You tried, Symphogear. You tried.   Symphogear was always a bit of an odd bird for me. After utterly confusing me with it's first episode, it did manage to pull itself together a bit, but never enough to really make it stand out. Sure, it was flashy with an interesting premise with some good J-Pop (if you don't like J-Pop, do not watch this show), but ultimately it felt phoned in with a checklist of "Stuff Otaku Like." Want idols? Check. Superpowers and powersuits? Check. Female protagonists that can easily fit into accepted stereotypes (genki, tsundere, yandere)? Check. Storyline about overcoming evil with the power of friendship and yuri? I think we have a show!   At least, that's what it felt like when the final credits rolled. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of the above, but the presentation fell flat for me. Maybe it's because there were moments when Symphogear did succeed in being the dark Madoka-esque conflict it clearly wanted to be. The backstory sections for Kanade and Chris were genuinely heart-wrenching. Tsubasa had a great character arc starting with her best friend's death and ending with her decision to move forward towards her own dreams. She became the main reason I watched this show from start to finish. So I do hesitate to say that Symphogear is all bad since, like anything else, it does have its merits.   Unfortunately, instead of the good parts shining through and becoming better than the sum of the whole, the cliched and superficial elements end up burying them to the point that when it was all over, I wished I'd spent my time differently. Part of this has to do with the setting and premise. Symphogear is a show that wants it all but doesn't know how to juggle it efficiently. It mostly sticks with the Norse mythology angle, but it barely fits in with the other elements of the show. There are magic artifacts that use songs as weapons (somewhat explained), aliens that disintegrate humans on touch (barely touched on), and the main villain ends up a reincarnation of an ancient human being tied to the Tower of Babel myth (expected to be taken at face value). Randomly, there's also a guy with super-strength that is never explained; he uses his powers as a deus ex machina to get the characters out of trouble but never joins the major battles.   And that's where Symphogear fails; it can't determine what's most important to it as a show. Is it the magical girls fighting aliens in mechsuits? Is it the dark backstories the characters struggle with? Is the show trying to say something profound about the human condition, or does it just want to play with past and current mythology? Or is all of this wrong and Symphogear is just a yuri show pretending to be something else? (The Blu-Ray release featured edits that made Hibiki and Miku's relationship obvious, instead of heavily implied.) The broken logic (or the complete lack of it, depending on the scene or episode) was what ruined Symphogear for me. It's a shame, since with some tweaking to the premise this could've been a really fun, albeit campy show. As it stands, you'll know if you'll like this from the first episode. If you end up confused, like me, it's best to just walk away. Images from Nico Nico.
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