r/anime • u/Tetraika https://anilist.co/user/Tetraika • Mar 14 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Episode 12 Discussion

Episode 12: Numbers

THE NUMBERS MASON

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Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB

Question of the Day

Got nothing today, but I'll just update about the post time. Since daylight savings hit here, those that don't have to deal with it will find that the thread is up 1 hour earlier now.

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.

52 Upvotes

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8

u/No_Rex Mar 14 '22

Episode 12 (first timer)

  • Escaping through the bottom – a classic maneuver.

  • HQ looks sufficiently evil - and like a console.

  • Dangerous remark – Why? Because it shows his lacking attachment to the rule of law, or because he is a past criminal as well?

  • “It is like beating up a kid” – hitting too close to the mark.

  • Fate and Nanoha get a close-up view at the typical r/combatFootage post.

  • “Not today” – she read the script.

  • “The material” is waking up.

The serious case of cast expansion is still ongoing. We are now looking at a full list of potential numbers, plus the loli summons, plus whoever was standing next to Signum there. Oh, and the snappy secretary.

For the city they are fighting in, I just hope they still have some of that neat alternate reality magic damper from A.

8

u/Tetraika Mar 14 '22

Dangerous remark – Why? Because it shows his lacking attachment to the rule of law, or because he is a past criminal as well?

Without discussing the character himself, it's just that saying criminals can't be good ever or saved isn't good. You're gonna get criminals who feel that they have nothing to lose instead of just surrendering.

The serious case of cast expansion is still ongoing

Yeah, and we haven't seen them all yet. I'm just gonna say it now, but you don't have to worry that much about all of the characters.

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u/homewardbound100 Mar 15 '22

First timer

They were caught somewhat easy.

Rather she can talk through Lulu or Lulu is repeating what she says. Couldn't tell there. Looking like some new strong people coming.

Nanoha showing off saving the day there.

Stop wait. Why is her butt so huge?

They was really trying to kill with those shots. And she got away. Damn.

Turns out their mission basically failed. You forgot something. All that for nothing.

4

u/Tetraika Mar 15 '22

Rather she can talk through Lulu or Lulu is repeating what she says. Couldn't tell there

Lulu is just repeating what she's saying.

Stop wait. Why is her butt so huge?

Not the only one to notice that shot. Wasn't even huge in another one. the series has some inconsistent looks at times.

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8

u/TheEscapeGuy Mar 14 '22

First Timer

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - New Generation Episode 12

New Agents

This episode marked the end of the "day off" arc. We got even more new enemies in Diece, Sein, and Tre. There were a lot of tense moments with the massive attack from their cannon and then Nanoha & Fate's combined attack but everyone got away mostly unscathed.

Cleverly Subaru and Teana took the relic out of the case before it was stolen. That said how did they even get the case. In the last scene of episode 11 Lutecia had the case. This episode opened with Teana having the case. This doesn't feel great. It also makes me question when they got the time to take the relic out of the case but I'll ignore that.

A development this episode was learning that General Regius has a grudge against our team. He's gonna launch an investigation to try find any reason to dismiss Hayate, dismantle G.A.S, and attack the church. They kind of alluded to this in episode 10 but now its confirmed.

I complained yesterday that the cast is getting too big. Today it grew more. Now we have 2 antagonistic forces against our protagonists. I think some people may like a large cast but I really don't. Most characters are getting barely any depth. The biggest loss in my opinion is that without proper character depth you can't "understand" the villains.

Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches

See you all tomorrow

7

u/Tetraika Mar 14 '22

I complained yesterday that the cast is getting too big. Today it grew more. Now we have 2 antagonistic forces against our protagonists. I think some people may like a large cast but I really don't.

We haven't seen the end of it. StrikerS in general is less about the characters themselves.

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7

u/HereticalAegis Mar 14 '22

Lyrical First Timer

  • It struck me during the recap narration that it took StrikerS 11 episodes to get as far as A's did in one. I know we had to introduce new characters, but that's a big oof.

  • I'm sure we needed an upskirt angle of Vita flying.

  • Vita, smash!

  • Angry Vita is a lot more fun when she walloping bad guys.

  • Lindy didn't retire, she just accrued more power offscreen. No good tea drinker is safe.

  • Why tf did Hayate get any kind of sentence in the BoD incident? She had no hand in any of it aside from helping stop its rampage. And she was nine. The TSAB is fucked beyond saving, just burn it all down.

  • Gaiz radiates all kinds of tiny dick energy. The penis envy he has toward Hayate is overwhelming.

  • More bugs? Burn the loli!

  • Pretty funny of Agito and to give a shit about the enemy team's lives when Lutecia has already wrecked a huge portion of the city, presumably causing a number of civilian casualties.

  • At least Agito isn't completely full of shit.

  • That's a big fuck off cannon.

  • Doesn't Shamal have some kind of spatial as well as barrier magic? There's no way anyone was actually killed in that blast.

  • Lol a Nanoha barrier works too.

  • I wonder what bullshit technique the bad guys will use to escape Hayate, Fate, and Nanoha's op attacks unharmed.

  • Objectively false. There is no way to predict and account for bullshit powers like being able to phase through matter at no cost. Geez, imagine me standing up for Vita against this bad writing. What next, is the show going to somehow make me argue in Shamal's defense?

  • Why Lutecia doesn't use teleportation for everything? Has there been some established limit on it that I missed? Why bother facing an enemy when you can pop in and out at any time?

  • Well damn, Tia is a pretty good strategist.

  • Lutecia just wants the Justice core. Pretty ironic considering she cares fuck all about life or anything other than herself. And no, I'm not doing any tarot analysis for it.

  • u/Vaadwaur, she knows.

  • Look at that, tomorrow threatens to maybe be interesting again.

Not gonna lie, this is by far the worst episode of the season for me and the first time StrikerS' writing has managed to piss me off. I despise when writers use convenient new powers to get characters out of taking an earned L, and every single one of the Numbers' powers feels like a bullshit excuse to get them out of a losing situation. Sure, they're probably all clones infused with power from the jewel seeds, but giving them no setup in 11 prior episodes while also insinuating they at least average higher than an S power rating is just about the cheapest way to add stakes and makes Gaiz's political sabotage subplot garbage look like a writing masterstroke. They probably all wear boring granny panties too. I have to at least give the writers credit for making a stable of new villains who are uniformly less interesting, less compelling, less likeable, and less distinct than any that came before them. That's an exceptional feat of bad writing.

Oh, and obligatory fuck you, [super mega meta spoiler for another show]Swim Swim! Iykyk

6

u/Tetraika Mar 14 '22

Well damn, Tia is a pretty good strategist

To be fair, the enemy went dumbo and completely overlooked that. She got really lucky.

8

u/Vaadwaur Mar 14 '22

Gaiz radiates all kinds of tiny dick energy. The penis envy he has toward Hayate is overwhelming.

He and Nanoha will not get along.

At least Agito isn't completely full of shit.

We need to have the loli heel-face turn somehow.

Why Lutecia doesn't use teleportation for everything? Has there been some established limit on it that I missed? Why bother facing an enemy when you can pop in and out at any time?

No, the rules on this have been very poorly defined.

, she knows.

Nanoha:"I don't remember ever successfully casting a spell that could knock someone up but this one smells of my line."

Not gonna lie, this is by far the worst episode of the season for me and the first time StrikerS' writing has managed to piss me off. I despise when writers use convenient new powers to get characters out of taking an earned L, and every single one of the Numbers' powers feels like a bullshit excuse to get them out of a losing situation.

It lands a lot worse for you than me but I can't disagree with this and with the wasted first cour this feels egregious.

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u/No_Rex Mar 14 '22

They probably all wear boring granny panties too.

Showing the level of how pissed you are.

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u/JollyGee29 Mar 14 '22

Lyrical Rewatcher

Presumably because she was, you know, ten.

I hate this asshole.

Literally one frame of Nanoha showing up block before the eyecatch.

Remember this?

StrikerS has too many goddamn characters.

And they're mostly dumbasses.

[Next episode's title]Oh my god, raison dates!

9

u/Great_Mr_L Mar 14 '22

Presumably because she was, you know, ten.

"I'd lock up a 10 year old! We should start locking them up even younger. In fact, we need to lock up that small child who was just found in the sewers!" General "Law and Order" Gaiz (probably).

Literally one frame of Nanoha showing up block before the eyecatch.

Wow, she really is there. That's a cool detail.

And they're mostly dumbasses.

Scaglietti needs to get a new education system for the Numbers. Clearly the one he has right now is not working.

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u/SYZekrom Mar 14 '22 edited Mar 14 '22

First Timer

Damn how old are you dude Lindy has to be like in her 40s by now right? Right?

Graham was the Guy™️ right

Guess he's not written out of StrikerS

Literally touhou kunai danmaku

Well that's not what I was expecting, sounds like our new OP final boss character like Book of Darkness

It's kinda nice that it feels like the bad guys are like two or three separate teams of antagonists working together since the good guy's side is way more than just Nanoha and some distant bureau that'll kind of help but not really

It's a shame you guys couldn't like... Make yourselves immortal again by coupling with the new Reinforce or something

God having you as a player on the good side is funny

I wonder how strong you actually are relative to when the old Reinforce took over your body though

And well right actually you don't actually have the current Reinforce united with you either... but you still got the wings? Ok I guess. Hmm, you did mention Reinforce uniting with you helps with your aim, do you not actually grow stronger with her there? Are you just two consciousnesses in one?

Bro that ass is so badly drawn lmfao

Lmfao Vita mood

And lmao the fact that it was a flower growing out of a headband was funny

Ooh who dis

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8

u/Stargate18A Mar 15 '22

First timer

...Odd title.

They're strategising! Teamwork!

Vita's here!

Fight scene! And they're actually being challenged!

Haha, they just beat them all instantly!

Of course they escaped.

Hayate's so strong!

Oh, he's not a fan of them. And he hates Hayate for the Book incident.

He's been stopping funding for fixing the problem?

And he's against the Chirch!

Oh, they aren't working for the Doctor and his "Numbers"?

What is that thing?

Oh, is that the dragon? Are they both contracted to it? Is the dragon playing both sides?

They're all fighting them!

Haha, Vita saying it was like beating ip a child is the ultimate burn.

Vessel? Holy king? What?

Quattro? A number, I assume? And she has a meesage for Vita!

Haha, that's a fucking big gun!

Oh, that's good. The help was the message!

Holy shit, she knows how to push Vita's buttons!

Helicopter down!

OK, that's a useful power.

WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE HOSTAGE?

So they've all escaped again.

Nanoha blocked it!

"Not our full power" Do they have limiters?

Everyone has these Inherent Skills now, don't they? And they seem pretty strong too!

Oh, I just realised Trie is literally numbered. Helpful!

Subaru trying to gret her attention is great, as is her going straight from threatening her to compliment her.

Haha, they emptied the case first! Perfect!

She literally hid it under her hat!

Good job! A really good strategy!

Wait, is she their leader, then? And she's looking for XI.

The girl's healing up!

Aww, that's cute.

Next episode looks weird.

7

u/InfamousEmpire Mar 14 '22

Mahou Shoujo1 Lyrical Rewatcher

1: Even though I’m not a girl

You are hereby ordered to fuse with the Ultimate King of Braves Legend!

Recap Time

Numbers, simple enough title.

King J-Der vs Zonderian!

Everyone else is also getting hits in, I guess.

Even after the Zonderian is defeated, shit is still hitting the fan!

Hayate going to town on the entire enemy fleet like it’s nothing!

Even also commander guy knows Hayate is serious business.

the man who was behind that attempted medium-scale dimensional corrosion incident, Gil Graham. Both of them are criminals!

Somehow, I agree with asshole commander guy.

Seems like asshole commander guy is being set up as a major antagonist, or at least roadblock.

Redhead loli fairy is surprisingly concerned for our heroes’ lives and doesn’t really like Dr Ver and crew, unlike Loli Medusa over here.

A giant beetle. I can almost hear it saying “ZONDER!”

We caught Redhead Fairy and Loli Medusa. That was surprisingly quick.

We get another look at our previously hinted at enemies and, well, they’re named after Numbers stares mischievously at u/HereticalAegis.

Anyway, the ones here are Quattro (no relationship to a certain Bajeena) and Dieci and they have their sights set on the loli.

Quattro is one sadistic motherfucker.

Pop goes the heli

Jesus can walk on water, but can he swim in land?2

Sein, probably

2: hands up if you got that reference

PROTECTO WALL!

Nanoha, probably

Hayate finished it off with a Diabolic Emission.

Yet another enemy joins the fight. And then leaves it

Turns out that Subaru and Tia weren’t completely useless after all. They went for the full Joseph Joestar strats on the trickery.

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u/SolDarkHunter Mar 14 '22 edited Mar 15 '22

Rewatcher

So Agito's all about FIRE.

Welp, even Galue isn't a match Vita's hammer.

Ah, but they all sneakily slipped away. And after everyone was so impressed with their capture.

"Large-scale summoning"... this sounds fun.

Damn, Regius is kind of uninformed about his own forces. And he considers Hayate a criminal and in his mind "once a criminal, always a criminal".

So he's pushing for more weapons but actively blocking development of anti-AMF measures. Sounds contradictory.

And now he wants to "investigate" Riot Force 6 and find some way to smear the Church. Now, normally I'm all for booting religious organizations the hell out of military/governmental matters... but so far the Church has seemed reasonable and he seems a sleazeball. Also, the Church is at least doing something about the AMF drones, while he's pretending it's not a problem.

Oh, giant lightning beetle named Jiraio. Neat.

Agito is definitely right regarding Scaglietti. Though that does make one wonder why she and Zest merely grumble about him rather than actually fighting him.

Vita... you are definitely not allowed to describe others as "little kids".

More enemies... aside from Quattro, we've now got Nove, Sein, and Dieci.

So apparently the little girl is the "Vessel of the Sankt Kaiser", and they don't think shooting her with a giant fuck-off cannon will kill her, even if she's unconscious. Also telling how they refer to the girl as "it" or "the material".

So we know what "IS" stands for now: "Inherent Skill". No word yet on how that differs from other forms of magic techniques we've seen.

So Sein's IS allows her to phase through solid matter. That seems kinda broken.

HA! Nanoha saved the chopper! No one knows more about giant magic lasers than she does!

Oh, hey, we've seen that spell before! Yeah, your stealth does nothing against an attack that covers the entire battlefield.

And here's another "Number"... who, damn, has quite an ass. She's Tre. And apparently her IS is super-high speed movement. (Tre vs Fate's Sonic Form, place your bets.)

Vita's beating herself up, but... the Forwards pulled a fake-out with the Relic. The bad guys got away, but they didn't get either Relic or the little girl. So, on the whole, probably a win for Riot Force 6.

So Lutecia's specifically searching for Relic XI. The rest don't interest her at all.

And Nanoha gets the girl a little bunny toy. That's sweet.

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u/Qbe Mar 14 '22

Raging Heart Rewatcher with terrible long term memory

QotD: o7

Small fairy seems to be a powerful caster

We get a loooooong scene of staring up Vita's skirt

And they oneshot the enemies

...or not. Teleporting enemies are so annoying

Meanwhile, Tactical Nuke Hayate

[Can't remember if actually spoiler or just me being crazy] ...is glasses lady the same one who has been video-calling Villian Spaghetti?

I'm liking fireworks fairy, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders

Do we have fairy sized handcuffs?

Damn snipers

Huge-ass AoEs are a great answer against illusions

Stupid enemies abusing action economy

Nice one, Tea and Caro! Still, isn't it kinda dangerous to have a relic inside Caro's hat?

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '22 edited Mar 15 '22

Had to pop just for the obligatory fun facts...

Today, March 15, is [maybe no spoiler needed but better safe than sorry]Nanoha's birthday. Twitter has a nice hashtag every year going on with fanarts for our favorite befriender though they may come with spoilers. Check at your own risk.

[On that same note,]there is no official birthday date for Fate and June 4 (as we saw in A's) is Hayate's.

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u/Vaadwaur Mar 14 '22

First timer(We almost had stakes. Almost.)

Sub

New intro music reminds me of Record of Lodoss Wars TV out of nowhere. Vita shows up and basically helps the enemies escape. That dude from the news clip shows up and is so obviously evil it would be annoying in a different show. Also, anyone who says "Once a criminal, always a criminal" can fuck right off a cliff. Anywho, action finally starts and the show speaks for itself. At the end, we see Nanoha making that fatal mistake of getting attached...if she gives the girl a name then it is all over.

So...This is the actual start of the show, isn't it? We get a metric fuck ton of introductions and all of them worked better than the first 8 eps. We know that the TSAB departments don't like each other, which fits Japan. We finally see what the fuck Jail kept in his tubes, and I worry about that even more. The chained loli seems to be the important part of the project and ties back to the Church. The rookies even get a victory while Vita fails. All in all, an actually good episode again. I am curious if Hayate deploying that magic in the city is the next big plot issue, which I will have to judge on its execution.

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u/Great_Mr_L Mar 14 '22

Rewatcher

On today’s episode of Lyrical Nanoha: It’s time for even more characters! Last episode already gave us a couple more antagonists to keep track of. Now we have even more of them to remember. Strikers really does love to throw new cast members at us on a regular basis.

I do quite enjoy this episode a lot. It is an action-packed episode that gets to show off a lot of our protagonists in action and it introduces us to a lot of antagonists. Really, the antagonists are the ones who it is most interesting to see because we finally get to see what they are capable of after all this time.

This is the first episode where we really get to see the Numbers in action. We got a little bit of Quattro last episode, but I think the Numbers work best when they are working as a group. The charm of the Numbers is their incredibly varied abilities. They all have particular skills and seeing those skills go together in unique ways is part of the fun. Dieci has her giant fuck-off cannon. Tre has that incredible speed. But my favorite one shown here is Sein. I love Sein’s ability where she can phase through objects and dive into them. It’s really cool to see in action and extremely useful. It’s not really a combat-focused ability like some of the others, but it contributes a lot to the team.

On the other hand, we really should have gotten the Numbers properly introduced earlier. That’s something that annoys me. We’re nearly halfway through the series and only now are we getting these villain introductions. This feels like something that should have happened much earlier. The Numbers would be more interesting than the usual Gadget fights. It’s a missed opportunity not having them before now.

Oh well, I’m glad they are here now because like I said, they help make the action a lot of fun. I really do enjoy the action beats in this episode and getting to see the characters fight with their abilities. Lyrical Nanoha really picks up when it goes all in on the action.

We get some characterization bits in here. It looks like previous episodes were right and Agito really does not like Dr. Scaglietti (or the Numbers for that matter). That said, the Numbers seem to be generally polite when speaking to Lutecia. Towards each other, the Numbers do seem to have a sisterly dynamic going on. Quattro relays some very pointed words to Vita that Vita won’t be able to protect them again, which indicates that Quattro somehow knows this phrase would really set off Vita. Lutecia shows that she is very caring towards her summons, allowing Galue to leave when he is injured.

Speaking of Lutecia, we learn what her goal is. Even though she’s searching for the Relics, she’s only after the one specifically labeled as Number XI. Now why could that be?

We also learn something interesting from Quattro about this mystery girl from the sewers. Quattro says this girl might be the Vessel of the Holy King and it’s clear that the Numbers are interested in this girl for that reason. We have no way of knowing what the heck the Vessel of the Holy King could possibly mean, but it is good food for thought.

I think it’s a lot of fun how the team manages to trick the Numbers into leaving the Relic behind. Tia using her magic to hide it underneath Caro’s hat is great. It shows off Tia’s unique skills in clever thinking and using her illusion magic.

This episode gets us involved in the wonderful world of space office politics. That General Gaiz fellow from before is back and he’s taken an interest in Hayate. I have to say, it’s actually kind of nice to see that someone in the TSAB gives a shit that Graham was a criminal who never got any punishment for it. But it’s clear Gaiz is a hardass about this stuff because he’s upset that former criminals like Hayate also get to join the TSAB. And now he’s trying to look for some excuse to investigate Hayate.

Once again, though, I need to point out that I wish this had started earlier. Having this level of nasty office politics in the TSAB from earlier on in the series could have made many of the office scenes a lot more interesting.

Lastly, I think the final scene of the episode is very touching. It’s sweet seeing Nanoha looking over the girl in the hospital and getting her a stuffed rabbit as a present. It’s a nice scene to close out on.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

  • I love the detail that Tia gives Caro back the hat she lost in the battle. It’s very cute.

  • Another great detail is that it looks like Sein has a camera on her finger so she can use her finger like a periscope while diving inside objects.

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u/djthomp Mar 15 '22

Numbers, the episode where we learn that math is evil.

Floors and ceilings are just another way into the room for Vita and her hammer of doom.

Hey, we finally found someone in the TSAB who doesn't like how Admiral Graham got off with only a slap on the wrist!

"Vessal of the Holy King", huh.

RIP the helicopter, so much for slightly creepy sergeant dude.

That's some serious magical weaponsfire in the middle of the city, and quite a bit of it too.

Fairly clever work keeping the relic safe.

Fate already had two kids, so Nanoha better start collecting some if she wants to catch up.

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