== Re-rating *Senki Zesshou Symphogear* [[I tweeted https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/622268802600955904]]: > It's taken me a while to finish it, but I can now declare *Senki > Zesshou Symphogear* to be the best show I watched in the Winter 2012 > season. Ever since I started hanging out [[on Twitter https://twitter.com/cks_anime/]], I've been hearing praise and enthusiasm for *Symphogear* (and there was also enthusiasm from eg [[Evirus http://karmaburn.com/?cat=502]], who is on Twitter but [[I read directly /Anime/BlogsIRead]]). Back in [[winter 2012 Winter2012Retrospective]] I wound up 'suspending' *Symphogear* for various reasons, but [[a couple of weeks ago https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/620996054712983552]] all of the *Symphogear* enthusiasm (coupled with a somewhat weak season) talked me into catching up so I could watch the third and current season, *Symphogear GX*. And the end result is what you see above. Looking back, the original *Symphogear* beats out even the ultimately somewhat disappointing *Moretsu Pirates* in terms of my enjoyment. (I was [[originally tempted https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/617056183145398273]] to skip straight to *GX*, but I'm glad that I didn't. It just wouldn't have been the same to have missed all of the great bits on the way there.) Looking back, I think that it really helped that I was marathoning *Symphogear* and that I knew a lot more about what the show was like, including that the show had another two seasons. The first episode of *Symphogear* is very heavy on the doom and grimness (we open being told that the protagonist is dead, and then a stadium full of people die in a flashback), and the show aired the year after *Madoka*. Looking back at [[my notes from the time TrimmingWinter2012]] made it clear that I believed in the doom-laden air it projected and that simply wasn't really attractive. Now, of course, we know better; the show is really all goofy cheese and cheerful endings (even if [[it does kill a lot of bystanders https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/624783288318750720]]). (See also [[1 https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/621170517614166016]], [[2 https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/622271571667865600]], [[3 https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/624806551610609664]] for more of my Twitter comments on the misleading doom and gloom impression.) As for how I feel about *Symphogear G*, it's even better than the first season (partly because the show got rid of pretty much any pretense of doom). It wouldn't rate as high in [[its season Summer2013Retrospective]], but that's because it would have had [[very strong competition https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/624803496274075648]]. It has [[an interesting feeling ending https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/624801661278662657]] that seems like the production team wasn't entirely expecting a third season. PS: [[Synchrogazer is the best *Symphogear* OP https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/625506004457947136]]. [[Maria has the best hair https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/625501570663346176]], at least so far. === Sidebar: *Symphogear* and death Let me try to do a simple take on this: *Symphogear* is a cheesy show in a decidedly non-cheesy setting. A lot of devastation has happened and does happen over the course of the show and a fair number of bystanders die, often more or less onscreen. Although the show does not show blood all that often, it does show a certain amount of unpleasant deaths that happen to terrified people. I don't think the show particularly dwelled on any of this unpleasantness, but I'm a jaded anime watcher so I'm not sure I'd have noticed short of it being fairly blatant (I have to admit that [[my standards are not normal WhatWeAreUsedTo]]). For some people this will be a strong turnoff to the show and I won't blame them for it.