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Maho Shojo Lyrical Nanoha A's
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Animation - 8.9 |
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Sound - 7.9 |
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Story - 6.9 |
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Character - 7.8 |
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Value - 7.5 |
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Enjoyment - 8.9 |
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Average - 8.0 |
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| Average |
6.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Despite the fact that the second half of this anime has a more involved story, flashier battle scenes, bigger weapons and energy blasts, more characters, and a real enemy, I didn't really like this one as much. Sure, everything looks better, and the fights are more well done, but I didn't enjoy any of the slow/character-development movements as much as I did in the first season.
A's focuses on flashy fights. It also basically consists of the same duels. Nanoha is always fighting Vita. Fate always fights Signum, Arf fights the other familiar, etc. Also, there are like 3-4 encounters because they can never really resolve their fights due to some formulaic interferences. It also is very 'fair' fighting. One side loses and the next time that side wins, which itself isn't bad, but the fact that they force the equation to be so predictable is. Again comes with the weird magic with magic staffs that can lock and load cartridges of magic powers. I found it visually impressive, but mentally dehabilitating to see magic staffs so... ridiculous.
Storywise, there is more to it than A's predecessor. A lot more happens instead of the simple "collect lost logia and befriend Fate". However, it is nothing substantial. Basically, instead of collecting various Lost Logia, they are trying to prevent some huge powerful logia that has a soul or spirit (some sort of conscience) in it. Furthermore, its master of the logia is some crippled girl who has lost her parents, which is supposed to evoke some sort of sympathy into the opposing side. They keep trying to emphasize the fact that neither side is evil, blah blah blah.
Whatever. Trying to say anything smart about A's is just ridiculous. Pure and simple, this anime is for magic girl transformations, high-leveled energy fights, and illogical systems of magic that create flashy variations of different fighting moves. It no longer has the innocent charm of the first half, and instead focuses on cookie-cutter girl designs and flashy fights.
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Pakxenon |
(2006-12-27 00:13:25) 2006-12-26 23:56:20 |
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| WOW. I haven't felt like this since I watched Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid. Just like the said sequel, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's steps up hundreds of notches above the original series. It makes you forget (nearly) all the faults and stupid concepts introduced and just goes straight into the story with a boom. Though the only difference is that they aren't produced by a different company, MGLNA's feels very much like FMP!:TSR - the same yet different and much better.
This time around, pretty much all the episodes are exciting and action-packed, leading to the resistance of skipping conversations (YES: less of Nanoha's family, more of techno-babble) and more mysteries to ponder about. Instead of the skipping, I kept saying "evil! evil! evil! evil! evil!" whenever the villains appear, making me root for the good guys all the way. Then episode 6 came around, smacked me up for saying that to the villains, and kept me guessing for who really is evil. There is a LOT more action in this series, too (yes, this is the beam spam-fest I was waiting for). 80% of the 13 episodes are fights (I counted 4 of them), though I get mixed feelings for having too much action (the revealing of the real villain was a little too early for me - 4 episodes before the end). However, instead of budget-saving pan shots, there's a CG'd beam spam-fest every 10 seconds - I salute you, director!
The character moments worked well, though this area really deserved a lot more. Since 80% are fights, only 15% is character development, most notably Fate and Hayate's knights. It's a shame this sequel gave way to more action than to the characters, so at least each character moment is well spent for it's time there - quality > quantity. Asides from these two, everyone else doesn't get much of a spotlight: Nanoha never changes (she gets on my nerves; I detest her more and more; on the plus side, her too-perfect family doesn't get much screentime ^^), and Hayate is a better version of Nanoha (same but better).
The only faults to this? The story is forced - the "new villain" appears and tries to ruin everything, and being a one-timer, won't get carried over (this technique is overused). Sci-fi != magic; grade schoolers communicate via DVD letters in addition to their own cell phones. o_O
Am I ready for StrikerS? You betcha!
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| To say the truth, when it came out I ain't even bother watch it, then as it progress, something being said about "like they doing Gundam in loli form" and more so, ep.12 is "pure Super Robo War" style, then I went to watch it. It turns out better then I once expected, alas the animation standard kind of not so consistant.
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Splitter |
(2006-01-25 07:13:11) 2006-01-25 07:09:26 |
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| If I hadn't gotten my hopes up over this sequel to the dynamite predecessor, I might have enjoyed it a little more and while Nanoha A's does have it's faults, it's anything but a failure.
Animation continues to be stellar as ever. Unlike the first season, it stays fluid beginning to end. In fact, this series is worth the watch just for the explosive magical girl fights that come with every episode. They even managed to outdo the incredible transformation sequence of the first series, with a double transformation scene that only occurs once, but oh man, is it something!
Soundwork continues to stay impressive with a great, but not excellent, BGM and an OP that completely sets up for the series right at the beginning in the best way imaginable. The ED was a little flat but nothing too bad. As usual, seiyuu work was top notch. Tamura Yukari and Mizuki Nana were both at the top of their game and newcomer to the group, Ueda Kana, gave an outstanding moemoe performance as Hayate.
As far as the story goes, wow does this one trick you up. Many nice twists throughout the series, though the last few eps were seriously played out too long. This could have easily been 12 episodes if Hayate hadn't spent half of the last episode crying and saying goodbye to the same person. The curse behind the beauty in the battle scenes also came out in that battle scenes took up at least half of every episode! Seriously distracting from the series, it didn't have the same dramatic feel as the first season and felt more like a magical girl battle royale. While not necessarily a bad thing, not what I was hoping for.
Characterization remains as incredible as ever despite the flawed plot with an incredible line-up of new interesting characters and old favorites. As expected, Nanoha and Fate are back and fighting together at last! Unfortunately, the focus on them is short-lived. Like the first season, it's hard to believe the story focus is on Nanoha. First, it was all about Fate. Now it's all about Hayate and her Guardian Knights. But their characterization and the complicated relationship they share is done so flawlessly it's hard to complain.
Overall, Nanoha A's was a worthy sequel, but unworthy successor. It's basically Nanoha overkill. Overkill on the fight scenes and overkill on the drama. It was just a little too much of an already good thing.
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currywu |
(2006-01-23 19:25:07) 2006-01-23 19:20:19 |
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| "Magic girl" is a distinctively unique genre to anime. And aside from the classic Sailor Moon dubs, I know very little about the genre. The first season of Nanoha popped my mahou shoujo cherry and like most first experiences, it wasn't all that great.
Well along came Nanoha A's. It's worth parroting the previous two reviews that the sequel absolutely blows the original out of the water. A's is such an improvement in every measureable facet that it's become one of the most pure fun series I've seen in a long time.
Notes:
It's a shame that A's has been so completely overlooked for whatever reasons. Some may not want to jump in without seeing S1. Despite my tepid opinion of it, I would still recommend skimming through it to get the general plot points and become familar with Nanoha and Fate. It definitely enhances the appreciation for A's.
Another common excuse is the perceived loli content. Aside from a few extended transformation sequences, A's has pretty much no fanservice. I'll just say this: how much loli service you see in A's is a direct reflection of your own personal...tastes.
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| Average |
8.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| One of the main reason I decided to review this anime is that it needed to be properly reviewed since there are so few people who have seen it. At first glance Magical Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's may seem like your typical Magical Girl anime and in some ways it is. This, however, should not affect ones decision on viewing it. If you watch Magical Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's and keep an open mind without having any bias you are sure to have an enjoyable experience. The story is very good and continues right where the last series left off; so for a more complete understaing of the series it is best to watch the original first. The story may at first seem average but as it progress there are enough developtments and plot twists to keep the viewer interested and the story flowing. Once the story really gets moving draws you in and will have you watching each episode to see what happens next. Magical Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's brings back old characters while introducing new characters all the while developing each one of there individual personas. There are plenty of action sequences, and very well done at that, more than you'd probably expect from your typical magical girl anime. The OP song is also very good. The show has a lot to offer given the chance. I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to others.
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| As i said in the last series, MGLN needed abit more to be great, in comes MGLNA and just 'Wow!' they pretty much fixed everything from MGLN.
They upped the entertainment value, more action, more characters, more atmosphere and more tense than before. Fate and Nanoha really show how to make a great magical girl show, with the ever cute Fate stealing the show again (imo). The introduction of new characters such as Vita, Signum and Hayate are nice additions and just increases the entertainment factor whether they're battling against Fate/Nanoha or having a normal family life in their home.
In fact, MGLNA is such an improvement over the original, i would 'almost' just recommend people to skip the first series and watch this instead, but then you miss out on a lot of stuff from the first series (i.e. Fate's background).
The worst (and possibly only) point about this series would be the 'Oh-My So generic' story that this have, the cliched named 'Book of Darkness' and the ever-present 'I Need more magical power etc' style storyline is its downfall, i remember the first series storyline being much better planned and alot less average than this holds, however, its really not the story that is important, its really the entertainment and characters.
Overall, 8.5/10
Grade: A-
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starcaptor |
(2006-04-01 21:55:54) 2005-10-29 05:43:27 |
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Now this is how a Magical Girl series should be done IMO. With the backdrop and character development settled in season 1, A's goes right into some serious action. Spactacular action, choreography which makes Bleach and Naruto look like cosplay skits, and what we all watch A's for, MORE OF FATE! >P Even the transformation sequences, which I thought were already insanely good in season 1, were outdone by a new dualie henshin sequence thats so good, they only show it ONCE!
Although it might seem trivial given the competition of anime from 05 and 06, A's was one of the animes I enjoyed the most during its run. I couldnt wait for the new episodes. Not much given to plot or character development (you really should watch the more-boring-but-all-important season 1 for that), but frankly, I dont care. Horray for Nanoha As!
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