思い出は時の彼方なの。。。 Memories that Lies Beyond Time...
Friday, June 01, 2007
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 09: Precious Things
Teana wakes up in the infirmary under Shamal’s care. The last thing she can remember was being blasted by Nanoha, but there’s no lasting physical damage. On the other hand, she does notice that Shamal has taken her pants. As she gets them back, she notices that she’s been out for pretty much the rest of the day.
Nanoha is off at work on something when Fate walks up. The two start talking about how she handled the situation with Teana, and Fate reassures her and says that Teana and Subaru will understand what she did.
As the two return to the dorm, the alarm goes off. Our generic evil doctor has sent out some Gadget Drone Fliers as a test while Luetcia, sans her babysitter talks with him about these latest versions and the relic. She wishes him luck and then says goodnight while he evilly laughes to himself.
Back at Riot 6, instead of deploying, everybody is standing around and asking each other what the heck the Gadget Drones are doing since they’re not really moving anywhere near a suspected Relic. Hayate gives the go-ahead to Nanoha and Fate to go engage while the rookies are left in the command of Signum.
Nanoha has a few choice words for Teana before they take off and Teana throws everything back into her face before Signum steps in and gives Teana the fist. Poor Teana is not having a particularly good day. Nanoha, Fate, and Vita leave and Subaru starts yelling at Signum for how she’s treating her subordinates.
Shirley steps in this time and talks pretty much everybody down, saying that Nanoha had a good reason for doing what she did and that she’d explain everything. Over in the lounge, we get a quick refresher course on Nanoha’s childhood and receiving Raising Heart as well as Fate’s relation to her and her past with Precia. They’re all pretty surprised that the two had such a past.
We then also get a refresher course on the A’s stuff, complete with them telling about the cartridge system and the Book of Darkness and fighting with the Velka knights. Back at something interesting, Nanoha, Fate and Vita deploy to attack the drones, who have already been engaged. That lasts for about 15 seconds before we go back to boring flashbacks.
As Shamal tells them about the drain magic can have on the body, we see a shot of Raising Heart broken and Nanoha completely bloodied being held by Vita. Apparently she hadn’t recovered from her last mission and was caught by surprise and didn’t have the power to fight back. We also get to see a couple scenes of her trying to recover, apparently she couldn’t walk after the attack, though we never learn what the attack actually was. All we really learned from this extended flashback is that magic drains people a ton, especially prolonged use thereof. Whoopie.
Back in interestingville, Vita charges to the attack and finishes off the last Gadget Drone. And that’s the end of the action for this episode. *sigh* As Nanoha comes back, Shirley apologizes for telling them about their past without her permission, but Nanoha doesn’t really mind.
Teana is moping on the deck later and Nanoha goes to talk to her. Never mind the other cadets plus Shirley hiding in the bushes. The two have a long talk about how Nanoha expects a lot from her and how the entire squadron was specially made, Erio for his speed, Caro for her enhancing magic, etc etc and Shirley as the brains behind it, which is why Nanoha can’t afford to let her lose control of the situation like she did.
Nanoha then takes Teana’s device and releases the limiter, and Teana charges it to the second power level, where it becomes sort of an energy chakram gunblade thing. Nanoha says that she trusts her with the power, and Teana breaks down in tears. Nanoha apologizes to her, and Teana pretty much just continues sobbing.
The next day, they’re back to training with Fate, and Teana’s feeling quite a bit better. Fate tells them about the elite rankings in the Squadron, Aces and Stikers. The gist is that the Aces are the absurdly singly powerful and the Strikers are the veterans that everybody depends on and looks to, and that Nanoha is hoping they can all become Strikers.
Nanoha is finishing setting up the training for the day, and all the cadets come running up all happy again. Fate and Nanoha exchange a glance over their heads and… end credits. Bwa-?
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 08: A Wish, Together
This episode is pretty much Teana centered as we get a long glimpse into her past as well as how she’s (poorly) handling being bitched out by Vita in the previous episode. The whole episode is basically her destructive impulses spiralling out of control until Nanoha skips the nice talk and lays the smack down. Kind of a slow episode up until that point, but the end of it really does give me shivers. Nanoha has really come a long way from her “I don’t want to hurt anybody” mentality and has now learned the value of a fist to the face.
Also, and this is important, Teana’s bust changes size at least three times this episode.
The episode begins with Teana still moping about almost accidently shooting Subaru while the corps people pick through the debris. Nanoha and Fate are debriefing the cadets and Nanoha takes Teana aside for a talking to about if there’s anything bothering her, she can talk to Nanoha. She also tells her that everybody is depending on her and that she needs to keep her spirits up and all that business.
Teana goes back to Subaru and apologizes, but Subaru, having the attention span of your common housefly, has pretty much already forgotten about it. Caro sees Fate and Yuuno talking together and asks Shirley about him and gets the rundown of his past. Fate tells him that the new case is about the Jewel Seeds again and the two earn their ‘old’ status by remembering the old times and talking about how nostalgic things are.
Nanoha comes trotting up and Fate leaves the two awkwardly together. Nanoha’s all blushes and says that it’s quite the coincidence to run into him here. The two start chatting, and we fade away to Hayate and her plaything having coffee and chit-chatting about nothing particularly interesting. Everybody’s got a boy toy now except poor Fate, although we’re not really certain what she’s doing with Erio and Caro… maybe it rhymes with ‘freedom.’
Later that evening, Teana wants to go train with Subaru and the other two cadets also want to tag along, but Teana says that it’s to make Subaru and Teana work together better. Vita, Signum and Shirley also ambush our two cadets to talk about Teana and their concerns over her and we get a split of Subaru telling the other two cadets, and the aces briefing eachother about her brother. He joined the corps and quickly became one of the elite members. On a mission though, he was killed, and ended up being basically just a footnote in the grand scheme of things and a disappointment to all his peers. Teana’s not exactly on her way to becoming too much better so far as yet with all her pyrrhic tactics.
While this is going on, Teana is shown training on her own and trying to become better in order to not be forgotten and cast aside like her brother was. Her training goes on until well after her white shirt can hold out until Griffith comes by and tells her to go to sleep. He reassures her that Nanoha and Signum will take care of them, but she ignores him and keeps training. She eventually heads back to the room and immediately goes to sleep.
By the by, the eyecatch is loli Teana with a water pistol in her brother’s arms.
The next morning, Subaru wakes Teana up early for the training she wanted.
IMPORTANT PLOT POINT: Teana sleeps in her bra, Subaru doesn’t.
Anyway, after some fanservice random chatter, they head out to train. We skip forward a little bit later to Nanoha hooking up with them to start training proper while we strangely get a flashback to what we just saw along with insert song while Teana talks about how she’s working hard. We also see that Caro and Erio ended up showing up early anyway and brought them water and a towel and the like. We also get to see Teana vomit in the bushes from pushing herself too hard. Now that’s… well… wonderful.
Later that night, Teana and Cross Mirage are chatting when casual-wear Subaru comes in and tells her that everthing will be fine. Skipping on to the next day, Erio and Caro are going to be training with Vita while Teana and Subaru work with Nanoha. The two cadets are sparring with her in full barrier jacket form while all the others observe. Teana shoots a Cross Fire blast to push Nanoha into Subaru’s path. She tries to knock her off the path, but Subaru blasts through and punches her staff. She’s shot back while Nanoha keeps dodging Teana’s shots.
Nanoha chastises her for a reckless attack, but she says “Sorry, I was just doing what I was told” at which point Nanoha realizes that she’s lost sight of Teana. She sees her powering up a shot away, and Subaru leaps to attack again. The far away Teana is shown to be an illusion as Teana charges up one of Subaru’s paths with a blade out of her pistol. Nanoha releases Raising Heart, catches Teana’s blade in one hand (complete with blood drenching her hand) while still holding Subaru off, and then bitches out both of them for being totally reckless with their safety in their attacks and that training like this is a complete waste since they’ll just get themselves killed in a real battle. Teana loses it, tries to shoot Nanoha anyway, and gets tossed back with a Cross Fire Shoot and then a Divine Buster in the face for her troubles while Subaru is bound by Nanoha. Tough fucking love for Teana. Nanoha calls an end to the training while Subaru is in tears and basically livid with rage at Nanoha.
Next episode, we finally get to see what happened to Nanoha all those years ago in the manga with her shit being fucked up. Broken Raising Heart and blood everywhere. Deeeelicious.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 07: Hotel Augusta
The Velka Knights return to the fray.
A decent, if somewhat unspectacular episode. For spending about 15 minutes with the drones attacking them, there really was very little particularly impressive fighting, but it’s nice to have some drama in the series, and pissed off Vita really is pretty damn pissed off. Maybe we’ll get to learn soon about whatever it was that happened to Nanoha in the A’s to StrikerS manga.
On the way to their next mission, Fate and Hayate are briefing the cadets on the evil doctor. They’re heading over for guard duty on a conference/auction on Lost Logia and will be lead by Vita and Shamal while the Aces guard from inside/mingle in their terrible evening dresses. We get to see Yuuno chatting with some professor with long green hair briefly as well.
Everybody stands around pretty bored and chatting about various things, mostly ranks and Hayate while they wait for something to happen. I think it was mostly an excuse for some narrative while they didn’t need to bother animating moving mouthes.
Lutecia and her big guardian dude are lurking in the woods nearby and she receives a little drone which tells her about the doctor. The drones start moving in, Shamal immediately senses them, and Signum deploys the Lightning kiddos, who are amazed that Zafira can talk. The Stars team also moves to better positions to receive the attack.
The Velka knights get very short transformation sequences at this point. I think all three together were about as long as Fate’s alone. Vita and Shamal head off the intercept while Fate and Nanoha lurk in the auction hall and keep tabs on the situation.
Vita uses her croquet ball attack to take down a handful of drones and Signum somehow slices right through the AMF field to take down one. Zafira is taking fire, but puts up a shield and then creates stalagmites to pierce the ones attacking him. Teana and Subaru are watching the action and amazed at how easily they’re handling the situation. Lutecia and the doctor are not particularly pleased with how things are progressing, and the doctor tells her that her device, Ascelius, wants the data from the others. She powers it up and Caro’s Kerykerion reacts to it.
She creates some tentacles from the ground which become a swarm of mini-drones and attach themselves to the other drones which makes them power up. Signum’s sword bounces off them, and Vita starts to miss with her attacks. Caro senses a summoning spell and a ton of drones suddenly pop from the ground in front of the cadets. Rein is meanwhile encountering the mini drones in the air and is minorly wounded by one of them, but can’t fight back at all. One of Lutecia’s drones has finally found what it’s looking for, and she shoots a beam of energy into the air.
The cadets are fighting and barely winning against the drones right outside the gates. Teana has Subaru distract them while she casts a spell and tries to take them out all at once with a CrossFire Shoot. One of her shots goes stray though and almost hits Subaru. Vita intercedes and yells at her for endangering her comrade. She’s pretty damn pissed and really rips both of them a new one.
Off in the garage with the Relic/minidrone, the stupidest guard ever turns and sees a truck that has literally been torn apart and decides that a flashlight is sufficient protection to check things out. He’s as lucky as he is stupid though, and the drone has already absconded with whatever it was that they were after.
Lutecia and her big man withdraw while Shirley gives Hayate the low down. Our green haired buddy comes up to Hayate and the two talk and flirt for a little bit, including Hayate giving him a straight shot to the gut and getting her head patted for her troubles.
Over in the auction hall, Yuuno finally makes it to the stage to the surprise of Fate and Nanoha. The Velka knights are surveying the damage outside. Teana is sulking while Subaru tries to talk her out of the funk saying that it’s not her fault, but she’s crying and blaming herself.
Next episode is a Teana and Subaru team building affair as she appears to be training herself to exhaustion to make up for her screwup.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 06: Development
Anyway, a pretty decent cool down episode from last week that reintroduces us to the eternal gothic lolita, Vita, and gives her the opportunity to hit on Nanoha train the cadets in the finer marital martial arts. Next week we return to some actual dramatic action and are hopefully finished with all this training, although I could be persuaded to watch Signum and Fate give the cadets some pointers in the finer arts of mud wrasslin’.
The episode begins with Rein reviewing the last mission as well as the status of the Relic. It turns out to be number IX in a series and has been sent elsewhere for further study. Shirley comes to check up on Rein and ask about the devices.
Over on Generic Training Island, Vita is sparring with Subaru. Vita takes a swing and Subaru blocks it, but is thrown back anyway. Vita then gives a long speech about how their job is to protect and support Nanoha, as well as the differences between a shield and barrier and how Subaru needs to learn how to use both. Fate is training her two recruits on predicting enemy movement and using your speed to stay ahead of the enemy and how to use cover to your advantage. Even Erio is amazed at the speed that she can dodge the shots. Nanoha and Axel Shooter is training Teana in her reactions and shooting abilities, especially when forced to do both on offense and defense. Teana also seems to be able to control her shots to a much better degree than before.
Signum and her boy toy are looking on and making their own judgements about the cadets and how they’re progressing. She’s relatively impressed with their progress, but notes that they’ve still got a ways to go. The cadets are worn out by their training, so the three call it a day for the kiddos and go to check in with Hayate. Hayate asks Subaru about her sister and father, who she’s going to meet before taking off.
In the mess hall, everybody is eating some kind of mutant spaghetti beast which seems to contain something green. I’m betting it’s the shrubbery. (editor’s note: It’s yakisoba, you spaz) They chat about how people joined the service and family, especially Erio and his foster mother Fate and Subaru and her military father and sister.
Over with Hayate and Subaru’s father, they talk shop for a bit about how things are progressing with her division when Ginga walks in. Hayate briefs Subaru’s father on the relic and she talks about how her direct subordinates are doing while Rein and Ginga chum it up. They end up talking about Subaru and devices, but nothing particularly interesting. Hayate and Nakajima’s meeting comes to an end and Hayate thanks him for his continued support before we flip over to the research facility where the device is being kept.
At this point, I’d like to point out that the raw’s audio wavelength about triples and everybody sounds like they’re possessed for about a minute.
Fate recognizes something in one of the Gadget Drones, and sees that they’re powered by Jewel Seeds… though a closer examination reveals a panel that says Jewel Scarlett. They bring up the information on the person studying them, and to the surprise of nobody, it’s a rather evil looking scientist that we have totally never ever seen before. Fate tells Shirley about her and Nanoha’s former encounter with the Jewel Seeds and has her try to dig up as much info as possible. She also fills in Hayate on her discovery, who is having lunch with the Nakajima duo. They refuse to let her pick up the check.
In Fate’s Lovemobile, Fate continues telling Shirley about what she knows of our good doctor and we’re treated to a shot of him and his army of clones with a few tanks empty. He talks about the Relic Weapon, and we see our mini-Rider wandering the streets with a glove fairly similar to Kerykeion.
The cadets are finishing another training session with Nanoha and Vita. Vita prods Nanoha on how things are going and how she’s doing with all the new work and the Relic case. Vita is a bit slackjawed at the response while she talks about everything and says how amazing it is that everything is coming together. Vita remains the eternal uppity loli and gets cranky when Nanoha pats her head and gives us a few final words silently about protecting Nanoha. I’d also like to point out that Nanoha’s hips shake a lot more when walking next to Vita than any other time in the series so far.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 05: Stars and Lightning
This episode opens with Caro having a flashback to her youth in a sort of tribal culture where her parents tell her about her power and she remembers that she’s afraid of it. She then has a vision of stigmata on her palms and gasps before snapping back to reality.
Back at Riot 6 HQ, things are getting worse with the Gadget having pretty much taking over the train. Nanoha and crew deploy straight from the copter, while Nanoha has some words of encouragement for Caro about the people watching them. On the ground, Fate transforms and we get out first magical girl transformation scene of the show, and let me tell you… Fate bounces, as well as wears some lacey underwear. Nanoha also transforms, but her underwear is a lot more functional, and she doesn’t bounce.
Rein gives the rest of the crew their final instructions and information on the train while Nanoha and Fate rendezvous in flight. A set of air things start trying to shoot them out of the sky, but Nanoha dodges and takes out a ton with an Axel Shooter. Fate also carves up a few with a generic scythe slash.
Subaru and Teana leap from the copter and they get their own transformation sequences as well, followed by Erio and Caro and their own transformations. Their underwear isn’t nearly as interesting as Fate’s, and Erio never goes to the exploding underwear level… thankfully. Anyway, the foursome immediately begins attacking. Subaru has a little trouble controlling her device, and it’s kind of silly to see her talking to her shoe. Teana also has her second gun, which she can apparently summon at will and she chats with her new Device as well.
Hayate finally makes it to Riot 6 HQ and takes over command of the operation. Erio and Caro are meanwhile fighting one of the advanced Gadget drones, which knocks Fried’s shots away without effort. Erio tries to attack, but the magic dampener stops his attack and nulls Caro as well. Erio starts struggling with it until it starts blasting lasers and slams him against the wall. Caro flashes back again to people discussing her in the S-T crew and her abilities… and Fate is shown taking responsibility for her.
Back in reality, Erio has been caught and tossed into the air by the drone and is out cold. He falls off the train while Caro starts emitting some kind of wave and she jumps after him. Nanoha is also nearby and tells HQ to not worry. She grabs his hand and her Device uses a Drive Ignition to enclose both in a bubble which slows their fall before she turns Fried into a giant dragon and the two fly on him back to the train.
The others look on at big Fried while the big drone pulls itself out of the train, only for Fried to try to flame it and fail because of its shield. Caro casts another spell on Strato as Erio leaps to attack. He slashes off the tendrils, Strado then loads a cartridge, and he spits it, and then slashes upward to finish it off.
The train has now been cleared of all drones and everybody is relieved while the suspected Relic-related device is secured by Subaru. Meanwhile, someone more sinister is looking on and collecting data on the heroes… and it fades out as he laughes to himself.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 04: First Alert
The art too a minor dip this episode, but otherwise it was still pretty well done. Nanoha’s utter domination of the new recruits was nice to see, though I’m interested in how they’re going to leverage that for later episodes since at the moment, she/Fate/Hayate could just show up and trash anything that the cadets are having problems with. The first real battle for the cadets is next week, though the preview was almost exclusively Caro, so we’ll see how the kids do.
Teana and crowd are getting used to their new surroundings and lodgings, while Erio and Fried are already forming the male core on their own. Poor guys. Teana gives a voice over about the division and all they’re doing and another round of training with Nanoha starts. This time, they need to evade Nanoha’s Axel Shooter or manage to get a clean hit on her.
Nanoha shoots at them and they scatter. Subaru and Teana try to surround her, and Nanoha zaps them, only to be revealed as illusions while Subaru attacks from above. Nanoha blocks Subaru and then redirects her two shots at Subaru who is forced to retreat. Teana’s gun misfires and she almost lets Subaru get shot down.
Caro is enchanting Erio’s spear. She boosts it a bit too high, and Nanoha continues dodging Teana’s shots as well as Fried’s attacks. Erio blasts forward straight into the moving Nanoha and he’s repulsed backwards, but since in the collision he managed to scratch Nanoha’s jacket, they pass the training, though Subaru’s rollerblades are totally fried. Nanoha also tells them that they’ll be getting their real Devices soon.
On the way back, they run into Fate and Hayate in their slick ride and do a general check-in on how they’re doing and how training is going before Fate and Hayate continue on to their meeting. Hayate chatters on at Fate about various things. I think 90% of Fate’s responses were “I see.”
Then, the important part of the episode, naked time. A little bonding the female showers while poor Erio and Fried are stuck on the stairs. Fried’s forlorn “gao” was so pathetic.
BACK AT THE GALACTIC CORE… Calina (Calima?), is doing random administrative work. Hayate’s meeting is with her, and she fills in Hayate about a new object that they believe is related to the Gadget drones and the Relic stuff. Hayate thinks there’s something strange about it though, and tells her to not worry and everything is going to be fine.
Back at Riot Six HQ, Shirley is giving the cadets their new Devices as specified by Nanoha and Raging Heart. Rein gives them the final details on the devices before Nanoha shows up and they officially get the details on them. All devices (including the ones belonging to the Aces) also have a power limiter on them so now we have the potential for Super Magical Sayajin Nanoha II. She also lets them know about their own rankings as well as her own and a few other people’s for comparison.
Back at Fate’s Car, she’s talking to Griffith about the recruits when an Alert suddenly starts. A train is out of control due to the Gadget drones attacking it. Hayate deploys Nanoha’s team for its first real mission while Fate is told to rendezvous with them. Nanoha gives them a brief peptalk on the copter while on the way there and tells them that they’ll be fine since Fate and Hayate will also be there, but Caro is distracted and tense.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 03: Gathering of Troops
Overall a pretty enjoyable episode, and it basically fills in most of the gaps that you’d be lacking if you hadn’t read the A’s to StrikerS manga. Nanoha’s…er… encounter… with the drones still hasn’t come up yet, but I’m pretty sure it will in an episode or two. Elio and Caro also got to strut their stuff.
Rein and Hayate are maxing and relaxing in their office when the other two Aces come in dressed in full regalia. They report for official duty to Hayate and officially introduce themselves to her and there’s laughter all around before another officer comes in and introduces himself to them. I missed the name, but they recognized him although I didn’t. I’m a disgrace to my Nanoha fandom.
Over to all the new recruits and workers for Hayate’s unit where she gives them a peptalk as it pans over everybody and they applaud. Signum and Fate do a little catching up after the peptalk while some really strange music plays. I think someone got a little slaphappy with the double reeds. Nanoha is meanwhile escorting the 4 subordinates (Subaru, Teana, Elio and Caro) to get changed for training.
Lots more wandering around and chatting with the various troops and whathaveyou, including, but not limited to a sentient helicopter. A girl named Shirley also comes running up to Nanoha and crew as they’re getting ready to go through the training course. She gives them a brief rundown of the course and the simulator and whatnot, and starts up the course. Vita and Signum are watching the training course while Shamal is managing her own little info crew. Nanoha gives the four the final rundown on the course and the enemies they’ll be facing on it before setting them loose.
And then, because we’d so much rather see a briefing after the eyecatch than action, Hayate is giving a rundown on some of the recent disasters (including Subaru’s ship) and how they believe that they’re related to a certain Lost Logia that destroyed a world, and now the drones that they believe are related to it have started to invade their worlds.
Back to Subaru, who is having trouble keeping up with the speed of the training drones. Spiderman Elio is also having issues hitting them and whiffs completely. Caro’s glove is an intelligent device and she helps Teana take a few shots, but they’re cancelled by the Anti-Magic-Field (which Nanoha tells them about after they notice it) that the drones have. Subaru’s a little dense and decides to use her magic road to go after them, which falls apart as she gets close.
Teana (calling Caro a midget), finally introduces herself to the poor kid, and starts actually organizing the other three into some semblence of strategy. Elio’s spear (Strado?) loads a cartridge and he destroys a bridge to try to drop it onto them taking out two, while Suzaku tries to punch them again and fails, only to tackle one behind her and have the punch finally work. Caro and Friedrich set the whole mess on fire, and then Caro grabs another couple by using chains from the ground. Teana creates a charged shot with her gun (which Nanoha remarks is AA power). It manages to pierce through multiple AMF barriers and finish off the last of the drones, and she collapses, exhausted.
BACK AT THE GALACTIC CORE, Hayate and her knights are meeting up for lunch while Rein is taking a nap in her briefcase. Poor Zafira has to eat on the floor. She really doesn’t treat her knights all that well, all things considered. Anyway, more chatter about Nanoha and the new recruits and what-have-you and that’s pretty much all she wrote, other than some hardcore Rein vs A Cherry Tomato action.
And possibly Nanoha and Fate undressing to get into bed together. But you didn’t hear that from me.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 02: 6th Mobile Division
We rejoin Nanoha and crew as Subaru tearfully reunites with them. Reinforce tells them that Nanoha is going to be their instructor while Teana recounts Nanoha’s rank and fame in the corps. Hayate also gives Fate a peptalk about her own responsibilities.
Another flashback to Fate remembering what happened on the night that Nanoha saved Subaru. Hayate is directing traffic with Reinforce II while Fate is charging into the fray. She’s also discussing the crisis with Subaru and Ginga’s father, and talking about how to handle things. Nanoha reports in about Subaru and then Hayate transforms and joins Fate and Nanoha.
Fate finds a family in the flames protected by a barrier and creates another one around their’s. Meanwhile, a girl (Subaru’s older sister, Ginga) is looking for Subaru. Fate finds her and rescues her as the floor collapses. Nanoha checks in with Fate showing that Subaru’s been rescued and the two fly off to the safe area. Then, with everybody out of the ship, Hayate casts a spell to freeze the entire thing. A team of other mages come rushing in finish off the mission.
Cut to the aces lounging around in their nightclothes for some fanservice and general existential Hayate angst which goes on for far longer than it should have. I swear, the melodrama in the series at the moment is so silly. Hayate wants to form her own unit to deal with random problems like this, and asks Fate and Nanoha to join her, which they obviously do.
Back to present times, Fate and Hayate are briefing Subaru and Teana about various things relating to the background of the series and Hayate’s own unit. Takase Mizuki comes in and gives them a dressing down. She then gives them permission to retake the test in a little while.
Later, Subaru and Teana are off lounging around the courtyard, talking about how lucky they are to be teamed with Nanoha. Some good natured rubbing by Subaru leads to Teana smacking her around a bit and Subaru’s generic talk about wanting to become stronger and better and as good as Nanoha, plus a backhanded compliment at Teana earns more of her wrath.
Nanoha and Hayate were watching them from above and talk about how they work together and whatnot. Fate also joins them and they talk about how Nanoha is holding up with all the work and friendship and yada yada before heading off.
Cut to an airport-looking area where Elio is waiting impatiently. Signum comes up and Elio greets her officially. Fate and Nanoha are en route to the place as well. Elio is looking for someone named Lushe (pronounced Lucia), who comes running down the stairs until she trips and Elio’s intelligent device (looks like a watch) activates and he uses a Sonic Move to catch her, sending both flying and him ending up getting a ‘handful’ of Caro. Her little dragon pops out of her bag and gets introduced.
Finally we get to some (brief) action, in the form of Vita, Zafira and Shamal fighting some generic mecha things that look pretty similar to the training bots from episode one, though a lot more spikey and dangerous. I’m told they’re the same drone things as from the prequel manga. Shamal is in corps outfit, and Vita is also in a much sleeker and less goth-loli outfit as well. And to end the episode, Teana and Subaru are shown in a train in a similar looking area to where those three were fighting.
Whew. Not a bad episode, but definitely lacking in the action. The melodrama is also especially silly. The preview shows Teana shooting at something (looks like the same area as the test), as well as Caro and Elio joining up officially as well.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
Nanoha StrikerS Episode 01: Wings To The Sky
It opens with the scenes of a ship on fire with a child Subaru trapped inside while firefighters rush about. She cries for someone to save her, and Nanoha rushes in to block a falling statue and then Divine Busters the fuck out of the ceiling to carry the two off to escape.
Fastforward and Subaru is shadowboxing in full equipment while Tiana checks her equipment. Reinforce calls them up and prepares them for their excercise while Fate and Hayate watch from a copter overhead and chatter about various things. Nanoha also does a final check over the course with Raging Heart. The exercise starts and the Big Three watch on. They go through various obstacles and shoot targets/dodge lasers, the works. Subaru uses her cartridge enabled Device too (though Tiana doesn’t… assuming her normal bullets aren’t cartridges at any rate.)
At one point the two are pinned down, and they use an invisibility spell as well as tossing Tiana’s gun to the ceiling to break free. Tiana also shows that she’s got some magical skill here too. After pushing Subaru out of the way, Tiana twists her ankle and takes out Nanoha’s observational camera off a ricochet.
Subaru gets all sad about Tiana saving her and hurting herself while Tiana goes all stoic on her. Nanoha loads her barrier jacket and goes to personally observe them. Subaru and Tiana argue about losing people and/or leaving them behind while some really cheesy adventure BGM plays until Tiana yells at Subaru and the two decide to continue on.
Tiana runs out along the path, until she’s gunned down by a turret… only to emerge from the wreckage still running. The running Tiana is shown to be an illusion as more spawn and distract the turrets. Subaru watches from above and charges her magical gauntlet before creating a path to the building where the turret is and then rushing down it and attacking it, busting the shield, but then getting shot away. A magical shot later and the turret is toast.
Subaru crosses the finish line with Tiana riding on her back and shooting down the last couple defense turrets. Subaru gets a little overzealous and turns on the nitro and almost pancakes them into the debris before Nanoha and Fate stop them short. Reinforce yells at them… and there my raw stops. Sadness.
OverallNanoha’s side ponytail is looking more and more like Takase Mizuki with every passing day. I’m sorry, I’m not going to be able to hold back the Card Master Peach jokes, but I’ll try.
Animation is hot stuff from start to finish. Even though they don’t really fight anything except harmless training drones. That kind of knocked back the action a little bit since there really wasn’t much drama to it, but as a pilot it was still quality. Subaru’s bow still looks silly though.
Fans of the first two seasons won’t be disappointed in the action at all. I fully expect and hope to see Carol and Fate’s boytoy in the next episode or two. This one is definitely pacing itself for the 24/26 episode haul, and I’ve got no complaints at all with how it started… other than the cheesyness of the BGM as Tiana and Subaru were arguing.
Labels: Nanoha StrikerS
