Nanoha's Story Replay...This Time in the Theaters!

- June 24, 2018

Hello, people. Remember me? It's been a while since I have last posted on this blog although a much more recent blog post. Anyway, remember the 1st and 2nd movie of Nanoha? I will be talking about it. I watched the 1st movie WAY before the 3rd movie start. It took a while to watch the 2nd movie due to time constraints but I did after I finished watching the 3rd movie. Weird, right?

Friendship forever!

Anyway, come to think of it, the 3rd movie somehow doesn't fit that well into the narrative in the anime continuum due to the redesign of the magical staff of Nanoha and Fate. Let's not mind that, it's just my opinion. Let's continue this post!

WARNING:-

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't watched it and plan to watch it without anyone being the spoiler, please DON'T CONTINUE READING!!!

P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You HAD been warned. Don't blame me for being spoiled if you INSIST on continuing to read this post.

Introduction

The 1st and 2nd movie shouldn't be too much of a stranger to many Nanoha fans. I also DID mention in one of my previous blog posts, right? Maybe I didn't. Anyway, most of the details can be easily found and probably I had mentioned. Anyway, a brief plot will be given because these movies are just the stories of Season 1 and 2 of the Nanoha anime continuum retold with an extra perspective of the two seasons of anime.

Yeah! The three friends!

Plot

This is gonna a brief summary of the two movies. The first movie starts with Yuno trying to collect the jewel seed but got too drained out and injured. He fainted halfway through due to injury and failed to capture the jewel seed. Nanoha, a junior school student found Yuno and before she knows it, became a magical girl to collect the jewel seed and faces all sort of challenges including against Fate. Sounds like Cardcaptor Sakura, isn't it? Anyway, there is a small difference during the transformation phase as compared to the anime. Plus, the story of the movie has quite a number of significant changes although the main story progression is mostly the same.

Jewel seed again...

There is a scene that provides a special perspective and glance into Fate and her mother's backstory, which is very heartbreaking. Fate's mother literally broke after her biological daughter, Alicia died. Even though successfully created Fate as a replacement, but Fate's mother, Precia see Fate as an incomplete and unsuitable replacement for the dead Alicia. This caused Fate to be hated by Precia throughout Fate's lifetime. Even when Fate decided to extend her out to her, she refused and choose to die with Alicia's dead body. Although the fans said that they could have reached Al-Hazard to revive Alicia, this is neither confirmed nor disproved, which means it is still a mystery.

Fate's backstory...

As for the 2nd movie, it started with Hayate's meeting with the members of the Wolkenritter. Similar to the second season, the Wolkenritter collecting the pages for the book to make sure Hayate will not die. Same as the 1st movie, the story has been altered but the essential story progression remains.

Nanoha starts fighting once again...

BUT, the altering of the storyline gives it a distinct narrative to the Book of Darkness event, which makes it turn into a continuity of its own. Well, that's probably why the 3rd movie doesn't really fit into the anime continuum that well, huh? Anyway, just like the 1st movie, the second movie has a lot of fighting scene. I'm not gonna elaborate the stories further as the story is already shown in seasons 1 and 2. The stories are pretty much the same structure but just with a little twist.

Once again the book of darkness...

Book of Darkness vs Nanoha!

Anime Rating

Nanoha Movie 1

Story (Rating: 8/10)

Same as the first season. Pretty good. The altering of the plot is not too disruptive as it didn't change the important plotline to create a serious clash between the movie and the anime. Pretty solid overall. The story is quite heavy on battles between characters though.

Fate is broken...

Art and Animation (Rating: 9/10)

Major improvement of animation in every aspect as compared to the anime. Duh! The anime's style of animation is from the late 90s and early 2000s. With the story being quite heavy on battles between characters, most of the animation is focused on the fighting scene.

Nanoha vs Fate

Sound and Music (Rating: 5/10)

Pretty decent. Nothing much to comment on. The theme song is not as good as the 3rd movie of Nanoha. The soundtrack is pretty good and is spot on based on the situation the music is played in.

Ending music in the background...

Characters (Rating: 8/10)

Similar to season 1. Nothing new. Very much similar to season 1. The characters in the movie are not as thoroughly introduced as the anime. Duh, the anime has more time to do a thorough introduction. The new perspective of Fate's backstory gives a fresh and new angle of the Jewel Seed incident in the anime.

Nanoha transformation...

Enjoyment (Rating: 9/10)

You asked, "Did I enjoy watching it?", right? Yes, I did. The story is pretty good and the fighting scene is much more dramatic than the anime. Anyway, the story's new perspective of Fate's backstory is pretty well done.

Nanoha cries again...

Overall Rating: 7.8 (7.5)/10

Nanoha Movie 2

Story (Rating: 7/10)

Well, the same situation as the 1st movie. Good job. The story is also quite heavy on the fighting scene with a lot of the story from season 2 being cut short. Even though it retains the essential plot points, just like in the 1st movie, BUT for the 2nd movie, it did change the narrative of the incident quite a bit, which did create quite a rift between the movie and the anime and bringing the movie series into its own special continuity just like many of Nanoha related side works.

Nanoha!!! NO!!!!