Somehow I was introduced to a lot of girl centered animes as a kid and Magic Knight Rayearth was one of them. Fromt he first episode I watched I was hooked. This seems mostly a forgotten anime that was once a very popular mainstay in the 90s. Sadly Clamp hasn’t done much with the franchise but there are few animes that recreate video game RPGs, magical girl, mechas and 90s style anime all in one so well. There is no competition MKR might be one of the best things out of Japan and I’m not going to change my stance. So here’s a little tribute to one of the greats.
The anime like the manga is divided in two different I guess they’d now be called seasons but back then it was just a second part. Even back then the second part was called Magic Knight Rayearth II on VHS, like a sequel show. Both are very different and deserve to be talked about separetely. First the english dub was going to have a far more localized version with different names like Lucy, Marina and Anai. But that dub was replaced by a more faithful one, oddly enough those localized names made it into the Spanish dub of Guerreras Magicas even if it was their own translations they kept the original dub name plans.
The first story is very much a video game like adventure where the 3 girls get sent to this magical world and they have a small parody segments of how they level up and get their weapons. As a fan of video games or RPGs you’d definitely get a kick out it, especially back then when those type of things weren’t as common. The first season is only 20 episodes long so it’s quite short and yet the story feels fully fleshed, it feels like a full journey and never rushed. They could’ve definitely put more filler in between episodes which could’ve been nice to see more of the world but it was not needed either.
While it’s straight to the point, the world it builds and all characters you meet are so charming that you wish you’d have spent more time in Cephiro. All the twists deliver and it’s rare that you can get such a feeling of who the characters with such a large cast and a short time. It just shows that it’s definitely possible. The tone of the anime changes as the episodes go by and I can say without a doubt it’s one of my favorite stories. It’s a nice ending and the sequel story is a sequel story, as far as the full story you ahve it here and nothing else is needed.
This might seem like I am not a fan of the second season, I do like it. I just don’t think it’s as good or memorable. I loved returning to the world but in general the tone is darker, it tries to make it not only about mecha and gives you a reason to understand why their armors can be in different levels again. THe story is far more complex and the second part is 29 episodes giving it more time to tell the story. Even so with so many things happening it feels a bit rushed at times and slow at others.
The new characters range from just as interesting as before to a bit generic it depends. The storyline is good and I like some of the anime exclusive characters and story as well. Overall the ending is not as satisfying but it had plenty of good ideas all around. It was just hard to have a second part be as tight as the original but I’mg lad that they tried. It’s by no means bad, just different.
Clamp doesn’t seem to acknowledge Magic Knight Rayearth as mucha nd it’s sad since I feel it was one of the top pillars of making anime mainstream in the Americas. The characters are all so unique and the twists are fun. I can easily call it one of my favorite anime’s I’ve seen and because of how short it is likely the most rewatched anime in my collection.