hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Looking back on your love

The news that, in StrikerS, the main characters would no longer be loli was *the* deciding factor in why I finally gave in and watched the first and second seasons of Nanoha in preparation for its airing this April.

While I cheered at the 'magical girls beating the shit out of each other and blowing things up' aspect of A's, the nekkid transformation scenes were absolutely mortifying. Nekkid transformation scenes have been a staple of magical girl shows like Sailor Moon but how the 'growing' part of the 'DFC' was emphasized made for me feel micro stress seriously disturbing. So glad that I can now comfortably enjoy the Nanoha Future World of StrikerS now that AWESOME yes! Lolicon no!

Indeed if lolicon is the disease, MILFate is the cure. Unlike some other people, I actually like Fate's new barrier jacket - the double-breasted jacket is very smart and the predominance of black is a link to the colour scheme of her old barrier jacket. It would be quite interesting to learn why and when she changed it - in contrast, Nanoha's barrier jacket is a recognizable evolution from her original one while Hayate's is still the same.

As regular readers of this blog might expect, one of the things that I'm looking forward to is Nanoha x Fate Yuri 4 Life (????????????). There were hints of it in the first two seasons but the status of their relationship was always kept ambiguous. Even if the A's comics (daily cuddle), first Sound Stage (Love Love bathing) and Visual Fanbook (nekkid DFC symmetrical docking) were more daring, it could be still be rationalized as Dear My Friend with accentuated touchy-feeliness or I'll get over you i.e. the former 'just best friends' or the latter 'just a phase'. Given how I read the OPs and EDs as Fate and Nanoha Double Moon serenading each other respectively, the first line of Spiritual Garden 'Even when I become an adult, I won't forget you, my love' seems to support the latter case.

My only sliver of hope is in page 13 of the A's to StrikerS comic Vol.3 where Signum needles Fate about failing her officer exam twice because she was worried sick about Nanoha's serious injuries - in stark contrast, at that time, Hayate passed her command exam in her first attempt.

Overall, I'm not asking for much actually (?????????????). Hawt Nanoha x Fate action would always be welcome but as it's even more unlikely than the hawt Rin x Saber action that Fate/Stay Night cheated us of, I would be content with Otome-style ShizNats crumbs.

Nanoha x Fate non-H doujins have tended towards two extrapolations; the first is the White Devil narrative where it is Nanoha who is the predator terrorising Fate (e.g. 4001prototype? to check when Sagubooru comes back online) and the second is Fate who is the enthusiastic amorous Feel My Heart one in contrast to a clueless Nanoha (e.g. mikage?) Entropy Max! is more much balanced but still tends towards the latter. It would just be nice to see a yuri couple where neither partner is psycho, both are having a nice normal romantic relationship (think Shizuru and Natsuki smiling at each other while the former played the piano and the latter looked up from reading her book) and no one else bats an eyelid - except maybe with envy (StoPani's achievement of dropping the 'forbidden' in yuri as pointed out by Mentar). Oh, while I'm at it, TSAB bridge bunnies here and everywhere squealing after Signum-oneesama would be nice too. Fate x Nanoha Never Stop!

Related posts:

1. Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 7
2. Megami 88 and Nanoha StrikerS 19
3. The Very Secret Diary of Fate T. Harlaown (StrikerS Ep 2)