Senki Zesshou Symphogear 13 – notes and the like This entry was posted by Vale.
One of the most controversial shows of the season is finally over. But even in the last episode, there’s enough to write about.
Let’s just ignore the credits appearing all over the dialog (it’s because there is no opening sequence this episode) and focus on what they say. Luckily anime girl doesn’t go into a lengthy rant about how much it’s like an anime that they could help their friends with their singing. (I was kind of expecting it though.) The blonde girl’s sentence is the prime example of the case when you must put a word in the English sentence because she says that word in the Japanese (in this case, “nice”), and if it was missing, you’d get the whole army of weeaboo faggots raging about how inaccurate and shitty your translation is.
The title of this episode is from the official logo – too bad on the official logo has horrible Engrish (“Meteoroid-falling, burning and disappear, then…”). I’d love to put “shooting star” instead of “meteorite”, but apparently that’s what we used in previous episodes. If you wonder where the “disappear” has disappeared, I suggest you learn some English and figure out the meaning of “burn away”. The title is a very obvious foreshadowing of the whole episode. Meteorites fall, burn away, then…
Confirmed: it’s the song of the schoolgirls that gave the heroines the strength to stand up again. Lovely, isn’t it? I’m sorry, but this episode is so painfully stupid I can’t help making sarcastic comments. Kanade died from singing her swan song, Tsubasa was in coma and hospitalized for who knows how long, and Chris was out cold for a whole five minutes only to be mysteriously healed by the school anthem she doesn’t even know.
Please note: “high level phonic gain” is just the series’ technobabble, and it has nothing to do with how it’s sometimes used in linguistics to indicate a child learning a language’s sounds. And seriously, telepathy? I guess it’s only so that they could converse while singing.
Chris uses the word for “art” or “performance” (芸 gei) in her sentence. As usual, Fine goes on into a minute-long monologue that the writers may have copied word for word from some retard’s graduation thesis. Why would anyone talk like that? And seriously, the treasuries of Babylonia? Old Nebuchadnezzar must have been quite a weirdo to have his treasury full of Noise.
Fine goes on to summon what looks like millions of Noise all over the city. A bit of an overkill, but it’s the final episode so let’s just ignore that. The girls of course don’t despair and Chris keeps her vulgar way of speaking as well.
So now not only does Hibiki look like Yui (where is her guitar?), but she also gained the ability to shoot fireballs from her fists. Does that count as an armed gear? This is also the first time the three girls sing together (but not the last). I tried my best to figure out what they are singing, but with all the explosions and battle noises, it was pretty much impossible. All the songs will be fixed in the batch once the official lyrics come out – which won’t happen for a while. (Sadly, because this song is really good.)
Okay it’s one thing that Fine decides to merge with the Noise-summoning Staff of Solomon, and stabs herself with it… Wait what are those things sticking to the Staff? Is that her body? Creepy as fuck, though nowhere as much as what’s to come.
She merges with all the Noise around, turning first into a purple blob then into a creature that reminds me of an angel from Evangelion. She still keeps on talking like she lived 200 years ago (not 6000), using old verb forms (来れ kitare, imperative come) and pretentious expressions (逆さ鱗に触れた sakasa-uroko ni fureta, invoked imperial wrath).
Again there is a phrase that made me uncertain whether it’s an intentional pun or not. The Japanese word for “toys” is 玩具 (gangu), which also happens to be the first few syllables in Gungnir (ガングニール ganguniiru). If this is intentional, it’s terribly out of place, and if it’s not, then it’s a really weird choice of words.
When I first heard that line, I made a face just like Hibiki. Did that seriously just happen? They’re communicating via telepathy, and they have to “keep it off the channel”? “The channel”?! Is there a limit to shitty scriptwriting?
He can say stuff tough to translate as well. I luckily knew Apocalypse (黙示録 mokushiroku) from Guilty Crown, but the rest gave me some trouble. The great red serpent is from Revelations 14, it’s the Beast whose number is 666. The second “sentence” is even rougher, and it’s probably incorrect too. I’ll be interested to see what Funi made of that line.
Tsubasa is her usual self, using phrases no normal teenage girl would never use (in this case: 露を払う tsuyu wo harau). I guess they had to “keep off the channel” so that we won’t hear what they’re planning… What an amazing plot trick.
As soon as Hibiki grabs the Durandal, she turns into a zebra. Shit happens.
Miku goes on a pee-pee break, and the opening’s lyrics playing in the background prove surprisingly relevant.
In a sequence of shouting and insane blasts worthy of a C-grade tokusatsu movie, they defeat Fine, who after a very deep discussion about the power of words and the unity of humankind, pulls the huge fragment of the Moon towards the Earth and dies. The girls must go and save the day again, and apparently Symphogear grant the users the power to breathe and sing in space. The song the three of them sing together is still awesome.
Then we’re back where the series started, with Miku crying at Hibiki’s grave.
If I were Miku, I’d bitchslap Hibiki so hard her head would spin on her neck like three times. Also note the amazing scriptwriting skills again: no explanation, it’s all “classified”. They just mysteriously survived. But at least it’s over… It was a very flashy anime with great songs, nice art and terrible scriptwriting. I’d do it again.
I honestly found this to be the most enjoyable show of Winter 2012. I’m not sure why that is, or what it says about me :I
It was way too much fun bringing out almost every cliche I could remember from my ~15 years of playing JRPGs and putting them to work in the script, in any case 🙂