天下制覇

So much for any hopes for this.

Impressions:

Oh, Nanoha franchise. How far you've come. Wait, not come. Fallen. How far you've fallen. Even StrikerS's first episode, half consumed by a training exercise/test, was a million times less dull than this was, not to mention a double million times more animated. You're already starting with a lead weight around the neck by going from actual fighting over anything that matters to basically a sports tournament show about a girl with an inferiority complex trying to make up with her childhood buddy who's surpassed her, and pitching the budget on top of it is diving right into the Mariana. Any nod towards this being about magical girls is utterly absent in this episode, let alone them fighting against anything at all, let alone anything besides their own insecurities and angst.

Also not helping was how the second half was a sloppy blowjob to the previously existing cast and how great they are compared to the protagonist. She's scrappy, and jumps into street fights with hordes of thugs, but compared to the soft spoken girls who run on friendship power, hard work, and training in a gym, she's as helpless as a baby with zero fighting instincts, endurance, strength, or anything at all. If they were going for showing that she had natural talent or drive, they failed horrendously because they were too busy lionizing the existing cast to a ridiculous degree.