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

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

television series produced by Seven Arcs. 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. 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 A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

adaptations for the

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

. It was succeeded by '' Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS'' in 2007.

Plot

Six months following the events of the previous series, Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa 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, 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 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

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 are reported at ¥ 90 billion ($789 million US). Gakken publishes educational books and magazines and produces othe ...

's '' Megami Magazine'' 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

Seven Arcs produced a thirteen-episode anime series, directed by Keizō Kusakawa and written by Masaki Tsuzuki. Broadcast on Chiba TV,

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 Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located ...

, and TV Kanagawa, 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. " Eternal Blaze", performed by Nana Mizuki, is the opening theme. " Spiritual Garden", performed by Yukari Tamura, is the ending theme. In Japan, the series was released across six Region 2 DVD compilation volumes between January 25, 2006, and June 21, 2006. ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's'' was later licensed by Geneon for English-language dubbed release in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

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 Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

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

Audio CDs

A series of three drama CDs 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 Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

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 was released across six CDs entitled ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Original Soundtrack Plus Vol.1~6'' that were released alongside the DVD 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 Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

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, ''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 ...

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, maxi-single, or maxi CD (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. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especial ...

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 corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

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 The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

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'' and ''

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

'' 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 Bandai Namco games Fighting games Geneon USA Japan-exclusive video games Japanese children's animated action television series Magical girl anime and manga Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Odex PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Seven Arcs Shōnen manga Video games developed in Japan