hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force 00

From just a brief glance through the raw manga scan, it seems that *shokku* the main chara of Lyrical Nanoha 4th series' is a boy. Even the artist, Higa Yukari-sensei, was initially doubtful about this. Leaving aside how sidelining Yuuno in A's contributed to that sequel's enjoyment (and yuri!) factor, having three new main charas just exacerbates the problem of chara bloat that weighed down StrikerS. Why can't they just concentrate on the existing cast?

The other thing that concerns me is how Nanoha Force seems to rehash old ground; the plot appears to be centred on the investigation of the Book of the Silver Cross, an ancient Belkan magical tome. Sure, there's the possibility of seeing potentially interesting parallels with Team Book of the Night Sky but it's more likely that it will find it hard to emerge from its popular predecessor's shadow.

It made good sense to launch it as a manga-only release so as to test the waters. Though even if the manga is well received, an anime will probably cover different ground as past practice for this franchise did not repeat material in different mediums, spread out across anime, manga and drama CDs.

Let's hope the Vivio spin off will do better. Especially with some Nanoha-mama x FEITO-mama love love!

Accompanying this prelude chapter was a series of 4koma, Lucky StrikerS. I'm not that keen on the particular style of this chibi art but there were a few laughs to be had. My favourite was the following:

[Preceding 4koma raised the issue about Teana's constant battle with her weight]
F: Eh? Exercise?

F: Indeed. On rest days, I do it together with Nanoha.

[LOL I'd love to know what was going through their minds in this frame.]

F: Of course, we do stretching and training.
T: There's no need to explain like that. Sounds suspicious.

Related posts:

1. Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 14
2. Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 15
3. Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 26