Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ll be returning to a franchise that has at last transcended the boundaries of TV anime production, as we continue our post-A’s journey into Nanoha with Nanoha Reflection. As with the two seasons that preceded it, I’m seeing this film for the first time myself, and eager to see how the Nanoha universe expands beyond Hayate’s narrative. Though I’m watching them in reverse order, it’s easy to see how Nanoha’s villain-redeeming structure would go on to set the blueprint for shows like Symphogear; and at this point, the recruitment of Hayate and her Belkan Knights mean this is truly an ensemble narrative, demanding ensemble narrative-scale conflicts.

Reflection isn’t a direct followup to A’s, though, at least in terms of its release schedule. A’s was actually directly followed by Strikers, which jumped the timeline ten years forward, and then ViVid, which takes place four years after that. Those TV productions pushed the Nanoha universe past the point of Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate all working together as young magical girls – but ten years later, Reflection and Detonation would reverse the clock, establishing a “movie timeline” that would allow the franchise to return to that immediate post-A’s dynamic. In an artistic sphere that often seems hamstrung by its reverence for worldbuilding, it’s nice to see a franchise saying Fuck It, we’ll establish a new timeline to justify returning to this franchise’s most promising dramatic template. And if this is just an excuse to see Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate be badasses, that’s fine with me too. Let’s dive into Nanoha Reflection!

And We’re Off!

We begin our story as all great journeys do: in space

“Planet Eltoria”

This new girl feels true to Nanoha’s general aesthetic. The franchise has a specific kind of bulbous hair and large, clearly outlined eyes that make for a cohesive visual experience. It’s a very “of its era” look, reminiscent of other early ’00s visual novel adaptations

Kyrie is the younger sister. Pretty reasonable character animation so far, though nothing out of reach for a TV production

Ten years later, the science lab is a ruin. Fine background design here, though both the visuals and narrative are kinda familiar strokes

I always like this franchise’s subtly illustrated scifi future. Things like this giant tubular space colony are never the dramatic focus, but the design work is still all excellent. I suppose that’s a natural byproduct of this show’s reverence for giant robot convention, and subsequent focus on mechanical design

“In a different dimension, on a different world, there lies the key to our salvation.” Don’t do it Kyrie, this shit never ends well

The two sisters are presenting familiar perspectives for this franchise – Amita is basically voicing Hayate’s perspective, where simply cherishing the time you can spend with your family is the most important thing, whereas Kyrie is echoing the words of either the Belkan Knights or Fate’s mother, who could not accept fate, and worked to subvert it no matter the cost. The franchise has at times skirted around the potential consequences of its philosophies, but learning to find joy even in hard times, to cherish the good things you have, and being strong enough to accept that which you cannot change are all key elements of its worldview

Of course, all of those lessons can’t really do much to help Kyrie’s father in this moment. Her anger at being told all this is reasonable, and the film illustrates it beautifully – excellent cut of her face as her sadness turns to anger

Ooh, lovely illustrations of their childhood fantasies. The color work in this film is excellent so far

Kyrie has some collaborator, Iris

So I suppose their “different dimension” is our dimension. It’s starting to look like this will essentially embrace the same dramatic structure as the first two seasons – a sympathetic enemy working to save their family, and through doing so coming in direct conflict with the space bureau, resulting in a natural clash of ideals

I’d be a little disappointed by the repetition, but it seems like these films were explicitly designed to recreate the appeal of the show’s first two seasons, so it makes a lot of sense to simply write a new riff on the classic concept, and let the novel details of that riff, as well as the expansion of the cast between seasons, add enough unique flavor

I like this shot of her luggage falling open in this massive crater. Nice comic contrast there

They’re seeking the “Eternal Crystal.” Sure, why not

And we finally meet the old team!

All the Knights are now employed by the bureau, which seems like a massive gain for the perpetually understaffed Space Police

It’s nice that Arisa and Suzuka can now participate in this part of Nanoha’s life as well

The character designs for the main characters look a bit different – they look a little younger, and a bit more believable as elementary schoolers

Reinforce has been replaced by Reinforce II, apparently

Time for new transformation sequences! As always, Nanoha’s transformations are less magical than mechanical, with a heavy focus on interlocking armor and the expansion of Raising Heart

Practice sessions between protagonists are an incredibly handy dramatic device in a narrative like this – you get to establish the main characters and their powers fully, in a context that lets them simultaneously demonstrate their action specialties and personal relationships. Additionally, these sequences also provide a natural excuse to slide in a major action sequence within a movie’s first few minutes, without requiring the film to actually start in the middle of the narrative. Action fans are largely here for fight scenes, and maintaining a certain density of fight scenes without sabotaging the actual plot often requires employing tricks like this, where fights can be included without any dramatic consequences

Welp, they blew up the city

Lindy and Arf are preparing breakfast. This family is adorable

Chrono actually looks a good bit older with this design

We actually meet Arisa and Suzuka’s parents, as the group heads to an aquarium

Sequences like this and the city flight seem intended to fulfill a unique purpose: simply enjoying the peaceful dynamic of this group of friends, ten years after the franchise moved on from this particular moment

Oh man, this amusement park is going to be a kickass action venue

It’s been six months since Fate was adopted by Lindy. As in A’s, I appreciate this franchise’s emphasis on the fraught, lasting nature of this adoption process, and how it echoes the franchise’s general thoughtfulness when it comes to families

Kyrie’s been flying around town stealing cars, as you do. They neatly established her matter-transmuting trick while switching her to an earth costume

Arf is in human form, with a leash for the other familiar, who is in dog form. Not sure how I feel about this

Looks like Amita has chased her sister here

Kyrie’s plan for “minimal disruption” in this universe still seems to allow for instigating multi-car highway pileups

“I came to borrow the Book of Darkness.” “Please submit all such requests via our office!” Amazing

They might be able to negotiate this out, but then we wouldn’t have a fight scene. A little added belligerence is often kinda necessary when you’re building conflicts between sympathetic parties

It’s fun seeing Hayate adopt a full caster fighting style when she’s just using the Book of Darkness. Also some solid effects animation for this smoke and explosions

Excellent cut swooping in on Amita as she approaches. This film is merging its digital and traditionally animated assets very well

Dear lord, Amita is the terminator. Didn’t expect her to be such a badass

“We should strive for minimal disruption in this dimension,” cut to Kyrie slamming Arf and Zafira through a collapsing highway overpass

I’m extremely impressed with how well Amita and Hayate’s animation merges with this CG bike they’re riding. Excellent work on both sides there – the CG is convincing and well-used, and the fluidity of the characters, particularly as the angles shift and the camera pans to follow them, is remarkable

Considering this franchise’s focus on mechanical animation, it’s almost a surprise that it took this long for them to introduce a villain whose powers involve manipulating machines. Of course, this film itself reflects the difficulty of that choice, as Amita and Iris’ machines are conveyed entirely through CG

Kyrie’s transformation is even more mechanically oriented than Nanoha’s, unsurprisingly. I like this dramatic song choice, too

Simple but effective trick as Nanoha is attacked by wires, and the shaking camera moves in and out of closeup range. The active camerawork is doing a lot of work in making this film feel propulsive and “cinematic”

Another neat cut, where the camera follows the curve of Fate’s swing

Hayate complaining about traffic violations from the back of a speeding bike is extremely good. It’s nice to see Hayate’s straight-laced personality turned into material for jokes, now that her story isn’t so urgent and tragic

It seems that Amita’s technology can analyze and counteract basically anything the girls try. That’s a neat concept – magical powers being trumped by running into technology from a dimension so advanced that it can basically break that magic down into solvable formula

In addition to scanning their powers, it seems Amita is aware of their personal circumstances, too. Her plea to Fate seems specifically designed to prey on Fate’s lingering feelings of responsibility towards her original mother. Once again, this franchise’s careful study of the lingering effects of toxic relationships and abuse remains one of its strongest narrative features. Fate was not “solved” by the conclusion of the first season, and she still carries strong feelings towards Precia

Holy shit, this sequence of Nanoha catching Amita with her own ropes is so damn good. The blurred CG cityscape allows for some incredibly energetic camerawork, as the characters spin entirely around each other. The pacing of this sequence, and the way the camera movement seems literally carried by Nanoha’s momentum, really conveys the impact of Nanoha’s strike

“Our Fate-chan is a sweet girl. Please don’t tease her.” DAMN, Nanoha

The sisters work out their familial disagreements over a dramatic swordfight. This really does feel like an entire season of Nanoha condensed into a film – we’ve got the urban fantasy battles, the tragic villain driven by their dedication to their family, transformation sequences, Arf is there

“Mom and Dad gave us this power in order to protect people and the planet!” Alright cool, I was kinda wondering why these two girls were so insanely strong

This fight is achieving a neat balance of weight and flourish, which is tricky – it’s hard to convey a sense of impact and consequence when two characters are both floating

Vita arrives! She seems to have traded her croquet mallet for a railgun, which is a damn shame

I also don’t know why they switched Arf to defaulting to a child’s human form. I kinda liked the dynamic of her as Fate’s big sister

Kyrie still looking indignant while frozen in ice is pretty funny

She instigates “Burst Drive,” and gets fast as heck. We’re entering some rapid, almost worrying escalation of powers here

Kyrie apparently feels some resentment towards her seemingly perfect older sister

Ooh, terrific cut for Kyrie’s knockout punch here. I like the shift to sharper, more elongated linework for her powered-up form

It seems like the biggest disadvantage of the film format here is that it doesn’t really give us much time to set up and get invested in Kyrie and Amita, whereas Fate and Hayate’s family were built up slowly over their respective seasons

“I’ll make up for my failure, and take back my treasure.” Hayate has gotten tougher since last season

“Her bone and muscle strength are ten times that of people from Mid.” Yeah, it would be very easy for this franchise to accelerate its power creep to the point where nothing really feels impactful, because we’re no longer watching contrasting powers of roughly understandable strength, but rather watching superbeings who are competing on a scale where our ability to follow the active action is lost. It’s the Dragon Ball dilemma, and though some people seem to enjoy watching characters explain how unimaginably powerful they are to each other, it certainly doesn’t make for conventionally effective action

It doesn’t seem like we’re in danger of that here, though. The choreography of that last battle was quite good, and created a strong sense of physical consequence and forward momentum

Fate unsurprisingly sees herself in Kyrie

Amita catches Fate and the rest of the team up to date on Kyrie’s plans. Apparently Iris is actually an AI program

“To Kyrie, it’s been like her friend ever since she was a child.” The roles of familiars and magical artifacts in this show is interesting. Many of its most earnest, fulfilling relationships are between mages and their “tools”

And indeed, this followup scene between Kyrie and Iris closely echoes the warm conversations between Fate and Arf from the first season. I suppose this choice is another expression of Nanoha’s belief that family are the people you choose to hold close to you, whatever form they take

These two are really fucking up Hayate’s book

Aw jeez, they’re summoning some dark god or something

“Data load…” As always, this show embraces a unique fusion of magical girl fantasy and scifi technology. Having pages of an ancient tome getting burned and transformed into electronic data is a very Nanoha trick

Welp, they summoned a dark god and his two minions. Terrific work, Kyrie and Iris

Ahaha, here come the Space Bureau shock troops. I feel bad for these guys, who basically just exist to get immediately demolished, thus demonstrating just how powerful the bad guys are

Signum and Fate face off against Levi, the lightning minion. This film’s plot is pretty darn close to the second season’s, which isn’t helped by the fact that it has to speed through the character-building material that actually made the second season land with emotional impact. It’s basically a fast-forwarded version of that season that’s mostly focused on the fight scenes – I wonder if the two recap films that preceded this one were the same way

This is also close to the format that later Symphogear seasons tend to embrace, though that drama is often supplemented by more overtly romantic material

And now these new enemies are just straight-up summoning giant robots. I guess this is kinda where this franchise was always going – magical girls beating the shit out of actual robots

Since Raising Heart is off on some secret mission, Nanoha is just using an actual rail gun now

Gorgeous sequence of this fire attack being blocked by Nanoha’s shield. I really like the trick where an attack opens with a tight beam before expanding into a larger force – somehow it really conveys the sense of extreme intensity, likely because it builds a sense of expectation and “arc” right into the shot itself. And then the color work of these messy tendrils of fire contrasted against a purple-black sky is wonderful. This film’s effects animation is one of its strongest features

Dearche is the new dark lord, Stern is his fire servant

Dearche summons his own giant robot. In addition to furthering Nanoha’s general fusion of fantasy and scifi, these robots also lean into this film’s embracing of CG. Traditional organic creatures tend to look awful in CG, but mechanical objects with clean lines are much easier to pull off

Aw, Signum and Shamal get a nice combo attack. Good battle moms

I like how this film often maintains a cut while a character flies a great distance away from the frame, as opposed to cutting between closeups of the beginning and end of their journey. It really helps emphasize the grand scale of these battles, and how they’re coming up with strategies on the fly, rather than “taking turns,” as it can often feel in shonen battles

Nanoha’s clash with Stern is beautiful. The open sky facilitates the same kind of swooping camerawork as the cityscape earlier

They both start charging up their mega lasers. It is eternally funny to me that Nanoha is a magical girl whose signature move is “I fire a giant fucking railgun” – but the franchise has certainly earned that. The very first major demonstration of her power was her firing that railgun into a huge magical tree

This film is pretty bare bones as a narrative or emotional experience, but it seems to be fulfilling its true purpose quite well: offering plenty of sweet fight scenes that celebrate Nanoha and her friends’ powers and friendships at precisely this moment in the franchise, the classic template, before future seasons went off into later eras

Nanoha out-beams Stern, and the team secures their first culprit

Meanwhile, Fate and Levi are fighting in the aquarium

Stern and Levi fit into pretty classic warrior patterns – Stern is the noble knight, Levi is the giddy barbarian. The name “Stern” is pretty on the nose

Lightning suits Levi well – a wild power that just flies off in all directions, heedless of its destination

Fate is attempting a negotiation tactic I’ve seen fail far too many times online: trying to shame someone for the hurt they’re inflicting on people they just plain don’t care about

Fate almost gets through to this very stupid enemy, but unfortunately stumbles near the finish line

Levi attacks Fate with a familiar rage: the anger of someone being asked to expand their worldview against their wishes

Some gorgeous cuts for their exchanges here, and the scale of Levi’s final attack is enormous

Of course, Lindy arrives just before Levi can strike the final blow. DON’T FUCK WITH MY DAUGHTER

Oh shit, Lindy actually took that blow for Fate

The character acting is so tender in this sequence. These slight, cutting shifts in expression as Fate realizes Lindy is injured, and then feels joy at being loved so completely

“I was never alone, not even once.” And we even get her finally calling Lindy her mother. SUCH A GOOD MOMENT

Fate really is this franchise’s best character. Nanoha is an unending font of charity and goodness – she’s basically righteousness itself. In contrast, Fate is far more fragile, and has had to fight for her current confidence and loving family every step of the way. Nanoha is the right character for her role in the story, but it’s Fate’s stuff that makes me cry

Fate’s purple and yellow energy attacks look more beautiful than ever. She has an excellent aesthetic

This “king of infinite worlds” sure is having a lot of trouble beating three elementary schoolers

“The king seems rather tired as well.” Love this snark from Hayate. She’s getting to express more of her full personality at this point

Dear lord. Iris just yanks flesh from all the Space Bureau soldiers to construct her own body

As Iris commits her grand betrayal, she reveals that she was actually a human once, and that the Eternity Crystal contains a demon that stole everything from her

“If your heart truly desires something, troubling others doesn’t matter.” This film has returned to versions of this refrain a few times now, from Kyrie’s actions to Levi’s philosophy to Iris here. It’s a philosophy (particularly a narrative one) so common that it wouldn’t normally warrant comment, but it seems like they might actually be building towards a specific theme here about what we owe to people as a whole

“The suffering of strangers is insignificant compared to our own objectives,” Iris states, as Kyrie contemplates “but I didn’t want leopards to eat MY face”

“Bye bye, insignificant stranger.” DAMN, Iris. Kyrie definitely earned that, though

It seems like Amita has given Raising Heart a new tech powerup

The “demon” is a girl named Yuri

Iris’s psychological attack works on Kyrie, who’s emotionally dependent on her. But the stronger Amita can only say “I feel extremely sorry for you”

“Even if sad stories will remain sad, there really is a magician who will save crying girls.” A line that feels very reminiscent of Madoka

So that might be the contrast – Iris representing a kind of jaded, fatalistic self-interest, against Nanoha representing hope and a communal idealism

And Done

Well shit, we’re ending right there? What, is the second movie going to be a two hour fight scene? After this, that frankly wouldn’t surprise me – Reflection was as action-packed as it could possibly be, using the familiar season two narrative template to rapidly leap into a series of action-packed ensemble fight scenes. And what fight scenes they were! With the improved resources of a premiere anime film, Nanoha is able to realize the greatest possible version of its combat style, full of swooping flying movements, dramatic energy blasts, crunchy mechanical animation, and plentiful close-combat choreography. Fusing smartly used CG elements with its traditional focus on mid-air movement and effects animation, Nanoha is truly battling at full power, and fully realizing the ensemble battles its early seasons could only occasionally articulate.

The series has certainly lost something in the exchange – in fact, it was the quiet, extended character moments of the first two seasons that most appealed to me within this franchise, and those moments have been largely lost in the transition to a feature film. But as far as a magical-slash-mechanical girl fighting expose, it doesn’t get much more impressive than this!

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