Reviews

Feb 11, 2018
Lyrical Nanoha's first season left me conflicted, It left me drained. While I did really enjoy it's last three episodes the rest of the experience wasn't satisfactory. But I decided to watch the second season with the excuse that the first season wasn't good because it didn't focus on the characters and plot because it was trying to establish its world and now that they did that the show could show what it really could do and I'm glad I did press on because Lyrical Nanoha's second season: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's is a fantastic anime.

First and foremost the show has a better sense of conflict than the first season. At the end of the first season Aruf and Fate are held in the custody of the Time Space Bureau for a trial because of their involvement with Precia. And in the second season they finish the trial and are let off easy with them just having to do some work for the Time Space Bureau and be on probation for their actions. Nanoha while waiting for Fate's trial to end is attacked by another magical girl, Vita. This magical girl is after Nanoha's linker core, a manifestation of a mage's magical power, to fill the pages of an ancient tome in hopes of saving her master Hayate, a young handicapped girl. Nanoha gets her shit rekt but is saved by Fate. At this point Fate continues the battle, two other magical girls are introduced Signum and Shamal and a familiar Zafira and Nanoha gets her Linker core taken. Nanoha is taken aboard the time space bureau ship to be treated from here its revealed that linker cores can be regenerated and that the ancient tome is the Book of Darkness and is a wanted item for the Time Space Bureau for it's destructive properties. So Nanoha and Fate are tasked with retrieving the book. This story has a multitude of interesting characters and conflicts that far surpass what was presented in the first season.

The fights between Nanoha and Vita and Fate and Signum are such a treat to watch. The nighttime artificially lit cityscape where they usually fight is a great setting that is aesthetically orgasmic, the first season's opening continuously evoked this cityscape imagery but the show itself never effectively implemented it but Nanoha A's makes this imagery a staple of it aesthetic presentation. The fights have great kinesthetic energy, each magical girl's intelligent device feel alive. Their mechanical design was already a plus for the first season but in A's this design is further expanded upon in the animation. The reloading animations, the transformation sequences, and each magical girls unique attacks are very intriguing. The fights are given more time and effort, they have so much more impact than the first season's largely flaccid action scenes.

The villains themselves are great characters. They have a motive you can understand and can possibly support your first time watching. They aren't the villains because they are evil, they're villains because they're doing something against the heroes wishes. They're collecting linker cores for the sake of Hayate and they all have their own unique perspective on the situation but the same end goal. Nanoha and Fate's interactions with these characters aren't even vitriolic they're intuitive and forbearing. The characters have great chemistry between one another, they can all speak about the same topic and you'd still get something unique out of each interaction.

The plot flows nicely, the show doesn't dwell on the unimportant. There are moments when they rush through scenes but it isn't frequent. The show is a comfortable watch it's not an agonizing experience of constant asspulls and lengthy exposition.

Nanoha's and Fate's relationship is so fucking adorable. Vita's adorable.

The show succeeds through being simple fun, the first season attempted to be "deep" and "edgy" at times and failed at it. The second season focuses on tight execution of its story rather than trying to be mature and it shines.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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