Fortress

I’ve been slacking on the weekly report of animu, largely due to work, but also due to THE SISKO and my insatiable need to watch episodes of DS9 on Netflix. So to fill in for now until I get a chance this extended weekend, here is a little FUCK YEAH NANOHA if you aren’t already reading Nanoha Force.

Unlike Nanoha Vivid, Force gets super serial and outlines the story of Thoma Avenir, a freelance archeologist who stumbles upon a research facility and ends up saving Lily Strosek, a mute girl who can only communicate telepathically, from scientists experimenting on her. Along with Isis Egret, a girl he met in town while shopping, they try to evade the dangerous criminal organization Hückebein, who seeks both him and the girl, while also under the gun of the TSAB and the reformed Riot Force Six, led by Hayate Yagami, who are attempting to seal the Book of the Silver Cross, an ancient Belkan magical tome. The only catch, is that due to his contact with Lily, he has gained an unusual power from a new device that threatens the TSAB, his friends, and even himself.

If you’ve seen any of the promo art for Force, after creaming in your pants, probably presume when Nanoha and Fate are going to fuck face (literally) with this series. Unlike Vivid, which is much more passive and focuses on cute girls kicking the shit out of each other for fun, Force features people kicking the shit out of each other for real. Even Signum gets her ass handed to her early on, but that just means The Iron Count will ready the banhammer of justice and be that much more pissed off. Sadly, I’m almost to the end of what has been published to Batoto so far, which I presume is current, so it’s going to be a slow crawl to more. I’m hoping that either manga gets green-lit for a series, because we are long overdue a new proper Nanoha series, though the second movie comes out this summer and focuses on A’s, which was the best Nanoha season ever.

A theme I am noticing across both manga is that the remaining Numbers from StrikerS in the Cradle incident are part of the Nakajima family, presumably because they are like Suburu and have android parts. One connection they play up in Force is that of Suburu and Thoma, as she met him prior to the events in Force and established a strong relationship with him, much like Nanoha did with Suburu in StrikerS when she saved Suburu from the airport fire. She even went into a role of saving people from fires and disasters utilizing her device powers. What I am interested the most out of Force will be the role of Nanoha and Fate. While they were the main characters of Nanoha and A’s, they fell back in StrikerS to push the others up, but came back up in the end to steal the stage. With Fortress and Strike Cannon, my feeling is Nanoha will not go out quietly in this manga, and that is how I like it, though I won’t mind some Berserker Suburu.

Bottom line, if you are a Nanoha fan, read Force. Hell, read Vivid. Read anything. It’s such a boss franchise I wish there was more to see.