Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (series)

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (魔法少女リリカルなのは, Mahō Shōjo Ririkaru Nanoha) is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses three anime television series, two theatrical adaptations, multiple manga and Drama CD adaptations and sequels, as well as model figures and plastic models. It began in 2004 with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, an alternative universe spin-off of the Triangle Heart series, and is on-going to date.

The series is named after its protagonist Nanoha Takamachi. At the beginning of the series, Nanoha is a 9-year old schoolgirl in modern-day Japan, who is swept into a conflict between extra-dimensional factions vying for control over magical artifacts they discovered on Earth. Nanoha herself is revealed to be tremendously powerful in the extra-dimensional techno-magic and in later installments, leaves Earth altogether to pursue a magical career. In the chronologically latest franchise entry, Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force, she is 25.

Origins

Nanoha Takamachi first appeared as a minor character in the eroge visual novel Triangle Heart 3, released on December 8, 2000.^[1] She was first cast as a magical girl on a merchandise CD Triangle Heart 3 ~Lyrical Toy Box~, released on June 29, 2001.^[2] Nanoha's first animated appearance was in the first episode of Triangle Heart 3 OVA adaptation, released on July 24, 2003. All three titles, as well as the entire spin-off franchise starring Nanoha, were written by Masaki Tsuzuki (都築真紀, Tsuzuki Masaki).

Overview

In the plot premise of the original series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004), 21 "Jewel Seeds", highly destructive artifacts from another dimension, are accidentally scattered across Earth. After Nanoha assists an injured extradimensional magician in collecting them, she is drawn into a magical battle against a female mage named Fate Testarossa, who came to Earth to collect Jewel Seeds for her mother Precia. Attracted by their activity, the interdimensional police TSAB ("Time-Space Administration Bureau") intervenes to secure and seal the artifacts. In the end, Nanoha convinces Fate to rebel against Precia, who is defeated and apparently dies.

In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (2005), Nanoha continues her magical training. Six months after the original series, she and Fate encounter the "Wolkenritter", four mages who steal others' magical abilities to save Hayate Yagami, a wheelchair-using Japanese girl. Since the Wolkenritter are skilled in Ancient Belkan combat magic far superior to theirs, Nanoha and Fate fail to stop them and the Book of Darkness, an ancient artifact bound to Hayate, is activated. A worldwide catastrophe is only prevented thanks to TSAB and, most importantly, Hayate's intervention. In the following years, all primary characters leave Earth to pursue magical careers in the TSAB homeworld Mid-Childa.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (2007) takes place ten years after A's and is set on Mid-Childa. Hayate, now a Lieutenant Colonel of TSAB, forms a special Riot Force 6 to counter the impending terrorist crisis organized by Dr. Scaglietti, former colleague and accomplice of Precia Testarossa, and his combat cyborgs ("Numbers"). Nanoha, Fate, and the Wolkenritter join the unit, along with four young mages whom they personally train ("Forwards"). Despite their preparations, the unit fails to protect Vivio, a girl targeted by Scaglietti and adopted by Nanoha, and the crisis strikes in full force, stopped in the nick of time by Riot Force 6's heroic efforts. The unit is then dissolved, with its members returning to their original posts.

A Drama CD titled Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Sound Stage X (2008) is set three years after the Jail Scaglietti Incident. It features the characters first introduced in StrikerS, mainly the Forwards and the Numbers, investigating a serial murder case on Mid-Childa. Their investigation eventually leads them to the Mariage [sic], semi-sentient humanoid weapons from the Ancient Belkan era, and their elusive creator, Dark King Ixpellia.

Vivio's story is continued in the manga Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid (2009-ongoing), which is set four years after StrikerS. Vivio now attends a magical academy on Mid-Childa, where she meets Einhart Stratos, another descendant of the Ancient Belkan royalty. Together with their friends, the two of them participate in the Inter-Middle, a magical combat tournament for young mages.

Another manga, Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force (2009-ongoing), set six years after StrikerS, focuses on a new protagonist, Thoma Avenir. After Thoma rescues a mute girl named Lily Strosek on remote world, he unwittingly becomes a fugitive from TSAB. The ex-members of Riot Force 6 join forces once again to avert a new crisis caused by dangerous Ancient Belkan legacy, the Book of the Silver Cross, to which Lily is apparently connected, and the Hückebein family, an interdimensional terrorist cell.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Innocent (2012-ongoing) is a spin-off manga set in a universe parallel to the main franchise, where the main characters are ordinary girls who battle each other in a magical card game called "Brave Duel".

Media

Anime

To date, there have been three television anime series produced by Seven Arcs. The first series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, aired in Japan between October and December 2004. The second series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, aired between October and December 2005. The third series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, aired between April and September 2007. The first two series were licensed in North America by Geneon and distributed by Funimation Entertainment. A theatrical retelling of the first series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st, was released in theaters on January 23, 2010, with an adaptation of the second series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's, released on July 14, 2012.^[3][4] A third movie, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 3rd Reflection, has been announced and will be based on an original story.^[5][6] A television anime adaptation of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid manga series has also been announced, and will be produced by A-1 Pictures.^[7]

Manga and novels

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha novel is an adaptation of the first season, while the A's manga and StrikerS THE COMICS are collections of short side-stories expanding the respective anime series. ViVid and Force are standalone, independent story arcs that take place several years after the events of StrikerS. The MOVIE 1st manga, similar to the A's and StrikerS manga series, expand on the storyline of the movie. Innocent is set in a parallel world to the main franchise.

Radio drama

Video games

Two fighting games based on A's were released by Namco Bandai Games for PlayStation Portable in January 2010 and December 2011 respectively. Characters from the Nanoha franchise appear in the crossover role-playing game, Nendoroid Generation, which is based on the Nendoroid series of figures.

Cultural impact

The franchise takes an innovative approach to the magical girl genre, focusing much more on combat whereas typical titles focus more on characterization, as well as being targeted at a male demographic. ICv2 praised the Nanoha franchise for taking a more serious approach to social problems than other magical girl anime.^[21]

John Oppliger, an analyst for AnimeNation, identified two ways in which the Lyrical Nanoha franchise deviates from the magical girl genre conventions: the tone and feel of the conflict and the presentation of its central heroine, Nanoha Takamachi. About the former, he observed that although another magical girl series, Futari wa Pretty Cure, preceded the first Lyrical Nanoha anime by six months in introducing an unprecedented amount of violence to the genre, the fights in Pretty Cure were still strongly tied to the emotional state and drama of their participants. Whereas in Nanoha, the battles are akin to "magical gunfights"; they appear objective, mechanical, and deadly and are inspired more by the science fiction and mecha genres than by the traditional magical girl conflicts. Regarding the latter, Oppliger described the show as trying to evoke sympathy for Nanoha Takamachi instead of empathy, i.e. Nanoha presents its heroine from an external point of view to make the audience feel for her but not want to be her or to be like her, as other magical girl series do. Such perspective is, according to Oppliger, "used for conventional otaku anime" and makes the anime more accessible to the older male demographic.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia