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Vivid Translations 
Ata…! My girl…! You win…!
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I am so happy with this episode. Finally feel like progress is being made towards Rinne realizing that the only thing she’s doing is hurting herself, the way she’s currently fighting. I hope Jill can understand the real reason Rinne lost, and how her own style is flawed when it comes to the emotional/mental stuff.
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This episode managed to surprise me and I did not think the show could do that. It easily slides into most interesting episodes of this show. So it’s good. Not as good to me as past seasons but better than we were enduring. Anyway SPOILERS:
SPOILERS
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Vivio finally was able to show of her skills and not be constantly upset by other characters. As a bonus the fight has more flash than I expected and Vivio even calls her ultimate attack. So some, “some” of the flash was back.
Still think tha Rinne’s comeback was at least a bit bullshit considering that up to that point Vivio was able to dance all around her.
Let’s hope they don’t pull some bullshit clause to get Rinne back into the tournament. While she is in a bad place she needs someone to talk to her and not to punch her in the face. Although if Fuka wins her match it could be a finishing blow to Rinne’s confidence into herself since as far as she is concerned the Fuka has overtaken her AGAIN, meaning she is weak AGAIN (at least in her confused mind). And Jill’s all or nothing, don’t be a LOOOOOOOSSSSEEEERRRR is not helping at all.
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Was actually a REALLY edge-of-seat fight to watch to be honest.
I was hoping that a newbie who is just afraid of losing wouldn’t trounce our former protagonist who is known for that sheer stubborn will to win, and Was not disappointed. Looked good doing it too.
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Well to be fair to Rinne, while I don’t like how they explained why she is champion material, she is not a newbie either. She has clearly been fighting at competitive level for a while. Enough to run into Vivio once before and only loose because Vivio is like her hard counter.
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Miss posted. So my actual reply is in the next post.
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. . .
なに？
First the cast forgets they can do magic, and now Vivio forgets all her Strike Arts/Counter Hitter stuff and lets Rinne cripple her? (I can only imagine this to be deliberate on Vivio’s part) Then she repeats the exercise, only to pull out a stance that pseudo-negates the crippling injury, completely negate Rinne’s understanding of the combat and (incidentally) allows her to deploy her most powerful fist to strike – That would have been helpful, you know, before Rinne nearly downed you the second time.
So now we have Rinne and Jill suffering from a massive psycological trauma due to their belief that anything less than perfect marks 100% of the time == Total Failure, and Rinne being physically fine as Vivio’s control over her blows and magic is near-perfect even when crippled. Meanwhile Vivio is on her way to the hospital with injuries that will probably see her withdraw from the Winter Cup on medical grounds, due to Rinne’s near-total lack of control.
Wait… Is this so that Vivio can win, be forced to withdraw and volunteer to give up her place in the next match (vs. Fuuka) so that Rinne and Fuuka can have their public fight and Vivio can still have her win against Rinne? Ggrief, I swear: Although that would explain why the writers chose to replace the Crash Emulate with actual injuries, if that does happen I will be obliged to make a formal apology to Force for the insult of comparing it to… This.
This fight really did not deserve to be dragged out over a whole episode and a half, either.
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For the record for me the change in stance did work. At least it made some sense. What did not convince me was Rinne landing blows on Vivio, because that time she was only able to do that because Vivio froze for some reason.
While Rinne not having any visible injuries even after being down multiple times during this season, doesn’t make much sense, it seems to be her thing since it was a feature of her fight with Miura too. Apparently you can black her out for a time if ou apply enough pain to her but her “muscle armor” still protects her innards or something.
This invulnerability is a large part of why I don’t like her. If they were going with all these injuries they could have shown that Rinne is accumulating more and more injuries as the tournament goes on since you might be able to break Rinne’s bones, but then she breaks you. It would at least make her more human and determined and not a invulnerable robot that seemingly wins through pure brute strenght. Also then potential Fuka victory might make sense since Rinne is not fighting at her top shape.
While I fear such idiotic plot twists that would get Rinne back into the Cup (she clearly lost, there is NO reason for her to continue fighting for the Cup), I don’t think they will go down that route. They probably plan to have Rinne fight Fuka out of the cup as per their oral agreement before Miura’s fight. Next episode will be probably Fuka’s match (let’s hope it’s somebody that can really challenge her so she can finally show her stuff) and dealing with Jill (fuck her!) and Rinne. Potentially one of the so far useless “elder” competitors getting off their asses and dispensing some wisdom to Rinne. Victoria would probably be the best considering the similarities in temperament and style.
As for the fight… Eh it couldn’t have ended too quickly since Rinne is too strong to be taken down in one punch. So it was always going to be a siege where if Vivio makes any mistakes she will get punished. Rinne’s “comeback” felt cheap and cheating to me since she did not seem to do anything special other than to get angry.
On the other hand at least we got bit of flash of magic with Axel Infinity? Remember magic? That flashy thing that made fight a joy to watch? Well this was to me like a beam of sunlight in the land of gray.
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Sorry to cut in. The main trouble with the show is that Rinne is an awful character. This franchise lives and dies on it’ characters and thy’re why I liked and still like it so much.
But Rinne is just awful. The writers are to blame for being lazy. What are her parents doing? Even if therapy is not a thing in this universe, don’t the parents mind their kid being hellbent on beating people to a pulp with her bare hands? I’m sure that’s how all kids feel, right? Ugh. All this could’ve been better if they gave her some human moments every episode. Instead she broods and takes out her frustration on those in the ring. Also who allowed this obvious loose cannon coach to train the loose cannon child? Parent? Anybody? Anyone? This show has never been that smart but come on. She is irredeemable. She doesn’t respect her competitors, doesn’t respect her friend, lies openly to the people who care about her. The writers were too lazy to make this character in any way sympathetic.
Oh she was bullied. So? That doesn’t make it right to cripple and KILL three people. And she doesn’t even feel regret about it. No matter how badly those bullies were portrayed, her going full school shooter, and facing no consequences is reprehensible. Didn’t those parents try and talk to her? Show that thing writers. I mean come on. Her whole motivation comes down to “Grandpa died, I’m sad” so I’m gonna be the Emo terminator. Again, just a few scenes could’ve remedied this. One minute. Instead she broods and lies to everyone. Worse, in this episode she came of as a judgmental meathead. And while I maybe believe this is coming from a child, where are the adults?
And this leads to the whole show just feeling like exploitation. Adults watching kids cripple each other. An unstable, mentally ill child being set lose on other children for the entertainment of the crowd. Adults cheering as she breaks bones and draws blood.
All this is because of lazy, hack writing. This has no respect for the characters or the audience. It lacks that sense of wonder and passion about the characters and instead fills it up with grim dark exploitation.
Sorry for the rant and again, thanks so much to the team for their hard work.
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Oh, the change in stance did work for me. What didn’t work was the timing – as you said, the only time Rinne managed to get in any blows was if Vivio chose to stand stock-still and take them – as if she had forgotten everything about Strike Arts in general and her style in particular. Given the stated advantages to Southpaw Stance, she should have switched earlier, soon after her first down (not immediately, given that she can switch at a moment’s notice and use that to lure Rinne in). Trying to trade blows on the strength of her crushed bones was a stupid move that cost her dearly – the Vivio I know would know better than to try if they had a trick like that in reserve. Vivio’s injuries are the result of Deus ex Machina at it’s crudest. She got hurt because the writer said she had to, so they made her stupid. That doesn’t work for me, any more than this stupid flailing.
Also – the tournament bans grabbing opponent’s legs and talking, but allows you to crush every bone in your victim’s body while scattering their blood the width of the stage? What gives?
I still think that Rinne’s lack of overt injury has much to do with her opponent’s (at least, Vivio and Miura) being controlled enough to deal incapacitating damage without making it permanent – it having been repeatedly established that Magic tends to be only as lethal as the mage needs it to be. Also, Rinne is clearly an uncontrolled fighter, especially in comparison to her opponent’s thus fir – it makes sense that they found focus on their actual goals (down / KO opponent) as opposed to relying on brute damage and hoping for the best. That armour of muscles does not keep her opponent’s strikes from overwhelming her, I can’t see it mitigating the long term consequences any better.
As for the plot twist I mentioned… I was half way through formulating my post (having read through those I could find) when I had a sudden, horrific thought and it all just clicked into place. Like I said, even Force (may it rest in peace) deserves better than to be compared to that. I’m hoping they don’t do it and fearing they will at the same time.
The fight was always going to be a long one, but there was no need to actually show all of it – in fact, they didn’t. They could have skipped or summarised a lot more than they did, rather than dragging events out. Most of the important stuff had been dealt with Episode 7, and there are any number of dramatic techniques they could have used to speed through the fight without actually cutting it short.
Ooh, speaking of counselling from the “under-19’s”, what’s the betting that JJill invited them so they could congratulate Rinne on her victory and make Rinne feel like she was earning the respect she so craves? If so, she has severely misjudged the impression Rinne is making on the competitors. Maybe she’ll go to apologise to them (or to ask for their praise regardless) only to overhear them talking “Vivio this, Vivio that.” and dismissing Rinne completely. Maybe that would hammer the lesson home (I doubt it).
Also, I don’t really watch this for flashy fights: I watch Nanoha because I care about the characters. Had Nanoha and Fate resolved their differences over the Jewel Seeds in a passionate debate over a negotiating table, I would have been just as gripped as I was by their fight (granted, the debate would have required a lot more explaining). I cared, not about who won what, where, when and how; but about what that would mean for the characters. I don’t care about Rinne, though, and I’m not at all sure that this is the same setting or Vivio as we had seen previously.
That said, it still depresses me that that Accel Smash Infinity is the best we get for combat magic. If she hadn’t called the attack, I would not have recognised it as an Accel Smash – it was far more washed-out than the Accel Smashes I knew back in Vivid. The art style is evolving away from what we knew from Nanoha and Vivid, and not in a good way. Strikers is notable different artwork from the first series, yet instantly recognisable. This needs it’s explanation.
It had better be a good one.
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@Adrian: Please do cut in.
Yeah. I agree with the most of it. I have been saying for a long while she doesn’t need martial arts training she needs counseling. As for the school incident, she did face the consequences, she got sued but in the end it was decided out of courts and she had to leave the old school. I expect this is a pretty common scenario. And to be fair to her parents, Jill knows how to present a trustworthy face and her parents might thing sports are a controlled enviroment and therefore a safe place for her to oust her deamons and learn control. That MIGHT have worked if her sensei had any intention to teach her about her responabilities that come with basically being a weapon. But she got Jill. So what her parents might be seeing is tha while she is not happy she is no longer depressed and is throwing herself whole into sports and is achieving notable results. If they don’t know about the details they are probably proud of her and glad she found her path.
The tournament is needlessly brutal and the organizers are callous bastards especially given how they put Miura in the spotlight barely a day after Rinne annihilated her. If any character from previous seasons could be the organizer my money would be on Quatro. This is the kind of shit she would enjoy. Stupid puppets dancing to her rules and getting hurt. And then we would have a nice finale where Rinne caves in her stupid face and we would all be happy. But no these are normal stupid humans.
@Carthienes: I just rewatched the fight using this newly posted version (good job guys) and I don’t mind the length. I mind that section where Vivio kept getting kicked without changing styles for no reason, but I like that they showed that despite having a weaker body, like Olivie, she can overcome her disadvantages through training and determination. And Rinne getting owned throughout most of it was a joy after her bullshit run so far.
I guess she was saving Accel Smash Infinity for the last a) you don’t go all in from the start because you want to execute these attacks as finishers. Because you don’t want the enemy to survive them and then retaliate b) it requires a significant chargeup time, and with Rinne as an opponent she could not affort to dedicate that time to standing still while Rinne charges her.
As for the tournament as we have agreed before it’s stupid as fuck. To me it’s a clear attempt to limit the number of known fighters that could compete while allowing our girls a shot at a title that would not involve having to face Seglinde.
I doubt she would pull something like that since Rinne clearly lost. The only way they could claim anything else is if they pull some sort of weasel clause to proclaim this a draw or something because Vivio sat down before Rinne was rang out. On the other hand at that moment Rinne was sprawled out unconsious while Vivio was resting.
Yeah I watch largely for the characters, although I do also like the flashy shit that makes sense too.
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BTW, I hope the comments are easier to read now without the nesting. I never expected such grand discussions in this place, but they are very welcome.
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Thanks.
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It’s easier to read the Posts, without copying them into notepad, but some of our branching discussions are harder to follow without the branches being shown.
A discussion like this was probably inevitable, though. Nanoha fans tend to possess strong but divisive opinions. That is said to be the Grand Victory of Force – it managed to unite the ununiteable on not one but two points; given that the fanbase quickly reached an agreement on their opinion (it’s a terrible story and it never happened. Ever.). Of course, we still don’t agree on the details behind those views (not that it matters) but it’s looking like they might go two-for-two with Strike.
P.S. Dear developers: This is not the sort of success you ought to try to replicate.
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@PrimeSonic : Thanks so much as always for the hard work guys.
@4th Dimension: I know why Jill is so annoying now (besides the obvious). She looks and sounds like Quattro. It’d be half funny if she turned out to be that character, lols. Improbable.
But the parents thing is still dubious. Didn’t they check the sensei’ background and reputation before handing off their daughter to her? i dunno. I wouldn’t be raising all these questions if Rinne was a more likable character. Both Nanoha and Fate came from very harsh backgrounds( far harsher than Rinne’, especially in Fate’ case ) and both were and still are incredibly likable characters. Did they even watch the first series before writing this show?
Also Fuuka was gone for most of two episodes already. Thank heavens Vivio is a nice character otherwise it would all go down the drain. I won’t go into the bad choreography and fights, they couldn’t do more harm or good than the fact that Rinne’ arc is too unsympathetic and lazy to illicit any feelings of real interest.
It’s very nice to know there’s people who care about the franchise much( maybe even more ) as I do. If I sound angry it’s cuz I want it to reach the potential that it has..
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@Adrian : Welcome to the discussion. We built up a bit of a backlog on the page for Ep6 if you haven’t caught up already.
I’m not so sure that Rinne is a bad character so much as badly characterised. It is the presentation that kills it – it is very easy to represent such characters badly – this actually applies to most of the characters in Nanoha, now that I think about it. I get a very bad impression of her character, but I know enough of literary and dramatic techniques to know that the presentation would give a very bad impression of almost any character. I just don’t know if that’s what the character looks like underneath the presentation. Given the masterful job they’ve done with the rest of the series, probably.
Yes, that was sarcasm, Mr. Internet.
It makes it worse that nothing is making sense. What makes the Nanoha Franchise engaging to me is the detailed and consistent setting, the background details that tie the universe together and remain constant throughout the installments and make sense when put together. Strike manages to make a complete hash of that.
That said, I do agree with you that the Characters are what makes the individual entries in the franchise so good. I watch Nanoha because I care about the characters and what happens to them, as I have explained several times before. The characters make for an interesting dynamic, because we usually feel some sympathy for characters with opposing goals. I really don’t feel anything for Rinne. I care more about whatever happened to Goliath than Rinne’s mashed up sob story. The new character that I feel most for is Rinne’s Grandfather. The dead one. He was a good person, and I think it a shame that the author decided to do him in. Given that Grandfather Berlinetta is already dead, I can’t really care about what the events of Strike mean to him, though.
New setting, unsympathetic characters, bad impression. This would have been much better if it had been created as a completely new series in a completely new setting, without any connection to the Nanoha Franchise; because that is what it is actually coming across as even if it pretends to be something familiar. It would still be terrible, but it would be much improved by dropping the pretense.
The greatest complaint leveled at Force is that it read like an amateur, self-insert fan-fic; as opposed to anything even vaguely resembling a proffesional effort. Strike seems to be copying it in so many ways – even the animation seems like an amateur parody of the previous season and Manga. True, if I focus on the technical quality of the images in isolation, it looks like they may have improved, but if you have to start counting pixels to determine if the graphics have improved, you are completely missing the point.
Possibly the worst thing about this entire series, though, is that your idea (Jill as Quattro) strikes me as being the best chance to rescue the series I’ve heard yet. I’m not at all sure that even that would be enough to make a real difference.
As for the parents, they both seem extremely busy. They probably don’t know anything beyond what Rinne tells them (or does in front of them) and what the official reports say. The official reports say she was happy at that school until she snapped at her friends and put three of them in the hospital. They say that Jill is an excellent Ex-Martial Artist and Coach of the same, who rescued Rinne out of the goodness of her heart after running down the kidnappers’ car; and subsequently guided Rinne to 57 consecutive victories. Unless the parents are going to start spying on their little girl (which would do nothing to endear me to them), it is quite understandable that they think things are better than they are.
I hope that I am making sense.
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@Carthienes
You’re making perfect sense. Again, in order for one to care, Rinne needed human moments. The writers could’ve googled PTSD and shown us the character go through it outside the gym and ring. Then her character would’ve been much more credible. Instead every moments she broods or she’s disrespecting people. That’s not how you make a character likable.
The people who wrote force never got the spirit of the series and always felt like they wanted to show how dark and edgy they could get. Edge lords. I don’t know why anyone would hire someone like that( speaking as a writer here ). Because instead of marveling they made exploitation material. Which is how this series comes off too. They took out the magic to make it more bloody and brutal. Put in crippling injuries to give extra intensity. But they forgot what made this franchise good, i.e. the basic humanity and respect for the characters, which are sorely lacking in this. I’d keep my expectations on them just barely dragging this arc to an end in a mediocre way. I fear they’ll make it even worse.
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Interesting point worth making here: Masaki Tsuzuki is the writer. Of Force, and Strike; as well as the original series, A’s, StrikerS and Vivid. Seems to be different directors, though; so it appears that Masaki failed with Force and is attempting to port that failure to the Vivid spinoff. As Stated Above: “This is Not the Sort of Success You Ought to Try to Replicate!”. Strike is coming across as a horrific mishmash of conflicting design choices, about as logical and coherent as a Funeral Hearse wearing a Tutu. That is not to say you can’t make such bizarre juxtaposition work – Madoka Magica worked very well, with conflicting design elements contributing to the same overall aesthetic (a generally creepy atmosphere is helped along by unbearably cute murderers). When it works, it’s eclectic. Otherwise it just clashes.
@Adrian : Ironic, is it not – In a setting full of inhuman characters (artificially manufactured Mage weapons, Familiars, Robots, Golems, Cyborg, Devices…) the least human of all is, in fact, pure-blooded human. One interesting thing about PTSD is that it tends to be like a switch – the character can be genuinely and naturally happy until it suddenly hit’s them again, and their attitude changes in an instant – friends tend to be scared, not of the victim lashing out so much as they are scared of doing or saying something that might affect the PTSD character so much more deeply than intended. Which would make for a much more interesting dynamic as well as, as you said, human character.
@4th Dimension : I do not mind Vivio keeping the Accel Smash Infinity in reserve until she did – my biggest gripe with it was the animation – the fact that I could not have recognised Vivio’s signature attack had it not been called and explained. I don’t even mind Jill’s “One minute left” turning into several more (as I have seen in other complaints). What bothered me about the timing was how long Vivio persisted in the Orthodox style and allowing Rinne to pound her helpless rather than switching to the Southpaw stance that would have covered for her injury and allowed her to retake control of the match. Feigning weakness to lure the opponent in is acceptable – allowing your opponent to break your bones is not.
Also, Vivio would not have suffered those injuries if she had not let Rinne hit her like that.There’s no way it couldn’t be deliberate on Vivio’s part, unless some malicious Quattro is trying to hack her brain again.
I’m glad some people enjoyed the episode, but for me it played out mostly as tedious, repetitive flailing interspersed with ham-fisted attempts to provoke audience sympathy. It was very much a drawn-out fight scene, with little differentiation – most of the differentiation comes down to informed attributes, anyway. We are told that Rinne adopts a more defensive style for the second round, but apart from beginning with her hands raised in front of her face instead of bunched at her side, she does not seem to fight any different from round one.
Good Call on Olive, though. All but discarded by her family as a “weakling” (relatively speaking) and lacking arms (literally) she none-the-less goes on to become the Lady Knight of Shutara, the Only undefeated Warrior of Belka’s Dark Age. Which makes me wonder how formidable Vivio would be if she regained her natural strength – even without the Relic and Cradle boosting her power, her natural strength and talent combined with her current level of skill would give even Seiglinde a run for her money.
Another series focused on Vivio, perhaps in conjunction with Shamal and Ixpellia, regaining a little of that lost strength would be more interesting than this drivel. Perhaps, combining their ancient Belkan knowledge they could devise a magical ‘brace’ for Vivio’s damaged Linker Core that would partially compensate for her injury. Not enough to raise her strength significantly, but enough to raise it noticeably. Perhaps riase the possibility that the strengthened core appears to be slowly regenerating and may regain it’s full strength over the course of a few centuries (remember that multi-centenarians appear to be the norm, so she would see it). Not the best Idea I’ve ever come up with, but it would certainly be good to get an actual story focused on Vivio introducing Ixpellia to the world after SSX ended with the latter passing out.
Sorry, that came out a little larger than expected.
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Yeah while the Vivid, StrikerS, As and the Force are all different, so much that you might think they were done by different people they were all written by the same guy that has written practically everything in the franchise.
And I was, hell still am that the only reason for the success of the first two and partial success of the third seasons was that somehow two factions were forced to work together. One was all about flash and visuals and fanservice and basically wanted to make another Magical Girl anime, while the other side was all about grim realism and violence etc and probably wanted to make something Gundamesque. They even started down the first road (thus the Magical Toybox and the first couple of episodes) untill probably a rewrite managed a consensus betwen the factions. The grimdark faction got fate as their grimdark character that broods and has a hellish backstory, and they got the mechanical nature of magic and technomagic in so they could draw wands transform if they could not do that with robots. The Magical faction brought the magic and the protagonist was largely without issues and the ban on terribly violent moments and cuteness. This pull push made most characters human and interesting (well to be fair Nanoha herself was never a really nuanced character) and made possible dealing with dark things without being opressivelly dark. Since despite darkness Nanoha was always there to be the beacon of light.
Same happened in As. The antagonist do hurt the protagonists badly but they are shown not to be complete monsters (I’m looking at you Hucks) and are doing things for the people they love using minimal force possible. That made them endearing and sympathetic to us (except the twins, they can die in a fire).
StrikerS tried to stick to it but they also tried to expand the universe greatly and introduced a LOAD of new characters. While the new world was interesting, character wise for the most part StrikerS was a failure. The old characters were still interesting, but some got basically no screentime and apart from Stars the rest of the new ones did not get enough time or sympathetic goals to be sympathetic and interesting. Basically it was not so much a fialure of intention, but a failure of writing and planning on mechanical level. They brought up too many things to be able to properly resolve them.
At this point the fans were in an uproar and seemingly mostly complaining about stupid shit. Some of them were reasonably being pissed off by the drop in quality compared to As, but were being coopted by those that did not like the change in dirrection from As. They wanted Magical Girls and not women and men. There were others who did not like that the death count was low (did they forget what this show was?) and that there was not more darkness brooding etc. Vivio was especially blamed.
So I guess these opinions were used by two groups in 7arts to split apart. Or 7arts decided to give each group what they thought they wanted. The fluffy magical girl fans were offered Vivio and a magical fighting tournament full of fanservice. Not much in terms of stakes and back to the magical girl and lolis side of things. They tried to copy the dynamic of the girls from the original. It had Vivio as the Nanoha like uncomplicated happy protagonist around which things can spin and against which situations can be contrasted. It had Fatelike, brooding orphan on a wrong mission, Einhearth that gets taken in and thawed by Vivio. It had the determinator Corona that impressed me during her fight with Ein.
The other side made Force into the edgelord mess that it was, with mass murdering sick assholes that we were somehow supposed to sympathize with?!? While the Force got the old characters who were still interesting to me, it also introduced Touma who the series kept telling us about how great he is kept dissapiinting us with his actual actions and battle performance. So most of the time where the old cast was not involved we were spending with uninteresting or evil characters.
In the end Vivid in turned out to be slightly more popular because surprise surprise it had characters that were actually interesting, or more likely knowing Japan it was probably because Vivid had more moe and lolis than Force. Apparently Force was not selling badly even when it was put on hold).
In this light to me Vivid: Strike was clearly Force dudes being given a part of a more popular franchise to do their thing in. A side project/story of sort. On the other hand now knowing that one guy wrote ALL of this I’m not so sure any more. On the gripping hand while he is the writer the art departments seem to have some control over it especially considering the differences in characterization of NanoFate relationship between publications. In some they are *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* friends and mamas to Vivio and in some they are simply friends and Fate is more like an aunt to Vivio. The only reason for the massive difference between Force and Vivid that I could overhear as I was browsing animesuki Nanoha section is that some blame the change in tone in Vivid on the main artist.
A more important tidbit to me that explains some of Strike is the fact that Nanoha’s voiceactress left the production house that 7arts was working with. And the separation was messy. So now that they no longer have secure access to the main character’s characteristic voice, they are trying to perform an almost Stalinistic purge of all traces of her, and tries to distance itself completely from the old show. Thus the completely new title that does not show her name. Thus removing all traces of pre Vivid characters that are not Numbes. Thus the glint obscuring Nanoha and Fate. Thus the plot which shows how the ideals of the previous shows do not allway work IRL. Adoption does not mean sunshine and rainbows. It’s difficult to step away from a life of abuse and into the sunlight etc. Thus Vivio clobbering Rinne but not getting through to her. Thus an antagonist that despite being a victim victimizes others etc. The ONLY thing remaining from the old are some characters that are background filler and the new cutesy artstyle from Vivid.
And there is where they failed. They failed to realize that despite what the fandom is blathering about we don’t actually primarily care about “befriending” foes. We like the fact that the antagonist are actually sympathetic and that the whole series despite dealing and descending into darkness from time to time never looses that light of hope (which is usually Nanoha charging a divine buster ;)). And because the setting is mostly rules first rather than drama first making the magic make sense.
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No I don’t think she is Quattro. Quattro might have been a cyborg but she was never really physically strong and was certanly not obsessed with strength. Also she would not have been able to abstain from gloating at least a bit. But she does share the Four Eyes Zero Soul trope with Jull. Knowing the show so far they are telegraphing her evil too much so I would not be surprised if in the end she turns out to be COMPLETELY wrong but to genuinely care for Rinne. On the other hand her first thought after Rinne lost was that she won’t train with her and not that Rinne is now in a bad place and she should help.
After shitting on it for a while I would like to reiterate about my overall impression of Strike. While I can not say I like it, or would recommend it, I think it does have interesting elements. The darkness in Nanoha setting and the antagonist’s troubles and background are interesting. The look at the more criminal parts of the city in the first episode, while not fitting the setting, are also intriguing. The Rinne/Fuka background and fallout showed promisse. On the other hand one wonders if Fuka has magic why was she not snapped up by TSAB into one of their gifted children programs considering they are allways strapped for mages. The trouble is that mechanically and emotionally it’s a failure because it fails to grab my hearth and have it’s ways with it and then it further more spils that by not at lest providing me with interesting fights.
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I suspected they’d lost the voice actresses so now they’re trying to do away with those characters. Well, that’s a sure fire way of sinking the franchise for good. I hope they get back together somehow, because the series just isn’t the same without the titular character.
In the end as a fan I’ll watch. I’m saddened by it’s decline but hey, the season is pretty bad anyway, far worse shows one could chose to watch.
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