October 4th, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy ViVid Strike! 01
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis
In the past, orphan girl Fuka Reventon defends her fellow orphan and best friend Rinne Berlinetta from bullies. A few years later, Rinne is adopted by a rich family, trained to become a powerful fighter, and ends up fighting Fuka, defeating her. In the present, Fuka is beset upon by thugs after beating up a couple of coworkers. She fights well, but is overwhelmed. Escaping, she encounters Einhart Stratos. The beaten and exhausted Fuka instinctively attacks Einhart, but she’s surprised when Einhart easily blocks the attack. Fuka passes out, so Einhart arranges for the girl to be taken to the hospital.
At the hospital, Fuka discovers she’s fired. A doctor passes her a note from Einhart, inviting her to Nakajima Gym. She goes, but initially is turned off by the ideal of ojousama types in this gym. However, when Nove Nakajima, who runs the gym, offers her a job, Fuka accepts. Einhart has Fuka go against TAKAMICHI Vivio, Rio Wesley, Corona Timil, and Miura Rinaldi. She loses to each one of them. Later, after some training with Einhart, Fuka is able to knock Vivio out of the ring, but gets knocked out in the process.
Thoughts/Review
No Fate, no Nanoha, and Vivio taking an extreme backseat to things. Then add to this that we appear to be going to another tournament, forget about the one from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. And to top it all off, a rather eye-rolling premise to get the story rolling. Not really a good start.
No Nanoha Nor Fate!
I have a weakness for the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha franchise. Believe it or not, it goes back to when I watched the four episode Triangle Heart: Sweet Songs Forever OVA. Nanoha was just a little sister character there with little more than a cameo part, but she was cute and I was intrigued by the idea of a spinoff series featuring her as a magic girl. Since then, I have enjoyed watching Nanoha grow from a cute kid into a beautiful, adult, “waifu” character along with her friends Fate and Hayate.
Unfortunately, Nanoha’s seiyuu TAMURA Yukari and King Records have parted ways. There were rumors that they had a tiff. Regardless of the reason, it is believed that this is the reason Nanoha is not part of the ViVid Strike! series. Without Nanoha, there’s no reason for Fate to be there, so scratch her as well. I think that ultimately, this could be a major negative for ViVid Strike!, but we’ll see.
Vivo and Einhart Switch Roles
If the lack of Nanoha or Fate wasn’t bad enough, forcing Nanoha’s adopted daughter Vivio to take a back seat in the first episode added to the negativity. In Nanoha ViVid, Vivio was the star and Einhart was costar who had to learn and grow, eventually becoming Vivio’s friend.
With ViVid Strike, Einhart has gone from a timid girl with only the thought of getting stronger (and some mysterious past) to the girl in charge. She’s the one to recruit Fuka. She’s the one to train Fuka. She takes on the mentor role that Vivio had.
I think what really bummed me is that Vivio is given a bit of props as being the one to defeat Fuka’s old friend Rinne, but Fuka is able to all but defeat Vivio in no time. Seriously, I understand Fuka is a tough girl. However, Vivio has tons of actual combat experience and training. I’m not buying that Vivio could so easily get knocked out of the ring, even if the writers did have Fuka get knocked out in the process. But, Fuka is the star of this thing, I suppose, so she’s got to be the best. 🙄
Fuka Reventon
Speaking of Fuka, this new tough girl with a good heart just isn’t hitting my buttons. The writers do go out of their way to try to make me care. They make Fuka an orphan. They make Fuka the friend of the timid Rinne. Fuka then takes a beating for Rinne. Years later, Fuka is still the tough girl. She’s abandoned by Rinne. She has a massive chip on her shoulder. Blah, blah, blah.
Unfortunately, none of this is gripping me. I can already see where this is going. Fuka trains, becomes more powerful than Einhart or Vivio, faces Rinne in a tournament, and restores their friendship through strength. I hope I’m wrong.
You Can Never Have Too Many Characters
The cast for ViVid Strike! was already pretty large due to picking up the central characters from Nanoha ViVid. In addition to adding Fuka and Rinne, Einhart suddenly gets an aide and fellow classmate, Yumina Enclave. I have absolutely no clue about her or how she will ultimately fit into the mix.
Granted, having a ton of characters is a Nanoha franchise trait and ultimately a weakness. It is impossible to get proper character development for all of the characters in a large ensemble. We’ll see what happens with this current cast.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
I really hope I’m wrong in my thoughts that ViVid Strike! is heading for a tournament. One of my problems with Nanoha ViVid was that it went into tournament mode. Frankly, tournaments bore me. They follow a fairly rigid story format, which doesn’t make for interesting viewing after the first couple of times experiencing it. However, for now, I plan to keep with this series.
In the end, ViVid Strike! 01 gets of to a so-so start. Nanoha and Fate are gone, Vivio is in the back seat, and a new girl and Einhart are taking the front.
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I actually got a different vibe in this episode – I get the feeling VIivd Strike is going to go into rather dark places – the kinds explored in the Original, As and Strikers S. Much of it probably depends on what made the second protagonist, Rinne do a 360 degree flip. If the reason is connected to two of the larger themes present in the three seasons of Nanoha – ancient transhumans/lost artifacts or designer/artificial humans, then we might not be heading for a tournament mode played straight.
We might even get the predictable direction being utterly subverted here, depending on why Rinne changed because of her adoption. For example, if Rinne happened to be a “Project Fate” clone using stolen genetic data, adopted by her donor mother once her wealthy donor mother discovered what happened, that could screw Rinne up rather badly, especially if her mother is from one of those old blood-lines passing on rare-skills.
Next, I’m afraid manga-readers are as much in dark as you are about many of the new things we learned about the Vivid Cast in this episode. It’s clearly set after the entire story of Vivid is finished (hence Einhart get’s her full development into presumably the character we are introduced to in Vivid Strike)- keep in mind Vivid isn’t even done as manga right now. The girl besides Einhart was only introduced in the latest translated chapter. Nove Nakajima hasn’t founded a gym yet in Vivid. Etc, etc…..
It’s a strange choice to go for a soft-reset sequel to an anime/manga that hasn’t even been completed. But I suspect they are trying to soft-reset the franchise.
With all that being said, when was the last time a street-kid orphan who gets into gang fights with her first, is apparently a school drop-out, and is in a world where magic is the foundation of civilization becomes the main protagonist of a magical girl anime? It might be better to see Vivid Strike as a soft-reset of the franchise, which takes the move of removing most of the old cast and introducing a new protagonist set in the same continuity as the originals.
Interesting. I could be letting my cynicism rule my thinking. For me, Rinne’s attitude shift came from (1) her own loathing of her personal weakness and (2) being trained as an ojousama type person — prim, proper, and expected to lead and rule. From a Japanese perspective, the adopted Rinne would have a husband who was then adopted into her adopted family (if that makes sense). We’ll see though.
The original Nanoha anime series was an anime original, if I recall correctly. With Yukari leaving King Records, they may have just decided that the soft reboot allows them to ignore Nanoha, Fate, and even Hayate. Who knows how much of the past history they even bother to bring in, I tend to suspect that it won’t be much.
I think that is what is happening, but in my mind, Nanoha and Fate will be missed. After all, Vivio no longer has a mother that can be seen or heard. 🙁
True, Nanoha and Fate will be missed. Especially all those satisfying scenes in early Vivid where we are shown just how ridiculously fluffy, upbeat and happy Vivio’s life with Nanoha and Fate as adoptive parents is.
It could just as well be that Rinne’s “adoptive husband” in this case could be Berlinetta rare skills. Or even in the worse case scenario, if the Berlinetta are one of those old families where genetic memories are passed along the blood-line (where those memories and legacy magics are going to be lost if the current head is infertile), is made to be the receptacle of centuries of Berlinetta ancestral memories, for ideological reasons (that are disturbingly, regarded as legal in TSAB society because of the sheer public interest in preserving rare skills).
In other words, while Ancestral memories in Vivid are presented as something that is to be lived with and unfortunate; in Vivid Strike, we might end up exploring the flip-side -families that deliberately do anything they can to ensure their genetic memories and rare skills are transmitted into the next generation – even if it means searching orphanages for an adoption candidate with the highest compatibility. Remember, Mid-Childa is NOT Japan – the writers are trying to present a different culture here, with slightly different values as a result of the long reliance of said civilization on magic.
We get something of that with Victoria Dhalgrun, but Vivid Strike could show the dark-side of families actively trying to past down legacies by any means necessary. And if the speculation that Victoria Dhalgrun is Rinne’s trainer is correct, then the issue of ancestral memories might get a second, more mature exploration then Vivid.
That’s one possibility behind Rinne’s 360 degree flip, besides upbringing. Because Fuka clearly blames Rinne’s aristocratic upbringing for making Rinne the very kind of human being both of them despised when they were young. But I don’t think the show is as straight forward as that, since the stinger shows that Rinne somehow still cares for Fuka at some level, so I suspect something more than a straight forward upbringing leads to arrogance is behind Rinne’s character.
I have other theories actually – such as Rinne possibly being a Project Fate clone formed from stolen genetic data, abandoned in an orphanage while an infant by her creators so as to evade TSAB detection, or because the sample was considered unsatisfactory,, or in the aftermath of the JS Incident, the scientists involved choose to terminate the project to save their professional hides and consider sending said clone to an orphanage, actually being merciful since liquidating the clone was the alternative. Years later, her unknowing donor mother, a possible former global or even dimensional champion, discovers she has a clone, and proceeds to adopt Rinne. And unfortunately, her adoptive parents are just abit too truthful about Rinne’s origins, and this immediately puts a burden on Rinne to live up to her original, with a pressing need to prove herself worthy.
Or Fuka actually being an artificial human, whose artificial functions kick in when she goes into “berserk mode” – signified by her eyes changing to something much more wild. We see those “berserk eyes” when Fuka fought Vivio a second time, and when she was getting beaten up by that gang, and I wonder whether it’s a hint that Fuka isn’t simply a normal mage that fell through the cracks.
That being said, Fuka does need a device. There are probably two candidates as to who would create her device – the first is Hayate Yagami, the second is Lutecia Alpine. We might end up seeing Hayate in this show, if it turned out that Einhart got her intel on Fuka from Hayate.
Thanks for writing this. 🙂 Interesting theories. Hopefully, the series goes in the positive direction you think it might.
Admeuths : You were ABSOLUTELY ALL SAY, I have nothing to add. This is the perfect argument for the defense of vivid-strike, I agree with what you said my friend!
I just add that I like very much the adult form of Rinne (her dressed in white fighting form). She is so cool!
What a shame that, when she leaves this form, she is a loli (crying).
Can someone for f***s sake tell me what did i miss from nanoha vivid to this strike sh*t!!!! When dafaq did vivio defeat that white hair girl??? Wtf i am just so lost. Did they just skip out the whole thing????? God this is trash and i cant find any ova or movie that might have the tournament or how vivio beats them all…. please someone explain it to me please!!!
The Nanoha ViVid series was an adaptation of the manga series. One would have to read the manga to see what one might have missed, but that presumes ViVid Strike is going to bother following the canon. I rather doubt the production team of ViVid Strike is going to worry too much about what happens in Nanoha ViVid manga, even though it is canon.
I believe this is just retconned in for ViVid Strike.
Bottom line is that ViVid Strike is just King Records doing a Nanoha anime without Nanoha. They just took established characters from Nanoha ViVid and planted them into a new situation. From the Japanese perspective, you aren’t supposed to care about what happened in-between time. 😉
Well…. like the comment above, i think this might actually go to a darker side of the series, so Fuka might actually have a much more horrid past than even Vivio’s past life did.
Though it kinda sucks that they went and ditched the whole rest of the Vivid series, but i guess the manga is good enough.
I am going to think of this series as something like Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Force, which actually is very dark and one of the beloved characters almost fucking dies.
I am thinking it’s possible that this might go that dark route, and it’s possible that they may even make some backstory that Nanoha vanished and Fate went to find her. Only to find both dead or controlled by some evil group, or they are dead and there are clones of them.
Also, i dont think just because a Voice actress leaves the studio does not mean the character is not going to appear. Dont give me wrong I love Nanoha’s VA, but Yukari doesn’t own Nanoha, nor does she control if they use her or not.
But I do understand why you would think that way.
And for me, as long as Hayate appears i’m good.
Anyway, I agree with half of your reasoning, but i disagree on the matter of Nanoha.
Interesting. That’s two taking another look at things. I really may be too cynical here.
I hear you. However, a lot of the buzz (for whatever that’s worth) is that Nanoha is not going to be in the ViVid Strike! series. There were rumors that Yukari and King Records had a falling out. If true, that would cause otaku to not be happy with another seiyuu voicing their waifu. So the rumors are that King Records is avoiding all of that by just not having Nanoha appear at all.
Of course, a previously dead Nanoha project seems to be coming back to life for 2017 — Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 3rd: Reflection. It hasn’t been confirmed, but it does seem like Yukari is coming back for the movie. We’ll see though.
I would also like you to pay attention to the Opening of the series, looks like tha we will see everyone from the Vivid series, as well as Ixpellia is also awake.(the girl who they meet in the mid childa church who went into a come who is like Vivio and Einheart aside that she is actually 1000 years old and was hibernating but i digress)
So, this series takes place after nanoha Vivid,/
I skipped the OP. I do that most of the time to avoid spoilers. But I can watch it for episode 2.