Anime Reviews 02 - Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha THE MOVIE 1st (NETABARE ALERT)

Yes. I have replace it. Cause i have no better words for it.

Hello again, folks. How do you like my new design? I made absolutely zero effort on making it (except for the new title bar. But even that is still easy) thanks to the amazing power of D.I.Y. Bravo Blogspot, Bravo.

Now today is a current review and also a favor from someone. I'm reviewing Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha THE MOVIE 1st


(Subtle. Wish many titles can be this english)



Before you ask, Yes, I do watched the original series and actually enjoyed it. So here's a little background history of this show and what did i think of it

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was originally a 13 episode TV series first aired in 2004. It was meant to be a spinoff of an OVA called Triangle Heart ~Sweet Songs Forever~ which is also a spinoff of a Hentai OVA called Triangle Heart ~ Sazanami Joshiryou. The OVA was one of the 4 Hentai OVAs with the same title but diffrent subtitle and has some reoccurring characters.

Now if you were like me, You are already confused...

The character, Takamachi Nanoha was a minor character from the Sweet Songs Forever series which for some reason manage to get her own series. So, being the Boba Fett of the Tri-Heart franchise, She was made to become a Mahou Shoujo/Magical Girl. A classic genre where even girls can fight evil. But Lyrical Nanoha is certainly one of a kind in term of this genre. It mixes the antics of a Magical Girl combining with weaponry and action scenes that is common in any Mecha Anime. It was so successful, It spawned 2 sequel: Nanoha A's (An awesome sequel) and Nanoha StrikerS (Never watched it, but got mixed reactions from what i heard) and a few side stories via a few mangas

Now enough about it, Let's review this thing. Since it's a movie, maybe i just make some summary together with pics. Take note that this is going to be VERY LONG.

The movie starts up with a scenery of a port city. With Takamachi Nanoha narrating something:

In this great, big world,
There are thousands or millions of peoples.
And there are even more encounters and farewells.
This is a story of a small happenings and also an encounter.
We met in a spring during my third year of preliminary school.
It was a small, but precious encounter.
This is the story of our beginning.

Takamachi Nanoha, 12 years old (?), DERP.

Seriously young lady, you're too young to think like this, you have fashion and trends to care in this kind of age... But oh well, she's the main character so i can't argue on it (Why don't you hire a narrator to tell that for you instead)

After that, we have a scene of a boy fighting what seems to be a gigantic version of an In-Training Digimon. The monster carries a gem called Jewel Seeds and that boy's job is to seal that thing. Pretty standard, but the monster is just too much for him so he got knocked out and turned into a ferret... I feel your pain. It's sucks for you to fail and turned into a fuzzy animal. An insult to your manhood.

Afterwards we got some unimportant scenes where Nanoha hangs out with her other 2 friends and later found the dead ferret. She then proceeds to send it to a vet and that's it...

Later that night, The resurrected ferret then tries to communicate through telepathy. And somehow, Nanoha can hear his voice and starts to run towards where the sound came from. The ferret went lose from his cage and was chased by an In-training Digim(jk i mean a Jewel Seed monster while bumps on Nanoha in mid road.

After the furball and the little girl met, The movie then proceed on executing a trademark of any Mahou Shoujo series, The furball say to the little girl that she will fight using the power he give. The girl was confused at first but seeing how she's in deep shit if she don't do anything, She agrees. Lastly they have to make some sorta ritual and POOF! Sailormoon-esque Transformation scene!


(Mahou Shoujo has gone a long way from ribbons and fabrics to Bolts and Plates. Technology can be scary sometimes...)

So she went on fighting the monster while being confused. Another trademark of the genre. After that's done, there's many uninteresting stuff like how can the ferret talk and scenes of Nanoha's family doing something and stuff... But here's an interesting part during the battle. Nanoha's Magic Staff can talk and is spoken in real English (if you watch the series like i do, you know it already). While that was common, look at this


I could question how did the system understand japanese and vice versa, But for me, THIS IS THE FUTURE OF FANSUBING. Who knows in the future, people being too generous to subtitle english lines in japanese

Later, A cat has turned to a Griffin by the power of the Jewel Seeds. With that stuff happening, Guess who pops out.


(Deady's gonna kill me if i made fun of her... but,)

A Black-Yellow-Construction-Color motive Magical Girl, Fate Testarossa. She has an axe that can turn into a miniaturize version of Gundam Deathscythe's weapon. After justice was dealt to the poor griffin and this:


(Fate escapes the chance of a bestiality rape)

...Nanoha starts to question who she is and Fate proceeds to send her back to kitchen. Then we cut off to more null scenes also added with Nanoha talking to her pet ferret (I should start calling him by his name, Yuuno) on how to use her magic better, which involves not paying attention in class. Being a hero of justice and love is a tough job, isn't it?

Later, Nanoha and Fate met each other again in a nighttime city, where the 2 of them duke it out for a single Jewel Seed. The fight scenes now started to look like stuff a robot anime would shit out, but it doesn't matter anyways cause it's awesome. There's also some minor things to be shared. Like this:


(If only Pokemon battles involving killing one another is a legal thing...)

During their duel, they manage to clash their 'Electric Guitar' together sending out enormous shock-wave of hi-voltage. This makes the Jewel Seed unstable and in the end, Fate manage to snatch and calms it down. WITH THE POWER OF LOVE!

After that happened, We see some null scenes, and introduced us to a Dimensional Guard Team boarding a battleship which also something a Mecha Anime commonly have. Then we are also introduced to the main villain, Precia Testarossa. Where her hobby is to have a recreational exercise called 'Domestic Violence'


(Domestic Violence, Stress Free)

After all that happened, Nanoha and Fate met again for the 3rd time. They ready to duke it up again, until it was cockblocked by the Dimensional Admin Group. Fate manage to run with the help of his furry friend Arf, And Nanoha was bought to the ship. For some reason, Yuuno stop being a fluffy animal and manage to become his original form again. They were greeted by a MILF captain. In a wasted-use-of-a-room


(I could make it as a Bar or extra work room. Why didn't you think of that?)

So anyways, she went on telling stuff like the background of this whole Dimensional world and other Science Fiction stuff that seems lost in a Mahou Shoujo concept, then proceed on a null scene.


(Green Milk Tea. I should give it a try someday...)

While that happened, Fate appears again. This time she wants to capture a huge load of Jewel Seeds concentrated on a single place. Then i guess she started to fight a giant moving water smashing stuff. Then Nanoha manage to illegally helped Fate in what i think is the best transforming scene in this movie.


(I have Mozart's Dies Irae song in my head when Nanoha descended like a fallen angel)

Then, with the combining power of Nanoha and Fate (Also Yuuno and Arf), They manage to seal all the Jewel Seeds. After that, another null scene followed with Arf pissed of to Precia for being a dominatrix. Which resulted Arf gets her ass handed to her and fell conveniently to one of Nanoha's friend that voiced by Kugimiya Rie.


(...but i just left it be. Looks like it's dead)

Well, of course Arf is not dead. She then begs Nanoha to save Fate from being Fated to collect the Jewels which in returned does not Fated her to anything. (Sorry for dragging the word). And so, Both of them duke it out again... One last time.

It was intense. For some reason, the world they fight seems to look like the aftermath of Baldios's Bad Ending. (Look it up for those who don't know). In the meantime, Precia's Past was revealed. Too long for me to explain it, but let's put it short, She has issues for loving her daughter and work at the same time.

During all the fight, Which was intense, Nanoha uses her power of Wanting-to-befriend and strikes a finishing blow to Fate


(I SHALL VAPORIZE YOU SO WE CAN BE FRIENDS!!!)

(Since then, Fate has become a social outcast after discovering the frightening truth of friendship...)

So after that, Nanoha manage to get fate alive and boarded her in the dimensional ship. Later, The Dimensional Bureau stuff's army storms on Precia's fortress which looks like Zentraedi's Mothership from Macross DYRL/TV series, But was foiled by Fate's mom. What do you expect, Grunts are destined to fail anyway. And then, Precia makes a chilling shocker. Fate was not her daughter all along. Fate went being a little girl and emoing while Nanoha, Yuuno and a kid from the Bureau named Chrono storms the evil lair only to be greeted by Armored Soldier without joints

When they were outnumbered, Fate has arrived to save their asses. Suddenly, the armor's mother appeared:



(This is enough proof that qualifies them to enter Super Robot Wars games. If Iczer 1 and Iczer 3 can, why not this? Make it happen Terada.)

After all that stuff blowing up, They manage to reach to Precia, who is at her life's end. Together with her experimental child in a jar (I know, it's her real daughter), She fell into oblivion


(REMEMBER ME AS A DRAMATIC DOMINATRIX....!!)

After that's done, we still have some null stuff that only builds up the relation of Nanoha and Fate. After that, Nanoha and Fate meet once more and perhaps, the last time (I know it's now, so don't ask). And then:

(The Academy Award Winning Same Gender Love Scene)

And then, They both part ways, thus ended the movie.

Overall

Phew, I'm not used to type this long, But for me i enjoyed this 2 hours movie. It's more to a retelling of the 1st season of Nanoha and they made a good job combining the whole story into one full length movie.

My only drawback to this movie is that this movie plays safe. It's only converting the whole 13 episode into a movie without any tweeks, additions and changes. Sure there are some additions and tweeks, but everything else seems similar.

Now if the 2nd movie is coming and it's the retelling of A's, i say it will be a kickass experience. Can't wait for that.

My Anime Ranking: 8/10

Next review may come a bit faster than usual. And by people's demand, I will review K-On, but maybe not for the upcoming review, So stay tuned for that.

Omake - The thing i immediately think when seeing something:


(The most patterned you shoot gains more point. Don't forgot to hold Shift+Z after each shot)

EDIT (2/12/10):

There's a mistake on stuff, Nanoha is not 12 years old, but 9. And she narrates like that when she's nine? What is she, a prodigy?

Also this:


(EVERY SINGLE ANIME NOWADAYS)

So i forgot to stated the scene when Nanoha finally figure out what to say to Fate and stuff. But those flashback scene really disturbs me for some reason. Did she really depressed as hell on how to befriend Fate? Also, she's NINE YEARS OLD and depressed?

My goodness... Nanoha is a psycho. But what would i expect when one of her famous quote is this:

It's OK if i'm a devil, I'll just use my hellish tools to make you listen!

Takamachi Nanoha: The moe counterpart of Kira Yamato.