Magic Knight Rayearth (Mahou Kishi Reiaasu) is a shoujo fantasy action-adventure series created by CLAMP which consists of a six volume manga, a TV anime, and an alternate universe OAV. All have been adapted into English and many other languages.

Rayearth stars three likeable junior highschool heroes who are courageous and resourceful. The setup is simple: three girls from different private schools all visiting Tokyo Tower on a school trip are suddenly transported from the familiar landscape of Tokyo Tower and thrust into battle in a fantasy land. Finding themselves participants in a real life RPG, complete with upgrading armor, elemental magic powers, and quests, Hikaru, Umi and Fuu must take charge of a magical realm whose entire world system is crumbling. They are destined to profoundly change the utopian land of Cephiro through decisions fueled by their personal value system, which is often at conflict with the battle-centric world. The process of saving Cephiro from itself parallels the girls' growing maturity, as they are able to bring fresh viewpoints to the conflicted world. In the tradition of the best magical girls stories, Rayearth is a coming of age journey.

In My Heart is dedicated to all aspects of Magic Knight Rayearth and aims to be a comprehensive resource of series information, product guide, and multimedia downloads. Rayearth is a fun little series, with a healthy dose of angst that never overshadows its optimism that the strength of friendship and love can change the world. The art and music are especially good, and I'm quite fond of both the anime and manga versions. MRKE was the second anime series I watched, way back in 1997 :)

February 9, 2011

The Dark Horse reissue of the Magic Knight Rayearth manga in two omnibus editions is slated for January 18, 2011 and February 1, 2011. Amazon and RightStuf are still listing both volumes as preorders, so who knows what's up with that. Dark Horse picked up the license way back in 2009 when Tokyopop lost its Kodansha licenses.