ViVid Strike!, directed by Junji Nishimura. Written by Masaki Tsuzuki. Music by Yôichiro Yoshikawa. Starring Eri Kitamura, Inori Minase, and Mamiko Noto. Seven Arcs (). 12 episodes of 23 minutes (approx. ). Not rated.
Available on Amazon Prime.
ViVid Strike! is the fifth anime series in the main continuity of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise. On the one hand, that hardly matters because this series is designed to stand alone: No previous knowledge of Lyrical Nanoha is necessary to understand and enjoy what’s going on here. But on the other hand, despite a radical departure from the previous incarnations of the franchise, ViVid Strike! takes Lyrical Nanoha back to its roots, back to the core concept that made the franchise so enormously popular in first place—magic-powered little girls viciously beating each other to a bloody pulp in the name of friendship.
Indeed, although it is not without its problems, ViVid Strike! is arguably the strongest entry in the long-running franchise, or at least the one with the clearest vision … as well as the most brutal violence.