Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
sillyfunnybug
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…
Read at the sourcetoitoist
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was a strange anime to watch. There is a clear disconnect between the tone the series tries to convey and the way it actually develops. The anime attempts to blend elements that, in a way, are designed to appeal directly to the otaku audience, combining the mahou shoujo style with influences from RPGs and cybertechnology.
Right in the first episode, a particular scene stood out as odd to me: Nanoha is having a casual conversation with her family, but the way the sequence is animated — with exaggerated movements and a forced attempt to appear “moe” — gives off an artificial feeling. The direction seems overly focused on generating a stylized cuteness, which ends up having the opposite effect.
Throughout the narrative, I had the constant feeling of being guided…
Read at the sourceRingrose
I have heard about the Nanoha franchise for many years now, so I checked into it. While I’m not blown away, it is entertaining enough to keep my attention, which is rare for me.
The story essentially follows the adventures of Nanoha becoming a magical girl, collecting the jewel seeds with her animal sidekick, which is standard fare. The plot takes an odd turn when science fiction is thrown into the blender. Yes, Nanoha is not a pure magical girl show.
I happen to be a sucker for sci-fi, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. However, I have to admit this element has its drawbacks. It abandons the consistency of a magical girl monster of the week plot.
For another, it diminishes the importance of the Earthling characters, which is unfortunate. However, all the characters are interest…
Read at the sourceHonghan1995
As the series opens, Nanoha Takamachi is presented as an ordinary girl, living with her family, taking the bus to school and playing the gold-hearted average girl to her multimillionaire best friends Alisa Bannings and Suzuka Tsukimura. However, she always felt like a third wheel; her parents had each other, so did her siblings, and so did her best friends, while Nanoha had no such close companion. Additionally, she says she feels her life has no direction, as she has no plans for what she wants to do with herself. When she finds the injured Yūno in ferret form in the park, she brings him to a nearby veterinarian for care. Yūno later calls Nanoha telepathically as an unstable Jewel Seed attacks him, and he then gives her the red gem around his neck, known as Raising Heart. With his instruc…
Read at the sourceJupiter05
Let me start off by saying that I am a complete fantasy maniac. In other words, I really love watching anime that include transformations, spells, and talking animals. This probably tweaked my rate on this anime up a little. If any of you like fantasy anime, then you'd be missing out on a lot of things if you didn't or are not going to watch this anime.
Story [9]
The story line for this anime was (in my opinion) exceptionally good. It was not as easy to predict as I thought it would be. I enjoy it when there are sudden plot twists or confusions because it keeps the one watching the anime on their toes. What would a story be if it would be easy to predict? Boring! I would spoil a lot of things for you here, but I know hat I am strictly forbidden to do that so I will spoil nothing!
Art […
Read at the sourcektulu007
Welcome to the new year, everyone. It's time for magical girl anime month and let's open with a look at Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. Nanoha is the first TV production of Seven Arcs. The same studio that did Sekirei & Inukami, both exceedingly stupid. So, how did their first foray into tv anime go?
Story:
Our tale opens with our protagonist, 3rd grader Takamachi Nanoha, getting a psychic message in a dream asking for her help. The next morning she finds an injured ferret on her way to school, hearing a call for help that leads her to it. She and her friends take it to a vet. The three discuss what they should do with it, eventually deciding that Nanoha should ask her family if they can keep it, at least until it recovers. The discussion goes well but when she's about to go to bed she hear…
Read at the sourceZachM
In 2011, director Akiyuki Shinbo teamed up with Studio SHAFT and writer Gen Urobuchi to create an anime by the name of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Prior to Madoka, Shinbo was known to have only directed one other series from the Magical Girl genre.
That series was Seven Arcs 2004 anime, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
Now, why do I bring up Madoka you ask? Well its because they are extremely similar (as most anime directed by Shinbo are). Heck, if it wasn't for Gen Urobuchi turning Madoka into a deep dark pit of death and despair, I'd think they were the same show. But Nanoha, being a lot less psychologically intense, gives it a lot more of an audience to appeal to. Then again, that also hurts the anime. As many "mature" anime fans would think, "Why would I want to watch a show about a 9 year…
Read at the sourceZeroReq011
A few episodes into this series, I couldn't quite tell what exactly was especially grim about this series, it being one of the quintessential dark magical girl narratives. Fairly ordinary girl meets fairly odd ferret. Fairly odd ferret provides her with a charm of sorts, granting her magical abilities to fight off malevolent creatures and contain arcane energies plaguing her hometown. Fairly standard magical girl setup. Then, several episodes later, I understood.
Beside the universe that the events of the story that takes mostly in place in are other dimensions. Within these other dimensions exist legendary artifacts of power known as Lost Logia. Several of these Lost Logia in the form of Jewel Seeds inadvertently made their way to Nanoha Takamichi's space, in Nanoha Takimichi's city, whe…
Read at the sourceReckoner
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…
Read at the sourcePrimeSonic
:::INTRO
Hello all, this is PrimeSonic, here to bring you my review one of my all time favorite anime series: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
Lyrical Nanoha starts off like an overly generic mahou shoujo anime.
We have a magical mentor figure in animal form who gives magical powers to a seemingly ordinary elementary school girl to help him recover a bunch of dangerous magical items that threaten to cause chaos and destruction if left unchecked.
This would be Yuuno who asks Nanoha to help him recover the Jewel Seeds and gives her the Raising Heart, an intelligent magical device that holds her staff and armor.
For the first three episodes the plot remains this generic with little to distinguish it from other magical girl anime... and then the plot twists begin.
We're presented to a rival m…
Read at the sourcemalvarez1
When I heard about this anime, I thought it sounded generic, but fun. I was kinda right. If you've ever watched any magical girl show where the main heroine fights monsters, then its probably like this. But still, it can be fun.
In this anime, the main 9-year-old heroine, Nanoha, finds a talking animal that gives her magic powers, and now she must find these "Jewel Seeds". However, another young girl, Fate, is also searching for them.
One major problem I had was Fate's motivation. I won't spoil it, but it felt lame. Her reasons were so dumb, I couldn't believe it.
The fan-service can be annoying. I mean, these are under-age kids. WTH? The gay-undertones were a bit heavy, most notably in the final episode.
These gripes aside, this is a fun, simple magical girl series, and fans of the g…
Read at the sourceDa_Nuke
Before watching this, remember: MSLN is *not* a magical girl shoujo anime. It's a 100% straight action series. In fact, when I describe it to my friends, I describe it as "equal parts Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z and Star Trek, of just the right length".
The first few chapters are typical magical girl fare, yeah, but that's just a bait and switch story that paves the way to a completely different story that focuses on the conflict between Fate's superiors, her relationship with Nanoha, Nanoha's own life issues, her new career as a magical girl, and the powers that are behind Nanoha's job. And all of that is carried on with the most awesome fighting scenes you'll ever see. I'm not talking about just magical girls throwing powers; I'm talking about real badasses duking it out!
The story is fl…
Read at the sourceSkadi
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…
Read at the sourceSplitter
How does something that starts with a load of magical girl cliches end up transcending the entire genre by the end? Nanoha starts as a thinly-veiled Cardcaptor Sakura ripoff, yet by the end, it stands as an anime unlike anything other "magical girl" anime out there and quite possibly the most well-thought-out of them all.
Despite the three episodes of classic magical girl exposition, the character Fate appears afterward and instigates the series' rapid evolution into something much more respectable. The elements of the plot become darker with the passing of time, especially parts of the plot that regard Fate and her reasons for fighting. Soon, the plot twists fly left and right and by the end, Nanoha is nothing like the series it was when it started. And that's a very good thing!
Though…
Read at the sourceShini-tan
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (I'll abbreviate it to MSLN in the review for the sake of convenience) is an anime about a magical girl named Nanoha. Along the way, she meets another magical girl named Fate, and tries to help her with her problems.
story;
At first, MSLN seems very typical. There's a girl, she discovers that she has magical powers, and she sets off to seal the jewel seeds which have gone rampant. As I said, typical, right? But then, along comes Fate Testarossa, and the whole story changes. Around the second half of the series, the plot picks up its pace, and it's hard to stop watching. Despite its childish appearance, the storyline is anything but that.
art;
The graphics in MSLN are very nice. Nanoha and Fate's battle outfits and weapons are well designed; they are complex, w…
Read at the sourceTekky99
Length: 13 Episodes
Original Airdates: 10/04 - 12/04
Demographic: Unknown (betting on Shounen)
Genres: Fantasy, Magic
Also Known As: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, MGLN
Plot Synopsis
Yuuno Scraia is a mage from a distant planet working to fix the problem he started when Jewel Seeds were accidentally spread around the world. In a failed attempt to seal a seed properly, he winds up on Earth in the form of a ferret. However, his battle with the seeds did not end upon reaching the Earth and he needs somebody else's help to seal the seeds for him. Takamachi Nanoha hears his telepathic cries for help and comes to his rescue. When she is given a pearl known as the Raging Heart she is able to transform into Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and wield a staff to fend off the evil that lies within the Seed…
Read at the sourceKilluan
Nanoha is not spectacular in part, but as a whole it shines. I can explain this by saying that the animation, sound, story, and character development as seperate entities are nothing remarkable (with some deference to the opening sound track) - As a complete intertwining smorgasbord of sensual imagery, these elements form an exceptional, and enjoyable investment of time.
The animation got me hooked in the first episode with two short lived but highly innovative sequences that are never again revisited in style or similarity. Lukily for me, that was not near as important in further episodes as I became further engrosed in the series. Overall, the animation is tight and beautiful, but that first episode has burned an image, of what anime COULD be like, in my mind for ever.
The sound is w…
Read at the sourcejet2r0cks
5 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW: Mahou shoujo with some zing
I watched “Triangle Heart ~Sweet Songs Forever~” before Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, and personally, I’m glad that MSLN’s story is a lot different from Triangle Heart.
Nanoha Takamachi was also a character in Triangle Heart, but she was sort of an extra character there. She takes the stage as main character in MSLN as a normal third grader who suddenly meets a ferret who is actually a mage from another world, and he asks Nanoha to help her collect Jewel Seeds that have scattered all over her world. It seems a lot like Card Captor Sakura, but each MSLN episode isn’t as uniform as CCS episodes. The pacing is faster, which is good since MSLN only has 12 episodes. Also, Jewel Seeds aren’t cutesy like Clow…
Read at the sourceDragonsWhip
Ah, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. When I first watched it, I dropped it. Untill recently! I came to the conclusion that the first episodes are so typical mahou shoujo, but I continued. Indeed: it turned out to be a good anime if you like mahou shoujo in any way.
The story is, like I already said, very mahou shoujo. Girl meets unknown person, person needs help with collecting stuff, girl helps the person. Yeah, very typical. The story is in the beginning very Cardcaptor Sakura like, but later on the real and interesting story begins. The real story is interesting and emotional.
The art of the anime was nice. The character art is very nice: Nanoha, Fate and the other characters are well done. The battle costumes are awesome, but the normal scenes are not that pretty. Think about the backgro…
Read at the sourceFFViper
This would be my first review, so I'll get straight to the point...
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha stands by its names as a magical girl show in the sense of girl discovering magical powers with near-nude transformation and such, however it has several points that place it apart from it peers. It has action that is on par with Shounen with its battles and a more realistic plot then most magical girl series.
The show itselfs is short and goes by quick and lacks the 'slow' nature of most magical girl animes. The biggest thing about Nanoha is its straight to the point, we don't waste time battle random villains till the real villain reveals their FINAL plot in the last episodes. We get a straight story from episode one with no side-trips. The staffs the character's use are really interesting,…
Read at the source