("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 is a Japanese anime production company and former studio, established on May 31, 2002, by former Pierrot and Studio Kikan-affiliated staff who had established studio Arcturus prior in 2000 with the intent of making animated series. The studio m ...

. It is the second anime in the ''

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is a Japanese anime television series directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with screenplay written by Masaki Tsuzuki and produced by Seven Arcs. It forms part of the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' series. The Japanese Association of Independe ...

'' 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 that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, owned by American telecommunications/media company Comcast headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo ...

. 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 is the third season of the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' series. This season aired shortly after the promotional event "Lyrical Party III" on April 1, 2007. The series focuses more on team-based battles and bureaucracy rather than individ ...

'' 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 ; : : Nanoha is an ordinary nine year old girl that answered a call of help from an injured ferret. ; ...

and

Fate Testarossa The following list introduces the characters of the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' in Main and Movie Timeline. Protagonists Nanoha Series ; : : Nanoha is an ordinary nine year old girl that answered a call of help from an injured ferret. ; ...

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

. 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 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 article ...

'' 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 Pha ...

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 is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kan ...

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 (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 s ...

, 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 which 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 ...

. "

Eternal Blaze "Eternal Blaze" is the 12th single by Japanese singer Nana Mizuki, released on October 19, 2005 by King Records. It was composed by Noriyasu Agematsu and written by Nana Mizuki. It is considered Mizuki's breakthrough hit single. The song spent two ...

", performed by

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

, is the opening theme. "

Spiritual Garden ''Spiritual Garden'' is an album by Kitarō, inspired by the Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance of Koichi Tamano. It also features Kitaro's first collaboration with wife, Keiko Takahashi."http://www.domocart.com/domo-store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cP ...

", performed by

Yukari Tamura is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Amuleto. She released her debut single "Yūki o Kudasai" on March 26, 1997. Biography Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Tamura gained fame as an advocate for the Lolita fashion movement, wear ...

, 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 ki ...

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 (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 CD Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, 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 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 A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

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 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. "

" 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 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 * ''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