Somewhere around last month - the 24th to be specific, I decided to start watching my first anime in a long time - Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, and with Japanese subtitles to boot, becaue I'm learning Japanese and want to pick up new terms I'll forget about the next day.

Given its less than... savory origins and thus the implications knowledge of who the target audience for this show was, I wasn't really expecting anything good to come out of it.
Hell, I was expecting to get fanservice baiting of the worst kind you could think of and the halfassed plots you can expect from a series revolving around it.

And while that definitely happened to some fault, I ended up sticking around for far longer than I thought I'd, and I think there's a single reason behind it.

That reason, going by the name of Fate Testarossa.

Giant image, I know, and it says "The Movie", but I watched the show.
Also, I almost forgot to remind you that this blog entry will have spoilers for the first season (and second, a little bit) of Lyrical Nanoha, so if you're interested in the series and don't want to find out about what happened, just click on the button that is right below and go watch the entire first part.

Go back to the blog index

If you already know what happens or don't give a fuck, then go on ahead.

The Beginning

For it's first three episodes, lyrical Nanoha is a very typical magical girl anime.

Too typical, in fact.
So typical, that the only thing reminding you this isn't a fairly average yet enjoyable monring magical girl show are the camera angles and other weird animation tricks that the show uses in order to make having a crazy production schedule and three different directors seem like a cool thing to have.

These first episodes focus mostly on Nanoha, the world around her and monster of the week shenanigans, but little do you know that these episodes are a lull to set up the actual story...

And the actual plot of Nanoha only starts in Epsiode 4, when Fate Testarossa bursts into the scene.

In this first appearace, Fate looks (and is) imposing, imposing in the sense that she is above Nanoha - and she is, or is she?

Because if you had bveen paying attention to the opening, you might have noticed a tired, lonely blonde girl inside an apartment building petting her familiar.
If you were guessing that was Fate, you'd be right.
And if you didn't recognize that girl as Fate or are an opening-skipping pleb...

Yep, same person.

After this short conversation between Fate and who seems to be her familiar, the camera moves around and decides to pan away from Fate in favor of a portrait located far above where she is.

Notice how it seems to be a younger Fate, with the obscured face of an older woman - that leads to questions.

Who is she? Why is her face obscured? Hell, why is Fate all alone despite being, like, nine years old?

And the face that she shows to her familiar is very different from the personality she took on when she was fighting Nanoha - she's significantly nicer, more gentler, just... she's feels like she's capable of being soft when she's around her, when she's free from the mission she was given.

In a way, Alf is the actual mother figure of Fate.
While Fate's mother is almost absent, Alf is always around.

While Fate's actual mother abuses her for the sake of doing so, Alf is always the first one to get concerned about anything going on with her.

This is the moment where the story is revealed to not just be about Nanoha and how gaining magical powers changes her life, also about Fate Testarossa and how Nanoha herself changes her life and herself.

Nanoha wants to save Fate, Fate wants to sve herself from her own mother. Alf just wants to see Fate being safe.
Meanwhile, Precia Testarossa just sees Fate as means to an end.

The next few episodes focus on the increasing tension not just between Nanoha and Fate (which makes for some really cool battles, not gonna lie), but also between Fate and her mother, which reaches a turning point in Epsiode 10.
Fate decides to go face her mother only to be tortured instead.
When she returns, she's basically unconscious, and the first person to notice what happened is Alf; who decides to face off against Fate's mother.

It doesn't go very well, but to try fighting her off in such a way is quite the bold move, and only motivates Fate further.

And in Episode 11...
After a showdown with Nanoha, Fate eventualy gives up on antagonizing her. It takes Nanoha proving to be just as strong as her, but if Nanoha wants to save her so be it, for it is better to accept the truly well-meaning than to stay under bad influence.

This sets up the final arc of Nanoha S1, in which pretty much everyone gangs up to BTFO Fate's own Mom of the Year - and, despite all the struggle, the last minute nature and the near-death of Fate herself, they succeed.

And you, you are glad it all hanppened. You're glad she's better and she's glad she is now able to not only surround herself with better people, that she now can know what an actual bond feels like, that she now actually has someone she can depend on - which is shown in Episode 13 as she spells Nanoha's name for the first time and then exchange their ribbons, defining just how definitive their bond becomes from then on.

Nanoa gives Fate her pink ribbons, Fate then gives Nanoha her thin black ones - and this sticks, with them using the exchanged ribbons in their day-to-day life through A's.