MAKE WAY CLEAR A SEAT IT’S TIME FOR NANOHA WE’RE STARTING THE SHOW. After our last episode so rudely dangled a potential full-scale battle before our faces, only to spend its full running time detailing the leadup to that battle, I feel I am basically owed an awesome fight sequence this time. Yes, Nanoha has always done that weird thing where its cold opens act as spoiler-heavy previews for the episode to come, but you can’t end a cold open on a fight pose, name your episode something like “New Powers Activate!”, and then regale us with… a perfectly reasonable but decidely non-action packed episode of character setup and exposition.

Grievances about that bait and switch aside, Nanoha A’s has by now established a sturdy platform for faceoffs between our young heroes and these Velka knights, while maintaining a great degree of mystery regarding these knights’ motivation, as well as their relationship with Hayate. My assumption all along has been that unlike Precia, these knights will end up having a pretty reasonable motivation, to go along with their clearly loving counterpoint to Nanoha’s found family. Nanoha’s first season illustrated the diverse potential influences of families in pretty stark terms, so I’m interested in seeing if the show is attempting to illustrate a more subtle distinction this time, or use its general family theme to tackle some other subtopic entirely. With so many characters in the cast at this point, it’s taken a little longer to get through initial setup, but I think A’s is ready to spread its wings. Let’s see some sparks fly!

Episode 5

We open with yet more fond domestic scenes over at the Hayate household. Hayate and Vita basically act like sisters, and even share a bed

“It was only a small wish… to have quiet, uneventful days… to have every day come one after the other in peace….” Hayate’s monologue acts as a clear mirror of Nanoha’s early monologues from the first season, further establishing her personality while through its structure emphasizing her role as a foil for our heroine

“I don’t have power or anything. It’s just that, I wish you’d all stay by my side. That way, I’d protect you. There are times when our feelings might have missed each other, but even so…” Another slight edit of a familiar Nanoha refrain, as her reaching out to Fate was often framed in terms of “our feelings reaching each other”

We pan in on the city at night, unaware of the battle to come. The deep sea blue-green of the city structures is as vivid as ever

Another emphatically domestic sequence with our villains, as Hayate and Shamal go grocery shopping. It seems that Hayate doesn’t actually know what her friends are up to when they’re away from home – this might be one of those classic “we’re working to save her secretly, because she’d never accept what we’re doing otherwise” scenarios

Hayate says she “was alone to begin with,” which makes me wonder if she herself is a living magical artifact, or directly connected with the book in some way

“It Was A Small Wish.” Looks like we may well get Hayate’s origin this time

Fate says they’re only here to learn what the Velka are doing, and Vita responds with the theoretically reasonable “don’t come loaded with weapons if you say you want to talk”

Vita is a very convenient character to place on the enemy team – not only is she hot-headed and very likely to violently escalate situations, thus helping keep these two groups at odds, but she manages that while also remaining utterly transparent and kinda charming in an emotional sense. A charmingly belligerent enemy is a very good way to maintain conflict while also keeping the villains sympathetic

Aw, they’re pairing off all the fighters. I was kinda hoping for a wild, chaotic melee, not three simultaneous duels

A’s indulges in a quasi-Obari pose for Nanoha first loading her wand-gun. Though I suppose it’s not a true Obari pose unless your stick is raised towards the top left corner

Her weapon doesn’t look half as cool as Fate’s wicked revolver-staff though

Signum adopts a classic knight’s stance, shoulder forward and sword held straight up. I really appreciate the flush of new fighting styles offered this season

And then we get a striking shot of all of them taking flight, where just the colors of their energy trails rise like fireworks. Nanoha is very good at conveying a sense of imposing scale – these powers feel genuinely intimidating

Oh right, I forgot Vita’s weapon was actually a croquet mallet. Brilliant

Vita’s croquet mallet grew an engine, and then started spinning her in circles while she angrily shouted “EHHHHHHHHH.” I’m sure this is supposed to be intimidating, but it’s extremely adorable. She’s like an extremely grumpy terrier

Nanoha’s “Axel Shooter” fires out around a dozen separate energy balls. I guess we’re paying off the training this season seeded right at the beginning, using a known power (“Nanoha can control one energy ball”) to convey the scale of her weapon upgrade (“now she can control a DOZEN”). “I powered up” doesn’t really mean anything in the abstract, and “my lasers are stronger now” isn’t really a tangible change, but this shift in one of her base attacks makes the upgrade clear

Nanoha has gotten pretty fuckin’ scary, huh?

Yeah, it feels like we’re almost more in Vita’s perspective, as she realizes she might be terribly outgunned

And a lovely transition to Fate and Signum’s fight, as their lights dance and clash between the buildings. Though A’s lacks a fair share of the first season’s visual identity, I continue to be impressed by how well it uses this city backdrop to create evocative compositions. Here, their movements come across like colored lightning splashing over the dark blue backdrop, like a moving abstract painting

The sharp-angled character designs also work well here. The characters’ eyes and swords are constructed of similar angles, resulting in angular, jagged closeups full of angry visual tension

Fate also has some sweet new tricks. Her lightning lances now collectively track her opponent

Signum’s weapon isn’t JUST a gunsword, it’s a segmented whip gunsword. Why not

Bardiche thanking Signum for calling him strong is weirdly adorable

While Nanoha never really naturally wants to fight, Signum and Fate both enjoy a good battle

HELL YEAH, ARF KICKING ASS

The characters’ movements feel far more weighted in battle this season. Last season mostly just made distinctions between various beam attacks, but we’ve got lots of neat physical choreography this time

Chrono attempts to arrest Shamal, but is kicked in the back by a new arrival

This new arrival is masked, and unknown to either party. He first helps and advises Shamal to use the Book of Darkness, and then swiftly moves to pushing Chrono out of the way, and telling him he’ll know the right moment to strike. Who is this mysterious stranger?

Seriously, who is he. Are we introducing a new party entirely, or is this, uh… that old fleet admiral in disguise? I’m pretty sure that’s the only character who isn’t already fighting right now

They’ve got a nice thing going where Signum and Fate make for good rivals because they’re both such knightly figures, whereas Nanoha and Vita make good rivals because they couldn’t be more different

“Go protect your allies. A direct hit would be fatal.” Gosh, how can we keep fighting these guys when they’re all so pleasant and supportive

Meanwhile, Suzuka and Hayate have been having a kitten party. We’ve been watching the wrong show

Right, they all missed that stew dinner that Hayate was picking out with Shamal. Hayate’s friends are experiencing a conflict you more commonly see assigned to superheroes – “in order to properly protect you, I must often abuse your trust by disappearing and keeping secrets”

“We have to hurry and make our master Hayate into the true owner of the Book.” This much I’d basically gathered, though I’m not sure what that itself will accomplish

I’m kinda charmed by the disconnect between how much this show’s other characters humanize the wands, versus how the wands themselves always respond in their formal YES, SIR commands and whatnot

“Isn’t this Book of Darkness just like the Jewel Seeds, where someone gathers them if they want a bunch of power?” ARF, SHHH. YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT OUT LOUD

Ah, it turns out all of Hayate’s friends were magical creatures spawned by the Book of Darkness. That explains why Hayate is the master of all of them, at least

And Done

Welp, we’re certainly in the thick of it now. Though this episode’s big battle wasn’t the equal of the second episode’s ridiculous spectacle, it was still a visually engaging and generally entertaining sequence in its own right, and did a fine job of further humanizing Nanoha’s antagonists. That was basically this episode’s role in a nutshell – from its Small Wish title on down, most of this episode took place from either Hayate or Shamal’s perspective, illustrating their clear mutual love and leading into the reveal that Hayate is basically the “parent” of this whole family. This season has proceeded with tremendous confidence so far, and at this point, I’m very eager to know what exactly is Hayate’s whole deal. Keep the hits coming, Nanoha!

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