Review of Symphogear G

Much better! Say goodbye to the first season of Symphogear's hair-brained scheme to develop mature character arcs in a fantasy world devoid of mature themes. Fully embraced in Symphogear G is the soul of the show - robogirls saving the world from the noise with their punchy warballads. Suspend your desire for "realistic" world building and experience the closest thing to an autistic rock opera Anime has to offer, Symphogear G. Story 8 Two parts wheat, eight parts buckwheat... on the scale of so bad it's good, Symphogear G gets an 8/10. The moon, which had a makeover in the season 1 finale, is not in stable orbitas NASA claims! Turns out we're in for a doozy when she comes crashing down, and a rival gang of popstar power rangers have emerged from their invisible flying fortress seeking to return the moon to a safe orbit through advanced achaeology, terrorism, and vocals. The USA plans to evacuate to the lost city of Atlantis and leave the rest of the world to its fate. Red, Yellow, and Blue must contend with the new Black, Green, and Pink rangers to save the world from being saved the wrong way. Yellow ranger, who is also jinchuuriki for the 9-tails, must contend with the weakening of the sealing Jutsu. We learn that the heart of a power puff girl is fickle, and the absolute dedication of these young women to their naive world views creates a series of reshuffles in the midst of battle until everyone has basically fought everyone for every reason.

Art 7

The endless hordes of noise are completely passed over once again, probably the worst thing about the art in the first season and this season... but the show really shines when it comes to the naval battles, control rooms, and like 4/7 of the Symphogears' abilities in battle. Towards the end there are some fantastic throw-ins that are pleasing to the eye - complete remodels of each Symphogear, visual progression for the threats posed by the main villain and his minions, a fairly competent depiction of planetary scale battle with energy weapons. The opening has a beautiful, stylized first half. The scene with Chris eating Spaghetti like she's two with a mushroom plastered to her cheek and some of the veggies from the sauce finding themselves under her mug was great. It's nothing spectacular for the most part, but not bad either.

Sound 9

There is a greater range of emotional intent to the tracks this season, some duets, and overall a more polished feel. Beyond that, many battles take place with limited, varied placement of sing-alongs by the Symphogear users or none at all. They mix it up a lot more this season, and it works to the benefit of the viewer/listener.

Character 8

The antagonists have "complex motivations" in Symphogear G. Specifically, they are either too senile, too young, too traumatized, or too manic to see their half-baked aspirations through without relying on archaeological terrorism - birds of a feather flock together, I suppose. Our protagonists struggle to determine where their allegiances lie when confronted with NASA's lies about the trajectory of the moon - will they join the invisible fortress crew, convert them to common sense, or is there another way?

Meanwhile, the best characters in the show are again the Americans, and now also Blue Ranger's talent manager who is revealed to be a Ninja capable of subduing the full might of the Yakuza while taking a phone call, walking on water, bending bullets, and using bent bullets to shadow bind enemies. The commander also turns out to be legit, singing one of the finest songs in the series as he toughens up his young songstress unit by having them run long distances and box frozen critters suspended from meat hooks. Rocky!

They're all idiots in the best of ways.

Enjoyment 9

It's great mindless entertainment. Blue Ranger launches herself off the deck of an aircraft carrier using that slingshot thing the fighter jets use for same. The lost city of Atlantis destroys an entire American convoy at sea. The American MIB unit once again attempts to steal national secrets from Japan at gunpoint and gets merc'd by the Symphogear. Kyubi makes an appearence, but is resealed when Bikkie jumps in front of the most powerful laser the world has ever known to take advantage of its special properties. It turns out the main villain from season 1 is the most selfless self-perpetuating genetic parasite (that's called a virus, folks) that you could imagine - she was just misunderstood, what a sacrifice. The final battle is literally just FMA: Brotherhood + The Avengers Movie = this. It's a god damn travesty that doesn't try to be anything else, as opposed to the first season which tried and failed to be anything else. Fun!