Symphogear G ep11: fighting your friends for your beliefs; fighting your beliefs for your friends

So you guys are gonna skip that massive cliffhanger from last week and just move on to another scene? Fine! Whatever! I don’t care! Whatever!

As the episode begins, we get to see Frontier in all its glory for the first time. It seems that this place is also the perfect sanctuary from the eventual Moon’s descent onto Earth. It’s really quite an amazing looking structure, and not one that the American military has left unnoticed. Their ships are already streaming into the area.

On the ship, we see Miku in bed greeted by some heavily bandaged friends, Hibiki and Tsubasa. It seems that Miku’s kidnapping and manipulation by Dr. Ver actually worked out to everyone’s benefit. Last episode when Miku’s purifying beam was fire and ricochet into her and Hibiki as they fought, it actually removed Miku’s Gear, and any remnants of the relic that had infected Hibiki’s body. Hibiki’s no longer in danger of being killed by her Gungnir! That reminds me. Speaking of Gear users, where the hell is Chris?!

That question is quickly answered as the scene changes to showing FIS on top of Frontier with Chris tagging along. It’s pretty clear that Chris is pretending to be a turncoat, just because she’s an excellent shot, and Tsubasa is still alive. Regardless, she’s still there and alive. The group makes their way deeper and deeper into Frontier, along the way, they power up the massive structure using the nephilim’s heart. The old hag gets to work going through the computer’s information. And Maria Cadenzavuna Eve and Dr. Ver head up to the helm of the structure, where the mad man injects himself with a special blend of LiNKER with nephilim elements in it. He uses this new ability to control Frontier, wielding the power of a god like the mad man he is. Firstly, he lifts Frontier hundreds of feet out of the ocean and into the air by grabbing the Moon, then he uses his new ability to manipulate gravity to crush the American ships (literally) and anyone else near by. Maria Cadenzavuna Eve attempts to access the controls, but only Dr. Ver has the key now. And when he tries to stop him, he backhands her to the ground.

*sigh* What a sh*tty scene. Seriously, she has Gungnir and this nerd backhands her and she falls to the ground and cries? What the hell?! I spit on this scene. It’s such a stupid waste.

Meanwhile, it seems the good guys and their sub are actually stuck on Frontier, as it got lifted into the air along with it. Though they are down to only one Gear user, Tsubasa, as Chris has defected (not really), and Hibiki has been purged of her Gear forever (I seriously doubt that). Though Tsubasa says she’s comfortable taking center stage alone.  But that ends up not being quite necessary, as Hibiki has the crazy idea to let Shirabe return to the battlefield to help stop her friends.  And since this show actually thrives in an anti-logic environment, it’s a given that Genujro will let her do it.  He just wasn’t expecting Hibiki to tag along as well.  Oh well!  Give up old man!  You never really had any control of these girls to begin with.

This leads to the most ironic (and I am using that word correctly) of circumstances and matchups.  Tsubasa ends up squaring off with Chris outside Frontier, and Shirabe ends up fighting Kirika!  All while Dr. Ver looks on from high above.  But while he soaks up what he thinks is his eventual victory, the old hag has found a key to saving the Earth.  All she needs is Maria Cadenzavuna Eve’s voice.

End of episode.

This is nuts!  And I know such a statement goes without saying for an episode of this series, but I’m really having trouble wrapping my head around a few things.  Mainly, I’m just disgusted at how Maria Cadenzavuna Eve just took that bitch-slapping from Dr. Ver and cried about it.  She used to be such a strong exciting character, but she’s only grown more weak willed and weepy since she killed her first human.  I’m honestly a little disgusted with her character right now.

Then there’s the matter of Chris’s faux defection.  What exactly is she planning to accomplish with this poorly veiled attempt at being a double agent?  At this point she’s only delaying Tsubasa, and they’ve already failed to stop him from putting the Earth in even more peril.

I will give the series credit for doing what it does best, and that’s switching up the formula for each episode.  I definitely wasn’t expecting Shirabe and Kirika, nor Chris and Tsubasa to be fighting in this episode, just like how I didn’t expect Miku and Hibiki to tangle in the past two episodes.  The question I’m now thinking about though is just how this show ends.  Fine still has yet to make an appearance, and despite Dr. Ver playing up the role as mega villain, I seriously doubt he’s the end game.  He’s a pompous abusive bastard who’s gonna die a terrible and embarrassing death.  Once Fine appears, that’s when I have a feeling that will bring everyone together (minus Dr. Ver) to defeat her, save Kirika and stop the Moon.  And somehow, someway Hibiki’s gonna get her Gungnir back.  And I just have to hope that at some point things will straighten out before the end, because this is nuts.

Further Reading:

• Episode 10