[Tk3997]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

After this being brought to my attention, really felt the need to respond...




Isn't that what Nanoha started out as though? A normal girl who gains powers through circumstances more or less beyond her control and fights evil?

Not really no though it did disguise itself as that while growing the beard, but as I’ve said once the spaceships and guys in uniforms showed up the hint should have been clear this isn’t you daddys magic girl show.

While the militarism of Nanoha is one of the aspects that make it unique, and much more appealing to us than your standard magical girl show (heck, if Nanoha didn't have these elements I wouldn't have bothered to continue watching),

Which is my point these aspects are what set it apart from the rest of the ramble in the genre remove it and what are with left with? Nothing original that's for sure.

there is a reason why the series is called "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha". This is not "JAG" or "The Unit". The core of the Nanohaverse is magic and females kicking ass;

Ahh this "Females kicking ass" nonsense once more if there one thing I'll never let pass it's this horse shit about how these shows should be centered a female cast only or mainly. It seemed like it might avoid even that at first Yunno and Chrono were both competent, but then they lost it and totally shafted them into oblivion in A and even more so StrikerS.

heck, the militaristic aspects of the TSAB wasn't covered much in Nanoha, it's foundation laid in A's, and only in StrikerS did it come to the forefront as a primary base element for the story, and even then it was only background for the main action - heck, if it wasn't for the Asura the first season would've been much like any other magical girl.

Expect the Asura WAS there and it wasn't like any other magical girl show. These aspects are what has made it popular this can't even really be debated it's popular becasue it changed things up and added elements from other genres putting a new spin on the concept. If you then go and take this out what are we left with? Nothing besides "Are j00 a bad enough Magic Girl to pwn the ultimate ebil!?" hooray!

I think the militarization of the TSAB here in the Nanoha forums has long blinded us to the fact that, as much as we'd like to deny it, and as much as we think it's cool to think otherwise, Nanoha is first and foremost a MAGICAL GIRL show.

Acutally IMO as of now it's first and foremost Science Fiction/Fantasy and it's magical element are acutally very much more subdued and less fantastic then the vast majority of such. It stopped being a Magic Girl show at it's core when they put on uniforms, became adults, and started acting as part of a larger overarching organization for a living it then became a sort of Fantasy/Sci-fi hybrid.

If you look at StrikerS it has almost nothing of what we'd associate with the genre beyond the fact there are Girls and they use magic. If you don't like that fine, but don't try and deny this aspect of the work that sets it apart from basiclly every other example of it's type.

Sure, the series has done it's best to modify, or circumvent the standard mahou shoujo cliches, but at its heart MGLN is about the power of friendship and how it triumphs over all. That is the Core of the Nanohaverse, not the militarism.

I disagree the militarism (and politics) is part of the setting and an important part and if you remove it what you're left with is no longer Nanoha and it's probably not nearly as interesting either.

You need both Nanoha isn't a classic magical girl show nor are it's fans those that tended to like those. (I'd never touch Sailor Moon with a ten foot pole for instance...) It's not pure military fiction either though, but military and political aspects are integral too it and are definitely a part of it's appeal. Those that try to transform it into a pure love, love classical magic girl setting are just as wrong as those that try to turn into a crapsack world full of hardboiled killers and world weary soldiers.

Nanoha isn't Nanoha without militarism and politics, but it's also not Nanoha with out a touch of idealism and fantasy. The key is in the balance Goose and to some extent Kag probably take it too far one direction (in the grim darkness of the future of Nanoha there is only angst! oh and machine guns.) Coma was swinging too far the other way by seemingly just wanting to get rid of the TSAB entirely so the girls could just fly around zapping bad guys at will. Another example is IMO the FFT while the FFT produces plenty of interesting fluff an aversion by most of the posters to seemingly any of the military or politic aspects of the show limits there ability to have really interesting plots IMO...

There's a balance to be found that balance might be leaning a might too far toward military and politics at the moment, but even so those aspects definitely have there place as important parts of the universe and in writing interesting fics and characters. Of course the more fantastic and fluffy elements also have there place as well and it's this somewhat odd mixture that makes Nanoha interesting IMO. It's tricky to capture, but it's also important becasue if you don't do it right the universe just seems off.

Basically yeah the power of friendship is a core element of what makes Nanoha what it is... but so is the Power of Bureaucracy. Remove to much of either and what you're left with is much weaker for it in many ways the combination of politics, magic, and militray themes combine into something greater then the sum of there parts and into something truly unique (there really is nothing else like it I've come across) and if you take out any of those parts what you're left with is simply a shadow of it's complete self.