Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

[Formless One]

I dunno, I still take issue with some of the arguments people earlier presented. There is a world of difference being comfortable enough to get down to your skivvies in front of what you think is a beloved magical pet and just writing off a particularly gruesome and intimate way to murder you as part of that enemy creature's "morality" once you cross the line of sentience. Especially given how Nanoha is presented as wise beyond her years, like most of her family. Again, I think this can be blamed on early-installment weirdness, as others themselves have noted.

Again, you should blame the shitty English dub for adding the line. Arf was plenty threatening without being so specific in the original. Maybe try rewatching it in Japanese with subtitles, and you will get a different impression of the first season. A good example of this which ties into this problem is the famously confusing explanation Nanoha gives for wanting to save Fate from her situation, whatever it is-- her pretty, but sad looking eyes. A lot of western audiences I've seen think Nanoha is just a ditz or something, and I put the blame squarely on how flatly the English voice actress delivered the line. In reality its supposed to be a sign of the opposite-- that the character is extremely insightful because she can already tell someone's true emotional state by looking at their eyes; a prized skill in Japan where everyone is expected to wear a poker face all day for other people's benefit. This ties in to the thing with Arf because we later see that Arf's bravado is also false-- she's a terrified doggo who knows her master is in constant pain and danger, and Nanoha can already tell that there is more to their behavior than either Fate or Arf is letting on.

You don't get that nuance in the English dub. She's supposed to say it like she's being contemplative, but instead she sounds like she has her head in the clouds. Whether this is on the director or the voice actress I don't know. As long as the translators were punching things up, though, they could at least have written an alternative line that translated the idea rather than the words, since most Americans wear their feelings on their sleeves and thus don't need to practice such a skill. Unless of course they actually do play poker.

[Yukaphile]

Erm... that WAS from the original, dude. LOL. I've watched it with subtitles, lol. She does not apologize for it at all once she comes over to our side.

[Formless One]

Erm... that WAS from the original, dude. LOL. I've watched it with subtitles, lol. She does not apologize for it at all once she comes over to our side.

*sigh* Its been a little while since I watched season 1, but I don't remember the line, and frankly, that by itself speaks to how unimportant it was to my impressions of the character. Indeed, I better remember the fact that, IIRC, this scene happened in a hot spring, and the animators were trying to draw attention to Arf's "assets" in her human form. Likewise, her "failure" to apologize didn't even register with me either. You know, Nanoha never asked ANYONE she Befriended this way to apologize. Keep in mind, its established that Nanoha has always been this way, as she befriended Arisa after punching her for bullying Suzuka, her other childhood friend. She's not looking for the other person to apologize, possibly because she sees apologies as hollow, but to actually change their behavior. She's an oddball that way, and its one of the traits that makes her more like a traditional shonen protagonist than a traditional magical girl. I don't think Goku ever asked for an apology either.

Remember, the Japanese apologize over fucking everything, whether they have something to apologize for or not. That isn't a stereotype, that's real. Ask anyone who has been to Japan. The fact anime characters don't apologize all the time like their creators do is actually part of the escapism. Japanese people apologize just to smooth out social interactions because there are so many more formalities to keep track of. Additionally, apologies don't serve the same purpose as they do in the west because Japan is a Shame Culture, while ours is a Guilt Culture. An apology here is necessarily an admission of wrongdoing and a promise to change, which is both why we are reluctant to apologize, and why its so meaningful to us to get apologies. In Japan, there is always ambiguity present where the person might just be apologizing for creating the appearance of impropriety rather than sincerely promising to change. Compare it to the weasel words politicians use when apologizing, like "mistakes were made." The difference is that its inherent to the culture and not the words.

[Yukaphile]

Fair enough. But as I've said, it's the later lack of touch-ups that I find irritating. As as noted, even Vegeta's career as a planet pirate is still referenced in DBS, and that show is so-so with continuity.

[Kendrakirai]

I mean, they reference previous seasons events all the time, but mentioning a (probably empty) threat that Nanoha never seemed to even consider a threat at all seems like something you’d only do if you were reaaally straining to pad out an episode.

Not everything needs to be brought up again later, and sometimes doing so just bogs down a story unnecessarily. Super mentioning Vegeta’s past is more a thrown bone than anything, considering how Toriyama would often forget what a character was doing only a handful of chapters previous. He forgot whole characters. He forgot he ever designed the original Broly! He forgot he already made a Super Saiyajin 2!

Super bringing in things from the past was all because of the person who was doing Super with Toriyama supervising. A person who actually remembers things. It was fanservice and the occasional tying up of extremely loose ends.

[Yukaphile]

Probably empty, yeah. It's just early installment weirdness. But you're left unsure if it was a threat or not, and there's the problem. You could resolve it easily, in a throwaway line. Doesn't have to be big. But those in charge seem to forget it, which makes me wonder. But then, in the movie, they also shove Yuuno out in favor of the device choosing Nanoha itself. Just... why?

When meeting other Saiyans, who are more noble than their counterparts, it's naturally going to cause some discussion. Even light fare like we see in DBS. But there's no such efforts made to MGLN past Episode 5.

[aaa1e2r3]

So I'm guessing we'll be getting a switch from Dub to Sub again, if we're covering the seasons beyond season 1

er season 2 is also dubbed but 3 and beyond are not

My bad

[Yukaphile]

I prefer the sub anyway, lol. You miss a lot of context that way.

[Edvarius]

So I'm guessing we'll be getting a switch from Dub to Sub again, if we're covering the seasons beyond season 1

er season 2 is also dubbed but 3 and beyond are not

My bad

Again, I feel like I should make it clear that I DIDN'T REQUEST ANYTHING PAST THE FIRST SEASON. I don't know if somebody else has, but they are not a part of this set of requested reviews. And the reason for this set of reviews is to examine the relation between Fantasy and Science Fiction, which the first season does perfectly well on its own.

[Yukaphile]

It also has a lot of weirdness, and the pacing is all wrong.