Befriending at its finest.
Impression
I wish I had as productive a day as Fuuka did. I’ll try my best tomorrow. I’ll do it for her! Anyway, I’m not as surprised as Fuuka is that Nove and the girls are doing as much for her as they are. Nove especially – the Numbers were in a similar position at the end of StrikerS, and are doing well today (most of them, anyway) because of the generosity shown to them by the Nakajimas. Nove is a nice person on top of that, and Fuuka is also working in exchange for room and board, so although it’s a good deal it’s not an especially shocking one. There’s also her innate talent for martial arts to consider as well. What was weirder was that the lease Nove signed to obtain the real estate for her gym made her rent the apartment she’s staying in along with it. It’s an unusual thing to mention out of the blue, so I wonder whether it’ll have any relevance in the future.
A week on, and I’m still finding my feet, I think. It’s an odd feeling to have Fuuka narrate everything from her perspective – it’s almost as if it doesn’t assume prior knowledge of ViVid, even though that’s presumably where it gets its namesake from. I’ve gotten used to hearing Future Strike though, I can accept that in place of the traditional Mizuki Nana OP. From what we’ve seen of Rinne’s fights, what I mentioned last week about a perceived transition away from magic and towards hand-to-hand martial arts is apparently not going to be as accurate as I predicted if she’s an active user of bombardment-type magic. It’ll still happen though, just not as drastically as I expected. In the end, no matter how much befriending there might be, I would stop short of calling this a magical girl anime. Which is not least of all why the title no longer has ‘Magical Girl’ in it. As well as ‘Lyrical Nanoha’.
If nothing goes wrong, Fuuka might end up meeting Rinne surprisingly fast. I hope to see her soon too (not least of all because she’s great waifu material) but she feels like a last boss. If a tournament is announced (as one inevitably will be) I’m almost certain that Fuuka and Rinne will be on opposite sides of the draw and that they won’t be scheduled to meet until and unless both of them reach the final. Another rival might show up on Fuuka’s side to inspire her and to keep her moving forward – Rinne is Fuuka’s goal, but her role in the story doesn’t seem like one where she accompanies Fuuka along the way. Unless I’ve got this completely wrong and a huge Berlinetta conspiracy-related plot twist happens halfway through the series, that is. I’ve seen some speculation about that and am not that convinced, as exciting as it would be.
As for the the invitation given to the Nakajima Gym to watch Rinne fight, it’s a total coincidence that Fuuka is heading along too. It should be, at least. Their first meeting thus won’t be in the ring, and as it’s this early it’s unlikely that anything will get resolved been the two of them. Although their dispute initially broke out over that poor girl who I’m sure was only trying her hardest, Fuuka’s problem with Rinne is more one of principle. Not only has the person she’s trying to protect grown stronger than her and no longer needs her protection, she’s become one of the very people she was trying to protect her from. Arguing over the girl who lost was just the trigger. It’ll be an interesting reunion – and Rinne wants to talk about something with Vivio and the others for some reason, so there’s that to look forward to too.
Also, doesn’t Fuuka have cute panties?
I’m worried about Rinne. Well, not directly about her, but… the description of her fighting style was very familiar to me, because to my knowledge there is only one other character in the history of the Nanoha franchise who has been described as a total fighter: expert at short range, medium range, long range, possessing no weak areas, particularly brutal with throws and grapples, and possessing immense strength. And that one other person is Sieglinde Jeremiah.
And that is terrifying. If Rinne is learning Sieg’s manner of fighting, Fuka is screwed big time: she’s lost before she’s even started.
I remember Sieg’s grapples. And bombardment made me think of Nanoha. We might get to see exactly where and from whom Rinne learned her martial arts, but remember that she still recently lost to Vivio – and Fuuka was able to get a hit in on Vivio at the start of the series, so Rinne’s probably not as far out of reach as Sieg is to… well, literally everyone else. It’s interesting that you bring up the comparison though, I wonder if their encounter will end up being anything like Einhart vs Sieg was in ViVid.
The Vivid manga is still running and all the girls keep getting stronger, specially Einhart. By the time of Vivid Strike, which takes place after Vivid manga, it wouldn’t surprise me if the gap between Einhart and Sieg isn’t so big anymore.
I want to watch this show but I’m pretty sure there are other seasons before it. Do I have to watch those seasons before I watch this one or is okay to start from this one?
If it were any other entry in the Nanoha franchise, I would tell you to watch the other seasons first. But I think you would be okay with starting from Strike by itself, as it is quite different from those other seasons and has very little to do with the main characters that were involved in them – so it’s not like you would have any trouble understanding what will happen.
But do bear in mind that there would still be some peripheral benefit from being aware of the context and background of some of what goes on – if you’re interested in lolis and martial arts in general you might as well start from the first season of ViVid, as that’s much of the same as what we’ll be getting in Strike. And since you’d best understand ViVid after having been through the three seasons that happened before it, there’s an argument for you starting from the very beginning too (which isn’t a bad thing, as Nanoha is an excellent series).
tl;dr It’s okay to start from this one, but you’d appreciate it better having watched the previous seasons.
If you don’t have time for a long franchise then the movies are a nice choise (Nanoha first movie and 2nd) and then you can watch Nanoha StrikerS and ViviD.
Oh, I see. Hmm, time to make the tough decision XD