Sunday, January 22, 2012

First Impressions: Senki Zesshou Symphogear

All right, time to move onto the mecha section of this season's animus...

...is what I would like to say, but unfortunately, there's yet another bad series to cover.

As Rick Perry likes to say, "Oops."

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Get outta here noobs

Hmm...what can I really say about Senki Zesshou Symphogear? People heralded it as a mix of iDOLM@STER and mecha, but from what I've seen, it's nothing of the sort. Should you watch it?...I guess if you really have a weakness for girls that don't give up and slightly squished graphics.

The soundtrack is meh. I don't find it particularly impressive and a lot of the insert songs the heroines sing while beating the crap out of the monsters seem pretty generic/forced. However, the OP is Synchrogazer by Nana Mizuki, so that's always worth listening to. Compared to her other songs, it's not as good, but still...why would you pass up an opportunity to listen to a new Mizuki song? In the end, I need to think about it a bit more, but I don't think I'll get the music collection for this series - and I'm a pretty rabid music collection collector, even for mediocre soundtracks.

The graphics are normal. Stuffs shine, glow, and fizz just like any Digimon adaptation after Digimon: The Movie. To be honest I'm not liking the proportions of the girls in the series. It's not that they look bad necessarily - they just remind me too much of the old Hayate no Gotoku "Let's make the face half its supposed width" art-style. In terms of appealing graphics in mecha series for this season, I would definitely pick Rinne no Langrange over Symphogear.

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...
I hope that's something I can eat

Do I really need to say anything about the plot? I mean...it's a bunch of girls who can sing, have equipment that boosts their power when they sing or when they're pissed off, fighting against indescribably incoherent monsters, and seeking the truth behind their megazords Symphogear equipment. 

In Japan.

Oh, and the newest mini-boss that arrived on the scene immediately reminded me of Power Rangers.

Think of it as iDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia but without the good singing + Strike Witches.

If there's one studio out there on Earth that could conceivably turn this series into a classic and not another stereotypical girl-in-suit fighting for the salvation of the Earth vs. an evil masked villain, it is probably Shaft, not Satelight. Yes, I understand that you guys did Macross and Genesis of Aquarion, but I don't think it's  enough to turn Symphogear's initial premise into a masterpiece. Same with Mouretsu Pirates. Please...stop while you're not ahead.

The only thing that could turn Symphogear into something that's somewhat meaningful is the foreshadowing of the prologue, where the main character's best friend is crying in the rain at a gravestone...of the main character. Ooh, she dies a death for Earth's salvation while leaving her friend behind to live happily, but her friend doesn't want to. How sadly predictable. Ah well...might as well see how she gets owned.

Status: Watching just to see how the main character dies.

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P.S.: HOLY SHIT I just noticed that all of the monsters are shaped after fruits.

Well this tells you a lot about the quality of the series.

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