And more news, and art! Spoiler: Barrier Jacket Redesigns Also, these new costumes look close enough to be described as 'knight-like' that I want to say Hayate designed them in-universe.
Holy shit we have a Nanoha thread HIIII GUESS WHO WATCHED ORIGINAL SERIES AND A'S OVER THE WEEKEND AND IS NOW STARTING STRIKERS OVER for what must be the fiftieth time orz This series is my longest-standing hyperfixation and I have literally no explanation for why I love it so much other than that I love the worldbuilding and magic system and that somehow every character in it is The Best One(tm). I can't wait to cry over Nanoha rescuing Vivio again. I very much enjoyed crying over Reinforce again when I finished A's. IDK how this series has such a grip on my soul, it just does.
I'm definitely sad that the cast of ViviD didn't grab me as strongly as almost everyone introduced in A's and StrikerS -- the premise seemed fun, and I was excited to see new schools and styles of magic to round out what was already known about the magic system, but at least during the first season only Einhart and Vivio really struck me as having the kind of energy I could get behind. I also flip-flopped on the less-serious tone a lot, even while I was super into the idea of a magical girl fighting tournament. Tournament arcs are some of my favourite things and my biggest barrier to getting into sports anime is just the lack of girls in general.
Man, I'm still disappointed at the absolute waste of the veteran competitors. It could've been so good!
I watched the Reflection/Detonation movies. They were a lot better than Movie 1st and 2nd -- pretty same-ol-same-ol as far as the otakubaiting goes, but I really liked what they bought into the worldbuilding and I also love having a good cry over Nanoha, Fate and Hayate Being Friends and Befriending People. And Nanoha gets up to A Lot of Satisfying Befriending in the movie. I'm quite take or leave it about the art style changes but the fireworks were really good and I liked most of the combat coreography. Spoiler: Spoiler natterings under the cut I guess the main thing I'm quite :/ about is Nanoha's use of the Formula system, b/c IDK if it actually messes with the power curve from A's to StrikerS, because presumably she gets rid of it as Earth humans aren't really meant to be able to use it. The little call-forward to her self-destructiveness was nice, I'm just really not sure if I liked or not. Also I just didn't find Amitie's or Kyrie's or Iris' Formula Suit designs all that interesting. It's a nice addition to the type of magic systems but it's more Generically SciFi, I guess. (Having Nana Mizuki hamming Levi up like a madwoman was probably my favourite part. She just sounded like she was having so much fun literally every minute of her screentime.)
i keep meaning to watch more of this than just the clip where someone gets Befriended from all the way on the other end of a battleship, and not getting around to it. "Wide Area Search: Successful. Coordinates are specific."
That is a pretty great scene. I haven't actually got around to watching Vivid/Vivid Strike. Or the movies. Probably should do that, but ViVid manga's Extra Stupid Backstory (and Force) really put me off.
I still need to watch Reflection/Detonation, it's just Reflection took like 40 minutes to get to a fight scene and in a Nanoha movie that is not what I'm about I am still really fond of the Materials though, especially the Innocent versions. my ideal version of them is the one where they're primarily a comedy trio and then like. after at least 3 jokes about dearche being overdramatic and getting undercut by her own subordinates there's a bit that makes you go oh shit right these guys can wreck shop. plus a deep and genuine foundation of mutual care and loyalty.
Reflection also ends suddenly just as it's getting good. It's really better to watch the movies back to back but I think that's quite literally five hours of movie to sit through.
Apparently, there's a MGLN Character Tiermaker. I have, of course, done it. Admittedly, I mainly made this from a heavily biased authorial persepective about which characters I think are interesting, in some cases heavily influenced by the headcanons I have already developed for them, but I think that at least indicates there's something to do. Half the Combat Cyborgs got bumped up a tier just because I think they're cool. I also like that my F-tier is Force and also Erio/Caro. It's not that Erio & Caro are bad people or anything, it's just that they're, somehow, incredibly boring. Also, it didn't let me add additional icons, or I'd have included 'all the devices' in the Shame Tier.
So, in the course of a discussion on THE DISCORD, we got into talking about timelines. The English wiki does not have a timeline. The Japanese Wiki does, but... well, I don't speak Japanese, and Google Translate was hilariously unhelpful. Very hilariously. Observe.
