hell is this thing rated so high?", "why the hell is this literally nothing anime topping the charts of Summer 2019 for almost every week?". Hell, at the time I'm writing this, it's even in the top #50!

...If you belong to the latter, then this spoiler-free review about the series as a whole is for you!

With one of its taglines being something as cool (and dumb) as "Believe in justice and a determination to fist", this show's gotta be good, right?

YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT IT ... IS. It’s got magical girls that kick ass, it’s got catchy as hell songs, it’s got concert choreography better than idol anime (and hell, even better than /real/ concerts), it’s got M A R T I A L A R T S, it’s got toku references, it’s got mechs, it’s got giant monsters, it’s got gay rights AND isn't subtle about any of these!

tl;dr WATCH SYMPHOGEAR IT'S GOOD
----
Now, let's go to the basics. What the hell is Symphogear? I'm gonna try to explain it as simple as I can: It's an over-the-top show about magical girls punching the shit out of monsters with mecha fists while singing songs LIVE. Basically it's like if you're watching some hot-blooded shonen anime alongside Precure, Kamen Rider and also Gurren Lagann all at once. If that's still not enough to convince you then I don't know what will.

Jokes aside, it's... exactly that. I know that sounds like an abomination of mix-and-matched genres at first, but trust me - Symphogear makes it work in the coolest possible way. Like its main character, God bless her, Symphogear is a show that always punches through its limits, and it does so in such a stylish and confident way that it's hard to not accept it.

But that doesn't mean Symphogear is all style and zero substance. No, it's all style AND all substance. Great animation and amazing fight scenes aside, Symphogear is a roller coaster of emotions. I rarely, almost never, get moved to tears while watching stuff, but with Symphogear I've lost count of how many times I've shed tears. Either from the hype, the heartwarming scenes, or the legitimately sad ones... This show punches your heart HARD with a fist full of feels, covering the entire spectrum of emotions that a human being can experience. It's just THAT good.

Let's get to the story. The plot is pretty typical - it's not anything groundbreaking, but it's nothing repetitive either. It /is/ dumb, for sure, but in a good way. It is, however, carried by the amazing character writing. I don't wanna spoil anything, obviously, but this show really goes out of its way to make you like every single one of the characters. The character development is also plain to see with each new season, and goddamn does it feel good to see your faves growing up as you continue to watch the show. You will cry with them, you will laugh with them, and you will love them in the end - even characters you thought you wouldn't like at first.

Symphogear is pretty heavy on the music theme, and it shows. That said, it also delivers in the music department. I mean, freaking Nana Mizuki sings the openings. This show also has the best use of character songs out of any other anime I've seen in my life. I mentioned this earlier, but the characters sing their songs live during battle. As in, the songs they play aren't pre-recorded! You can hear their voices crack a bit when they take a hit, or you cry tears of hype when one of the girls just freaking screams the lyrics of her character song as she delivers the final blow to an opponent. With such great usage, there's also a variety of genres that the songs come in, each character having a unique one. From Celtic music, to traditional Japanese music, to techno darkwave, there's a lot of variety in here. Not all of them works, obviously, but most of the time they do and it freaking slaps.

All five seasons of Symphogear cannot be rated individually, they have to be taken in as a whole. Yes, it's flawed, season 1 especially, but that's the toughest obstacle you have to overcome and power through. It's a slog, sure, but everything beyond it is so, /so/ worth it. Besides, whether something is a flaw or a strength, a curse of a blessing, that just depends on how you view it! But it's undeniably true that Symphogear has a strong message to convey, and it presents that message in such an entertaining and engaging away that it's hard to turn your eyes away from the screen even for a split second.

XV is the final season, and while it didn't exactly give me what I wanted, ultimately it was a satisfying journey - one that I highly recommend to other people. If you're a fan of the magical girl genre or shows about Karate Bugmen, then that goes double!

Fun fact: The only reason I decided to pick this show up was because a friend of mine promised to give me 60 bucks if I did. But you know what? Symphogear is worth way more than a mere 60 dollars. It's... an experience that just can't be valued in money. It's an amazing experience I urge you all to try.

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Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV

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Senki Zesshou Symphogear XV

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