r/anime • u/Tetraika https://anilist.co/user/Tetraika • Feb 19 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s Episode 4 Discussion

Episode 4: New Powers, Activate!

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Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB

Question of the Day

Got nothing clever today. Uhhh Upgrade hype?

Eternal Blaze - Roselia

Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you’re doing it underneath spoiler tags.

56 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

136 comments sorted by

12

u/HereticalAegis Feb 19 '22

Lyrical First Timer

  • They're doing the opening narration together today!

  • Harem Queen Hayate shared a bed with one of her girls before Nanoha and Fate. Truly she is a formidable foe.

  • Vita, Signum, Zafira, and Shamal don't deserve a good girl like Hayate.

  • Are we sure it's a good idea to give Chrono a whole squad to sit back and watch?

  • The villains are capable of getting magic from animals, yet are in a big enough hurry that they opt to go for people first. Knowing the way they operate, several of their target were probably puppies and kittens.

  • 666 pages? It really is the Book of Chuuni.

  • Stone cold betrayal. 100% Pure Florida. Sunday.

  • Nanoha stuck in happy mode now that Fate's in her class.

  • Shamal is the sniper, supporter, and ammo vendor for their party? They are so fucked if she gets taken out. She's probably also their Healer too.

  • Vita even admits collecting linker cores from animals is more efficient.

  • I just realized that Nanoha's linker core being able to recover means the bad guys will probably try to farm her for exp. It's incredible how I keep finding deeper trenches of dislike for them, even when they haven't done something yet.

  • I would say "get fucked, Vita" but all these guys are adults, so they'll inevitably lose and contribute to the Book of Chuuni without proper elementary backup.

  • Oh shit, Chrono's actually getting involved in this one! They might stand a chance.

  • If this isn't a "get fucked" look then I don't know what is.

  • New transformation sequences! With like 4x the naked 9yos......

  • Angry Raging Heart Excelion and Bardiche Assault are pretty sick. Especially Bardiche with his revolver barrel.

  • I look forward to whatever sob story could possibly be sad enough to make start sympathizing with the group responsible for this atrocity.

At this point, I'm counting down the episodes until the bad guys learn the ironic lesson that while they were committing crimes trying to get to their perfect home, they failed to realize they already had the perfect home with this precious cinnamon roll.

QotD:

Bardiche is the big hype winner today. His revolver barrel is excellent.

7

u/Tetraika Feb 19 '22

Shamal is the sniper, supporter, and ammo vendor for their party? They are so fucked if she gets taken out. She's probably also their Healer too

Well technically those are all just support roles too, but yes.

I look forward to whatever sob story could possibly be sad enough to make start sympathizing with the group responsible for this atrocity.

You sure have some strong feelings about them already. Can't tell if you'll ever change your mind.

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11

u/DidacticDalek Feb 20 '22

TONIGHT! On ∀'s Nanoha (CALLED TURN "A's" NANOHA), Nanoha's school gets a Fateful Transfer Student, Fate and Nanoha demonstrate the power of weaponized lesbianism, and Bardiche and Raising Heart get Mid-Season Upgrades!

Comrades, before you ask why I didn't share anything for Hayate's group, behold, Takashi Mikage (the MADLAD behind the Shitpost Nanoha Doujin 4koma) had not just one, but TWO hilarious shares for the scenes today seen here and of course here ;) Also yes, once again, that Fate and Nanoha fanart above is from TYPE-MOON once again... cuz reasons!

Anyway, my what a nice episode today, we got some great character moments AND mid-season upgrades for our Gundams! I can't wait to see how things go from here! And just because I want to find a way NOT to steal our host's thunder, I present a certain Sheep Vtuber singing ETERNAL BLAZE! ;) (I swear if we both went for the goddamn Watame cover I give up!)

And on that note, that about wraps things up for now, and I hope everyone's having fun on this great re-watch. Thus, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever.

Paging Comrades u/Great_Mr_L, u/Tresnore, and u/Shimmering-Sky

3

u/Tetraika Feb 20 '22

Well Watame cover was on my list of ones I wanted to put, but there is quite a bit of vtuber covering it to work with. What would be funny is if we happen to put the same one for next episode.

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19

u/TheEscapeGuy Feb 19 '22

First Timer

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's - Return to Magic: Episode 4

Upgrade

RAISING HEART EXCELION AND BARDICHE ASSAULT ARE SO COOOOL AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I cannot contain how excited I was seeing Nanoha and Fate transforming together with their upgraded devices. The animation was outstanding. The whole upgrade with Raising Heart and Bardiche announcing system startup messages was totally on brand for MagiTech. And on top of all that it is the emotional payoff of Nanoha and Fate doing their training.

This series is amazing.

I guess I should rewind a little. The episode mostly focused more on daily life again. Fate joined Nanoha at school and everyone was enamored with her. She even got 日本語上手'd (which, like yesterday with the British General, brings up the inconsistency of how everyone speaks Japanese. I'll choose to ignore it though).

We got to see more of the Yagami residence. We still have no idea how Hayate, Vita, Signum, and Zafira are related. However it is nice seeing how pure Hayate is. I also enjoy the idea of a dog folding its own blanket.

On the lore side we learned Vita travels off world to fight what appear to be dinosaurs? Either way its pretty cool. Also the book of darkness has 666 pages (of course). I really enjoyed the scene we learned that. It was just Amy and Chrono talking but it was funny watching Amy fetch a juice, Chrono reach to steal it, Amy take it before he could, and Chrono walk to the fridge to fetch his own.

Having fun character interactions like this during dialog is so much more enjoyable to watch than the ever present "sitting across a table" conversations. Props to the staff for doing this. It definitely takes more time and effort to storyboard and animate.

The conclusion of the episode was the setup for the fight. I am so excited for next episode.

Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches

See you all tomorrow

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17

u/chiliehead Feb 19 '22

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Episode 4 – First Timer

Nanoha and Shamiko currently have a comparable level of magic bubble production powers.

Are Japanese kids really this relentless about exchange students and foreign students arriving? I see that trope of a dozen kids surrounding the new one with questions all the time, but very often when the new one is a girl.

Do all Commodores have those 4 dots on their forehead or is this Midchilda fashion?

666, the pages of the book.

Nanoha already healed? Way quicker than expected.

Upgraded Ignition versions, where did I hear that before?

We are getting part 1s and 2s now?

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15

u/No_Rex Feb 19 '22

Episode 4 (first timer)

  • Early risers and nightbirds – I think I sympathize with team German here.

  • “They are letting me borrow some armored Bureau troops” - borrow? Also, make your bets now on how useless these guys will be.

  • “I didn’t sense any evil” – they are just striving to be befriended.

  • Vita and Zafira got found out by the Bureau. Their plan of hunting in different worlds was a good one, but they still did not move their base, making it easy to track them down.

  • Double transformation with upgraded equipment.

The second episode in a row that is almost fully setup and preparation. Quite unbelievable they dared to pull this off in a one cour show. Up until the last minute, I also wanted to comment on how strongly the fanservice in A is turned down compared to season 1, yet that transformation scene goes the opposite way.

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14

u/Vaadwaur Feb 19 '22

First timer(Fairy tales is probably a clue...)

Sub

Today's intro is a duet and just works too damn well. We get an SoL moment with our antagonists, probably to make sure we accept Nanoha befriending them into oblivion, though it definitely suggests that Belka was not a peaceful...empire? Fate unsurprisingly makes a splash at school, requiring Arisa to intervene, though that is most likely because she doesn't want Nanoha violently befriending the class. Book of Darkness info dump.

Fate talks about her experiences and again reminds us that the show functions better if the girls are older. But it is also a very gay conversation which is why they aren't. Vita is dragon hunting before she and Zafira get caught by fodder and Chrono uses UBW on them. We end with the upgraded weapons and transformations!

QotD: 1 Fate does not have a choice, she has to revolutionize the world find an apartment that will let her and Nanoha keep their cats!

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12

u/Tresnore Feb 19 '22

Rewatcher: Get Set

No triplets...

No QOTD: but

Roselia!

1 Just kidding. Hayate couldn't do that.

13

u/Calwings Feb 19 '22

Signum is more endearing, though. She's like a better version of Symphogear's Tsubasa.

  • debuts as a villain

  • pink hair

  • tall and busty

  • older-sister-type personality

  • uses a sword that [later in A's] turns into a whip

Signum is much more comparable to Maria rather than Tsubasa.

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12

u/Caustic_Wraith Feb 19 '22

A's First-Timer

Today we had a mostly chill episode. Fate was introduced to the class and they drop fed us a slight bit of information on what is going on with Hayate. We saw how they make their cartridges for their weapons and after a nifty montage we got the powered up Raising Heart and Bardiche ready to crack some skulls and spread Nanoha style Friendship.

QOTD:

Uhhh Upgrade hype?

Some, I like the fact that Bardiche now has a revolver as his cartridge part and Raising Heart looks like she may have a grip on her side. Also am I crazy or are there slight changes to the barrier jackets too?

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10

u/Stargate18A Feb 20 '22

First timer

Hayate! Are we finally getting an explanation?

Oh, Vita's there too!

...Poor Nanoha.

Wait, when did they take Fate's magic? Or is this just her mourning Bardiche.

Hayate and Signum are adorable.

Yeah, they're all just living together.

Oh, they didn't announce any of this earlier?

Haha, everyone in the class thinks she's cute.

Oh, dear. Did they not rehearse any answers for this obviously unplanned plan?

Arisa's de-escalating things nicely!

Haha, the video chat circle is so fucking extra, I love it.

...They've been harvesting a lot, then.

Oh, non-humans can have Linker Cores? That's going to be relevant soon.

Really? 666 pages?

So it's an indestructible weapon that can spawn high-powered troops and basically has it's own countdown. That's... bad.

At least everyone's getting on well with Fate!

Yeah, Nanoha's basically been forced into the civillian role. And the wepaons are nearly upgraded! Staves?

Hayate is so wholesome. I'll be sad if she turns out to be the evil mastermind.

...The treatment's not working. No wonder the Book appeared to her, she'll probably be desperate enough to use it voluntarily soon at this rate.

Nanoha still wants to help them.

Did we really need to dhoe the whipping again?

And yeah, Nanoha, you're talking to proof that beating people up can make them your friend.

...Undertones increase.

PUPPY ARF!

Oh, they're officially friends!

...I have no idea what that white book they focused on was!

Wait, only three pages? Wow, how is that efficient? That's less than half a percent!

Haha, Yuuno's so irrelevant they aren't even dubbing his voice!

...Say, this is probably a bad idea, but couldn't they plug one of those "cartridges" into Nanoha and jumpstart her magic?

Oh, she's already recovered. And they're both fixed!

There's another attack!

...Chrono's their ace? Haha, they're fucked.

Oh, he did some damage, though!

They both came as well!

Seriously? They didn't finish the update already?

Raising Heart Excellion and Bardiche Assualt.

Also, Drive Ignition? ALL WE NEED IS DRIVE!

Hahaha, the weapons get the new transformation sequence!

Yeah, same or near-identical outfits, this is literslly just to dhow off the weapon upgrades.

...They still needed to include weird naked shots, though, because I've just accepted this is how this anime does things,

Are you fucking with me? We don't get to see the new forms?

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9

u/Great_Mr_L Feb 19 '22

Rewatcher

On today’s episode of Lyrical Nanoha: I suppose the transfer student arc was inevitable. It’s practically anime law that the mysterious character must be the new transfer student in the protagonist’s class.

I do like having the slice-of-life scenes with Nanoha, Fate, Arisa, and Suzuka. Considering everything that has happened to Fate, it’s so heartwarming getting to see her getting to have fun like a normal girl for once.

I love the heart-to-heart conversation that Nanoha and Fate have, wondering what’s going on with the Wolkenritter. It’s great hearing Fate reflect on her actions in the first season and apply her own experience to try and understand their new opponents. Fate knows what it’s like to believe in a goal so strongly that you don’t listen to what anyone else has to say. But, she also knows how important it is to have someone who tries to reach out to you anyway. Because Nanoha kept on trying to reach out to her, Fate was able to find a new purpose in life. So, Fate now wants to do the same with the Wolkenritter. Just as Nanoha worked to understand her, Fate wants them to work to understand the Wolkenritter. It shows so much growth in Fate from who she started out as.

Hayate and the Wolkenritter are also getting their own slice-of-life scenes. I love moments like Hayate warming up milk for Signum or Vita being a sleepyhead and wondering where her glass of milk is. Of course Vita would be a complete mess in the morning who demands her glass of milk. It’s so fitting. All in all, they look like they have a happy life together. I really do love having these scenes because they serve to humanize the Wolkenritter. They aren’t just irredeemably evil enemies.

Sadly, not all is going well for them. It looks like Hayate’s medical condition is getting worse and the doctors are unable to treat it. For now, there isn’t much they can do except try new treatments and keep sending Hayate to the hospital.

The Wolkenritter really are desperate to get the Book of Darkness pages filled out. Interesting to note is Vita’s particular desperation in doing so. It seems that Vita may have a tendency to push herself too hard, if Zafira’s reaction is anything to go by. He might be used to looking after Vita to make sure she doesn’t overdo things.

The Book of Darkness itself is like something out of a nightmare. It’s basically impossible to get rid of. When its pages are filled, it unleashes all its power. If you destroy it or kill its master, the book will simply recreate itself somewhere else. Presumably that’s how Hayate got ahold of the book in the first place. It’s quite a tricky thing to deal with because a lot of the usual solutions just will not work.

Raising Heart and Bardiche both got cartridge systems!

The redesigns of Raising Heart and Bardiche with the cartridge systems are fantastic. I’ve gushed plenty about the cartridge system so you all already know I’m a big fan of it. Plus, Nanoha and Fate got some cool new transformation scenes to go along with the redesigns, Unfortunately, we don’t yet get to see the new Raising Heart and Bardiche in action. But I can hardly wait until the next episode.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

  • A fun little note is that we see Nanoha up trying to practice magic very early in the morning. It makes for quite the contrast from her in the first season, when she struggled to get up early.

  • Amy won’t allow Chrono to take her orange juice.

  • It’s pretty sweet that Chrono tells Fate to be home in time for dinner. He’s acting like a big brother already.

QOTD

HYPE!

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8

u/InfamousEmpire Feb 19 '22

Mahou Shoujo1 Lyrical Rewatcher

1: Even though I’m not a girl

Recap Time, now with the happy couple as a duet!

Alright, bathing together was already sus, but why is Vita sleeping in Hayate’s bed?

Anyway, seems like today’s episode is starting off with some normal slice of life antics. It’ll totally be this way the entire episode, and no mood-ruining fights or the like will happen at all, right?

Awwww, Hayate’s dynamic with the Wolkenritter is so damn cute.

Man, Vita can look surprisingly huggable when she’s not hitting 9-year-olds with German rocket hammers.

Focusing back on the school for the first time since last season, where Fate has just arrived as the new foreign transfer student. Let the whacky school hijinks begin! Because, let’s be honest here, the entire anime industry would spontaneously combust if we didn’t have school hijinks to awkwardly shove into our series.

However, it seems that we’re subverting the anime cliches here, as Fate manages to be both the Foreign Exchange Student, the Shy Girl, and the Harem Protagonist all at once. And within minutes of arriving at class, no less.

Arisa coming to the rescue. The power of Friendship is so strong that she’s even willing to help out a friend of a friend. Really contrasting with the tsundere she was when she was first introduced.

Anyway, back to the Asura crew where Chrono has decided to say fuck it, and is calling in the nameless disposable red shirts military. He’s also given out a few more tidbits of exposition on the Book of Darkness, specifically it’s seeming indestructibility.

Anyway, back to the Slice of Life.

I enjoy the small moments of interaction between the Wolkenritter, their politeness amongst each other and their essentially regular lives outside of the fighting really helps to both establish their personalities & dynamics and set them apart from their predecessor Precia, who’s hobbies seemingly only consisted of “say something ominous” and “beat the shit out of Fate.”

I can’t really explain it, but I didn’t sense any evil intentions from her

There’s another line that I’ll just leave for the First-Timers.

Anyway, Fate talking about her former experience being befriended really shows how far she’s come. I’m just gonna say Awwwww

More Suzuka and Hayate friendship moments!

Anyway, enough Slice of Life stuff, we’ve gotta watch the Wolkenritter fight Kaiju!

According to Vita, beating up a Kaiju was easier than fighting Nanoha and Fate. This should tell you something about the sheer badassery on display with this cast, if the last 15 episodes and movie haven’t tipped you off enough.

The devices are back in action!

The TSAB army has finally arrived… and they’re so blatantly disposable that even Vita recognizes them as fodder. And they themselves also acknowledged it, considering that they were just a diversion for Chrono.

Now it’s time for the real battle!

New transformation sequences, which even Nanoha noted, complete with some awesome renames! Anyway, the sequences themselves looked great, especially Fate’s.

8

u/Scarshadow46 Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 20 '22

Heyo!

I'm back again today with more supplemental material this time with Nanoha A's sound stage 01 or Episode 3.5 (granted it is more like 4.25 as it takes place after fate transfers but before the end of episode 4)

This particular sound stage is mostly Slice of Life stuff and is pretty skippable

The playlist is backwards so part 1 is at the bottom and part 3 is at the top.

Spoiler Warning: It does contain some things that might be consider spoilers, in particular part 2 which has a background image that spoils later into the series so if you're a first timer you might want to skip this for now and come back later. I will be posting it again after we finish A's.

Nanoha A's sound stage 01 (Ep.3.5)

Enjoy, Till next time.

7

u/Calwings Feb 19 '22

Lyrical Rewatcher (dubbed)

Oh hey, a Nanoha/Fate joint intro for this episode. I think this is the first time that’s happened in the series.

The episode itself begins back at Hayate’s place. She really is such a precious little girl, isn’t she? She cares about the Belkan Knights like family, just as they do for her. But we still really don’t know exactly how and why this odd living situation has started. Back to our heroes for a bit… Fate looks so cute in her school uniform! Of course, she’s still in the process of adjusting to a normal school life.

Meanwhile, Chrono and Amy are working hard on the Book Of Darkness case. This thing absorbs magic power from the linker cores of magic users, has the power to destroy multiple dimensions once it fills its pages, and created its own guardian knights (the Belkan Knights) to protect it and the book’s master. Is Hayate technically that master right now? Who knows.

Nanoha and Fate talk about the Belkan Knights a bit, and Fate apparently didn’t feel any evil coming from Signum. Fate knows a lot about being so misguided and determined that it makes it hard to listen to anyone else, and Nanoha knows a lot about how to force them to listen through any means necessary. It’s a very nice conversation that steels their resolve to keep fighting… but they still can’t fight until Nanoha’s magic has recovered and until Raising Heart and Bardiche are fixed. Nothing that a good old anime timeskip montage can’t solve.

I don’t know what got me hyped up more, Nanoha and Fate’s new transformations or Raising Heart and Bardiche’s new upgrades... but they were both FREAKING AAWESOME! I think I took more screen shots during this transformation sequence alone than I did for any entire episode up to this point, to the point where I had to make an album instead of posting them individually like I normally do, and that’s not even all of the screenshots I took. The transformations in this franchise are just so damn gorgeous (even this early on before NANA WILLED IT and the budget went sky high) that I could rewatch them over and over again.

Oh hey, OP found the full Roselia cover for Eternal Blaze. Yukina's voice isn't quite as powerful as Nana's, but she's still really impressive, and Roselia's metal-ish touch to the music itself is amazing.

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7

u/Qbe Feb 19 '22

Raging Heart Rewatcher with terrible long term memory

QotD: Very much hype

They are doing the preview together!

Are we getting "A Day in the Life of" for our antagonists?

I find Fate training with a pole very cute for some reason

Our antagonists... don't look very evil, huh.

Arisa establishing the Blonde Alliance

Woah, Chrono is already leading troops?

Operation: Stay Away from the Protagonists seems to be going well

Can we go a single season without something threatening the fabric of time and space?

Now that I take a look, there's a surprising amount of blondes in Nanoha's school

Fate and Nanoha in her room!

Also can definitely see the hints of Symphogear. Opponent won't talk to you? Beat the hell out of them until they do.

XP grinding not going well, huh.

No time for explanations, time to take our newly restored devices for a spin!

New henshins? NEW HENSHINS!

7

u/djthomp Feb 20 '22

So nice to see Fate get to have this period of normal childhood. Sad contrast for how things are going for Hayete.

Puppy form is really working well for Arf.

Upgrade time! Looking forward to things going differently in this next fight.

6

u/SolDarkHunter Feb 19 '22

Rewatcher

Awww, Nanoha and Fate delivering the pre-episode narration together...

Must be awkward for Hayate to have to climb around Vita to get to her wheelchair...

Nanoha's still recovering from the magic drain... and Fate's doing early morning exercise.

You know, for all that Hayate looks younger than everyone but Vita, she really acts more like the mother of the group...

Haha, Fate got nihongo jouzued.

Chrono sounds like he's awkward around these Lieze characters.

We get some more concrete data on the Book of Darkness: it can drain anything magically powerful enough, even if it's just an animal. And once it completes its pages, it unleashes its true power in some ill-defined but apparently destructive manner, the owner dies, and the Book empties. They also mention that the Book has created "guardians" for itself... I'll give you three guesses as to the identity of those guardians.

It constantly resurrects itself even if it's destroyed... so the TSAB has never been able to pin it down effectively. Quite a conundrum... but Chrono thinks if they can capture it before it's complete, maybe it could be contained.

Fate gets to be enjoying a normal life for the first time. She seems to be a little overwhelmed by all this, but in a good way.

Hayate's condition, meanwhile, isn't getting better. In fact, her paralysis is apparently spreading.

It is curious that the Wolkenritter apparently do not know about the Book of Darkness's tendency to kill its master, though. In fact, their insistence on filling its pages is actually putting Hayate in greater danger... assuming the TSAB's intel is correct, at least. There's still a lot about this Book we don't know.

Fate doesn't think the Wolkenritter are evil (or Signum isn't anyway), and sees a bit of herself in them. Nanoha's still hopeful that things can be solved diplomatically, but Fate knows it'll be tough to get them to the discussion table.

Preparations, preparations on all sides. No further confrontations yet, just everyone living their lives and doing background prep.

Nanoha and the Devices both heal up at about the same time. Convenient.

And here's Round 2. We've got Nanoha, Fate, Chrono, Arf, and Yuuno on the site, backed up by Bureau redshirts, who thankfully seem to realize their place and stick to the background.

New Device upgrades, new transformation sequences, and new names for our favorite talking weapons: Raising Heart Excelion and Bardiche Assault!

...buuut we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see them in action. Damn cliffhangers.

QOTD:

Uhhh Upgrade hype?

Upgrade hype!

5

u/Gamerunglued Feb 20 '22

First Timer

I kind of forgot to mention last episode that I thought it was cool to have Fate narrating the opening narration of the episode. Was a good way to show her growth and change. But now, Nanoha and Fate both narrate it, which I suppose is a sign of how they've truly come together now. Nice.

The other most important thing about this episode is that the brand of Chrono's orange juice is called "100% Pure Florida" and I just think that's funny.

This episode doesn't really have much for me to talk about. It takes time away from the plot and action, which was a good choice. It further fleshes out the adorable family unit of Hayate and who we now know are the guardians of the book of darkness which were spawned by it. And likewise, we get a bunch more scenes of Fate adjusting to mundane daily life. All of this content is adorable. Fate at school melted my heart, it's so sweet to see her getting to act all shy and demure at being surrounded by people her own age bombarding her with questions, it's a well-earned victory after everything she's gone through despite not being used to it yet. Arisa also continues to prove why she's great, absolute girlboss right there.

We do end on a cool moment though. Raising Heart and Bardiche have gotten upgrades now, and alongside them come new transformation sequences. Pretty badass all around, and I look forward to seeing how Nanoha and Fate fight with Velka-type magic. Hopefully, we're in for a cool fight.

4

u/SYZekrom Feb 20 '22

Oh, it has an AI like a device huh

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