Customer Reviews

Lyrical Nanoha: The Complete Series (Viridian Collection)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great example of what a truly great Anime has to offer. It's a shame that only Anime seems to ever involved these kinds of character complexities and moral and philosophical dilemmas, but whatever I guess.


With out spoiling anything, the story revolves around a young girl who is granted toe power to use magic via a gem that transforms her into a so called "Magical Girl" (this is a term applied to any female character that can transform into a more powerful form in Anime). The story seems to blend magic and technology in a dazzling way, at times you often wonder if the characters are using magical items or some sort of super advanced technology.

The characters are beautiful and seem to come to life with personalities of their own that make each character stand out amongst the other multitude of characters. These are not your western characters, who love fighting and fight to "protect freedom". They have flaws but not every character is bipolar or paranoid. They are rich and diverse and help to take you away from the toils of real life, not remind you of them.


If you are unfamiliar with Anime and see a cute cartoon girl on the cover and your first thought is "This is a children's show" you are only half right. While this show is easy to digest for children of about 10 or so years old, there are some complexities and even some realities that younger children might not be ready for.
There's no vulgarity or sexual content, though the transformation scene might me considered kinda risky for some viewers, important body parts are simply not drawn. Sponge Bob or Tom and Jerry are both 100 times more violent and offensive than anything you will find in this show.

That said, this show can be equally enjoyed by a more mature audience, especially one who still considers themselves a child at heart. If you like a fun, touching story with out all of the mellow-drama, propaganda and nonstop real world head line news references that you'll find in 95% of all American Prime Time dramas, then you'll love this show.

Lyrical Nanoha A's is the second season and is available via Amazon's current selection at the time of this review's writing.

Don't let the magical girl premise of this anime keep you from watching this excellent series. The story contains much more than just magical girls doing their typical magical girl stuff. The characters are all have colorful personalities and are likable. There's much more action and battles throughout the series than you would think would be in a magical girl anime. Plus, there are some really well drawn out emotional parts scattered throughout the series. Some of them will make you smile and feel warm inside, some of them will make you feel sad and compassionate, while others will make you feel a bit agitated. This anime has very good messages about important things in every day life, like friendships, moral values, the value of a family, and so on. But all in all, this is a light-hearted series that any type of anime fan can watch.

Don't let the "Magical Girl" in the title fool you, this is a great series and I'm a guy in my late teens and I love it. Sure, anyone who's watched Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon will see a lot of similarities and even the case says fans of the said series will love this. But this still being a magical girl series it will have it's roots in the series that created the genre. That being said, there's plenty of things in Nanoha that give it it's on charm.

First off there's plenty of action in the series, more than you'd think of a magical girl series. Then there's the emotion of many of the scenes and characters. You'll definitely feel the emotions the scenes are brining out, at times you'll smile and feel happy, others you'll feel sad with the characters or feel angry. Or if you're like me and can't resist the high amount of cuteness the characters have you'll want to wish you can give them a warm hug.(I'm looking at Fate in episode 7.) Thankfully this is probably the only magical girl series that wasn't wrecked by a dub that tried to force the target audience into something different.(Any guy who's been mocked for watching Sailor Moon can agree with me on this one right?) The characters alone are very lovable, each one is quite fleshed out in terms of personality and development.

This is supposed to be the first season or so the case says but there is more to the series called Nanoha A's so don't worry about what happens in episode 12, Fate keeps her promise to Nanoha. There's also another season called Nanoha StrikerS which I think is on DVD but is only subbed. That season takes place 10 years after this season so the characters are at least 20 since I'm assuming Nanoha and Fate are about 9 or 10 in this series.

Overall this is a very light-hearted series full of action, emotions, and even some good messages. It's also probably the only series I can show to my cousins(all girls) who are all around the right age to watch this. There's nothing vulgar about this series, the fighting is not that violent at all and the only remotely risky thing is the tranformation scene which still doesn't show any detail, even though I'll still say this isn't really a kid's show but at the same time not adult either. So anyone who sees anything dirty about this series clearly has a dirty mind to begin with.(This coming from a guy who's been heavily critisized for watching so-called "anime porn".)

This is the first season as it is called in the US. I have to admit unlike other Viridian collections this isnt that large. This is only the firsat 12 episodes of this series. But they also are really good building blocks for the rest of it. I was actualy hooping the next series of 12 would be included inthis box set as well. But it isnt. So in a way this can't be called the complete series box set. Since this is technicaly not including the the next 12 episodes....on the first 12.

As for finding the enxt 12 episodes....the original series was called Lirical Nanoha As....well go figure if they released it in english then took it off the market....and then have not bput it back onthe market yet. The company that owns the rights is dragging their heels on this alot for some reason. Instead they seam to be releasing sub-par series that won't and don't sell and they wonder why...go figure onthe logic.

This product is great...it has the first 12 episodes...and the cover is reversible ont he dvd box.

Anyone who watches this should pay attention to alot of the details....like for example to her pendent raging haeart who grows as much as Nanoha does. Also make sure to watch the last episode all the way...and remeber what all of the characters say. It makes watching the next 12 episodes alot more enjoyable. As FATE does keep her promise to Nanoha.

By the way way....there is a MOvie adaption of this series...whihc kind of sums eveything up in its short time period....i think this 12 episodes is better as it gives more depth and background to all the characters involved.

There is a thrid series called Lyrical nanoha Strikers...and there is currently work being odne on a fourth series.

While this series shows Nanoha at about 12 to 16 years of age(its not clearly said but is kind of implied that Nanoha is older then her friends in school and missed alot of school due to things that happened to her) the next series shows us what happens after a few years. While the thrird series nanoha is in her mid twentys.

Anywise this is a great series and i encourage anyone who like Anime...a good story...likes interesting Technology and Magic to watch this. The art design is superb...and a good continuity is done. So if you look and see a disaster that effects things in one episode you can still see the after math in later episodes. They also do a wonderful job of character developement.

I've been in the mood for some more light-hearted animes for a few months now and after getting series like Angelic Layer and Chobits this series turned out to be just as entertaining to watch as the other mentioned animes. The series follows with some of its storylines of series like Sailor Moon and Card Captors and while not to childish it keeps the drama down so it doesn't become to melancholy or sad to watch through it. The series suffers only one true annoyance it was the somewhat half-baked dubbing cast, while the Japanese voice cast were great doing their character roles and played their roles perfectly the same can't be said about the English voice cast which seemed to just have at most about one to two of their voice cast who did a decent job while you couldn't help but wince while trying to listen to the other dubbed voice crew trying to mull over their lines with little to no talent what so ever. While some say anime series should only be watched subbed I'm more partial to listening to both subbed and dubbed for most of my animes, but I do agree if you can't get a good dubbed voice cast just leave the anime series subbed and save the fans a lot of headaches. So for fans of Sailor Moon to Chobits here's a wonderful anime series worth a peek and I say don't be turned away thinking this series just for children it may surprise you how entertaining you find the series as well....