The inspiring video-essay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqKm0HdCLR8
Let's break our favorite characters down into these elements and see what we uncover.
I'll start with Nanoha. Please expand or criticize my observations as you see fit.
TAKAMACHI NANOHA
Aesthetic: People can easily guess right away that Nanoha is the "main hero" of a fairly idealistic, action-oriented series, thanks to her barrier jacket. White with blue, red and gold elements is a fairly common "central character" pattern in both Japanese and American media. For Americans, it evokes our nation's flag. I won't guess why the Japanese use it, but shows up in Mega Man X as well as every Gundam series ever.
Nanoha's colors let us know that she's a generally well-rounded combatant, not overspecialized. She's not associated with any mundane element like fire or lightning, but instead has spiritual and heavenly themes. Her Divine Buster and Shooter attacks, Sacred Mode barrier jacket, and the Starlight Breaker. The pink wings on her ankles make it clear that she's capable of flying at great speeds, in the tradition of the Greek god Hermes. She is clearly a creature of the pure and beautiful heavens; a force of light and goodness.
For the Japanese, her own coloration straddles the line between Normal and Alien. Her hair is reddish brown, a possible but unusual color. Her eyes are purple, which is further out there -- it's somewhat close to blue, but I think blue is supposed to be VERY rare among the Japanese, and purple isn't a natural eye color anywhere.
Nanoha's two most common expressions are a joyous smile or a determined shout. This conveys that she is a lively, friendly, assertive character. Her speech is polite and friendly.
Depth: The things that break Nanoha out of the stereotype of "cute, friendly elementary-school girl". She's keenly sensitive to loneliness, and extremely independent because of her background. She's good at math, but unfit and undercoordinated compared to her peers, which may also be related to her background (staying alone indoors rather than running around with her siblings). She enjoys playing fighting and fantasy-action video-games with Arisa, but she also has some skill with cooking. She reveres her father and lives up to his instructions to help others, but because of her independence and self-sacrificing attitude, she tends to keep her problems to herself rather than ask for help.
And of course, Nanoha insists on proper communication whenever conflict arises. When communication breaks down, she's not adverse to using violence to solve the problem.
Chemistry: With her family, we get to see Nanoha's polite, dutiful, affectionate side. Being the baby of the family helps make it clear that she refuses to ACT like the baby; she tries to carry her share of the weight and solve her problems on her own. Nevertheless, she loves and respects them all, and appreciates the love they show in return.
With Yuuno, we get to see Nanoha's reckless side, as Yuuno falls into the role of the one who watches her back, providing the support that lets her concentrate entirely on blowing stuff up.
Fate and Vita both show how far Nanoha is willing to go to help people who don't think they want help, and she has different relations with each afterwards. With Fate, Nanoha is gentle and encouraging. With Vita, Nanoha is teasing -- always treating Vita like an adorable child no matter how often Vita protests; it's the closest that Nanoha gets to insensitivity or sadism.
With the Forwards, Nanoha becomes the Devil Drill Sergeant.
With Vivio, we get to see Nanoha as a mother.
Development: Nanoha has only two major character arcs over the course of the franchise, in the first couple of episodes in the original season, and then later in StrikerS.
At the beginning of the first arc, Nanoha is a relatively normal girl who is willing to become a magical girl to help out a talking ferret and protect her town. She's unaccustomed to putting herself in actual danger, or being attacked, and she's not used to the kind of physical activity required for hunting Jewel Seeds. She starts out weak, gets into the swing of things for a bit, and then begins to wind down as it catches up with her. So she decides to ignore the Jewel Seed she thought she saw in order to keep relaxing.
Then it comes back to bite her, and Nanoha is ashamed of herself. After this point, Nanoha decides that this power she's been given is not some temporary hardship, but a permanent responsibility. She resolves that no more disasters like that will happen around her simply because she decided to NOT use the power given to her.
That combines with her pre-existing character traits to create the hardworking, overachieving, burnly-too-brightly girl that we're all most familiar with.
Nanoha's second character arc, in StrikerS, is simply about whether or not Nanoha wants to become Vivio's mother. She's frightened about the responsibility involved, but eventually decides that she's more concerned about what will happen to Vivio if she (Nanoha) DOESN'T adopt and care for the little girl as best she can.
Realization: I forgot to cover this element. Get back to it later.
Let's break our favorite characters down into these elements and see what we uncover.
I'll start with Nanoha. Please expand or criticize my observations as you see fit.
TAKAMACHI NANOHA
Aesthetic: People can easily guess right away that Nanoha is the "main hero" of a fairly idealistic, action-oriented series, thanks to her barrier jacket. White with blue, red and gold elements is a fairly common "central character" pattern in both Japanese and American media. For Americans, it evokes our nation's flag. I won't guess why the Japanese use it, but shows up in Mega Man X as well as every Gundam series ever.
Nanoha's colors let us know that she's a generally well-rounded combatant, not overspecialized. She's not associated with any mundane element like fire or lightning, but instead has spiritual and heavenly themes. Her Divine Buster and Shooter attacks, Sacred Mode barrier jacket, and the Starlight Breaker. The pink wings on her ankles make it clear that she's capable of flying at great speeds, in the tradition of the Greek god Hermes. She is clearly a creature of the pure and beautiful heavens; a force of light and goodness.
For the Japanese, her own coloration straddles the line between Normal and Alien. Her hair is reddish brown, a possible but unusual color. Her eyes are purple, which is further out there -- it's somewhat close to blue, but I think blue is supposed to be VERY rare among the Japanese, and purple isn't a natural eye color anywhere.
Nanoha's two most common expressions are a joyous smile or a determined shout. This conveys that she is a lively, friendly, assertive character. Her speech is polite and friendly.
Depth: The things that break Nanoha out of the stereotype of "cute, friendly elementary-school girl". She's keenly sensitive to loneliness, and extremely independent because of her background. She's good at math, but unfit and undercoordinated compared to her peers, which may also be related to her background (staying alone indoors rather than running around with her siblings). She enjoys playing fighting and fantasy-action video-games with Arisa, but she also has some skill with cooking. She reveres her father and lives up to his instructions to help others, but because of her independence and self-sacrificing attitude, she tends to keep her problems to herself rather than ask for help.
And of course, Nanoha insists on proper communication whenever conflict arises. When communication breaks down, she's not adverse to using violence to solve the problem.
Chemistry: With her family, we get to see Nanoha's polite, dutiful, affectionate side. Being the baby of the family helps make it clear that she refuses to ACT like the baby; she tries to carry her share of the weight and solve her problems on her own. Nevertheless, she loves and respects them all, and appreciates the love they show in return.
With Yuuno, we get to see Nanoha's reckless side, as Yuuno falls into the role of the one who watches her back, providing the support that lets her concentrate entirely on blowing stuff up.
Fate and Vita both show how far Nanoha is willing to go to help people who don't think they want help, and she has different relations with each afterwards. With Fate, Nanoha is gentle and encouraging. With Vita, Nanoha is teasing -- always treating Vita like an adorable child no matter how often Vita protests; it's the closest that Nanoha gets to insensitivity or sadism.
With the Forwards, Nanoha becomes the Devil Drill Sergeant.
With Vivio, we get to see Nanoha as a mother.
Development: Nanoha has only two major character arcs over the course of the franchise, in the first couple of episodes in the original season, and then later in StrikerS.
At the beginning of the first arc, Nanoha is a relatively normal girl who is willing to become a magical girl to help out a talking ferret and protect her town. She's unaccustomed to putting herself in actual danger, or being attacked, and she's not used to the kind of physical activity required for hunting Jewel Seeds. She starts out weak, gets into the swing of things for a bit, and then begins to wind down as it catches up with her. So she decides to ignore the Jewel Seed she thought she saw in order to keep relaxing.
Then it comes back to bite her, and Nanoha is ashamed of herself. After this point, Nanoha decides that this power she's been given is not some temporary hardship, but a permanent responsibility. She resolves that no more disasters like that will happen around her simply because she decided to NOT use the power given to her.
That combines with her pre-existing character traits to create the hardworking, overachieving, burnly-too-brightly girl that we're all most familiar with.
Nanoha's second character arc, in StrikerS, is simply about whether or not Nanoha wants to become Vivio's mother. She's frightened about the responsibility involved, but eventually decides that she's more concerned about what will happen to Vivio if she (Nanoha) DOESN'T adopt and care for the little girl as best she can.
Realization: I forgot to cover this element. Get back to it later.