Impression

It feels quite strange that 2wei’s over at this point in the story. But first – Bazett!

Illya 10 Img009Team Illya got off lucky. It could have been much worse – certainly, the fact that they’re alive is an achievement in itself, as Rin said. If Bazett needs to kill a loli in order to achieve her objectives, she will kill that loli without mercy – Fragarach was really cool, but thank god Miyu herself wasn’t its target. Rather than her physical strength, what’s coming off as the real scary thing about Bazett her devotion to duty and her willingness to carry out whatever it is the Association wants at all costs. So if matching her in battle isn’t possible, then the next best course of action would be to shake up the situation – to introduce an outrageous wildcard that will force her to change the way she’s going about things. Luckily, their wildcards worked – although I think the real game-changer was the new info Rin provided about the Fuyuki ley lines rather than the fact that Fragarach was supposedly sealed. Bazett could have opted for a variety of methods to get Kuro to cough up. Rin was pretty happy with the way things out, but the fact of the matter is that they still didn’t manage to beat her, instead forcing her to retreat. Having her as an enemy in the future won’t be good at all, especially as they may have other issues to contend with as well.

Illya 10 Img037That being said, it’s true that there were some victories achieved – not all the Class Cards were lost, and they now have the upper hand in terms of dealing with the mysterious eighth card that has appeared underground, which Miyu seems to be rather shocked about for some reason. The most significant “victory” was probably Kuro though – I suppose she was technically reformed a bit earlier, but after having risked her life to protect the others, she really does feel like a part of Team Illya. At the end of the day, the first half of 2wei is really a plot about Kuro – and after that cute night scene on the balcony, her arc feels like it’s been well and truly resolved. It’s actually pretty nice how the Class Cards have remained fairly central to everything, even though it appeared to be an exhaustive plot befitting a standard magical girl series – after all, the Jewel Seeds were forgotten after Nanoha and Fate finished collecting them, and had the tiniest of roles in StrikerS. In Prisma Illya, the plot always has something to do with the cards – they’re continually changing hands, they’re being used in battle, Archer was involved with Kuro and a certain golden bastard still has to be subdued. There’s still lots going on, and I’m sure the second half of 2wei will deliver.

Overall Thoughts

Illya 10 Img004I’m a bit unprepared for this, I honestly didn’t think this would end here. I dismissed the rumours as rumours right until the very end, so it’s a bit of a surprise – at least, I certainly didn’t want to think 2wei was going to just stop midway through the series. It doesn’t feel like everything’s over, and while epic, Bazett felt more like a mid-boss when you compare it to the fight against Berserker in the original season. Of course, that can be explained by the fact that it isn’t over, and that Bazett actually is a mid-boss. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve done another ten-episode run and decided to scamper off until next year, making 2wei a split-cour series with a whole lot of split – I’m not actually sure why they couldn’t have just made it two-cour and not worried about halves and second parts. It’s what’s happening with the ufotable remake of Fate/stay night as well, which means that alongside the Heaven’s Feel movie we’ll be getting a lot of Fate in 2015. Well, this is the only one with lots of lolis while the others are fairly grimdark. Best of both worlds!

2wei was good. I don’t think it was as charming as the first season was -from what I can remember at least- but there’s no denying it was entertaining, which is what it’s supposed to be. I’m fully aware, however, that my opinions on it right now are merely based on the first half of the series, and you can add in the fact that I expected it to last for a lot longer than it did. It certainly managed to deliver by the last few episodes once Bazett came onto the scene, but I feel that it took a bit too long revving up – retrospectively there were too many slice of life scenes. Illya’s school life is fun, but it’s not as fun as the magical girl battles. The reason I never really said anything was because I predicted they’d make up for it by getting serious in the second cour – except there is no second cour any more, at least not for a couple of seasons. I hasten to add that they weren’t necessarily a bad thing – some of them contributed to Kuro’s development for example. And of course, I will never forget the yuritastic kiss between Kuro and Miyu – easily one of my favourite scenes of the series. I feel immoral even thinking about it.

Ultimately, a lot of the issues I have with 2wei boil down to this pesky break, and the fact that Herz seems a long way away – things like Caren’s presence haven’t really been cashed in at all. I’ll reserve proper judgement until everything’s been fully adapted in 2015. The silver lining is that I’ll be able to blog this without worry if it won’t resume until next year – that way, I won’t have to struggle with keeping up during a season when I’m officially supposed to be on hiatus. If it airs whenever Nanoha ViVid does, then that’s even better – because I have every intention of covering that too.

Now I’ve got to avoid the temptation of picking up the manga…

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Wanderer

    They altered the post-fight scene at Illya’s house, and stuck a few more slice-of-life scenes in, but I think it worked out well in developing Kuro and Illya’s bond as sisters, rather than pushing them too hard with the awkward loli selfcest shipping, that can leave them having trouble relating to each other at times in the manga.

    “If it airs whenever Nanoha ViVid does, then that’s even better – because I have every intention of covering that too.”

    Wait, what? They’re animating that?! Why does no one tell me these things?!

    1. Vantage

      It had to wind down somehow, so that was a good call – it was the sort of heartwarming scene worthy of an ending (or pseudo-ending) which is probably what they were going for.

      ViVid’s anime adaptation was announced a month ago on sites like ANN, slated for sometime in 2015. It’s been 8 years since StrikerS, but it’s finally happening!! That and The Movie 3rd Reflection are the latest additions to the Nanoha franchise.

      1. Wanderer

        I wonder how they’re going to do Vivid. It doesn’t exactly go all that long before it runs into the tournament arc: all the stuff prior to turning the topic to the Inter-Middle Tournament couldn’t make up a whole season. And the tournament itself is still ongoing, 50 chapters in, although it’s been slightly sidetracked by a plot… of sorts. If they’re going to do it, it needs to be done properly, and I don’t think even two-cours would be enough to truly do justice to the material Vivid has, just at the moment. As far as I know the manga is still ongoing, so it’s not like they even have a good stopping point, either.

        1. Vantage

          [spoiler] Two cours could cover nearly all the scanlated content – I’m thinking they’ll go up to Black Rock Shooter vs Einhart and the talk they have afterwards. The inter-middle may not be over, but I doubt there’ll be much focus on it any longer in the manga since all of Team Nakajima are out. Who’s still in it… Lutecia, Sieg and Miura?

          Whatever the result, ViViD will be a very different sort of Nanoha to all the other Nanohas we’ve had, perhaps firstly because of the replacement of Nanoha and Fate with the next loli generation. There won’t be a definitive ending to the series, and the focus is on friendly matches and a single-elimination tournament with a bit of historical side-story rather than an imminent danger threatening the world. Plus the fights themselves are a mix of hand-to-hand and magic instead of predominantly aerial combat. [/spoiler]

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