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Magic Knight Rayearth Manga

Magic Knight Rayearth is an awesome mixture of magical girl genre, sword & sorcery fantasy, and giant sentient mecha, all illustrated in gorgeous CLAMP art.

Hikaru, Umi and Fuu are three middleschoolers who are transported to a magical land where they gain upgradable weaponry, armor and special powers as part of their quest to “save the princess” who has the ability to shape the world through the sheer force of her will. They encounter typical fantasy tropes like the weapon maker, the wise elder, the money grubbing grifter, escalating “boss” fights, and a pseudo-medieval culture filled with peasants who need the Knights’ protection against the monsters who have infected their once peaceful country. The series takes a sharp turn from the typical RPG set up when the girls discover that the Mashin or "rune-gods" they have been seeking turn out to be battle mecha, whom they must use in a final battle against a foe they never expected.

In the second half of the story they must come up with solutions that are atypical for a sword & sorcery world: the fantasy political system just does not work, and the solution can only come from outsiders with decidedly values. Our heroes are able to come to these solutions because they are idealistic girls and not the typical male RPG hero. Socialism and peace, not monarchies and war, are the surprising solution to Cephiro’s existential crisis. In the end the inhabitants must take a personal, collective responsibility for their world (this is clearer in the manga than the anime). Magic Knight Rayearth takes the masculine traditions of the RPG fantasy and shows how they are lacking, offering instead a feminist solution to the interrelated political and personal issues. It's very satisfying that the girls get to do so while wielding fierce weapons and piloting awesome sentient mecha, in a symbiotic relationship rarely seen in typically male dominated sci-fi series.

CLAMP’s trademark art style is present in the characters' large, finely detailed eyes, heavily detailed backgrounds and character designs, and recurring sword & sorcery motifs that present in the magical items and mythical emblems sprinkled throughout the world of Cephiro. Consisting of only six volumes in total, the manga moves along very quickly and finishes off villains rapid-fire, rather than redeeming them as in the anime. The main characters have much less time to develop than in the anime, so much of their personality is revealed through the art, the characters’ finely illustrated expressions revealing their intentions and natures. The art is dramatic and exciting, full of gorgeous full page spreads. An absence of noticeable chapter breaks gives the impression of non-stop action: the story moves along at a brisk pace as the girls achieve more impressive armor and weapons in their quest to retrieve the mashin ("spirits" or "rune gods"). The second part of the story, Magic Knight Rayearth 2, diverges significantly from the anime's second season, which examines both the villains' and "good guys" motives more in depth. The ending of the manga reveals a big surprise that is not explained as clearly in the anime finale.

Magic Knight Rayearth also features familiar and fun magical girl elements. The following is taken from Emily's Magical Girls Page:

The three heroines of the series are all in their early teens. They are color coordinated. Once they arrive in Cephito, they soon gain Magical Items, namely gloves that contain their weapons and some armor. Hikaru and Umi get swords, and Fuu gets a bow and arrow. The armor they all get fits over their school uniforms. As the series goes on, their magical items change and grow in power. They also get more armor. All three girls have magical attacks, complete with attack names to use in supplement to their other weapons. There is a brief Transformation Sequence for each of them that can be seen in the first OP animation sequence. Finally, they have a Talking Pet in the form of Mokona, a marshmallow looking blob of white with ears and a smile. Mokona's vocabulary is limited to one sound 'Pu!" which she repeats constantly. Mokona doesn't really act as a mentor type like other talking pets. Instead Mokona can be considered to be a walking supply store. Mokona can generate food from nowhere, along with other camping provisions such as a tent complete with pajamas for each girl.

Book Data

The six volumes of the Magic Knight Rayearth manga have been translated into a number of languages including English, Spanish, Italian, French, and numerous Asian languages.

There are 3 collected tankoubon for Magic Knight Rayearth (Mahou Kishi REIASU in Japanese) and 3 for Magic Knight Rayearth 2, the sequel. The first part was serialized in the girls' magazine "Nakayoshi" from 1993-1995. The second part ran in Nakayoshi 1995-1996. In addition to the manga chapters from Nakayoshi, each tankoubon features very nice bonus color pages, a minimanga from CLAMP, and character profiles in the back. These original tankoubon are out of print.

Rayearth Cover 1Rayearth Cover 2Rayearth Cover 3Rayearth 2 Cover 1Rayearth 2 Cover 2Rayearth 2 Cover 3

Rerelease Manga (Shinso ban Version)

These are reprints of the original manga, smaller than the original tankoubon and missing the bonus materials from the back. These "shinso ban" versions feature new cover art. Published 2002-2003. They can be purchased from Sasuga Japanese Bookstore.

English Release

Tokyopop

The manga was first published in English in 1997 by Tokyopop in the "flipped" (left-to-right) direction. As one of their earliest manga, there were some errors in translation and the books were missing some bonus materials (omake) from the Japanese versions. In 2003-2004 Tokyopop remastered the books in the authentic right-to-left format with a new translation, improved image quality, and an attractive new cover design. These books were initially released in two limited edition box sets with the added bonus of a 64-page color-and-B/W booklet containing the color illustrations, bonus manga, and character profiles from the Japanese editions. The second box set's bonus booklet featured paper dolls and more black & white character profiles. These omake were only available as part of the box sets, now out of print.

Tokyopop also published translated editions of the Magic Knight Rayearth artbooks (out of print).

SERIES I SERIES II

Dark Horse (2010)

Following the end of Tokyopop's relationship with Kodansha, all of their Kodansha titles including Rayearth are effectively out of print as of August 31, 2009. Dark Horse Comics has picked up the license of numerous CLAMP series and will republish the series as two large omnibus editions, one for each of MKR and MKR II. No word yet on whether the Dark Horse editions will include the lovely colour bonus pages.

Creators

Magic Knight Rayearth was created by the popular and prolific shoujo manga team CLAMP which consists of the leader, OHKAWA Nanase, who scripts CLAMP's stories, the main illustrator, APAPA Mokona (yes, that Mokona), and assistants IGARASHI Satsuki and NEKOI Mick. CLAMP is not unusual in consisting of more than one member, since most manga-ka have assistants, but they differ in that the assistants are given full credit and make up part of a consistent team for each of their works. CLAMP has had other members in the past, numbering seven at the time of their first major work RG Veda. The CLAMP influence can be seen very clearly in such manga as former memeber AKIYAMA Tamayo's Cyber Planet 1999: Hyper Run. While CLAMP is often best known for their darker titles such as RG Veda, X, Tokyo Babylon and Clover, they are equally proficient with cheerful, cutesy manga like Wish, CLAMP School Detectives, Angelic Layer, and Card Captor Sakura.

Official Website: CLAMP-NET.COM