Line #28 YMMV/LyricalNanoha


1	!!![=YMMVs=] for the franchise as a whole: [-(for specific ones go to the corresponding season's YMMV page)-]
2	* AmericansHateTingle: A MagicalGirl series aimed specifically at young adult men may be marketable in Japan, but it's a different matter in North America. While the franchise does have a dedicated American fanbase, it's not as big as it is in Japan and Geneon's English release of the first two seasons bombed in terms of sales; it's likely that most adult male anime fans in the U.S. would take one good look at the cutesy imagery and run for cover. As a result, nothing else from the franchise was officially released in North America until Creator/DiscotekMedia rescued the license in 2023.
3	* CargoShip:
4	** Raising Heart/Bardiche. They've had {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s in fanon even before ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]'' introduced the ridiculously human programs and the concept of unison devices.
5	** [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SHxA_9930.jpg Sacred Heart/Asteion.]]
6	* ContestedSequel: With the exception of ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]'', which is considered an EvenBetterSequel, any other entry into the main continuity has left the fandom polarised. It doesn't help that the author is constantly tinkering with the established formula in very unsubtle ways.
7	** ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' caught flak for having a 10 year time skip and aging up most of the characters. It moved the setting away from Earth and shifted focus from the previous main characters - [[DemotedToExtra demoting several to extras]] in the process - to a bunch of rookies and a ''lot'' more non-essential background characters. The Numbers cyborgs probably got the most heated debates among the fandom as to whether they were credible antagonists compared to the very powerful rivals from seasons one and two. They were also not as well-developed as previous antagonists, probably because there were so many of them. The third season was twice as long as previous seasons, but rather than using that extra time to develop its enormously expanded cast ''or'' give screentime to those characters inexplicably shoved out of the picture, the writers instead devoted most of the episodes to training the newbies and discussing military policies.
8	** ''Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX'' was basically a continuation of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers''... with only one minor character introduced before that season making any appearance. People who were not fans of the new characters did not take it well.
9	** ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'' was the first installment to shift from anime to manga, and a monthly one at that, so it already had a strike against it before it even started. Then it turned out it was a LighterAndSofter take on the series with plushy devices, no interdimensional incidents, MagicalGirl tropes ''played straight'' and more lolis and loli fanservice than ever. It actually reads more like a shonen series with magical girls... and no real antagonists. And then it put the breaks on whatever plot it had going to do a lengthy TournamentArc and introduce a bunch more new characters. People who liked the changes in ''[=StrikerS=]'' were disappointed, but in Japan where {{moe}} is the law it's the most successful entry in the franchise yet.
10	** ''Anime/VividStrike'' sent waves throughout the fandom with its very announcement considering the fact that it's a sequel to ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'' (which as previously stated is a ContestedSequel in its own right). It also didn't help that, at the time, the third Nanoha movie was still in limbo which angered more than a few fans. Things got even worse when it was seemingly confirmed that, much like ''Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX'' above, it was a sequel using only new characters and ones introduced from ''[=Vivid=]'' meaning no Nanoha or Fate (which also makes it the third entry in a row without the two as main stars). Now that the series has finally been released initial reaction seems to be split between those who like the new characters and appreciate the {{Deconstruction}} of some Nanoha trope stables or others who are sick and tired of the franchise no longer being about Nanoha and have no interest in the series.
11	** And then there's ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]''. If ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' broke the base, then ''Force'' Starlight Breakered what was left of it. Running concurrently with ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid'', it went completely the other way, all but ensuring that fans of one series hated the other and vice versa. It dropped most magical girl tropes altogether, introduced a bunch of new characters yet again, including an angsty ''male'' lead, which was the last thing anyone expected. It only keeps getting DarkerAndEdgier - innocent people are dying in bloody ways, antagonists are killing indiscriminately for fun, fan-favourite characters are being {{curb stomp\|Battle}}ed left and right with powers that, in taking the previous season's AntiMagic up to eleven, seem more than [[StoryBreakerPower a little broken]] and the [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=503564 weapons]] [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=473048 and]] [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=534857 armor]] [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=465206 designs]] [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=455604 are]] [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=442117 now]] approaching ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' levels of batshit insane. People think it's either a natural SequelEscalation of the themes [=StrikerS=] started us off on and thus the most awesome thing ever or an AudienceAlienatingEra that [[FanonDiscontinuity never happened]].
12	** All of this is just from the main series. If we add the alternate continuities, we can also mention:
13	*** The Movie 1st, which was accused by some of being an unoriginal rehash of season one with half the plot and twice the explosions and cutting out pretty much anyone that wasn't Nanoha, Fate or Precia. Others liked it for [[AdaptationDistillation exactly the same reasons]].
14	*** The Movie 1st manga, which later turned out to have little to do with the movie and more in common with the light novel. It was widely decried for the perceived change in the character of Nanoha - or Emoha as this version is known to the western fans - and generally trying to be too dramatic with the brutal fight scene between Nanoha and Fate that lasted for most of the second volume. And despite being an AlternateUniverse that changed many things along the way, it still ended the exact same way as the original anime and the movie, leaving many to wonder what the point of it was.
15	*** The Movie 2nd A's was accused by many of butchering the lauded ''A's'' storyline. People complained about the changes such as: replacing Nanoha and Fate's reunion from BigDamnHeroes to hugging; having them completely defeated in the first encounter with the Wolkenritter; removing Yuuno from the battle; teasing a fight scene with Lindy that gets promptly aborted; Reinforce trying to kill Fate and Nanoha, without a good reason this time; Nanoha doing significantly less well against Reinforce; and of course, removing the Liese twins and the Graham subplot altogether.
16	*** The ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' crossover, which disappointed people who were expecting something serious and longer than a one-shot.
17	*** ''[[VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable The Battle of Aces]]'' was generally well-received for shifting the focus back to the ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]'' characters and the introduced {{Evil Twin}}s of the main characters became popular enough to be included in the sequel, but even most of its fans admit that it was mediocre in terms of gameplay.
18	*** The Sequel to the above game ''VideoGame/TheGearsOfDestiny'' almost broke this trend. The game has a stronger AI, a great number of playable characters, and a good story with good character development. However the manga cast contributed next to nothing to the overall main story, and the ending used LaserGuidedAmnesia and removes all the OriginalGeneration characters from the timeline until at least ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid''. It feels like they were trying to invoke InSpiteOfANail to make this timeline identical to the main one. It left the feeling of The movie manga all over again.
19	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Despite suffering of ChuckCunninghamSyndrome, Yuuno is pretty popular among some fans, as he often appears in many fanarts and fanworks. In one popularity poll for ''[=ViVid=]'', Yuuno managed to get 13th place despite appearing only in a single panel at the time.
20	* FanNickname: Has its [[FanNickname/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha own page.]]
21	* FriendlyFandoms: Fans of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' have been noted to enjoy Lyrical Nanoha. The fact that many character designs are {{Shout Out}}s to various Gundam designs and the main characters shot giant laser beams at each other that wouldn't look out of place in said Gundam shows naturally help. A lot of {{Mecha}} fans are open to the show appearing in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'', in spite of the lack of actual mechas (though the show does have Battleships).
22	** ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'', since both shows feature {{Magical Girl}}s with insane amounts of badassery and firepower... which begs the question: Which fandom [[DefeatMeansFriendship beat the other up for them to become friends]]?
23	* HilariousInHindsight: Would you believe [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RBghAfiW8 this]] was the prototype for the series? If you've watched the show for any length of time, the sight of Nanoha waving around that puny heart-shaped wand alone will be enough to make you crack up.
24	* JustHereForGodzilla: Subverted. Before the first season's GrowingTheBeard moment, viewers were expected to just be there to see cute little Nanoha from ''VisualNovel/TriangleHeart3SweetSongsForever'' in a strange alternate universe. They were quickly disproven when ''Nanoha'' got more viewers than the ''Triangle Heart 3'' OVA. Ever since ''Nanoha'' became the perfect example of MorePopularSpinoff, to the point where anyone looking for ''Triangle Heart 3'' is probably just there to see Nanoha in a strange alternate universe.
25	* LesYay: Enough to have its [[HoYay/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha own page.]]
26	%% * MemeticMolester:
27	%% ** Hayate, due to her SkinshipGrope tendencies, revealed only in the Sound Stages.
28	%% ** Sein thanks to her SkinshipGrope rampage in chapter 11 of ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid''.
29	* MemeticMutation:
30	** Due to her whole DefeatMeansFriendship shtick, "befriend" has become a euphemism for "beat the living crap out of".
31	** Tons of fan art of Vita and the Sony Platform/PSVita got published rapidly. Even her seiyuu twitted about the topic.
32	** The events near the end of episode 8 of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' are widely known as the "White Devil Incident".
33	%% ** Rainbows are straighter than Subaru.
34	* MemeticPersonalityChange: Due to her LoveMartyr status and stubborn refusal to hold any kind of ill will towards her abusive mother, Fate is often portrayed as a memetic masochist who loves to be wipped, electrocuted and generally punished. Needless to say, this fits well with the merciless White Devil interpretation of Nanoha.
35	* MemeticPsychopath: Nanoha's in-story [[BloodKnight enthusiasm]] for magical combat tends to be exaggerated into outright bloodthirstiness by fans. After being called a demon and stating that she may as well be if that's what will work, she has since been known as the "White Devil". All the "White Devil" [[http://web.archive.org/web/20140403062223/http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4813/nanoha2.jpg fanart]] where Nanoha is drawn as an AxCrazy StepfordSmiler and MemeticMolester of Fate started from that. She is also the TropeNamer of the term "[[CuteAndPsycho yangire]]", despite that she ''isn't'' even a yangire herself.
36	* MorePopularSpinoff: Of ''VisualNovel/TriangleHeart''. Would you believe that this huge, enormously popular multimedia franchise originated as a spin-off of an obscure HGame?
37	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: As time passed, the reception of Precia Testarossa has lightened, especially in presence of the much-reviled [[GenericDoomsdayVillain Hückebein]]. First, she got Woobie moments in the Movie 1st, then in ''Gears of Destiny'' her spirit made peace with Linith's, and finally ''[[Manga/NanohaInnocent INNOCENT]]'' showed what kind of mother she would have been had she not lost Alicia. Impressive, when back in the day, she really was the bonafide "most despicable, worst mom ever" [[MoralEventHorizon with evil acts to prove it]].
38	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Yuuno Scrya. In a series so focused on how the ancient civilizations and technologies of the past are enormously impacting upon the present day, having an archaeologist, scholar and librarian of ancient knowledge in the cast would seem like a great idea. If nothing else, Yuuno could have continued his role as MrExposition in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', ''[[Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX Sound Stage X]]'', ''[[Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid ViVid]]'' and ''[[Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce Force]]'', considering that no one would be better qualified to explain about the Belkan Reunification War, the Sankt Kaiser dynasty, the Saint's Cradle, the Hegemon Klaus and his relationship with Olivie, Queen Ixpelia and the Mariage, and perhaps even the Bible of the Silver Cross and its Eclipse Virus.
39	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls: It may seem like a typical MagicalGirl show aimed at young girls on the surface, but its main target audience is adult men; the series' promotional materials and [[ComicBookAdaptation manga adaptations]] are printed in {{seinen}} magazines and it began its life as a SpinOff of the HGame ''VideoGame/TriangleHeart3SweetSongsForever''. The first season even has some fanservice; the next ones less so. In some countries they removed the fanservice and marketed it as a shonen show, though they still left in all the cases of child abuse by the villains. Even though it's a magical girl series, it's very heavy on the sci-fi and seems more like a ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series at certain points--intentionally, after one of the writers noticed that Nanoha's Barrier Jacket made her look like a moe Gundam. Later installments take away the MagicalGirl elements and put more emphasis on the sci-fi, making it much more obviously aimed at men.
40	* TheWoobie: Poor, '''poor''' Fate.

Context YMMV / LyricalNanoha