So, the second season is finally on. I’ve been browsing around online for the past couple of days and it seems that the general consensus is that this first episode is either a work of art or a lame attempt of putting some story behind a recap of the first season. Being the diplomat that I am, I’d have to put myself between these two extremes. There is, without a doubt, no question about the fact that the opening and ending songs and sequences are a work of art. I’ve watched them countless times and am eagerly awaiting its CD release and creditless versions of the videos. I didn’t buy any of the CDs from the first season but I’ll probably at least buy this season’s CD single, at least this first one anyway if the second one isn’t that hot. The best part is that both songs are on the same CD, which helps cut costs tremendously.

The art in question during the actual episode, unfortunately, wasn’t really something to call home about. I think that the fight scenes were improved but a lot of the scenes in the first half of the episode were a little iffy. I felt that practically everyone but Yuji’s face was a little too circular and wide. Maybe it was because it was an illusionary world (ahaha, what a sad excuse), I don’t know, but things just didn’t look very proportional to me for the most part.

I don’t really have any qualms about the story personally. Since I’ve actually played through the game on the NDS, the events that have transpired thus far are kind of like what did happen in the game. I’ll admit that it’s not exactly the same which caught me off guard a little but it’s close enough. I mean, the main idea is there, and that’s what counts. Anyway, here’s to hoping that we’ll get some good fighting next episode or the one after (depending on when Shana will actually fight Mea). I mean, given the art production of this episode, I can only hope that they’re saving their budget for some key scenes. :P

Well, I just finished watching the first episode of レンタルマギカ over at Nico Nico Douga on my browser. They seemed to have done a pretty good job in terms of the production of this first episode. I didn’t really hear the music too well so I can’t really comment on that but the art was good. As an aside, I was a little surprised by how well it turned out on my browser, maybe the original raw was really good or something, but watching it online wasn’t all that bad. It looked a lot better than watching it on YouTube, maybe their Flash backend isn’t as good? Who knows.

Anyway, the voicing job didn’t really fool anyone. Everyone was immediately recognizable although Rie Kugimiya’s voice seemed to be slightly different than her usual tsundere voice (then again, I don’t think the character she’s playing here is a tsundere anyway). I had difficulties picking out Lelouch from Jun Fukuyama although a little bit of that slipped in after he ripped out his eyepatch.

Since this is just the first episode, it’s not really indicative of how the series will proceed. So, I really have on idea as to whether the series will work in arcs or in a “monster of the week” fashion. I’ll stick around for now to see how I like it.

Well, this episode was quite good. I would’ve liked to see more of Nanoha and Vivio fighting each other but eh, what can you do? There were a fair bit of badass Nanoha scenes anyway what with her blasting the crap out of Quattro and Vivio. I have to say that it’s a shame that Vivio’s back to normal now though. I rather liked her adult form and would’ve enjoyed seeing her do some more fighting, but I guess there aren’t any bad guys left to fight anyway. Since she seems to need the ship and a relic to transform, I don’t think we’ll ever see her in that form again. Will this mean that she won’t join the Administration Bureau in its quest for inter-dimensional peace? That’s hard to believe since we all know how they love to convert and employee former criminals to their cause. ;)

I really thought that Vita was going to die but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now. I suppose it’s a good thing since it wasn’t really being developed properly in that direction if they were going to kill her off. After all, killing off a character isn’t an easy task and any slip up in its execution tends to cause people to choke on their laughter than on their tears.

From this episode’s ending, it looks like the last episode’s going to end with a little bit more blasting of walls. It looks like the prediction that several of us may have had with regards to Subaru saving Nanoha is going to happen next episode. With both intelligent devices, I could see Subaru kicking some major ass although I don’t know how is Teana going to contribute here. I mean, I don’t even know how she and Teana magically recovered enough from their wounds to go out on another mission. I mean, Teana was literally limping her way towards Subaru when we last saw her. My only explanation for this is that Shamal had tended to them prior to their sortie. Then again, even if she didn’t, eh, whatever, it’s not like it’s a huge plot hole or anything anyway.