As we return for another episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, I’m overjoyed to have a serious announcement: the show is actually great now. I was frankly getting somewhat worried through the first few episodes, as the show’s initial aesthetic uniqueness faded into a pretty ho-hum monster of the week formula, but both episode six and episode seven impressed me in clear and very different ways, and I’m now very happy to be genuinely excited about what happens next. It always makes me feel a little guilty when I have negative or deeply mixed feelings on something someone cared enough about to actually support me writing about, and as I’ve said many times, I vastly prefer watching stuff I find genuinely compelling to sending up stuff I find pretty bad, so I’m more than happy to finally be able to bring my full, genuine enthusiasm to this project.

But enough about me and my various complexes – let’s briefly recap what those two episodes did right. In episode six, Nanoha matched the strongest set of layouts it’s yet offered to personal drama which made terrific use of the show’s signature quality, its tendency to let mundane or incidental scenes play out for far longer than similar shows. Episode six was a triumph of form, demonstrating not only that Nanoha absolutely possesses an inspired sense of visual composition, but also that it was able to use its narrative strangeness in genuinely effective ways.

In episode seven, the show demonstrated that its consistent episodic buildup had actually been something of a long con, establishing an expectation of dramatic scale that was swiftly overturned by the formal introduction of the show’s space force. Leaping gracefully between theoretically disparate but ultimately compatible genres, while also fully establishing Fate as a compelling heroine in her own right, Nanoha’s seventh episode went a long way towards investing me in Nanoha’s actual plot, just as six restored my faith in its aesthetic vision. With Fate having returned from her “home” and a new Jewel Seed hanging in the balance, I’m excited to see how Nanoha’s newfound solidity informs this return to Nanoha and Fate’s clashes. Let’s get right to it!

Episode 8

“What I received was a courageous heart.” This line is part of Nanoha’s consistent opening monologue, but I still can’t really make head or tail of it. How is a courageous heart something you receive? It’s either fluff or an awkwardly literal translation

Back to the magical space police!

“The core of the Lost Logia is rated A+.” A cute line that undercuts the evenly episodic nature of these magical girl adventures – they’re searching for fuel, and some of this fuel is much stronger than the rest of it

“I order you, Chrono, to cease their hostilities and regain the Lost Logia.” Interesting. Presumably Nanoha is largely on the same side as this organization, but I don’t know how truthful our ferret friend has been. And of course, Fate will fight to the death for that Lost Logia, so Nanoha might have to make a hard choice

These images of Nanoha and Fate overlayed with Eva-style analysis gobbledygook is basically Lyrical Nanoha’s biggest trick in miniature

Nice shot presenting the shore and floating characters in profile, letting the ocean dominate the shot. This scene is stiff animation-wise, but striking layouts help

Fate seems willing to negotiate, but Arf forces her hand. Time for some laser duels

And as I figured, when Chrono moves to subdue or arrest Fate, it’s Nanoha who blocks his shot

Yuuno attempts to provide an explanation for all this to Nanoha, but talking about multiple dimensions and whatnot obviously just confuses her more. I like how the shot used for Yuuno’s explanation is this off-putting fisheye angle that makes him seem more alien, echoing how his words are illustrating how far his life experience actually is from Nanoha’s

Aha, this Nanoha face for Yuuno’s transformation is great. This show could really stand to go off-model more often; expressive single faces are a great way to overcome generally limited animation

This scene is still welcome in that it lets Nanoha express herself outside of the context of a strict narrative. Letting this ride is a smart choice – we don’t often get to see totally flustered and kinda immature Nanoha, and that’s important context for appreciating the other sides of her personality

The captain’s personal quarters are set up to look like a tiny tea house. That seems a little odd, given these folks are theoretically responsible for policing every dimension, and probably aren’t from our Japan

The Lost Logia are “relics of a lost world”

They represent a fantasy staple – they are artifacts of a world that was so advanced it led to its own ruin, leaving only these highly dangerous remnants behind. So we’ve got fantastical post-apocalypse, science fiction adventure, and magical girl drama, each informing the others in a pretty graceful way

Beyond the strength of the narrative itself, I can see how the allure of this set of worldbuilding variables would have inspired spinoffs and sequels

And the “Jewel Seeds” are actually just a specific kind of Lost Logia, “crystallized forms of energy for dimensional interference.”

Discussing prior disasters offers a natural opportunity for some epic shots of world-ending destruction. The scale of our story has leapt up pretty significantly!

The space bureau very reasonably tells our heroes to let them handle this from here out, given it’s a potential interdimensional catastrophe in the making

Another of Nanoha’s signature held scenes, this time for Yuuno apologizing about not revealing his human form earlier. I appreciate that there isn’t a single speck of romantic tension added because of this reveal – instead, this scene basically echoes Nanoha’s earlier scenes with her friends, where the focus is on maintaining clear communication and being honest with and respectful of your friends. Yuuno has ended up being a much better character than you usually see in magical girl mascots, and a lot of that comes down to how many scenes of simply talking through their feelings he and Nanoha have been afforded

“Looking at the average of this girl’s magical power… it’s 1.27 million!” That’s a lot! A risk you always run when crossing fantasy with scifi – Dragonball Z-style silliness, where abilities that were clearly designed in terms of dramatic effect are now being analyzed in terms of scientific power. The result always tends to sound like “they have the power of fifty million flapperdoodles!”, since numbers alone have no way of conveying meaningful scale. Much better to gauge power in terms of its immediate impact, which is a lesson that even Dragonball learned eventually

This bridge crew stuff isn’t terribly interesting, and doesn’t really feel necessary, either. The interdimensional crew are basically just narrating things we already knew

Arf’s the voice of reason, unsurprisingly. They can’t keep hunting the Lost Logia without being discovered, and they can’t go back to mom, so it’s time to run

“Don’t speak badly of mother.” “I will speak badly of her! Because I care about you!” Love this dialogue. I’m being painfully reminded of equally ineffective conversations I’ve had with friends – you can describe the abuse they’re suffering, and they can even acknowledge it, but they’re comparing that abuse against all the love they once felt and still feel for their family, something they’re sure they can recover if they only do something right

And Fate gives her the worst answer, one I’ve also often heard – “I’m sorry if I’m making you feel bad. I’ll try to hide my pain better.” But of course, that’s not what Arf wants at all. Through attempting to reach out to the abused party, you end up feeling guilty about helping at all, because it clearly makes them deeply uncomfortable to be forced to reckon with and rationalize their own suffering

“I’ll only help if you promise you’re doing it for yourself.” Arf is so good! Man, this scene is terrific. The material between these two might be the best of the show overall – I feel like at least someone on this show’s writing staff has to have dealt with familial abuse intimately, because damn, that scene was real

Nanoha and Yuuno volunteer to aid the space force

Apparently Chrono is the captain’s son. They seem to be trying to build him up as a main character in his own right, but it’s not really taking yet

Nanoha explains the situation to her mother… but leaves out all the parts about magic? What part isn’t about magic?

“Have a good trip.” This is certainly a kind of payoff for Nanoha’s loving relationship with her family, though the dialogue is a little too vague to lend it all that much impact. It’s clear that Madoka’s relationship with her mother was inspired by this dynamic, but the Madoka material is frankly much better-written – it strikes a very specific and difficult balance of specificity and generality that lets it get away with not mentioning anything supernatural, whereas the mechanics of this particular conflict and conversation feel a little less realistic

And Done

Welp, I guess we’re heading towards endgame! That episode couldn’t quite equal the diverse strengths of the prior two, but it was naturally bound by the necessity of actually explaining all of the dimensional space force stuff, and so didn’t really have the same opportunities to distinguish itself. As far as that exposition goes, this episode’s worldbuilding went a long way towards explaining why Nanoha is such an enduring property – its world offers a naturally intriguing platform for pan-dimensional drama, combining scif, apocalyptic drama, and a magical girl template to arrive at something that feels surprisingly natural. And outside of that exposition, I really loved this episode’s poignant conversation between Fate and Arf, who is turning out to be this show’s secret weapon. I’m glad at least one character is truly on Fate’s side!

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