Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie

November 25th, 2010

 

What? A new VA for Bardiche!? Unthinkable!

Impressions:

Good god, this was long. *Ahem* Sorry, I have to be a little brief too. I’m on the clock now.

Well, let’s start with the bad. It’s nowhere near as visually flashy as UBW was. The plot and development was definitely much tighter, but there were a few action scenes that I feel that the TV series did much better. In particular, Nanoha and Fate’s final battle. They get all ready to fight, and then it cuts away to Amy and Chrono talking about them fighting for about three minutes. Then it’s back to the fight for about 60 seconds before Fate gets mired in about a four minute flashback to Precia. Then, and only then, the battle music kicks in, but at that point, there’s nothing left but their little bind/beam exchange and the better part of ten minutes have been spent doing… random stuff. I’m also not thrilled with the changes they made to Precia. She was good as a psycho. She’s still a psycho, but the giant flashback of her having her cat train Fate was completely unneeded. The tagline of Alicia making her promise to give her a sister at the very end was also overly hamhanded.

On to the good. Where UBW lacked in characterization and plot, this makes up for it in spades. Sure, once you remove Shinbo’s weird camera angles, the hot spring episode, Nanoha’s family, her friends, and the episode where Nanoha fights a tree, there’s only about 40 minutes of the first season left anyway, but they still did a very good job converting a whole season into one standalone movie without missing a beat. While not on the same level as UBW, the action is still quite well done, especially through the first half. Very good job on the music for the most part too, although the teary eyed scene at the end while Yukari Tamura squeaks overshadows the rest of it.

Nanoha: First Flight Fate
       

Otherwise, there’s not a whole lot to say. It’s a pretty cut and dry series to movie adaptation that removes almost all of the fat. I can’t say that I’m a fan of the additional Precia (and her cat!) parts that they added, but compared to some things the anime world has dumped on us recently, take it as nothing more than minor annoyances in an otherwise very well executed movie. The biggest change they made is RH claiming to have a stun mode. Yeah… kind of stretching my suspension of disbelief there.

However, I will note that Nanoha now has nipples during her transformation scene. Thanks, 7Arcs. That was completely necessary. Oi…

Beam Spam "For Our Beginning…"
       

   

Posted in Nanoha | 11 Comments »

11 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Miria says:

    “The TV series did much better”
    First time I agree with you.

  • Anise_Punter says:

    I actually enjoyed this a lot more than the first season itself, and I’d say that

    “Sure, once you remove Shinbo’s weird camera angles, the hot spring episode, Nanoha’s family, her friends, and the episode where Nanoha fights a tree, there’s only about 40 minutes of the first season left anyway” encapsulates why that’s the case about as well as I could.

  • Anonym says:

    yeah, the nipple is unnecessary. But it’s a good fan service for lolicon – me not lolicon.

    Hey, the manga adaptation from the movie is way better than this reboot!

  • redlupine says:

    did they actually fight Presea in this one or did plot just kill her again?

    • Aroduc says:

      Plot dropped her in the hole again. At least most of the party was there to yell at her this time.

  • DmonHiro says:

    “Thanks, 7Arcs. That was completely necessary. Oi…”
    We beg to differ.

  • Nanofan says:

    ” but there were a few action scenes that I feel that the TV series did much better. In particular, Nanoha and Fate’s final battle.”

    I can’t really agree with that. Okay, the final battle was combined with a few flashbacks, but they were fighting for a good bit before the flashbacks came, and it was awesome. Even putting aside STB, which I found kind of ridiculous in the movie. It was definitely cool to see, but there are limits to how much firepower you should use in order to get your point across. Fate was already fatigued from an attack 1/4th that size. Although that 6part barrier Fate put up was mighty cool.Even if it shattered in a matter of seconds…

  • Joel says:

    The only real bad thing about this movie is that I’ll never again be able to watch a Starlight Breaker in the TV seasons without feeling disappointed.

    The movie definitely delivered as far as pure spectacle is concerned.

  • Koveras says:

    FYI “Precia’s cat” (actually, a catgirl familiar like Aria and Lotte from A’s) was there from season 1 onwards, except she only appeared in Sound Stage 02. What they couldn’t fit into the movie was the fact that Rinis created Bardiche, taught Fate how to create Arf, and generally kept Precia’s insanity in check for two years.