Anime Boredom - Magic Knight Rayearth manga reviews

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Magic Knight RayEarth

Publisher - TOKYOPOP
Rated - ?
By CLAMP
TOKYOPOP Staff

Before We Begin
Two versions of this series was released.
Version 1 - The original left-to-right read flipped to suit American readers version.
Version 2 - The restored right-to-left as it was meant to be read with bonus material version.
They did this, so far, for this and Cardcaptor Sakura... don't know if they did it for any other title though.
As for me? I have Version 1. I didn't see the point of buying Version 2 because it would have meant shelling out $60 for something I already have. So I didn't.
Consequently there's no age rating on these, nor do I know what the bonus material of the second print was. This is just a straight out review of the title itself.

This is, without a doubt, one of the cornerstones of CLAMPs series.
Along with Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits for starters this is one of their big titles.
Quite a few CLAMP fans got into CLAMP thanks to this title, and quite a few TOKYOPOP fans got into TOKYOPOP's works because of this titles... it was one of the titles that first came out from the TOKYOPOP line (and one of the first titles to come out in their first anthology book, Mixx Zine, which later became TOKYOPOP).

It all starts in Tokyo Tower (which seems to appear in different CLAMP titles from time to time) as three high school girls (Hikaru, Umi and Fuu) who don't know each other and are the prefect strangers are thrust together and shuffled off to a mysterious world called "Cephiro".

Here they are recruited to battle an "evil" force and save the world from destruction.
To do this they must save a Princess named Emeraude from her formerly loyal priest Zagato.
Part of the way they'll do this is by reviving three "spirits" (giant mecha like creatures) which will aid them in their quest. Along the way these three wayward girls will learn more about each other, and become close friends. They will also grow, become stronger, and gain the wisdom and strength needed to carry through this quest to it's end.

That's when the world is flipped upside down and everything changes.
Apparently things are NOT what they were lead to believe! In fact it couldn't be more different!
Emeraude's role as "savior" of her world, the world's "Pillar", turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing -- and her "captivity" turns out to be voluntary.
Seems she's in love with Zagato and their inability to be together started this whole mess off.

In the end the girls have to make some painful decisions, and things turn out to end in anything but the way you might have thought it would have ended... in other words it ends badly. The three girls are returned to the Earth and expected to live their lives as if nothing happened.

Things only get worse when, as the three reunite at Tokyo Tower and Hikaru wishes to return to Cephiro, the girls return to Cephiro only to find it breaking up.

Yeah. Apparently that whole pillar thing went to the world's head and now it's coming undone because it's such a fragile thing. Sheesh. Get over yourself, world!
So things are even more frantic now than before, and it gets worse as neighboring kingdoms are encroaching on the slowly dying Cephiro for their own selfish reasons.
Somehow things look bleak and you can't imagine it ending well.
And, in a sense, it won't.

I heard this series has TWO endings.
Apparently, from what I heard (though I haven't seen it myself since I haven't seen the whole Anime series) the Anime is supposed to end with the girls dying... but then in the manga that doesn't happen (they don't all die)... okay, I DON'T have Graphic Novel 6 so I didn't see the ending of the manga either...
Yeah. I missed both endings. Sorry.

But regardless of that this series stands as one of the "pillars" of CLAMPs library of successes.
It's a fan favorite, and a title well worth having in your collection without question!
One of the Essentials of the CLAMP library you must own. Seek it out if you can and get it.

MKRE Breakdown
What's Hot? - It is a CLAMP Essential and for good reason. It's a solidly done title that reads well from beginning to end. Captivating and not what you expected, it'll hold your attention from beginning to end as an essential page turner that is just too good to pass up.
One of those titles you must own. Period.

What's Not? - Now if you think I'm going to let a little thing like the end of the series deter me? Guess again. It's good, and I don't have any problems with this one. I didn't read the end, and somehow I think if I did I might change my mind and have a problem... so somehow I guess that's why I never went through with buying it, just in case my positive viewpoint of this series were to change if I did read it.

Regardless of my reluctance to get it over with and read the end, however, you should do it (read the end).
It's still one of my favorite CLAMP reads so I have no real complaints about it.

Moments to Remember? - I can't narrow down any specifics, but Fuu's my favorite of the three so I guess if it involves her then it's memorable. But there's tons here that's memorable so that's just narrowing a long laundry list of memories down abit.

What to Ignore? - Nothing I can think of right off the bat.

Overal1? - One of CLAMP's best of the best, most essential reads? Nuff said! Try it out!

Magic Knight Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth Reviews

Magic Knight RayEarth