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Sep 20, 2020
This is an overall review for all its seasons
One can rate a series in many different ways, we can discuss its story, its plot, structure and pacing, we can talk about its characters, the way they are realistic / believable, their development or the impact they have on the overall story. There are many, many aspects one can use to rate an anime, those were just some of the very few most discussed ones, but sometimes they can be enough to decide, whether the series is “good” or “bad”
Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether the anime is bad or even horrible though. Sometimes we find something
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we know is not “good”... and yet we can enjoy it way more than some of the objectively better series, despite all its flaws - we call them the “Guilty pleasure” and Symphogear now belongs to one of them for me
Plots are very repetitive, simple and sometimes can get immature, there’s lots of classic anime tropes and stereotypes, and the characters are often not realistically believable or one dimensional. And yet i still had an awesome experience like one of the few, all it took is a good concept and focus
The said concept is very, very simple and yet very, very powerful one - It’s all about girls, singers, who gain their powers by singing. It sounds silly and it sure is, but watching a bunch of anime girls singing and fighting at the same time can get really awesome, especially when the lyrics change in most fights to fit the story and the character’s situation or mentality, which is something that had me sold quite quickly, because every episode is then quite a great audiovisual experience
The whole series can be summarized with a single word - “Hype”. Hype is probably, together with the singing, its most important element throughout the whole 5 seasons, where both complement each other well, and the anime makes sure to prioritize the hype. Quick explanations, simple plots and characters, so that it can hold its fast pacing, power ups and transformation sequences, which are just awesome in the final season. The idea of a “Swan song”(=climax song) helped a lot as well, where they can get a really powerful boost, but for a deadly price. I still get goosebumps when I start hearing the first words, really great stuff.
They can boast with their music overall though, as most of the openings and endings are bangers, thematic to the story and builds up the hype even more. Apart from music the whole series is really well animated too though, especially in the transformation sequences and battles, mainly in the climax ones, where together with the music it’s just bliss to watch
Overall the series has many flaws, however in many ways it doesn’t take itself that seriously and delivers really well in what it tries to accomplish. It’s a really fun, action, pleasing, HYPE experience that is really hard to recommend, but it’s a great watch if you turn off your brain, especially the final season which was really lit.
If anyone got interested, or wanted to try if he was interested, I can recommend trying the first 6 minutes of the 3rd season (Symphogear GX), where it’s a nice opening scene that shows they are not afraid start the season with a punch, as well as it shows some of its absurdity and it is relatively spoiler free, relatively.
Thanks for reading
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 23, 2017
Times sure are changing and so is anime. With titles like Youjo Senki and Made in Abyss, loli characters are getting a new dimension of ideas and Girls‘ Last Tour is yet another example of this. But instead of loli hitler or a dark fantasy with children, we have iyashikei in a post apocalyptic setting. But is its creativeness enough to make a show good? Sometimes it might be, but the anime has more to offer.
But before that there’s one huge problem to face and that’s merging 2 absolutely opposite things – iyashikei and post apocalyptic setting, as mention before. But they managed to do
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it perfectly like it was nothing. While I still don’t know how they’ve done, after 20 minutes of one episode I was completely calm and forgot about all my daily worries for a moment, even though I was watching 2 girls, Chito and Yuuri, having conversations about various topics, while they were searching for food, trying to survive in a world without civilization. Danger can come from anywhere and yet you still will be smiling.
The dialogs are not there just for a light hearted humor for your relaxation though as they make one ask himself many philosophical question, which is quite enjoyable and serves as a great icing on the cake. Dark colors even give it more serious flavor, but chubby art style of characters still leaves it heartwarming and the balanace between those two is just right. As brighter episodes are to show up, we also come across to not that serious topics, but still explore interesting ideas Chito and Yuuri have to discuss like “What is house?“ or “What is God?“, and also relaxing subjects like “Fish”, “Cooking” or “Music”. Because their daily lives are about food search, they have no clue about those things and look at them in a captivating perspective. And it’s the same about more serious topics like “Life” or “Destruction”.
What their main goal is? There’s no real answer, since there might not even be one, as they keep moving forward and climbing up, their destinations change based on their mood and surroundings. And that’s exactly how it’s done right, since there’s no one alive (just few exceptions) where would you go? Just explore, be curious, probably reach as high as you can and chat with your friend, and that’s exactly portrayed here, so it’s really easy to empathize with them and understand their actions.
They are lucky though to have a friend to share their journey with. In a world full of solitude a companion comes in handy and we even had a chance to see 2 characters all by themselves. We could see in their personality and the way they talked, that they were lonely. In need to find a purpose in life, they either draw maps or want to construct an airplane to fly to another city. But what if you lose all of it? What comes after that? A partner to ease the loneliness is priceless.
Their relationship is really beautiful. As we watch them struggle to find food, it’s really easy to make you smile even over the most stupid joke they make (and they make plenty of good ones). A really true friendship, they share everything, they hide nothing, what would happen if one lost another? As we were poked with this question in the series, it’s really a frightening thought. By the time I reached the final episode, I could totally relate to them and aside from everything mentioned before, there’s a lot of emotions to feel.
Girls’ Last Tour also has done a very good job in their drawings and animated scenes well, though I especially appreciate the CGI work, which has collected a bad reputation lately, but the movements of Girls’ vehicle, Kettenkrad, is here to show us that if given enough attention, it can work in anime too. A limited palette of colors is also a perfect way to set up a good atmosphere. Dark colors work perfectly to leave a mystery aspect in the background and leave an impression of danger, while when we have a lot of bright and white colors, we feel more safe and it lightens up the audience.
With a lot of themes in an episodic story, to come up with a rich collection of good soundtracks is a challenge, but we are not left disappointment. There are many OST to cover everything and really nicely follow us throughout the show. Contrasting opening is one to remember, tunes our mood well and is almost unskippable, pleasant to listen to. As well the “dab scene” was surprising to everyone and made me to wait for it every time. The ending songs weren’t that good as the opening, but still were really well handled and you could feel, that the show is saying good bye to us, watchers, especially the last episode's ending had honestly a strong impact on me.
The anime serves its purpose, is fresh, makes you think, is charming to watch, shows us a good progress in CGI, has a lovely music and overall is an awesome series. Though it might not appeal for someone looking for a bigger plot, it’s still great in many other ways and surely would recommend anyone seeking a well written story. Definitely belongs to one of my favorites of the season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 9, 2017
Let me guess, you are probably deceived by its appearance. At first glance, this actually looks like an adventure show for kids and yet you wonder, how did it managed to skyrocket to the top so fast? But don't worry, we all have been deceived. Let me tell you then, why is so good.
If you've read the synopsis, you know that it all revolves around the Abyss. As you are introduced with main characters, the show already gives you a few hints about its true dark nature, but its slow pacing hides it perfectly. Until you go deeper in the Abyss, Riko and Reg are
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basicly just messing around. You are getting more familiar with their characteristics and watch their friendship improve as they are descending. The further they get the more it is necessary for them to know their roles. Riko is a cook and the knowledgeable one while Reg becomes the defender.
So far so good, right? Well, it escalates faster than you will expect even after reading many reviews. Because the second half of the anime will reveal what it actually is about. Unexpected events or breathtaking past. That's all to come, but you should probably check yourself unless you want to get spoiled.
One of the strong aspects of the show are the main characters. They behave as actual children would like, with a little spice of anime-fantasy characteristics. As Reg is bashful with his young male body, Riko doesn't really care about it. As she goes deeper, thinking about it as a simple task, Reg is forced be ready for anything that might come and it will come. Riko as an inexperienced adventurer is something that is entertaining to watch while they are getting attacked by stronger and stronger monsters.
Spectacular views of Abyss are a must if we are talking about adventure anime, but the round art style of characters' faces is something that keeps the show refreshing. With cheerful but a bit pale colors throughout the series, and vivid, but dark colors with serious scenes, it makes a great contrast. Also well made animation, with hardly noticeable mistakes.
As for sound, the opening "Deep in Abyss" is something really hard to skip, it has a really catchy start, then it continues with cheerful voices of Riko and Reg, but still hides a bit of dark tone in background. But that's not all this anime offers, it has great soundtracks throughout the anime that accompanies scenes really well, especially Hanezeve Caradhina will definitely leave something in you after the episode.
If you don't like slower starts, I'm telling you to survive that, as I didn't really mind and actually enjoyed even the beginning, waiting for it to build up as it did perfectly. As I almost missed this piece, this hidden gem in Summer 2017, it has become not only my favorite of the season, but one of my all time favorites. Even if it's not that popular yet, the only I can do is highly recommend you to watch this one, as this is one of the best anime I've seen so far.
Thanks for your time reading this ;)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 3, 2017
As someone who got into anime thanks to SAO I couldn't help myself but to watch this movie. I didn't really want to expect much but the rating and many positive reviews got my hopes up, yet it disappointed quite a lot.
Story 2/10
The begining of the movie is promising but the rest of the story is a big downfall. The concept of mixed reality with VR is unique and there are a lot of paths the anime could continue from but it becomes your typical cliché where main protagonist gets from zero to hero in only 24 hours, is extremly overpowered and adults just let
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him handle everything even though there are many lives at stake.
The plot feels really empty, there many filler scenes like Kirito's cooking, Asuna's bath scene, when they were in café and played pacman to win a cake or singing Rika. There is no progress whatsoever, not even in characters. It's also dump how Kirito always ignores Yuna when she points somewhere.
Unfortunatly fights get repetive and you have already seen them in first two seasons just in different colours. If you had deja vú in at least one fight then it's because the choreography was already used before. The final fight has no impact at all because of how poorly was the story developed and how there were trown many side characters that were shown only maybe once or twice in the story and on top of it only in TV. The final deus ex machima sword fighting isn't even worth mentioning in my opinion.
(Also my friend loved how everyone always dies in one hit but the final boss apparently isn't that strong)
Characters 3/10
Don't expect much of character development here and characters stay one-dimensional. But the concept of new characters is reasonable, interesting but as with the story, wasted. The idea of Eiji's backstory and motive is well made, but that's probably it. What i did like though is the white design for Yuna. Kirito hasn't changed a bit same as his harem.
Visuals 7,5/10
Clean and bright colours are nice to watch and the animation of final fight was outstanding, together with good music being only reason not to drop it. Unfortunatly, good visuals are not enough for a show to be good. It's really hard to enjoy it, when there's so little of story and characters acts sometimes unnaturally.
Overall 4/10
If you want to see Kirito cooks or waving his sword in the air to IK monsters, you can probably enjoy, but if you expect some progress in the series, don't watch it, by the end of the week I already forgot almost everything that happend, there's no other coffee soda stucked in your head or some memorable fight scene as with Gleam Eye. I give it 4/10 only because I liked the first seasons when I started with anime but it probably deserves less.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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