I thought this last episode had a good ending, although I am a little disappointed as well. I’m disappointed in the fact that this looks to be the last of the “Lyrical Nanoha” series. When Hayate said she would use her newly acquired powers, I was hoping they would leave things open for another season. Unfortunately the last few minutes of the episode shows us what all the characters are doing 6 years later. That in itself was interesting. It was fun to see how they have changed in 6 years. I have to admit most of them still look the same. I think they could have done a better job in making the main characters look a bit older. As much as I enjoyed seeing them older, it doesn’t seem like they can continue with this series anymore.

One of the good things about the series is its art. Personally I liked the character designs for this series. Although there were a few times when the characters looked kind of odd, on the whole it was pretty consistent. Taking the entire series into account, I thought this season was far superior to the first season. If you have seen the first season and didn’t think much of it, I suggest checking the second season out before losing hope in the entire series. For people who haven’t seen the first season, I recommend watching the first season to get to know some of the characters just so you can thoroughly enjoy the second season. It’s highly understandable this may not appear be a series that looks interesting to many of you. If you like good art, likeable characters, talented seiyuus, and entertaining action, this may be something to look into.

This was a bit unexpected. I didn’t think we would see Hayate do much in terms of fighting. It was nice to see all of them back though. This was pretty much as action-packed as it could get. Everything looked like it was over until we see Hayate collapse. So now we’re left with Hayate struggling for her life. For this kind of show it’s highly unlikely she won’t make it. I’m not expecting any intense action for the last episode, but regardless it should be a nice end to the second season.

A godo portion of this episode is devoted to Fate living in a fantasy world created from her desires. It was kind of surprising to see her mother acting so nicely when you take into account how abusive she was in the first season. I liked the scenes with Fate interacting with her older sister Alicia. I especially liked the last scene between the two just before Alicia disappears. It looks like the next episode is going to be the climax of the series. It’s definately going to be a good one.

I thought this was a pretty awesome episode. I was wrong about the identity of the masked-figure. At first I thought it would be Chrono’s father, but once two of them showed up that theory went right out the window. We find out that the two masked-figures were Aria and Lotte. The pieces have pretty much come together so we know what’s going on now. Now that Nanoha’s friends know about Nanoha and Fate’s other “identities” the last few episodes will be more interesting. With the quality of this season’s episodes it’s sad to be reminded that the end of the series is almost here.

The Book of Darkness has finally been completed. Nanoha does mention that isn’t the real name of the book. Maybe once we know the real name of the book things will be more clear. For now, we’re thrown into a twist in the plot. Now there are two identical masked-figures who steals the book from Shamal. With the unfortunate turn of events Hayate uses the newly completed book. A lot happened in the last half of the episode so we don’t really know what’s happening just yet.

It looks like Hayate’s time is running dangerously short. Due to unexpected circumstances Shamal discovers that Nanoha and Fate are Suzuka’s friends. They’re slowly getting closer to figuring everything out, but there really wasn’t a lot of progress in this episode. They did find out the history behind the Book of Darkness so now they’re looking for a way to seal it.

I noticed that the animation quality was kind of lacking in some of the scenes. There were instances where the characters looked odd. I find that kind of unfortunate since the art is one of the series’ appeals. We hear a bit about Chrono’s father who supposedly died 11 years ago in an incident involving the Book of Darkness. Now it seems quite probable that the masked-figure is his father in some shape or form. There has to be some significance to them mentioning Chrono’s father then have the masked-guy appear later in the episode.

The majority of this episode was spent on a flashback from the time the Book of Darkness awakens up to the present. We find why Hayate is the master of the book and how its affecting her. I liked how they spent the time explaining everything. Now we know why Signum and them are working so hard to complete the Book of Darkness. With their reason for wanting to complete the book you can’t help but want to support their cause. Once Nanoha and Fate learn about the truth about the book, I wonder how they will take the news. It’s now pretty much guarenteed we’re going to be in for some good drama and action.

There’s quite a bit of information to take in this episode. Normally I would like them to give all this information at a slower pace. Considering this is already episode 5 of a 13 episode series, however, I guess they don’t have much of a choice. The biggest surprise was probably the appearance of a masked individual. Then of course we get a possible theory on the identity of Signum, Vita, Shamal, and Zafira. It looks like we’ll get more information on them in the next episode.

I was expecting to learn some more about the new characters in this episode. We don’t really get any new information this week. The key part of this episode didn’t happen until the very end. Fate and Nanoha got their upgraded weapons, Bardiche Assault and Raging Heart Excellion respectively. I thought we would get to see some action in this episode. Unfortunately they’re saving all the excitement for next week.