hontou ni
6Feb/0722

Outfitting Mahou Shoujo StrikerS

One of the mahou shoujo elements I enjoyed thoroughly of Lyrical Nanoha As was the costumes. Granted, it wasn't quite fullblown like Cardcaptor Sakura where we get almost a new outfit every ep but still, we had our customary transformation scenes and frilly ribbons. So, it's not surprising the outfitting of StrikerS is one of the most anticipated aspect of this 3rd installment of Nanoha for this tanuki. Having seen StrikerS' art in March's issue of MEGAMI, I'm largely satisfied with the costumes save for a few grumbles. Allow me to share my philistine expertise on StrikerS fashion.

Presenting first the fantabulous zettai ryouiki trio:

Fate Testarossa - I LOVED Fate's outfit in As. It... it was sexy. I know, it sounds so wrong, ascribing sensuality to a 9 year old but I cannot lie. Fast forward 10 years later, Fate trades her short white flair for a tight black mini while offseting her dark uniform with a white long overcoat. Smart and womanly definitely but somehow I lament the slight loss in moelicious-ness.

Tiana Lanster: Ah... the new character I have my eye on. Twin-tailed, 16 yr old and voiced by Nakahara Mai, her character design exude a youthful girlish charm which I hope would not be squandered in the overused tsundere archetype. (Japan, it's time to move on from twin-tailed tsunderes). Sporting a simple yet elegant one piece, Tiana's outfit accentuates her curves well with the use of a girdle. The front zip in place of buttons or even ribbons lends a clean and practical touch to her costume. I'm going to love her, I know it.

Takamichi Nanoha: I was not impressed with Nanoha's outfit back in season 1 and As. It was... well, boring. Neither sensual nor moe, the blue/white dress just fell flat with me. Even the huge red ribbon fail to ellicit any moe high. However, today I am pleased to report that I am utterly smitten by Nanoha's StrikerS outift. I know, it starting to appear as if the strength of my endorsement on mahou shoujo outift is inversely proportional to skirt-length. I assure all this tanuki is pure/honourable and short skirts increasing probability of pantsu flashes has NOTHING to do with this. My assessment of StrikerS outfits is purely based on aesthetics.

And we take a break from combat gear to Fate/Nanoha's homewear.

I bring special attention to Fate's nightie. If Fate prances around the house in that while occasionally crooning "nii-san" surely Chrono will go "raging hard" I don't know how Chrono can take it. Anyhow, I sure am looking forward to some sibling tension between Fate/Chrono in StrikerS.

Now for the rest of the cast. I have left out Carol and Elio simply because I thought their outfits to be the 'meh'. Pink-haired loli or not, I hope they don't take up too much of StrikerS airtime since there's already an big pool of kawaii characters waiting to soak up screentime. That said, I hope the new blood don't oust out the old guard, after all, it's not MS Lyrical Tiana. Moelicious Tiana or Subaru might be, if they steal Hayate/Fate's limelight, I'll starlight breaker the studio. Oops, I disgress, back to Hayate's combat outfit.

Yagami Hayate: It's good to see that despite attaining the rank of LTC, she keeps her sailor hat instead of switching to a white peak cap. Not to mentioned she still wears that moelicious cross-hairpin (I'm weak to anyone who uses a cross-hairpin, a legacy from eternal goddess Shirakawa Kotori). Hayate's costume remains largely unchanged since there's little to improve on and I really thank Haruhi for that.

Nakajima Subaru: Given her rollerblade weapon, Subaru's sporty outfit fits her fighting style perfectly. I'm guessing, unlike Tiana, Subaru engages in close combat with speed as her primary attribute. That would explain the shorts and exposed midriff. Now we all know how clothing can inhibit agility and as demonstrated by Fate in As, the key to increasing speed is to shed articles of clothing. Subaru sure is looking nimble with this much of exposed flesh. Looking forward to her battles.

Tiana Lanster: Yes, it's her again. She's so cute I can't resist but post another pic of her.

In all, I'm generally pleased with the upgraded designs for the StrikerS cast except for Fate's gear which I believe is a tad restrictive for her to flaunt her 19 yr old figure fully utilise her close-combat powress. Ah well, maybe this womanly getup would be more appropriate for MILFate.

Can't wait for April.

Related posts:

  1. MEGAMI Treats ~ Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s
  2. Nanoha StrikerS 01
  3. A mild StrikerS lament

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Comments (22) Trackbacks (2)
  1. Fafnir
    February 6th, 2007 - 11:06

    Well….

    For all we know, Fate could still have her Sonic Form. I mean with her fighting style, her current Barrier Jacket leaves much to be desired, no? And I doubt the production crew won’t miss out a chance to KO us fans with a body-tight suit, eh? ;D Sonic Form (Improved) please!

    Chrono might let his eyes wander a while… before his wife catches him thinking those scandalous thought and beats him down to a pulp XD.

    I like Subaru’s outfit most out of the new members. Like what you’ve said, sporty, cool and the bandana looks moe to me XD (I like her a lot, only second to Fate and Hayate, even though she’s really a very clumpsy girl ;) ). Subaru’s a Modern Belkan System user (as is Eriol too), and from we’ve seen in A’s, Belkan types tend to churn out a lot of hot action. For one, she has a hell lot of strength (at the age of 12, she could already throw Tiana up high into the air) though this might be due to her Armed Device. I would expect lots of demolition scenerios in StrikerS, like sudden crater and buildings manually split into half and such.

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  2. Skh
    February 6th, 2007 - 11:42

    Good thing that they gave up the side-tail for Nanoha… But now we have 3 twin-tailed mahou shoujos ?! *dies from heart attack*

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  3. tj han
    February 6th, 2007 - 11:54

    Erm that Nanoha costume is freakin ugly.

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  4. Xellos-_^
    February 6th, 2007 - 12:41

    Fate looks more like a captain then Hayate.

    Tiana: looks like Asuna cosplaying as Nanoha.

    Nanoha: i probably one fo the few that likes Nanoha’s uniform (Short Skirt FTW)

    Hayate: I am a sucker for wings on cute girls. Strike Freedom Hayate FTW

    Subaru: though she wasa boy first time i look her picture: Reverse TRAP FTW.

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  5. Kurogane
    February 6th, 2007 - 13:34

    I’ve said it before, sadly the Nanoha attempt at zettai ryouiki doesn’t even try to attain the golden 4:2.5:3 ratio… sigh. I think it’s the skirts… they’re too stiff.

    Anyways, the new outfits are quite practical other wise, and I’ve gotten to love Fate’s new garb, since it is quite an adult design to begin with and she’s matured very well to fit in it. Hayate remains in her classic white-and-black which fits her well, whether loli or adult. Nanoha’s one… well, it’s OK I guess.

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  6. Flaskis
    February 6th, 2007 - 13:55

    Yes, Nanoha’s new outfit really is something. Her first outfit was a bit “meh”, but the zettai ryouiki/tighhighs reall makes up for the first two seasons. All we have to hope for that she shows another outfit mode accompanied by Fate’s sonic form as Fafnir said :>

    Now the countdown starts for StrikerS. When was it going to air? Was it 1st of April, or is it going to be later than that?

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  7. crimson
    February 6th, 2007 - 18:54

    havent watched nanoha yet though its in my stash.

    1st outfit looks like a high lvl mage’s. 2nd outfit looks like a female brawler’s. 3rd looks uhm….like a more refined version of 1st outfit.

    Whoa, yagami hayate has nice wings to complement the outfit. Subaru’s design looks interesting too. STRIPEY SEND PLZ.

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  8. Beowulf Lee
    February 6th, 2007 - 19:19

    OK, I guess I’m the only one who thinks that their costumes completely and utterly suck…

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  9. Skane
    February 6th, 2007 - 20:42

    Bear in mind that these are their combat uniforms. If you guys have read the A’s manga, and the A’s to StrikerS manga, you will get to see their work uniforms as well. Signum’s and Vita’s in particular are very nice.

    Out of these four new characters…

    Carol: I admit it, I find her obnoxiously cutesy. If her VA is equally sickeningly-sweet, I may need insulin for watching the StrikerS series. She also holds the distinction of being the only summoner-type amongst the whole crew, and her summon is an ice-type Dragon. I find her character to have the most potential to be interesting, as she brings something new to the board.

    Elio: Cartridge-using spear-user? Possibility of having combat traits from his mother-figure, Fate? Looks promising.

    Tiana: Bleah… unless she busts out some psychedelic John-Woo stuff, I’m not looking forward to her scenes.

    Subaru: Cartridge-using battle gloves plus rollerbaldes equals explosive melee combat. Definitely looking forward to her battle scenes.

    Then there is the matter of the two new characters from the Church. ;) Read the manga now! There are translations available.

    Cheers.

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  10. Stripey
    February 6th, 2007 - 23:22

    Fafnir: Ooo improved Sonic form… delicious! And GAH! I just remembered

    ▼ Show

    There goes my siscon dream… OTL

    Skh: Haha! Twin-tailed FTW! But not tsunderes pls. :)

    tjhan/Beowulf Lee: you don’t like short skirts? :)

    Xellos-_^: LOL! Yeah when I saw Eva promo posters years ago, I thought it was about 3 hot FEMALE mecha pilots. Yes, I thought Ikari Shinji was a hot girl.. now to rinse that memory out of my brain. XD

    Kurogane: I think Nanoha’s skirt looks soft enough though not as sensual somehow as Tohsaka Rin’s. I’m not sure how the golden ratio works but do you find their skirts err too short? :P

    Flaskis: I believe it’s gonna on the 1st April. I marked it on my calendar XD

    crimson: Wait no more bro. :) watch Nanoha before April so that we can all wait agonisingly for the weekly episode of StrikerS XD Send them to you soon :)

    Skane: I actually saw their Space-Time bureau outfits. Sorta like the SAF no. 5s. I still prefer their combat outfits. :) Signum and Vita’s outfit were uncolored in the MEGAMI feature so I couldn’t assess them. And I REALLY need to read the transition manga :)

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  11. quigonkenny
    February 7th, 2007 - 00:57

    “Now we all know how clothing can inhibit agility and as demonstrated by Fate in As, the key to increasing speed is to shed articles of clothing… …In all, I

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  12. V2
    February 7th, 2007 - 06:38

    drat. i guess once the 3rd season is done, im gonna have to prepare myself on figures of all of them…

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  13. Stripey
    February 7th, 2007 - 10:39

    quigonkenny:

    >>Let

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  14. quigonkenny
    February 7th, 2007 - 12:59

    “As for

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  15. Skane
    February 7th, 2007 - 17:51

    Hate to be a wet blanket, but Chrono and Amy were already engaged in A’s to StrikerS. Unless you’re counting on them breaking off the engagement in StrikerS’ timeline, they’re most probably already married.

    Cheers.

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  16. vexx
    February 7th, 2007 - 19:29

    I remain concerned about the time budget impact of all these new characters versus Nanoha/Fate and whether we’ll see Vita/Sig/etc at all. I’ve heard that this run will 24/26 episodes though so unless they’re totally dropping the ball that concern is a skoshi mitigated.

    Uniforms are looking pretty interesting — though the “battle shorts” theme in the posters makes me think of some silly scenes in HHGTTG (“replendent in his bejeweled battle shorts…”).

    Lots of moe-blasting fun we hope…

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  18. Stripey
    February 8th, 2007 - 10:44

    quigonkenny: Ah maybe we can have a Kanon Alternative where Kaori/Shiori are the leads and both end up with Yuiichi…. XD

    Skane: Maybe it’d be dramatic if Chrono breaks off the engagement for *DUN DUN* his stepsister *roll thunder* Hehe, in my dreams probably… XD

    vexx: I actually worry for Vita/Signum fans since in the MEGAMI feature, there wasn’t even a colored rendition of their designs leading me to suspect a diminished presence of our knights in the series. But given their excellent track record of introducing 5 new characters in As and weaving them into a coherent 13 parter, I think I can rest easy for a 24/26 ep StrikerS despite the huge cast/new additions. :)

    deftoned: yay! fellow cross-pin worshipper! Maybe I should just make a list of the kawaii anime girls sporting this hairclip. XD

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  19. deftoned
    February 8th, 2007 - 20:28

    Stripey, I know there are number of them, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of any! Hahahahha! All I know is that when I see it, I melt. :D I think any sort of side-of-the-head hair accessory is cool, but the hairpin is my favorite.

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  20. Monketh
    February 9th, 2007 - 02:25

    >I agree with Kurogane about the zettai ryouiki

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  21. Monketh
    February 9th, 2007 - 02:30

    Link to lolitron seems to have messed up while posting… ah well here’s the pic anyways.

    http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7558/nanohass02nv0.jpg

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  22. Demon Eyes
    March 25th, 2007 - 20:18

    Why do all the uniforms(Fate excluded) have something that looks like Nanoha’s uniform?

    Didn’t she come up with the designs herself?

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