If you hate inconsistencies, stupid plot devices, a horribly flawed setting, and poor characterization, the first season of Senki Zesshou Symphogear is your worst nightmare. The opening episode is deceptively good. We see a concert that's animated brilliantly, and it lays out a high-stake story; we witness Kanade die in the past, and Miku crying over Hibiki's grave in the future. This image the anime painted itself in the first episode is one of the greatest deceptions I've witnessed in any form of media. After the first episode, the animation quality drops dramatically. Epitomizing this is a scene as early as episode 3 where Tsubasa is walkingalong the corridor with her manager, which looks like a GIF pasted on top of a moving background. It's obvious that most of the animation time went to the first episode, leaving them to cut back as much as they could throughout the rest of the series. In fairness, the consistency of the animation recovered in the second half, and it did not detract from the finale.
The soundtrack is quite enjoyable, and goes some way to make up for the animation. The songs they sing as they fight are solid and it can bring an atmosphere to fights that is otherwise missing. The Opening is fine and fits the series very well, but I personally preferred the ED, "Meteor Light" by Takagaki Ayahi. It took a while for it to grow on me, but it's a track that sounds dark and traumatic, which fits the atmosphere the series and the character it represents.
The characterization of the protagonists is done poorly, and their development is haphazard and oftentimes bizarre. There's an instance where a character hates another one so much she's tried to kill her, but her hate is instantly forgotten when the other character points out that her room is messy. However, whilst the protagonist is annoying, the majority of the cast are actually likeable, particularly as the series finds its identity along the way.
Unsurprisingly, the plot is also lacking. It's a very simple, the one plot twist the series has is so obvious that you can identify it 5 episode before. The simplicity works for Symphogear though, as it manages to avoid being too disastrous throughout most the series. However, in the final few episodes, the tone and scope of the story go beyond previous proportion to such a ridiculous extent that you will be blindsided. In hindsight of later series, this ridiculousness becomes a strength of the franchise, but in this first season where the expectations of a more serious and gritty tone have been set, this causes straight up whiplash.
The setting is also so tremendously flawed that whilst you can happily ignore it if you so wish, even minor probing will expose questions to which there are no answers. For example, with the frequent attacks by the Noise, which you cannot defend yourself against and kill everyone in the areas they attack, why do people go outside so casually? Much as I like the outdoors, I can't hep but think that I like living more. Also, much as I love my current house, if there was constantly the threat of death, I think I'd move.
With this all in mind, this is a very bad first season. However, there is one thing that works in Symphogear's favour that saves it from the worst, and that is that it's earnest in it's stupidity. Whilst at the beginning it has pretensions of being taken seriously, by the end all pretention is lost, which means it is very hard to hate. The characters that I hated at the start of the series grew on me, to the point I liked almost all of them. Take the girl who's lines almost solely consist of failed meta-comedy attempts like "If this were an anime" which infuriated me at the start, towards the end I almost found her habits endearing.
It's a strange quality of an anime like Symphogear, which whilst terrible, is still enjoyable to the extent where I looked forward to the last few episodes. I wanted to see if the episodes could outdo themselves in their silliness, but more importantly, in their fun. In future seasons, the franchise found it's identity as a ridiculous tongue-in-cheek show, with plenty of characters to root for. It's a shame that the first entry so badly mistook the tone it should be going for.
So, if you are happy to ignore all that is wrong with this anime, then you will be able to enjoy it. Despite the amount that is wrong with this, it's all surprisingly easy to ignore. However, if you cannot ignore the technical details in anime then avoid this like the plague, unless you wish to see how badly executed an anime can be.
Recommended
Since this was in storage for quite sometime I finally decided to watch, and finished this anime. This is pretty much action-y, but at the same time, it has a pretty deep story to it, and is kind of entertaining. For people that love action, I think you guys may or may not like this anime, since the action isn't really the main focus, cuz they focus more on the plot I would say.. Story 8/10 Started of pretty good on how they kind of went to the future, and then goes back to what happen to get there, like a lot of anime I know. Itmoves at a good pace, and that's good since in my opinion it explained to me more about what's going on. Mostly this anime probably wants the watcher to be sad when they watch it, but it turns out to be a pretty happy story after watching all the episodes.
Art 7/10
They could make some more improvements on the way the made the characters, since in some scenes, after they got beaten up pretty badly. They came back fighting looking fresh as new in so little time. Of course, they have quick regeneration skills, but still I don't think it's suppose to be that quick. Sometimes, the motion when the character walks seems kinda unrealistic and that's, for me, a disturbing thing.
Sound 8/10
Not bad at the sound. The pitch when the characters scream, sweep, or are cheerful is very good. The best part of the sound I liked is the part where they make the crying of some characters pretty short. In some anime they just made the crying very long, which is pretty annoying, maybe because they want to waste time cuz they can't think of anything.
Character 8/10
It's great to find anime were the character doesn't piss you off so much that you just wanna smash your head into your keyboard. The characters are well made. The way they act, and talk to each other seems pretty much like real life. On top of that, a character tries to make this anime sounds like it's really "not" an anime, and that it was real life for them.
Enjoyment 9/10
I don't really think I could say much, since I saw the rating on this anime, and it's not that good at all. For me, it was a nice experience watching this, and I don't really think a fan of a serious action would wanna watch this, since the action in this anime is not quite that great, and the moves the characters have are repeated a lot of times, and there a not a lot of new moves.
Overall 8/10
I guess this is my final say on how good the anime was during my time watching it. This is, I think, a pretty girly anime.... I say that cuz of the not so violence parts ( even though there was a lot of blood ) in this anime. Maybe if they increased the intensity of the fights, that might have helped to give it a higher rating..
Mixed Feelings
The high hopes I had for this series were dashed after the first few minutes. The storyline felt like someone decided to animate a fanfic for a much better series. There were these honest traces of something better in the storyline. It fell flat because of the cliches within the series and because of how much of a Mary Sue the main character is. In the first episode I was left asking why Hibiki was so special compared to all the other people who exist in this world. She's not special because she has any sort of talent, something she constantly admits. Her childhood is blandand uneventful, yet Kanade sings her Swan song in the first episode sacrificing herself just so Hibiki can live despite the fact it doesn't feel as if Kanade needed to sing her Swan song to save Hibiki's life. Instead, Kanade's death is simply a tool the writer used to give Hibiki her amazing powers so that she can be the heroine of the series.
The theme of sacrifice is another place where this series falls flat. At the beginning of the series it is played up as being a very important theme but by the end it honestly feels like a joke. It is instead replaced by the theme that everyone can get along by everyone talking things out. Everyone else has a mind frame that violence will solve everything, but Hibiki is difference because Hibiki is so innocent and naïve that she honestly believes there is a better way when people are human. In the long run, it is Hibiki's character that destroys the storyline.
Of course, Hibiki does have a few flaws up her sleeves to make the viewers not think she is a Mary Sue. She is at the beginning of the series horribly klutzy and she can't do anything right. This is fine when she first gains her powers because she has problems in her first fight. However, after this she receives no training from the government so she can fight the noise, she is allowed to run around on her own letting her klutziness in the way.
Added to this, Tsubasa wants nothing to do with her because Hibiki reminds her too much about Kanade, and yet it would make more sense for Tsubasa to protect the one thing of Kanade she has left. Many of the characters don't get fleshed out and the way Hibiki gets over her flaw is just ridiculous. Her naivity also isn't played up as a flaw either, but it is actually her strong point as it allows her an innocent outlook on life that is willing to accept everyone who is human with no qualms what-so-ever.
The art is really good and the sound is good at points, but they also like to play the main characters songs as being more special then anyone elses, including the other students from a music academy of all things.
