(Again, I've never seen the actual A's season, so if I'm ignorant of things that happened there that got cut out in the movie, sorry.)
Story (9/10): Once again, we have a condensed season put to movie form. The plot features a new character named Hayate and her relationship with the Book of Darkness and all of its protectors. We also have Nanoha and Fate joining up again to work on this new case.
There's a LOT of plot here that I can't really describe without total spoilers, so, in short, I can see how stuff got cut in transition. I mean, just what's there is already interesting. Even not having seen the original series, I got the plot, felt a connection to all the characters, and it really was a well written story.
(This is also apparently where the whole story goes a bit AU on us, since this is done (supposedly) as a movie made by TSAB, but that's neither here nor there.)
Art (8/10): Much like the first movie, the art is really well done here. As I'm usually prone to do, I must gush over how well animated the transformation and battle scenes are. There were a couple of wobbly proportions here and there, but nothing distracting, so overall it was a pretty movie.
Sound (7/10): Eh, the background music was good, but nothing memorable here, really. I will say, instead, that all the seiyuu did a fantastic job voicing their characters.
Character (9/10): With this movie, we get a few more characters added to the series cast sheet, and I'm more than impressed with them. Hayate is a nice kid and is such a hard worker even when she has a disability that would slow other people down. All the knights are interesting and have fun personalities, with their devotion to their master feeling very real even to me.
Nanoha and Fate also get some great character development over the movie too. Nanoha shows how far she's willing to go to fight for her friends and how well in-tune she is with her magic and abilities. Fate gets a ton of development, heading towards a somewhat more normal life, as well as finally being able to move on (in a really heartwarming and sad scene, I might add). Raising Heart and Bardiche also (...somehow) get some development, and it's really nice to see how much they love their masters.
I am a little sad that Yuuno (and really the majority of TSAB, it seems) got so little screen time, since while it did have a smaller and more in-depth pool of characters to work with, I feel like we missed out on something.
Enjoyment (8/10): This is definitely a good movie, especially for those battles. The story had me invested, I liked all the characters, and it was generally really fun. But holy crap, this is a 2 AND A HALF HOUR MOVIE. While I get that they did their best so that the whole story fit in, it drags after the hour and a half mark until the final battles. Not to say that it wasn't good, it's just that there's a point were I was checking the time every 15 minutes or so.
Overall, MSLN movie 2 is a good follow up to the first movie, though be prepared for the long haul if you intend to watch. It was fun and interesting and it made me much more interested in seeing the original A's to compare.
And now I'm excited to see how they'll work with Strikers. :)
