At last, I could watch the movie screening at Japan Expo in France.
Sort of disappointed by it. I wasn't exactly impressed by the excessive approach of turning everything over the top (as in: power level, "drama" and *cough*yuri*cough*).
The notable changes were obviously how Nanoha and Fate were faring in battles. While they certainly made it entertaining with some very fast paced skirmish, it went really on the ridiculous power level increase: a drastic abuse of beam spam, instead of repeated use of "bullets" (I think they announed only once for the whole movie Divine Shooter and Plasma Lancer), with Nanoha having a "proto" Excelion mode, called "cannon mode", which she had the tendency of using it as a charging spear, and Fate with her glaive form with a similar approach.
Of course, the most ridiculous portion (in both good and bad way) was SLB. To be honest, the last Divine Buster looked like SLB, then Nanoha suddenly casted a genki dama
(leeching mana from Fate as well... huho)... that and Nanoha's angelic/god-like descent that brought a new level of cheesiness
Well, it was the usual overpowering blast but it was much more "powerful" looking than in A's / Strikers. That said, Fate's "ultimate", Spark End was cool, albeit different.
Aside from the escalating power level show (which will lead to many problems if they want to make a A's movie), the drama itself was a bit overtone/undertone at times. Some overdramatization wasn't exactly welcomed in my books (such like some of Arf's over reaction, aside of Precia's "fun" time, or when Fate was weirdly wounded by Chrono to the point of bleeding, despite it was magic... unless it is a retcon, which is associated to Tyana's).
While they did cut short of Fate's situation at times (such like the blunt removal of her "limbo scene" and her interaction with Alicia).
However, they did a good job at adding extra content such like Precia's flashbacks, explaining how Alicia died, how Lynith was born etc.
As for the quality itself... nothing really special: they didn't use any design different from the series, so there wasn't any impression of "good quality", but it wasn't bad either: it was working as intended. Likewise, the soundtrack was very similar to season 1, borrowing a lot from it. That being said, they kept the animation flow well.
The design... is okay, it is sort of amusing that Nanoha got some "gundam effect" due to her henshin (notably the metallic noise when her chestplate appeared, and the SCREWS going through her wirst guards).
I'm not exactly fan of RH and Bardiche new designs though: RH is basically the excellion version, with a very odd mix of color, since various parts of RH looked a bit out of the way, due to the colors. Bardiche basically became an axe, and it is funny to see Fate wielding it ore often as a PHYSICAL axe, instead of using the Scythe form with the beam scythe blade.
Speaking of the device, while RH became much more talkative (a bit too much), Bardiche voice was weird... I have no idea if they changed its voice actor or if they asked him to perform differently, but he sounded much less "robotic" and a bit out of the place as result.
The show was very entertaining on its own right, but it really catered ever single content tidbit on the fancy of the fans of the original series a bit too much... it is still capable of being a stand alone, but it is mainly a eye candy remake for fans.
The scripting was sort of poor, with things going all over the place literally (scenes weren't really getting a smooth transition, and you got badly timed flashbacks etc).
Good, but doesn't really "upgrade" the first season.
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, before i was cutted by this announcement of Black Buttler Season 2 =_=
