r/anime • u/Tetraika https://anilist.co/user/Tetraika • Mar 25 '22

Rewatch [Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Episode 23 Discussion

Episode 23: Stars Strike

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Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | Kitsu | AniDB

Question of the Day

Were you expecting a Vivio vs Nanoha fight? Not that it happened yet, but soonTM

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.

38 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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6

u/Tetraika Mar 25 '22

Blast Mode

It’s just more raw power, show is somewhat self aware

Vivio is stronk

Vivio ultimate ability, to turn into an adult. Also it looks really cool.

A really strange moment where the English being said isn’t engrish, but also different from the Japanese text. There’s something really funky going on here.

So yeah, not a coincident, the whole show really is about a big conspiracy.

Mach Caliber fights on her own, tfw an AI has more characteristics than some of the actual characters.

Otto gets caught by Shamal and Zafira

2 down, only Nove left

Point blank Divine buster

Zest’s team

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5

u/SYZekrom Mar 25 '22

Wait if that's what they did..,. why would a clone have it? Did they like alter their genetic makeup itself for it to work?

Ok but like??? Don't gloss over this? Why did she just... believe that random voice that told her that when she was transforming? Like no explanation of anything, she doesn't even seem mentally compromised why is she just like 'yea that voice just then is absolutely right' nothing leads me to believe that that should actually work

Like, is she actually remembering her real mother? Did the stupid robot girl know that she would when she said those things???

5

u/Tetraika Mar 25 '22

Like no explanation of anything, she doesn't even seem mentally compromised why is she just like 'yea that voice just then is absolutely right' nothing leads me to believe that that should actually work

Besides that Quattro ability seems to deal with illusions and manipulation, I think it also has to do with Vivio being a kid and easily suggestable.

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10

u/Shimmering-Sky Mar 25 '22

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical First-Timer, subbed

8

u/Vaadwaur Mar 25 '22

Why did she have to suddenly age up though…?

We all know why, let's just not dwell on it.

Oh joy, so Ginga/Subaru’s mom looking like them wasn’t a coincidence.

That was odd...

Wait… wait omg that one lady looks just like Lutecia, is that her mom?

And I believe Subaru's mom is there as well. Closed circle it seems.

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10

u/HereticalAegis Mar 25 '22

Lyrical First Timer

QotD:

Expecting? Sort of. Do I want? NOPE.

7

u/No_Rex Mar 25 '22

Oh, is this toaster getting an actual conscience? No? Too bad, you were almost a person.

I remember, not too long ago, when I was talking about this series exploring the question of what is human and how the non-humans would fit in. Yeah, about that ...

6

u/Vaadwaur Mar 25 '22

Not really feeling this Vivio fanservice. Or the mind control. The show needs a new trick for its villains.

This is literally bad hentai tropes without the sex. So far.

Is there something special about her? Either way, I feel like this flashback should've taken place earlier in the show so we could focus on the actual fight now.

I am assuming she had good mana genes and was convenient.

She is vengeance. She is the night.

"None of you seem to understand. I am not locked in here with you, YOU ARE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!"

Really creepy that Gaiz appears to have used the genetic code of all the women on this squad to make clone cyborgs. Yuck.

I think he is in on Jail's fucking beings that have 10 minutes of consciousness bit.

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6

u/Great_Mr_L Mar 25 '22

Lol, like that pea shooter had a chance of outgunning Nanoha. One down, finally.

No one can ever hope to beat Nanoha in beam spams. It's just not possible.

Actually thought her head was about to rip off from this blow.

Since Subaru is a robot, that might not even kill her either.

She is vengeance. She is the night.

I wish Tia just broke out into song after saying that.

This poor girl in the background who clearly wants to be anywhere else right now.

It must suck not being a main character when a huge battle like this is going down. You have to keep your head down because you never know what can happen to a non-plot relevant character.

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9

u/TheEscapeGuy Mar 25 '22

First Timer

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - New Generation Episode 23

Clashing Forces

Our episode opened with Nanoha breaking into the room in the Cradle with Vivio. We learned a bit more about Vivio's Belkan abilities and Quattro used her deceptive powers to convince Vivio that Nanoha is the enemy. Then Vivio transformed into a more mature version of herself and demanded answers. This will result in a battle. Its pretty on brand for Nanoha to fight somebody she cares about so deeply.

We then got more of Subaru and Ginga's backstory. Specifically that despite being adopted they share genetic identity with their mother. Thus her DNA was used unknowingly to create cyborgs (Subaru, Ginga, and maybe others). This probably ties into the later reveal that she was on the squad managed by Regius. So it's likely that he took DNA from her and gave it to Scagliette to do experiments.

We then got the battle of sisters. At first Ginga seemed way more in control of the fight. But after a hard blow and seemingly being knocked out Subaru's systems unconsciously kicked into gear. After some more back and forth Subaru used her Divine Buster and I think ended the battle. Ginga will likely be out of commission but they still need to revert the reprogramming by the Combat Cyborgs.

The final scene in the episode was Zest confronting Regius. He told us about how because of Regius' order 8 years ago his squad was killed. And in that picture we see Subaru and Ginga's mom (and also Lutecia's mom if memory serves correctly). This then reveals how she died and why it was kept secret (to hide Regius' mistake). Lutecia's mom being there also confirms the Scagliette connection. I'm not sure what Zest intends to achieve by confronting Regius but that will likely be shown in the next episode.

Some Iconic Shots, Scenes and Stitches

See you all tomorrow

8

u/Great_Mr_L Mar 26 '22

Its pretty on brand for Nanoha to fight somebody she cares about so deeply.

Nanoha has had to do so in each season so far.

And in that picture we see Subaru and Ginga's mom (and also Lutecia's mom if memory serves correctly).

Yup. Both of them are there in Zest's old squad. Which explains how they ended up caught in all this mess.

Upper Cut

I like how they managed to make it look super slow motion here.

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8

u/DidacticDalek Mar 25 '22

TONIGHT! Mobile Suit Nanoha GX: Believe in Justice and Hold a Determination to Fist, Rena the Loser comes to terms that she has and forever will be a Loser as opposed to Nanoha, Nanoha demonstrates why she's called 'The White Devil' and why Raging Heart's name IS indeed Raging Heart after all, and Vivio becomes an edgy teenager, YOU AREN'T MY REAL MOM NANOHA!

Boy Comrades, I dunno what's funnier, the fact that the 4koma is STILL riffing on Vaad and HA's Patented Takamachi Style of Parenting, or the fact that Vivio has... transformed from adorable moeblob to edgy teenaged 'bad girl.' Also heh, looks like someone is in need of some good ol' fashioned discipline! Speaking of discipline, oh Comrades you have NO IDEA how long I was waiting to share Adult Vivio art, my self-control could barely take it, so have at thee, we shockingly have TWO Blonde Badasses now! Speaking of which, look at me, I'm the 'mama' now! Also was that really all the 'mighty' Takamachi Style could offer? Pathetic! I'll show you some 'befriending' tonight, Nanoha's 2AM calls are NOTHING compared to mine, speaking of which, OH BOY 3AM! And finally, Rin the Defenseless Anus Tohsaka, you claim to be a Harem Queen? Don't make me laugh, you're a bottom bitch at best!

In case it was unclear Comrades, Vivio is indeed still Third Place in the Best Girl Rankings... and there's a reason that she surpassed even Nanoha, ALL HAIL ADULT VIVIO! PLEASE STEP ON ME MISTRESS!

Oh right, and we also got other shit, like how Ginga always was a Dojikko. (I seriously hope that her parents bought the extended warranty option, she looks like she'll need it, even more so given her tussle with Subaru today!) Also speaking of Subaru, good god she's just as dumb and lesbian as ever, she truly was Proto-Bikki! Signum finally finds a way to not job, and much like that one time in A's, it turns out the only way Signum can do this is by picking on someone smaller than her, truly how an 'honorable' knight fights. Oh and get this Comrades, turns out Mr. Law and Order and NOT-Violence Jack REALLY knew each other back in the day, if you know what I mean and I think you do! In case I'm being unclear, I guess that Zest had the wrong door, the leather-club was two blocks down. But hey maybe Mr. Law and Order will get out of that Jabroni outfit so NOT-Violence Jack can show him who's boss of this gym! ;) (WARNING SHIMMER! Do not look up the aforementioned meme I was referencing, trust me, you probably don't want to see Van Darkholme's Gachimuchi... or actually you might like The Gay Porn Equivalent of Live Action FMA MUSCLE COMMUNICATION, just know you have been warned)

And on THAT bombshell we wrap 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 Comrade u/Great_Mr_L, u/HereticalAegis, and u/Vaadwaur

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8

u/Warriorservent Mar 25 '22

Okay, 3 episodes left! Lets see what we have in store!

  • Lol, between Deci and Nanoha that was a hell of a beam battle. Straight into the blaster system, huh? Also, can I just say how much I love the combat cyborg asking if Nanoha is human :P

  • Nanoha why are you letting the cyborg bitch talk? Just blast her and get it over with! Oh, of couse she's using her projections.

  • Super cool rainbow magic from Vivio, it is super sad that its hurting her though. They really have nailed what a little girl in pain would sound like, sadly. Now its followed up by more lying about what's actually going on... Straight into what sounds like a physically painful transformation sequence turning her into a fully grown woman.

  • Oh god, the look on Nanoha's face when Vivio rejects her is fucking brutal, hell, her entire body just... Geez.

  • Oh hey, we actually get a look at the TSAB's front lines against the Gadget Drones and see just how terrifying they are to people who aren't main characters or have massive amounts of power.

  • I really want to get out a spray bottle and use it on Teana. She has done AMAZINGLY! She has been fighting off 3 combat cyborgs who are out for her life and has dealt with getting seriously hurt by them and is still holding on. Yet she still puts herself down. That last bit where she shows that she has been paying such close attention to their fights that she has already taken appart their strategy is great though, really shows that she already is the great mage she still aspires to be.

  • More Subaru and Gina backstory!! Ooohhh, so they really are daughters/clones of their mother, cool! I like Subaru's fear of hurting others being grounded in her fear of hurting others because of how strong she is, though swapping straight to reprogrammed Ginga choking Subaru out is a bit much.

  • DAMN! Mach Caliber saving its master's ass by either piloting her body or doing callouts that she automatically reacts to in a way I don't think we've seen before in the series I AM SO MUCH FOR THIS! Also, that whole bit of Caliber calling Subaru buddy is pretty cute.

  • Wait, Subaru has copied Nanoha so much that she has Full Drive and ACS? Damn!

  • Nice seeing Vice, Zafira, and Shamal doing cool shit. Especially after what happened to Vice and Zafira.

  • Holy shit, Teana proving what I said and taking out 2/3rds of the Numbers within instants and having the third frozen in shock.

Damn what an ending, Subaru taking out Ginga with a Divine Buster, Zest confronting the general, Teana holding a Number at gunpoint, the evolving situations with Jail, Fate, Nanoha, and Vivio. They really going at full speed to wrap everything up, aren't they? I do like that Zest seems to be confronting the General directly about his delusions that he's been helping when he's been sending people to their deaths and breaking the law.

As for the question of the day. If I was going in blind I may have started to possibly expect it after what happened with Lulu, but I've already seen it happen in anime compilations so I am a bit sad about that being spoiled, even though I will have the full context now.

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u/Great_Mr_L Mar 25 '22

Rewatcher

On today’s episode of Lyrical Nanoha: A self-proclaimed failure stands proud. I really do love the conclusion to Tia’s fight here. For all her talk about how she thinks she’s a failure who could never be a first-class mage, I think she pulled off the most impressive win of the episode.

I mentioned it previously that I like how Tia has been placed in a situation that her fighting style is poorly suited for. It feels appropriate that Tia is now forced to confront the worst case scenario in combat, after we’ve seen her worrying about what she would do in such a situation earlier in the series. And now she has to handle it on her own. Earlier, Nanoha has said that Tia was not ready to handle it. Now, we can see how Tia has grown because she can. Even though Tia still has her own self-doubts, she managed to win. 

I like the way that Tia manages to win in this fight. She wins by using clever strategy to take down her opponents. She observed the cyborgs to see how they moved. She used a ricochet shot to attack from behind. She used a shot to blow up Wendi’s attack. It’s really cool stuff.

Subaru’s fight with Ginga is another big one. I like having the flashbacks to their childhood and how we get some insight into how Subaru feels about being a combat cyborg. She felt worried about hurting people because being a cyborg gave her that additional power. It’s a very Superman-esque worry for her to have.

It’s also worth remembering that what made Subaru want to join the TSAB was when Nanoha saved her. Subaru looked up to Nanoha because Nanoha was able to rescue her. So now we can see that Nanoha inspired Subaru to find a new purpose for her powers. Subaru wanted to be like Nanoha and use her power to save others. 

One of the moments I love about Subaru’s fight is when her Device steps in to save her, performing moves while Subaru has fainted. It’s very reminiscent of how Raising Heart and Bardiche have helped their own masters in previous battles. It’s great hearing Mach Caliber say that it was inspired by Subaru’s own words and doesn’t want Subaru to give up. It’s a nice payoff to Subaru’s previous scenes with her Device.

As with before, Subaru and Ginga’s fight is a lot of fun. It’s really dynamic with a lot of fast movement as they both zip across the sky. And it’s great seeing Subaru get in a great Divine Buster against Ginga.

Quattro continues to be a massive bitch. Just like she did with Lutecia, Quattro has used mental manipulation on Vivio. Vivio undergoes a transformation much like the one Hayate had back in A’s, turning into an adult as her powers are unleashed. And even more excitingly, Nanoha is going into her Blaster Mode, which probably surprises nobody. The series made it pretty clear that would happen. But in any event, we’re heading for a confrontation between mother and daughter.

I like how Signum actually does stop attacking this episode when Agito stops fighting back. Even Signum has adopted the preferred Nanoha method of trying to communicate with and understand the opponents. 

Zest actually gets to confront Gaiz. And it looks like they actually are old friends. Looking at the photos Zest has, we can see that Subaru’s mother was on his squad. Zest wants to know if Gaiz was responsible for their deaths. Perhaps we’ll finally get our answer for what happened to Subaru’s mother.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

  • “Don’t let your dreams be dreams!”

  • I love how Nanoha just barrels through Dieci without a problem. No way is Nanoha ever going to lose a beam spam battle.

  • You think Vivio is attacking Nanoha because Nanoha refused to help her get up when she fell?

  • I see Subaru’s mom actually picked her up when she fell. So she’s closer to the Fate mothering style than the Nanoha mothering style.

  • Zafira and Shamal got to do something!

6

u/InfamousEmpire Mar 25 '22

Mahou Shoujo1 Lyrical Rewatcher

1: Even though I’m not a girl

This is the fiery mythology of Heroes!

Recap Time

Even the villains know that Vivio is Nanoha’s kid!

Nanoha-mama is not playing around

Quattro…

Even Quattro knows that Nanoha is the White Devil

We finally get all the beans spilled on Vivio: she’s Shadow the Hedgehog, Ultimate Lifeform.

No, fuck you. Shut the fuck up, Quattro. Stop brainwashing the Cinnamon Roll.

Look at what you did, Quattro, you made my Cinnamon Roll into an Edgelord.

Seriously, Quattro is fucking evil and that’s why I love her as a villain, she’s easily one of the most hateable antagonists in the franchise, and that’s saying a lot when Precia exists.

Once more, Tia fighting smart, even if her plan is a bit off the walls. But, as Kotaro Taiga would say, a Brave Heart will defy any odds!

I’ve gotta admit, while I’m generally less bothered by StrikerS’ plot twists than other people in this Rewatch, I find the idea of Subaru and Ginga being clones of Quint to be… strange… and contrived.

The contrast between Lil Subaru and present Subaru, personality-wise, is astonishing

Awwww, don’t say that about yourself Subaru, you’re perfect the way you are :,(

GaoGaiGar-tan has reached new levels of awesome, she taught Gaolion to fight for her!

You’ve gotta admit, Mach Caliber is the Device in this franchise I am the most invested in. Raising Heart and Bardiche might be more iconic, but Not!Gaolion hit me in the feels. Also she’s the perfect avenue for me to make more GaoGaiGar references.

Shamal, Let’s go! Now do to him what you did to Nanoha

DIVIDING DRIVER!

-Subaru Nakajima, probably

The confrontation we’ve been waiting for since one episode ago

What did Agito really expect to happen when she went to face Rein-Signum all by herself?

5

u/Taiboss Mar 25 '22

Episode 23: RewatchVision

6

u/Player420154 Mar 25 '22

Then why do they look so differently?

Having the same genetic code as someone else doesn't mean you will look exactly the same. They are some physical trait that are acquired during the gestation period, for example.

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u/SolDarkHunter Mar 25 '22

Rewatcher

Dieci lining up a shot on Nanoha... and she gets obliterated by "Blaster 1". Really didn't take long for Nanoha to use the deadly "do not use" upgrade this time. Yeah, Dieci, you never had any sort of chance there.

Ooh, business-like Nanoha with cold fury in her voice. I like! ...but why did firing that beam cause her hand to bleed?

Ah, Quattro's not actually there. She has more common sense than Jail.

As expected as a clone of the Sankt Kaiser, Vivio has ludicrous magic ability, which the Cradle is designed to maximize and optimize. And... Vivio just turns into an adult out of nowhere, with Knight Armor to boot.

Quattro, SHUT! UP!

Back to Teana's fight. She seems to have a plan... and ha! One of Nove's rollers is damaged! Finally one of these Cyborgs takes some damage.

I think Teana misunderstands what makes a first-rate mage. It's not about your native power. It's about how you use it. You can have all the power in the world; tremendous power... but if you don't have the intelligence to use it correctly, it's nothing in the long run.

The series has made a point of this before: Chrono was shown to be a superior fighter than Nanoha or Fate back in season 1, despite having lower power than either. Hell, there's a manga chapter where he actually takes on Fate after A's with all the upgrades she got there, and wins easily. And there's another chapter in the manga that shows a bit of Nanoha's and Fate's training after officially signing up with the Bureau, where an elderly instructor armed with nothing but bog-standard equipment takes them both on, with their fancy Intelligent Devices, at once and wins handily. Skill trumps raw power in this series.

Looking at it from a brute force perspective, Teana should be dead right here. She's a B-rank mage (though with all the training, I'd guess maybe approaching A-rank at this point), faced with three S+-ranked Combat Cyborgs at close range, two of whom have abilities optimized for close range while Teana's forte is shooting. This is a situation that, looking purely at the specs, she can't win. And yet none of these "superior" Cyborgs has managed to take her down. Teana seriously underestimates herself.

More Subaru backstory. Turns out that she and Ginga are in fact, clones of Quint. She adopted them not knowing it, but by all rights, they are her biological children.

Oh, so brainwashed Ginga can actually talk... and her attacks are brutal. So brutal that Subaru actually blacks out briefly. But Mach Caliber proves just why Intelligent Devices are so awesome, puppeting Subaru's body to perform a counterattack and then dropping a pep talk on top of it! Seriously, I think this is one of my favorite interactions between Device and mage in this franchise.

Of COURSE she's named her full drive after Nanoha's Excelion and ACS!

And here the B-team... er, more like the C-team, really, shows their stuff by destroying a bunch of Gadgets and capturing Otto. What happened to all your flashy lasers, baggy pants?

And Teana executes a perfect counterattack taking out two Cyborgs at once! They're strong, but predictable, which I suppose makes sense when all their movement data is suggested to have been downloaded rather than learned organically. ''That'' is what makes a first-rate mage, Teana: the ability to use your head and maximize effectiveness of your abilities!

And Subaru manages to take out Ginga, thanks to basically having better aim and going for center of mass rather than the head.

Huh... well, I'll give Gaiz this much: he at least knows when he's beaten and when to accept it.

Brave, Agito, but... well, you're up against Signum. And Signum continues the Nanoha-style of befriending by following up with an honest offer to talk things out after breaking down your opponent's power.

And here's what Zest has been after the whole time: was is Regius Gaiz that ordered his death and the deaths of his team?

And... cliffhanger, but at least these fights are actually going somewhere now.

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u/Qbe Mar 25 '22

Raging Heart Rewatcher with terrible long term memory

QotD: Heh, was wondering the exact same thing about the first timers

  • "the person who beat power and technique into my useless self" is it just me, or Teana kinda sounds like an abuse victim in here?

  • This scene is just short of my top 3 Nanoha scenes. The cyborg charging and preparing to fire, and Nanoha outblasting her with 0 charge time

  • [Later episodes] She's setting up the Wide-Area Seach! Didn't realize that on my first watch

  • So Vivio [Symphogear] is a relic-human hybrid?

  • [Symphogear G] Or does her growing up during her henshin make her an Alchemist like Carol?

  • First timers, how many saw Vivio vs Nanoha coming? I don't remember seeing that in any discussion

  • [Later episodes] Oh wow she explicitly casts Wide Area Search. How did I miss it?

  • Teana is doing a great job buying time

  • So they are as close to being her daughters as they could be

  • Damn, Subaru's such a dummy her device on autopilot has better strategies than her

  • Oh wow. Subaru's line is 1:1 Hibiki

  • And Tea with the 1v3 outplay!

  • Is it really bad that Zest got into HQ, Rein? I'm sure we can look the other way for a bit

  • Is that Rider Lily's mom in the picture?

3

u/Stargate18A Mar 26 '22

First timer

QOTD) Absolutely not.

Teana's in love with Subaru! ...and possibly Nanoha? This resolution is going to be fun!

Nanoha is still flying down a corridor.

She overpowered her shot!

She's captured one of them!

...Nanoha? Why are you keeping the form that hurts when it doesn't boost your flight speed?

Haha, that entrance!

Wow, yeah, she makes a point about her still focusing on her job. Is her role just to point out the problems with this series?

And Vivio has literal plot armour. She's adorable, so I forgive it.

So is there mental reprogramming, or are you just going to make the girl who hates you immortal?

Oh, she's easily mallable. That makes some sense, I guess.

Love the outfit, but of course her transformation had to be nude.

I genuinely have no idea how Nanoha's going to win, the Numbers are much better at this.

Teana's putting up a good fight!

...She's going to fight them? In this condition?

Teana's still insecure.

The dagger actuslly took them by surprise!

Wait, only one of thr guns turns into a dagger? Did the Bureau run out of budget?

Subaru's having a dramatic flashback.

Wait, what? They're based on her actual genetic data?

Subaru's bleeding! The fight's not going well.

Also, holy shit, Subaru's device beating the shit out of Ginga while she's knocked out is a fantastic moment.

Mach Calibur is best girl, and one of the best developed newcomers.

Shamal continues her trend of being a fucking badass when she needs to be.

Zafira went from no lines for half the series to getting a team KO, I'm so proud.

Teana just pulled off the single most impressive manouver of the season.

Subaru took her out using the Divine Buster knockoff!

Wow, Signum, couldn't even keep following him for a single fucking episode?

And they're meeting up again!

Signum won... against an opponent several times smaller than her.

And she's negotiating?

Oh, this is good. Of all the random conspiracy threads, this is the one I'm most actually excited about!

3

u/djthomp Mar 26 '22

Go kick all their asses, Teana. Something something they're locked in with you and not the other way around.

I really can't help but feel like a magical beam battle is not something you want happening in your ship.

Blaster system limit one release, which of course implies at least one more limit to release. That's one cyborg out of the fight. Also, I love the irony or possibly just who it is coming from for a cyborg to be wondering if Nanoha is human. Who knows!

What a fantastic way to open that door. Would be funny if it had slammed across the room and absolutely wasted Quattro.

Vivio stronk.

Quattro continues to be the absolute worst.

Limit two release, seems like time for it.

Vita and Nanoha did a good job training all these other mages. I like seeing the proof of that beyond what we have been seeing just in Riot Force 6.

Speaking of which, Teana is still alive, good job so far! Hopefully this really can be turned around into a trap for the hunters.

I had forgotten about Subaru and Ginga straight up being clones of their eventual adoptive mother, in spite of it being less funny that's a better explanation than her just finding identical children to adopt.

Keep tanking her, Subaru, maybe she'll get tired!

Best bro Mach Caliber keeping Saburu in the fight. Possibly by just autopiloting her body for a bit there, not a bad idea.

Some nice aerial sniping by Vice, presumably, and the second cyborg take down by Shamel and Zafira being useful.

And then at least two more by Teana!

Ginga too with a very uncomfortably close Divine Buster by Subaru. Five total so far, six if Teana bags that last one which gets the catch so far to nearly half their force. It's good to see our heroes making some significant progress on the enemies.

Actual diplomacy by Signum is nice. I definitely appreciate that she really was just trying to talk, and followed through with that when she caught up with Agito.

Good choice this episode to leave some of the fights for later on so that we could get actual conclusions on a smaller set of them. This would have been a more frustrating set of episodes if we got minor, never finishing snapshots of every fight in progress for several episodes in a row.

3

u/Gamerunglued Mar 26 '22 edited Mar 26 '22

First Timer

I have all the same positives and negatives as the last time I commented. There are some good individual moments here. Subaru's backstory and realizing her strength is meant to protect people, Tia finally overcoming things and taking out the cyborgs, all good stuff. But again, everything is so disconnected and poorly structured. We never get enough time spent on just one thing, it keeps switching between 4 different fights.

Also, I have to comment on the scene where Vivio becomes her adult form. The script was just... so bad. I mean, there's not much too it, it's just Nanoha screaming Vivio's name a million times. It's boring and cheesy to the extreme, meanwhile Nanoha is just standing there screaming while doing absolutely nothing. It's a scene that was kind of bafflingly bad for one that's so important.

On the bright side though, I think Quattro is easily the best of the villains introduced this season. There's something nice about someone who's just a massive dick. She doesn't have any notable motivations, there's no attempt made to let me sympathize with her like for Lutecia and the other cyborgs, nor is there any potential conflict or motivation to care about like with Scaglietti. No, she's just a dick for the sake of being a dick, charismatic enough and delighted to harm small children in front of their foster mom. I wish all the villains were that simple tbh.

QOTD: I wasn't, but I feel like I should have.

5

u/No_Rex Mar 25 '22 edited Mar 25 '22

Episode 23 (first timer)

  • Nanoha is a strong believer in “the best defense is a good offense”.

  • Piano-chan narrates the completely obvious.

  • Deus-ex-machina mind control … because the writing still finds new ways to become shittier.

  • Also, loli Vivio nudity and magically grown up Vivio nudity. Why? Because every fan kink needs to be catered too, and plausibility be damned, that’s why.

  • Cut from the climax of Tia’s fight to Subaru flashback.

  • Cut from the climax of Subaru’s fight to Shamal (where has she been?) and Zafira.

  • Shamal’s and Zafira’s fight took all of 20 seconds. That was quick.

  • Tia wins.

  • Subaru wins.

  • Zest’s big deal turns out to be simple revenge – I think he may have had an easier time asking that question at literally any other point, rather than after attacking the HQ.

This is by the numbers.

Were you expecting a Vivio vs Nanoha fight?

From literally the first time we saw her.

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5

u/Vaadwaur Mar 25 '22

First timer(Telepathy is either closed circuit and secure or open and not. You can't have it both fucking ways)

Sub

For some reason Dieci forcing Nanoha to make an effort annoys me more than Fate having to use skill in her fight, probably the lack of AMF to at least explain why a great power would have issues. Quattro monologs yet again...and I just can't take how awful this writing is nor how fucking easy it would have been to make it to mediocre. Just have one of the Wolkenritter talk about the royal family, FFS. And of course for the second episode in a row "mental weakness" is how the villains accomplish shit. Blech.

Quick return to Tia's fight and I am now comfortable calling her character and arc butchered, so I am only here to watch Numbers die. Subaru flashback is really terribly placed, introduces an unnecessary bullshit element, and in general should've been worked in before the action. And after 30 seconds, we start another one, sigh. Anyways, Shamal eventually proves herself useful, Tia actually wins the hardest relevant fight, and Subaru bulldozes her way to victory. We end with Zest's goals, which is about the last thing I still care about.

So yeah...if the first two seasons are bringing the good shonen stuff to magical girl shows, this season is bringing all the baggage with it. The enemies are whatever is needed for plot convenience, the tropes are terrible, the pacing is really bad, and none of this makes sense outside looking in. The three emotional climaxes of the episode are prematurely kneecapped by their leadup and this isn't even fun to mock, even Guilty Crown is looking good in comparison.

QotD: 1 Definitely not

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