[Article] Symphogear -NEXT- Announcement

It was back on the 20th of November, 2022, during the Symphogear Live 2020->2022 event, where we first got an announcement that there was a new Symphogear project in the works^[1] with no further elaboration on the matter. About a year later we've now received the first follow-up announcement on what exactly it's planned to entail.^[2] Project Symphogear -NEXT- will be a "new music project" featuring "music" and "video" that will be a "continuation of the world of Symphogear." No further specifics have been revealed thus far, so it could be anything ranging from a new anime series to a new video games to a pachinko machine for all we know. Please don't let it be a pachinko machine. It was also revealed that there was a Symphogear movie in the works, but similarly no further details have been revealed.

This new comes just one day after the announcement that the mobile game, Symphogear XDU, would be ceasing service as of the 31st of January, 2023, after running for 6.5 years.^[3] It was also announced that Symphogear Radio would be ceasing come January and that its next 3 episodes would be its last.^[4] Symphogear Radio had primarily become a channel for news and talk about the mobage so it's unsurprising that the sunlighting of XDU would herald its end as well.

Thanks to Johnny of YameteTomete for initial translations.

Speculation

I have two main predictions on how exactly this may play out. My first prediction is that the movie will be a remake of the first season of the original series to update it to more accurately match the visual style and tone of the later seasons as season 1 was... Something of an identity crisis of an anime. -NEXT- meanwhile would probably be a continuation of the series from XV onwards, perhaps dealing with the Custodians beyond Enki and Shem-ha.

My other prediction is that the movie will be an original work set after XV much like my previous prediction for -NEXT-, but then -NEXT- itself will star an new main cast of characters with the original characters only appearing as supporting roles (I point to Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid as an example of what I mean).

Those are just my predictions however, and there's plenty more already floating around. Some think the movie might be a prequel movie about Tsubasa & Kanade during their time as ZWEI WING, while the looming possibility of some mobage story adaptation has always been there too. Who knows, maybe we're all wrong and the movie is actually going to be an adaptation of the goofy spin-off manga about cooking. It doesn't have to be beef, you know?