Not your typical magical girl show
Karsten Sethre | Austin, TX | 10/16/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lyrical Nanoha starts out looking like a typical Magical Girl show - the main character meets a talking animal that gives her a magic item, which she uses to fight off a monster attack, and she is given the task of collecting powerful artifacts (Jewel Seeds).
The first difference one notices is that, atypical for the apparent genre, Nanoha throws herself at the task with enthusiasm, hard work, and responsible decisions. After Fate shows up in episode 4, the monster-of-the-week takes a back seat to character development and the conflict between the two girls. When another group shows up at the end of episode 7... well, I won't spoil anything further.
Lyrical Nanoha, despite being a show where the main character is a third grade girl with magical powers, is more targeted to the seinen (young men) demographic than the shoujo (young girls) one. That's not because of fanservice (there's a typical transformation sequence, but that's really it), but because of the more complex plot, the attention to detail given to the battles and the character development."
Excellent under-appreciated Anime
Zico Gordon | Kingston, Jamaica | 01/10/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I know it looks like the typical magical girl anime and it does start that way and then verges into character building and considering it's a 13 episode anime it closes rather well. I loved watching the subtitled version with japanese audio better than the english audio but that everyone own preference.
People should give this a chance you won't be disappointed and look out for Lyrical Nanoha A's the sequel which is even better than this one."