Subaru Nakajima

Subaru Nakajima (スバル・ナカジマ) is a character in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, voiced by. She's completely original to the series, not appearing in any of the previous series in the franchise. Subaru has a deep-rooted admiration of Nanoha Takamachi, aspiring to be just like her. Subaru even made her own version of Divine Buster. She is named after the car company and, the World War II-era name of , the parent company of Subaru. Subaru means in Japanese. Many aspects of her character, including her status as a cyborg, Mach Caliber transformation, and typical attack routine, appear to be a heavy nod to the 1997 anime  and its sequel OVA. She and her sister also resemble the pilots of.

In StrikerS
Four years before the events of the series, Subaru had been caught in a fire at a Mid-Childan airport along with her older sister Ginga Nakajima. Confused and crying, just as a statue was about to crush her, she was rescued by Nanoha. Nanoha created a hole in the roof using Divine Buster to make her exit with Subaru, and the experience left Subaru with a deep admiration for and the desire to be just like Nanoha. Following their encounter, Subaru decides, against her fathers' wishes, to join the Armed Forces and begins learning magic from Ginga, having previously never attended a magic school. She enrolls in the Fourth Ground Forces Academy a year after the incident and is paired with another trainee, Teana Lanster. Both of them eventually graduate at the top of their class and join the Ground Forces (disaster relief operations). They are repeatedly paired together due to their complementary skills.

At the very start of the series, Subaru participates in a test with Teana Lanster to raise their mage ranks from C to B, having previously passed the D and C mage rank exams at their first attempt. Though she doesn't know it, she and Teana are being observed by Nanoha, Fate T. Harlaown and Hayate Yagami as potential students and members of a new division of the TSAB Ground Forces, Riot Force 6. Even though the two fail the exam, they are accepted into the new division. But they are given a special opportunity to retake the exam without having to wait.

Subaru's excitement at being a member of the same squad as Nanoha and being taught directly by her idol may have had her jumping, but Subaru, having a completely different way of fighting from her commander, instead trains in close combat with her sub-commander, Vita. Subaru's style is unrefined, as she initially opted to use barriers in situations where shields are more appropriate.

In episode 6 of StrikerS, we learned that Subaru's family might have originated from Earth like Nanoha and Hayate. In their case, "Earth" is referred as "Non-Administrated Planet 97".

Subaru's friendship with Teana, though the latter may claim that it is strained, is very close, to the point of devotion. During a time when Teana was angsting over a friendly fire incident during the Hotel Augusta engagement, Subaru made every effort to keep Teana's spirits up, helped her train and even criticised Nanoha's decisions to punish Teana for overdoing her efforts.

By episode 18, it is revealed that Subaru and Ginga are, in fact, not biological daughters of Genya Nakajima and his wife Quint (who was incapable of childbirth). The girls are actually cyborgs (as revealed in episode 17 when Subaru's left arm was damaged, revealing cybernetics), just like Jail Scaglietti's Numbers, acquired from a facility similar to that run by Scaglietti, then adopted by the Nakajimas because of their surprising resemblance to Quint. Even more startling is a revelation during a flashback in episode 23, when, while Quint was still alive, Ginga and Subaru were undergoing examination, and it was discovered that the siblings had very uncannily similar genetic makeup to Quint, leading to speculation that they were possibly clones of Quint, which would explain their physical resemblances.

By the end of the series, Subaru has assumed the field roles of the Special Rescue Team at the 's Disaster Prevention Department, and is last seen rescuing two children from a sinking ship.

In Sound Stage X
Subaru appears in StrikerS Sound Stage X to help Teana with her investigation of the Mariage incident. She and Vivio Takamachi become friends with Ixpellia in the end.

In ViVid
Subaru makes a minor cameo appearance in the first chapter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, receiving a picture of Vivio and her friends. She enters the story proper in chapter 5, when Nove, having been beaten by Heidi E. S. Ingvalt, calls her for help and also to apprehend her attacker who didn't get far before collapsing. It is then revealed that Subaru now lives separately from Genya, in her own home, where she brings both Nove and Einhart. After confirming that Einhart is not planning to hurt Vivio or Ixpellia, she accompanies her and Nove to the police station but stays behind to chat with Teana. She is last seen seeing Einhart off to school, where she is supposed to meet Vivio.

She is next seen in chapter 8, reporting off duty to Voltz Stan, before she leaves on a trip to Carnaaji with Nanoha, Teana, Vivio, and her friends. In chapter 10, she, Nanoha, Teana, Fate, Caro, and Erio participate in a spectacular mock battle on Carnaaji.

In the team battle on the second training day, Subaru takes a Front Attacker position of the Blue Team alongside Vivio, opposing Nove and Einhart, respectively. She and Nove fight each other for most of the time, but the two briefly pause to watch Nanoha fight Einhart. Subaru warns Einhart that it is risky to oppose Nanoha, but Nove reminds her that she's on the other team. After Einhart is teleported away, Nove dashes off to deal with Lutecia and Vivio, but Vivio and Subaru face her in battle. Subaru then shields Vivio from Teana's Starlight Breaker, enabling Vivio to survive long enough to defeat Teana and fight one-on-one with Einhart, which ends in a draw. Subaru relaxes in the hot springs with Nove and Teana, and after hearing Nove talk about the path Einhart is seeking in life, notes that Nove is also seeking her own calling.

In Force
Subaru is first seen in the prologue chapter of Force, standing on the beach with Touma Avenir, with their backs to the reader. Their association, however, is properly revealed in the end of chapter 5, when she is introduced to the main story (meeting Nanoha at a space port). Apparently, she and Touma have spent a lot of time together when he was young, as Nanoha jokingly refers to him as Subaru's "little brother". When Rein informs Subaru that Touma is among the culprits of the Eclipse crisis in chapter 6, all Subaru says is "I must confirm it myself".

Chapter 7 details how Subaru and Thoma first met. Some time before their meeting, she was deployed to contain a major fire. However, despite saving many lives, the firefighters couldn't save many more, and Subaru took a leave to train alone and cope with the feeling of guilt. It was during this time that she spotted Thoma, who was wandering homeless after surviving the destruction of his hometown. Surprised by her openness and kindness, Thoma nevertheless recognized that her "smile with tears held back was just her acting tough". The two of them grew close to each other, and she requested that his hometown be investigated. She also searched for any relatives but in vain, so he was taken in by an orphanage. After he grew old enough, the Nakajima family offered to adopt him, but before he could agree, he decided to go on a journey to cope with his own past.It is revealed in Chapter 8 that Subaru denies her adoptive brother as a felony criminal in a property break-and enter crime scheme. Therefore she goes to Touma out of grief to confirm that her adoptive brother is a criminal.

In Force, Subaru is a member of member of::Special Duty Section 6. She is later deployed from the Wolfram to aid Fate infiltrate the Hückebein ship, along with Erio. They are confronted by the Hückebein and Subaru ends up fighting Veyron. Although her Sword Breaker AEC Armament, successfully stops Veyron's Divider, Veyron's other glove-like weapon, deals serious damage to the Revolver Knuckle. The fight ends prematurely when Thoma inadvertently invokes a Zero Effect that knocks out nearly all living beings and machinery within a large radius, disabling both the Wolfram and the Hückebein vessel in the process. Being a cyborg, Subaru loses all her senses to the Zero Effect, preventing her from properly discerning her surroundings; worse, the effect leaves her bodily systems temporarily immobilized. She opts to prioritize the restoration of her visual sensors first. Thoma carries both Lily and Isis out to the site of battle but under the influence of the Divider, is unable to recognize Subaru. He asks "the TSAB official" to have Lily and Isis taken in by the TSAB for safety and in this moment, the two first recognize each other by voice.

Powers
Even though she uses Belka magics, Subaru is considered a mage instead of a knight. The reason for this has not been fully revealed in StrikerS. Subaru's form of magic-use is a hand-to-hand form called "Shooting Arts", which was taught to Subaru by her sister and is focused on shooting and magic-enhanced attacks.

On several occasions, Subaru has communicated with Teana telepathically.

Barrier Jacket
Subaru's Barrier Jacket is fairly similar to Nanoha's though it lacks a few elements. As a user of the Modern Belka magic system, it's referred as a Barrier Jacket rather than Knight Armor as in the Ancient Belka system. Like Teana, Subaru's Jacket after the receipt of Mach Caliber is called Stars Style, based on Nanoha's Aggressor Mode and offering heavier armor at the cost of higher mana consumption.

Combat Cyborg mode
In addition to her magic ability, Subaru has a Combat Cyborg mode, in which she taps into her full cyborg strength and enables usage of her Inherent Skill. Her eyes change to amber while in this mode, and her magic circle changes to the combat cyborg circle. Subaru's IS is Inherent Skill::Oscillating Breaker, a close-range energy attack similar to Revolver Shoot but several orders of magnitude more powerful, with exceptional effectiveness against electronic parts and the cyborgs' physical frames. A cyborg will definitely be killed instantly should she/he take one hit undefended. The first time that Subaru performed her IS, her Revolver Knuckle loaded four cartridges, though she does not do so in Episode 26. It appears that she can only perform Oscillating Breaker with a hand that is wearing a Revolver Knuckle, as she only does so with her right hand in Episode 17 but performs a one-two use of the move in Episode 26 while wearing both Knuckles.

Mach Caliber was not designed to work with Subaru's Combat Cyborg form, however, and breaks apart from the strain the first time Subaru uses it. As a result, Mach Caliber was upgraded in episode 19 to improve its performance to the point where it was able to handle Subaru's full power - a similar upgrade was performed by Jail Scaglietti to Ginga's Blitz Caliber at the same time. In the StrikerS manga, Shario Finieno refers to Wing Road as an "Inherent Magic" while putting the finishing touches on Mach Caliber, stating that programming Mach Caliber to be able to use Wing Road on its own is complicating the Device's completion.

Subaru has on occasion punctured barriers by punching them with a spinning Revolver Knuckle, then opening her hand into the barrier, causing it to shatter (referred to as Barrier Break). She did this in Episode 1 against the boss drone, as well as in Episode 23 to puncture Ginga's barrier. On both occasions this was done to leave the target open to a direct hit by Divine Buster.

Trivia

 * It is possible that Subaru is based on Akira Jōshima from Triangle Heart 3. Both characters have the same color and style hair, use a normally manual-powered mode of transportation (Subaru uses inline skates while Akira uses a skateboard) and train in hand-to-hand combat.