Senki Zesshou Symphogear the final season, XV. If I had to describe this season in one word it would be disappointing.
I came into the 5th and final season of XV very excited as the advertisement and teasers made it seem like it would be this amazing new season that broke the norm for Symphogear and deliver an epically told story. With Miku also having an obvious focus in this season I was really excited because she's been neglected since season 2. However all my hopes we're quickly and utterly crushed. The HibiMiku we were promised and the HibiMiku we get were two HUGELY different things and its the greatest disappointment of the season.
Let's start with the characters. Noble Red (The main enemy) was very weak in my opinion (not in power, as characters). They didn't show much differences between already established villains and everything they did or motivations they had were pale in comparison to villains who were much better such as Fine (At least in my opinion). I feel Symphogear has always had a villain problem and it continued down a spiraling path of them becoming worse and worse each season. XV just marks the next in line to be even worse than the last. Hell, they even just take the backstory from the previous season villains of the Illuminati and put it on the current season ones. Well, Milaarc did her role of making us hate her so she's managed to be the first person in Symphogear ever to make me genuinely hate them (Apart from Akira). Another HUGE disappointment was Fudo. He was introduced as this man that had loads of power and could threaten S.O.N.G easily and was very manipulative to get his way and protect the country. Then they just said screw that and ruined his character. Such ruined potential for an interesting villain who was different from the rest. His previously established information like "having a stronghold over the government" was also abandoned but I won't spoil how. Fudo as a whole was a huge waste of precious time that could have been spent on more important issue XV has. I honestly think Noble Red should have been axed from the planning board as well. Every second spent on them was an utter waste of time they could have spent on more important issues. The season is already rushed as it is so it could really use the extra screen time wasted on characters who are literally just the "seasonal redemption sticks". They don't feel compelling in the slightest and they could have been replaced with literally anything and could have still got the same effects that XV apparently needed. Hell, they could have just introduced the main overarching villain much sooner and had way more screen time with them instead. That would have seriously helped all the issues its had for me personally.
Noble Red's "redemption" was also really quick and made no sense. It was literally there just to tick off a box on the checklist. Now, this isn't a spoiler in the slightest. We all know they were going to get redeemed just like every other season of Symphogear ever. You know by episode 3 it's going to happen. There hasn't been a single villain who wasn't redeemed in some way other than Adam. I'm sure Tsubasa will magically forgive Milaarc for all she's done right? Yeah as you can tell I hate both Noble Red and even the idea of them being redeemable. I know people talk on and on about they're being redeemed because there's "no one truly evil" or something like that and the message the director wanted to tell but seriously can Symphogear have a single season where they don't have a redeemable villain. They're all made to die in the end anyway so just make them hateable as hell. The Rising of the Shield Hero knew this perfectly and made you genuinely want for Malty to be defeated. I'm not sure why they didn't go down this route for Noble Red instead. The second I saw they were taking it down the normal redemption path they have every season I immediately rolled my eyes and knew this was just another average Symphogear season. The main overarching villain also completely breaks character at the end for no apparent reason which ruins a lot.
The main characters returning are the same as ever. However, with character arcs for Symphogear, I genuinely believe they are just repeating arcs. This season it didn't feel like any character went through any type of arc or grew much at all. Of course, some characters have to be taken off the focus per season because of there not being enough time to properly develop them but even the ones that do get focus didn't feel like much. Tsubasa's entire arc this season felt very forced. Tsubasa has had the same concern for 3 seasons now, and the way they rap that up? They repeat her arc from season 1 about loss and anger. I won't say how but admittedly the initial plot twist was interesting however it genuinely felt pointless to me. Honestly so disappointing because it was interesting that they added this new seriousness to the series way above previous seasons but they don't stick with it unless its a Tsubasa scene. Tsubasa basically takes up half of the season so it's annoying to just see season 1 play out again and take up more screen time from HibiMiku. I like Tsubasa getting a focus, just not what they give her. Making Tsubasa a focus was a good choice character-wise considering she was the original Symphogear (Not including the immediately killed Kanade). Because of this we finally get to see Hibiki and Tsubasa's friendship put at the forefront and redeveloped a new so the two become even closer and trust each other even more. It's beautiful honestly, definitely one of the saving graces of XV. Tsubasa and Hibiki have my favourite friendship in Symphogear so seeing it put to focus was a great treat. It's just a shame that Tsubasa isn't given an interesting story outside of the same state she's in for 2/3 of the season. As for other returning characters Maria X Tsubasa fans are in for a treat with this season having half of it focus on them and half focus on Hibiki X Miku. Focusing on two major couples was good as previous seasons didn't do this that much and it gives more screen time for them. Even if its just screen time and nothing else.
Now to talk about the supposed main focus of XV and my biggest complaint that ruined it for me, the main story, Hibiki and Miku. I personally watch Symphogear only for these two, so when I saw the teaser and the news that this season would focus on them I was hyped as hell. Sadly as the first few episodes got along I got very worried that they were just feeding us one scene an episode and saying "Look they're the focus". Sadly they did exactly that. After some issues with Miku, she is removed from the series and is never seen again until the end. We get one occasional scene of her talking but that's it. Hibiki herself also doesn't seem as emotional as I thought this season to what's happened during it (I won't say what but you can probably guess from previous seasons) outside of one scene that was well done. It feels that Hibiki was too busy with other conflicts to actually focus on the more important one to her. Again maybe it's just a matter of they don't have enough time to properly make this story compelling or just never tried to. However, I've got to give props to XV in how they've improved their facial expressions and reactions giving way more emotion to the characters than ever before. However, the supposed marketing of HibiMiku being the focus is essentially a lie. I'd say Tsubasa feels more like a focus than the relationship between Hibiki and Miku. They were even on the cover of this season as well so it sucks to see them not get a good engaging story as I hoped. They just get drip-fed a scene per episode for the first half and the conflict isn't given the direction to truly be impactful and engaging. There aren't any impactful moments between the struggles of Hibiki and Miku to overcome because the season has to focus on other characters as well. Tsubasa's arc this season majorly takes away from it which sucks since her arc is just a repeat of season 1 which annoys me, even more, to see that get focus over HibiMiku. The stuff in G was way more interesting than what XV has managed to achieve (Which literally is just the conflict from Symphogear G just dragged out longer). They don't really build much up but instead put problems on hold and make it seem like they're building it up and much of XV is rushed and when they finally get around to the problems they are resolved in an instant. The main problem once they start addressing it is resolved in half an episode. HALF AN EPISODE!! When I say it doesn't feel built up it's not that they don't have enough screen time (Not mentioning the less Miku gets later on) but it's about what the characters do. Hibiki and Miku genuinely feel like they've just been given a shitty script to read out and that's it. The main overarching villain for this season doesn't feel like a rival to Hibiki. Every season there has been a great semi or full rivalry for Hibiki to either defeat or befriend. I think Adam and Hibiki is a good example with what he did to make Hibiki angry so when they finally fought it felt satisfying and carefully built up. They also had multiple engagements before the final fight. Sadly Hibiki has next to no encounters with the main villain at all and it isn't given the time or focus to be an impactful rivalry for Hibiki to defeat. Adam also got much more screen time than this season's villain did to focus on who is eventually going to be the main threat. Adam's fight in AXZ was given a bare minimum of 3 full episodes, whereas this season's villain gets one episode. Actually not even one, they get HALF AN EPISODE!! For the final fight of the series!! I can't stress that enough how insulting that is that the main villain of the franchise gets half an episode to fight the heroes and is resolved in an instant making it unsatisfying when they finally defeat them. This is odd considering they did the other seasons just fine but when it came to their final season they rushed it so much. Hibiki also only has one motivation to defeat the main villain outside of the typical "I want to destroy the world" villain motivation that every villain has. It sucks because that one motivation is definitely enough if they made it more engaging and directly reminded us of it and had more encounters with the overarching villain. It just doesn't feel like Hibiki is desperate enough this season. That's what I mean when it's not built up so when the main problem is resolved it doesn't feel satisfying in the slightest as all it did was take away from HibiMiku in favour of a predictable story. Especially when they chose to focus on the overall villain later on rather than Miku. I'm a HUMUNGOUS HibiMiku fan so the disappointment was also humungous when I saw the final product. The supposed main focus, Miku, doesn't get any spotlight whatsoever even though she was foreshadowed at the end of AXZ to have a major role. No, her major role sums up like this, a plot convenience, That's it. Just a plot convenience to have the story continue. Its a shame too because the HibiMiku scenes we get drip-fed throughout the season aren't even that great with most of them saying vague stuff to build up foreshadowing that's obvious what's going to happen from a mile away leading back into predictability. Expect to be sorely disappointed if you were expecting anything with sustenance with HibiMiku this season. The ending of XV was equally as disappointing as it was the most rushed thing I've ever seen. It's surprising how they tried to make up for the lack of Miku in the last episode and try to think that it resolves all the season's issues of ignoring her. Miku is definitely my biggest complaint with XV. One last comment on HibiMiku, they do some vague stuff towards the end which is frustrating because they've been building up Hibiki and Miku's "feelings" for so long but XV NEVER ADDRESSES THEM!! They literally just leave it up to the audience for them to guess what their "feelings" are. I'm not sure whether this was just to satisfy those who aren't into the yuri side of Symphogear but I wished they'd just embrace that side that so many love about the series and go full in. Not getting an answer to something this built up was just insulting. In this particular case, it's not even about the payoff being bad, THERE WAS NO PAYOFF!! Being a huge HibiMiku fan you can expect that sort of reaction from this cop-out.
Apart from the Hibiki and Miku stuff, the overall story of XV was very underwhelming and didn't feel like a final season. I see a lot of people say "Symphogear isn't about the story" but I personally really would like to see Symphogear improve in that regard. So when I saw the teasers I genuinely thought they were doing exactly that, giving us a good story. However sadly everything about the story except one saving grace was very disappointing. Symphogear XV started strong very early on but it never managed to elevate it up and when they built something up it ends up being so anticlimactic right after the initial surprise that it makes you wonder why you were hyped in the first place. This season has so many good ideas just they fail to make them interesting and you see the most impactful scene of the season early on making everything else bland in comparison. Symphogear XV was amazing at raising expectations with its foreshadowing, teasers, and previews to each episode but horrible at meeting them almost as if they were doing it on purpose. There just wasn't enough payoff for what they were building up which resulted in more disappointment. The thing XV does over and over again is, introduce something great or amazing, then immediately forget that amazing thing happened or don't use it much afterward. The main thing about XV is expectations, and personally, that was the death of XV's potential to be an amazing final season for me.
On the more positive side for HibiMiku they at least did get more coverage than previous seasons. When they aren't being ominous and spouting out foreshadowing they have some really nice scenes of being more light-hearted than the season surrounding it to give us a little break to just enjoy the slice of life elements that Symphogear has given each season. They had to obviously remove most of the slice of life parts because of the new seriousness so there isn't much but the parts we do get are nice. If you only care about just getting HibiMiku scenes then XV has got you covered with you getting at least one per episode for the first half of the season. Sadly later on its neglected in favour of the main story which greatly differed from what I'd hoped. At least they do try to give Miku something towards the end. And I mean right towards the end, the last episode.
Kirika and Shirabe this season are basically just used as the comedy machines the entire 13 episode duration. I didn't find any of it funny but I'm sure fans of those characters will love it. It felt a bit forced at times with them making stupidly bad jokes at a supposed serious moment coming back to that bipolar tone shift. It makes me want to go and just watch a series that focuses on one or the other. Being a comedy or being an action. Or even in some cases both like previous seasons of Symphogear itself. This season Kirika and Shirabe are glued together as usual so don't expect any individual character stuff with them (But I guess the season isn't about them so it doesn't matter). I personally think they should just rotate main character roles so have Kirika and Shirabe nearly removed and become side characters so they can focus more on Tsubasa and Maria or Hibiki and Miku. This is one reason I didn't like the introduction of Maria, Kirika, and Shirabe as main characters. It spreads the screen time over more characters and means they don't get as much depth to them. Or at least that's how I see it. Luckily they at least limit non-important characters to just battle scenes so, for the most part, they do focus on their main story parts. Mainly Maria and Tsubasa actually getting more time then Hibiki and Miku. Especially towards the end which should be the vital moments in the story. As you can tell I didn't like Tsubasa's arc and story this season as it was just a repeat of already done arcs and felt like a waste of time. It wasn't the fact they made Tsubasa a focus that annoyed me it's just what they chose to do with her that was pretty boring to watch again after already seeing a similar thing in the past.
However, outside of Kirika and Shirabe's forced comedy, there were some funny scenes with Hibiki and her reactions to certain situations. However, the comedy occurs while in front of the villains so that makes me question whether XV wants to tell a serious story or just be funny.
Foreshadowing for this season, in my opinion, was a double-edged sword. It did its job of getting us thinking about the future early on but when the foreshadowed thing happens and passes the immediate aftermath is so disappointing you feel stupid for actually expecting anything. The only thing that keeps you going and excited is the cliff hanger that every episode ends on. I'm not sure whether there was one episode in XV that didn't end on a cliffhanger. A bit annoying but it did its job of keeping me coming back for more. The foreshadowing did its job successfully but it comes back to the payoff not being enough. They'll foreshadow something to happen so you get excited, the scene happens and it's amazing, the immediate scene afterwards disappoints you to no end and makes all that build-up to become void, and repeat throughout the entire season.
Now the overall saving grace of XV is, of course, the main overarching villain. OMG, I LOVE THE OVERALL VILLAIN FOR XV! I can't mention names or anything as it would be a major spoiler but I'll just say without the main villain this season would be pretty lackluster and very forgettable. This season's villain is the villain I always wanted Symphogear to have and the villain I expected Fudo to be. The main villain remains interesting and keeps the same attitude of you wanting them to be defeated without them going psychotic and ruining their character like Symphogear loves to do. I can't talk much about them since its a major spoiler so I'll just say if you're watching XV expect a great overall villain. However, that same villain is at the same time a disappointment of XV, because of course everything to do with the main story has an element of disappointment. As a character they are the most interesting Symphogear has ever offered, sadly they ruin that by giving them zero screen time to actually do anything. They were introduced earlier than I expected which got me excited as I thought "Oh this is new. So we're getting more of the season with this to develop this out". NOPE. Right after the typical Symphogear cliffhanger, they are taken out of the spotlight again. Funny, just like Miku is this season. Honestly, that was one of the greatest disappointment I've ever seen in anime. To make it worse they do practically nothing the entire series. They wave their hands a bit and uses their power occasionally and that's about it with the odd 1v1 fight that lasts 3 seconds. Such a shame. They even did an interesting turn with Noble Red and the overarching villain in which I thought "Oh this is cool. I hope they use this as some sort of message." NOPE. They immediately reverse any consequences and continue like normal. They even remove the villain just as disappointingly and ruin the character they built up in the last few seconds they got on screen. Just for the sake of it. However overall I think they did an amazing job on their overarching villain for this season in which they are now my favourite Symphogear villain, just slightly beating Fine who has been my favourite the entire time. They don't feel much more powerful than previous villains but their attitude definitely strikes them apart from those who came before them. I'd love to say in-depth how much I love this season's villain but sadly as said before they're a walking spoiler.
Now for my next point, predictability and repeating stuff. Symphogear is no stranger to being predictable and repeating elements but after 5 seasons it's really starting to annoy. They have to have 3 main villains, they need to have them be redeemed, they need a bigger villain so the smaller villains can turn to the good side. It's basically them repeating the same story structure each and every season for part of the story. Cant they spice things up and change the story structure up a bit? Maybe have fewer villains this season that are more fleshed out than usual to make it a more compelling final season? Having less villains would also mean more screen time for the heroes and hero vs villain interactions for more buildup. Seriously, having fewer villains this season would help XV SOOO MUCH! In my opinion, the main overarching villain should have been introduced sooner than they did. They aren't given nearly enough time and more importantly not enough interactions with the heroes to really care. Miku's involvement could have also seriously benefited from it as well. They do try and change the structure by introducing an unexpected element early on in the season but then they just kind of never use that interesting element and just drag it out so it doesn't get resolved until the very end anyway. After watching Symphogear for so long and loving the series for so long seeing the same elements over and over again does start to get annoying. I still think the previous seasons are pretty solid its just XV which disappoints in comparison. Ok, one, the power-up this season wasn't explained in the slightest. I've seen many compare this season's power up to Ignite and most said they preferred Ignite and for good reason. Ignite was built up, introduced properly and tested by the heroes to overcome something to gain that power boost. But in XV they just said "Nope!" because screen time I guess? They just introduced this power with no introduction whatsoever and just were like "Yeah, Hibiki has this thing, we're not going to tell you how or why. Fill the dots in with your own theory." The powerup this season is basically purely just for a nice spectacle to look at to make the characters look nice which I'll admit it at least does that. But it's just another tick on the box. Another annoying thing that makes XV uninteresting and frustrating is their for some reason obsession of keeping the three villain formula for the main villains and one bigger villain for everyone to turn against later on. It makes it predictable on where the story is going, what twists the villains will have throughout, when and why the villains turn sides, etc. It just makes everything predictable and meaningless particularly for the last few episodes which suffer from this the most. It's literally just seeing a reskinned version of the villains from AXZ and G just with slightly different motives but their end destination is obvious from a mile away so you never care about what they want and why because we know what their ultimate fate will be. The reason season 1 was so interesting for me was because its the only season of Symphogear that didn't have this predictable formula and since it was the first season we were just introduced to this new series. Yes, there was Chris as the villain and Fine as the bigger villain but it was handled so much better than XV does it. Especially because they didn't bombard us with tons of villains so they were able to focus more on a select few. Chris was also an interesting villain, unlike Noble Red. No matter what people say about the art style, season 1 still remains the best in my opinion. I seriously think they shouldn't have even made Noble Red so they don't have to waste time building these character's personalities, motives and things they do if their ultimately going to contribute nothing to the story that the ultimate villains of the season couldn't just do themselves. And after 5 seasons you get sick of seeing this same formula. After about season 2 we all know nothing bad will happen to the heroes and any attempt at making us worry for their safety is made void as we know for a fact that none of the heroes are ever truly in any danger which is another element that adds to XV's uninterestingness. Because of this, they need to make something else compelling other than the threat of the hero's lives. XV attempts this, I guess, but never succeeds to meet expectations. Especially when XV focuses so much on heavy drama involving the main characters but for me it never really hits. I personally couldn't care less with the drama this season as it just felt unnecessary and forced. Especially in Tsubasa's case.
The fights this season, for the most part, aren't particularly special, pretty standard Symphogear. The villains abilities were sadly pretty lackluster for the most part. HOWEVER, some of the later scenes in the series are BEAUTIFUL, the animation and voice acting this season has genuinely made some epic scenes that left a grin on my face. One of the later fights varied up the combatants and gave us something not seen before which was a really interesting fight to watch. As well as some of the overarching villain fights also having some interesting events that make them stand out to the rest of the average fights. Hibiki gets some amazing scenes herself that I sadly can't say but look forward to some epic Yuki Aoi/Hibiki screaming towards the end. Symphogear XV definitely enhanced their fights with the beautiful animation to make even the normal Symphogear fights have this feeling that you're watching a piece of art that people have put their utmost effort into making which I can really appreciate now more than ever. You can tell that all the staff and people involved have poured their hearts into making XV as good as it possibly can which is beautiful to see. It's just a shame the writing team couldn't give us a compelling story to truly make this a masterpiece which it definitely had the potential of being. If I was rating Symphogear XV solely on the effort put in, animation and voice acting it would easily be a 10/10.
One huge problem that I have with XV is the number of times they make a callback or direct reference to previous seasons. It feels like they had at least 3 references per episode which made it difficult to ignore. Somethings from previous seasons make an appearance (I won't say what for spoiler reasons) and play a fairly decent role in the plot which I'm conflicted with. I'd like XV to focus on what it's doing rather than reference back to what it's done in the past. It was too much to ask for from a 13 episode season and they spend too much time using the copy and paste button. Hell, they even make a joke about the secret to Alchemy being copy and paste. It sucks because by episode 4 these callbacks seem just for fan service and not there for genuine reason. One of the major plot points is just ripped from season 1 and made grander for more impact. I'm sure some will say its just paying tribute to previous seasons and bringing it full circle but its difficult when they have so many. Too many callbacks and references to previous seasons for my liking. But I guess its just fanservice for the mega fans.
I expected a lot from the final fight of XV as it is the building up of 5 seasons of the story to finally end it all with one big boss fight. Sadly the only powerup people get is a slightly different version of things used in the past, A LOT. The final fight as said before was only half an episode. When something feels this rushed and crammed into the end it just makes it even more unsatisfying. Adam's fight was 3 episodes, Carol's fight was more than 2 episodes, Fine's fight was also multiple episodes. Why they chose to cram the very final boss into such a tight screen time baffles me! They either should have cut content that was unnecessary like the jokes (or most of Tsubasa's whole arc in my opinion) or to be honest Noble Red as they weren't an essential part of the plot and it would have been just fine without them. That or make XV longer with more episodes to tell a completely satisfying story. The 13 episode per season rule seems to have been part of the reason XV felt so crammed together, at least for me. X-Drive is used every season up until AXZ which was a very interesting scene when something else was used. Thing is though X-Drive was only cool the first time, in season 1, with the best scene in the series (and in my opinion the best scene in Symphogear) when they activated their first X-Drive and Hibiki screamed "SYMPHOGEAAAAAR!!!" at the top of her lungs in epic fashion. They use X-Drive in this season (I won't say when) but it was used unexpectedly so I had high hopes that meant they were going to do something unique for the ending, sadly they didn't. It's strange to see them suddenly absolutely drop the ball on their final season with 4 other seasons to refer back to. However, the very little time we do get for the final fight is nice with us finally getting to see Hibiki go one to one with the main villain but sadly it's cut short as its resolved in an instant because of it all being crammed into the final episode. Also, the fact that Hibiki has had near to no encounters with said villain makes it feel like just their first fight and not the final fight of the series. The visuals for this final fight are phenomenal though and look gorgeous the entire fight. It's just a shame it felt so rushed.
Now on a positive note, something that Symphogear XV undoubtedly improves on is its animation. This season has some of the smoothest and BEAUTIFUL looking animation in the series to date and not only the best in the series but some of the best this anime season. Give a quick scene of XV to a non-Symphogear watcher and I'm sure it'll impress them. This amazing animation will definitely help in promoting Symphogear with the amount of coverage XV has gotten. As previously mentioned the facial expressions and reactions of the characters in the season feel more emotional and help you empathize and make them feel more human (Of course I'm not saying they weren't human before just more so now than ever). The reactions from characters this season are much more impactful than previous seasons and it works well with its new serious scenes when they keep the comedy out of them. They use this with some of Symphogear's cliffhangers which had me on the edge of my seat wanting to see what happens next. Some of the later scenes in the series have such good animation you'd think they spent their entire budget on that one scene but they keep bringing them out constantly keeping that high production value. Some shots looked weird but that's only if you pause the screen so its nothing that takes away from the experience. The character designs look great. I prefer previous season designs but there's no denying that the designers did a great job with this season's character designs with darker/stronger colours this season compared to previous ones. The later outfits are also as equally beautiful making you look at them and go "Wow that's pretty". Hibiki's winter outfit looks great as well with her snowflake sweater. Miku's outfit was also a direct reference to her Alter counterpart in the XDU game which was a nice touch. Miku also gets some other outfits that look jaw-droppingly beautiful which genuinely makes me realize how beautiful Miku is. (Of course she's always been beautiful just more now than ever before) Hibiki's scarf this season is in the same regard referencing her alter which makes her look badass as hell. Hibiki throughout this season has had many cool and badass moments and looks to show her progression as a character. She looked like a hamster in season 1 but has grown into a lion that is determined to protect her cubs. (This is a weird analogy but I'm rolling with it lol). Tsubasa also has a good focus in XV so we get to see her expressions and what season 1 wasn't able to achieve with its capacities at the time, really showing the growth not only the series but the studio as well and how they've managed to perfect what they originally started. (In terms of animation).
Now to speak of the music, the big promoter of Symphogear and focus. I'm going to be honest, I've never really cared much for anyone's songs other than Hibiki and Miku's so I generally just ignored the music for everyone this season as well after I listen to them once. I feel music is just a gimmick at this point and not a major focus. Or at least for this season, it seems like that. Other than the apple song Maria keeps going on about the original focus of songs saving the world and all about songs have sort of been removed from XV. This is part of the reason why I'm happy Symphogear is finally ending because they've in my opinion strayed too far from what was originally good about Symphogear. (Of course, this is just my opinion I know a lot of people are just consuming XV and loving the hell out of it which there is nothing wrong with.) However, I cannot deny how good the OP and ED are for XV. Both of those songs were very rememberable and left an impact. Symphogear has always had a great way of blending their ED out when each episode finishes and that's no different here. The ending sung by Takagaki Ayahi has that impactful start to finish each episode along with the beautiful visuals that accompany it of Hibiki walking on a slanted floor walking towards a light. The images you see in the ED get you thinking about what could possibly happen along the way which may have attributed to more theorizing and expectations being raised but still a beautiful ED. The OP is equally as great with the fan favourite Nana Mizuki returning for her final OP of the Symphogear series and she doesn't throw any punches. The OP is catchy and epic, leaving an impact and making you want to sing along. The animation that goes along with the song is also smooth as hell and follows the song greatly. The OP mainly just consists of character's faces which is a bit of a shame but the song easily makes up for it. I'm starting to understand why Nana Mizuki is thought of so highly after proper listening to this opening song. Everything about this screams amazing! Sadly they didn't play Synchrogazer which I hoped they would but a certain song from a previous season does make an appearance which was appreciated.
Along a similar line of thought, I've definitely got to talk about the voice acting for XV. The voice acting for XV is BEAUTIFUL! Particularly Yuki Aoi delivering her screams and cries in her usual epic fashion and only improving as the series went on. Some other voice actors manage to change their voice to an AMAZING level. I can't say who because that in itself would be a spoiler but they do such an amazing job with their role and it definitely left a huge impact on the series. The voice actors for the series have such a good cast of talent. Its one of Symphogear's major appeals is its voice actors which I see a lot of non-Symphogear watchers say they're interested to see what Symphogear is like solely because of popular names like Nana Mizuki and Yuki Aoi. Some of the lines delivered in XV have such emotion behind them and you can feel the internal conflicts the characters are going through solely on their voice. Symphogear has come a long way from season 1 and as much as I love that season there's no denying XV has some of the best elements of Symphogear that have been perfected over the seasons.
Now, have I been taking this season too seriously, yes I have. However, XV clearly wants me to take it seriously compared to previous seasons. It has way more serious scenes reminiscent of season 1 so I was hoping they could find that perfect balance that season had between slice of life and serious action, sadly it never does that for me. That's probably the reason I didn't like this season as much as the others. With previous seasons I could just sit down and consume it. But this season is so serious that I can't do that and it keeps switching between normal Symphogear atmosphere of over the top action, screaming and Symphogear goodness, and super serious scenes that change the tone drastically. Having to keep changing between these two moods ruins XV. The poor comedy doesn't help either. I wish they would just choose one side and stick with it for this season. Either be serious throughout the season or be a normal Symphogear season. Yes, I know Symphogear has had serious scenes in the past other than season 1 but just the level that XV has its serious scenes makes it hard to blend the tones between episodes. One episode will be super serious, the next it's back to normal Symphogear, and repeat. Maybe if I just re-watch Symphogear XV with a completely different mindset I might enjoy it more.
Now if I just look at the serious scenes themselves they are very well done. Ignoring the switching tones the serious scenes are a lot more violent and brutal than previous seasons with the great animation and art bringing it out to its fullest. With the tone they were hoping for with some of the plot points this season the animation and overall colouring of XV was spot on to create some pretty horrifying scenes. Some of the individual scenes had so much effort put into them and it really shows. There were some seriously well-crafted scenes that just with the right buildup and execution could have made me shed a tear and get emotional for the first time in Symphogear (Other than tears of joy). The expressions that accompany them are also just as amazingly well crafted. It's a shame because I could see the potential for them to make a genuinely compelling story with this new animation and seriousness.
Another thing XV does amazingly is its transformation scenes. Now admittedly after I'd seen the transformations once I skipped them every time after that but that doesn't mean they're bad. I loved the transformations for this season, having some of the best in the series. Hibiki's had some new camera movement and uniqueness, Tsubasa's showed some epic visuals, Chris's also had her own "uniqueness" with the way she handled herself but admittedly I thought it went over too quickly and finally, Kirika's was rememberable enough for it to get changed lol. If I had to praise XV for some things the transformations would definitely be one of them. Again the animation in this series took a new height with XV so in that sense Symphogear has been improving each season.
Ok if I'm going to be honest, most of my complaints about XV all go back to the same problem, Miku. Miku was promoted soooo much with XV but she isn't given anything. Especially with the latter half of the season. So you'll probably see why I didn't like XV and found it so disappointing. I'm very attached to Hibiki and Miku so to see Miku get this treatment absolutely sucks. She literally just has some chats through the season and that's it. Oh, and they bluntly put what character arc they had planned for her out in the open, then never do anything with it again. I think its just because I was watching this weekly which makes it seem like its been longer than it actually has but it genuinely feels like Miku has got so little attention this season than she should have. Later in the series, Miku is nowhere to be seen outside of 2 scenes. It's such a shame too because in the earlier episodes they built Miku up sooo well with her saying stuff like "What would you do if I caused someone trouble?" and getting a speechless Hibiki in response. But Miku was never given any spotlight herself, its all another thing. I swear Miku got more personal spotlight in G with her gear and her fight than she did in all of XV. Then they tried to remedy this all too late to make up for it. God, I wish I never had any expectations for XV then I could have enjoyed it the same way I did when AXZ was airing. Previews didn't help much with trying to keep my expectations low.
Now I say what I want about the whole HibiMiku cop-out of their feelings but the ending scene did have a nice touch to it with it giving us a Miku monologue that directly contrasts what she says in episode 1 of season 1. She talks more positively and to me that has such poetry behind it. She is rehearsing it like a poem which probably makes it like that but Miku is the perfect choice for this so she at least got that beautiful monologue to end the series. Miku started Symphogear, Miku ended Symphogear.
Final thoughts. Symphogear XV isn't a bad season per say, just a very disappointing one. XV did bring some amazing things to the table such as its beautiful animation and absolutely perfect songs but overall was very disappointing. As a huge HibiMiku fan I expected so much more from this final season especially with how it was promoted and advertised. Miku was essentially shoved to the side and didn't get the spotlight she deserved. It did bring some good things to the franchise such as its overall villain but ultimately the story and the plot of XV were a great disappointment. With XV constantly building up a scene only for it to be the most anticlimactic thing ever after the initial reveal ruins XV over and over. I struggled to enjoy this season compared to the rest with how many times it caused frustration. In summary, too much hype and too high expectations. XV knew how to raise the excitement but never knew how to maintain it. They'll raise the hype then drop it completely when the initial reveal is over. So as long as you have little to no expectations going in I'm sure you'll enjoy the hell out of this 5th and final season of Symphogear. I'm being hard on this season because I love Symphogear as a whole so it sucks to see them end the series on this.
I'm personally glad this season is finally over so I can stop complaining about it. I do recommend the Symphogear series up until AXZ as its all a great anime that I highly recommend and would say if you're going to watch XV just be mindful of your expectations and don't expect much after the big reveals the season gives as they are horrible at following those up.
Overall 7/10. The reason it doesn't dip lower than a 7 is because of my absolute love for the overarching villain keeping my interest and my already large dedication to the series as a whole as well as the little drips of HibiMiku scenes we get along the way and its amazing animation. My experience will definitely be in the minority for the Symphogear community as I know many fans are just excited to get another season and they'll be very satisfied with this final season. It mainly just comes down to the disappointment of the Hibiki and Miku story we were promised and never got and how Miku was essentially thrown to the side. I guess XV has taught me firsthand how expectations can really break or make a series, and in XV's case, they couldn't maintain the hype outside an initial reveal which made XV very disappointing for me. However that ending scene did ease some of my disappointment and really made me realise that this is the end of such a good series which got me emotional.
Also Kimi Daki Ni I just realized is a continuation of the end credit scene and is a marriage proposal. <3 HibiMiku officially canon and XV saved XD.
I'm definitely going to go re-watch season 1 to relive my original Symphogear hype. Absolutely love Symphogear as a whole though and highly recommend it. HibiMiku FTW!!!!!!!!
