Ladies and gentlemen, I now present you the return of the Nanoha franchise which takes place four years after StrikerS (one year after Sound Stage X if you want to dig deeper).
And this time, it’s Vivio who is taking her mother’s legacy as the main character of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. I was bummed that A-1 Pictures will do the animation instead of Seven Arcs, but let’s see about that!
Like I said, it’s a sequel to Nanoha StrikerS where Nanoha Takamachi and Fate T. Harlaown adopted Vivio after StrikerS.
In fact, Vivio is very happy that she can live her life as a normal girl, such as hanging out with her friends Corona Timil and Rio Wesley…
…and sometimes sparring with Nove Nakajima in the form of Strike Arts. By the way, most of Jail Scaglietti’s Numbers turned on a new leaf and they’re either adopted by the Nakajima family or joined the Saint Church.
And also, there’s no major antagonist on ViVid as it’ll focus on martial arts (with magic of course) and winning tournaments. Therefore, it’s a lot softer this time compared to StrikerS.
Moving onto the next scene as Fate-mama and Nanoha-mama give their daughter a present. And by the way, seeing both of them together is so nostalgic!
Anyways, they gave Vivio an Intelligent Device which is actually her rabbit plushie that was given by Fate back in StrikerS Ep. 13. But hey, at least Vivio has a cute device on her own and she called it Sacred Heart (or Chris).
Oh yeah, and Vivio transforms from a cute loli…
…into a grown-up version of herself, using her magical fists to “befriend” opponents. However, Nanoha-mama tells her that she can use that form during competition and in dangerous situation.
With that said, Vivio is happy having Chris as her partner!
Of course, Fate-mama can’t believe that Vivio grow up too fast. C’mon, she can revert to her child form at any time so it’s not the end of the world! I guess Nanoha wants to surprise Fate-chan about Vivio’s transformation.
Oh yeah, here’s a rival for Vivio-chan named High Queen Ingvalt. As you can see, Ingvalt is somewhat related to Vivio as she has traces of the last Belkan Saint King Olivie Sägebrecht.
Speaking of Ancient Belka, it’s previously mentioned in both Nanoha A’s and StrikerS, but I believe that A-1 Pictures will explain its brief history via flashbacks. Currently, the Saint Church is the successor to Ancient Belka, just to let you know.
But anyways, Ingvalt wants to become stronger that she beat up strangers in the middle of the night…
This includes Nove Nakajima as she’s ready to stop Ingvalt from beating up more people!
Now let’s talk about the presentation as it captures the essence on what makes Lyrical Nanoha look great, especially when it comes to action scenes as seen here as Nove dropkick Ingvalt.
Of course, there’s one thing missing for Nanoha ViVid: the eye-catches. Sure that A-1 Pictures did a great job on this series, but it seems that having no animated eye-catches is very disappointing. Speaking of A-1 Pictures, it appears that they poured their budget and manpower on Nanoha ViVid. So therefore, Gunslinger Stratos and Denpa Kyoushi looked terrible as these shows took what’s left from A-1 Pictures.
So let’s go back to this scene as Nove Nakajima tries to stop Ingvalt with force…
But unfortunately, Ingvalt made a counter-attack against Nove by punching her to the gut!
Therefore, Nove is down and out! Good thing that she’s a cyborg ’cause Nove would be dead is she wasn’t.
As for Ingvalt, she reverted back to her child form as she got tired of fighting against Nove. Oh yeah, it was revealed that her real name is Einhart Stratos.
Later, Einhart was picked up by Nove and took her back to the Nakajima residence, ’cause leaving Einhart in the middle of the street might be problematic like being caught by a molester!
Anyways, let’s end this post with a lovely picture of Fate-chan in the nude. It’s great to be back after being relegated to movies and manga!
Oh, and it’s not just Fate-chan, let’s add Vivio and Nanoha too! The more the merrier…
And that’s about it for Nanoha ViVid. Next episode will have Vivio-chan meeting Einhart for the first time!
The Anime Rambler - By Benigmatica 