I haven’t reviewed any of the anime, movies, or manga of the Nanoha series yet, but since I watched this movie just recently, let’s start here.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A`s first premiered in July 2012, while its DVD was released just recently. The plot is based on the second season, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, and retells its main story in a slightly different and shortened way.

Since this is the continuation of the first movie, the viewers are thrown into the story right after the events of the Lost Logia Case. Even though Nanoha is finally able to continue her life as it was before she became a magical girl, her powers still remain, making her the target of a mysterious and powerful group of magicians. The Wolkenritter (Cloud Knights), as they call themselves, are on a mission to find living beings with magical powers in order to absorb this power and thus feed a dark device called the Book of Darkness.

The story is almost exactly the same as what we’ve already seen in the second season, but better. I can’t really tell why though, it’s probably because it’s shorter, with only the most important parts of the story remaining. Just as in the first season/movie, this time, communication plays an important part in the story as well. While Nanoha seemingly believes in the good in people and tries to talk with them before fighting them, the enemy team, on the other hand, is as stubborn as ever, refusing to reveal their true intentions and acting all evil and secretive.

And even though their behavior is obviously stupid and eventually leads to a catastrophe, it still feels realistic. Like, you can understand why they act like villains. I really like that about the Nanoha series. They do a great job of presenting characters in a way that you can actually empathize with them and understand why they act a certain way.

Nanoha Takamachi: Since the events of the Lost Logia Case, Nanoha has gained at lot more confidence and power. Even though she is still a child, she is one of the strongest magicians in the whole Time-Space Administration Bureau. Furthermore, Nanoha is presented as an out-and-out goodhearted girl that always tries to understand people, even enemies, before going up against them.

Fate T. Harlaown: Since she lost her mother, or more accurately, the woman that created her, she is now living with the Harlaown family on Earth, living a normal life that she has never been able to enjoy before. As soon as the Lost Logia incident was properly dealt with, Fate became a member of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, in which her new mother, Lindy Harlaown, works as an admiral. Even though Fate is a rather shy and quiet girl, she quickly warmed up to Nanoha, becoming her best friend and workmate.

Hayate Yagami: Hayate is a very sweet and caring girl. Even though she lost her parents and is wheelchair-bound, she still manages to be cheerful and live a happy life. As the mistress of the Book of Darkness, she becomes the master of the Wolkenritter, but is also inflicted with an evil curse that would eventually take her life. Unlike most of the previous masters of the Book of Darkness, Hayate is not interested in gaining the enormous powers that are promised to those that are able to fill all its pages with the life force of magical beings.

Furthermore, she takes great care of the Wolkenritter and treats them just like her own family members. Yet, she is unaware of the fact that they are causing trouble to themselves and to others by trying to fill the pages of the Book of Darkness in order to save their mistress’s life from the threat of the evil curse.

Wolkenritter: They function as the knights and servants of whoever is chosen by the Book of Darkness to become their new master. Since they have always been used as tools to fill the pages of the book, they are quickly drawn to Hayate, who doesn’t make them fight and rather wants them to enjoy a quiet life with her. As a result of her kindness and care, they go against Hayate’s will and do their utmost to fill the pages of the Book of Darkness once again.

The animation is great, not flawless, but highly enjoyable with fluid movements and bright colors. But, then again, I didn’t really expect anything else from a movie such as this one.

There is not much I can say about the music, since, I yet again, didn’t even notice the background music at all. Outstandingly great, on the other hand, was the usage of the songs during some intense fighting scenes. It’s no surprise that those songs are done by Yukari Tamura and Nana Mizuki, the voice actresses of the main characters, Nanoha and Fate. And I have to say, the music really added some extra awesomeness to the already very well done fighting scenes. I think I don’t really have to say anything about the voice acting. This movie has two of my very favorite seiyuus, Nana Mizuki and Yukari Tamura, so, of course, this was a big success for me. I’m also someone who watches anime just because of some voice actors that take part in it. That’s also why I started watching Seikon no Qwaser, and oh god what a bad decision that was…

I slightly feel like a pedophile when talking about the yuri moments in an anime that is starring 9-year old girls as the main characters, so let’s make it short. This movie, just like the anime, has some yuri undertones shown every now and then throughout the whole 150 minutes. We can clearly see that Nanoha and Fate care for each other dearly, but I think that’s about it. They are, as I said, only 9 years old, so I think the depiction of more than just some blushing and hugging would have been a little too much. But it seems this movie is really targeted at pedos. I mean, take a look at what they put in the DVD boxes as extras…

I’m a fan of the Nanoha anime series, so, of course, I enjoyed this movie. In fact, it was even better than the actual anime. If you have already watched the first movie and enjoyed this, I can promise you that this will be to your liking as well~