Anime_Freak's Review: Symphogear

As my username goes, I watch a lot of anime, an unhealthy amount. I've found a lot of shows that were pretty great. I've found a lot of shows that I wasn't super fond of. After being pointed to this part of the site, I figured I'd give this a shot, see how things go. If this goes well, I'll try to put up more reviews of other shows. Now, it's time to raise our determination to fist, I'm gonna start things off with a review of one of my personal favorite shows, Symphogear.

To start off, this is a magical girl anime with tons of over-the-top action scenes, strangely entertaining characters, and catchy J-Pop soundtrack. The show is currently wrapping up it's fourth season and a fifth season is already in the works, so it's clear that this series is going strong. Sure it's not perfect, there's quite a few moments that leave you groaning and rolling your eyes, but the show is just a blast to watch overall. All you need to do is kick back, turn your brain off, and enjoy the spectacle.

One thing that many viewers will notice is that the show involves a lot of music. In order to activate their powers, the main characters must sing in order to synchronize with their weapons, using them almost like a tuning fork, so a good chunk of the cast consists of voice actresses that are also popular idols, such as Nana Mizuki (Hinata Hyuga from Naruto), Aoi Yuuki (Madoka Kaname from Madoka Magica), and Yoko Hikasa (Rias Gremory from Highschool DxD). The music is emphasized so heavily that there are times that the concert scenes seem to have more of a budget than a lot of other important scenes. The majority of the music is pretty catchy though, each character's songs having a different theme. For example, the girl that fights with guns and artillery has a bit more of a rock/metal tone to her songs, while the girl that fights with a katana has more of a classical Japanese tone to her songs.

Another thing you notice about the show as you watch, some of the weapons get kind of ridiculous. Sure you've got your typical weapons, girl with katana, girl who punches, girl who fires guns. However, things start to get strange like sword divekicks and guns becoming massive missiles. There's even one girl that fights with saw blades (I feel that someone watched Gurren Lagann and decided that saw blades will be the next big thing after drills). The main heroine, at the start of the series her weapon is arguably the weakest of them all, that being her fists, but after a bit of training and a few moments where she goes berserk, she quickly gets to the point where her fists turn into giant pile bunkers and she's punching her way through mountains.

As for the story, it's kind of forgettable. The first season feels like it's clearly drawing off the popularity of Madoka Magica, with the series having a bit of a dark and angsty tone to it, an ancient goddess summoning otherworldly... things while trying to build up a tower of babel to take down the moon to end God's curse on humanity and allow her to ascend into godhood (actually I think she's trying to get some of God's D). Okay, so the show starts to get weird by the end of the first season once the villain reveals her true plans, and the show starts to roll with that weirdness when the second season introduces their next villain, a scientist that you can totally trust by the end of the first episode. The mad scientist steals the show with his constant loud and violent outbursts, his twisted desire to become a hero, and by the fact that he's voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki Sakata from Gintama). As the series goes on, the premise continues to get weirder as the threats get bigger, and as a result, the action scenes get bigger and more explosively entertaining.

Of course the show isn't perfect, there's a few parts that aren't that great. I've already mentioned that the first season is a bit angsty and drags on a little as the show kind of tries to figure out what it wants to be. The second season has a few moments where you're kind of bored because the villain might've stolen the show a bit too much. Season 3 has a sub-plot where the main heroine reconnects with her estranged father, the only problem is that he's a dirtbag and the show makes it obvious that we have to care about him. There's also a brief point in the third season where the main heroine is refusing to fight, not exactly something the viewer wants to deal with while watching a show that's popular for it's fight scenes.

So, is the show perfect? No. Is it fun to watch? Yes. I would definitely love to see more people talking about it. I personally love the show for how dumb the story gets and how crazy that action scenes get. The music is catchy, there are enough characters for most viewers to find a favorite (best gurl), and it's always fun to wonder how the show is going to top it's last crazy stunt from the last episode. If you can get passed the rough patches, I feel that a lot of people can come to enjoy this show. I hope I gave a decent review, I hope that I've encouraged some of you to go out and watch this show, and I hope I didn't spoil too much of the plot (however much you care about it).

And before I go, I'd like to leave you all with this. ;)