In Japan, the first DVD compilation peaked at 38th on the Oricon DVD chart and remained on the chart for three weeks. The second through fifth DVD volumes each peaked at 39th, 29th, 72nd, and 49th respectively and remained on the chart for two weeks. Before Geneon Entertainment's announcement of its acquisition of the license for the series at Anime Expo 2007, ICv2 reported that the series had gained a reputation among United States "hardcore" fans for its use of technology as a replacement for magic and being a magical girl series that uncharacteristically deals with more "real" and "intense" social problems. Geneon's lack of a distributor between September 2007 and July 2008 left many English-language fans wondering as to what would occur to the distribution status of the series that Geneon had licensed - including "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha". A fan pointed out that the English-language dubbed DVD boxset did not contain the credits for the director, automated dialogue replacement script adapter, and some voice actors. Many English-language viewers, even the more knowledgeable, reported being largely unfamiliar with many of the names of the voice actors who contributed to the work.