In the latest issue of Kadokawa’s new magazine Nyantype, the fourth installment in the Nanoha universe has been announced to be published in said magazine. The new story is titled Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force and Takamachi Nanoha is now 25 years old in this series. The first issue will be released on April 30th and will feature art from Higa Yukari who has worked on the manga Holy Hearts! and the manga version of Shina Dark.
As a hardcore Nanoha fan (this blog is partly named after the series after all) I am excited about the announcement but at the same type hope that the series will be more like the first two rather than StrikerS which had a few interesting points such as weapon upgrades but overall did not live up to expectations. Hopefully being in the manga format issues such as pacing will be fixed. At the very least I want less training and few new characters. These were some of the biggest issues from StrikerS. Introducing new recruits is understandable so undergoing training is a given in the context of the setting but that doesn’t mean that it has to be shown all the time. I also didn’t like how important characters from the previous series either became rather minor or just plain didn’t show up. Where’s Hayate not doing desk work!?
As hinted in the change in title from Mahou Shoujo to Mahou Senki (Senki roughly translates as Military History), I hope this manga will mark in a change for the better and go back to its roots.
6 comments
Skip to comment form
Is this a possible prelude to a new anime series? I ask because a short manga was created to bridge the gap from “Nanoha A’s” to “StrikerS.” Since I watched “StrikerS” well after it had completed in Japan, I never really checked to see how that all went down.
As to “StrikerS,” the only problem I had was that there were too many characters. I felt the writers did the best they could with such a gargantuan cast, but as you say, some characters got reduced to mere cameos (Arf and Nanoha’s male friend-critter, who’s name eludes me at the moment).
I didn’t have a problem with the training because I did four years in the military and training is what one does there. Further, I liked the idea of training because it made the StrikerS team(s) more believable as a fighting force. Nanoha’s roots are cliched mahou shoujo with Nanoha being powerful from the start. I like to think of Nanoha and Fate (and even Hayate) as being special cases and that’s how they came across in “StrikerS.” The new recruits were good, but they weren’t the gifted people that Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate are when it comes to powers.
Just my 2-cents on the subject. ^_^;;;
Will you be blogging the manga chapters as they are released?
Personally, I felt like StrikerS was boring and fell flat on its face, but it only damaged, not destroyed, my enthusiasm for the Nanoha franchise.
This manga will be successful if it brings us back to the series’ roots while avoiding overuse of the inevitable “Maternity Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha” scenes between Nanoha and Vivio.
Also, they had better bring back Subaru.
As to this being a possible prelude to a 4th season of the anime? That is both believable and awesome.
So I’ve decided to begin watching Nanoha, and watched the first episode yesterday. It didn’t strike me as particularly interesting though. I doubt there’s much point in me asking for an opinion here (Nanoha fanboys won’t tell me to stop), but would it make much of an impact if I skipped forward to A’s?
Southrop´s last blog post..Haruhi Second Season to air after all?
Author
@AstroNerdBoy: I would actually argue that everyone but Teana and to a lesser extant Nanoha herself are special cases. Obviously the Belka Knights and Hayate are super weapons, Subaru is a combat cyborg, Caro is a powerful dragon summoner and Elio is an artificial human created as part of Project Fate. Teana is pretty much the only truly “normal” one with only her drive to prove her brother keeping her from getting owned all the time. As for Nanoha, although she is relatively talented for a person not born into magic she is still weaker than Hayate and slightly weaker than Fate but makes up for it with sheer determination and going overboard.
I suppose I could blog the chapters but that would depend on my enthusiasm and willingness to read the manga raw.
@Citrus: I suppose it is possible for Subaru and other characters to come back but the question will be how major of a role will they get. Either way an anime really would be nice if the manga turns out well.
I would disagree about Vivio but I don’t think there will be any of that stuff anyway considering that she will be around the same age as Nanoha at the beginning of the first series. In other words there’s the possibility of seeing potentially the most powerful Belka Knight wielding Nanoha-style weapons and techniques.
@Southrop: Don’t skip to A’s without watching everything that leads up to it! Else you will miss out on characterization and exposition necessary to truly appreciate A’s. The first few episodes may be slow I think part of the charm of Nanoha is how it starts off as a regular mahou shoujo but then defies normal expectations suddenly.
I fail to see why they so adamantly refuse to just do a nanoha middleschool/highschool transition. They had so much potential set up at the end of season 2 all to throw it away in season 3 for military hijinx and contrived military-esque internal strife/forced drama. Honestly I’d rather see a PREQUEL to StrikerS than another sequel like this mainly because StrikerS in itself was a flawed setting seeing as the world itself was no a pure fantasy. There’s no magic if magic becomes the norm imo.
The first and second season had the surreal element of magic brought into the normal world. That’s what made the magic so awesome and engaging. StrikerS was like DBZ where it was MUST GET STRONGER FOR THE SAKE OF GETTING STRONGER mentality throughout. It also tried to cram in the theme of family and friends with adopted kids.
Honestly, that felt like it was forced down our throats with Vivio coming out of nowhere. The first 2 seasons presented the theme in a subtle slice of life fashion, where season 3 just tried to jam it down our throats for the sake of having it.
When all is said and done, Nanoha as a 25 years old just fails to intrigue me because of the fact that she’s 25. Adults don’t have many adventures worth telling about since our lives are grounded to our daily routines because of our responsibilities. I think we all know this because we’re adults, or most of are anyways. That said, I can’t imagine how they could feasibly tell a story about Nanoha when she’s an adult, and probably in her prime, or past her prime or what not.
In short, although I’m anticipating this, I’m expecting it to be godawful like third season lol (it’s set in the same shitty universe), and am going into it with the intentions of hating it. If it can’t make me turn my head around and retract all my previous sentiments about the setting be flawed with the premise being ridiculous to tackle, then it wasn’t an installment worth telling about. Since the first 2 seasons completely managed to hook me and make me change my mind about the franchise being shit.
What I hope is that the movie is an opener to a whole alternate world of Nanoha where they never leave Earth, or at the very least stay on it once in a while.
BAWWWW the new series doesn’t have delicious flat chested loli’s anymore BAWWW fail shit sucks derp derp.
You guys are ridiculous.