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Magic Knight Rayearth TV Anime

In the first season of Magic Knight Rayearth, Hikaru, Umi and Fuu must overcome many trials and defeat powerful opponents, continuously upgrading their magical weapons and improving their magic skills, in their quest to find the legendary Mashin ("spirits"). Only when they have awoken the Mashin will they become true Magic Knights with the power to win the ultimate battle for the fate of Cephiro. As if that weren't enough of a challenge, in the second season the Magic Knights are summoned back to Cephiro by an unknown force to protect it from the three invading kingdoms of Fahren, Autozam, and Chizeta. They thought the adventure was over, but Cephiro holds many secrets that are yet to be revealed.

The television series consists of two seasons, 49 episodes in total. While the first season of the anime followed the manga fairly closely, the two diverged in the second season, with the head of CLAMP helping script the alternate telling. The anime follows the artistic style of the manga fairly closely so the art is superb, although I prefer the character designs of the first season. The music produced for the series is absolutely wonderful, often very dark but always moving and exhilarating.

An interesting aspect of the story is that it is structured very much like a RPG, with constant power-ups and mystical objects to be found. The characters also frequently go super-deformed at comedic moments, an anime convention for depicting cuteness, confusion, or innocence.

Original Japanese Release Details

RAYEARTH: OAV

"RAYEARTH" is an alternate universe story in which Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are the best of friends at girls' school who are apprehensive about the prospect of graduating and being forced to leave their nurturing environment and each other. The Rayearth OAV bears no resemblance to the original Magic Knight Rayearth and is not intended to extend it, but to offer an intriguing "what if" scenario for the characters. What if, rather than being pulled into Cephiro, the main characters from that world invaded Earth bent on total destruction of both worlds? The storyline is much darker and the battles more violent, and the characters from Cephiro appear in completely different contexts. The three episodes of the OAV were released in 1997. CLAMP was not involved in the production.

All of the voice actors from the TV anime reprise their roles in the OAV. The character designs are very cool, and all of the previous child-like characters (Emeraude, Clef) have been matured in appearance. The OAV inspired a really good image song CD with very cool character songs.

The OAV was later released as movie-length edition called "Special Version ~ Wings of Hope". This is like a "director's cut" version in which the three 45 minute volumes had some footage removed and some added to compose a new 2-hour movie. According to the EX review, the result is less than satisfying.

Original Japanese Release Details

English Release

Both the anime series and the OAV have been released in English on Region 1 DVD. The TV series was adapted by Media Blasters under their AnimeWorks line and the OAV series was released on one DVD by Manga Entertainment following a 3-volume VHS release. Opinions on the English dub cast vary: your enjoyment depend a great deal on whether you imprinted on Japanese voice actors first (as I did). The script itself was translated very faithfully, and the dub script is almost identical to the subtitles. The decision to adapt Fuu's extremely polite "Umi-san" and "Hikaru-san" as "Ms. Umi" and "Ms. Hikaru" in the English dub and subtitles doesn't really work. The Mashin are translated as Rune-Gods, which expresses their full nature more than just "Machine" would. (The Japanese characters used for "Mashin" are the characters for "Magic" and "God", and of course "mashin" is a pun on the English word "machine".) The anime script was translated by Rika Takahashi, creator of the big name Rayearth fansite Cephiro. I own the original, and beautiful, DVD box sets and recommend Media Blasters' release wholeheartedly. I found the video quality and richness of colors of the DVDs to be much better than my old VHS fansubs =) The anime is being remastered in 2010.

The RAYEARTH OAV is licensed in the USA by Manga Entertainment and is out of print. Featuring a different voice cast from the English dub, it is an excellent production.

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