anime & Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha & rant 22 Apr 2007 09:56 am by shinigami
Nanoha Striker S rant
This rant has one and only one purpose: to explain why I dislike StrikerS for reasons that aren’t “26 eps series VS 13 eps series pacing”. It’s easier than to reply in comments again. It’s written quickly as soon as I woke up and saw the comment for the ep 3 post, so I might add to it later on.
My problem with StrikerS, as I’ve said while watching every episode so far, is that the new characters take up way too much screen time and the old characters (that fans are interested in most, right? Well, I know I am.) have more of a mentor/teacher role while the chara development is all about the n00bs. I said this is most striking in the third episode’s eyecatch(*) with the old characters relegated to the background.
I didn’t write this to repeat what I already said. Let’s talk about pacing.
I see 2 possibilities:
1. StrikerS, despite being called “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha” is indeed centered on the new characters. The fact that I get bored when the n00bs are on screen has nothing to do with the pacing being slow. The pacing is right on, but I am entitled to not like the series.
2. StrikerS is not centered on the new characters. In this case the pacing is bad, but not because it’s slow. On the contrary, it’s rushed. How so? Well, in the first 3 eps we got 4 new main characters, plus 2 minor ones (Griffith and Shari), background on 2 of them and a few action scenes for them to prove themselves. Meanwhile there were very, very few scenes where the old characters interacted outside of their professional roles.
Let’s get back to where A’s left off: Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are still in school and still living with their respective families on Earth. Now we get to see them as full-time working gals with no connection to family and old school friends.
That’s fine, StrikerS jumped forward from the end of A’s, no problem. But in 3 eps there wasn’t ONE scene connecting past and present. Are Nanoha and Fate living together now? Fine. What about Nanoha’s family? These 3 eps weren’t about a crisis to keep her busy, yet she never calls home or visits or anything. Ditto for Arf. Where is Arf? It’s not that I miss her as a character, but isn’t it odd that she is not around Fate? Even if her absence is a plot element she could be mentioned or shown as busy elsewhere without this being a spoiler. But no, we get nothing.
This creates a very annoying effect for me: with no connection to their previous biography/identities, Nanoha and Fate feel like 2 characters that just look like the old ones.
So no, I am not complaining that the series is too slow. On the contrary, I’d like it to have taken time to show who Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are now instead of rushing to introduce all these new people.
Granted, if I weren’t a “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha” fan I wouldn’t care either way, but I am a fan and so far I don’t feel that this 3rd season is much of a season at all, more like a spin-off I’m not interested in. I’ve waited for more MSLN for so long that I can’t help being disappointed.
( * )
Nanoha, Fate, Hayate and Rein stand quitely in the background, wearing their uniforms, much like boring ol’ teachers for the bright new kids. >.>
on 22 Apr 2007 at 11:56 am 1.random passerby said …
Read the A’s to StrikerS manga?
If you did, you’d be feeling more like this show was too slow right now. Either way too much focus on the n00bs I agree.
on 22 Apr 2007 at 10:45 pm 2.Einar said …
http://www.dennogumi.org/2007/04/22/nanoha-strikers-2-3/ (bottom of the post)
on 23 Apr 2007 at 1:39 am 3.XXX said …
While I’m still giving the show some leeway for the reasons I explained in a previous comment (it is indeed early, for a 26 episode series)…up to a certain extent, I can see where some of the general misgivings mentioned come from.
In short, I would have preferred if at least some of the material in the A’s to StrikerS manga had been properly animated during the first few (say, around two or three) episodes of StrikerS.
Not only could that better bridge the gap for those that have not successfully read this manga (myself partially included, as it has not been fully translated into English), answering some of the questions presented above, but it would also have provided more character development/focus opportunities, both for the old and new characters.
Instead, the show seems to assume that either most of its audience already knows this (I don’t know how many Japanese viewers actually read the manga, so perhaps this assumption may be justified), or that it is enough to gradually re-introduce a few of the concepts presented in A’s to StrikerS, but without giving the overall events there too much importance (yet).
In any case, they didn’t do this, so it’s entirely understandable that shinigami and others won’t feel at ease with the way the show’s structure has been decided.
As for me…too soon to tell.
on 23 Apr 2007 at 6:09 pm 4.psgels said …
I quite agree about the lack of connection between A’s and StrikerS, and it’s almost unforgivable that nothing has been mentioned about Arf.
But then again, this concept just doesn’t work good without an antagonist. For me, the beauty of the first few seasons wasn’t because of the protagonists, but the antagonists, so I really hope that the antagonists for this season will be able to match Fate and Hayate. And I hope they’ll arrive soon, as these noobs are kindof getting annoying.
on 29 Apr 2007 at 2:15 pm 5.shinigami said …
Like XXX said, A’s to StrikerS is not fully translated so, unfortunately, I haven’t read it. There are some scanlations of the StrikerS manga too, by the way, and it explains some stuff (Arf is in there).
But the fact that there is ongoing manga that fills in the blanks doesn’t make the anime any better.
By the way, it reminds me of Heroes with its online comics, except (1) the Heroes comics only flesh out some things, they don’t have to be read, and (2) they are available for free on the Heroes official site. And still there are people that don’t just read them.
psgels, I agree! The antagonists were at least as interesting as the protagonists (IMHO Fate pwns Nanoha as a character and Hayate and the Knights are great.)
on 29 May 2007 at 7:01 pm 6.stella said …
I completely agree- I wanted to know more about nanoha, fate and hayate, and it doesn’t really give us anything :( What about Nanoha’s relationship with Yuno? I’ve gotten to watch 7 episodes, and the only thing intriguing me is the whole ‘limiter’ thing– where is that leading?
Too many new characters, not enough insight into the old ones.
on 23 Jun 2007 at 10:20 pm 7.Isabella said …
Ping…
We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us…
on 31 Jul 2007 at 12:42 am 8.Jakob said …
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Nanoha Striker S rant. Thanks for informative article
on 02 Feb 2008 at 5:01 am 9.Like A Coil Spring said …
Suspension at its finest with the Mercedes Coil Springs…
It is not all about the horsepower and torque you put into the engine to make an enhanced Mercedes performance. You need the ability to control that kind of horsepower, very much like taming a wild horse to be trained for horse racing. It needs some ki…