Based on the obscure game series of the same name (as well as being an alternate universe precursor to Lyrical Nanoha), this four episode OVA tells the tale of Fiasse Crystera, the young headmistress of England’s Crystera School of Music. Fiasse is due an unspecified legacy from her mother, and in true villain style, not only are there antagonists interested in it, but they even send a message to broadcast their intentions so that the heroes can prepare in advance. Thanks to this warning, Fiasse’s bodyguard Elise decides to call in some extra protection for Fiasse as she prepares to embark on her world tour, and engages the protection of old friends Kyouya and Miyuki Takamichi, a pair of trained katana wielding warriors currently training with the Hong Kong Defence unit.
Triangle Heart is one of those series that has potential, but blows a lot of it in the execution- if the story stuck strictly to “Kyouya and Miyuki protect an old friend”, it would easily fit into four episodes, but unfortunately there is far more crammed in and it is often hard to even tell what is supposed to be going on. From allies to villains, enough characters are introduced to populate a 26 episode TV series, but apart from the core four there isn’t time to develop any of them. In particular, the antagonists all work for a shadowy boss who somehow knows about the Crystera legacy and wants it enough to send a squad of underlings to get it, but once his plans are foiled at the end of episode four, everyone is able to live happily ever after with no further interference.
Nanoha and a prototype Yuuno/Arf make brief appearances in the “Midoriya cafe”, run by Kyouya and Miyuki’s adoptive mother.
Despite its core flaws, Triangle Heart does compensate somewhat in the presentation. Action scenes can hardly be said to be consistent or realistic (only in anime can a katana easily defeat mere guns), but at their best they are well choreographed and a refreshing change from the budget “single slash, energy wave” style that seems to be infecting most series lately. Visually, the character designs are pleasing on the eye (although animation quality drops a bit in the latter two episodes) and even the music turns out to be surprisingly worthy with some decent action themes offsetting the less impressive insert songs.
Whilst the enemy wastes time chopping off Miyuki’s hair, she gets down to business and stabs him.
Final thoughts
Triangle Heart really needed to be a TV series; I for one would have been interested in seeing Kyouya and Miyuki tackle different missions each week, with the Midoriya café as light relief and Elise and Fiasse making cameos here and there. As it stands, the character designs and action scenes make it mildly worthy, but the story itself is overly compressed and eminently forgettable.
