Stand by, ready. Set up!
Impression
I would like to start by announcing that this Fate is the most adorable Fate I have ever seen.
I want to take her home! I’m sure the TSAB won’t mind, right? It’s not like she’s any use as an Enforcer looking like that – unless her targets willingly give themselves up, that is. I mean, was Fate always this cute? I’m going to get heart disease by the end of this. I suppose, on a serious note, this does say a lot about exactly what sort of series ViVid will be in comparison to the rest of the franchise. It will be different, for a start – instead of being an original series, it’s the first Nanoha that will be an adaptation of a manga. In that regard, ViVid is a spin-off of a spin-off. It’s also the first Nanoha in eight years, and so that in itself goes some way towards justifying the drastic change in character design and animation style. I don’t think that’s quite it, though, given that THE MOVIE 2nd A’s aired a mere couple years ago. In that, they managed to polish up and yet retain the sort of animation used in A’s. So this was a conscious decision, and it reflects the light-hearted tone and atmosphere that ViVid will have. This will be a relatively peaceful Nanoha, in which cute lolis do cute things together – and maybe there might be a touch of Belkan history involved as well.
That said, a lot hasn’t changed – Tamura Yukari and Mizuki Nana for one, as well as Nanoha and Fate’s very implicit and yet very obvious lovey-dovey relationship. You know, I wouldn’t mind spending an entire season just watching Nanoha and Fate go about their fluffy domestic life together. But if Nanoha hasn’t had the opportunity to tell Fate about Vivio having a Sankt Kaiser mode, then I think Fate-mama needs to be at home a bit more. This is exactly what breeds all those tasteless Nanoha x Yuuno pairings (as good as a crack pairing at this point, when the ViVid official art depicts NanoFate subtly holding hands). At the same time, Fate-mama can rest assured that a Sankt Kaiser mode will allow her daughter to ‘make friends’ more easily. Said friends may or may not be enthusiastically blown up somewhere down the line. I don’t think they ever tell us, but I’m willing to bet that this is how Vivio made friends with Rio and Corona to begin with – by getting into a fight with them!
Vivio’s morning routine with Nanoha was very cute. I know we also saw Nanoha and Fate as adults in StrikerS, but they were often busy at work back then. Now that they’ve properly added Vivio to their family, everything feels really sweet and complete – and a bit nostalgic too, especially when we’re prompted to remember how Nanoha was when she was eight. Raising Heart must be so proud with the way she’s turned out! Vivio herself is now in fourth grade. She spends her days peacefully in school with Rio and Corona, and practices Strike Arts in her spare time with Nove Nakajima – Subaru did good in adopting the whole lot of them, by the way. The Numbers all look like they’ve integrated into society really well, and look a lot happier than when they went around doing bad things for Scaglietti. Sadly, I can’t match faces to their names to save my life. The only exceptions are Nove, because she turns up a lot from what I can remember of the ViVid manga, and Quattro because she was evil. And because I loved the scene in StrikerS where Nanoha target-locks onto Quattro from the other side of a massive flying ship, and blasts through multiple walls and floors before blowing her up with Divine Buster in exchange for hurting Vivio. Never change, Nanoha-mama.
I think that’s all I wanted to say. It was also really sweet when Vivio named her device Sacred Heart, in reference to Raising Heart. Next time, on Heart Disease the Animation, a wild Einhart appears!
tl;dr Fate-chan chou kawaii
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: High
Has anyone translated this yet? I can’t find it anywhere.
Not that I know of. It’s very worrying, especially as I’d never even imagined ViVid would generate as little interest from sub groups as it has. I’ve read somewhere that Doki might do it – and I know Commie did The Movie 2nd A’s, but I don’t know what’s up with them. I also remember using a HorribleSubs rip when I covered that movie, although I’m not sure whether it came from Crunchyroll or some sort of official release.
Doki I would trust. Commie I would not. They take too many liberties and allow too many just plain wrong translations into their subs.
I don’t know why none of the groups seem to be picking Vivid up. While it is something of a “niche” series, I know there is a large fanbase in that niche. There are plenty of people who want to watch this.
PS: The new Nakajima sisters, in order, are Cinque (loli with one eye), Nove (who you know), Dieci (she tended to carry around a big gun in StrikerS), and Wendi (who traveled on and fought with a weird sort of hoverboard/shield/gun combo thing in StrinkerS).
PPS: “I mean, was Fate always this cute? ”
You may want to go back and watch the first two seasons again. Being cute is kind of what Fate DOES. Any time she’s not in her cold work mode, she’s utterly adorable.
Hey guys, I don’t mean to tread where I don’t belong, but while waiting for Kekkai Sensen, the subbed version of Nanoha ViVid just appeared on KissAnime.
^ That! A subbed release has also appeared on Nyaa. No idea if it’s the same one, but that was subbed by someone on /a/, and it’s uncertain as to whether he’s doing Episode 2+. Things could be better, but at least it’s something. I’ll be watching through it to see how accurate I ended up being.
As for Fate, I remember her mostly for her cold work mode! I know there were many adorable scenes featuring her and Nanoha though – the ribbon exchange scene being one, and some hand-holding in the sunset being another. And the dream scene in A’s brought me to tears. I’d love to watch it all again, haha!
Clearly the lack of subs have not deterred your blogging
Damn straight! I managed to do okay this episode, but subs would be very reassuring – I’d certainly need them when they start delving into the stuff about Ancient Belka. It would also be good to get some sort of current endorsement on the correct spelling of Einhart’s name.
For some reason just watching the first few minutes of this episode I found myself tearing up. It’s… been a long time since we’ve had a Nanoha series, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I heard Vivio and realized that she still sounded like Vivio from StrikerS. A bit older, but it’s undeniably her voice. I heard Yukari Tamura voicing Nanoha again: the role that was, to me, her defining role. Hearing these people, seeing this world again… I didn’t expect to find myself getting emotional about this series, but there it was.
Looking at the OP, I do hope those shots of the fighters from the inter-middle aren’t just there for show. There’s one in particular that I really want see brought to life on screen, but she doesn’t get her chance to shine until a fair distance into the tournament. I hope they’ll give this series enough episodes to get us that far.
I know what you mean, I can totally relate. I remember feeling really, really happy when I first learnt that ViVid was getting an anime. The only recent announcement I’ve been more excited about has been Aria the Avvenire.
I’m impartial to the OP, but the ED is incredibly catchy! It’s been some time since I last read the manga, so I’ve forgotten many of the inter-middle events and fighters, and just vaguely remember them these days – but you mean Black Rock Shooter, right? Right? 😀
Heh. Sieglinde Jeremiah, yes. The Interdimensional Champion. She’s awesomedorable. 🙂
You should keep up with the manga! Or at least with the (slow) translations of it. There’s interesting stuff happening.
Ah yes, she had an absurdly cool title like that! I remember wondering how powerful Sieg and the other fighters were compared to Nanoha, Fate and Hayate. It almost feels like they’ve stagnated these days, although I know it’s partially to do with power limiters and TSAB regulations. If only they could still let loose as much as they wanted off-world…
I last left off at the part where they all went to the Infinity Library to research Ancient Belka. No idea where the scanlations are now!
It’s uncertain, but from what I’ve read Seig’s attacks are, by their nature, considered more powerful than anything of Nanoha’s. Nanoha’s most powerful attacks are “breaker” level magic, like Starlight Breaker. Sieg’s Geist, on the other hand, is labled “eraser” level magic, which is one step higher than “breaker” magic, and is in fact the most destructive level of magic known to exist, according to the second/third-hand sources I’ve read. Sieg also has 500 years worth of inherited combat experince teaching her to kill every opponant she faces, so she’s in a very different sort of situation from Nanoha. Nanoha has never attempted to kill anyone she’s fought against, while Sieg has to constantly struggle against herself to avoid killing the people she fights.
Sadly, it sounds like translations are not far from where you left them: six chapters at best (I did mention they were going slow, yes? The official releases are a good 20 chapters ahead of the translations, at least). Girls are still in the LIbrary, having overcome a… coughs minor difficulty and eventually found the book they’re looking for. They’re reading it now.
finally the episode has been subbed i been waiting for this and this was great. by the way anyone know if signum will be in nanoha vivid?
Signum and the members of Riot Force 6 will appear sporadically. Some appear more than others – Zafira is featured a lot, for example. They will be around, but the focus is primarily on Vivio and her friends. It’s a new generation of lolis!
PSA: Thankfully, FFF have picked up Nanoha ViVid. If you plan to download a copy of ViVid to watch every week, as opposed to streaming it online, then this release is the one to take. As far as I know, they will be subbing the rest of the episodes as well, so anime is saved.
I’ll take FFF, yes. They suffer from schedule-slippage sometimes, but their translations have been generally trustworthy.