![]() Vita.Įarly on, the knights manage to be sympathetic characters in that they are fiercely dedicated to a Pollyanna-esque tot named Hayate, a wheelchair-bound Ill Girl who is suffering some unspecified form of Soap Opera Disease. Over the course of the battles that follow, she becomes Nanoha’s main rival. The most notable among them is Vita, a tsundere goth loli armed with a magical war hammer. The knights are a motley crew of likable but largely forgettable anti-villains. The Arthra, which flies in space … or between dimensions … or something … Nanoha, Fate, and the crew of the Arthra must stop the knights before they complete the book. Things don’t stay peaceful for long, naturally, because a new gang of magic users, the Belkan Knights, has begun attacking mages in order to steal magic power from their “linker cores” (don’t ask just roll with it) and use it to power-up a doomsday device called the Book of Darkness. It’s six months after the previous series, and Nanoha Takamachi has returned to an idyllic life of family and grade school while her rival-turned-friend Fate Testarossa, after having almost blown up the multiverse, gets parole for extenuating circumstances and good behavior. When Nanoha A’s begins, it already knows its job is to be a mecha-like action show, so it starts us out with two episodes composed largely of destructive battles above a city skyline. Finally, it tries being a mecha series with little girls standing in for the giant robots-and that becomes the signature characteristic of the franchise. Then it tries being lolicon, and that really doesn’t work. ![]() Then it tries being an homage to Triangle Heart 3, but that doesn’t work. It tries being a magical-girl show in the vein of Cardcaptor Sakura, but that doesn’t work. As I discussed before, the first series is weak partly because it’s hampered by poor animation but largely because it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, so-like a classic magical girl-it tries on various identities to see how they fit. It had not had a legal release in North America for some time, as I understand it, and I also admit I had avoided it in large part because of the somewhat exaggeratedly negative review by Carl Kimlinger, as I mentioned in my review of the first series.Īlthough imperfect, this second series in the Nanoha franchise, which like many Japanese shows runs under an inexplicable title, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, is very strong. Although this is a well-known and much-venerated series, I have to admit this is my first time through it. I am continuing to work my way through Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha now that it once again enjoys a U.S. Starring Yukari Tamura, Nana Mizuki, and Kana Ueda. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s directed by Keizô Kusakawa.
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