Lyrical Magic: Suteki na Mahou

The video in question is from Triangle Heart Lyrical Toy Box, a merchandise CD released on June 29, 2001, for the eroge video game Triangle Heart 3. Despite being a fan-made material, the mini-scenario entitled "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" was the prototype for the highly popular Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime series.

The original video performed by Hitomi (as Minami Hokuto) showcases a young girl named Nanoha Takamachi, who transforms into a magical girl to protect the world from evil forces. The video has an engaging storyline and exciting action scenes, which captured the attention of many viewers.

The video also features catchy music and high-quality animation, ... making it an enjoyable experience for the viewers. Hitomi's performance as Minami Hokuto was also praised for her excellent voice acting skills.

Overall, the original video performed by Hitomi (as Minami Hokuto) that inspired Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is a masterpiece of fan-made content. Despite being released more than two decades ago, it continues to attract new viewers and inspire creators to this day.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: Lyrical Toy Box is a music video for the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, as well as my introduction to the series per a watch order list. Regardless of where this was intended, this serves effectively as my introduction to the series for better or for worse. To start with, the video has a pretty catchy tune, and unlike Yoko Box, it's a lot tamer and more traditional looking than I'd expect. Nanoha's voice actress expectedly plays her character in this apparent image song, which has a lot to offer besides being pretty to look at.

To start with, this is our first actual ... look at Nanoha, in more ways than one; by using a song as the introduction to a series, you can glean out a semblance of personality in her, and it shows in the song: lighthearted, cheerful, and pretty trippy. There are a lot of psychedelic effects that set the video's tone, and despite the low 360p quality I watched it in, it looked pretty good, giving off a fluffy early-2000s aesthetic. We also see Nanoha holding a staff and a glance through what seems to be a crystal.

It's actually pretty good at painting Nanoha's supporting cast and even fleshes out who looks to be her rival rather decently. Honestly, if I'd already been into the franchise, this likely wouldn't be a starting point and moreso a midpoint, since it seems to be implied the viewer should already know the characters if they watched this anime or Triangle Heart. However, it was what a music video should be, and I can't fault it for that. 7/10.