(And yes, if you haven't finished the first season, this post will contain spoilers.)
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| An oddly familiar sight |
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| important-looking object |
The episode begins with a prologue animated in monochrome. A girl who is presumably Serena Cadenzavna Eve* is singing a song, and she appears to possess a Symphogear transformation, although we don't get a clear look at her Valkyrie outfit. She appears to be holding some sort of strange object that looks like it will be important. This seems to be a flashback instead of a flash forward, unlike the scene at Hibiki's tombstone from the first episode of the first season.
Baack to the present. Hibiki and Chris fight off a Noise attack. The Noise appear to be controlled by somebody trying to procure the Staff of Solomon. This is odd, because the Staff of Solomon is so far the only known way to direct the Noise in such a manner.
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| Now with scarves! |
I really liked this fight scene. It shows off the redesigns for Chris and Hibiki, and I do like how they look. I don't really "get" Hibiki's big scarves, but they do work. I like Hibiki's new song here too. She comes of as stronger and more confident compared to when she sang "Gekishou: Gungnir", (although it might not be as catchy) but maybe that's just me. On a minor note, her new song has a part that goes "Kimi dake o... (Mamoritai...)" which I found kinda cool for a pretty stupid reason, specifically that the phrase reminds me of something else I love. Like I said, probably a stupid reason there.
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| I love how this looks |
Despite the efforts of the two Gear users, and the staff having been successfully delivered to its intended location, whomever was behind the attack was probably successful, as the staff, along with new character Dr. Ver disappear after said location is attacked.
The next scene brings us to a big concert, attended by Hibiki's friends Miku, That Girl Who Keeps Talking About Anime, and Those Other Two Girls. Hibiki herself is late due to the Noise attack(s) earlier. This concert is apparently a big deal because Tsubasa performs a duet with Maria Cadenzavna Eve, who is apparently a major international superstar. The performance doesn't feel as interesting as Tsubasa and Kanade's performance in the previous season's episode one concert, despite the better animation budget. But this performance was taking a different angle anyway. After one song, the concert area is swarmed by Noise, and Maria transforms.
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| Black Gungnir |
Yep, her outfit looks a lot like Kanade's, and her relic is another piece of Gungnir. Her transformation is accompanied by some chanting in a deep voice, which I don't really get, but it works! Speaking of transformations, we only see the two Gunir transformation sequences, and they are more elaborate than the first season had, but also somewhat more... fanservice-y, which I... don't really think was necessary.
What's more interesting, and grabs more of my interest is Maria announcing that she's part of a group interested in ruling the world or something, and that they're called "(the) Finé". Does this mean there's another reincarnation of Finé is in the group, or was? Finé wasn't the type to just go away after a defeat, so further influence, if not direct involvement from her is to be expected. Although I hope she only has influence over the new antagonists, but won't be directly involved again. She isn't a character I want to see back. And hopefully Maria's group aren't just straightforward "take over the world" types.
Anyway, this is a very promising start. The redesigns are good, the animation looks better, and the new antagonists are pretty interesting. The Noise look even more otherworldly now, with a sort of "TV static" effect going on sometimes. Character dynamics might be changing. For example, Miku hanging out with Anime-chan's posse without Hibiki might be a thing she does from now on (although probably not intentionally), and that can easily mean significant change considering Miku's importance to Hibiki. Or maybe I'm reading too much into that. I'll just have to see how this goes.
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| Important-looking and mysterious |
Senki Zesshō Symphogear G is © Project Symphogear G, which I assume means "Satelight and others".
* She has been named in promo materials, but the episode itself doesn't mention her name.
I wouldn't mind seeing Fine again, especially since there's a bit they could still do with her character as long as she stops being a murderous sociopath.
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