"This is a tale of the only daughter of the former Ace of the Sky, Takamachi Nanoha; a fourth elementary grade student of the St. Hilde Academy of Magic... A vivid tale of Takamachi Vivio."
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid is the fourth entry into the main Nanoha continuity and the first to debut as a manga instead of an original anime. The manga, written by the franchise's main writer Masaki Tsuzuki and illustrated by Takuya Fujima, was serialized in Comp Ace from 2009 to 2017, for a total of 102 chapters and 20 manga volumes.
While it's set four years after Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and one year after StrikerS Sound Stage X, ViVid is actually more a Spin-Off than a true sequel. It features Nanoha's and Fate's adopted daughter Vivio (first introduced in StrikerS) as a Magical Girl Warrior who turns into her teenage form when she needs to battle with the power of Sacred Heart — her... bunny plushie Device. That's right, it's a return to more traditional Magical Girl fare, complete with a rival Magical Girl in the form of Hegemon Ingvalt, a king from the era of Ancient Belka similar to Vivio. It also has many recurring characters from StrikerS, including the reformed Numbers cyborgs.
The series is a lot Lighter and Softer than the standard incarnation of Nanoha and lacks a major antagonist and an over-arcing plot. However, it's by no means less action-packed, as it focuses heavily on magical martial arts and feels much like a shonen series with magical girls.
ViVid has full colored tankōbon called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid FULL COLORS; Force has also full colored tankōbon.
A twelve-episode anime adaptation aired on TOKYO MX in Spring 2015, covering the first approximately 31 chapters, while the spinoff series ViVid Strike! aired in Fall 2016, pushing Vivio to a side role in favor of newcomer Fuka Reventon.
NOTE: Only general tropes for the series are listed here. For character-specific ones, check out the character sheets.
MGLN ViVid provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The Intermiddle is built up as a big deal in the story. However, Vivio and her friends wind up knocked out of it very early on. After that, the narrative only sporadically revisits the tournament to report on the progress of some of the characters in it. Once Miura is knocked out during the City Tournament, the rest of the Intermiddle is completely forgotten, with no information detailing how the remaining characters did.
- Adults Are Useless: In the Infinity Library arc, Hayate and Nove accompany the group of Inter-Middle participants. Fabia Crozelg fights the participants and is able to take down most of them, but neither Hayate, nor Nove nor Yuuno are there to help them. And among the late teen participates, Micaiah is one of them who gets curb-stomped, only Victoria remains, who on the other hand fights with Corona against an army of devils and cannot fight Fabia directly. Hayate just arrives when everything is over and she only repairs the collateral damage.
- Averted earlier on in regards to Nove, Subaru, and Teana befriending Einhart before she even has the chance to meet Vivio.
- Always Someone Better: The four main characters are just 10 to 12 years old rookies and they participate in the Inter-Middle Championship for the first time. Of course, there are plenty of characters who are much stronger than them.
- Armed with Canon: Vivio explicitly refers to both Nanoha and Fate as her parents. This shoots a hole through other material that tried to downplay Fate's importance in Vivio's life.
- In some documentation, Fate is listed as Vivio's Godmother.
- Art Evolution: The art style changed after a few chapters. Noticebly, Erio looks older and has a different hairstyle in his appearance in chapter 11 from in chapter 2.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: The art style in the anime is somewhat different from the rest of the series, with brighter colors and a lack of shaded contours. This is due to it being the only part of the franchise not animated by Seven Arcs, but rather by A-1 Pictures.
- Badass Family / Badass Crew: On full display in the training trip where Einhart is introduced to members of the Nakajima, Takamachi and Harlaown family training and fighting.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Used extensively in transformation sequences, but averted with the adults in all other cases. Averted in the anime, though.
- Beam-O-War: The training exercise ends when Teana and Nanoha fire off simultaneous Starlight Breakers that explode and destroy the entire training area.
- Canon Discontinuity: The first chapter features Vivio sending other characters a picture of herself and her friends, Corona and Rio. It's ambiguous whether it happens at this moment or in the past; Lutecia looks noticebly younger than in her actual appearance, but the biggest contradiction is Hayate. She and Reinforce Zwei wear their Ground Forces uniform and Hayate has the same hairstyle from StrikerS, despite she had already longer hair a year after that season (even if it's not the same hairstyle like in ViVid or in Force) and she already transferred back to the Dimensional Navy right after the disbandment of Riot Force 6, but Vivio became friends with Rio in the end of their third year, which makes this event implausible.
- This scene is left out (corrected?) in the anime, though.
- Clothing Damage: And a lot too, mostly for fanservice. Somewhat toned down in the anime.
- Continuity Nod:
- Sacred Heart being a rabbit is obviously a nod to Vivio's former plush bunny in StrikerS. It's really heartwarming, since both bunnies are/were presents from her mother Nanoha.
- The Takamachi family has a water gun in the bathroom, which looks like Teana's Cross Mirage.
- During her second fight with Einhart, Vivio brings up when she promised Nanoha that she'd be strong.
- Cosplay:
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st Tribute Comics, Vivio cosplays as Nanoha, and Einhart as Fate.
- In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's Tribute Comics, most of the major characters cosplay as characters from the The Movie 2nd A's cast. The Mid-Childa Team has Vivio as Nanoha, Victoria as Fate in Lightning Form, Lutecia as Fate in Sonic Form, Chantez as Yuuno, Els as Chrono, and Micaiah as Arf. The Belka Team has Miura as Hayate, Harry as Signum, Rio as Vita, Corona as Shamal, and Adult Einhart as Reinforce. Sieglinde and Fabia are the only two characters who avoid to cosplay.
- Did you notice there are two Fates, but no Zafira? And that Vivio is in the opposite team of her friends?
- Curb-Stomp Battle: A few on- and off-screen ones during the opening of the Tournament Arc. Chapter 25 has a montage of Team Nakajima curbstomping unnamed opponents.
- Claus Ingvalt suffers this courtesy of Sankt Kaiser Olivie. Played for Drama in that Claus wanted to stop Olivie from performing a Heroic Sacrifice by defeating her in a duel However, Olivie wasn't called "The Queen Second To None in Combat" for nothing and defeats him easily.
- Cut Short: The anime adaptation was rather abruptly cancelled after one seasonnote . It doesn't end at a proper breaking point, or even a Cliffhanger, but just sort of stops in the middle of the story. The final episode doesn't particularly feel like a finale — it's a mostly quiet and contemplative episode devoted to setting up Vivio's long-built-up match with Miura and Rio's fight against Harry, as well as foreshadowing Einhart's upcoming bout with former Interdimensional Champion Sieglinde.
- David Versus Goliath: Happens frequently with the newcomers and the veterans in the Tournament Arc. It's only played straight once, and the winning newcomer isn't even a main characternote .
- Demoted to Extra: With the exceptions of Vivio, Lutecia and a few of the Numbers, all the other recurring characters have had their screen time cut, even Nanoha and Fate. This isn't a bad thing though, as Vivio and Einhart do a very good job of copying their dynamic and a new generation of magical girls are stepping in to fill the gaps. Also, most of the characters from previous seasons are overpowered in comparison to the Inter-Middle participants.
- There is also a balance. Most characters who are Demoted to Extra in ViVid appear more often in Force. Likewise, almost every major character in ViVid doesn't appear in Force or is barely seen, like Nove.
- Devil's Pitchfork: Several of Fabia's devils come equipped with these, including an enlarged one she brings out during her fight against Lutecia that nearly skewers the latter had it not been for Einhart.
- Fanservice: Much more than previous seasons. Ramped up in chapter 11 and 45. The anime pulls back on this pretty hard, except for the Hot Springs Episode.
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Strike Arts, Kaiser Arts or Black Jeremiah. All the named rivals in the tournament arc have some uniquely named fighting style, but it's not clear whether they are officially recognised or just their own variations. Parodied with Harry's ore-shiki, which means "Me-style" or "Style of Me".
- Fighting Series: With Magical Girls.
- Friendly Fire: During the training session, Teana sets up an area bombardment Crossfire Full Burst. She apparently didn't bother aiming it as she hits allies and enemies alike.
- The duel Starlight Breaker ends up blasting the entire field, knocking almost everyone out in one go.
- Full-Contact Magic: All those heavy-impact punches and kicks still count as magic. Vivio especially, she's attempting to weave magic and martial arts together, something that her ancestor was apparently a grandmaster of.
- Genre Shift: On the surface it appears to be an attempt to return the series to its roots of Magical Girl cuteness, but it's so overloaded with various martial-arts related tropes, one could almost be forgiven for mistaking it for a shonen fighting series.
- Godzilla Threshold: The Saint King Alliance's use of the Saint's Cradle is considered to be crossing this. The Belkan wars had escalated to the point that opposing sides have begun to use more dangerous and inhumane methods just to gain an edge over others, so the Cradle was used to swiftly bring the war to an end before it can reach the point of no return.
- Gratuitous German: Strada's "Jawohl" is incorrectly spelled as "Ja houl".
- Great Offscreen War: The Ancient Belkan War is explored in one arc via a reading of one character's ancestor's journal. However, much of it centers only on the life of Sankt Kaiser Olivie which is about the time the war comes to an end.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Painfully so. Training from Hell and superhuman determination are useless unless you've won the Super Power Lottery, and even so, some characters are bigger winners than others.
- Heroic Lineage: Several characters are descended from families that made names for themselves during the Ancient Belkan era. Most notably, Einhart and Victoria are descendants of former Belkan rulers, Sieglinde comes from a nomadic tribe of warrior scholars. In Vivio's case, she considers herself a descendant of Sankt Kaiser Olivie.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The life of Sankt Kaiser Olivie ended with this. Her sacrifice became a basis for the foundation of the Church of the Saint King and escalated her into a venerated figure by the populace.
- Hero of Another Story: While the tournament follows the underdog story in Vivio and her friends, the story also fleshes out the friendly rivalries and camaraderie of the returning contestants like Sieglinde, Victoria, and Harry, making it difficult to chose whether to root for the newcomers to overcome the veterans or for the veterans to survive long enough to finally to conclude their personal duels.
- Hit Points: Used in both the mock battle and the Inter-Middle Championship in order to prevent the fights from dragging for too long and increasing the risk of injuries. Even so fighters can be KO'd before their hit points reach zero.
- Hot Springs Episode: Chapter 11/episode 5. Though, it introduces Rio's Adult Mode.
- Idiot Hair: Many characters introduced in ViVid have ahoge for no reasons. It's easier to count the characters who don't have ahoge.
- Identical Grandson: Sieglende, Einhart and Fabia look very similar to Wilfried, Claus and Crozleg on top of inheriting their abilities. All three and Vivio also share personality quirks with their ancestors, many of which developed independent of any genetic memories.
- Improbably Female Cast: While the previous seasons was already bad with this trope, ViVid has it more than any other series of the main continuity. Only two new male characters, one of them being a Posthumous Character, have been introduced in ViVid. There aren't any featured male Inter-Middle participants despite it's not restricted only for females, as Erio has the option to enter it in his world. So far, the only male characters who have appeared in ViVid are Erio, Genya, Claus, Voltz, Zafira, Edgar, Yuuno and Lei. And they don't have much screentime either, three of them are just only cameos.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: What everyone looked like to Einhart when she first gets to see Nanoha & Co. in action.Einhart: It must be wonderful to have two such gentle and family-devoted mothers... but they can do magical combat too?Nove: *starts collapsing in giggles behind Einhart and Vivio*
- Lighter and Softer: Stubbornly defies the franchise's gradual slippage into Darker and Edgier territory by ditching most of the military sci-fi elements and playing up the franchise's Magical Girl roots with a dosage of Kung-Fu Wizard for good measure.
- Magical Library: The Infinite Library, the TSAB's knowledge base that predates the organization. It also has secret unexplored areas and rooms that might contain dangerous magical artifacts. (Librarians have to have expeditions to the library to make sure there's nothing dangerous)
- Mistaken for Related: Vivio is mistaken for the child of Nanoha and Fate due to her strong resemblance to both adoptive parents.
- Mood Whiplash: Do not read this back-to-back with the other then-currently (now on infinite hiatus) running Nanoha manga, Force, or you'll be in need of a new metaphorical neck before you know it.
- While ViVid is mostly upbeat, Olivie and Claus's story is a Doomed by Canon Downer Ending and is heartbreaking
- This is also a risk for anime viewers who go on to watch the darker and grittier spin-off ViVid Strike!, especially if they're under the mistaken impression that it's a continuation of ViViD.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The school festival from chapter 64 to 66. Aside from the whole magic thing, the cast makes simple events like arm wrestling really awesome.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Arguably the whole point of the series, with multiple practitioners of different fighting styles squaring off to see who will come out on top.
- Not Just a Tournament: Averted. There are no evil schemes behind the tournament, despite there are several descendants of people from the Ancient Belkan era participating in the tournament, which is either coincidence or destiny.
- "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: "Lyrical Magical! I will do my best!" (occasionally pluralized) taken from the original series.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: While Vivio and her friends are the main characters, it is noted that they are still amateurs going up against very seasoned professionals. With the exception of Miura, who was trained personally by the Wolkenritter, every time one of the girls went up against a veteran (Rio for Harry and Einhart for Sieglinde) ended up in a loss. Even against each other, Vivio was a hobbyist compared to Miura's dedicated practices.
- Page-Turn Surprise: In the first issue, after some hints about the research on "that", Vivio gets ready for her first Transformation Sequence. Then as the reader turns the page, they get a two-page spread showing the glorious return of Sankt Kaiser Vivio.
- Panthera Awesome: The snow leopards of Shutra, which Olivie and Klaus kept as pets as shown in a flashback.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The anime follows the manga very closely — what changes it does make are mostly things like minor tweaks to existing scenes to improve pacing or exposition, as well as storyboarding the fights so that they work better in animation. It also changes the order of a few scenes, in particular some of the tournament matches, for the sake of better episodic pacing. Changes that are actually relevant to the story can practically be counted on one's fingers:
- A few brief pre-tournament scenes from the manga involving the elite veterans are cut:
- Rio and Corona run into Harry and her gang on the street, and end up getting her autograph.
- Harry talking with her friends about the upcoming tournament, where it's revealed to have been Victoria who defeated Harry the last timenote .
- Victoria talking to her butler about the preliminary group assignments, during which she disses Harry and worries about Sieglinde.
- Els gives a brief speech at the opening ceremony, thus introducing her slightly earlier than the anime doesnote .
- The scene where Nove tells the girls about their tournament groupings goes on slightly longer in the manga, with Einhart and Corona learning they're in the same group as former champion Sieglinde.
- Quite a lot of the anime's final episode is new or at least heavily expanded. The girls all go home for the day following Einhart and Corona's fightnote ; much of the episode is devoted to Einhart and Corona coming to terms with their battle. The episode also incorporates and expands on some brief scenes from elsewhere in the manga, such as Fabia's first bout, one of Lutecia's match-ups, Victoria telling Sieglinde she can come over for dinner, and Els seen begging Sieglinde for somethingnote .
- A few brief pre-tournament scenes from the manga involving the elite veterans are cut:
- Shared Family Quirks: Vivio and Nanoha have the exact same reaction upon meeting Einhart. Namely, they start gushing about how amazing it is that she practices martial arts.
- Shout-Out: In Episode 2 of the anime, Vivio's 100m dash result is the same as the world record set by Usain Bolt in 2009, 9.58 seconds!
- Spoiler Opening:
- Due to the Early-Bird Cameo appearances of Wilfried Jeremiah, people can see the obvious connection between said person and Sieglinde, as both of them wear black clothes with hoods.
- The opening spoils Einhart's Expository Hair Style Change. Ironically, she's best known with that hair style.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Olivie and Claus. Wilfried confirms their romantic relationship in her writings.
- Stripperiffic: Seems to have gone the opposite way of Force which tacked more metal onto every character until they looked like a Gundam. Instead in Vivid, various barrier jackets are loaded with fanservice tropes including but not limited to Underboobs, Cleavage Window and Zettai Ryouiki.
- Super Robot: In much the same way as the previous casts tended to be seen as expies of either Real Robots or their pilots. Those individuals that are reincarnations/decendants of ancient warrior-kings tend to come across as general expies of these.
- Time Skip: A 4-year one between StrikerS and ViVid. And one year between Sound Stage X and ViVid.
- To Be a Master: To be declared the strongest in all dimensions (at least, within the 10-19 age group).
- Tournament Arc: The DSAA Inter-Middle Championship. The whole tournament itself is structured in several other tournaments. First, after going through the preliminaries, the fighters are going to fight in the City Tournaments. Then, the winners of these tournament will participate in the World Tournaments, and finally the fighters who are end up victorious will decide the champion in the Inter-Dimensional Tournament. Since the story is about Team Nakajima's first tournament, the Tournament Arc is actually only about the preliminary.
- World of Badass: If there was any doubt before ViVid made it obvious that kicking ass and taking names is a requirement for any girl over the age of ten. They even have an Inter-Middle Championship where the best of the best go to beat each other up with magical kung-fu for fun. With no shortage of candidates.
- However, most of the participants are still much weaker than the TSAB mages.
