Lately, I’ve been trying to adopt a propensity towards giving shows their rightful due, which involves sticking around till the very end rather than leaving them partially watched. And I feel Nanoha really encapsulated this ideology.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a story be slow, but of course it doesn’t hurt to have a story be gripping and engaging right from the start.

Nonetheless, Nanoha’s story starts off as one does with an elementary school girl accidently obtaining magical powers to, essentially, save the earth. Throw in a companion character, a recurring villain, and episodic monsters to fight, and you have a formula of deceptive normalcy.

One of my biggest gripes with how Nanoha starts and sustains even after the half way mark, are these lighter and slower slice of life moments. To a certain degree, it feels very much pandering to a certain audience and atmosphere completely in contrast to the second half. It almost doesn’t belong with the rest of the show and sets itself to be not very interesting, and at times, leading nowhere.

However, there is an argument to be made that Nanoha is, of course, a 3rd grader, and showing off her mundane life, no matter how mundane it is to the audience, is a necessity in her character. Even if none of these characters, or even her family for that matter, really matters much, and any plot relevance they have is there only to set up a pseudo-realistic grounding which is unnecessary considering the bomb drops that happen later on. But I’m glad that they actually stopped doing these, “let’s go to school” moments once the shift happens and actually presented a feasible answer that explains her absence. At least, that much, was cool to see.

If by the time you get introduced to the second main character that makes up the “dynamic duo” as you will of the show, and you are still willing to watch along without giving up all hope, then you will be rewarded. Fate, who appears later on, and is the other girl you see on the cover art, plays both a role in shifting the direction of the plot and the themes. To say that Nanoha is a show about magical girls, isn’t the most accurate description.

A small snippet of some of its greater thematic threads might include: the bonds of family and finding the self within one’s family, the nature of sympathy and empathy, and even finding one’s place in the world or the search for one’s purpose.

Both characters take places trading between these themes, and they really become fleshed out among the cast. Of course, the show does take liberties in screen time, and many side characters are also, for some reason, given light, during their characterizations. Both characters take places trading between these themes, and they really become fleshed out among the cast. Of course, the show does take liberties in screen time, and many side characters are also, for some reason, given light, during their characterizations.

Nanoha, like many shows that deal with fantastical elements, is inherently about the human problems that arise, more so than the magical problems that arise. There is something so amazing, and interesting to me, whenever a show can introduce so many inhuman elements, yet still bound their characterization and thematic cores to something human. Nanoha does this to an amazing tee, becoming something quite beautiful by the end of the show, making me invested in ways I never thought I would be in these characters. It’s really quite nutty how much Nanoha changes and how smooth and somber the transition to its changes are. Despite the slow nature of the first half, once its talons are sunk, its grip is stalwart, and it’s quite a ride.

Some of the other elements of the show, like animation, and sound, are things I’m not sure I can flake on a 2004 show too much. But, surprisingly, it was pretty crisp. The action scenes, despite being dated, of course, were actually really exciting. The transformation scenes were really detailed and reminiscence of the classic transformation scenes one might think of when I say a magical girl transformation scene. A large part of this has to do with the directing, which really made the show flow and the action palpable despite the graininess and jankness they were working with.

The pacing when it needed to be, was great. Of course, the opposite is true, when the pacing was slow, it was slow. But, it at least matched with what was happening, and I can’t fault that at all. The show was working with a story that demanded certain elements, and it took those elements and tried its best to work with what it had.

Along with this, the world of Nanoha also opens itself, during the course of its midway shift, to be something absolutely crazy. Again, this isn’t just a magical girl show, and all of the convening elements that make up Nanoha create an extensive setting for the show to explore, and it does to its best ability. Of course, in its current setting, not everything can be explored or may immediately sit well, and Nanoha season 1 being, Nanoha season 1 becomes extremely glaring as the world opens itself to a, well, world of endless possibilities to say the least.

I can’t say completely I wasn’t entertained in Nanoha’s more uninteresting, slice of life moments, but they weren’t the best either. Of course, they were there, and they were used to set up for an explosive end which was completely worth the slog. But that’s the caveat. There’s a bit of a slog, a bit of what initially appears to be soul searching and charm, but once Nanoha hits what it needs to hit, it seldom stops. Nanoha rode its momentum all the way, breaching into meaningful and intense themes with compelling characters tied to pretty well done action. It comes as a surprise that this was only the beginning of the series, and it definitely has me hooked by the end. If you've got time to spare and are interested in a bit of magical girl history, then definitely give this show a try.