magical girl lyrical nanoha is a magical girl turned sci fi anime created by akiyuki shinbo and seven arcs entertainment. it follows nanoha takamachi, an ordinary elementary schooler who lives a happy life with her family. that is, until she finds an injured ferret one day while on her walk home from school. it turns out that the ferret is actually yuuno scrya, a magician from an alternate univese called "midchilda". he is looking for "jewel seeds" that are scattered across the land, and entrusts the job to nanoha by making her a magical girl.

on her quest to retrieve the jewel seeds, nanoha comes face to face with another magical girl, named fate testarossa, who is also searching for the jewel seeds. sensing a dead look in fate's eyes, nanoha resolves to fight her and find out why she needs the jewel seeds - and things may not be as "cardcaptor-esque" as they seem...

that is just the first season of the lyrical nanoha series. since then, it has recieved sequel seasons: A's, strikers, reflection/detonation, vivid, and vivid strike. there is also an additional story exclusive to the manga, called force (perhaps the darkest entry in the franchise). there are also several drama cds, some of which feature new plot arcs.

overall, i'd say that lyrical nanoha is a very badass and epic franchise. it's a good balance between the cookie-cutter stuff like cardcaptor sakura and precure, and the darker entries like madoka magica and symphogear. every character has a pretty design, badass powers, tragic backstory, and a whole bunch of them are pretty gay-coded too. if you want to see magical girls fighting across multiple dimensions and helping eachother cope with traumatic experiences, this show is for you!