Senki Zesshou Symphogear – 12
The question is, creepier than the original? Hm …
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I’m still tearing up just thinking about Kurisuuu~ With two episode left and of lot of questions unanswered, I wonder if Symphogear will manage to tie up all its loose ends. (Who am I kidding, I just want more action!) |
After using her Swan Song as a last resort Chris falls back to Earth as all on-lookers (excluding Finne, of course) lament over her sacrifice. Hibiki falls to her knees in tears, grieving over her lost friend, but inside her heart begins to beat at a faster rate. With Finne egging her on Hibiki begins transforming into her “berserk” mode, except this time her entire body is shaded in darkness. Hibiki’s friends watch on from the safety bunker as she pretty much goes insane. Finne, who seems pretty joyous about the whole thing, reveals that the reason for her “transformations” are the fragments of Gungnir that merged with her body. Basically, she’s been an experiment of hers for a very long time.
“Don’t look into her eyes!!!” … Too late.
Hibiki lunges towards Finne, but is pushed back by her whips. That doesn’t stop her though because she tries once more and breaks through Finne’s defenses, practically ripping her in two. Tsubasa attempts to calm Hibiki down, but she simply turns her attention away from Finne and attacks. Tsubasa fends her off barely, meanwhile back in the bunker Anime-chan has a complete breakdown. Thankfully Miku is there to comfort her.
Finne’s body heals again, thanks to the fusion between her body and Nehustan, and suddenly the tower (the rainbow tower of doom) begins to recharge another round thanks to Durandal being its power source, meaning Chris’s sacrifice was all for naught. Hibiki once again attacks Tsubasa, but instead of countering she allows the blow to hit. With blood spewing from her chest Tsubasa wraps her arms around Hibiki and hugs her close. As tears run down Hibiki’s cheek, Tsubasa throws a Shadesticher onto her shadow, stopping her ability to move.
Hugs always make things better … even rage. ❛ ᴗ ❛
With Hibiki out of the way Tsubasa turns her sights to Finne and the tower. Blue Flashes and Heaven’s Wraiths abound, Tsubasa manages to knock back Finne, and while she’s busy re-cooperating Tsubasa activates a new ability called Soaring Phoenix, directed straight for the tower. Just as she’s nearing the top, however, Finne’s whip pierces her body.
Tsubasa has a vision of Kanade as she falls from the tower who offers her words of encouragement and love. A new flame ignites in Tsubasa and she seemingly sacrifices herself to destroy the tower for good.
Hibiki, now back to her normal self, cries over losing another friend. Back in the bunkers Anime-chan continues to freak out. Finne, in complete madness, throws Hibiki into the ground. As she lays there Hibiki wonders what her purpose is. The girls decide they need to do something to help Hibiki, so when a group of survivor arrive (including the little girl from back in episode 2) they hatch a plan to reactivate the power to the intercom.
Outside now Finne thinks back to her love of Him and how she wanted to reach Him so badly. Hibiki comments on this pushing Finne deeper into madness. Inside the bunkers the girls and Ogawa find the generator, but only a small hatch remains open. Anime-chan becomes a hero when she decides to squeeze through and turn the power on for the sake of Hibiki and everyone else. She succeeds in doing so.
Anime-chan, my hero!<3
Just as Finne is about to experiment further with Hibiki Lydian’s school song relays over the intercom. Hibiki receives a new motivation from hearing this and she transforms back into a Symphogear. In the distance both Chris (WHO IS ALIVE!) and Tsubasa also transform into Symphogear. They gather in the sky revealing their new white themed armed gears. Let the battle begin!~
… I liked the black better.
Everything this week was so ridiculously perfect, I have no other way to describe this show then over-the-top, often times hilarious, but always entertaining. Sure, the “POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!” resolution has been done a million times before, but gah, I still loved it! A lot of my burning questions were answered this week surrounding Hibiki’s “berserk” mode and Finne’s motivation, but I have to honestly say I was paying little attention to that. How could I when Hibiki was flipping out and tearing every living thing in sight in two with her creepy as hell shadow form, or when Kanade made that lovely surprise appearance! (<3) All in all, it was just craziness in general.
The highlight this week for me was the action, it felt like at least half the episode was spent on fighting. We got to see the return of some old techniques like Heaven’s Wraith, which never gets old, and the new ability (Soaring Phoenix) which I feel like only Tsubasa could pull off. If you look past the cliches, which never really bother me all that much anyway, then this episode was really enjoyable for both the combat side of things and the emotional. The song that “revived” Hibiki was very heartfelt, and seeing Anime-chan save the day was enough to make me smile.
I planned to talk about Finne, but there’s really not too much more to add. She’s still mad beyond belief and still strong, it’ll be interesting to see how our powered-up heroines will take on this witch. I can’t wait to see that ugly grin crushed by Chris-chan out of revenge!
AND, my Symphogear friends, CHRIS-CHAN IS ALIVE. (I honestly have no idea how, considering she fell from like space all the way to Earth’s surface with no cushion other then the cold, hard ground … and that’s not even taking the damages from using her Swan Song and being hit by a super powered beam of energy into consideration!) But I don’t even care, because the show could probably do anything at this point and I’d just laugh it off as “good ol’ Symphogear”. It kind of took away a lot of the emotional affect of last week’s conclusion, but on the bright side she’s alive, so *high fives* for not killing off the best character.
At this point I’m really just looking forward to a crazy end to a crazy series, but it’s sad to think that next week poor Hibiki will die.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh, wow! Where do I start? This episode was pure awesomeness. Berserker Hibiki was frighteningly great even when she couldn’t tell friend from enemy anymore. That form was nice but I prefered it when the three Symphogear girls powered up in their strongest modes.
Ryoko had a few good moments as well, most notably her line to Hibiki about “Are you questioning my motivations!?” Yes Ryoko, we are definitely questioning your motivations. Kudos to Anime-chan for saying what goes on in an anime. And here I thought we were the only ones who watch anime. I didn’t realize the characters take part of it as well.
What I didn’t expect to see again was the little that Hibiki saved prior to her transformation. But it was nice to see her again, and it brings things around full circle. Hibiki saved her at the beginning of the show, and she provided the inspiration for how to save Hibiki here.
POWUH: 700-799 and Horror Expert with 701 comments
Agreed! This episode was great! 😀 The girl’s new “angel mode” (as I like to call it XD) looks really awesome, I can’t wait to see if they’ll completely overpower Finne now!
That question from Hibiki seemed to really anger her, it was a great moment though, I agree. Finne seems to be spiraling further and further into insanity! Anime-chan is probably secretly an otaku. XD
I was really happy to see the little girl as well, I didn’t think they’d bring her back, but it turns out she’s the savior of the day! I thought it was funny how her mother still tried to keep everything a secret about what happened despite everything that was going on.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I loved this episode. Everything was just awesome and it broke my heart to see Hibiki all broken up after Tsubasa’s and Chris’s “death” But it was awesome when they came back with their pretty new upgraded forms and all. Although I’m sad for Hibiki since she is going to be biting the dust next episode unless some other plot twist thing happens…