Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Mahou Shoujo Nanoha first and the A's have been great. The character development, magic upgrades in the dire pinch, and finally working together after the rival fighting have been very attractive. However, StrikerS lacked all of them.
Nanoha is supposed to be a typical elementary school girl with two friends back home on Earth. There's no Earth; there's no family (which she had bother and sister), and a house she lived in. She's already a fully grown adult at 18 years old, living at Magic central station Honbu (Home Station). Nanoha is no longer the main character who we get to feel, listen, and be, ... it's about building the perfect team called the StrikerS against the great scientist. Thus the focus of the story has been on Nanoha building the team, along with stories on all of the other characters instead of Nanoha. The authors should have called it Mahou Shoujo StrikerS. This anime was supposed to be Nanoha's stories and her contributions to the world, not the Team. I have to say, StrikerS has been a huge disappointment.
Next, Nanoha had magic upgrades when raging heart was defeated. In StrikerS, Nanoha already had the powers; all they did was restrict her magic as she (and few others) were far too strong. This already made them out to be a supernatural monster who have enough powers to destroy anyone without training and fighting and challenge. Where's the growth without challenging other more difficult situation? You can't suddenly attain over limits as it has been in the first two series. It's absolutely inconsistent and story lost its quality completely.
Finally, Nanoha had the power to turn the enemy as her own friend and fight with her to the end for the same cause. StrikerS made it clear that their goal was to destroy the plan of the unstable machines that's running amok and stifle his/her plan. She did not have enemies, she befriended nor did she have to help players, nor talk to them. Her goals were clear and straightforward. Build a strong, supportive, and trusting team, so that they do not have to rely on the very slow reaction of kanrikan.
The artwork is great along with sound. But story was just barely decent and characters were mediocre at best. StrikerS is the beginning of a decline of my support for any future Nanoha series if they continue on this road.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
Why? First season was okay, second I liked and now with 3rd season they somehow managed to take everything from Nanoha I liked and make it into such a boring piece of work. Probably biggest dislike regarding this season would be military detailed progression and terminology. Aside personal reasons why I dislike military, it was nevertheless boring. For be it was pure annoyance and boredom. It had few good points, as some new "factions" and characters who showed up had somewhat interesting background to them, but the ... whole "realism" military detailed thingy just was absolute horrifying annoyance for me. I just wanted magical girls doing magical fights, not somewhat magical girls being army drilled.. Anyhow should comment, that I don't mind military in piece of fiction usually, as long it's in general presentation / surface-scratched / simple whatever. Basically guys in organization and battle. That's all I need, maybe little bit of detail for enjoyment factor, but I do despise such in-depth detailed progression and terminology that this Anime used.
TLDR; "Realism" military presentation method was absolute turn-off for me. Aside that story was okay.

✦Art&Sound
Nothing to say, simple and derpy at times. Main cast "grown-up" some of characters felt a bit stretched rather than re-drawn.

Music&OST still good.

✦Character
Most were boring, old cast was as they were, only now they were a bit plainer and ruined with military'esque style. Few characters I did enjoy, but in the end it cast was quite average.

✦Enjoyment&Overall
If there wouldn't been this annoying "realistic military & terminology" then it would been absolutely different and enjoyable Anime. Magical girls drifted away here and wasn't really an enjoyable season. Might have finished it instead of dropping, but yeah thing I disliked the most, annoyed me a bit too much. Haven't been fond of more detailed realistic military Anime for ages, but since of certain events, now I dislike it personally even more. Point being, aside annoyance element, it was still quite mediocre Anime.

Oh boy where do I begin with this. StrikerS marks the point of no return for the Nanoha franchise. What began as a more thoughtful take on the dark mahou shoujo genre has morphed into a mindless action mecha romp with minor mahou shoujo elements in it. It marked the turning point for when Nanoha would finally begin its downfall and fall from grace. StrikerS was still entertaining for different reasons though, and I'll go through them with you in the following review.

By far the biggest change is the season's shift in focus to more base primordial emotions. What I mean is, where the ... previous seasons focused more on emotions such as reflection, redemption, sacrifice, guilt, regret and sense of belonging, StrikerS instead focuses on anger, revengeance and impulse. While previous seasons featured more sympathetic villains (well it only really worked in A's), Dr Jail here is irredeemably evil and hammy. Not that that's a bad thing, (again see Symphogear), but it does mean this season lacks the nuance of say, when the Tome of the Night Sky chooses to have herself executed by firing squad so the people she loves will no longer get hurt. The tonal shift is jarring to say the least. This extends also to the action sequences, now more bombastic and higher in density than before. Where beam spam is ever present and the slow methodical battles of the past are no more. One crucial thing from the previous seasons (A's especially), was that the meaning behind each battle was given just as much prominence as the actual fighting going on. Wolkenritter fighting the gang in A's was more meaningful than whatever given conflict in this.

Not to mention the pacing. Dear God the pacing. The first half is a slog. No meaningful character or plot development, just training sequences and bad SoL sequences. When S1 had the first half be traditional magical girl shenanigans, it did so to prove a point. Namely to accentuate the bait and switch genre shift midway through. It also helps that the filler content in S1 was at least somewhat entertaining.

But when it gets going it really does get going. The second half of StrikerS is very much enjoyable. It's fun, frantic and Subaru's determination to fist makes you wanna yell and scream along with her. The new mains are pretty good. Despite hating them initially, Subara and Teana do complement the original duo (trio) well and their interactions with the cast and the world are nice to see. What isn't nice to see are Caro and Erio which can be easily removed from the plot with minimal impact and who do nothing but to frustrate you as they steal precious screentime from Nanoha and Fate. While Fate doesn't get any development or even much screentime in this, I do appreciate how they developed Nanoha as a character. The timegap meant that Nanoha can have her character branch out in a way that avoids standard sequel trappings where characterization is recycled. Instead Nanoha is going through parenthood and her struggles and journey of being a mother is genuinely nice to see. It's one of the few moments where it's closest to the first two seasons in tone and focus. Vivio is indeed a welcome addition although I wished it didn't take them half the season just to even bring her into the main plot.

I enjoyed StrikerS (half of it anyways) for very much the same reasons as I enjoyed Symphogear. Where the latter refined and tuned everything StrikerS had to a mirror sheen, StrikerS I find feels like a prototype Symphogear, or a spiritual predecessor. With very much a lot of concepts that Symphogear would later outright nick from, from fisting to screaming to impulsive decisions to a hammy mad scientist with funny faces.

And sadly ever since Nanoha's time in the spotlight has shifted to Symphogear. This town ain't big enough for two mecha mahou shoujo franchises. Not ever since Nanoha became a housewife supporting character. Reflection and Detonation attempted to salvage it, but by then the creative staff had forgot what truly made Nanoha, well, Nanoha, and instead both films fell flat on delivery and execution. But that's another story for another day.

StrikerS is still a fantastic show (half of it at least) that's balls to the wall fun. Just don't expect to feel any emotions beyond hype and excitement for most of it.

6/10