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So, I watched Symphogear for the first time before this season was out, time passed, then I found out this came out, so I rewatched all of it before I picked this up.

I wanted to say a lot of things about it because Hibiki is a character I adore, Chris is dear to me, and I overall enjoyed the show up to this point. But then this came out and, hm, how to put it.

I'm Jewish. I know not to expect too much about ethno-religion sensitivity when dealing with media from Japan but this was far and beyond what I'm used to as someone who's ... consumed anime, manga and game content for over two decades now. Setting aside how even using some of the names they did is outright sacrilege, everything about it was offensive, from who the big bad was, through their motivations, to how they 'spread' themselves, to the symbol they used when casting spells...
I know a lot of people couldn't care less about this sort of thing, but after enjoying four seasons, this felt like stinging betrayal. Now, sure, I can't say whether or not they handled everything up to this point better, these are not my sensitivities so I can't comment about that. But this last season was nothing short of antisemitic. Judaism isn't a dead religion, it's not some ancient tradition and culture anime series can use however they want, least of all to vilify like this.

Just really had to get that off my chest. A very bitter ending to a franchise I otherwise enjoyed, and I'm grateful it looks like it's over