"Thou shalt not be afraid, I am with you."
ViVid Strike! is the seventh entry (sixth chronologically) in the main Nanoha continuity and the first one since StrikerS to debut as an anime. It is set one year after Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. Like StrikerS Sound Stage X before it, ViVid Strike! only features characters introduced in ViVid* and stars a brand new character named Fuka Reventon who seeks to reconnect with her childhood friend Rinne Berlinetta.
The series began airing in October 2016.
NOTE: Only general tropes for the series are listed here. For character-specific ones, check out the character page.
ViVid Strike! contains examples of:
- Asshole Victim:
- Despite the absolute viciousness of Rinne's assault, little sympathy is to be found from the three girls who used to bully her, especially after they destroyed a precious family heirloom and kept her from seeing her beloved adopted grandfather when he died.
- It apparently runs in the family. The brother of one of the bullies, having been lied to about Rinne attacking her without provocation, kidnapped her, used her as a human shield, and tried to stab her. It's very satisfying to see Rinne twist his arm and scare the snot out of him and Jill casually knocks him out.
- Battle in the Rain: The latter half of Fuka and Rinne's battle in Episode 10 turns into this. The episode is even titled "Rain".
- Beach Episode: OVA #3. It's technically doubles as a Christmas episode as well due to taking place in late December (the beach is noted to be located in the southern hemisphere).
- Bullying a Dragon: This is an important part of Rinne's backstory. The fighting club full of Alpha Bitches decided to make her their bullying target after Rinne turned down their offer to join their club and they learned that she was just an orphan. This, despite originally offering her a spot due to her nationals-caliber talent in martial arts. When they eventually pushed things too far by beating her to unconsciousness so she wasn't able to make it to her beloved grandfather's side before he died, Rinne made them suffer dearly the following day, casually snapping one of their arms in half and busting the heads of the other two open against the lockers.
- Bystander Syndrome: As is the case in most schools, despite most of the bullying on Rinne happening in public places, the other students do nothing besides watch with pity and try to be as uninvolved as possible. Possibly justified by the fact these bullies were members of the Fighting Club, and they could have responded physically like they did with Rinne.
- The Cameo:
- Nanoha and Fate both show up (with their faces blurred out) in episode 8 when Rinne is thinking about how privileged Vivio is. They (along with the other five Nakajima sisters and Teana) also show up in the second bonus manga chapter included in the Blu-ray release.
- Otto, Deed and Lutecia also make a brief appearance in the same sequence, although Deed is only seen at distance, with her back turned against the camera. Lutecia makes a more proper appearance in the following episode.
- Censor Steam: Used during Rinne's Shower Scene in Episode 3.
- Christmas Episode: There is a bonus episode which involves the characters competing in Christmas-themed games.
- Continuity Cavalcade: During Fuka and Rinne's talk in the final episode, we see shots of all the minor characters ranging from the one-shot fighters, to Fuka's former employer, to the people at the orphanage. And the fighters that didn't show up during that scene are shown right before Fuka and Einhart's fight at the end.
- Continuity Nod: Sieg is seen dressed as a Meido in the ending montage of the final episode, having previously acted as Victoria's maid in ViVid Life.
- Crush the Keepsake: Rinne has her tiepin destroyed when three bullies beat her unconscious. Oh, and all of this was going on while her grandfather (the one that made the tiepin) was dying. Needless to say, she made them suffer the following day.
- Darker and Edgier: While by no means the darkest entry in the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, compared to Nanoha ViVid this series is far less fun-and-games, centering around a broken friendship, and featuring such scenes as bullying and raw violence.
- A Defeat In The Limelight: Episode 7 heavily focuses on Vivio, who was Demoted to Extra, giving more background into her meeting with Nove. The entire conversation and flashback is bound to raise uneasy thoughts, especially after the prior episode. Subverted, because despite Tempting Fate, not only does Vivio win her rematch against Rinne, but also hands the latter her first defeat by KO.
- Deconstruction: ViVid Strike! takes a differing view on two franchise-wide themes:
- Happily Adopted: In contrast to Fate and Vivio, whose lives were transformed for the better through their adoptive families, Rinne has seemingly turned from a shy, sweet kid into a cold-hearted fighter ever since she was take in by the Berlinettas. In a twist, her new family is genuinely loving (and in particular she took a liking to her grandfather); the same couldn't be said, however, of some of her classmates. Subverted in Episode 10, where she admits she hates herself and she's acting this way as self-punishment.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Where Teana learned to temper this desire through Nanoha's tutelage, Rinne was left to wallow in her near-obsessive desire to become the strongest fighter there is out of fear that weakness on her part will destroy her relationships. Ironically, this is the reason for her falling-out with Fuka and her subsequent solitude. And unlike most examples of the trope, Rinne dislikes fighting and martial arts.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Yui Ogura (Rinne) and Inori Minase (Fuka) perform the opening and closing themes, respectively, alluding to the opening and ending themes of past shows in the franchise being respectively sung by the voice actresses of the secondary and primary main characters — i.e., Nana Mizuki (Fate) and Yukari Tamura (Nanoha).
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Rinne was so horrified by what she had done to the girls who had bullied her and kept her from being with her grandfather when he died that she would have been willing to forgive then and let them give her every injury she gave them if they apologized. Not only did they not apologize, they lied to their families and claimed she had attacked them unprovoked.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Rinne and Fuuka have both assumed Vivio to be a typical rich kid belonging to a happy family and surrounded by friends and supportive adults, thus also coming to the conclusion that she has never experienced an ounce of hardship in her life. Anyone whose watched the previous series knows how completely wrong they are (and it's likely that her past was heavily classified and redacted so she can easily integrate to society).
- Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: The final episode ends right before Einhart and Fuka's match in the Winter Cup. We don't get to see any of the fight, but it's revealed in the third OVA that Einhart "went to the U-19 undefeated."
- Foreshadowing: Near the end of the first episode, Fuka was advised to protect her face against Vivio or it would be over in a flash. During Rinne's rematch with Vivio, Rinne and Jill believed that her toughness training would allow her to power through even punches to the head, with their main tactic against Vivio being to shrug off such an attack and counter while Vivio's open. While it did let her resist a left jab to the face, it did little once Vivio decided to go all out and started whaling away with magically enhanced uppercuts to the chin and continuous hooks to Rinne's jaw and temples. Ten knockout strikes to her vital points later, and it was indeed over in flash.
- Hit Points: The Crash Emulate system is not used in the U-15 tournament, which results in fighters getting actual injuries during or after their fights. Case in point, Miura suffers from broken ribs after her match, and Vivio suffers so much damage that she would be forced to drop out of the tournament after her victory over Rinne.
- Hope Spot:
- Partway through Episode 4, Rinne's bullies apologize to her and she finds out that her grandfather's health is improving, which would allow her to spend more time with him. The very next day it turns out that they were lying and they assault her so badly she was knocked unconscious and unable to be there when her grandfather suffers a sudden fatal heart attack.
- During Miura's match in episode 6, she gets beaten up by Rinne, but she gets a Loved Ones Montage like what happened in her match against Micaiah, and she sets up for her Heroic Second Wind. She gets hit so hard by Rinne's next attack her ribs break and she gets knocked out.
- Episode 8 is one for Rinne: she manages to withstand Vivio's attacks and inflict enough damage to her that her legs are effectively close to giving out, even managing to knock her down in the previous episode. With victory as well as revenge for that one defeat she suffered when they first fought nearly in sight, Rinne presses on and attacks with reckless abandon. She gets a taste of Vivio's new technique and is unable to endure it long enough to fight back, leading to her second defeat, this time by knockout.
- Hourglass Plot: Fuka and Rinne's first conflict ended with Rinne standing tall over Fuka because of a significant difference in combat strength. At the end of Episode 9, Fuka is now standing tall over Rinne because of a significant difference in combat ability.
- Ironic Echo: Played for Laughs. The next-episode-preview at the end of episode 3 has Einhart standing triumphantly on top of a pedestal while saying that "Standing at the top means accepting all challenges." This is repeated at the end of episode 9, except she's being forced to perform a Seiza Squirm by Nove for risking her championship title.
- In Episode 1, Fuuka takes a strong hit from Vivio and nearly blanks out for a moment before striking back and catching her off guard. In Episode 11, Rinne nearly blanks out after a strong hit from Fuka and catches her off guard as she strikes back.
- Karma Houdini: Used as the motive for one of the bullies' brothers in Episode 5, who thinks Rinne got off too easy with simply moving schools, and decides to take things into his own hands by beating up and attempting to murder her. The only thing that stops him from doing so is Jill coming in to kick his and his gang's asses. However, the situation seemingly ends with neither the brother or his gang accused of kidnapping and attempted murder, nor Jill for property damage and attacking the kidnappers, only with Rinne being put on probation.
- Kids Are Cruel: How cruelly children treat those they deem inferior to them is a recurring theme in the season. The first scene of the season involves Fuka and Rinne getting bullied for being orphans, and Episodes 3 and 4 show that this did not stop for Rinne even after being adopted; if anything, it only got worse ever since she was placed into a prestigious school, and one incident went so far she finally snaps and brutally beat her three bullies to within an inch of their lives.
- Lost in Translation: The Winter Cup might seem like a Non-Indicative Name to people in the United States since it starts on December 15th, but winter starts on November 8th in the Japanese calendar.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The first scene is Fuka protecting Rinne from some bullies.
- Opposing Sports Team: Subverted and downplayed with Frontier Gym. Jill's belief that only Born Winners can excel in martial arts may contrast with Nove's belief in hard work, but they're actually rather civil around each other (barring a small disagreement they had during an interview that got blown out of proportion by the media). Also, two members of the Frontier Gym (Victoria and Harry) were already friends with Team Nakajima when the season started.
- Power of the God Hand: Downplayed. Fuka's fist is called "a gift from God" at one point due to how tough it is.
- Product Placement: Apparently, General Motors has a division on Mid-childa since the car that Rinne was riding in at the beginning of Episode 3 has GMC's logo on it.
- Put on a Bus: Pretty much every character that wasn't introduced in ViVid, except for Nove, Ixpellia, Sein, Lutecia and Vivio herself. Even Nanoha and Fate seem to be out of the picture, though they can be briefly seen in a blurred picture cameo in Episode 8.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: While Fuka seems to be the Red to Rinne's Blue, it's actually the opposite (and not just in the colors of their magic auras). Once the hot-headed Fuka joins Nakajima Gym, she becomes much more calm and thoughtful, and it reflects on her fighting style, heavily influenced by Einhart (and, to a lesser extent, Vivio). Meanwhile, Rinne's stoic exterior hides psychological and anger management issues, and her fighting reaches berserker levels. After Rinne becomes her old self by the 12th episode, Fuka does become the red to Rinne's blue.
- Retirony: Rinne seems prone to causing this. Two of her opponents note how it'll be their last tournament (in Miura's case it's more that she'll be too old to be in the U-15 bracket), only to be curb-stomped by her. Subverted for the former, as her defeat actually convinced her to keep going even if only at a local level.
- Scenery Censor: When Fuka's suddenly too-small magical training clothes dissolve on her during her first use of Adult Mode, a small cluster of residual magical particles remain over her no-no parts and helpfully trail after her as she runs away in embarrassment.
- Sleep Cute: Rinne leans against Fuka at the end of episode 11, after they spent the past two episodes fighting each other. Happens again in episode 12 during the flight back to Mid-childa, complete with Holding Hands.
- So Happy Together: The scenes where a younger Rinne is happily bonding with her family (including promising to never lose Scuderia) are guaranteed to raise uneasy thoughts. Sure enough, we quickly see her being bullied at school.
- Southpaw Advantage: Vivio, who is right-handed, switches to southpaw style during her match with Rinne. Rinne is unable to adapt to Vivio's new style and ends up losing the match.
- Spin-Off: Of ViVid, which makes it the spin-off of a Spin-Offspring of the sequel to the sequel of a spin-off.
- Spoiler Opening: The very first shot of the opening reveals exactly where Rinne and Fuka have their inevitable confrontation, the training grounds at Hotel Alpine.
- Tears of Joy: The camera cuts to the entire cast doing this after Rinne effortlessly demolishes her opponent for the U-15 championship in the third OVA.
- Tempting Fate: There's a fair amount of instances in which characters say or do things that invoke this trope. Examples are:
- Rinne telling her adoptive grandfather that she will always be with him, and that she'll never lose the tiepin he gave her. As is her grandfather's news that he's starting to get better.
- Miura wishing for a chance to face Vivio in combat again the night before she's to fight Rinne.
- Time Skip: One year after ViVid.
- Transformation Sequence: Unlike previous Nanoha shows that feature the full transformation sequences of the characters once or twice throughout the season, the transformation sequences of the characters are repeatedly shown in full in episodes where they are necessary, as per Magical Girl tradition.
- Wham Episode: While it was clear from the beginning that ViVid Strike! was darker than ViVid, Rinne being tortured by bullies and her brutal retaliation in episode 4 shows that Seven Arcs isn't pulling any punches and is returning to the darkness present in the older seasons.
- Episode 6 where Rinne delivers a devastating blow that breaks Miura's ribs sending her to the hospital. Effectively shows that the stakes are more than just a normal tournament.
- Episode 8 when against all odds, Vivio wins her rematch with Rinne, being the first to defeat her through an actual knockout. Afterwards we're shown to Jill's doubts as a coach and Rinne revealing her cold expression is just a mask as she cries alone, revealing the Shrinking Violet Fuka always knew her as.
