Saturday, October 1, 2005
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's 1
Opening: 「ETERNAL BLAZE」 by Nana Mizuki （水樹奈々） - Given how good "innocent starter" (OP for the first season of Nanoha) was I was expecting something great and we got it. The song definitely fits Nanoha very well, being more kakkoii than kawaii. And the animation to go along with it is excellent as well, with plenty of action (seems to be an increased emphasis on fighting this time around). I believe I'll be getting the single when it's released :)
Ending: 「Spiritual Garden」 by Yukari Tamura （田村ゆかり） - A lighter feeling for the ending with some animation of a garden (of course), along with some kawaii Nanoha.
ついにｷﾀ━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━ ！！！
Tsui ni kita---!!
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's, a show I've been anticipating quite a bit since it was announced is finally here! First of all, this is a sequel (a direct continuation, really) to Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (my blog entries on the show), so if you haven't watched the first season I'd recommend you do so, otherwise you will not understand what's going on. Also, though mahou shoujo is in the title this is not quite your usual mahou shoujo fare -- it's "mahou shoujo for guys" (a spinoff series from the PC game series Triangle Hearts to be exact), I guess you could say ;) Also, I'll write names of characters that weren't previously introduced in straight romaji for now (I believe some are German, so I don't know exactly how to translate them)
June 3rd, 9:05PM: A girl in a wheelchair checks the answering machine and has a message from her doctor. Seems her birthday is tomorrow so the doctor will take the girl, Hayate@Kana Ueda, off somewhere to eat to celebrate. As Hayate reads in her bed a book on the shelf suddenly emits a dark light and the chains holding it closed break. It then speaks... in German (thankfully there are subtitles), saying it's activating...
December 1st, 6:35AM: Nanoha Takamachi@Yukari Tamura is up early for some shooting practice with Raging Heart. She shoots a can up into the air then shoots it with her magical powers more than 100 times in the air, though she misses the wastebasket by just a bit. Still rather impressive, though. At home Nanoha gets ready for school and we see a picture she has of Fate, along with a DVD with a video message from Fate. Her family's doing fine as usual, though a bit sad since Yuno's not around. Nanoha receives yet another video message from Fate in the mail...
Meanwhile, aboard the Time-Space Administration ship Asura, Captain Lindy@Aya Hisakawa and Aimee@Yuki Matsuoka seem to be doing well as usual, getting ready to dock at headquarters. Chrono, along with Yuno@Kaori Mizuhashi, Fate@Nana Mizuki, and Arf@Natsuko Kuwatani prepare for the trial concerning the incidents of last season.. Chrono calls Yuno a ferret, rather pissing him off. Fate and Arf try to calm him down a bit... Seems not all is well at headquarters. The Lost Logia are apparently showing up in various worlds again, and the most sought after of them has surfaced, so the Asura will have to be ready to go once again. Fate takes a look at the photo of Nanoha she has -- Nanoha's been sending her video letters as well... Back in Nanoha's city, an unknown mahou shoujo has easily beaten two others. She's got the book Hayate had in her room earlier, and collects something from the two fallen magic soldiers, food for the Book of Darkness.
Suzuka@Ai Shimizu is browsing at the library when she sees Hayate trying to reach a book and goes over to help. They introduce themselves and find out they're the same age and all. Hayate leaves with two other women who take care of her, Signum@Kaori Shimizu and Shamal@Ryouka Yuzuki. Hayate asks where Vita@Asami Sanada is.. She's out playing around according to Signum, but Zafira@Kazuya Ichijou is with her so she'll be okay. But even though they might be apart at times they're always by Hayate.
That night, Vita (that girl from earlier) and Zafiru are out above the town searching for something. Vita's been sensing magical power from somewhere off and on... if she can get whoever it is she'd be able to add 20 pages in one shot to the Book of Darkness. She casts a barrier around the town and pinpoints the location of the magical power.. it's Nanoha, and Vita speeds towards her. Nanoha's able to stop one of Vita's attacks but Vita comes from behind and knocks her off the building she's on. Time to transform!... But it's the same as the previous season so no need to go over it again. Nanoha and Vita go at it, attacking each other as the fly around, with Nanoha putting Raging Heart into Shooting Mode and letting go a Divine Buster that nearly gets Vita. It did mess up her hat so she's really pissed off.. she comes at Nanoha full bore with her hammer, now powered up, and eventually breaks through Nanoha's shield and cracks Raging Heart, sending Nanoha flying through a window. Vita attacks again and knocks Nanoha backwards again.. looks like it's over for Nanoha. But someone shows up to protect Nanoha from Vita's next attack. It's Fate (and Yuno, too)! Fate says Nanoha's her friend, and she prepares to fight Vita..
Wow, really heating things up here in just the first episode! Having this much fighting this first episode and in the OP would seem to indicate that we'll see much more of it this time around. I'll welcome it if it's done as well this time, though hopefully not all the time. Love that Fate called Nanoha a "friend" :) She and Nanoha are as cute and cool as they were last time. Looking forward to seeing them fight together... though they're gonna have a tough fight with Vita. That girl's pretty dang powerful.. would've liked to see a different transformation sequence for Nanoha, but the previous one was just fine so I can't complain much (not saying it's good because of that, okay?).... but seeing the double transformation from the OP in the actual episode would be nice ;)
はやてちゃんテラモエス！！
Hayate-chan teramoesu!!
Y'all remember what teramoesu means, right? Hayate's definitely my kind of character... though I'm going to have to keep reminding myself that she's not Petoko or Mikan since it's Kana Ueda doing a Kansai accent ;) She seems to be the one who found the Book of Darkness, and she's protected by Signum, Vita, Shamal, and Zefiru, who make up Wolkenritter, the ones who protect the Book of Darkness. So that would put Hayate with the people Nanoha and Fate will be fighting... wonder how that'll work out....
No complaints with the animation or technical aspects this time. Excellent stuff during the fight scenes.. hopefully they'll be able to maintain this quality through the end, but we'll see. Staff is generally the same as last time, though with a director change from Akiyuki Shinbou (he of Tsukuyomi and Paniponi Dash! fame) to Keizou Kusagawa. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's has gotten off to a very good start, up to my expectations, so I'll be expecting the same as we go forward. Very much looking forward to seeing how things turn out for Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate :)
Posted by Matthew at October 1, 2005 6:53 PM
Yay! Nanoha's back! And it looks like an action-packed episode sort of :)
Posted by flou at October 1, 2005 7:23 PM
Seems like the opening and its animation don't disappoint. Nice that it is a similar duo of opening/ending as with the first series with a "cool" song for the opening and "cute" for the ending. Now I need to get ahold of the episode. I loved the first series, so this is easily my most anticipated of the Fall, if you can't tell already. ;)
Posted by Link at October 1, 2005 7:30 PM
..I know..I just saw some caps from the series on a japansse site...looks awesome...lots of action...glad to hear the songs are good, anyone know where i can get this episode RAW?
Posted by Lemon at October 1, 2005 8:03 PM
Nanoha is back! Nanoha is back! I'm just so giddy with happiness I could scream. What a great episode. @_@
Posted by Shuten at October 1, 2005 9:46 PM
I'm intrigued by this great animation. Is it really really that good? I might watch the OP just for that... can I be selfish and ask if you could take a screenshot of the bit where they show who did the animation/directing/whatever for the OP?
Posted by wao at October 2, 2005 12:14 AM
excellent episode that already has me wanting the second one! So evil of them to leave off just as Fate was about to fight XD
Posted by moyism at October 2, 2005 3:20 AM
I think Viita and Hayate are aspects of the same girl. Notice that Viita is sitting alone on Hayate's bed in the OP animation, for one thing. The book is only shown with one girl or the other and both are the same proportions. Perhaps the book is "possessing" Hayate, which also allows her to use her legs as a result.
Great episode, I'm so glad that Nanoha is back!
Posted by tomoyo_daidouji at October 2, 2005 4:03 AM
I can't read the summary yet, as I wanna watch the episode myself *lol* but I was looking out for German words...only thing that jumped to my eye is "Wolkenritter". That means "cloud knight" If you wanna know any more German words just ask me ^^ Same goes for Rozen Maiden träumend!
Posted by Mina at October 2, 2005 5:21 AM
Did anyone notice that Viita is spinning the wrong way when she does her rocket hammer attack? Given how he's right-handed in the final attack approach, she's holding the hammer as if she's left-handed during the spinning.
Posted by Falen at October 2, 2005 8:20 AM
I have to say that I have been looking forward to this since it was announced, So I'm glad to see that it is finally here. Commenting on the episode, I would have to say that there DOES look to be a lot more fighting this time around. However, judging from the events of this episode and the next episode preview, Fate and Nanoha look like they are going to be needing those armour upgrades soon.
Posted by Mid~ at October 2, 2005 10:41 AM
Wow. The new director most definitely loves action. There is more action in this first episode than in three episodes of the first series. I just hope that there isn't too much action and not enough of everything else later on. I am very excited now to see the rest of Nanoha A's, since the first episode was great. Keep it coming, guys.
Posted by Link at October 2, 2005 10:41 AM
Don't give up hope on a new henshin sequence yet. Nanoha and Fate's mahou shoujo outfits are still the same as last season, but in the OP they're shown with a modified (more heavily armoured) look. An upgrade's probably coming...
Posted by guppy at October 2, 2005 12:56 PM
Viita's changed handedness is ironic considering they were very care to keep Nanoha herself consistently clearly left-handed in the first series. Hope they keep that straight this series too. Left-handedness was quite a stigma in Japan not so long ago. It's pretty rare to see the main character as a southpaw. :)
Posted by tomoyo_daidouji at October 2, 2005 4:36 PM
Hmmm.....last time I saw a rocket hammer attack, or just a rocket hammer in general was when I read the first vol of Gunnm...long long ago. Don't recall seeing many rocket hammers in anime in general.
Is it just mean, or are they trying to throw in sentai like elements into this? Mahou Shoujo Sentai?
Posted by Sai at October 3, 2005 11:05 AM
Where did the word 'Wolkenritter' appear in this ep ? I watched it twice already and didn't notice it anywhere
Posted by Fimbulvetr at October 3, 2005 6:25 PM
Wolken Ritter is from the official website .
for Hayate and Vita being the same person, the manga does has a scene of them both together and really close, with that shoujo-ai hints expression too XD
so, unless the book can made her into more than one person (like in Madlax)
Posted by Kiryuu at October 7, 2005 8:24 AM
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