You know those lazy weekends (or spring breaks) where you just want to watch a short anime that you’ve heard of and hope to like? Triangle Heart was one of those series for me, partly because of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha madness that resulted from it, partly because it looked like a good series. Alas, the shallow characters, crappy action scenes and sounds effects created by a trained monkey killed it for me. Some people may end up enjoying this short, slightly older OVA, but most anime fans should avoid it unless they really wanna see what Nanoha spun off from.

Picking my least favorite character would be too hard, so I’ll just discuss my favorite character: Elise/Ellis*. She’s GAR and can stick up for herself, unlike many bishoujo characters. She has a strange, complex sort of relationship with Fiasse, and I love her interactions with Kyouya, my second-favorite character. I kind of wanted a total Elise/Kyouya ending, but on second thought, maybe a couple-less ending works better.

Nanoha’s fun in this series too, but she’s rather flat as a character. (Then again, she’s no flatter than most of the other characters…) I just wish she had mahou shoujo powers and Fate-chan to go with her. The scenes in the cafe she works at are cute too, but what exactly is the point if the cafe? Sure, some of Kyouya and Miyuki’s friends/relatives work there, but it’s not like the girls at the cafe get kidnapped and they have to be rescued or something. They don’t even add much to the character development.

Miyuki’s alright, but she’s a little one-dimensional as well. The sword battles she did sucked too, but then again, that’s not her fault. The action in general was horribly executed. There were random, disconnected bits of swords flying and guns going off and such, but it rarely made sense. Apparently the animation staff preferred focusing on inner conflict, cute girls and pretty backgrounds.

The whole inner conflict/childhood friends bit worked on occasion though, even when it was somewhat disconnected and unnecessary. Some of the character development and humor bits, though, felt of place and completely unnecessary, such as the random shots of the girls in Chinese dresses in the first episode.

The overall animation in this series was good, especially considering it started in 2000. The character designs are mildly generic at times, but at least you can tell everyone apart. One character’s hair got a sudden, drastic change, though, so that was a pleasant surprise. The backgrounds are beautfully colored, and that makes all the difference in the intense action scenes or conflicts between Kyouya and Elise.

There’s honestly not much else I can say about this OVA.  It had its moments of coolness, interesting character development and cute humor, but the rest is horrendously executed. Perhaps if it would’ve been longer, it could have been slightly better. But very little in this world can make up for those awful sound effects and action scenes… *shudder* It’s not that I don’t recommend this OVA at all, but I can’t recommend it at all, either. It’s mediocre, period, but some might like it. 80% of fans should watch something else if you have 110 minutes to spare.

CJ’s rating: 6.5 out of 10 California rolls

Possibly objectionable content: Gratuitous violence and bloodshed, and one not-so-appropriate stalker photo of Fiasse put this at a 15+ age rating.

*I watched Triad’s subs, and they spelled it Elise. I’ve seen other sources with Ellis, though, so don’t correct me on the spelling unless you have official proof. >: