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!

Continue reading →

There’s no time to waste, folks – we’re barreling ahead with more Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, as our heroes face off with the Velka knights! Given this season’s previous episode was basically all tied up in exposition or board-setting, I’m hoping for some fierce battles this time, and I’m guessing I’ll get my wish.

Though there’s still plenty of the uniquely paced slice of life material that helped inform the first season’s identity, Nanoha seems to have on the whole oriented itself in a more overtly action-focused direction this season, essentially following through on the genre transformations it underwent throughout that first season. There’s no going back to “Nanoha and her familiar seek magical shards” – that wasn’t ever the natural state of the world, that was just the only context we had for it until Chrono and his associates showed up. The show’s various reveals and structural changes since then have seen it fully embracing a scifi action template, while still holding onto some of the aesthetic touchstones and (most importantly) thematic priorities of a magical girl narrative. This isn’t a story about freedom, war, technology, or any of the other things that tend to define scifi narratives – this is a story about family, and about finding a place where you can grow into your best possible self.

That said, in terms of visual style, the shift from Shinbo to Kusakawa has definitely pushed this show in an action-oriented direction, as well. Kusakawa lacks the unique sensibilities that Shinbo used to give the first season’s mundane conversations some visual allure, but he’s proven to have an excellent grasp of action cinematography, and the sequences of warriors clashing over Nanoha’s city have been some of the franchise’s most dazzling to date. Let’s see what wonders await in A’s fourth episode!

Continue reading →

Alright folks, we’re strapping in for another furious episode of Nanoha! Though to be honest, I can’t imagine this episode being any more furious than the last, which was easily the most action-packed episode this franchise has offered yet. Building upon the first season’s relatively concise vocabulary of magical combat, that episode saw Nanoha taking massive strides towards the diverse, cacophonous action madness of spiritual successors like Symphogear. Nanoha has always come off as a negotiation between magical girl drama and mecha action, but its apparent embrace of “signature weapons” this season has drawn its battles even closer to the giddy appeal of Gundam fights. Though the last fight was more a series of reveals and introductions than tactical exchanges, I’m already excited to see how the show marshals these tactical resources going forward.

And of course, there’s all the themey-wemey stuff. Nanoha’s first season had a few core themes, but the ambiguity of familial bonds was definitely its most central. Through the contrast of Nanoha and Fate, the show demonstrated the diverse influences our families can provide, along with the assurance that ultimately, we have the power to choose who we see as family. The first season had plenty of “can’t we all just get along” argumentation courtesy of Nanoha, but ultimately, its moral perspective wasn’t particularly ambiguous. Fate’s mother was a manipulating abuser, Fate was a victim of circumstance, and those who could be redeemed eventually all shuffled over the side of righteousness.

Here in season two, Nanoha seems to be testing its philosophy with an antagonistic family who are just as loving and supportive as Nanoha’s. Though they’re clearly up to some shady shit, Hayate’s family also support and care for each other, exemplifying what this show has consistently defined as its most central value. “What happens when personal moral conviction and professional obligation collide” is the root of endless dramas, and I’m excited to see Nanoha tackle a direct challenge to its conflation of familial love and moral righteousness. Let’s get right to it!

Continue reading →

We’re deep in it now, folks. With our hero having made her final goodbyes to her family and settled accounts with basically all other lingering threads, it’s time for Nanoha and Fate to square off for what Nanoha herself described as the “first and final time.” Literally the entirety of this narrative has been building to this; while Nanoha has at times focused on more specific family drama, or on elaborating its wild worldbuilding, all of these smaller pieces have always existed in service of Nanoha and Fate’s relationship. The show may have started off with a more traditional magical girl quest, but at this point, even the jewel shards are only important insofar as they lend tangible stakes to Nanoha and Fate’s emotional/thematic battle.

Speaking of, I suppose a brief breakdown of our thematic narrative so far would probably be appropriate. Nanoha is a show about family and human connection above all else; Nanoha’s own family has been illustrated with uncommon specificity, while all of Fate’s problems stem from her inability to escape her mother’s reach. Nanoha the show understands that familial bonds aren’t inherently positive, but they are inherently powerful; for Nanoha, that power manifests as a great sense of self-assurance and concern for the people around her, while for Fate, that power keeps her from seeking to escape a deeply abusive relationship. The power and ambiguity of families is a theme that underlines many of my favorite works, from the restless Monogatari to the poignant Eccentric Family, and Nanoha is doing an excellent job of illustrating that complex and inescapable concept. I’ve seen few shows that handle familial abuse this well, and few shows that illustrate how a stable home can grant you true strength with Nanoha’s subtlety and focus. However this plays out, I’m confident the show will be steering this grand thematic clash to a satisfying end. Let’s get right to the battle of Fate and Nanoha!

Continue reading →

Buckle up folks, it’s time for another episode of Nanoha! The show actually seems to be moving towards its endgame at this point, as Nanoha joins up with the space force and Fate recommits to gathering those dang jewel seeds, each of them all the more strongly resolved to succeed. It frankly feels like we’ve only been with these characters for a very brief time, but Nanoha has never been a show that’s busy with overt narrative happenings – it focuses steadily on a variety of small, incidental moments, and tends to only have one major “plot event” per episode. That’s a perfectly reasonable narrative style, and last episode’s phenomenal conversation between Fate and Arf easily demonstrated its value.

Arf’s efforts to save Fate from her mother’s abuse have turned out to be Nanoha’s most poignant and well-observed material so far, offering a stark and well-written counterpoint to Nanoha’s own happy and mutually trusting family. Meanwhile, Nanoha’s recent engagements with the space force have expanded the show’s dramatic scale, and established a universe so primed for adventure that it seems strange we’re almost at the finale. Obviously shows actually get sequels because they turn out to be successes and the investors decide a second season’s worth the effort, but Nanoha’s world in particular feels like a story that’s practically begging for sequels. But before we can get to any of that, we’ve got Fate and Nanoha’s epic clash to witness. Let’s get right to it!

Continue reading →

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!

Continue reading →

Today we’re jumping back into Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! The show crossed a very important milestone last episode: it was actually, genuinely good. Nanoha’s been a perfectly watchable show from the start, and has been interesting enough in terms of its design and execution to give me plenty to talk about, but its first few episodes were neither so narratively gripping nor so compellingly executed that I’d actively recommend it. Things like its unusually mundane conversations and unique backgrounds were interesting aesthetic tools, but they weren’t being used to truly elevate the overall production.

That all changed last time, fortunately. On the visual side, the show’s background art was stronger than ever, offering a mix of dramatically charged and just-plain-beautiful compositions that made for an inherently compelling viewing experience. And on the narrative side, the show’s idle, incidental conversations contributed directly to the episode’s emotional core, naturally humanizing Nanoha’s relationship with her friends. On top of that, it seems like the show’s overarching paradigm is about to be broken as well, as the destruction of Nanoha and Fate’s staffs promises at least some disruption to the status quo. Boasting a new paint job, a greater mastery of its own strengths, and an urgent cliffhanger hook, Nanoha is looking stronger than ever as we enter its seventh episode. Let’s get right to it!

Continue reading →