Nanoha Sidenote - Skip orig...

This discussion has happened before, and it's happening again. And rather than move the comments in the "Top 5" @ Chizumatic into a subject change without Steven's blessing, and since I've already been posting about Nanoha recently, I'll add my answer here.

The question, posed this time by Mark from Kaedrin:

"...I notice that Nanoha A is actually the second series... does that matter? Or is it easy to jump into the middle like that?"

Of course, the common sense answer is "Start from the beginning, duh..." but there are a couple of issues involved with the Nanoha franchise that makes this a valid question. The first is that, as I mentioned in the previous post, the first five or so episodes of the original series are very stereotypical of Magical Girl anime. If you don't have a tolerance for that kind of show, you will probably get bored. Second, the action kicks in about episode 6, and even then the pacing is irregular; generally you get an action oriented episode followed by a slower, exposition oriented episode. If you haven't taken an interest in the characters or the plot, there really isn't enough "action" to keep you floating.

I was somewhat fortunate in that I hadn't really kept up with Magical Girl anime at all, and my most recent experience prior to Nanoha was Cardcaptor Sakura. Most people agree that Sakura is a pretty good show all around, and it maintains interest while staying very close to the classic MG tropes. The early parts of Nanoha were different enough from Sakura that I didn't get bored the first time through...although I tend to skip through the early episodes now. I also have learned that there were several anime series released in the years prior to Nanoha that used some, or even several of the ideas present in Nanoha. If you have been one of those anime viewers that constantly keeps up with current series in Japan, you may not find Nanoha to be nearly as fresh as I did. Caveat: I'm basing that last bit solely on what I've read on several forums and blogs over the past few years. I have not verified any of those claims myself.

There are a couple of other problems that could discourage someone in the original series. There are, of course, the non-explicit nude loli transformations. Keeping in mind that the Japanese have a different cultural view, and the popularity of lolicon imagery, I gritted my teeth and dealt with it. It's not that much content overall, but some people may not be able to take it. There are also a couple of scenes of violence that some have found difficult to watch. They don't last long, they are not explicit, and in my opinion, the idea of what is going on is more horrible than what is depicted. The first of these two scenes has made at least one blogger I read hit the "stop" button and quit watching the series. On the other hand, my wife and I both accepted the scene for what it was, in our opinion: THE defining scene of characterization of the relationships between the Big Bad, the primary antagonist and the antagonist's lieutenant.

Finally, a couple of minor nitpicks. The animation is a little rough sometimes, especially early in the series. The producers apparently tried some kind of CG animation process in a few scenes and it's fairly obvious. However, most of the animation problems disappear by halfway through the series. And lastly, as hard as the American cast obviously tried, unless you just have to, I strongly recommend watching the series in the original Japanese instead of the English dub. It's not that bad, in my opinion, and I certainly recommend a rewatch with the dub so you can focus on the visuals. The Japanese dub is outstanding...the English dub, especially Nanoha's voice actress...not so much.

Now, for why I STILL recommend watching the first series first.

Actually, this is pretty straightforward. One, this IS the series that establishes a lot of the rules and concepts of the world...there isn't a lot of rehashing done in the second series. Secondly, the action in A's starts right out of the gate, and it's in the nature of of 1) showing how much Nanoha has improved since the first series (so you really need a frame of reference) and 2) The first episode features a "Here comes a New Challenger!" moment...and in my opinion you need to see the first series in order to grasp how significant this first battle is.

Finally, (and once again, IMHO) while A's improves on the original series in almost every way, many of the things that make A's great are what made the original Nanoha worth watching. If you can't at least tolerate Nanoha in the first series...well, she's still there in the second series and she hasn't changed much. If you don't form some kind of sympathy with Fate in the first series, her appearance in the second series will be no big deal to you. That is, in fact, one of the methods that several people use to supply a newcomer with a "gauge" they can use to measure how much they will like the Nanoha series'. If you don't want to finish the series in order to find out what happens to Fate, you probably won't get much out of A's. A's has a similar character "gauge", which I won't mention right now because it would end up being a bit of a spoiler.

So that's basically my argument. I'm probably forgetting a ton of stuff (I usually do), and I'm sure there's a lot of poor grammar and spelling. For what it's worth, based on purely anecdotal evidence, if you like the original series, then A's will probably make your top ten list. If you don't like the first series, but watch A's anyway, it seems that responses are about 50/50. And if you absolutely HATE the original series....well, you probably wont' watch A's anyway, and I don't blame you. A's doesn't really take out any of the stuff that some have found objectionable in the first series. The violence is a little more subtle, but not significantly. And of course, it's still a Magical Girl show at heart...it just loads up on the Shonen-style action sequences.

I'll try to incorporate a lot of this post into my longer article on Nanoha StrikerS sometime soon.