Today we’re jumping back into Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! The show crossed a very important milestone last episode: it was actually, genuinely good. Nanoha’s been a perfectly watchable show from the start, and has been interesting enough in terms of its design and execution to give me plenty to talk about, but its first few episodes were neither so narratively gripping nor so compellingly executed that I’d actively recommend it. Things like its unusually mundane conversations and unique backgrounds were interesting aesthetic tools, but they weren’t being used to truly elevate the overall production.

That all changed last time, fortunately. On the visual side, the show’s background art was stronger than ever, offering a mix of dramatically charged and just-plain-beautiful compositions that made for an inherently compelling viewing experience. And on the narrative side, the show’s idle, incidental conversations contributed directly to the episode’s emotional core, naturally humanizing Nanoha’s relationship with her friends. On top of that, it seems like the show’s overarching paradigm is about to be broken as well, as the destruction of Nanoha and Fate’s staffs promises at least some disruption to the status quo. Boasting a new paint job, a greater mastery of its own strengths, and an urgent cliffhanger hook, Nanoha is looking stronger than ever as we enter its seventh episode. Let’s get right to it!

Episode 7

This episode opens with a staid time stamp telling us the date and time. An odd device to introduce seven episodes in, but I suppose this may be the turning point for the entire series

The clash of the wands creates a massive energy explosion. The imagery of this show is so resolutely, consistently scifi-oriented – this shot of an energy cloud rising over silhouetted skyscrapers would look completely at home in any giant robot show, or Akira

This sequence is now framed from Fate’s perspective. The show immediately draws us to sympathize with her due to her sensitive treatment of her own fractured wand, and then a perspective shot integrates us into her viewpoint directly

And now we get her own thoughts, as she clearly sacrifices of herself in an attempt to seal the jewel seed. It looks like last episode was the last time she’d function as a traditional antagonist, and I’m not surprised. The show was already straining to maintain her antagonistic posture – the only way her actions ran contrary to Nanoha’s was that she was a little rough in her methods of drawing out the seeds

Lots of very close shots on Fate’s face, emphasizing her exhaustion, thus emphasizing her vulnerability, thus emphasizing her humanity and generally sympathetic nature. Demonstrating weakness is one of the most efficient ways to humanize a character

Hah, this furious look from Fate’s familiar. Once again, Nanoha is hyper-focusing on one specific moment and emotional beat, in this case “Fate is exhausted by the effort of neutralizing the seed herself,” and using its unusually thorough exploration of that moment to create a textured emotional effect. Like with Nanoha’s friends discussing their friendship, this carefully composed sequence feels so true-to-life that it functions beyond its narrative role, giving significant emotional weight to Fate’s situation. One particularly well-observed moment can reveal as much about a person as an entire arc

Yeah, it looks like those time stamps are a framing device for this episode on the whole. Adding these time stamps creates a very specific expectation for the viewer – the show wouldn’t include them if they weren’t meaningful, so we now expect dramatic escalation across a nearly immediate time frame. You don’t start counting hours and then jump to “three weeks later”

“I’m sorry, Raising Heart.” Kinda funny and appropriate how the characters treat their wands like beloved gundams

“Mother is just a little awkward, that’s all.” So presumably Fate’s actually being abused by her mother, but makes apologies for her due to her own feelings of isolation and need for love. Did Symphogear’s first season take its entire narrative from this show?

“I can tell how she really feels for me.” Yeah, all her thoughts on her mother are textbook abuse denial

Arf and Fate have a really adorable dynamic. Arf is basically her protective big sister

Hah, and now we actually do jump forward to the next day, accompanied by its own time stamp. What are they playing at?

“If it doesn’t bother you… do you mind if I watch?” Ooh, I like this development. Last episode Nanoha’s sister was frustrated that she couldn’t help Nanoha with her problem, which at the time just seemed like an echo of that episode’s overall theme, but having her comfort Nanoha simply by being comfortable around her feels like it’d be a great payoff for that, help Nanoha get over her current anxieties, and also make great use of Nanoha’s general mastery of incidental moments

Yep, that’s the trick. Nanoha settling her thoughts on Fate is contrasted against the steady strokes of her sister’s practice. Her sister’s movements lend momentum to this conversation, while her fundamental presence assures Nanoha that she’s making the right choice

Her comfort with her sister also makes for a natural contrast as we lead into Fate’s meeting with her mother

Oh my god, we jump from that directly to a classic space ship bridge. I love the confidence of this transition, and the gleefully archetypal shots of the ship exterior, metal hallways, and bridge pans. Nanoha has kept its scifi leanings relatively subtle so far, so this acts as a natural payoff for the show’s existing worldbuilding

“The danger of those two people colliding again is extremely high.” Goddamn this is so good. After six straight episodes of a conventional magical girl drama, we learn our heroes have actually been monitored closely by the Space Magic Police the entire time. This one scene recontextualizes all the drama so far as mundane, but mundane from a perspective entirely outside of, larger than, and in an entirely different genre from the story so far. “We’re monitoring this magical girl show closely for any more disturbances.” Amazing

Captain Lindy. Now the time stamps actually make sense, but in a way I never expected – those weren’t intended to arbitrarily increase tension, they were a secret hint that we’re now viewing this narrative from a new perspective in a genre that actually values things like military time stamps

It kinda reminds me of how a good bit of Haruhi Suzumiya’s appeal was the implied larger framing, the interdimensional war being secretly waged over how to handle the existence of a god

So Fate and Nanoha’s clash apparently caused a “dimensional disturbance”

Meanwhile, at the Testarossa family’s evil flying dimensional transport crystal,

And yeah, Fate’s just being straight-up whipped by her mother

I like how in a genre sense, Nanoha’s narrative is essentially constructed around offering sympathy to a character like Sailor Moon’s monsters of the week, who are sent out to thanklessly do battle with the heroes in service to a master that never really cares about them. I’m guessing that concept likely informed how Madoka would ultimately construct itself, too

“You are my daughter. The sole offspring of the Great Mage Gracia Testarossa.” Fate’s mother just sees her daughter as an extension of her own fame

The fact that Nanoha has spent so much time emphasizing what a positive influence her family has had on her life makes this material land with a lot more impact. Nanoha as a show is willing to engage with the full spectrum of how families can influence our lives

Oh my god, the cut to that cake she brought her as a gift. A brutal, unspoken underlining of the distance between Fate’s impression of her mother and her actual nature

“Mother… was thinking of me when she did this.” Yeeep. Gracia couches all her abuse in phrasing like “I’m so unhappy you forced me to do this,” making her daughter believe it’s really her that is the problem

“After all, we’re mother and daughter.” ‘Take strength and pride from your given family if you can, but if not, absolutely feel free to find your own family who actually support and love you’ is a pretty nice theme

“I’m sure that once I return every Jewel Seed, mother will smile again.” This week, Nanoha aims its relentlessly unflinching extended scene cannon at a textbook articulation of gaslighting and physical/emotional abuse. Whew

“You really gave it your all. You’re great.” The cold comfort of Fate being able to treat her own wand like she wishes her mother would treat her. Damn

And then we get essentially the same scene with Nanoha, emphasizing how much the two are ultimately alike. Of course, Fate’s antagonism is now entirely sympathetic, as every moment she hesitates against Nanoha is essentially a rebellion against her mother

Welp, the newest Jewel Seed just embedded itself in a tree. Nanoha really likes its evil trees, huh

“The creature this time is stronger.” Yeah man, Kirby bosses are no joke

Nanoha’s visual priorities are so lopsided. Such generous animation given to any sorts of effects-focused scene, but relatively still character animation at nearly all times

In an impromptu team up, our two heroes laser that evil tree to kindling

This consistent post-battle feud is completely recontextualized by Fate’s story – Nanoha now seems petty to try and fight over these seeds for such vague reasons

They begin another fight, but are stopped by Chrono, an officer of the Time-Space Administration Bureau. I mean, with a name like Chrono, how would he have ever ended up in any other field?

And Done

Hot damn, that episode was fantastic. After last week’s vivid demonstration of how well Nanoha’s signature strengths can be applied to a more subtle emotional narrative, this week basically flipped the table on the show’s overarching plot, recontextualizing our understanding of both Fate specifically and the scale of Nanoha’s worldbuilding more generally. The fact that Nanoha’s actions were being closely monitored didn’t really lessen the tension any, as contrasting that against Fate’s horribly abusive relationship with her mother gave us an immediate emotional investment in Fate’s victory to counterbalance it. And all of this reframing came off as a natural expansion of Nanoha’s scope, building on worldbuilding hints and genre tricks the show’s been integrating all throughout its run. This was a second straight terrific episode of Nanoha, and I’m very excited to see where things go next!

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