Magic Knight Rayearth: The Original Amphibia

Magic Knight Rayearth was a game changer as well as a genre breaker. Created by the powerhouse quartet known as Clamp, the manga appeared in the monthly Nakayoshi magazine and was split up into two halves, the first from 1993-1995 and then the second immediately afterwards running until 1996. An anime TV series came out less than a year after the manga premiered that went on for two full seasons, followed by an OVA remake simply titled Rayearth, plus six different video games only one of which got released in America as the last title put out for the Sega Saturn system.

Clamp had already gained past success with Tokyo Babylon, X, and RG Veda, plus their connected series of Clamp School Detectives that is in the same universe as Duklyon and Man Of Many Faces. Magic Knight Rayearth is partially tethered to the Clamp School books but not officially a tie-in. The manga wasn’t simply another magical girl series, but also the mecha genre and as one of the first isekai titles to ever be released.

The saga begins with a trio of eight-graders each from different schools on a field trip to Tokyo Tower which is Tokyo’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. The three girls are the tomboyish Hikaru, the prideful Umi, and the rational Fuu who all get whisked away to the magical land of Cephiro and chosen to be the legendary Magic Knights by the mage Clef. The girls must journey through the land gathering weapons and learning magic to rescue the childlike Princess Emeraude from the high priest Zagato who has seemingly usurped the throne. Emeraude acts as the Pillar of Cephiro where she must constantly pray for the country’s safety and serenity, and Zagato’s actions have now filled the land with monsters and other dangers as it slowly falls apart. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are helped on their quest by the mysterious mascot character Mokona who looks like a bunny-eared marshmallow. Along the way, the Magic Knights acquire evolving weapons and armor as well as giant mechanical gods called Mashin each equipped with elemental powers. Zagato sends his minions one at a time who all fail to stop the Magic Knights, most of which become their allies along the way, including the vagabond Ferio who starts a romance with Fuu. The Magic Knights eventually obtain all three Mashin and movie on to their final battle with Zagato.

Now, to explain what happens at the conclusion of the first half of the series would give away one of the single biggest plot twists of all time. Seriously, you will not see this coming! The second half concludes the series in a new saga with the characters trying to save Cephiro from the aftermath of the first half. The Magic Knights are called from Earth again and this time to protect the country from three separate invaders from foreign nations. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu gain more allies and enemies all while living up to their responsibilities as Magic Knights. There is a stark difference between the second half of the manga and Season 2 of the anime adaptation as there is a stand-in villain for the anime where the manga’s true antagonist would be revealing too much. The anime diverges in its own direction as both it and the manga’s second half were being released nearly simultaneously.

Magic Knight Rayearth was such a hit that plans were being made to bring it to America as fast as possible. The manga itself got its English release in the pages of Tokyopop’s premiere anthology magazine MixxZine at first in American left to right format and then later in the standard Japanese tradition of right to left. Dark Horse Comics eventually picked up the publishing rights and rereleased the manga in hardcover box sets. The anime was a different story as The Ocean Group put together a dubbed pilot specifically for Fox Kids that wasn’t greenlit, but Media Blasters stepped up a few years later to put the series on VHS and DVD. The OVA series titled Rayearth which was a grim reverse isekai take on the original story was released by Manga Entertainment although not as prosperous. The Sega Saturn game didn’t flourish as much in America either as it was for a dying video game system.

The impact Clamp made on anime culture with Magic Knight Rayearth can be broken down into several categories. The mecha genre is slightly touched on as the Mashin in it is magic based even though the concept came out a decade earlier in Aura Battler Dunbine. The parallel world concept also got its big start here gradually became a thriving source in the mid-90s because of Rayearth which led to similar anime titles like El-Hazard and Vision Of Escaflowne to which eventually became the isekai boom of the last few years, the difference being that Rayearth is a portal fantasy whereas modern isekai involves being reincarnated in another world. The major anime subculture to get a boost from this series though was the magical girl wave which at the time was shifting to young superheroines like Sailor Moon who used their powers to fight aliens and monsters, even though Rayearth went a step further by bringing ordinary girls from our world and having them gain magical abilities in an enchanted realm while putting them on a quest straight out of a JRPG in a standard “save the princess, save the world” scenario, despite the fact that journey turns out to be anything but typical.

Magic Knight Rayearth has left an even bigger mark on American media. The most obvious is the Disney Channel original Amphibia which creator Matt Braly admitted to, the only difference being that his show had the three girls being separated when they first came to their magical world instead of starting out their adventure together. Even Amphibia’s trio of girls powering up scene at the end of the series is straight out of Rayearth. Now with a brand-new anime remake on the horizon, Magic Knight Rayearth is a quintessential piece of anime nostalgia that is still worthy of being appreciated by modern day audiences. Clamp’s other manga-turned-anime titles like Cardcaptor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Chobits, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle have helped the rise of anime into a commonplace medium for English-speaking fans everywhere. Rayearth is the ultimate otaku melting pot with giant robots, high fantasy, video game logic, and cute girls conquering evil.