Animation Company: Satelight
Genre: Action, Music, Sci-Fi
Episodes: 13
Summary: While attending ZweiWing’s performance, Tachibana Hibiki is caught in a crossfire while the two idols were fighting against a Noise invasion. At the cost of Hibiki’s almost fatal injury, Kanade one of the singers of ZweiWing sacrifices herself so that there would be no more fatalities. Two years later Hibiki awakens a piece of shard from Kanade’s relic which what was responsible for almost killing her, and gains new power to fight the Noise.
Story/Plot: 6/10
The whole plot with the Noise, the relics and a batshit insane immortal priestess wasn’t exactly perfect. I have to say, the plot really didn’t leave an impact on me whatsoever, nor is it interesting enough for me to want to watch this show again. In fact the best way to describe it is that it’s forgettable.
Characters & Development: 8/10
Most if not all characters were pretty good. The main cast had a strong development, which was satisfying. Funny enough though, the one character: Miku who doesn’t have any power whatsoever is hands down, the bravest character of the entire cast, however she doesn’t exactly have much development since she’s pretty close for most part, a minor character.
Animation Quality: 7/10
Senki Zesshou Symphogear’s animation quality unfortunately didn’t live up to my expectations and had a number of problems, which is why I am grading this 7/10.
This is Satelight, a studio who has done Macross Frontier, so I was expecting they’d somehow pull it off since they have experience in this sort of genre field, but it appears that isn’t the case.
#1: Epic Fail for Lips Synching
Sure enough it’s probably terribly difficult to animate lip sych performing a song and fighting sequences at the exact same time. It happened so many times, though in the finale they managed to succeed touching that up that, in a sense it ruined the experience.
#2: Epic Fail in Episode 3 at [13:46 – 13:57]
There is no way, I’m ignoring this, nor is it forgettable as this is the worst and most choppy animation sequence I’ve ever seen in nine years of watching anime. At the time of [13:46 – 13:57] of the episode, it was the ugliest sequence I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it happen. I don’t know what happened there, but it failed, miserably. That precise mistake permanently deducted points, preventing this subject a rating any higher than an 8/10.
#3: Combat Blur
For most part, the combat scenes were completely blurry unless it was a still image panning with some little effects of debris flying in slow motion. This was probably the most annoying part besides example #1 because this is an action show. Fighting is the main focus, and to not able to watch the combat with crisp and clear sequences, it was frustrating and really downgraded the overall expirence of it.
However there are a few positive aspects to the animation. First of all, I loved the vibrant characters, and the lack of CG, which is starting to be rare now days for monsters and automobiles and so on. The character designs were also refreshing, and the overall colour of the show was incredibly vibrant. They also included the standard dancing sequence that wasn’t perfect, but I still enjoyed it, simply because it wasn’t CG.
OST: 7/10
I didn’t entirely enjoy the OST, more specifically the character songs. Both Hibiki’s and Chris’ characters song failed to appeal to me. It was only the last few episode when the two girls sung a song that I actually enjoyed. Tsubasa’s on the other hand was beautiful as ever from start to finish.
The OST though perky, filled with upbeat tunes and was enjoyable for most part when you were actually able to hear it instead of the sound effects.
Overall Score: 7/10
Senki Zesshou Symphogear isn’t bad, but it isn’t that great either. It really depends on your preference. The vocal part of the music is okay, the characters are interesting one way or another, but plot- not so much. They did a great job catching everyone’s eyes with one hell of a bold way to start of the show, but in the end they failed to meet up to my expectations for most part.
Recommendation: Ultimately it’s Up to You!
I would recommend you read more than one review if you feel uncertain whether to check this out or not. I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time, but you might end up a bit disappointed. Not that ending was bad, it was really sweet, but your expectations for certain things may be crushed rather quickly. I know for sure, I will probably (no wait, I can guarantee you) I will never watch this again, simply because it’s not something I’m interested in re-watching.
