Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (魔法少女リリカルなのは Mahō Shōjo Ririkaru Nanoha) is an anime television series directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with screenplay written by Masaki Tsuzuki, and produced by Seven Arcs. Thirteen episodes were aired between October and December 2004. The story follows a young girl named Nanoha Takamachi who decides to help a young mage named Yūno to recover a set of twenty-one artifacts named the "Jewel Seeds". "Nanoha", while ostensibly a magical girl show, is unusual in that it is quite squarely aimed at the teenage-and-up male demographic, and less of a shoujo material when compared to, say, Cardcaptor Sakura.

Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA the MOVIE 1st (魔法少女リリカルなのは The MOVIE 1st) is produced by Seven Arcs Animation and was released in Japanese theaters on 23 January 2010 and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 26 November 2010. The film provides a straight retelling of the first season with similar plot and scenario (with some exceptions) condensed into slightly over two hours. Fans will be pleased that the graphics received a long overdue major overhaul, brought up to par with a 2010 anime instead of an early 2000's anime. This film has done what it’s supposed to do, unlike other worse recap movies.

Let’s start with the good parts here: the animation graphics, also possibly the strongest reason why this movie had to be made. I had to confirm this by re-watching some scenes of the first season of the original TV-series (2004), and the movie really puts in effort to get rid of the chunky animation and deformed faces that riddled the TV-series. Nanoha and Fate both receive brand-new (and very slick) transformation sequences, although the famous exploding knickers are still there in all their (debatable) glory.

The character designs are mostly unchanged from the TV-series, but various costumes and weapons have been tweaked somewhat, such as the replacement of Nanoha's fluffy ribbon with a broach, and a trigger for Raising Heart in cannon mode.

The excellent dialogue and scenarios in the TV-series were simply left alone, retaining the charm of the original story. The movie's soundtrack, composed by Hiroaki Sano, mixes the orchestral rearrangement of some prominent tracks of season 1 with plenty of refreshing original pieces to capture the atmosphere well, such as the lively and upbeat battle music, and the two familiar instrumental pieces near the end that shook my emotions. However, those looking for anything radically innovative compared to the TV-series will probably not find it in the first half.

The pacing of the introduction was the biggest problem of the original TV-series, and it took too long to finally get to the larger issue of Fate's story. Thankfully, the movie fixed this problem flawlessly. Nanoha still fights the early monsters without wasting screen time, and her magical powers grow by utilising combat simulations that Raising Heart provides. But the school-time character development of Nanoha and friends was painfully sacrificed, in favour of better pacing, greater power-packed action and unbelievably cool attack scenes.

Recall the moments during which Nanoha gets her device and powers, and has to learn how to use them effectively. It took about four episodes in the TV-series; the movie has less than half an hour to accomplish that. The pacing revision had to be done to eliminate excessive repetition from retelling the same story into this film. All the same, the staff arguably did as decent a job without missing out any critical plot points.

Those who did not watch season 1 of the Nanoha TV-series may still be able to appreciate the characters' emotions, but you would miss out expecting minute details. Also, there was a scene that surprised and amused me, where Nanoha and her friends are playing Wii Sports Tennis. I really didn’t expect to see them inserting that into this Nanoha movie. Some new flashbacks that was hinted in the TV-series managed to give some new depth to one particular character, adding a particularly interesting twist. Of course, the final climax plays out much as it does in the TV-series…with one significant and heart-wrenching addition that was quite unexpectedly well-placed.

In closing, I loved the Nanoha movie which has greatly improved in all areas where the original anime suffered. The battles and effects will keep you at the edge of your seat and the changes to their weapons will bring out the inner geek in you; especially Nanoha’s trigger. The pacing is vastly improved to shift focus to the characters' interpersonal relationships. Most of the things that you remember from the original series have made it to the film and it actually felt like the original series was a rough draft and the movie was the finished product.

The second Nanoha movie (due in 2012) which most likely is going to recap A’s will also fail to really condense the same story into maybe two hours: it’s just way too complex for that. For a magical girl series, this movie sort of makes the mark for being top-notch in this field.

Storytelling: 8.5 / 10 – Greatly improved pacing, dialogue is easier to follow and understand than the original.

Characters: 8 / 10 – Misses on Nanoha's personal growth partially due to Raising Heart's tutorial, but greatly highlights her interpersonal interaction with Fate. Fate’s story still manages to shine, though.

Production: 9 / 10 - The graphics: massive overhaul. Impressive and moving orchestral track.

Setting: 9 / 10 - Ah, back when Nanoha’s setting still wasn’t so unnecessarily complicated.

The film adaptation earned 380million yen (approx. $4.4million USD) during its release. The Bluray Disc version of the movie sold 58,000 copies in its 1st week and has been in the top position of the Bluray charts for its first two weeks of sale. The DVD version ranked #28 on its respective DVD chart, selling a grand total of 26,609 copies.

The staff of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise confirmed at the Lyrical Party IV event on November 23, 2010 that the second anime film will be called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's, but added that it will not open until 2012. Gakken's Megami Magazine also discusses the news in the pre-printed Jan 2011 issue. Retailer Mangaoh revealed in October that the "Lyrical Party IV" event would announce a second theatrical film and second game for the franchise.