Nanoha Vivid Anime

Ok this has been bothering me a lot and I need it to get this out of my chest: The ViVid anime doesn’t suck as much as I expected… for now.

It’s really surprising how much some color and movement can increase the entertaining value, also I notice the inclusion of some stuff that clearly the author didn’t realize the first time it wrote the script and some changes that explain stuff in a better fashion. Like explaining Einhart’s memories from the get go or letting clear she is actually affected by them, not sure where to go and what to do with such sadness she carries around.

It’s like someone hear my complains, some of them anyway, about the series and is trying to fix them… while being fight all the way by a person that insist on leaving as much crap from the manga as possible. But I take what I can get.

It wasn’t until I watch episode 3 that I finally gather what bother me about ViVid even in this early stage, when it isn’t that bad. It was when Vivio talk with Nove about fighting Einhart the second time, Vivio says something like: “Since I can’t express it with words I will punch it out of her and when we become friends I will show her the Church garden” or something on those lines. Then it hit me and everything made sense again.

That line right there seems to come from a person who half watched the first season and/or First Movie and took the shallowest aspects out of it. Like when he wonder how Nanoha and Fate became friends his answer was “They shoot lasers at each other until Nanoha win and that was it”, ignoring the struggle the characters were going through and all the substance that make the last battle between Nanoha and Fate way more than just them shooting giant lasers at each other. Vivio just befriends Einhart because that is what Nanoha and Fate did, Einhat and Vivio fight because that is what Nanoha and Fate did… really we are just repeating and while I admit there is an attempt of giving its own unique spin the opportunity is miss.

We see Einhart’s struggle with her memories but aside from not being well use we lack Vivio’s perspective. I mean Vivio doesn’t know, care or wants to know about her past self, she doesn’t has a huge destinity to follow or a legacy to uphold… really if it wasn’t for the twins that can’t get a hint I bet she wouldn’t even think on the Saint Kaiser. While Einhat has Klaus’s memories and regrets which drive her to seek a strength she doesn’t have use for, we never actually address the issue that Ein should think what she wants rather than what Klaus wanted, is hinted I think, but we never really see her accepting that she is her own and not her ancestor’s memories made flesh.

Vivio in the other hand doesn’t even have an issue with Belka or if she does we never see it. Despite her name being in the tittle I ignore a lot about her. And yes, we learn she wants to protect those she cares about with her Strike Arts is just that the way the series develop the whole issue it lack impact. Vivio isn’t training to be an Enforcer or soldier, she is training to “protect” her love ones. All of them better fighters that need no protection from the nonexistent treat to their wellbeing.

Again, grabbing the basics of Nanoha and Fate’s tale and using them here regardless of them making any sense. So what holds ViVid back isn’t its gratuitous nudity, shallow cast and large roster but rather its attempts to be a Nanoha story. I mean all those things I mention makes it suck, but they are as well the shallow elements of A’s and StrikerS. ViVid wants to be what the other Nanoha series were but it lacks any heart or commitment.

They could have been a lighter and funny adventure of Vivio’s school years, without any ancient kings or pretentiousness but they wanted to emulated the Original Series. They could have make this a serious adventure where Vivio discovers and comes to terms with she being the last member of an ancient and powerful bloodline at the time she resolves millennia old conflicts… but they couldn’t drop the safety net of Japanese suburban life without incidents. It wasn’t to be both and in the end isn’t either. Just a poor and misguided effort for the book of “What Could Have Been Great”

Sorry for the long post, as consolation here is a tuna can:

Spoiler:

And the winds of badness approch...

it's good to finally see Hayate and her harem friends onscreen again. but... last time I saw them, Agito and Rein were tiny floating unison devices. Did something happen in the intervening five or so years?

Still afraid to touch the anime. Maybe I'll wait till it's finished? Darn you terrible Vivid manga for turning into a terrible anime.

Is not that what I have an issue with.

Funny enough is not even the fanservice that has been there since the original season.

Is just that people are so willing to take this bare bones of a concept with such open arms and let a series with problems but charm, as Nanoha has always been to me, rotten in to a mindless collection of nudity for female characters. And if you think that is raining in your parade don’t make talk about what this… thing did on mine.

Don't worry Corona you won that.

You won that shit.

w/e Einhart with main character powers.