Kazanari Tsubasa and Amou Kanade formed the legendary idol unit known as Zwei Wing. They use their songs to power ancient relics used as Symphogear to fight Noise. Creatures of unknown origin against which conventional weapons do not work. Humans are familiar with the existence of the Noise, but knowledge of the Symphogear is kept strictly confidential. One day the Noise attack one of Zwei Wing’s concerts. Kanade sacrifices her life to protect a young girl named Tachibana Hibiki who happened to be there. The event makes Zwei Wing history. By chance, Hibiki suffers a ricochet injury and a fragment of the relic used by Kanade is left in her body.
Two years pass. Hibiki is once again drawn into the Noise attack. While rescuing a young girl who was left behind during the evacuation, she awakens the power of Kanade’s Symphogear.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear – Audiovisual Design
Video
I am incredibly impressed by what Satelight studio has accomplished. Senki Zesshou Symphogear is a real feast for the eye. The amount of work that went into animating everything is really pretty uncommon. The fight scenes are breathtaking. On top of that, there’s excellent character design and the fact that no detail on characters and shading was sacrificed and in order to animate at a higher frame rate. Even the animation of explosions or stage performances was mostly done without the use of 3D graphics and cheap CGI effects.
The series reached its absolute peak in seasons two and five. The first one, however, lacked a bit of detail in static scenes. I also can’t help but mention the excellent use of light play and the overall phenomenal use of brightness levels to enhance the effect of hand-drawn explosions and flashes.
The transformation sequences of the heroines were also noteworthy. They highlighted the charms of each character and were different in each season (along with the evolution of their Symphogear relics). Everything was additionally phenomenally synchronized with the music and heightened the emotions shown during the fights. It would be difficult to show this in screenshots, due to the fact that these scenes are very dynamic, so I am posting two YouTube videos below.
Audio
My admiration for the artistic presentation of the Senki Zesshou Symphogear does not end with the visual side. Symphogear is a weapon that uses the user’s phonic part (that is, simply the voice) and achieves its highest power factor when singing specially crafted vocal tracks. The creators of the series have taken it seriously, which has resulted that literally every single song that has been released is an absolute masterpiece in terms of creativity, complexity of composition and arrangement of vocal lines. The people from Elements Garden (a group of composers whose credits include countless high-quality anime and visual novel soundtracks), combined with brilliant voice actresses, have created something so magnificent that I can easily say that Senki Zesshou Symphogear is, in terms of music, the best series I’ve encountered (and I’ve seen quite a bit of it).
I was incredibly impressed by the mix of genres. And I don’t mean the soundtrack as a whole. But rather the genre mix in the individual tracks, combining several musical styles – often strongly contrasting with each other. This is not unheard of in Japanese music (which, by the way, is one of the reasons why I love it). Nevertheless, with such a tremendous soundtrack, the creativity of the composers stands out firmly.
Voice acting
Then again, it’s hardly surprising that the vocals were also so good. The entire main cast of female characters is an absolute top tier. Mizuki Nana, Yuuki Aoi, Iguchi Yuka, Minase Inori, Hikasa Youko, Iguchi Yuka, Kayano Ai, Nanjou Yoshino, Takagaki Ayahi. Additionally, there are the seiyuu of side characters too. These names probably speak for themselves as to what kind of cast we are dealing with here.
I will certainly return to the soundtrack (and especially the vocal tracks) frequently. I’m sure of it, because I was familiar with Senki Zesshou Symphogear‘s music long before I decided to watch this anime.
A project created out of pure passion
One detail also caught my attention. It was seemingly a small thing, but when I noticed it (or rather, heard it) I understood the passion with which the Symphogear project was carried out. The songs (or their individual parts) sung by the voice actresses during battles were recorded separately for each episode. The heroines accented the respective words depending on the situation on the battlefield and their emotional state. This made the tracks hit me, as a viewer, differently each time. It was quite unique and certainly an unforgettable experience that allowed me to get even more in touch with the characters.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear – Plot and Characters
Introduction
I have known the music from Senki Zesshou Symphogear for a long time. It was the songs from this series that made me finally decide to watch the anime. I’m usually not fond of titles involving a high concentration of action scenes. Even if there are beautiful girls in the lead roles. This is where I decided to make an exception. This decision turned out to be a bull’s eye, as I swallowed all five seasons remarkably fast. The songs I already knew hit me with doubled power when I saw their context.
A quick look at the Senki Zesshou Symphogear’s plot
Tachibana Hibiki heads with her friend Miku to a concert of a legendary idol unit called Zwei Wing, which is formed by Kazanari Tsubasa and Amou Kanade. They use their songs to power ancient relics known as Symphogear in order to fight creatures of unknown origin called Noise. People are familiar with the existence of Noise, but knowledge of Symphogear is kept in strict confidence. Unlucky for them, the Noise strike the Zwei Wing concert on the same day. Kanade sacrifices her life to protect Hibiki, who finds herself in the center of the battlefield. The event makes Zwei Wing a thing of the past. By chance, Hibiki suffers a ricochet injury and a fragment of the relic used by Kanade is left in her body.
Two years pass. After undergoing prolonged rehabilitation, Hibiki is once again drawn into the Noise attack zone. While rescuing a young girl who was left behind during the evacuation, she awakens the power of Kanade’s Symphogear.
What is the series about
Senki Zesshou Symphogear has a very extensive lore. It combines many cultures, mythologies and religions. We can find here, for example, themes from the Genesis of the Old Testament. The entire main plot axis revolves around the Curse of Balal. It is a direct reference to the Tower of Babel. Rather, it is its reinterpretation and creative development.
In the distant past, humanity’s rulers, known as the Guardians, converted Earth’s moon into a device that emitted the Balal Curse and blocked humanity’s common language. Since the loss of the unified language, humanity has suffered from numerous conflicts.
Basically, all of the presented antagonists are seemingly motivated by the well-being of mankind and want to free themselves from this curse. Unfortunately – as is not difficult to guess, their methods of acting would sooner lead to the annihilation of humanity than any kind of liberation.
A taste of Senki Zesshou Symphogear’s lore
In all five seasons, there are plenty of threads concerning Original Sin, alchemy (including the Philosopher’s Stone), the Anunnaki, the Bavarian Illuminati, ancient Babylonia (and their mythical treasury) or the Yggdrasil Tree.
The weapons wielded by the characters are called Symphogear. Their main elements are ancient relics. They use the phonic part of the user (the voice of the heroines) and reach their highest efficiency when singing specially crafted vocal tracks. The materialization of these weapons is not accidental and has a strong connection with the entire lore of the series.
- The weapon of the main character, Tachibana Hibiki is the Gungnir. Gungnir is Odin’s spear, derived from Norse mythology.
- Kazanari Tsubasa wields the Ame no Habakiri. A legendary sword from Japanese mythology that was used to slay the eight-headed dragon Orochi depicted in Kojiki.
- Yukine Chris uses Ichaival (yew-vale) – an approximate translation of Ýdalir, yew-dales. House of the Norse god Ullr. Ullr is often described and depicted as the god of archery, hunting and winter. People called on his name (meaning glory) during battle, hoping for help. By the way, the heroine’s name (雪音/Yukine) is composed, not coincidentally, of the kanji snow and sound.
- Maria Cadenzavna Eve has Airgetlám. In Irish mythology, Nuadha, known by the nickname Airgetlám (spelled Airgeatlámh in modern times, means silver arm). The first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
- Tsukuyomi Shirabe has Shul Shagana (Šulšagana) – it was the child of Zababa (AKA Bau or Baba, the main god or deity patronizing the ancient Sumerian city named Kish – the present land of Iran, whose shrine was E-meteursag) and Ningirsu (the main god or deity patronizing the pantheon of the ancient Sumerian city-states of Babylonia, Lagaš and Assyria) from the Sumerian mythology of the gods.
- Akatsuki Kirika uses Igalima, who was also the child of the aforementioned Zababa.
All weapons used as Symphogear are relics from the past. For the purpose of this review, I have listed the most important ones in order to not cause unnecessary spoilers.
Character names
It is worth mentioning that most of the names/characters refer directly or indirectly to music. Or the process of music composition. Tachibana Hibiki (響) – The word hibiki means to echo, to feel a sound; an emotion or sensation inspired by something heard. Used as a verb, it can mean to resound, to be heard or to resonate. Agematsu Noriyasu (co-creator of the series), chose this name because he considers 響 to be the most important concept in writing music. In addition, he wanted to use 響 as a name for his potential child (read as Hibiki for a girl or Kyou for a boy).
Tsukuyomi Shirabe (調) – pitch, tone, tonality, time, tempo, mood (of music), style. Cadenza in Maria’s name (Cadenzavna) comes from the Italian word cadenza and is a form of music that is usually played or sung solo. Kirika (切歌) – means to cut pieces (of music), which is also related to her fighting style.
Kazanari (風鳴), which is Tsubasa‘s (翼 – wing) surname, is spelled with the kanji meaning wind and cry (in the context of the sounds made by animals). Agematsu Noriyasu chose this surname because the wind inside is the source of music. Yukine (雪音) – kanji meaning snow and sound. According to Agematsu Noriyasu, Yukine’s name was chosen by a conflicting occurrence. Snow absorbs sound, so the sound of snow is a kind of oxymoron. The character of snow (雪) also refers to how Chris starts out as an enemy, but eventually melts and befriends everyone.
Many of these names also have a connection to lore and refer to Biblical characters, for example.
A little more about Symphogear weapons
Each heroine possesses a whole arsenal of attacks of varying power. However, they are united by one common thing, featured in the name of the series. Senki Zesshou Symphogear (戦姫絶唱シンフォギア) can be roughly translated as Marvelous Song of the War Princess: Symphogear. Given that the series has a lot of references to Norse mythology, 戦姫 could also mean Valkyrie. Interestingly, phonetically Senki (spelled 戦記, however) also means war chronicle.
The attack name is 絶唱 (zesshou), meaning perfect/excellent song or poetry. The English translation used Climax Song. It is the strongest, most lethal attack of the Symphogear system. Usually used when the user is in a critical situation. Due to the fact that all limits are removed at the time of use, there is quite a risk of overload and damage to the user’s internal organs. It often even results in causing death and permanent damage to the relic. It is a kind of ace up the sleeve, but at the same time a double-edged sword.
Characters
Sadly, introducing all the characters would result in substantial spoilers. I will describe in more detail only the heroines we meet at the very beginning. Tachibana Hibiki is the main character of Senki Zesshou Symphogear. Although most of the screen time is not devoted to her, the entire plot revolves around her persona. She often acts very impulsively. On top of that, she is very naive, but it is her naivete is one of her greatest strengths. This part of her character, her kindness and willingness to help were crucial to the success of the entire team’s operations in many situations. In addition, she also acts as a bonding factor between all the heroines.
Kazanari Tsubasa is presented as an idol and student with a cold personality. This is mainly due to the fact that she lost her Zwei Wing partner Amou Kanade during one battle. Due to the fact that Hibiki inherited Gungnir, Kanade’s weapon, Tsubasa was unable to accept her existence. Much less the thought of a potential cooperation with her. However, she opens up rather quickly and strongly changes how others perceive her. Kohinata Miku is also an important character. She plays a key part in motivating Hibiki. In hopeless situations, she provides the fuel for her actions. Many of the plot twists also revolved around Miku.
Each season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear had separate antagonists. Some reappeared in subsequent ones. My favorite was the character Finé from season one. As for the main female characters, my choice would probably be Yukine Chris and Tsukuyomi Shirabe.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear – Evaluation and Summary
I didn’t expect my review to stretch so much. But when I was putting together the materials for this review, I became even more aware of how good an anime I was dealing with. Every episode clearly showed that this project was made by people with passion. I haven’t mentioned this before, but it’s worth to add it. Senki Zesshou Symphogear is an original project by the Satelight studio. Every other medium depicting the fate of female characters was based on anime.
I was amazed by the creative approach of fusing mythology, folk tales and religions. In the end gave life to something completely new. The combination of phenomenal music, voice acting, great characterization or, finally, incredibly visually spectacular animation with lots of details and exposure of the heroines’ charms during fights in the best possible style made Senki Zesshou Symphogear etched in my memory forever. I can easily turn a blind eye to minor plot shortcomings or the motivations of some characters’ actions. It did not ruin my viewing experience in any way. I can’t remember the last time I finished a series of this length so quickly. It was a pleasure to sit down and enjoy each episode.
It’s sometimes worth stepping out of one’s comfort zone and giving a series that seemingly stands apart from what one wants to watch (in my case – the action genre) a chance. By doing so, you can come across gems like Senki Zesshou Symphogear, for example. I quietly hope that more than once something will surprise me in such a positive way.
Finalny werdykt
Final evaluation
Which translation do I recommend to watch Senki Zesshou Symphogear (2023)
- Crunchyroll – The best option available this time is the official translation. I don’t have much to complain about, except for the sudden use of the Western name order in season 4 and 5.
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