Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: Reflection

I'll keep this brief and spoiler free since most probably have not seen the movie yet.

Unlike strikers which sidelined the main cast in season 1 and 2, and vivid which basically almost changed the main cast entirely, Reflection retains the main cast from season 1 and 2 therefore it was an instant plus to me. The main cast has great chemistry and therefore is always a joy to watch them interact.

Reflection's tone is similar to that of season 1, 2, and 3 (Strikers), not very lighthearted like that of vivid. Although not as well executed as As, the villains (well most of them) ... have believable motives which you can empathize with. The movie does end on a cliff hanger leaving many loose ends that will hopefully be tied up in the Nanoha: Detonation.

Overall, if you are a fan of season 1 and 2 or movie 1st and 2nd of the nanoha anime, you will most likely like Reflection.

The movie itself is mediocre or at least not good on its own. Too much action but there isn't enough time to introduce or develop characters, hence not a good entry point for someone who wasn't familiar with the franchise. The pacing is rushed as if a season was condensed into 110 minutes, and it ends with a cliffhanger for the sequel to solve. Generic Magical Girl x Mecha in its purest form (NOT Moe), no subversion, no parody, nothing degenerate either, just uninspiring. Looks like something from the 2000s, or an addition to a franchise that has passed its golden days.

Okay, see this is what regained the franchise from the terrible ViVid anime: good action, good plot, amazing animation, and a kick-ass Nanoha. She is the main character, the absolute strongest magician, and you don't sideline her to be the doting mother. She shines best with the spotlight on her, especially when all odd's are against her. I'm also glad they toned down the nudity and the fan-service by a LOT in this movie. Again, in contrast to ViVid which was fan-service to the max.

The villains in this story weren't very compelling. They had okay motives, but I just couldn't connect to them at ... all. Kyrie and Iris could've been so much more as antagonists but their motives felt flat and their backgrounds too similar to go "Ah-ha! This is unique!" Maybe it's because I've watched too much anime or read too much manga that everything is a trope. Even the big plot-twist was very "meh." Here's to hoping the sequel movie is stronger in terms of story!

Thank you for making this series good again.

Welcome to my review to the movie 'Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: Reflection'.

THIS MOVIE IS PART 1 OF A 2 COUR MOVIE WHICH MEANS THAT THIS MOVIE HAS A OPEN END THAT CONTINUES IN THE NEXT MOVIE.

Okay, now that that is out of the way, let's get to this. Nanoha Reflection is a movie from 2017, made by the studio Seven Arcs Pictures. It's runtime is about and hour and 45 minutes. I don't have to mention it but just in case I still gonna: This movie is part of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise. Yoh have to watch the Nanoha stuff before watching this movie. ... More specifically, this movie happens between the second and third season of Lyrical Nanoha. Now to the review. Also this will contain spoilers for Lyrical Nanoha S1 and 2.

Story/Plot: The story revolves around the sisters Amitie and Kyrie. Their father is dying from an unknown disease and Kyrie with the help of her AI Iris she sets out to earth in order to find ways to heal her sick father. Doing so she does considerable damage and this sets out Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and Co. to go stop and arrest her. But not everything works out as planned. Who would've thought?
To sort out what I just wrote, we have simple story of a person wanting to save someone and in order to do that that person does not hold back on even hurting others. In a previous review to the MHA movie I noted that it didn't really do anything great because as a franchise movie it has things it cannot do. This however does not count for this movie. Reason for that is that this movie is canon and depicts the incident that happened in the time between Lyrical Nanoha Season 2 and 3. Another aspect is that this movie is only the first part and that the second one still has to be released. Because of the third season we know that none of the main cast is going to die and also we know or can suspect that this movie and the following one show the origin of what leads to season 3. There isn't a whole lot you can do in these almost 2 hours. More so, this movie relies on the established cast only introduces a few new ones.


Art: Seven Arcs shows fluid animation and pretty nice action scenes. Nothing bad here at all. What we have here is a very familiar Nanoha artstyle and great action scenes. What more can you hope?

Sound: The sound...Yeah. Always a difficult point. The music and sound effects in this movie are there, that much is clear. But I didn't really pay that much attention on them. One thing I can point out is the ending song that is pretty good.

Characters: Man, it's been so long since I've seen the last Nanoha anime. I must say, it was great seeing everyone again. This movie definitely had me on the nostalgia level. Other than that, we do have our typical characters we all know and love. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate are all a bit older now (not yet adults) and we get to see the development of Fate and her foster mother, as well as Nanoha's growth as an OP person who can destroy anyone. We also get to see the 3 new characters Amitie, Kyrie and Iris. I can't really go into detail here because of spoilers but I can say that their story is not yet over and will continue in the next movie. What we saw so far, Amitie is a pretty nice character and Kyrie is blinded by her cause. Things I have already seen in other anime. The main reason for this movie is to fill in a missing link in the anime apartment and satisfy our nostalgia.

Overall Enjoymenf and verdict: It's Nanoha, of course im gonna enjoy it. A very entertaining movie and a nostalgia syringe. I kind of feel like Seven Arcs depended on that nostalgia. Anyhow. I can totally recommend this movie to Nanoha fans. They gotta have to watch this movie. For everyone else, I recommend you watching the whole Nanoha series first and then watch this, or watch this after watching the second season. Anyway, that is it for my review on this movie.

I will see you in my next review. Until then.

Another strong entry into the Nanoha franchise. Art is reliably excellent, paired with a solid story , exciting action and a good soundtrack. Focus on the cast of the original and A's was much appreciated, and it does a good job tying back to the first and second movie, which made for a more satisfying watch if you'd seen those movies. Villains in this movie are solid and sympathetic, although not quite as strong as the ones from Nanoha and A's. Fans of Fate will likely enjoy this one, as she gets some sweet development here.

One big minus is that it's not very friendly ... to new viewers; it does a good job introducing the new characters and making them sympathetic, but for characters introduced in previous franchise entries the movie makes no attempt to intro them at all. Not a problem for old fans of the franchise, but it could make for a very confusing watch for first-timers.

Lyrical Nanoha: Reflection is something of an anomaly. Apparently combining elements from other versions of the series (a fact I only know from a little research) is pretty unique, but the true oddity is that this actually appears to take place during or after A's, which is even more puzzling given that it rose off the winds of the fantastically mixed ViVid Strike. This means the movie is in an odd place canonically, introducing more elements that mix up the standard formula, as well as structurally. This is of course good for a fresh take on the series, but whether or not it actually holds ... up is a different issue altogether. This review will address the latter of those two points.

For all intents and purposes, this movie obviously takes place likely riight after A's, by approximately a year. It should thus be evident that the Wolkenritter, Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Lindy, Chrono, and many more familiar faces play a large part in the movie. Unfortunately, they do not: everyone's appearances in the movie barely makes a few small appearances, which is massively disappointing. Shamal and Zafira barely get to do anything, while Chrono, Amy, Arf, and even Yuuno all take on minor roles at best. Despite being a target for Kyrie, Hayate barely has much interaction with her at all. The movie is also horribly plagued with a case of telling and not showing; we're *told* how much Kyrie has desired to help her parents, but we barely see it aside from in small doses. Amita seems to exist more or less as a foil to her sister, and by this point it's clear there's not even a true protagonist in the movie; Kyrie, Amita, Hayate, and the king all fight for leading roles alongside Iris, and it does not mesh well at all.

Kyrie is decently exciting if viewed as an antagonist, although the storytelling puts her at odds with accomplishing her declared motive, which is doomed to fail on arrival into the story. As a protagonist, it once again forces her into a clashing lead role with the TSAB, and worse yet, forces Amita to play the role of a straight man, as though they were in some twisted comedy. It's a real shame all of this went downhill in the movie, given that they had two hours to shine and truly develop a story. Furthermore, Kyrie is simply unlikeable by design as a protagonist, so she doesn't fit into a story role in any traditional manner. The movie's "twists", furthermore, are incredibly obvious and don't reward any guessing games. All in all, I have to say it's unfortunately best to give this movie a pass, unless you're a diehard Nanoha fan. 4/10.

As good as the first two Nanoha films were I had high hopes going into this new original story... and of course I should have known better. This movie is plagued by all the things wrong with the later parts of the Nanoha franchise. Introducing too many new characters too quickly and not allowing old plot threads to resolve before introducing new ones. I was on board for the most part with the story at the beginning. It's an anime movie, outside of the existing cannon so obviously they have to introduce at least a few more characters. Then the movie just keeps going. That's ... another thing is the run time on these. Both this movie and the next combined would have been enough for an entire season of anime, and they expect you to watch it all in just two large chunks. I have trouble sitting through 15 minutes of Nanoha on a good day. It's just not that interesting and the plots are never really supposed to be that deep because it's for actual children. Sitting through 2 hours of it is a bit of a slog. Anyway when the movie's runtime is almost up suddenly they start introducing even more characters and the first movie ends really suddenly, like they really just want you to go watch the sequel right away.

Overall I didn't have a great time watching it, but the artwork was still pretty good I guess. 7/10