#Symphogear ep8: mended fences & built bridges. #anime 

I was hoping I'd be wrong that episode seven would be the last we saw
of Chris. Her abilities seem like such a waste. And girl groups are
always better as a trio as opposed to a duo (no offense to any Double
H fans out there). But I'm jumping way ahead of myself. I haven't
really even started talking about the episode. These are my hopes and
dreams. That shows up at the bottom of the page. Here we go.
Symphogear. Episode eight.

Episode eight starts off not much later after the episode seven
started. We see that Chris is still alive and hanging on by a thread
while being chased down by Noise. She survives, but passes out just
in time for the newly on the market (there will be some jokes made
about Hibiki and Miku's "relationship, brace yourself) Miku. Anime
and its coincidences, if this were one of those hardcore ultraviolent
80's anime she'd be picked up by some big hulking punk with a mohawk
and a nose ring who wanted her for "womanhood". And I'm sure the guy
would have died a horrible death that was standard for that era. But
since this is the proper and nice 21 century she gets nursed back to
health by Miku and some chick who runs a nearby flower shop (I thought
that was her mom for a moment).

You can tell Chris is quite twisted (besides all the foul-mouthed
language and violent tendencies) because when Miku tells her her
problems Chris's solution is to beat the person to a pulp and tell
them she's sorry later. There's gonna need to be some serious
rehabilitation to get this to work.

Meanwhile, Hibiki is trying to cope with the sudden and harsh break
up. She runs into Tsubasa and tells her her problems. Thankfully,
Tsubasa has calmed down and cleared her head since her brush with
death. Her words of encouragement/advice are much more... sane.
These two have reallly come a long way since this seris started two
months ago.

The peace and understanding doesn't last for long however, as a new
noise attack, a much larger one, rips through the city. Chris for the
first time gets to see the panic, despair and destruction that her
participation with her master and the Noise has brought these people.
Though for the life of me I can understand how she could see it any
other way. She had to have been in one hell of an all consuming
bubble to miss this kind of mayhem. Then again, I did say that she
was insane.

The Noise are obviously focusing a good deal of their attack on her,
but Miku doesn't have magical priestess healing powers so there's
still some internal damage. This gives the organization's commander,
Genjurou, the opportunity to step in again and use his bare fists (&
uh... shoed feet) to whoop some tail. It looks awesome, though it
feels rather pointless when Chris just needed a moment to catch her
breath and then she was up and running again in her gear, blowing
everything to hell. I guess the main point of there meeting will be
actually meeting. Since later on in the episode, it seems he's
familiar with her from some previous meeting. A meeting where he
apparently could save her back then, either. I wonder if it goes all
the way back towards that tortured, tragic childhood the show has been
showing glimpses of for several episodes now?

Despite Tsubasa being just well enough to checkmate Chris last episode
with some of Hibiki's help, Genjurou has commanded her to stay out of
this operation, so Hibiki is left wanderingthe city alone, attempting
to find stray Noise or survivors. Anime and its coincidences; Hibiki
almost simultaneously runs into not only a unique Noise, but Miku and
that lady from the flower shop are pinned down by it. Apparently the
Noise responds to loud... noise (this is getting ridiculous to write),
and that means Hibiki can call out her gear.

The two errant former lovers communicate through cell phone, and Miku
pushes a plan luring away the Noise so that Hibiki can transform and
save the woman. It works, but just barely. And for the life of me I
can't understand (aside for dramatic effect) why it would be that
difficult for the super powered Hibiki to catch up to a little girl
running for her life and a big fat, slow Noise with tentacles chasing
it.

The rescue is pulled off in a nice heroic fashion (read: last damn
second) and we get a reconsiliation through fire for the couple. They
even take a new commemorative photo to immortalize the moment.
Episode over, and the good guys are stronger for it.

Though some things still bother me. Things like, why is Chris so
expendable when she has TWO relics? Is Chris going to join the team
or roam the country solo? What's the purpose of these attacks at all
anyway? Why is Genjurou not out there fighting? Is he a last line of
defense for whatever the organization is holding on to? And is this
show purposefully teasing this faux yuri relationship? And most
importantly, do I just like this show because of all the action, boobs
and butts? The world may never know that last one, but I'm sure the
show is gonna have to come up with some answers to the rest soon.