#Symphogear ep9: did I change, or did someone change me? #anime 

I've been more than a little behind on Symphogear, but I refuse to let
it slip into the purgatory of unfinished series. It's been too
entertaining up until this point. So here I am picking back up this
series right as the Spring season is ending. I hope I didn't forget
too much during this one month intermission.

We get a flashback in the beginning of Tsubasa doing maintenance on
here favorite bike and Kanada comes up and speaks to her. It's clear
that while Tsubasa still clings tightly to the memory of her lost
friend, her mental state is continuing to improve. The horrible
flashbacks of Kanade's suicide are being repeated as often, and good
memories are starting pop up more often. She wakes up on a table in
the hospital and it appears that everything's okay. The doctors say
she's fully healed.

Then we're forwarded to a scene with Hibiki escorting Miku through
headquarters. Miku's been given an honorary job and clearance to be
closer to her friend. Tsubasa, her manager and the two girls run into
Doctor Ryoko, who seems willing and unwilling to share information
about herself. It's pretty clear she's the antagonist in some form in
this narrative, and it's nice to see that she may have some
understandable motivations for her duplicitous actions. Though an
excuse doesn't necessarily make her a likable character, or absolve
her from responsibility. Regardless, the talk of romance by Ryoko
somehow inspires Hibiki to request that her, Mikua and Tsubasa go out
on a date. Not too weird, but an awkward way to put their outing.

There are some remarks about Genjuro's absence in HQ when we get to
see him walking in the rain towards some rundown condominium. In
there, Chris is hiding out and being suspicious of everything as
usual. Genjuro manages to feed her, and reveal his motivations, but
fails to gain her trust. Chris makes a rather... audacious escape by
jumping out of a window and using her Armed Gear to hop along the
rooftops and get away. It seems like she's overdoing things a bit,
but I can't really blame her for being overly cautious and paranoid.
Her closest ally did betray her and try to kill her.

The show then focuses on the date between Hibiki, Miku and Tsubasa and
most of it is given the montage treatment. It's a pretty clear sign
in a narrative that things for those characters are about to change
when that happens. And my theory holds true when after their day of
fun, Tsubasa tells the girls that she's participating in a concert
soon and she would like them to attend. The concert happens to be at
the same location where Kanade died and Hibiki was nearly killed and
gained her powers of symphogear. Everyone decides to go along and
attempt to move on from their tragic pasts.

After one of Tsubasa's rehearsals for the upcoming concert she runs
into Tony Glazer. A big shot and head of a big music production
company. He's apparently the force that has been hounding Tsubasa to
come to the West and start an international career. Personally, I
wonder if he's also part of the foreign force that has been the 2nd
Division as well.

It would be much of a Symphogear episode without combat, and
thankfully we get some excitement when as poor Hibiki runs to get to
Tsubasa's concert, she gets a call to arms from the 2nd Division to
stop some encroaching Noise. She asks to handle the situation herself
so as to allow Tsubasa to finish her concert and gain some healing.
Chris is already there and for a brief moment the two team up to take
down the mass of Noise. Hibiki was especially impressive, and Tsubasa
was able to gain her golden moment free from interference. I was
worried that there would be some other surprise, but the show ends on
a happy note. Tsubasa speaks to the crowd about her personal feelings
and love of song; Hibiki is able to soak in the satisfaction of
helping her friends and showing that she's competent and strong. The
only one still left with hangups is Chris, who still can't come to
terms with her exile and the realization that the 2nd Division isn't
her enemy.

The episode ends with us realizing that Tsubasa has accepted Mr. Glazer's offer.

This episode wasn't bad. It was enjoyable, though I wasn't a fan of
the "girls' night out" montage. This was clearly a set up episode for
things more insane to come soon. I'm sure Ryoko has plenty up her
sleeve. I don't trust Tony Glazer yet, and Chris still has some
character development to hash out. So there are plenty of elements
and open questions to leave me thinking that there are some major
fireworks left for the show. That concert scene was pretty beautiful,
but I believe the show still hasn't shown us its best.