Manga / Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT

aka: Nanoha Innocent

Card Games and Magical Girls.

One of the fun things about the Lyrical Nanoha franchise is how the flexible Science Fantasy Multiverse setting allows it to dabble in practically any genre. Still, some genres simply won't fit in Nanoha. Take the Gaming series genre. It's rather hard to go all Serious Business over a children's card game when your average grade schooler could already throw around energy blasts.

Enter Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha INNOCENT.

Nanoha INNOCENT is a multimedia Spin-Off of the Nanoha series, composed of a web-based Card Battle Game and a manga published in CompAce that provides background info on the game. Unlike the other Nanoha installments, INNOCENT is set in an Alternate Universe with neither magic nor alternate dimensions. All the characters are either ordinary humans on earth, or ordinary pets in the case of the familiars.

The story revolves around Brave Duel, a recently created card-based virtual simulation game jointly released by Hobby Shop T&H, House Yagami, and the Granz Research Center. Instead of magic battles, the characters duel with each other through the card game, hoping to win for the sake of their team.

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Nanoha INNOCENT provides examples of:

• The Ace: Miss Number One in Japan, Stern Starks.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The Wolkenritter and Reinforce Eins now share the Yagami family name;
  • The Materials also now come with their own family names: Stern Starks, Levi Russell, and Dearche Kings Claudia;
  • Rynith has Teana's last name Lanster. Curiously, there seems to be two Ryniths, one is Precia's pet, and one is human. The cat is named Rynith the 2nd.
  • Uno, Due, Tre, Quattro and Sette are renamed Ichika, Nino, Mitsuki, Shiina and Nanao respectively.
• Adaptational Curves: All of the adult female characters in the mainstream canon that were noticeably (but still closer-to-realistically) busty had their chests greatly upsized for their counterparts in Innocent. The chief offenders are the Wolkenritter sans Vita, especially Reinforce Eins.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Precia Testarosa is not the Abusive Evil Matriarch from the first series, but is instead an Amazingly Embarrassing Doting Parent to both Alicia and Fate.
  • Jail Scaglietti plays the role of the "villain" of Brave Duel, but does so in good nature and is otherwise a Cool Uncle to the Nakajimas. Likewise, the Numbers that didn't make a Heel–Face Turn in canon also participate in Scaglietti's "villain" act, but are otherwise good people.
• Adaptational Skill: Nanoha is the first (and thus far only) version of the character to have swordsmanship training like her older siblings.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Precia and Lindy are Heterosexual Life-Partners (presumably so Fate can be with both of her families).
  • Momoko was Quint's high school sempai.
  • Signum was Mitsuki's (Tre) high school sempai.
• Adapted Out: The casts of both ViVid and Force are completely absent despite both being present in the card version. Admittedly, it'd be difficult for Vivio to show up when her mothers are currently nine years old. As for the cast of Force...
  • Slowly being subverted for the ViVid cast as Vivio and Einhart suddenly appear out of nowhere at the end of Chapter 10. Rio and Corona also make a cameo in chapter 15.
  • Sein, Otto, and Deed are also missing, despite all the other Numbers (including Due) being present.
• Age Lift: All over the place, even without factoring in the artificial humans being adjusted to normal lifespans. For starters, Lindy and Precia are the same age, while Precia was old enough to be Lindy's mother in canon (literally, as Lindy was born the same year as Alicia). Alicia died at the age of five but she's instead depicted as a preteen (though she still looks exactly the same). Teana and Subaru are both shown to be two years younger than Nanoha (in canon, they're three and four years younger than her respectively). Sette goes from a one year old adult to being in elementary school.
• Alternate Universe: The INNOCENT universe doesn't seem to have magic at all, and many dead characters are alive while most non-human characters are human now.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents/Doting Parent: Precia, of all people, a far cry from the abusive Evil Matriarch of the original series. In this series, she hugs her daughters whenever she sees them, regardless of who is watching, and gushes about how cute they are.
• Art Shift: The art can quickly change from the usual cutesy moe to gritty and dark when the situation warrants it (particularly, when the Materials are going full badass.
• The Artifact: Some relationships here don't make sense by themselves, so some familiarity with the original series may be required.
  • Alicia is still Fate's "older sister" by two years, but looks more like she is two years younger.
  • Hayate doesn't go to school and is the "Master" of the Yagami family, and referred to as such. As mentioned, Reinforce, Shamal, and Signum share her last name, but are also listed as "employees". It's not clear how they're related to her. Lampshaded by Dearche, who is mystified by this.
    • It's later revealed that Hayate is not only the owner of the book shop, but also graduated from university.
  • The Materials are no longer magic doppelgängers of Nanoha, Fate and Hayate. They just look just like them completely by coincidence. Furthermore, Stern, Levi and Hayate always address Dearche as "my king", even though her "Ruler of Darkness" title is just part of her in-game persona.
• Ascended Extra: Arisa, Suzuka and Alicia become main characters, the former two finally become Magical Girls. At least while they're playing Brave Duel.
• Ascended Meme: The card game included a card called "Arisa the Burning", a reference to the "Burning Arisa" meme. The manga indeed turns Arisa's avatar into a pyrokinetic Magical Girl, obviously alluding to her voice actress' role as Shana.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Precia shows a little part of her dark persona in chapter 4. It's Played for Laughs, though. But remember, it's Precia.
• Big Little Sister: Fate to Alicia, much to the latter's annoyance.
• Blank White Eyes: Most of the characters does this. Nanoha does this more often and Yuri's Chivit Petit Successor seems to have a permanent one.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Precia is the boke, and Lindy is the tsukkomi.
• Butt-Monkey: Vita. Everyone assumes she lost to Nanoha, even though she never did, much like in canon. She is curb-stomped by Stern, she has to work with Nanoha in the Sky Dodge game despite Vita doesn't like her, and she's almost taken down by Stern again in Sky Dodge. At the finale of Sky Dodge, when Nanoha and Stern use the last back right, Vita is the only one of the field players who is out, and the only player on the opponent side is Stern.
  • It gets worse in INNOCENTS: she gets stopped cold by Subaru, a complete newbie, allowing the Chivits to tag her out. Cue Color Failure.
• Card Battle Game: The webgame that the manga provides the background for. Supposedly anyway, as the manga kind of forgets to show the cards after the first couple of chapters, since they are just ability tokens, and thus not visible from "inside" the game. And most Brave Duel sessions so far have not been straight-up battles anyway.
• Chekhov's Gun: Suzuka's dodgeball skills becomes immediately handy in Sky Dodge.
• Clothing Damage: Vita suffers from this in chapter 4. She doesn't care, as she has lost consciousness.
  • It has gotten synonymous to "defeated in battle" as the chapters goes on.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Stern vs. Vita. Stern demolishes Vita in a one-shot fiery laser blast.
  • Arisa and Suzuka did this to Yuri in a rematch battle, kicking the latter out early in the battle.
• Death Glare: Reinforce delivers one to Dearche in inter mission: 01.
• Demoted to Extra: Yuuno again. In this series, he is just a talking ferret.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Hayate doesn't want Rein to call her "master" in public.
• Dungeon Bypass: Nanoha, true to form. Building in front of you? Blast right though with your newest card.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Nanoha puts her mana into the ball and tries to hit Levi, just as she does to Stern. But Levi is too fast, even when Nanoha moves the ball with her magic, so she decides to aim for Dearche instead. The King gives her No-Sell with a single finger. And then she puts her element into the ball...
• Finger-Tenting: Hayate does it in Chapter .1
• Fire/Ice Duo: The Magical Girl forms of the Hot-Blooded Arisa and the Shrinking Violet Suzuka have fire and ice attributes respectively.
• The Gadfly: Levi scares the hell of Arisa by suddenly screaming "Boo!".
• Genki Girl:
  • Alicia. She's quite sickeningly enthusiastic about Brave Duel, her younger sister, their mother, her job...
  • And of course, LEVI THE SLASHER!
• The Glomp: Precia every time she sees one of her daughters. There's a reason she's considered quite embarrassing by Alicia and Fate both.
• Grade Skipper: The Materials skipped into middle school, while Hayate is a university graduate.
• Heir to the Dojo: Interestingly, unlike the rest of Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha has been trained in the family martial arts style.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Invoked by Petit Lord/Ō-chama, as she throws herself between Levi and the ball that is aiming for the latter. But since it's a combination throw of Suzuka, Arisa and Vita, the ball just thrusts Ō-chama aside and hits Levi anyway.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Precia and Lindy. Alicia doesn't call Lindy "mom", but she does say the Harlowns and the Testarossas are basically one family. The game suggests Clyde is... somewhere.
• High School AU: Well, Elementary School AU, and one revolving around a card game.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Chapter 15 of INNOCENTS heavily implies that the INNOCENT version of Vivio is Nanoha and Fate's biological daughter. When asked by Fate why Vivio and Einhart came back to the current time just to duel them, Vivio nearly spills that Fate is her mother before Einhart stops her. Then later on in the chapter, Vivio nearly slips a second time when she also almost calls Nanoha her mother as well. This might not seem much at all and could just be that Vivio is still Nanoha and Fate's adopted child in the INNOCENT universe but this line from Einhart when she stops Vivio from calling current Fate "mama" puts it in a different light:
  "If we have to talk about your birth, then we might end up causing a paradox, so..."
• Identical Stranger: The Materials from the A's Portable games are no longer doppelgängers of the three Aces, they're just three foreign competitors who happen to resemble them. And just happened to draw the same in-game character types, playing up the resemblance that much more.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: When Alicia disappears from her sight, Precia immediately thinks that she was kidnapped for her cuteness since that's what she would do in regards to Alicia and Fate.
• Improbable Weapon User: Nanoha and a spoon.
• Improbable Age: Hayate has graduated from university
• Improvised Platform: Suzuka created a couple of them with ice for Arisa.
• In Love with Your Carnage: A light version, Nanoha demonstrates throwing a spoon at a plastic cup using the family martial arts, causes a silver-dollar sized smoking hole. She's afraid she'll creep out her friends, who instead just roll their eyes except Fate, who is entranced.
  • It's actually worse/better than that. Nanoha doesn't throw the spoon (she's shown still holding it in the next panel). She literally stabs a smoking hole in that paper cup. With a teaspoon.
• Instant Expert: Nanoha learns pretty quick how to play the game if someone explain her new features she doesn't know. Or she just copies other people, which would be like copying the moves in a fighting game, without seeing the input commands.
• Irony: This is the only continuity where Nanoha has been trained in her family's style of swordsmanship, and the only one to lack conventional combat.
• Kid from the Future: Both Vivio and Einhart are from the future of the INNOCENT universe sent back in time due to a future Jail Scaglietti's research with time travel.
• Lighter and Softer: Even more so than ViVid. To start with, Precia is alive, sane, and a doting mother to both Fate and a still-living Alicia.
  • Jail Scaglietti acts like Brave Duel's equivalent of a Heel, but it's all in good nature and he's otherwise a Cool Uncle to the Nakajimas and worries about his sister Quint scolding him when he forgets to ask for her permission to let Nove and Wendi participate in his "villain" act.
• Magical Girl/Magical Girl Warrior: Cyber Magical Girl Warriors.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Arisa's weapon, Flame Eyes, is a whip/gun combo that looks like a gunblade.
• Moment Killer: Arisa kills one of Nanoha and Fate's moment in chapter 4.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The title INNOCENT comes from the first opening theme, innocent starter. And the Brave Duel system comes from A's insert song BRAVE PHOENIX.
  • Much like in A's, Nanoha's first encounter with Vita ends with Fate appearing out of nowhere to block Vita's attack in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • The setups for Brave Duel look suspiciously like Gadget Drones.
  • After Chapter 14, the title has changed from INNOCENT to INNOCENTS, derived from StrikerS and marking the appearances of Teana, Subaru and several characters from the said season.
  • Fate doesn't sport Girlish Pigtails in INNOCENTS, mirroring her hairstyle from the above season.
• Ninja Log: Presia does this with a stuffed doll of herself, to get out of work and go watch her daughters play. Lindy is annoyed every time.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Dearche ropes Alicia into a duel with her using this.
• Noodle Incident: Hayate briefly mentions to Alicia about doing something to their customers when Stern, after beating Vita in their duel, refused to participate in a rematch. What they planned to do was never mentioned except she and Alicia apparently have done this "thing" before in Echigoya.
• Official Couple: In INNOCENTS Chapter 15, it's revealed by Vivio that Nanoha and Fate are still her parents in the future of this universe albeit she's stopped from giving away too much detail by Einhart and herself. It's also heavily implied this time around that Vivio is biologically related to Nanoha and Fate this time around instead of just being adopted by them.
• Older Than They Look: Poor Alicia.
  • Cinque as well, apparently; when the two finally met face-to-face, they embraced and called each other "comrades".
• Onee-sama: Everyone in the school calls Amitie this, except for Kyrie and their two friends.
• Only Sane Girl:
  • Arisa.
  • Lindy, in contrast to Precia.
• Overprotective Mom: When Precia jumps to the conclusion of Alicia being kidnapped in chapter 4, she starts to project the Precia from the main continuity.
• Paper Fan of Doom: One of Alicia's attacks.
• Parental Abandonment: Teana and Rynith's parents are away on a business trip.
  • Disappeared Dad: Alicia mentions that the men in the Testarossa-Harlaown family are on business trips.
  • Missing Mom: Amitie and Kyrie have a mother who is on a business trip.
• Playboy Bunny: Alicia wears this outfit while commentating for Hayate.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Stern uses these to get what she wants from Dearche.
• Ramming Always Works: Nanoha's idea for testing out her new defensive spell? Smashing headlong through buildings!
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fencer Arisa and Professor Suzuka.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Inverted for Fate. Due to the fact that Precia is alive and sane, Fate was never adopted into the Harlaown family, though their family bond still exists to an extent due to Precia and Lindy being Heterosexual Life-Partners.
  • Linith was made into Teana and Tiida's sister.
  • Downplayed with the Nakajima sisters, who go from being the adopted children of Quint and Genya to their biological children. All the remaining numbers who live with Jail are his biological children as well, and Quint was made into his younger sister.
  • Chapter 15 of INNOCENTS jokingly suggests that Sacred Heart is a descendant of Noroi Usagi (Vita's stuffed bunny).
  • Vivio goes from being Nanoha and Fate's adopted daughter to their (implied) biological daughter.
• Roofhopping: Arisa.
  "I could handle just floating! But humans aren't able to just ... start flying all of the sudden."
• Shipper on Deck: Alisa and Suzuka are both NanoFate shippers. While Alisa was annoyed with Nanoha and Fate's attraction to each other at first, she later begins to support them with her even helping out Suzuka in egging Fate on to give Nanoha a special card.
• Ship Tease: Nanoha and Fate, of course, and pretty much more than in the main series because they're a lot more open about their affection for each other here. Not to mention that thanks to the events of INNOCENTS chapter 15, they seem to get together with each other and still end up raising Vivio in the future much like their main universe counterparts except this time, with the added caveat that Vivio is heavily implied to be their actual biological child in this continuity.
  • Subaru and Teana in INNOCENTS. Teana even mistakenly assumes that Subaru has a crush on her.
• Shout-Out:
  • Suzuka wonders if they should call her combination of "Song of Ice" with Arisa's Flame Whip "A Song of Ice and Fire".
  • In addition, Alicia's custom Barrier Jacket is called Lucky Star.
  • Stern surname is Starks. Are they refer to this Stark, or this Stark? Or for that matter, maybe that Starrk?
• Slasher Smile:
  • True to her name, this is Levi the Slasher's default expression when she joins the duel.
  • Both, Dearche and Levi have really dark and demonic slasher smiles in the last page of chapter 5.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Stern, The Smart Girl of the Dark Materials.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Precia and Alicia Testarossa, Rynith, Reinforce Eins, Clyde Harlaown and Granz Florian are all alive here. INNOCENTS adds Quint Nakajima, Tiida Lanster, and Due to the list of spared characters.
• Super-Deformed: All over the place adding to the cuteness factor but Levi's three Friend NPCs take the cake.
  • All three Materials have Friend NPCs. Steyn the Cat, Chivi the Treasure, and Petit Lord (Ō-chama).
  • In general, Chivits (robots created by Professor Granz), are this.
• Talking Animal:
  • Zafira. The Yagami family seems to aware of it. But nobody has pointed it out, yet.
  • Yuuno. It was hinted early that he can talk. In chapter 8, he has a full-blown conversation with Nanoha.
• Those Two Girls: Precia and Lindy.
  • Amitie and Kyrie's two friends.
• Training Montage: After team T&H Elements' (composed of Nanoha and co.) defeat at the hands of Amitie and Kyrie, they had several weeks of training to hone their skills.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Dearche sports one in inter mission: 01. Yuri, too.
• Tournament Arc: Averted. The last chapter of INNOCENT has Nanoha and her friends signing up for a Brave Duel tournament, and then the story fast forwards to announce that they finished in third place, having been knocked out of the semi-finals by the Materials.
• Tsundere: Dearche, especially towards Hayate, much like she is in Gears of Destiny.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: Takes place in 20XX, which probably explains using full immersion VR for a card game, and the unexplained talking pets.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Teana spends the first few chapters of INNOCENTS assuming that Subaru was a boy. And according to her family, it's not the first time its happened. Teana's reaction is priceless.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Despite there being no magic in this alternate universe, Arf can apparently change her appearance.
• Yandere: Downplayed and Played for Laughs with Precia.

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