("A's" is pronounced as "Ace") is an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series produced by

Seven Arcs is a Japanese anime production company and former studio, established on May 31, 2002, by former Pierrot staff. The studio made its first animated television series, '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'', in 2004. Since then, the company has produced ...

. It is the second anime in the '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' franchise, following the previous series. The series aired in Japan between October 1, 2005, and December 25, 2005, and was licensed in North America by

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distributi ...

. A film adaptation, ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie 2nd A's'', was released in Japanese theaters on July 14, 2012. The series has also spawned a manga accompaniment and two

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

adaptations for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

. It was succeeded by ''

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is the third season of the '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' series. The ''Nanoha'' anime was, in turn, a spin-off of the ''Triangle Heart'' series of games and OVAs, specifically ''Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever''. This season aired ...

'' in 2007.

Plot

Six months following the events of the previous series,

Nanoha Takamachi The following list introduces the characters of the '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' in Main and Movie Timeline. Protagonists Nanoha Series ; : : The main protagonist of the series, Nanoha is an ordinary nine year old girl that answered a ca ...

and

Fate Testarossa The following list introduces the characters of the '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' in Main and Movie Timeline. Protagonists Nanoha Series ; : : The main protagonist of the series, Nanoha is an ordinary nine year old girl that answered a ca ...

have been exchanging video mails to tell each other of their situations on Earth and in the Time-Space Administration Bureau respectively. However, on the night Fate returns, Nanoha and her friends come into conflict with the Belkan Knights, Signum,

Vita Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: * ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography * Vit ...

, Zafira, and Shamal, who are tasked with filling the pages of the Book of Darkness to protect their master, a wheelchair-using girl named Hayate Yagami. It is up to Nanoha, Fate and the Time-Space Administration Bureau to solve the mystery of the Book of Darkness, the Belkan Knights and their master.

Media

Manga

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation of the story was serialized in

Gakken is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1947 by Hideto Furuoka, which also produces educational toys. Their annual sales is reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces other ...

's ''

Megami Magazine is a Japanese monthly magazine which focuses on bishōjo characters from anime and Japanese computer and console games, edited by IID and published by Gakken Plus. It is known for having many posters, pinups and large pictures among the articles ...

'' between August 2005 and January 2006 issues and was released in a single volume on February 18, 2006. The adaptation features many scenes not explored in the anime series.

Anime

produced a thirteen-episode anime series, directed by

Keizō Kusakawa is a Japanese anime storyboard artist and director who has mainly worked as a director with works from Seven Arcs and Diomedéa (from 2013 onwards). Anime involved in *'' Petite Cossette'' (2004) – 3D Cinematography *''Tsukuyomi -Moon Phas ...

and written by Masaki Tsuzuki. Broadcast on

Chiba TV , doing business as , is a Japanese commercial terrestrial television broadcasting company headquartered at 11-25 Miyako-chō 1-chōme, Chūō-ku, Chiba serving Chiba Prefecture but spill-over is received in the neighbouring prefectures. It is a mem ...

TV Saitama abbreviated TVS, doing business as is a Japanese fee-free terrestrial commercial television broadcasting company headquartered in Urawa-ku, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Its intended coverage is Saitama Prefecture but with some sp ...

, and

TV Kanagawa (tvk for short) is an independent television station in Japan serving Kanagawa Prefecture and parts of the Greater Tokyo Area with favorable reception. The station was founded on April 20, 1971 and began broadcasting on April 1, 1972. Its call si ...

, it premiered on October 1, 2005, and aired weekly until its conclusion on December 24, 2005. The music for the series was produced by Hiroaki Sano. The series features two pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

. " Eternal Blaze", performed by

Nana Mizuki is a Japanese voice actress, singer and narrator from Niihama, Ehime. She is represented by the agency StarCrew. Mizuki was trained as an enka singer, releasing one single under her birth name, Nana Kondō, in 1993 and made her debut as a voice ...

, is the opening theme. " Spiritual Garden", performed by

Yukari Tamura is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Amuleto (formerly Arts Vision and I'm Enterprise). She debuted as a voice actress in 1997, releasing her debut single "Yūki o Kudasai" on March 26, 1997. Her role as Nanoha Takamachi in th ...

, is the ending theme. In Japan, the series was released across six Region 2

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

compilation volumes between January 25, 2006, and June 21, 2006. ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's'' was later licensed by

for English-language dubbed release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

distributed the dubbed series across a Region 1 DVD boxset.

Film

A theatrical film adaptation, titled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie 2nd'', was produced by Seven Arcs, following on from the 2010 adaptation of the first series, ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st'', and was released in Japanese theaters on July 14, 2012. The film was released on

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

and DVD on March 22, 2013, and features an English subtitle track.

Audio CDs

A series of three

drama CD Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s have been released by King Records between November 23, 2005, and March 8, 2006, entitled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage 01~03''. The CDs take place during and after the anime series. Each release charted on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

album charts, and the highest ranking album was the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage 03'', which peak ranked at 52nd and remained on the chart for 2 weeks. The

original soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of ...

was released across six CDs entitled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Original Soundtrack Plus Vol.1~6'' that were released alongside the

volumes that compiled the series' episodes containing 57 tracks in total. A

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

entitled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Vocal Best Collection'' was released exclusively at

Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...

70 in August 2006, compiling many of the pieces of music used during the drama CDs. King Records released three

maxi single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, "In the Summertime" was the ...

s for the series. " Eternal Blaze" was released on October 19, 2005. "Spiritual Garden" was released on October 26, 2005. " Super Generation" was released on January 18, 2006, that contained the track "Brave Phoenix", which was used as an insert to episode twelve of anime series.

Video games

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

released a game adaptation, entitled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces'', on January 21, 2010, for

. It is a 3D

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...

with nine playable characters with multiple stories based on the ''A's'' storyline. A second game, ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny'', was released on December 22, 2011, and features additional characters from the ''

ViVid Vivid may refer to: Music * Vivid (band), a Japanese rock band * "Vivid" (song), by Electronic, 1999 *"ViViD", a 2016 song by Loona from '' HeeJin'' Albums * ''Vivid'' (Vivian Green album), 2015 * ''Vivid'' (Crystal Kay album), 2012 * ''Vivi ...

'' and ''

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...

'' manga series.

Reception

As of August 5, the film had a box office gross of US$4,950,633. Its total gross was more than ¥500 million.

References

External links

The Movie 2nd A's Official website

Official website

NanohaWiki
* {{Seven Arcs 2005 anime television series debuts 2005 manga 2010 video games 2011 video games 2012 anime films Japanese children's animated action television series Animated films based on manga Fighting games Geneon USA Japan-exclusive video games Magical girl anime and manga Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Bandai Namco games Odex PlayStation Portable-only games PlayStation Portable games Shōnen manga Seven Arcs Video games developed in Japan