Before going through the intense battle between Nanoha and Fate, let’s focus on some of the slice of life stuff since it has maids and a lot of cute cats and kittens!
In this episode, Nanoha and Kyouya visits the Tsukimura family who lives in a big mansion, comparable to the one Nagi has in Hayate no Gotoku. Such a rich family can’t be complete without maids. The maids’ names are Noel and Farin with Farin being the clumsy maid, which is the best archetype for a maid since it gives a sense of moe and cuteness.
At their visit, Nanoha hangs out with her friend while Kyouya meets his classmate, Shinobu, who is Suzuka’s older sister.
TSuzuka keeps a lot of cats around the house that I can’t help to compare it to Mayoi Neko Overrun, even hough the ones in Nanoha are better designed… Damn you stray cats! While Nanoha and her friends converse with each other, one of these cats came in contact with a Jewel Seed. As a result of touching it, the cat grew bigger as shown in the first picture. Compared to the previous battles, the big cat does nothing but move. Since it doesn’t attack, it leaves us with one of the most pathetic boss battle in the whole series history.
Well, Fate’s first appearance was bound to happen and it wasn’t a pretty one. She pretty much kicked Nanoha’s butt with one spell! With one hit, it throws Nanoha in the air. Thanks to Yuuno, Nanoha got a safe landing, but she was already unconscious. Fate defeats the big cat with no problem and takes the Jewel Seed away. Later, Nanoha wakes up in a bed. Her friends found her unconscious and brought her there.
It seems that these girls who don’t have parents around seems to have the most problems. We still unsure about what is her intentions for collecting these Jewel Seeds. At the end of the of the episode, she said something about her “mother,” which we don’t know much about yet. Perhaps in the later episodes we will find out the true meaning regarding her mother… For now, it’s not really that important.
The new rivalry between Fate and Nanoha will make Nanoha’s quest to collect the Jewel seeds a lot harder, especially when Fate is more skilled at magic than herself. She needs to get better at using her powers fast, or she will fall behind.
Also, didn’t I mention that I feel a sense of Les Yay going around? There was a hint of it when Nanoha compliments Fate’s hair and eyes… This is only the beginning because there is more coming in future episodes.
Even though the battle with the big cat was pathetic, Fate’s first appearance pretty much rocked things for Nanoha and make the series a more interesting watch. As they say, more conflicts leads for a more interesting story and it works…
For the next episode: It’s a hot spring episode… Expect lots of fanservice… or maybe not, but the trend of hot spring episodes always tells me so. Also, Fate makes an appearance again as we get another Jewel Seed activated.
Verdict
9/10
Ok, the first pic made me lol. But yea, Fate is one of my favorite characters and the show will soon take a new direction from here– Nanoha is one of the better series when it comes to action and fighting. Though I am no fan of the next episode. >.>
And not to worry; there is no lolicon yuri, though it doesn’t stop people from trying to think of such. 😀
Yes, Episode 5 was a bit weak not because of the typical fan service, but Nanoha got her butt kicked again… and this time is worse… She loses a Jewel Seed;
I wonder when this trend will reverse… or she will have a rough time.