This work was originally planned as a spin-off of the game Triangle Heart series, but scriptwriter Tsukushi Maki thought "it would be difficult to adapt the game as-is into anime," and decided to borrow the character settings while making the content entirely original.

Tsukushi Maki's original vision for magical girls was heartwarming like classic girls' content, but due to the constraints of being a late-night anime with only one cour, creating it straightforwardly would result in it being merely "a parody of magical girl anime," so it was intentionally produced by ignoring everything except the essence of the basic structure.

As it was decided from the start that it would be broadcast as a late-night UHF anime, flashy action was incorporated with the aim of appealing to the late-night viewing audience.

Tamura Yukari, who voiced the protagonist, stated at the production presentation: "I've been saying I wanted to do a magical girl role ever since becoming a voice actress, so I'm extremely grateful to have been able to play this role this time."

Mizuki Nana, who played Fate, commented on her character that Fate's reluctance to show her true feelings contains many feelings of seeking the pure affection and bonds that are inherent to children.

The magical staff, which had traditionally been depicted as a mere "tool" in magical girl anime, was portrayed as an autonomous partner that makes its own judgments and speaks English, and a native English speaker was cast as its voice actress.

Many character names use automobile-related terminology.

The setting of the city Uminary shares the same name as a municipality in Tokushima Prefecture, which is the birthplace of a detective appearing in the "Broad Police" series in TV Asahi's Saturday Wide Theater block, though the reading differs (in the work it is "Uminary," while the actual place name is read "Kaina"), and the two have no connection within the story's world.

The DVD release in the English-speaking market was announced by Geneon Entertainment at Anime Expo 2007, but due to the company switching distributors between September 2007 and July 2008, the actual release by Funimation came approximately a year and a half after the license announcement.

The English dub DVD box set had the problem of missing credits for the director, ADR script supervisor, and some voice actors.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st recorded box office revenue of approximately 3.8 billion yen (approximately 4.4 million dollars), and the Blu-ray version sold 58,000 copies in its first week of release, claiming the top spot on the Blu-ray chart for two consecutive weeks.