Senki Zesshou Symphogear

[Strike Zero]

So, is anybody else besides me watching this show? For those who are unaware, it's about a pair of girls that are implied to lesbians who sing upbeat pop songs to manifest ancient suits of powered armor and fight extra-dimensional monsters and evil girls who use similar armor using the power of song, their gigantic swords and PISTON-PUNCHING FISTS OF FRIENDSHIP AND JUSTICE. You may take this brief bit of synopsis in any way you will.

The show isn't exactly ground-breaking when it comes to plot, but I love the suit designs, and I'll be darned if the fight scenes aren't hella' awesome.

[Destiny_Gundam]

The animation is pretty crap, but when competing for budget with Aquarion and Space Pirates, it's to be expected.

Still, it's a good show that appears to be the most underrated of the season.

[Strike Zero]

Yeah, I too have noticed an abundance of QUALITY. The fact that they seemed to blow what I'd imagine was about 50 percent of their initial budget on the first episode certainly doesn't help matters.

Though I have most certainly seen other shows that feature even less consistent animation. Symphogear at least looks pretty good when it counts.

[VentZX]

There have only been a few scenes where the animation quality has actually been distracting to me, and they were pretty unimportant scenes. In any case, I'm enjoying the hell out of Symphogear, and Hibiki has really grown on me. It was a bit of a shocker that they killed off Kanade in the first episode, but it did a pretty good job of establishing the mood of the series. Also, the suit designs are great, and I'm actually quite a fan of the music/singing during the fight scenes. It's like a magical girl version of Macross.

[Vent Noir]

Watching and enjoying this. Not a work of art or anything, but it's fun.

[DuelGundam2099]

*sees trailer because people are talking about it*

Most likely will not see this. On one hand it looks pretty and has monsters of the week (at least I hope it does). On the other hand the music is horrid and considering the singers are voiced by the same people that did the themes to Nanotrash and Magicrap that doesn't surprise me. Then again, as far as I am aware, it is the only anime to date to have both Ryoma facking Nagare and Kouji facking Kabuto (even if only as voice actors).

[Destiny_Gundam]

No monsters of the week. Just waves of grunts.

[DuelGundam2099]

That depresses me a little. Seriously, did monsters of the week just stop existing after the original Aquarion? And Shin Mazinger Impact doesn't count 'cause it's a remake.

[Destiny_Gundam]

The show focuses much more on the characters doing the fighting rather than the fights themselves.

[DuelGundam2099]

I wasn't talking about the show rather mecha anime in general since they apparently apparently just stop being in shows after 2005. 'Tis stranger than the reason a rule 35 site fails at existing this day and age.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Seeing as how most people complain about Monster of the Week shows...

[DuelGundam2099]

Which makes no sense because most great super robot anime have 'em; you'd think there would be at least one original series in the past 7 years or so. Was Aquarion a wake up call for the anime industry and some famous guy went "EVERYONE OVER REACT! MONSTERS OF THE WEEK ARE OFFICIALLY BANNED IN ANIME FROM NOW ON! WE'LL MOVE TO LIVE ACTION ONCE TSUBARAYA FINISHES THEIR ULTRA GALAXY PLAN! *slams phone*"?

[Destiny_Gundam]

It's simply an outdated formula. Stuff like Kamen Rider still uses it, though it's really monster of two weeks.

But that has nothing to do with this topic. If you want a solid show of cute girls beating on monsters and strengthening their bonds of friendship give it a shot.

[DuelGundam2099]

If you want a solid show of cute girls beating on monsters and strengthening their bonds of friendship give it a shot.

That part in bold is a put off; with that said I'm off!

[Destiny_Gundam]

Discrimination is a terrible thing

[Ryujin]

I too find this show entertaining, not least because one of the Noise mobs reminds me of the Baltans from Ultraman.

I find the singing animation during combat rather awkward, though, and Kanade's hair is...like a sea anemone decided to take up residence on her head.

Miss Ryouko-scientist

Spoiler

who may also be the naked blonde sadist baddie

also annoys the heck out of me.

Also, not piston-punching hard enough?!? EXTEND THE PISTON MORE.

Discrimination is a terrible thing

Lol, doesn't this remind you of the Sour Cake Girl thread when the show was just starting?

And for an MOTW series that's currently running, there's always Smile Precure.

[Destiny_Gundam]

But Precure is about cute girls so that's no good.

[Ryujin]

But Precure is about cute girls so that's no good.

You'd think that the average warm-blooded young male would enjoy looking at cute girls in hot pants....guess my assessment was wrong. *shrug*

[Turinu]

Indeed. People these days, can't appreciate adorable girls beating the crap out of baddies and monsters. Oh well, what can you do?

I've also picked up watching this series, and while the quality is indeed questionable, it's still entertaining enough to watch. I love the music too (Because I love Mizuki Nana and the majority of her songs), and the arias they sing to summon their armor and use their swan songs are pretty nice, too.

But yeah, it is kind of awkward how they sing when they fight, especially when they're talking to themselves, XD.

[Strike Zero]

So it turns out that in addition to toting twin double gating guns and hidden missile pods a la Gundam Heavyarms, Chris' Ichii-Bal Symphogear also functions as a gigantic high-power SAM platform as well. Awesome sauce.

I really didn't care for her song at first, but that quickly changed once I found out what some of the lyrics were and realized that what she's been singing is about as close as you can get to a girly J-Pop rendition of DEATH METAL. Chris would probably be my favorite character if it weren't for Hibiki. Because, well, she's Hibiki.