It's been quite some time since i last posted here (not even sure if this topic is still active since i couldn't find it in the anime&manga board
)
but here's my 2nd review of the anime that's quickly taking over Zeldi's forum
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha/A'sStoryThe story starts with the 10 year old Nanoha hearing someone calling for help in her dream. The next day when she and her friends take a shorter route through the forest she hears the voice again and rushes through the woods and finds a wounded ferret. They decide to bring the ferret to the vet. At night the vet gets attacked by a monster and the ferret escapes calling Nanoha for help. Nanoha arrives and gets the Raging Heart from the ferret. Not sure what's going on she decides to use it and transforms in a magical girl and defeats the monster. Afterwards the ferret introduces himself as Yuuno and asks if she can help him collect the 21 Jewel Seeds that have accidently been scattered on Earth, and so it begins.....
The story.....hey, wait a sec! Don't hit the off button just yet! It may sound as a cheap Cardcaptor Sakura clone, but it definetly isn't.
The story starts pretty basic with only collecting Jewel Seeds every episode but quickly gets more interesting as Nanoha's rival is introduced who has her own reason for collecting the Jewel Seeds. After that the story continues on a good pace and leaves the path of the standard all happy magical girl anime.
Altough the story itself is rather simple it never gets boring thanks to some big plot twists, surprises and dramatic scenes that are scattered throughout the two seasons and it even has a bit of character development and some background story for the minor characters (a rare thing in this genre). This is definetly one of the better stories among the magical girl anime's.
Score: 8,3
CharactersA quick runthrough of the important characters:
Nanoha
The main herione of the anime, Nanoha is a friendly girl that always wants to help people and become friends with them.
Yuuno
A mage and the person that found the Jewel Seeds on his homeplanet. When the Jewel Seeds were accidently scattered on Earth he felt responsible for it and decided to retrieve them on his own. He's a friendly guy with a love for history and archeology and can always be found at Nanoha's site protecting and helping her in any way he can.
Fate
The rival of Nanoha who wants the Jewel Seeds for her mother. She is a very determined and skilled warrior but beneath all that turns out to be a kind and a bit of a shy girl.
Arf
Fate's familliar, she has the ability to transform in a dog/wolf. She cares deeply for Fate and will do anything to protect her.
Chrono Hallaoun
Chrono is the Head Enforcer of the warship Asura. He's always serious and can be a bit lacking in the social department but underneath he's actually a very nice guy (altough he'll never admit it).
Lindy Hallaoun
She's the admiral of the warship Asura and is Chrono's mother. She seems to have a thing for tea with lots of sugar in it.
Precia Testarossa
Fate's mother and a mage banished for conducting illegal experiments, she wants the Jewel Seeds no matter what and uses her daughter to get them.
Hayate
She's been paralyzed in her legs since she was very young due to a strange illness, she has always lived alone but now lives together with her new family.
Signum, the Sword Knight
Signum is the leader of the Wolkenritter (Cloud Knights). An experienced warrior who rarely smiles but is very determined to help their mistress. Signum is Fate's opponent in the 2nd season.
Vita, the Iron Hammer Knight
The 2nd member of the Wolkenritter. Vita is known for her powerfull attacks and her big temper! Of all the Wolkenritter Vita has the most feelings for their mistress and can get really emotional when it comes to the mistress. Vita is Nanoha's opponent in the 2nd season.
Shamal, the Knight of the Lake
Shamal is the 3rd member of the Wolkenritter and an expert in supportive and curative spells. She is a kind woman and is not really a fighter but more of a big sis to the others.
Zafira, the Shielding Guardian Beast
The fourth and final member of the Wolkenritter, Zafira is a familliar just like Arf and is her opponent troughout the 2nd Season. He always keeps his cool when Vita is busy losing hers. As his title implies his job is to protect the others.
All the characters are well acted out and they all have their own motives for fighting and there is a bit of character development as well (mostly Fate). Not exactly the best anime when it comes to character development but the characters themself make up for that.
Score: 8,2
ArtFor the 1st season there were actually two studios making the anime. Thanks to this the art/animation of the characters, monsters and magicspells is superb. All characters are beautifully drawn with much detail for their costumes, the same goes for the monsters who are also beautifully drawn with some pretty original designs amongst them. This quality remains throughout the 1st season.
But in the 2nd season there's only one studio that makes the anime, the result: the character art/animation is strangely enough just as good and sometimes even better than in the 1st season (with the exception of two episodes where the characterart can be really weird). But here's where it goes wrong.....the magicspells. The art of most of the magicspells has taken a serious downfall in the 2nd season.
This is definetly one of the best looking anime i've seen sofar only kept from a really high score by the magicspells in the 2nd season
Score: 8,7
MusicThe opening songs are really nice, with the 2nd opening song being my favorite, and the ending songs are pretty good too. But the music really gets going in the anime itself and mostly during the battle scenes. A lot of the background music and songs from the anime are now in my favorite musiclist.
Score: 8,7
ConclusionAn anime that has great art, battles, music, characters and so on. This anime is fun to watch even if you're not a mahou shoujo fan and i strongly recommend anyone who reads this to watch this anime!
Overal score: 8,6
Feel free to comment/critisize this review