Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Ep.04 - Mana is so evil! Backstory time.

Episode 4 of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS: Gun Blaze Vengeance goes straight into building the backstory for Towa Yorumi, the main heroine and destined partner of Shiina. This gives us a good idea about why she is fighting and how the entire group orbiting around her was created.

Turns out Shinomiya Mana, the culprit behind the drug transforming people into majin, is even more evil than I thought. She kept experimenting, trying to find a type of majin to mass-produce and use to feed upon to become stronger and stronger. Towa was just a discarded "failure" according to her, because she couldn't absorb her power.

Towa is determined of getting justice and I surely hope she does and they don't dilute it or work around it. She deserves vengeance.

Shinomiya Mana is the epitome of 'if evil, why hot?'. I like her character design a lot, but it's impossible to relate to her, she's just way too evil.

When she was about to be disposed of, an accident occurred that killed the driver taking her to disposal and set her free. A couple took her in and allowed her to have a normal life until they were also killed in a demonstration by Mana to test her new majins.

That gave Towa the resolution to start hunting majins and absorbing their power, awaiting the final clash with Mana. It is pretty standard, and honestly, the whole discussion about "we're near the end of our journey" felt like a death flag to me for the other girls, but I hope I'm wrong.

It would be a total shame because their designs are great, and usually Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha doesn't waste good designs. Best ending for me? Of course, Shiina gets Towa and her entire harem and builds an even stronger yuri harem under her leadership. Okay, okay, I'm just dreaming here, forgive me!

Speaking of great design, Shinomiya Mana herself has quite a good character design that is honestly wasted on such a completely evil character. There is literally no way you can relate to her, and the episode clearly showed how cruel she was to all the girls she kidnapped.

Towa got her own harem with four heroines Yuuna Yuzu Aoi and Shiori. But she doesn't know that Shiina is going to conquer them all including herself!

Ok this scene was absolutely adorable. Towa as a child was a pillar of cuteness that is really hard to beat. Just look at her drowsy expression!

The next episode is titled "Chance Encounter," and it seems like Nanoha will meet the Towa group for the first time. What kind of clash will happen between the two? Nanoha is sure to try and recruit them, but I don't think Towa is going to be willing to help them until she is defeated at least once.