As I was in deep contemplation wondering how I would make my first foray into blogging - as the kids say - I conveniently decided to start the Vivid season of MGLN tonight. And there sure is nothing more interesting to capture your average blog-reader's attention than a recap of the first few episodes of a middle-of-the-line show from 2015 about little girls who transform into slightly older girls and proceed to beat the shit out of each other.
Right, time for some pretext. I started watching the first season of Nanoha (the original 2004 one) on September 4th 2018 (thanks AniList for recording my watch data down to the very date. Great site.) and was quickly enamored with the whole Friendship-by-building-sized-laser-beam schtick they went with. The 20th that same month, I began Nanoha A's (that's season 2, from 2005), and holy Madoka was it good. A's, by the way, currently sits quite nicely at an average score of just above 8/10 on MyAnimeList, which puts it just shy of the Top 500. Not mega-amazing or anything, but certainly nothing to scoff at. (As a side note, its 2012 movie adaptation sits at an 8.2, just outside top 300).
Now, why do I bring up watch dates and MAL rankings and all this jazz? Well, I'll get to it. To be brief, by christmas of the same year, I had watched StrikerS (that's season 3) and the movie adaptations of season 1 and A's. Loved them all, some of the best action movies I've seen, too.
"Fuck am I hooked on this now?" I thought to myself that winter, after spending 6 consecutive hours on the Nanoha series TvTropes page during a particularly uneventful night shift. After which I went to the post office to pick up my first Nanoha figure.
Heck, Nanoha herself is in the cover image above, so I guess the answer to that question should be obvious at this point.
Okay, Vivid time. It is now January of 2020, the year of the Rat - the strongest animal - and I have just now begun this "4th season" of my beloved laser-beam-firing zenryoku-zenkai magical-girl-spinoff-of-an-eroge definitely-not-lesbians-lookin-ass franchise. Took me a while dinnit? I have a good reason for that. Look at ViVid's MAL page and cry. Cruising in at an average score of 6.8 and ranked #4733, it's ya girl ViVid. The four user reviews the site shows at the moment of writing give the series scores of 5, 7, 7, and 8 out of ten respectively. Oh, that's MAL for "Burning pile of garbage", "Trash", "Trash", and "Okay, I guess". Hey, even its own spinoff sequel thing ViVid Strike is rated a fair bit above this.
Explains part of why I'm a little apprehensive going into it. That, plus from what I know, it's supposed to be a bit more toned down in regards to the sheer scale and seriousness of everything displayed by the franchise prior? I may be wrong on this, but we'll see soon enough.
Okay, lads. We're in. the episode opens with a brief history lesson on the fall of the Belkan civilization. This is all basic Nanoha lore at this point, but I would like to see some more exposition on the nation in this series. Not too much to ask for, I hope, considering Vivio's "ancestry".
Cue the opening, Angel Blossom by Nana Mizuki is a banger in its own right, but I feel the animation quality isn't anything to write home about here. If anything, it gets points for good synchronization between cuts in the video and the beat of the song.
We're (re)introduced to Vivio, our protagonist, complete with different colored eyes and a voice carrying fathomless amount of childlike purity and curiosity, big gold star for the voice actor for making Vivio sound hecKIN CUTE. Very moe. Actually, who voices Vivio? Ah, Mizuhashi Kaori. Who also voices... Mami from Madoka, thats cool. And... Yuuno, also from Nanoha. Bit of a shock, that one.
Following Vivio, we meet Nanoha-mama! The family dynamic between these two is off the cuteness-chart, and I think I got Diabetes Type six billion from this breakfast scene alone. From here, we move at a brisk pace, introducing Vivio's friends from school, Corona and Rio, the trio being about as moe together as they look. There's also the opening ceremony at their academy in the next scene, which lasts for 23 seconds. Clearly nothing important.
The school scenes in total are literally less than a minute of the episode. And the reason is soon obvious as the trio makes their way to what appears to be gym.
Make.
Way.
For.
MAGICAL KICKBOXER VIVIO!
Now we're talking! The red-haired woman here, by the way, is Nove, one of the previous season's sixty-thousand antagonists and a victim of the friendship-by-laser-beam thing I mentioned. Vivio and Nove spar together, which is apparently a big deal as the everyone in the admittedly massive sparring hall stops everything just to watch the two go at it. A cool scene, I must admit.
Now that's cool and all, but if I don't get a cool henshin sequence filled with flashing lights, triumphant BGM and animation quality far above the rest of the episode soon, I will-
Aww yiss (motha fuckin bread cumbs)! Vivio returns home to meet Nanoha and Fate-mama, who have just finished making dinner. Vivio makes it abundantly clear during dinner that she calls both of her two mothers -mama because surely they must be very, very good friends, seeing as they're both her mothers and all, and sleep in the same bed and stuff. Yeah, best friends, those two.
Anyway, Vivio gets a present from her mothers. It's her own intelligent device! A magical macguffin that lets you do sick henshins and laser beams. It's also shaped like a cute little bunny plushie, which I shouldn't have to tell you, is adorable. She names it Chris, also adorable. And then the good stuff. Vivio initiates her henshin, a whole 75 seconds of gorgeously animated Magical Girl transformation full of colors, lights, and all the... intricacies a Nanoha henshin sequence brings with it. Good stuff there. The surprise is that Vivio actually ages up, now looking to be about the age of Nanoha and Fate! Not a huge surprise though, if thou hast seen StrikerS, or any promotional material for this series at all.
Now this raised an inportant question for me. Could Vivio just waltz into the corner store while transformed, get an entire tray of their finest adult soda, and have the wildest party with her two also-ten-year-old friends? My questions did not remain unanswered for long, as Nanoha made her pinky promise that her adult form was not to be used for fun. Responsible parenting there Nanoha, unlike in StrikerS.
Now, next day. Vivio and Nove go visit some of the other reformed-by-laser-beam antagonists, some of the more forgettable ones. Can you blame me though? It's been a year+ since I saw StrikerS, and this cast is getting very large at this point. One of the visitees did however elude my memory completely. Ixy, a girl in comatose. I actualy had to pull up my trusty friend, the Nanoha wiki, to help jog my memory here. And it's no wonder I don't have any recollection of this character. She was introduced in the StrikerS Sound Stage X, two drama CD's which are very canon and takes place between StrikerS and ViVid. And to my dismay, I have not had the pleasure of listening to these.
After this, we get foreshadow-y as the episode moves to introduce the spooky scary villain. In the middle of the night, Nove is beset upon by a mysterious masked figure. Spooooky. The mask does not remain on for long, as the figure removes it and introduces herself as *checks notes* Kaiser Arts Disciple, Heidi E.S. Ingvalt.
I'm just pretending to not know who this is. I've seen promo material, after all.
Cut to ending sequence. Song slaps, is upbeat and the sequence is pretty good all around. No complaints from this boi. Onto episode numero dos!
Here we go! Nove immediately brings the action as we get a short but sweet fight scene. Animation quality was decent and the sound design made me feel the impact of each strike. Good job, A-1 Pictu- wait, A-1 Pictures?! It was at this point he realized this is not Seven Arcs' work, but rather A-1's. Well, not that it matters immensely. If anything, it explains the change in art style more convincingly than just being part of a series tonal shift.
In this fight, we get to hear the reasons why *checks notes* Kaiser Arts Disciple, Heidi E.S. Ingvalt has been going around beating people up. You know, that bit I may or may not have neglected to comment on that was briefly touched upon in episode 1? The very same. Apparently, she wants to do something something it's got to do with the ancient Belkan kingdom and whatnot. Truth is, this girl speaks so formally that I find myself a little lost here. It's explained better a little later this episode.
Anyway, fight ends with Nove being punched flat into the ground and *checks notes* - fuck it, her nickname's Hegemon. She said it herself earlier. - Hegemon walks away the victor, but not without having suffered a kick right in the face moments earlier.
So why, then, does she wake up in bed with Nove after collapsing, with two cute girls serving her breakfast?
Short answer long, after delivering that final kick to the face, Nove planted a tracking device on her, enabling Subaru and Teana, both of StrikerS fame, to pick up the unconscious girl and take her to their bedroom. Nothing wrong here, officer. Oh yeah! Also, Hegemon is actually a ten-year old girl, named Einhart Stratos. Also a student at Vivio's school. Who'd thunk it?
After being explained that Einhart has now been befriended, thus assimilated into the ever-growing ensemble cast of the Nanoha series, the party hits up the hospital to get Einhart checked out. It is after this that Einhart opens up a bit to Nove and explains why she's around beating people up and stuff.
So, get this. Einhart actually has the memories of some royal knight-dude from the old Belkan kingdom, and these memories influence her personality and desires enough to fuel her drive to prove the worth of her martial arts. At least that's what I'm getting from this.
And it's at this point I stopped and realized that this is actually a well crafted setup for a character (although it probably doesn't sound that way, coming from me), that can end up with so much of that sweet juicy character-driven storytelling I love oh so much. I am behind this setup 110 milion percent.
Special shoutout here goes to the microwave lasagna I ate during this episode. I've come to not expect much quality from anything that comes out of a microwave, but this thing was pretty damn tasty, and the portion large enough to really enjoy. Thumbs the fuck up!
Okay, that's all well and good, but what's up in Vivio town?
LITERALLY TIEING USAIN BOLT FOR THE 100M DASH WORLD RECORD, THAT'S WHAT!
Okay, i can suspend my disbelief for this. It's fine. But pay close enough attention, and you will see that it says RAP TIME in the picture instead of the - what I assume is - intended LAP TIME. I'm just imagining Vivio laying down the sickest bars in Midchilda. What a girl of many talents.
Following this, Vivio gets home, does not waste a moment getting... in the shower with Fate and Nanoha. While this 80 seconds long family bath and shower scene is in no way going unappreciated, it is admittedly a tad difficult to ignore the naked ten-year old while trying to enjoy the prescence of the naked 23-year olds.
That more or less concludes episode 2, and I leave you with this snack.
----
Okay, that ended up going on for a bit longer than I intended. Just over 2k words, not including this bit. I mainly did this piece to stretch my English long-form writing skills again. They haven't really seen the light of day since high school to be quite honest. I don't really expect many to read all of this either, but hey if you do, I'd love some feedback.
I have a lot of subjects, both of a critical and of a satirical tone that I would like to write about, so I expect I'll use this site again in the near future. Catch y'all then.
Right, time for some pretext. I started watching the first season of Nanoha (the original 2004 one) on September 4th 2018 (thanks AniList for recording my watch data down to the very date. Great site.) and was quickly enamored with the whole Friendship-by-building-sized-laser-beam schtick they went with. The 20th that same month, I began Nanoha A's (that's season 2, from 2005), and holy Madoka was it good. A's, by the way, currently sits quite nicely at an average score of just above 8/10 on MyAnimeList, which puts it just shy of the Top 500. Not mega-amazing or anything, but certainly nothing to scoff at. (As a side note, its 2012 movie adaptation sits at an 8.2, just outside top 300).
 | |
| Certified better anime than the classic Noragami season 2... 's OVA |
Now, why do I bring up watch dates and MAL rankings and all this jazz? Well, I'll get to it. To be brief, by christmas of the same year, I had watched StrikerS (that's season 3) and the movie adaptations of season 1 and A's. Loved them all, some of the best action movies I've seen, too.
"Fuck am I hooked on this now?" I thought to myself that winter, after spending 6 consecutive hours on the Nanoha series TvTropes page during a particularly uneventful night shift. After which I went to the post office to pick up my first Nanoha figure.
Heck, Nanoha herself is in the cover image above, so I guess the answer to that question should be obvious at this point.
 |
| If you gotta burn an hour or ten, by all means strike a deal with the time devil. |
Okay, Vivid time. It is now January of 2020, the year of the Rat - the strongest animal - and I have just now begun this "4th season" of my beloved laser-beam-firing zenryoku-zenkai magical-girl-spinoff-of-an-eroge definitely-not-lesbians-lookin-ass franchise. Took me a while dinnit? I have a good reason for that. Look at ViVid's MAL page and cry. Cruising in at an average score of 6.8 and ranked #4733, it's ya girl ViVid. The four user reviews the site shows at the moment of writing give the series scores of 5, 7, 7, and 8 out of ten respectively. Oh, that's MAL for "Burning pile of garbage", "Trash", "Trash", and "Okay, I guess". Hey, even its own spinoff sequel thing ViVid Strike is rated a fair bit above this.
Explains part of why I'm a little apprehensive going into it. That, plus from what I know, it's supposed to be a bit more toned down in regards to the sheer scale and seriousness of everything displayed by the franchise prior? I may be wrong on this, but we'll see soon enough.
 |
| Can't be bad as long as Nana-chan does the OP tho. |
Okay, lads. We're in. the episode opens with a brief history lesson on the fall of the Belkan civilization. This is all basic Nanoha lore at this point, but I would like to see some more exposition on the nation in this series. Not too much to ask for, I hope, considering Vivio's "ancestry".
Cue the opening, Angel Blossom by Nana Mizuki is a banger in its own right, but I feel the animation quality isn't anything to write home about here. If anything, it gets points for good synchronization between cuts in the video and the beat of the song.
 |
| Character design lesson from two decades ago - heterochromia is cool. |
We're (re)introduced to Vivio, our protagonist, complete with different colored eyes and a voice carrying fathomless amount of childlike purity and curiosity, big gold star for the voice actor for making Vivio sound hecKIN CUTE. Very moe. Actually, who voices Vivio? Ah, Mizuhashi Kaori. Who also voices... Mami from Madoka, thats cool. And... Yuuno, also from Nanoha. Bit of a shock, that one.
Following Vivio, we meet Nanoha-mama! The family dynamic between these two is off the cuteness-chart, and I think I got Diabetes Type six billion from this breakfast scene alone. From here, we move at a brisk pace, introducing Vivio's friends from school, Corona and Rio, the trio being about as moe together as they look. There's also the opening ceremony at their academy in the next scene, which lasts for 23 seconds. Clearly nothing important.
 |
| Unimportant side characters? Whatever, they're cute. |
The school scenes in total are literally less than a minute of the episode. And the reason is soon obvious as the trio makes their way to what appears to be gym.
Make.
Way.
For.
MAGICAL KICKBOXER VIVIO!
 |
| I'm probably wrong in my definition of kickboxing, but fuck it, I'm here to make gags. |
Now we're talking! The red-haired woman here, by the way, is Nove, one of the previous season's sixty-thousand antagonists and a victim of the friendship-by-laser-beam thing I mentioned. Vivio and Nove spar together, which is apparently a big deal as the everyone in the admittedly massive sparring hall stops everything just to watch the two go at it. A cool scene, I must admit.
Now that's cool and all, but if I don't get a cool henshin sequence filled with flashing lights, triumphant BGM and animation quality far above the rest of the episode soon, I will-
 |
| HERE WE GO! |
Aww yiss (motha fuckin bread cumbs)! Vivio returns home to meet Nanoha and Fate-mama, who have just finished making dinner. Vivio makes it abundantly clear during dinner that she calls both of her two mothers -mama because surely they must be very, very good friends, seeing as they're both her mothers and all, and sleep in the same bed and stuff. Yeah, best friends, those two.
Anyway, Vivio gets a present from her mothers. It's her own intelligent device! A magical macguffin that lets you do sick henshins and laser beams. It's also shaped like a cute little bunny plushie, which I shouldn't have to tell you, is adorable. She names it Chris, also adorable. And then the good stuff. Vivio initiates her henshin, a whole 75 seconds of gorgeously animated Magical Girl transformation full of colors, lights, and all the... intricacies a Nanoha henshin sequence brings with it. Good stuff there. The surprise is that Vivio actually ages up, now looking to be about the age of Nanoha and Fate! Not a huge surprise though, if thou hast seen StrikerS, or any promotional material for this series at all.
Now this raised an inportant question for me. Could Vivio just waltz into the corner store while transformed, get an entire tray of their finest adult soda, and have the wildest party with her two also-ten-year-old friends? My questions did not remain unanswered for long, as Nanoha made her pinky promise that her adult form was not to be used for fun. Responsible parenting there Nanoha, unlike in StrikerS.
 |
| Can't break a pinky promise. Don't want the police involved, after all. |
 |
| She's cute, tho. |
I'm just pretending to not know who this is. I've seen promo material, after all.
 |
| Hegemon? That some kinda digimon? |
 |
| Roses are red, violets are blue. KNÆ I TRYNEN DIN! |
Here we go! Nove immediately brings the action as we get a short but sweet fight scene. Animation quality was decent and the sound design made me feel the impact of each strike. Good job, A-1 Pictu- wait, A-1 Pictures?! It was at this point he realized this is not Seven Arcs' work, but rather A-1's. Well, not that it matters immensely. If anything, it explains the change in art style more convincingly than just being part of a series tonal shift.
In this fight, we get to hear the reasons why *checks notes* Kaiser Arts Disciple, Heidi E.S. Ingvalt has been going around beating people up. You know, that bit I may or may not have neglected to comment on that was briefly touched upon in episode 1? The very same. Apparently, she wants to do something something it's got to do with the ancient Belkan kingdom and whatnot. Truth is, this girl speaks so formally that I find myself a little lost here. It's explained better a little later this episode.
Anyway, fight ends with Nove being punched flat into the ground and *checks notes* - fuck it, her nickname's Hegemon. She said it herself earlier. - Hegemon walks away the victor, but not without having suffered a kick right in the face moments earlier.
 |
| It's the lesbians from StrikerS! |
So why, then, does she wake up in bed with Nove after collapsing, with two cute girls serving her breakfast?
Short answer long, after delivering that final kick to the face, Nove planted a tracking device on her, enabling Subaru and Teana, both of StrikerS fame, to pick up the unconscious girl and take her to their bedroom. Nothing wrong here, officer. Oh yeah! Also, Hegemon is actually a ten-year old girl, named Einhart Stratos. Also a student at Vivio's school. Who'd thunk it?
After being explained that Einhart has now been befriended, thus assimilated into the ever-growing ensemble cast of the Nanoha series, the party hits up the hospital to get Einhart checked out. It is after this that Einhart opens up a bit to Nove and explains why she's around beating people up and stuff.
So, get this. Einhart actually has the memories of some royal knight-dude from the old Belkan kingdom, and these memories influence her personality and desires enough to fuel her drive to prove the worth of her martial arts. At least that's what I'm getting from this.
And it's at this point I stopped and realized that this is actually a well crafted setup for a character (although it probably doesn't sound that way, coming from me), that can end up with so much of that sweet juicy character-driven storytelling I love oh so much. I am behind this setup 110 milion percent.
Special shoutout here goes to the microwave lasagna I ate during this episode. I've come to not expect much quality from anything that comes out of a microwave, but this thing was pretty damn tasty, and the portion large enough to really enjoy. Thumbs the fuck up!
Okay, that's all well and good, but what's up in Vivio town?
 |
| wtf she fast! |
Okay, i can suspend my disbelief for this. It's fine. But pay close enough attention, and you will see that it says RAP TIME in the picture instead of the - what I assume is - intended LAP TIME. I'm just imagining Vivio laying down the sickest bars in Midchilda. What a girl of many talents.
Following this, Vivio gets home, does not waste a moment getting... in the shower with Fate and Nanoha. While this 80 seconds long family bath and shower scene is in no way going unappreciated, it is admittedly a tad difficult to ignore the naked ten-year old while trying to enjoy the prescence of the naked 23-year olds.
That more or less concludes episode 2, and I leave you with this snack.
----
Okay, that ended up going on for a bit longer than I intended. Just over 2k words, not including this bit. I mainly did this piece to stretch my English long-form writing skills again. They haven't really seen the light of day since high school to be quite honest. I don't really expect many to read all of this either, but hey if you do, I'd love some feedback.
I have a lot of subjects, both of a critical and of a satirical tone that I would like to write about, so I expect I'll use this site again in the near future. Catch y'all then.
