Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS Ep.10 - Final battle is upon us. Good job Nanoha!

Episode 10 of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha EXCEEDS: Gun Blaze Vengeance was really action-packed, with Mana actually fighting instead of running away toward Eiji. I honestly was expecting the final battle to be fought alongside Eiji, but I guess there's still the possibility of him moving toward her?

I mean, it would be pretty bad if Eiji survived all this, because he's just as responsible as she is when it comes to the disaster that happened in this world. Then the question becomes how they're going to handle the corruption within the government, because sure, Mana and Eiji were the ones building the drug, but the higher-ups also bought that drug for themselves...

I thought it was funny to see Mana flying away like in a parody cartoon. I'm not sure it was intentional or a low quality animation

Towa with her new power was quite cool even though it wasn't really effective in defeating Mana. Hope she doesn't use it too much though, she has to live a long life.

As far as the action is concerned, nothing surprising really happened: every character goes and fights their own enemy to show off their power with some flashy animation. Fate saves kids who were imprisoned in the lab, Shiina bombs a majin similar to the one from the beginning, and we even have Nanoha bombing the progenitor of all these monsters. Quite convenient that it was positioned right here under their noses.

Towa manages to gain enough power to slightly damage Mana by burning away her lifeforce, but it's nothing really that impressive considering the huge power gap. The arrival of Yuuna, Yuzu, Aoi, and Shiori doesn't change the power scale, and I think the main reason is that the final matchup has to be the yuri pair Towa/Shiina vs. Mana.

Will they defeat her with the power of friendship, I wonder? Or does the fact that their powers are very similar (both absorb other monsters' powers) create some sort of resonance that will allow them to step further up the power scale? The only thing I hope they don't do is some sappy "one dies and the other absorbs her" thing, as I'm really against those endings.

My ideal ending would be the two girls just going out on a date again and living their lives happily, now that the world crisis is over and only the cleanup job remains. Maybe a few scenes showing what's happening to the others as well, like watching Nanoha at work, etc...

Towa feelings are right and hearing those words from Mana must've stinged a lot. Where did she learn those things?

I still can't get over how she's always that 'bratty kid' even in these situation. Mana really never grew out of that moment when she met Eiji.

The preview voiceover for the next episode indicates Mana and Shiina fighting, so I guess it's the climax battle in which Mana will be defeated. The series is 12 episodes long, so we're on the final stretch, and I wonder if we're going to see Setsuna again before the end of the series, maybe in a flashback.