LogFAQs > #924012646

15. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
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@Reg

Nanohas a bit of a strange one to talk about, since theres so much to it. Ill be including StrikerS in this, but not the later spinoffs, which feel only tangentially related to the franchise. Nanoha Vivid wasnt that great anyways, and Vivid Strike was worse. Other than that, though, the series is generally very good! I dunno, theres something about it I just love. A lot of people say that it doesnt get great until As, but I actually loved it from the first series (which I like a bit more than As, though I love both of them). Nanohas an excellent protagonist. Shes not super out there in most ways, but she really cares about making friends, and shes happy to do so by beating the shit out of them. Her relationship with Fate is awesome here and in the future. I like that theyre basically married with a kid by the time StrikerS comes around, though itd be nice if they were willing to make that more explicit (its still about as explicit as it gets).

The main thing As has over the original is the villains. Fate was a great villain in the original, but her mother wasnt really the best. Basically all the villains in As are awesome. Hayates in a great position, and the rest are cool too. Cool to have a girl in a wheelchair. The twists and turns with how theyre not actually evil are very neat. The main thing I didnt like as much about this one is just that it has less Nanoha, I think (I gave both series 10s on MAL, so its not like I dont like it). Nanohas by far my favorite character in her franchise, so the more of her the better. Thats why its a shame the spinoffs focus on other characters.

Ditto StrikerS. Nanoha is basically at her best here, despite being an adult. Whenever shes around, you know awesome will occur. Unfortunately, the show adds a couple new characters who arent particularly exciting, though they arent bad either. StrikerSs main flaws are just some stupid decisions they made. For whatever reason, the main characters have limiters put on them by the government because theyre too powerful, so they job to the bad guys a lot early on. It just feels bad. The villains are also by far the lamest of the franchise. But StrikerS still has its great parts. All the stuff with Vivio is fun, and once the limiters come off, it has the most badass action in the franchise. Adult Nanoha in the last couple episodes is really freaking awesome.

The franchise in general is great for action. Some people deride series like this or Gundam for being all about beamspam, but I love laser beams. Beams are super cool, and Nanoha knows it. All the beam fights are super fun. The other fights are good too, but the beams are what Im here for.

Lastly Ill talk about the movies a bit. Theyre fantastic. The basically remake the first two series with faster pacing and better animation, and it totally works. I wouldnt necessarily say theyre better, since I love the originals a lot, including the slower parts that were cut for the movies, but I gave the first two movies 10s as well, and theyre perfectly reasonable substitutes for watching the series. Reflections I dont remember quite as well despite watching it more recently, but it was mostly good, if a bit slow until the climax, which was awesome. I still havent watched the new movie yet, but Im quite interested in checking it out soon. Hopefully itll be a great finale!
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