Do you like Sailor Moon or Wedding Peach? Do you also like D&D, Phantasy Star or Dragon Quest? If so, this might be the perfect manga for you. Magic Knight Rayearth is a manga that unapologetically flaunts both of those influences and makes a story that is engaging, moving and a total blast to follow. Mythical weapons are found, foes are encountered and the mystery of the world, and why our heroines were called there are all slowly revealed as the story progresses. The manga is a great series for new people just getting a feel for magical girl manga and long time fans of the genre who may have missed this series alike to get lost in and enjoy. While not as prolific as CLAMP's other magical girl saga, Cardcaptor Sakura, Rayearth is a classic in the genre that is sure to scratch your itch for both magical girl antics and RPG-esque high fantasy.

... Last updated on August 31st, 2020, 11:44am

The anime ended differently, this ending I liked more, mostly because there wasn’t Nova. I hate Nova. Also, it wasn’t that bitter.

Story
Three girls got stuck in a magic world, they got powers and had to fight some guy to save the princess. Hmm, okay. This will be heavily influenced by the fact, that I watched the anime when I was young. It wasn’t that original, that they got their power that matched their names: fuu - wind, Umi (Japanese for sea) - water, hikaru (Japanese for to shine) - fire. Also, she had red hair and Umi had blue hair. But okay. Normally this would bother me and I think it still does. The story is made like a game. When I was reading it, I thought: "man, this would be good as a game". It isn’t a good thing. So you had this stages, enemies, one enemy at a time, one dragon at a time, and then they defeated the main guy, Zagato. The second part of the story was worse than the first one I think. But at least it wasn’t as bad as the anime. Shoujo magic type of story.

Art
I actually like Clamp art, kill me. But too much chibis. They weren’t made so good, so it killed the mood. Also, the story was more dramatic and when they gave the chibis in there, it didn’t really fit. But the art was good.

Characters
I can't believe I actually liked Fuu when I was a kid (okay, I was like 13, but that time, such age still meant you are a kid). Fuu was so annoying, I hate her. She was supposed to be the smart of the three, but she always stated just the obvious. Umi was the one who was smart, and she was mine favourite too. Tastes change so much in just 10 years, jeez. I really liked Umi, Hikaru was this happy go lucky character and the other characters were quite original, but their characters were too forced I guess.

Enjoyment
Yes, for personal reasons, but if I didn’t know the story before, I would give a lower rating. I also liked the emotional stuff with Emeraulde(?) and Zagato. It was really sad. Maybe it deserved more time. Also, the second part wasn't necessary.

I love the names, such as the name of the new country as noted in the subject. Characters all go a little to the girl-stereotype, but I even have a large canvas I painted in my room of Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu when they were introducing themselves to the woman who makes their swords. Also, Mokina is quite interesting. Though the end lines are kind of cheesy. That doesn't spoil anything.

I learnt something that IMO really, really valuable, from this series.


And reading some comments, yeah, Hikaru really is perfect, but Clamp seems to love making a chara like that (e.g. Nokoru, Suou, Akira, the main chara of Suki Dakara Suki, etc).

Magic Knight Rayearth is yet another magical girl classic cranked out by the prolific four-woman team of Clamp. The story is far from being original and in fact proudly wears its derivativeness from RPGs and fantasy video games on its sleeve, but it's solid. The characters are Mary Sues through and through but wholly likeable. And the art, of course, has Clamp's usual level of great. It's going to be nostalgia that prompts a lot of the twenty-something geeks of today's manga scene to pick up this series, but the rosy glasses of nostalgia aren't necessary to enjoy this mahou shoujo gem.

This actually proved to be quite an enjoyable read. It's very cute and brings me back to the good old days of Sailor Moon-type anime I watched on tv. Sure the girls are all Mary Sues but I can forgive CLAMP here because the manga is definitely targeted at the younger demographic - what with the "power of love and friendship" messages and all that fuzzy stuff. The only problem I have with the story is the pacing. Everything went by so fast and the ending was just so abrupt with no foreshadowing whatsoever. I think the manga would benefit from an extra 2 volumes so that the characters and their motives could be fleshed out a little bit more.

I kind of liked the whole series, probably the first manga series i read that had a female lead while I was a kid. Hated Umi and Hikaru, but aside from the two of them, everything else is okay. Kind of liked the parts when they were still fighting with swords. But when it turned into mecha...

But overall, good drawings, good story, good manga, kind of lasted long in my heart.

I hated it. Which is weird because it has all the elements I like in a story. Fantasy, normal people transported into another world to save it, good drawings, not so bad character and the ending was a really great plot twist. I didn't even see it coming. But I just can't stand Hikaru. I just can't. She is the Epitome of a Mary Sue. Youngest sister out of five brothers, beat her father in a kendo match when she was like 4, no mother, she's a freaking Mary Sue! She's too perfect, and it ended up ruining what could have been one of my greatest favorits. I could've been one of those screaming fan girl if it weren't for Hikaru.