A few commenters in my post on the first season of Nanoha said that they preferred A’s. It’s not hard to see why as A’s ramps up the shounen battles while preserving major elements of the previous season such as the absence of evil (the Book of Darkness’ defence program doesn’t have the capacity to exercise moral choice so I don’t consider it to be evil), the protagonists trying to befriend their opponents (through combat!), the theme of loneliness and how power doesn’t necessarily corrupt when wielded by the lolicious innocent.
While I enjoy shounen fighting, the thing I enjoyed most about the first season was the tension in Nanoha’s relentless pursuit of Fate. Would have really liked to see their relationship developed more but, given the focused direction on fighting action in the 13 episodes, I was pretty satisfied with whatever yurilicious crumbs were offered. Mad thanks to Kurogane for highlighting the manga which really helped to flesh out the A’s anime. That it made more of the Nanoha x Fate angle was also good. LOL