Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha

Nanoha Takamachi, an ordinary third-grader who enjoys spending time with her family and friends, rescues an injured ferret that she had dreamed about the night before. The next day, the ferret cries out to her telepathically, asking Nanoha to save him. The ferret reveals himself to be Yuuno Scrya, a mage from another world who is trying to collect the dangerous 21 Jewel Seeds that he accidentally scattered across the world. He enlists Nanoha's help, gifting her the magical wand Raising Heart, and teaches her how to become a powerful mage.

Days later, after reclaiming a few of the Jewel Seeds, another mage appears: Fate Testarossa. Stronger than Nanoha, Fate refuses to divulge her reasons in trying to collect the Jewel Seeds. Nanoha senses a melancholy in her eyes, but Fate refuses to communicate. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha is a story about the clash of emotions when goals collide.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Testarossa, Fate Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Takamachi, Nanoha Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Scrya, Yuuno Main

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Arf Main

Kuwatani, Natsuko Japanese

Testarossa, Alicia Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Harlaown, Chrono Supporting

Takahashi, Mikako Japanese

Bannings, Alisa Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Tsukimura, Suzuka Supporting

Shimizu, Ai Japanese

Testarossa, Precia Supporting

Igarashi, Rei Japanese

Harlaown, Lindy Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Mishima, Akio Producer

Shinbou, Akiyuki Director

Kameyama, Toshiki Sound Director

Kusakawa, Keizou Episode Director

Reviews

Dec 5, 2008

Skadi

Recommended

As a fan of anime, the magical girl genre has not always been a favorite. Perhaps I have watched the wrong shows up until now and got a bad impression of it. Up till now, magical girls are usually extremely silly shows with way to many loli's, overly long and indecent transformation scenes, and perverted magic animals from other worlds or dimensions. Did I miss something? Happily, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha is not one of those.

Starting out there is nothing particularly original or extremely interesting about this show. Nanoha, an ordinary young girl gets magical powers from a magic using ... ferret from another world. (Pause while that soaks in a bit, boy does it sound silly when I read that) Overlooking the silliness of that, this ferret, named Yuuno has a mission to retrieve some magical artifacts that have slipped into the world so Nanoha agrees to help him. The story starts out pretty predicable and not all that exciting, with the first few episodes being a monster of the week kind of format. Eventually a rival emerges after the same thing as Nanoha but for more sinister reasons. This rival is Fate, and this is when the story really starts to pick up and become more exciting. By episode 7 or 8 I was on the edge of my seat as the action built up to the exciting climax. The story has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and while some of the plot lines were predictable others came as a surprise. In the end I was left with many emotions as the story puts you through the full range from sadness to joy. It was very well done indeed!

Character wise, this show is truly outstanding. Fate and Nanoha are two of the most interesting characters I have seen. The story does a great job in developing them and growing them into what they become by the end. The two familiars, Yuuno and Arf are also fleshed out pretty well and are also very interesting and fun characters. The chief villain is also very well written, and while she is a mean and vile character I felt a wide range of emotions about her too. The supporting characters are pretty good, in a short series like this they don’t get a lot of development, which is ok because doing so would have taken away from the ones who deserved the screen time.

The cast is really good, especially for the main characters. Rie Kugimiya is one of my favorite actresses but shines in a small role as one of Nanoha's friends. The music is also great, the OP, EN songs are catchy, especially the opening. I found myself singing along frequently! Animation is good too, I loved the character models for the most part. Though I’m not a huge fan of how the men and boys were drawn but that’s a personal preference. I’m not a big fan of boys who don’t look like boys. Particularly Yuuno, if they hadn’t told me he was a boy I wouldn’t have known. Also as staple of magical girl anime is the transformation scene. Weeee! We get to see a naked 3rd grader changing into her magical outfit! Hooray! The problem is not so much that I had to endure this scene, it’s that for the first 7 episode or so I had to endure it EVERY TIME!!!!! The FULL SCENE! Come on we’ve seen it 8 times already I know Nanoha's body better than my own now how about the short version now and then?

Despite my frustration with all the transformation scenes for the first half of the show, in the end it didn’t damper my enthusiasm and enjoyment of it once the last episode was over. If you’re a magical girl fan, this is a cant miss show. And if you’re not, this is still a cant miss show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 18, 2011

Reckoner

Mixed Feelings

While perusing over titles in the magical girl genre it is almost impossible to miss that which is the Nanoha franchise these days. Touted by many as a revolutionary magical girl show with its Gundam like magical battles and its supposed expansive universe, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha is certainly not lacking any hype.

However, as reactions may vary, I found this show to be quite the disappointment. This show can definitely be split into two halves.

The very beginning is typical enough for a mahou shoujo show, it certainly plays off the very roots of the genre with how Nanoha first finds and comes into contact with ... magic, but what the show does after that is where the problems arise. The story is very mundane, and lacks any attractive force to it. Almost set up like a monster of the week show, Nanoha does very little to entertain. I was left questioning what was so damn unique about this show when everything about it just seemed so uninspiring, flat, and just frankly boring. One thing is for sure though and that is I couldn't see what so damn exciting or riveting about the fights at this juncture compared to other mahou shoujos.

The show however does become much better in its second half or so when the character Fate Testarossa arrives. I was reaching the point of insurmountable rage about how this show could ever be considered such a classic in the genre when everything about it screamed boring. Fate, probably the best character in the show as far as I can see, injected this show with much needed life. Finally the universe in this show finally starts to be explored, even if just a little bit. There's a tangible conflict beyond finding little jewel shards. The conflict is exciting, and the events that unfold were nice to see. The relationship that Nanoha forms with Fate also becomes a very endearing one to behold.

Another major improvement in the show was the action. Finally it started becoming more exciting. It wasn't the most riveting action ever by any means, but it finally achieved a standard of reasonably entertaining. I do however criticize the action in this show for lacking any sort of mental exercise. The action mostly consisted of beam spamming, shields, and binds, all which were executed at random intervals and varying strength. There is no real strategy to each engagement, so I can hardly consider it top tier action.

However despite my positive comments on the second half, the jarring contrast between these two halves of the show is quite stark. Everything before Fate was a very light hearted mundane affair, but one of the things we're treated to in the second half is much darker (Compared to the first half) and it is hard to believe that this is the same show. It never really felt like there was a transition to this sort of violence and such as the show went along. Worst, it was only at this point that the show seemed like it really wanted to take itself seriously.

The reason I take issue with the show suddenly wanting to take itself very seriously is that it becomes rather hard to hold a strong enough suspension of disbelief over the course of this show. I often quip that this show's title should be Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Therapist Girl Nanoha, because really, Nannoha displays wisdom way beyond her years. She's shown to be like an adult at the prime age of 9. The way she talks to both foes and allies displays a mental maturity beyond many adults you see in real life.

Further things that arise over the course of the show that one must question is the incredibly weird family situation that Nanoha is in. The way they accept her going out at night without much suspicion, the way the mother lets Nanoha leave for months at a time with strangers for no good reason at all, is mind boggling. If a story wants to take itself serious, I also expect them to take care of such details seriously as well.

Unfortunately, despite the major improvements in the second half of the show, it nonetheless concludes in a disappointing manner. The final conflict delivered isn't the type of conclusion I thought it deserved, and many of the characters were shafted. There were a couple of nice moments between some of the characters at the end, but everything felt rather underwhelming.

Overall, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha isn't a bad series. If it had focused more on the elements presented in its second half, had better execution, and other such touch-ups, I'm sure I would've considered this quite the nice show. As is though, it skimps out on too many corners its story and presentation, and the first parts of this were extremely boring. It is hard to see this as a great show, let alone the classic that many tout it to be.

This is both an overrated anime and a mahou shoujo, but is not a waste of your time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 17, 2025

rinbeeby

Not Recommended

i wish i could understand what people liked about this show. i was really looking forward to it because of the good reviews and how much praise it received, and i stuck it out til the end in case it would somehow improve, but it didn't. it was especially disappointing because i love the magical girl genre, and the director was also responsible for madoka magica, which i love so much. the fact that it is the same genre and so clearly trying to emulate what madoka magica had just makes it even more glaringly bad. the best thing i can say about this show ... is it has a goated voice cast. my review will contain light spoilers, but nothing that will actually spoil the plot.

if i had to sum it up in a few words, this anime is trying to be way too much, and it doesn't know what it wants to actually be.

at first, i thought it was similar to cardcaptor sakura; a wholesome magical girl series following a nine-year-old girl trying to figure out her powers while still maintaining her social and school life. she even says in the beginning that she refuses to do any magical girl stuff during school hours. i also thought it was interesting that they actually addressed the destruction that her first magical girl battle had, and how nanoha felt bad.

then the panty shots began and did not stop. the transformation scene (which again, involves a literal child) has her clothes disappear, revealing her underwear, which then also disappear; it's just needlessly lewd. then the characters with those huge, pointy boobs came in, and they were bouncing a-plenty. normally this would not bother me, i love huge boobs, but the maturity seemed so out of place in a story about a nine-year-old. the characters constantly have that hentai-style blush. the most egregious part, in my opinion, was during a scene depicting terrible abuse against another nine-year-old character, which is followed immediately by a shot of that same girl in a revealing pose. it's really strange and confusing, especially since these are supposed to be pre-pubescent children.

the character designs are all over the place and make no sense with each other. nanoha's design is cute, but makes no sense alongside the comparatively high-tech weapon and magic she uses. fate's design is completely different and looks jarring next to nanoha, and not in a yin/yang, cool opposites way, but in a "this could be someone from a different show" kind of way. the rest of the characters are either outrageous looking (if they are magical) or completely boring (if they are humans).

every time something interesting happened, it was immediately forgotten. as i mentioned before, in episode one, nanoha cares about her school and does not want to destroy public property, and her siblings expressed concern for her coming home late. then like 6 episodes later, she essentially sets off a nuke and the damage is not addressed at all and she also just like leaves school and her parents & teachers are like "okay cool!" the stakes are constantly low. her friends, which are normally a very important part of magical girl anime, are so unimportant and boring (one is a blatant Tomoyo clone and the other is a watered-down Taiga Aisaka, same voice actor and all) and they only appear in like 3 episodes, and nanoha clearly does not care about them at all. i don't even know why they bothered adding them in.

there is so much more i could say, like how the storyboarding is just insane and strange, or the weird writing that feels out of place and makes no sense, or how the magic system is nonsensical and strange. this show feels lazy and disjointed, and i genuinely could not find any redeeming points. it had so much potential in the first episode but it squandered it all immediately. i'm assuming this was an attempt to make the magical girl genre palatable to boys/men, with all the lasers and minimal romance/relationship-based scenes, but it falls so flat.

tldr: this show is bad. go watch Madoka Magica if you want a unique and dark magical girl series. or watch Cardcaptor Sakura if you want a wholesome magical girl series. Magical Girl Lyrica Nanoha clearly wants to be both, and fails to come close to them in any way.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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