One reason I haven't been blogging much of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS lately is because I have yet to find a decent enough raw source which can provide good enough screen captures that can motivate me to actually post them up while watching and rewatching the episode in an effort to summarize it in a remotely interesting manner.

Quite apart from the quality of the raws, the quality of the artwork has also gone down. But that's to be expected. I imagine that come the DVD release, the off-design scenes will be redrawn, or so I hope anyway.

As for the plot, well, I'm not entirely sure if it's even worth a spoiler cut, since very little of significance is revealed. Essentially, we have what is a very short story arc in from episodes 7 to 9 which involves Teana not-really working out her inferiority complex via training and getting blasted. Along the way, we see what fans insist on labelling Dark Nanoha, and a recap of the previous two seasons using footage that the TSAB should have no means of obtaining or reason to retain. And then everything gets better after Teana has a heart-to-heart with Nanoha, while everyone else looks on approvingly.

This is either a case of Out Of Character portrayals, or simply Bad Storytelling. Perhaps both.

In any case, now that the rather embarrassing trio of episodes is behind us, maybe we can get back to some actual plot involving a coherent story and little girls blowing things up. It may still be Bad Storytelling, but at least it hides behind enough flashy explosions and moe~ scenes to be less noticeable. This is not Better or Worse, but simply What I Prefer.

Well, I'd also prefer better art, but I'm resigned to not getting it until the DVD release. So that's another matter.

Also, if anyone is wondering, I do have my own views on the events in the last part of episode 8, as well as its fallout in episode 9, but I'm not really up to having to explain myself over and over again as I did on the AS forums. I've said my piece, and had aforementioned piece repeatedly misunderstood by pretty much everyone, which means that I do need to work on my communication skills a fair bit more.

In other MSLN news, the fanfic I'm technically working on has grown into something that does not quite resemble the Nanohaverse than is strictly canon. This is not so much due to the presence of Original Characters, as much as the utter lack of information on certain aspects of the Nanohaverse; specifically, the Infinite Library, and its organization and structure. Now that Yuuno the Librarian has appeared in StrikerS, I'm not sure if I should just forge ahead with my own interpretations of what the Infinite Library is (influenced quite heavily by Borges's Library of Babel as well as L-space), or wait to get well and truly reamed by new information.

I believe fellow MSLN fanfic writers call it the Ion Canon blast. The imagery is particularly vivid.

Having been laid low by a sudden bout of what was a relatively minor and yet annoyingly foggy-headed illness, I have nothing to offer for this post but the revelation that the "ending theme" for the 8th episode of Lucky Star, "Monkey Magic", apart from being the opening theme to the original live-action Saiyuki as Konata mentions, is also one of the stages in Ouendan 2.

The original is by Godiero, but it has been covered by a few other bands. Orange Range (known to anime fans for "Asterick", the first opening to Bleach) attempted a version where the singer's enunciation is about on par with Konata's. And yes, the entire song is in English.

It is a thing to behold.

"With a little bit of Monkey Magic, there'll be fireworks tonight…"