Hell yeah folks, it’s time for more Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! The show’s second season is moving towards its third act at this point, with recent episodes having clarified the stakes of our drama in ever more pressing terms. As last episode’s Hayate-side drama revealed, Hayate’s body is being continuously stressed by the Book of Darkness, and she’s at this point got perhaps a month to live. And as its Nanoha-side drama revealed, completing the book won’t actually save her – the book has been programmed to devour its master until they’re nothing, either through consuming them in lieu of receiving new pages, or turning them into some kind of magical bomb if its pages are filled.

That second reveal will likely come as a great surprise to Hayate’s family, who’re clearly operating under the presumption that finishing the book will save their master. Vita at least seems on the verge of remembering their book’s true nature, but it seems clear that they’ve been programmed to consistently forget its current state, leading to a life defined by cyclical tragedy. Seeing Hayate and her family care for each other has been one of the greatest strengths of A’s, making the knowledge that they’re actually killing her feel like a loaded gun waiting to go off. Whether we’re about to witness that bomb drop, learn more about the masked man, or simply share time with Fate and Hayate as they recuperate, I’m ready for whatever awaits us in A’s ninth episode!

Episode 9

The cold open by Hayate this time! “Because I was always alone, I didn’t really think dying from an illness was scary.” Jesus christ Hayate

“But now it’s different. There are days I want to protect, and precious people I want to make happy.” What phenomenal work this season has done in building up Hayate and her family. The fact that Nanoha is always willing to spend some time to slowly articulate the lived experience of their mutual love is making even this cold open feel totally heartbreaking. This is the direct benefit of abandoning beat-beat-beat plotting and embracing sequences which exist purely to convey a specific tone, emotion, or lived experience – everything your characters do from then on is infused with the weight of those moments

And of course, this is still only one way to tell a story. Symphogear harshly condenses moments like that into quicker gags, because it’s all about beat-beat-beat escalating tension

Hayate expresses personal strength by hiding her pain and smiling, trying to stay strong for her family. Her role was taken by “Mom” in Symphogear’s second season, so I hope Hayate also doesn’t end up getting fired into the moon

We’ve arrived at December 22nd, just a few days before both Hayate’s intended Christmas party and the end of her expected survival time. Endgame approaches!

“Hayate’s friends have been visiting her a lot.” An offhand line that bakes “Hayate and our original leads are now solid, familiar friends” into this timeskip

Fate spends the next night having dinner at Nanoha’s house, which I now realize we’ve barely visited at all this season. A necessary consequence of Fate and Hayate’s stories actually demanding all the domestic scenes

“Will you be spending Christmas Eve with your family?” Fate’s response shows her still testing out the idea of “my family”

There’s apparently a rush for Christmas cakes at Midoriya, the family shop. This family is so adorable

Suzuka’s wealth apparently blesses her with an endless supply of fresh kittens. Living the life

The Asura now hangs in earth orbit

Awwww shit, the admiral guy showed up on the screen while Chrono grimly investigates things. Time for the unforeseeable, inevitable reveal of his betrayal?

Creating a coherent narrative often necessitates this sort of thing being predictable, but I’m still always amused when a show introduces a Mysterious Masked Character and also Exactly One Person We Can’t Trust

And now it’s Christmas Eve, and everyone shows up at Hayate’s room at the same time. Here we go!

I like the tinkling chimes complimenting this moment. A delicate sound for a delicate situation

Vita being the fiercely protective little sister works well. They chose a good balance of character dynamics for Hayate’s familiars

Nanoha tries to explain the situation, but Vita predictably charges in and mucks everything up

Excellent cinematography for this rooftop confrontation. Lots of close, uniquely angled shots to convey the threat of Vita as she approaches Nanoha

“It’s okay if I’m a devil.” Nanoha solemnly walking out of the flames of Vita’s attack is one hell of an image. There’s been less focus on her this season, but she’s still a terrific heroine

Also good sound design. The music fades entirely, letting Nanoha’s battle prep compliment the crackling of the fire

“I’ll just use my hellish tools to get you to listen!” Nanoha at her most shonen protagonist, declaring “I’ll share my feelings with my fists!”

Fate debuts a new armor set, which is even lighter than her old set. I like this – she’s actively choosing to trade off defense for speed, not just “leveling up” in a general sense. There might not be actual consequences for this, but the threat of consequence is there

“Had we not met like this… we might have been really good friends.” Hah, Signum. This is the most shonen of episodes

“There’s still time for that!” Fate’s response is so perfect for her. Of course, having suffered through the events of the first season, Fate would be certain you can still find friendship after conflict

One more interesting shift from the first season – while Fate’s mother was actually gaslighting her, Fate and Nanoha here are genuinely, truthfully trying to inform their foes of the nature of the book, but aren’t being believed. Another way to complicate the thematic finishing lines of season one, demonstrating how even earnest love can blind you to undesirable truths

Just as Nanoha is getting through to Vita, masked man shows up with a doppelganger and binds literally everyone

“It should’ve been like this the first time.” Our second hint this episode directly connecting the masked man to the admiral, as nearly every appearance of the admiral has contained at least some mention of the tragedy he participated in when they last attempted to seal the book of darkness. He may be the only choice, but that’s only a useful clue in a meta sense – you still have to seed his antagonism within the story itself

Oh wow, he’s actually dissolving the knights altogether

“Who are you?” “There’s no reason a mere program should know.” Another direct echo of the first season, with this antagonist demeaning the Velka knights in just the same way Precia demeaned Fate

Aw, dangit, now the bad dudes transform into copies of Fate and Nanoha as they summon Hayate. Why do bad dudes always gotta be like this

“Broken programs are useless.” This is an incredibly cruel scene. It’s genuinely hard to watch Hayate being attacked at her point of greatest vulnerability – her love for her family

Hayate’s voice cracking as she scrambles towards Vita. Goddamn, Nanoha

This sequence is as emotionally painful as anything starring Fate and Precia from the first season. This show really knows how to make you care before it makes you cry – I doubt any of these characters are actually going to be injured or killed, but the threat of hurting Hayate’s family in front of her still carries incredible dramatic weight. Many storytellers seem to assume the dramatic impact of a horrifying event is a byproduct of the overt brutality of that event, but strangers being butchered is far less impactful than one character you’ve come to love being deeply hurt

And so Hayate loses it, and transforms into a living embodiment of the Book of Darkness

And Done

Well shit! I said we were approaching the third act, and I wasn’t wrong – with the destruction of the guardian knights and Hayate’s transformation, we have officially arrived at the A’s endgame. This episode was a diverse mixture of long-awaited payoffs and agonizing missed chances, as beats we’ve been waiting for like “the groups bump into each other at Hayate’s bedside” led into the frustrating failure to communicate in the final battle. And that battle saw basically all of our heroes on both sides pushed to limits, as Signum and Vita fought with tears in their eyes while Nanoha at last embraced “fuck it, I’ll beat the truth into you.” I’m not thrilled to see a reprise of that hoary old “the enemy disguises itself as an ally to sew discord” trick, but Hayate’s such a reasonable, sensitive person that I doubt she’ll be fooled for long. All in all, the pieces are finally starting to align for a grand, climactic finale!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.