2020 Reflection: Magic Knight Rayearth

 

Magic Knight Rayearth was written in November 1993 by Mangaka group CLAMP. The series is a magical girl swords and sorcery fantasy starring three normal girls (Hikaru, Umi and Fuu) from our world being called to the magical other world of Cephiro by the distressed princess of Cephiro, Emeraude. There they must learn the usage of weapons and magic to become Magic Knights capable of defeating the dark Lord Zagato who has taken Emeraude captive. Despite the fact that there are series I like more then MKR, even from around the same time period, MKR is probably the series I would most describe as nostalgic because, and this is something I think both fans and critics of MKR would agree on, this series is absolutely innundated with 90s tropes. Despite the fact that it takes place almost entirely in other worlds then Earth, the plot elements and character tropes used in the series are very 90s. The series is a hybrid of a Japanese Medieval Fantasy RPG and a 90s Magical Girl Anime, which makes it very distinctly familiar feeling, at least for someone like me.

3 Reasons I love it: 

I have liked MKR for a very long time, and I am not sure how much nostalgia is talking through me when talking about it's high points, but in an attempt to look at it objectively, there are parts of MKR I think are the best parts of it.

1: Magic Knight Rayearth is one of, if not the, most "archetypal" magical girl series I've seen. I don't mean it's an "archetypal magical girl", as in it is what thinks about when one thinks "magical girl series", I mean it is magical girl series where everything in it is archetypal. The characters, the plots, the very designs of things are designed to be clear, distinctive and immediatly evocative. If you look at the designs and personalities of the three Magic Knights for instance, their personalities lack much complexities but in exchange are highly potent and feel extremely concentrated for both serious and comedic purposes. The designs of the warships of Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren are all modeled after real cultures and are made to be highly evocative of them to give a strong immediate impression. Everything in the series feels very direct and concentrated, as if all unneccesary details were stripped away to make every character, plot point, and aesthetic feel in their purest and most clear state, whether they are extraneous to the story or not. Unlike almost every other series I like, the greatest moments of MKR are simple; they are not great because of the internal paradox of a character or a large amount of plot elements coming together; but because a character's archetype is taken to it's extreme. Hikaru is the heroic frontline soldier, so she will take every blow of the mighty Zagato for her friends. Umi is willfull and an elegant swordstress so she will slice through every summon of Ascot and force him to be humble. Fuu is the kind intellectual, so she will find a way to save both her brainwashed violent friends with her brain. The Magic Knights are noble, which leads them inevitably to act for the greater good, no matter how the tragedy hurts them as it does. 

2: When Magic Knight Rayearth was first being made, it was fairly clear CLAMP made it as a more child-friendly and light-hearted alternative to it's other big work at the time Tokyo Babylon. As such it would have been very easy to justify a very simple moral conflict, however Magic Knight Rayearth actually incorporates several ethical quandries not common for the genre, or I would dare so, not common for works aimed at the demographic in general including such things as survivor's guilt or the purpose of diversity of thought. Works for a younger audience often focus on characterization above thematic depth and can be described as complex characters encountering a simple conflict. MKR is instead the more intriguing simple characters encountering a complex conflict.

3: The world of MKR is a fun world to escape too. This could obviously be said about most fictional series one likes but I think no series embodies it better to me then MKR. The series literally involves an escape to a differenet world, but the overarching world presented in MKR is both strange and familiar. MKR has a general theme that "things aren't what they seem", and the world of MKR is filled with surprises and fun little quirks or knick-nacks that give it a feeling of naturalness and lack of artifice generally associated with works much longer then it (at least manga-wise as it's anime is fairly extensive for a Shojo at 49 eps). Despite this, for someone like me especially the work feels instantly familiar drawing on 90s shojo anime tropes and fantasy rpg tropes. This makes it very easy and pleasent to read and watch or reread and rewatch due to being both comfortable yet at the same time being, if not surprising on any reread or rewatch, then at least outside what I would normally experience.

3 Flaws:

1: As I've already alluded to, characters in Magic Knight Rayearth very often lack depth. This may be a surprisng statement as most characters in Magic Knight Rayearth will surprise the viewer in what they will do and who they are, as one of the themes of the series is that things are not what they appear. For instance early on the Magic Knights meet Guru Clef who looks like a child but is actually the greatest mage in Cephiro and centuries old. However once you know that, he doesn't act with more depth then a character who both looks and is a centuries old archmage would act. Every character in Magic Knight Rayearth's personality and motivation can be described in a sentence or two, they just might not be the sentences you would use when you first meet them. To create the potency and sheer archetypal-ness of each character, the characters must be as concentrated towards a singular concept, making the work feel like a very action-oriented fairy tale.

2: The series relies heavily on tropes. Now there is definitely surprise as to which trope they are using, as the series likes to have little plot twists everywhere, however there's a lot of standard RPG and Shojo tropes that are used here such as gaining sudden powerup from friendship, sending bad guys at the heroines one at a time, leveling up for defeating enemies that if they bother you for being unrealistic, sappy, or overused, then they'll definitely annoy you here.

3: This last one depends on whether it's the manga the anime. The manga is really short. It's six chapters, and while these are oversized long chapters, the series is comfortably two volumes long, and as such many of the cool worldbuilding remains unexplored. The 49 episode anime adaptation expands on them but in exchange is much slower and has some real pacing issues (like flashbacks to the PRIOR EPISODE), so it's a bit of a tradeoff depending on what you prefer.

Favorite Part:

The climax of the manga is my favorite part. Hikaru is back on Earth and trying to return to Cephiro to save Eagle Vision and her friends but the rules of the god of Cephiro are dissolvering her as she does so. However her friendship with Umi and Fuu are so strong that their transcend the dimensional barriers and God's law, and they pull her through, their three rune gods combining into Full Rayearth. It's a moment that uses the series' biggest strength to it's maximum, taking something pure and archetypal and bringing it to the extreme, transcending every barrier the series could put before it.