思い出は時の彼方なの。。。 Memories that Lies Beyond Time...
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Nanoha Episode 04: A Rival!? Another Magical Girl!
Nanoha Episode 04: A Rival!? Another Magical Girl!
If I recall correctly, this is the episode where Nanoha-chan's rival is about to be introduced, so without further ado, let us go on...
(As an aside, it feels weird watching anime with subtitles again. Hunh, imagine that.)
We start off this time with a rather serious-looking girl, atop a building (not Tokyo Tower. This isn't CLAMP's work). She says she's looking for the 'Lost Logia', otherwise known as jewel seeds. Oooh, rival! And her partner looks a mite more ferocious than Yuuno-kun. Much bigger, at least.
Well, enough of the doom and gloom, as it's daybreak at Nanoh-chan's house. Her brother Kyouya-san is taking her over to Suzuaka-chan's house (the rich girl). Can't wait. Neither can he apparently, as Shinobu-san (Suzuka-chan's elder sister) just may happen to have an interest in him. A mutual interest.
And so they're off on the bus. All this chipper music is a nice break from some of my previous entries.
Well, Suzuka-chan's house is large as expected. They're greeted by the requisite maid, in this case called Noel-san. (Ooooh, a foreign maid!)
Well, Suzuka-chan is there waiting for her, along with Yankee Arisa-chan. And an SPCA office's worth of cats. Someone who looks a lot like Suzuka-chan is also there, and is the obvious candidate to be Shinobu-san. (I keep thinking of that other Shinobu from Love Hina.
We also meet Farin-san, Suzuka-chan's personal maid. She goes to get them some tea, while Kyouya-san and Shinobu-san are going to 'spend some time in her room'. This is a kid's show, so we stick with Nanoha-chan's perspective.
Oh yeah, and I mentioned there were cats, right? Yuuno-kun is a bit taken aback at their somewhat overwhelming presence..
Suzuka-chan suddenly becomes more subtle than the Yankee and asks Nanoha-chan if there's anything on her mind. She seemed a little under the weather lately, so ... That's why she got invited over. Not 'cause they were friends or anything.
The moment is broken as one of the aforementioned cats (I did mention about the cats, ne?) takes off after Yuuno-kun, who is not too thrilled with this development.
The chas continues on underfoot Farin-san, who'd just made it in with the tea. Wanna guess where the tea goes? Despite the efforts of Nanoha-chan and Suzuka-chan to help out, a lot of it, indeed, ends up anywhere but on the tray it came in on.
We cut to Kyouya-san and Shinobu-san (both looking rather formal). Apparently this isn't the first time Farin-san has...ah... not quite excelled at her job.
A fresh batch of tea and cookies later (outside, and with Yuuno-kun safely tucked away), the topic turns to those cats, which I'm sure I've mentioned by now. Suzuka-chan mentions she has to give some of them away..but she's happy that they'll grow up nice and strong. I mention this since I do think there's a double meaning to it (beyond the fact that one of them is likely to end up encountering a jewel seed...)
Cue a kitten and a pretty blue light. Guess what happens?
Nanoha-chan and Yuuno-kun sense the jewel seed simultaneously. How do they get there without raising suspicion? Yuuno-kun dashes off (remember, he's a stupid little ferret), giving Nanoha-chan an opening to take off after him.
The little kitten activates the seed, and Suzuka-chan's desire for it to grow big and strong are fulfilled, and then some.
Yuuno-kun puts up a barrier - the only kind of thing he doesn't suck at, which, like X, prevents harm to those outside it.
Kinda necessary since kitty is now King Kitty. Nanoha-chan, ever the purveyor of wisdom:
It'd probably be a big problem for Suzuka-chan if it stayed that size.
Ahem.
Well, Nanoha is just about to seal it nice and gently, when a blast comes out of nowhere and nails the poor kitty.
Looks like our foreboding mahou shoujo is here. Along with her English-speaking wand, Bardiche, she dishes out the hurt.
Nanoha-chan's minute-long henshin seems refreshingly short after the minute-twenty seven of Magical Canan, but still.
She takes off to the kitty's defense and engages her 'wide area protection' spell, blocking any further photon rays.
Wide area protection isn't wide enough to protect against the kitty's feet, so the rival mage blasts those, causing the kitty, and Nanoha-chan, to go crashing down...
Nanoha-chan looks kinda ticked. Yuuno-kun looks kinda inferior.
Yuuno-kun remarks that she must be from his world, and that she knows the 'true identity' of the jewel seeds. Wait, there was a hidden meaning to them? No one told me!
A short battle ensues. Now, I have to wonder how smart these 'intelligent devices' (i.e. wands) really are. I mean, they blasted well announce what programs they're running beforehand. I can see it now:
Rival: "I'm going to attack you!"
Bardiche: "Attack Mode Set Up."
Nanoha-chan thinks 'Ah, she's gonna hit me!'
*Rival goes to swipe at her*
Raging Heart: "Dodge Left"
*Rival swoops left and strikes Nanoha-chan*
Nanoha-chan: "But..but..how'd you know I was going to be there..!?! Sniff.."
Right.
... Actually what happens isn't too far off from that. Nanoha-chan asks her rival why she's doing this, but gets rebuffed with 'It'll probably mean nothing to you'.
We square off with Nanoha-chan's 'Divine Buster' against the rival's 'Photon Lancer'. Since Bardiche sounds more.. I dunno...war-like, I'm guessing things aren't looking up for Nanoha-chan and company.
The kitty starts to get up, and Nanoha-chan, distracted by this, is caught off guard by her rival's shot. She did mumble an 'I'm sorry' beforehand, leading me to believe the two are going to end up pairing up sometime in the future.. (who am I kidding? That always happens!)
Nanoha-chan got blasted pretty bad, but Yuuno-kun's little cushion-barrier seems to somehow save her, even though she was falling at terminal velocity.
Her rival seals the jewel seed this time, of course. I just checked and it took 22 seconds for the girl to engage 'Sealing Mode' on Bardiche. It may be tough but man, it's slow. Needs a RAM upgrade, maybe?
Anyway, Jewel Seed 14 has fallen into the evil clutches of an alien 3rd-grader.
After that rather over-expositioned scene, Nanoha-chan's rival silently regards her prone form..and walks off.
He went and got her brother, who took her in to Suzuka-chan's house. Her story of having tripped and fallen in the woods might have tricked them this time, but it doesn't look like it's gonna be easy to keep this kind of thing secret for very long.
Back in her room, Yuuno-kun explains the girl is from his world. Is she going to meet her again? Nanoha-chan isn't scared..just sad, and confused.
A scene in a high-rise apartment with the rival mahou shoujo clears that up pretty quick. She wonders how many seeds Nanoha-chan has. Well, they both probably need all of them. Not really a situation that lends itself to quick reconciliation.
Anyway, it looks like Rival Girl is doing this for her mother..if anything, her devotion is far stronger than Nanoha-chan's. Strong enough that she isn't going to let little things like compassion, kindness, or morality, get in her way, that is. :p
I'm going to go another couple episodes before I try any full-fledged analysis, but a couple points to ponder:
The jewel seeds act upon the desires of those who hold them, but I think it may also hint at Nanoha-chan's inner desires as well (to fall in love, to grow up, etc.). None of these are spelled out per se, as Nanoha-chan seems to have a 'good' life, but I'll be on the lookout in future to see how this applies.
Secondly, Nanoha-chan's rival holds an awful lot in common with Nanoha-chan herself. Almost as if she is how Nanoha-chan would be if she didn't have the close family ties, friends, etc., that she does now. Rival Girl has her mother, but no apparent friends, and given Rival Girl's rather dark and moody tone she doesn't seem to have had the most laughter-filled childhood. If Nanoha-chan were raised by evil stepparents, could she have turned out the same way? Perhaps...
Labels: Nanoha