Alright folks, let’s settle in for another episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The show has stuck relatively true to a conventional magical girl template so far, though it’s certainly offered its own interesting embellishments. Nanoha’s plentiful worldbuilding, for one; instead of offering a vaguely defined set of magical powers or binary conflict between eternal enemies (like in Precure, where it seems like the “sides” have existed for all of time), Nanoha seems determined to sketch out an entire magical/science fiction universe, with Fate’s antagonism coming from a place of individual grievance, not destined conflict. That meshes a little weirdly with the numbered items they’re gathering, which seem more like the kind of plot device you’d see in a world where everything actually does revolve around our protagonists. In Card Captor Sakura, Sakura gathers all the cards herself because this is a show about Sakura – in Nanoha, our heroine and her enemy seem less destined than accidental, and so there’s an interesting style tension there.

Beyond the unique interplay of Nanoha’s magical girl and scifi action roots, the show is also just, well, weird. The storytelling is an odd mix of material seemingly aimed at both older and younger audiences, the story labors over incidental conversations that don’t really explain themselves, and the visual execution ranges from genuinely inspired to either baffling or totally flat. That makes for a very imperfect show, but it’s great news for me – I love investigating messy stuff, and Nanoha is certainly messy. Let’s check out what’s in store for our heroes in episode six!

Episode 6

I still really like this OP, and not just because it sounds so much like Stable Staple

Back from their trip. This exterior shot of the house really demonstrates how Nanoha is an extremely early-00s property – the smudgy, blurred quality of early digipaint is clear as day. That said, Nanoha actually benefits from the fact that its art design isn’t particularly intricate – it is less damaged by digipaint’s limitations than a show like Haibane Renmei, whose beauty is largely lost in the terribly clumsy painting of early digital shows

“Feelings That Can’t Be Understood?” It feels like Nanoha is stuck in this weird limbo between an overt children’s show and a darker show aimed at teens, and as a consequence, it’s far less able to directly engage with its characters’ principle feelings than an actual children’s show, but they lack the complexity of a show for older audiences. Children’s shows may convey simplified dramatic situations, but they generally engage with them directly and honestly. Nanoha instead proceeds with all the brooding tension of a late-night anime, but doesn’t yet possess the narrative or emotional complexity to really justify that pacing

Oh dang, here’s some unexpected tension. Nanoha’s friend Alisa actually snaps at her, because she’s been acting all moody and dramatically distant the last few days. See Nanoha, there are consequences for being an edgy teen anime protagonist!

I’m liking the compositions throughout this school drama segment. There’s a nice sense of minimalist melancholy to these shots that are just Nanoha’s face contrasted against the shadowed blue wall, and this meeting on the staircase between her two friends is genuinely beautiful. The fuzzy nature of digipaint-era backgrounds is less obtrusive in a scene where the light would naturally distort objects anyway, like in this stairwell with the overwhelming sunlight beaming in. And the colors are also quite good

Oh god. I’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows with my housemates lately, and now I feel like a judge sort of awkwardly picking at contestants’ dishes. “The composition doesn’t necessarily work together, but there are a lot of good colors in this dish!”

Ooh, this is excellent. In fact, this is probably one of Nanoha’s best moments so far. The show’s unusual tendency to hover longer than is expected over random conversations here lands on a conversation that actually rewards that focus, as Alisa and Suzuka argue over Nanoha. Normally this conversation would end on “I know she’s in trouble, and I’m mad she won’t trust us!”, but Nanoha continues into Suzuka’s counterpoint, “everyone keeps secrets, and as friends we just need to wait for and support her.” The fact that this is presented less as a singular conflict (Alisa is angry at Nanoha), and more as a living element of friendship with no clear right answer, makes this sequence and both of these characters feel far more real. Letting your sympathetic characters genuinely argue and disagree is a phenomenal way to set them apart as people, and not just tools of a narrative

And we finish on two more great and smartly contrasted compositions – Nanoha’s two friends up on the sunlit roof, hanging together on the left side of the frame, leading into Nanoha herself alone in the blue classroom, isolated on the right. Their current separation is emphasized through color, physical distance, and isolation in the frame

This contrast in lighting continues through this cleverly composed shot of Nanoha’s friends looking into her classroom. She remains shrouded in blue, while they’re bathed in light

All of this has been very welcome – Nanoha’s odd lingering over specific moments just felt weird before, but this episode is using them to impart much greater weight on Nanoha’s relationship with her friends, seriously addressing how becoming a magical girl would distance her from her everyday life

And another terrific composition as Nanoha crests this hill, the show once again smartly using the environment to keep her in perpetual shadow

“I’ll make a stop before I come home because I don’t want anyone to see my face right now.” Damn

In addition to texturing Nanoha’s existing relationships, all this material will likely ultimately relate to Fate’s loneliness, too. This has been a very effective episode

“I thought if I listened to what someone else had to say, I’d lose, for some reason.” Some almost unbelievably frank analysis of their own childhood issues

“I’ll just stay angry while I’m waiting!” “You sure are stubborn.” Damn. This episode has entirely sold the friendship between these three. Tremendously effective use of what is turning out to be this show’s signature trick

Shinbo’s aggressive colors work really well to impart some menace on these city vistas. I wonder why that quality of his work sorta disappeared in the SHAFT era

Fate’s familiar is eating dog treats, of course

Whew, gorgeous composition of Fate on the bed. I love how the combination of this foreground object and the twin windows create a sort of picture frame for Fate herself

We see a bunch of scars on Fate’s back

“I’m worried about you, Fate.” Both Fate and her familiar are essentially co-leads at this point, it seems

Now we get Nanoha’s siblings discussing her recent attitude, though I’m still not sure if they’ll ever truly be important

This does make for a pretty natural contrast of Fate and Nanoha’s positions, though. Neither of them are in a place where they can be helped by the people around them

Interesting visual effect evoking the city at night – we just get blurred neon rectangles transposed against darkness, a minimalist implication of brightly lit signs

They’re establishing a charming rapport between Fate and her snarky but very supportive familiar

More compelling shots of the city in this storm. Moving layers of clouds at divergent speeds is a good way to convey a roiling tempest

Both our heroes seal the jewel seed at the same time. I love this slow, pensive cut of Nanoha surveying the damage and slowly marching towards the seed

And now a gorgeous shot from behind Nanoha, as we see the lessons of her other friendships contrasted against her situation with Fate. So not only does this episode make the best use of Nanoha’s unique qualities so far, it’s also the most tightly structured in terms of drama, with all of its disparate scenes actually contributing to this one theme of reaching out to establish connections. This is easily the show’s best episode since the first, and quite likely its best episode altogether so far

“I can’t stand fighting like this without knowing anything about you!” Just as Fate is clearly an early model for Madoka’s Homura, Nanoha is clearly an early model for Symphogear’s Hibiki

Nanoha almost reaches Fate, but her familiar knocks her out of it

Ah crap, they blew up each other’s wands

And Done

Hell yeah! That was legitimately great! Nanoha has been a show with plenty of compelling qualities in the past, but it never really reached the point where I’d call its episodes unconditionally good. That definitely changed this time – between its smart use of Nanoha’s consistent idle conversations, absolutely terrific layouts, intelligent structure, and generally convincing dialogue, this was far and away Nanoha’s best episode so far, offering both more substantive emotional drama and more consistent beauty than ever before. Nanoha’s visual aesthetic isn’t inherently compelling, but this episode made the absolute most of it, using the show’s aggressive colors and complex layouts to excellent dramatic effect. If Nanoha can stick close to this level of execution going forward, we’re in for a terrific ride.

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