Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha #17 – Still not up to scratch?

Posted on | August 21, 2007 | 3 Comments |

| It’s all very simple what I want in Nanoha – 1. Fate and Arf yuri loving

I thought I’d take a quick break from my Fanservice guide to get up to date on all the anime I’ve been watching recently…

Long, long after the raw was released and all you clever bilingual people got to watch the rather excellent Nanoha episode 17, I finally got to watch it. And one thing I can say is that it’s definitely a 360 degree change of pace! Set up by the previous episode, I went into episode 17 thinking that I was going to get a cornucopia of fighting, with Vita and Zest going on one to one (with Unison, no less), Fate with the two Numbers, Subaru with 3 of the other cyborgs, Erio and Caro generally fighting awesomely and some big storyline revelations to boot!

The episode itself was well done. It was great to see (finally) the training of Section six come into use for the first time. We finally get to see some of the new forms of the new rookies’ devices and as a bonus we get so see some of Vice’s sniping skills. We learn that Subaru and Ginga are cyborgs (unexpected, though I had stupidly spoilered myself), that Erio is a Project F like Fate and that Vice once shot a kid through the eye with a LASER. These are revelations that most series would spend an episode each discussing – I guess you really don’t know your enemy til you take them to the edge ^_^;;

All in all, the revelations were rather badly placed. There could have been better hints along the way about them and suddenly placing them on the viewer in the way that Nanoha StrikerS has done, especially in the cheesy form of repressed memories/flashbacks is generally unaceptable. I can be assured that if I ever had the balls to go and watch the series again, I would have no greater clue about any of them (except Subaru and Ginga’s “true nature”). These are things best shouted out in the heat of the moment with an accompanied sharp intake of breath or revealed by the big bad just when the battle seems won to allow him time to turn the tables.

| 2. Vita-chan being kawaii

The fights were fairly good – definitely a great change from the dross that were called battles up til this point. We get to see Unison Vita’s Gigenform again, which is always good, and insane Subaru was teh awesome but somehow although the episode was full up of battle I was still left feeling slightly empty inside. This was nowhere near the tense, well timed, edge-of-your-seat action that was ten a peny in A’s or even the original series. Somehow I didn’t really care who won the battles since it all seemed fairly meaningless in the big picture. In the Unison battle there were in total three blows landed and no special techniques. We saw none of Fate’s battle with the Numbers and Erio got grounded in one hit. Caro, as usual, was awesome. Teana didn’t even get a look in.

Somewhere along the way, Nanoha has lost the real ‘magic’ (if you’ll excuse the pun) that made the first two series so special. Even the action sequences seem lacklustre and I have long since lost track of all the new characters’ names and why they’re even important anyway. I’m even starting the like the politics and storyline in light of the fact that I really can’t enjoy the action scenes.

| 3. Fate-chan’s mammaries. That is all.

It’s all very simple really. A proper battle must:

Last at least an episode
Have tense moments where characters make one last effort or turn the battle around
Have trading blows (at least 4 technique names please)
Have Nanoha owning with STARLIGHT BREAKER.

That’s all I want. The Subaru battle in this episode was so close that I really wanted to say the series has improved, but the mediocrity of the other battle sequences has made me beg to differ. And the next episode looks dull. Here’s hoping for a “last 6 episodes of awesome” like Mai HiME.

So close, yet so far. Sorry readers, but I just can’t bring myself to like StrikerS just yet…

Add to:

Category: Anime, Comment, Nanoha

Comments

3 Responses to “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha #17 – Still not up to scratch?”

lilith
August 22nd, 2007 @ 6:06 am

It’s an o.k show in my eyes, but ya it lost the flare that it showed in the first episodes. Here’s hoping.
Akakori
August 22nd, 2007 @ 9:46 am

Too many characters! That’s what I pin all it’s failings on. They’ve tried to bring Nanoha into a “real world” situation where there are massive organizations and hundreds o people each with their own personality and history, and then tried to cover each and everyone’s backstory no matter how little it assists the main story.

For example, Vice, why do we even need to know about him? Unless his past trauma comes to play in the final episodes (which I highly doubt) then I don’t see the point in even giving him a character whatsoever. It’s just a waste of screen time making everyone disappointed that the aren’t seeing more of Fate, Nanoha and Vita.

I don’t agree that a battle should last an episode, at least there is a half-decent storyline to keep with instead of “hi, you’re bad, I’ll kick your ass”, but a little more than “oh we’ll have a fight” followed by “ah we’ve done, let’s run off” would be appreciated.
myu
August 22nd, 2007 @ 5:22 pm

My Nanoha fan awaked again after this episode. Mostly because I thought that SubaruÂ´s battle was awesome. It just came out of nowhere and made me awe.

I donÂ´t like battles that last whole episode. I start to yawn in halfway, battles are boring but drama interesting.^^; ThatÂ´s why I like Strikers more than AÂ´s, much more talking ^^