Some spoilers for S1 but not major spoilers. Heavy spoilers for Episode 1 tho. I think I can say with complete confidence that I have never seen a show quite like Symphogear and I do mean that every way possible. Despite the tags it has on MAL and Anilist it is technically not a mahou shoujo in the traditional sense. Its technical term is mecha musume where mechanical elements are used to enhance the transformations of the girls which makes sense because we see all these kinds of machines and different weapons be used constantly throughout the series. From sawblades to a giant scythe to giant swords with boosters on them and so on. One of the girls even uses guns and rockets as weapons but you can also give monsters the middle finger by just punching them good. The gears that the girls use is called Symphogears or relics that can be used by singing to activate them and even increase their powers even if it could lead to their own death if the situation calls for it. The reason why I decided to watch this show from beginning to end is because after I finished the wonderfully tranquil and emotional Aria series I was itching for some action and after my Discord buddies recommended it and I saw the protagonist Hibiki Tachibana punch an actual mountain on YouTube I became convinced that I needed to watch this show. Plus AMQ Anime Music Quiz kept screwing me over by using the openings in the show so I figured that watching it would help me out. But the point is that I wanted some dumb fun action show and while it can be a bit frustrating I think I got that and more out of this series overall. Despite some issues that I have with it I can say that I really enjoyed this series throughout its run and its quite impressive that it spanned throughout the 2010s from 2012 to as recent as 2019 even though that clearly wasnt the intention at first. So before I begin talking about the first season I should mention a few background details. First of all this show was literally just made to promote Tsubasas seiyuus singing career and there wasnt really a plan for the rest of the seasons. This is obvious when you finish S1 where it ends on a pretty happy and conclusive note. Thing is the OST did so well that the show continued even with an entirely different studio. Encourage Films was the studio that made S1 and then the show was continued by Satelight. Satelight also coproduced Fairy Tail and made Log Horizon as well and they may have been somewhat involved in the production of S1. The other thing is that the director for S1 Tatsufumi Itou also sadly passed away due to brainstem hemorrhage and died on May 23rd. However his death was not officially announced until July 1st because of the request of his wife Mariko Itou. He was only 55 years old when he passed away. He was a key animator and has storyboarded for many different anime such as Princess Tutu The Aria Series Casshern Sins and many more. He also directed Shugo Chara Party. Regardless of my opinions or anyone elses opinions on S1 the fact of the matter is that he helped create this series and the result was something that flourished and became popular in Japan and has grown some popularity in the West. My point being is that he deserves respect for his work and I can only hope that his wife and friends are doing well and that he can rest in peace. https://www..com/watch?v=FOXaWCRv68 To begin with this series Miku Kohinata goes through a destroyed city caused by some kind of disaster. Shes carrying some kind of flowers in the rain symbolizing that she lost someone important to her. After getting off of a bus she goes to a grave with the name Hibiki Tachibana which also has a photo right above it. She starts crying over the loss of her best friend and while all of this was going on an ominous poem about a little bird continued to sing until it coughed up blood and she also mentions how her friend continued to sing until her last breath hinting at whats to come. Two years earlier we met our protagonist who is a high school girl named Hibiki Tachibana a fairly normal high school girl who goes to a concert by herself because her best friend Miku Kohinata invited her but couldnt actually make it to the concert due to her aunt getting in an accident. Hibiki doesnt really follow the two idols that are about to sing but she goes anyways because a free concert ticket is a free concert ticket. In the background one of the idols and a main character Tsubasa Kazanari is a bit worried about how the concert will play out. Her best friend Kanade Amou tells her to be more open minded and optimistic telling her that singing is fun and they should just enjoy singing. Kanade is the more extroverted and outgoing of the two while Tsubasa is the more introverted girl of the Zwei Wing idol duo. They also seem to work for the government and Section 2 a government agency who specializes in saving people from disasters led by Genjurou Kazanari whos Tsubasas uncle and Hibikis eventually martial arts teacher as well as action movie bro with her. So the concert begins but the duo can only sing one song before the concert is attacked by Noise monsters that are capable of reducing a living organism to nothing more than ash. They kill a lot of people in the concert and of course this is where the singing magical girl fights come into play. Kanade and Tsubasa transform and use their weapons to stop the Noise but theyre quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of them and Hibiki who seems to be the only survivor from the audience this comes into play later is attacked and is unable to escape. Eventually one of Kanades armor pieces is damaged and is lodged right into Hibikis chest Again this comes into play very soon might I add. Kanade chooses to save her by singing her climax song a song that pushes the wielder to their absolute limits and past them. To the point where it can cause either severe internal damage or even death which is exactly what was mentioned right at the start. All the Noise are destroyed and Tsubasa loses her best friend. This causes Tsubasa to become a solo idol causes her to have an internal struggle throughout this season and later on and Hibiki to eventually become a Symphogear two years later at the end of episode 1 to save a child. Needless to say this show starts off pretty dark. Darker than I had expected and this does work in S1s favor. sometimes. Other times it can be quite frustrating to watch it drag on with drama especially the drama involving Miku. For what its worth I was interested in seeing how the rest of this season would play out especially since people often claim this is the worst one. After Hibiki saves the kid from Noise the kid is reunited with her mother and Hibiki is now a Symphogear girl working with Tsubasa with Hibikis special ability is punching everything in sight and Tsubasa can conjure swords make it rain with smaller laser beam swords and make giant swords that fall from the sky. Tsubasa butts heads with Hibiki because at first she doesnt really want to work with someone else and when its revealed that Kanades Gungnir is the same as Hibikis which is still stored in her chest unlike Tsubasa who uses a pendant to transform it causes Tsubasa to further put up walls calling herself a sword that cannot feel anything. Eventually Tsubasa fights Hibiki and she refuses because she doesnt want to fight the person shes working with and is trying to be friends with. Genjurou stops Tsubasa and Hibiki says that shell work hard to replace Kanade which is the worst thing you could say to her given her situation. If nothing else I certainly feel for Tsubasas plight and can sympathize with her. At the same time Hibiki is trying to be friends with Tsubasa but is continuously denied. I do like their dynamic and Hibiki is at least endearing if nothing else aside from GX that was awful. Tsubasa eventually does admit that she loves singing to a concert that shes doing in episode 9 and decides to go on a tour around the world but that happens later on. What does annoy me about Hibiki in this season is that she keeps saying that she really wants to save people which is repetitive. Miku even calls it a hobby which is really dumb and not in the fun way. Do fire fighters save people because its a hobby or is it because its their job? This is a reoccurring plot point which is frankly done better in G but is done worse in GX. Outside of that shes an optimistic and energetic girl despite all of the harassment and nonsense she had to deal due to the concert attack which is also a reoccurring plot point Ill talk about more in later seasons. She also doesnt want to fight other people and would rather talk things out with her enemies which is more focused on in the later seasons as well. This can either cause endless frustration like in GX or can actually be a well defined part of her character like in G XV and especially in AXZ. In this season its not a big focus aside from when she fights Yukine Chris the fourth and final Symphogear girl in this season. Yukine Chris is a unique girl to say the least. Despite her angry attitude and somewhat violent outbursts against her enemies she is the kind big sister type of character especially when it comes to two different girls who are introduced in G. Before she becomes that girl she is initially hostile towards the other two Symphogear girls particularly Hibiki who doesnt want to fight against her. Eventually her Symphogear transforms into Ichaival a gear which is capable of shooting bullets laser arrows and giant missiles. After getting defated and later saved by Hibiki the villain of S1 Fin decides to leave her behind and steal the Nehushtan armor from Chris. Whats interesting about Chris is that she suffers from self loathing due to the destruction that she blames herself for and claims that she hates singing because of that. She grows as a character in later seasons and resolves her inner demons with the help of the other girls. She eventually helps fighting the Noise and Fine in this season and becomes one of the three main Symphogear girls. Next character is Miku Kohinata Hibikis best friend and roommate in high school. Shes generally a cheery and helps Hibiki with her homework but as the season goes on she worries about Hibikis consistent disappearances due to her new double life. She eventually discovers that Hibiki is a Symphogear when Hibiki saved her life during a fight. What annoys me is that Miku is angry with Hibiki about keeping it a secret when Hibiki was obviously operating under basic superhero rules of a secret identity and had to keep it a secret because the government told her too. This gets resolved in the episode afterwards and I genuinely think this drama couldve been cut out from S1 without much change. It just feels pointless and annoying. Beyond that Mikus relationship with Hibiki does get the spotlight in other seasons like G and especially in XV but well talk more about that later. I dont have too much to say about Genjurou Kazanari but he is Tsubasas uncle and commander of Section 2 a government agency responsible for dealing with disasters for the Japanese government including issues that have to be dealt with by the gears like the Noise and other supernatural threats. Hes portrayed as the caring and levelheaded commander of the group and often guides the gears to defeat their enemies. Despite being a human unable to fight Noise hes also capable of training the gears and hes even action movie buddies with Hibiki which is something I find charming. Theres also Ryoko Sakurai the head scientist of Section 2 and is responsible for a lot of research of the gears which she calls the Sakurai theory. She also speaks some hilariously awful Engrish to American soldiers and its so unintentionally funny to hear it. Shes portrayed as a mysterious but also very cunning scientist that knows more than she lets on. Finally theres the main villain Fin. Shes a character that gets referenced in every season following this one except for GX and beyond some interesting lore that gets explored in AXZ and XV I found her character to be uninteresting and shallow. She wants to destroy the moon to remove the Curse of Balal a curse that apparently makes it difficult for humans to understand one another although the true purpose of the curse wouldnt be revealed until the final season XV. Eventually Fine is defeated in a pretty cool final fight for the season. Its also nice that theres a little song with all three of the girls right at the end of the season to reflect on what has happened and what they learned. Next well talk about the art and animation for this season. The character designs are very different in the next four seasons in comparison to this one and honestly I prefer the character designs in the next couple of seasons because the character designs in S1 look a little toosimple. Characters go off model at times and the fights are generally uninteresting aside from the final fight. Theres a good amount of still frames too so maybe the success of the OST for this season allowed the team to improve upon the other four seasons visually especially in regard to XV which looks amazing. Last but certainly not least we have the voice acting and OST. I love Hibikis voice actress in particular Aoi Yukki who is a prolific voice actress and seiyuu. She brings so much energy and optimism to her role and when she sings and screams it feels really natural. I feel the same way for all of the characters and I feel like they did great on the songs as well. Speaking of the songs the entire show is filled with really good rock and pop songs throughout the series. Theyre jams to listen too and I enjoy all of them for one reason or another. https://www..com/watch?v=rHW2iEDL6U All in all S1 is a bit of a mixed bag. While I found Tsubasa and Chriss arcs to be compelling enough to follow I found the villain to be bland and I was annoyed by the drama surrounding Hibiki and Miku. Theres not too much to this season that hasnt been done before by other magical girl shows but the foundation is there. It took itself too seriously but I thought S1 was an ok start to a series that I ended up loving. Well talk about that more in the next review for G and possibly GX as well.