Tasunke's Random Ramblings

So I went and saw the Nanoha movie, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (魔法少女リリカルなのは) The MOVIE 1st, today with some friends. The theater was packed, and we had standing room only tickets, basically. This is my first time watching a movie in a Japanese theater… and also the first time watching one in any theater while standing the entire time. ^^; Though being as tall as I am and standing in the back, I had no trouble at all seeing the entire screen, so it was a blessing in that regard, at least. ;)

For those unfamiliar with the movie, it’s a retelling of the events of the first season of the anime of the same name. Basically, they took a 13-episode anime series, and condensed it down into a movie. They seemed to do a good job at it too. They manage to hit the major plot points and even give us glimpses into parts of the backstory that had only been hinted at in the original anime, though at least one such revelation actually didn’t happen until the 3rd season, originally, if I remember correctly.

The movie was just as touching and moving to me as the original series was, so it definitely scores points there. Also, there was a scene that surprised and amused me, where Nanoha and her friends are playing Wii Sports Tennis. ;) I really didn’t expect to see them inserting that into Nanoha. Of course, it’s not directly Wii Sports, but you can tell that’s what it’s supposed to be. n.n;

Now to comment on the dialogue. I was surprised how much of the Japanese I actually understood, I guess my Japanese is improving, but I’ve still got a long way to go. ^^; The intelligent devices (IDs), as in the original series, speak completely in English. And not Engrish, either. That’s one nice thing about Lyrical Nanoha, they hired native speakers (or at least ones that sound native and have western names) for those parts. When the IDs spoke, there were Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen. It was interesting trying to follow the conversations, though. Nanoha perfectly understanding Raising Heart’s English, and responding in Japanese, and vice versa.

Raising Heart (yes, not Raging, Raising is the official name) also has alot more lines in this version, I think. She talks in more complete sentences. They also seem to me to be more natural English, with much less Engrish-ness to them. Also, at times she seems less mechanical, and her voice even displays emotion, whereas in the series I never really got that sense. The same applies to Bardiche, his voice sounding very much human at times. They also have a voice for Precia’s ID this time as well, at least I think it was her ID.

I wonder what’s next to be animated in the Nanoha-verse… will it be a movie version of A’s (the second season)? Or perhaps one of the offshots like Vivid? I guess we’ll have to wait and see, ne? ;)

[Image from moe.imouto.org]

Tags: Anime, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, movie, review

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 2:15 am and is filed under Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.