Alright folks, let’s dive back into Nanoha A’s! This season has been establishing Hayate and her “family” as clear echoes of Nanoha’s crew all season, and never was that more apparent than last episode, where the show essentially assigned all of the beats normally reserved for the protagonist (opening monologue, closing statement, mid-battle reflections) to Hayate’s party. Though the episode ended on the reveal that all of Hayate’s companions are magical creatures summoned by the Book of Darkness, the rest of the episode was largely dedicated to emphasizing how little that mattered – they are as loving of a family as Nanoha’s, mutually supporting and utterly willing to sacrifice for each other.

That episode also featured a whole bunch of sweet fights, further solidifying Nanoha’s chops as an all-purpose action platform. While the show’s first season had some exciting clashes, cool animation flourishes, and a generally unique aesthetic, its fights were generally just emotional clashes of laser bursts – what sense of weight and consequence that existed was mostly contained in the dramatic casting and leadup to each major blow. With the Velka knights in the mix, Nanoha is now striving for more tactically diverse battles, with their own internal dramatic arcs. The show’s results on that front have been a little mixed – these fights still seem to be driven more by dramatic necessity than tactical back-and-forth, and devices like each team splitting into pairs for battle feel a little hackneyed. But weightiness of the physical exchanges aside, they’re still exciting as heck, and a great visual spectacle in their own right. Whether we’ve got further investigation of Hayate’s perspective or simply a bunch of sweet laser fights ahead of us, I’m ready to get back into it. Let’s see what’s what in the next episode of Nanoha A’s!

Episode 6

Now the “it was just a small wish” cold open is being shared by Shamal and Signum, again emphasizing their earnest belief in their own perspective, and the simple desire for a peaceful life that inspired it. I assume Hayate will be doomed in some way if they don’t fill the book? They’ve very aggressively emphasized that the book’s only purpose is destruction, but there’s gotta be a twist to that, if only because stories generally only aggressively sell you on a concept like this when they’re planning to subvert your expectations

Granted, our knowledge of that general truth means genuinely adhering to “the book’s only purpose is destruction” could be the subversive choice for a genre-savvy audience. Some stories trick us by loudly foreshadowing the thing and then actually doing the thing, but that’s a rare and fourth wall-abusing enough trick that it tends to be reserved for comedy beats

Either way, as I’ve emphasized repeatedly in the past, “surprising the audience” is generally a much less important goal than just telling a cohesive, coherent story. It is very easy to make story beats “surprising,” because contradicting your prior characterization, trajectory, or themes is always an option, but almost never a good one

“The power to break free from the chain known as destiny… if we can claim that power with our own hands… we won’t care if we have to throw everything else away.” Yeah, here we go. “The chain known as destiny” implies Hayate’s current, unhappy fate that they’re attempting to subvert with the Book of Darkness, and “throw everything else away” emphasizes their understanding of the sacrifices that entails

They’re essentially framing Shamal and Signum as Hayate’s moms, which is pretty adorable. The two make a good pair

“When you say they’re false beings that are neither human nor familiar, do you mean they’re like me?” Very natural interjection from Fate. I appreciate how consistently this season has emphasized how Fate’s story from the first season still impacts her ongoing life – she’s still acutely aware of her unstable position in society, and it still directly informs her concerns and opinions. It’s always a little disappointing when a character goes through some personal arc and is then “fixed,” with the scars of their past never coming up again. People don’t work that way – making a personal resolution to change doesn’t mean the past never happened, or doesn’t impact our worldview anymore

Lindy emphatically pushes back against this view, which simultaneously demonstrates both her motherly concern for Fate and her lack of respect for Hayate’s companions

The kids wheel out their rotating evil book model again. They really do like that rotating book

So Hayate’s companions are “internal programs” of the Book of Darkness, who stay with it from owner to owner

“There hasn’t been any record of them showing emotions.” Interesting. So perhaps in contrast to the first season’s portrayal of Precia, and its thematic implication that “some people will never return your love, and you must accept that, move beyond them, and find your own family,” we’re now getting a story about how some people actually can change

Nanoha and Fate rightly point out that Vira and Signum are actually full of emotions. I am perpetually thankful that our leads in this show are actually quite smart and competent, thus saving us from a whole bunch of dramatic irony tedium as the leads attempt to discover what we already know

“I wonder what kind of person the Book of Darkness’ master is?” Nanoha remains Nanoha. Watching her makes me appreciate how the Symphogear crew were basically like “let’s take Nanoha and make her super energetic, but also dumb as a rock.” Bless Hibiki

Nanoha’s walk home takes her down the city streets, lit in the same colors as the major battle sequences. Kinda interesting how this season has shifted Nanoha’s world from a largely suburban setting full of houses and parks to this major city, with its cool blues and far less homey atmosphere

Actually, it’s more Nanoha’s side specifically that has been tethered to this place – this time, it’s Hayate who gets the suburban domestic material, another way of mirroring Nanoha

The episode title is that classic line, “It Was A Small Wish.” Wait, crap, we’re only at the episode title?

Shamal doting over Signum is adorable. She makes the new theme explicit, talking on how much Signum has changed and become more emotional

She says they changed once Hayate became their master

They met six months ago. We get a flashback that reveals that sequence of Hayate at her desk with the book on the shelf was actually their first meeting

Aha, I love this sequence of the Velka Knights all trying to act serious and dignified for their big arrival. This was them before they expressed any emotions? Vita is still extremely Vita

The Velka Knights awkwardly carrying Hayate to the hospital. If you want to humanize someone, making them look ridiculous is a very endearing way to do it

Hayate actually thinks up a cover for them on the spot, having just been introduced to the concept of telepathy. She’s pretty capable!

Hayate’s first thought as to commanding the Velka Knights is “I better make sure I can feed and clothe you.” She’d much rather have a family than a squad of knights

They’re really hammering in the parallels between Hayate and Nanoha. Just as Nanoha spent the first season helping Fate learn to embrace a loving family, so did Hayate do the same for the Velka knights

The Velka familiar eating a fancy dinner out of a dog bowl is very good

This episode is extremely charming. I would watch a fair number of episodes of “magical familiars awkwardly play house with their kindly master”

The second eyecatch is Nanoha dreaming about sweet potatoes while chewing on Yuuno. Look, it’s season two, you gotta take what appearances you can get, ferret

In this week’s Nanoha, the gang goes shopping for cool knight outfits

Yeah, this feels like a very natural counterpoint to the first season. While the first season rightly emphasized that cutting abusive people out of your life is necessary, and the abuse you suffer is not your fault, this season is counterbalancing that with its insistence that given the chance, even people designed for combat like these knights often don’t truly want to fight. They were as reflective of their environment as Fate was, and just as capable of change

Signum at last mentions that the book could heal Hayate’s legs, but Hayate responds with “it wouldn’t be good to burden other people with my own selfishness.” Definitely a master worth fighting for

Hayate’s parents are dead, and her uncle manages her estate

Vita describes Hayate’s cooking as “giga-delicious,” which will never catch on, but I appreciate the effort

“Everyone’s job is to live together while getting along with everyone. That’s all.” Nanoha and Fate were already a powerful pair, but I’m really excited to see Nanoha and Hayate combine their individual towering good-person-ness into a single force

I guess in this way, A’s is also carrying on one of the original season’s traditions – crafting a narrative full of characters you don’t want to say goodbye to, and whose journeys over the course of one season offer a natural payoff for the followup. I’m already eager to see Hayate on the main team

Ah, of course. It’s the Book of Darkness itself that has paralyzed Hayate’s legs, and which continues to eat at her body. So her new family not only has the desire to help her and fill its pages, but even consider themselves responsible for her disability

Vita sobbing as she asks Shamal to heal her hits really hard. This episode built a neat little personal arc for Vita out of asides in other scenes, from her initial standoffishness to her current happy self-expression, and this is a brutal way to cash that in

Viewers can often overestimate how much work it really takes to portray a secondary character arc. You can literally accomplish it in four incidental beats if they’re convincing enough, touching down on points that go something like “initial perspective->disruption of that perspective->acknowledgment of new perspective’s value->action embodying new perspective,” scattered as ten second asides across an episode or even film. Say, like, the comedic sidekick in an action film – “I am a fuddy-duddy sidekick” -> “this guy’s a lunatic!” -> “holy shit, he’s making his lunacy work!” -> “sure, I’ll drive the forklift over the waterfall, you handle the rest”

So they break their promise in order to save Hayate. PROTECT THIS FAMILY

Vita is once again stranded on some foreign world, dragging herself across the dunes, dreaming of home. This is a pretty mean episode

Chrono introduces Amy and Yuuno to “Lieze,” who seem to collectively be a pair of catgirls

They’re Lotte and Aria, sisters and former teachers of Chrono

Kinda funny how each of them has the body language of a very different type of cat

Apparently they’re Admiral Graham’s familiars. The role of familiars is pretty unique in this world – they’re tethered to masters, but are still very much their own beings

Looks like Yuuno’s got his own mission!

And Done

At long last, we received the Hayate backstory episode! I’m happy to finally understand Hayate’s situation, and even more happy to see the answers so naturally facilitate the thematic conflict we’re building. The nature of Hayate’s condition, and the reasons her knights are fighting for her, made for a natural parallel for Nanoha’s story, while also relentlessly selling the substance and charm of their found family. Watching the Velka knights adapt to domestic life banked on some naturally endearing “stranger in a strange land” comedy beats, while building small scenes into a very convincing portrait of a loving family.

It was the episode I’ve been waiting for ever since the beginning, and though its choices weren’t particularly surprising, I frankly wouldn’t want them to be – this story is built on very strong emotional fundamentals and defined by clear thematic contrasts, and having Hayate’s feelings so closely mirror Nanoha’s is the perfect choice for the conflict we’re building. This episode sold Hayate’s family so convincingly that I was actually a little disappointed to jump back to the Nanoha side, but I’m sure we’ll be back in the action soon. Sympathetic and thematically relevant motivations, fully established!

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