This will be the thread to discuss the manga and anime of Magic Knights Rayearth ^^

I've only read the manga so far xD What about you guys? :) I personally think it's awsome!! XD

What's it about? I have heard of this series, but never read up on it.

It's about 3 girls that have never met each other before getting dragged into this vortex thing and ending up in this world called Cephiro. They meet a wizard and all these other characters and basically they are "warriors" that have been summoned to help save Cephiro from being taken over by the evil ruler guy. Its got all the elements of a Magical Girl series but with added elements of sword fighting action packed manga too xD

Time for Lilith to work her magic! Makahari Mahora Lila Lili Makara! Make the plot appear now!

The story is about the 8th graders Hikaru, Umi and Fuu, who become the magical knights of Cephiro to save the princess Emeraude from the evil Zagato. Later, the plot takes lots of shocking twists which is almost an imprint of the makers, Clamp (Yup, this is the first Magical Girl story of the famous quartet, beating Card Captor Sakura by 3 years). This story is made in the same base of a fantasy RPG, which were beginning to become popular in the 90s. Magic Knight Rayearth is one of the first series to feature the Inverted Witch plot:normal girls end up in a fantasy magic realm, instead of magical users coming to our normal world like all the witch girl series until then. This is the second story on this theme however, being the first one the movie Genmu Senki Leda.

Sounds interesting! I may give this a read/watch.

Yay! Lilith scores again!

Bumping this thread.   

I really enjoyed this manga, and it's one of my favorite MG ones. (And Fuu and Hikaru are in my top 10 magical girls list...)

I've got to read this one. I remember some of it.

Here's a link to the manga! http://www.mangahere.com/manga/magic_knight_rayearth/v01/c000/

I really like this manga, I think its one of CLAMP's best. Fuu was my favorite character (But Umi's a close 2nd)

I was a little disappointed in the TV anime version, I think I stopped after about 4 or 5 episodes.

But what I really liked was the OVA retelling. I think it gets alot of flack for being different from the original story (especially making fan favorites, like Ferio, antagonists) but I think it was a real spectacle. 

I think that's why i didn't really get into the TV version, it had this weird blend of "exactly like the manga" and "weird pacing problems so we can drag it out longer and fill in gaps with filler"

I wasn't interested in the anime due the the fact that I find their artstyle really ugly... and I have no idea how someone'd add filler to this one. 

And from my limited CLAMP knowledge (CCS and this), I think this is the better one. 

(Side note, but what else has CLAMP written?)

mercury_viola_rhapsody wrote:

(Side note, but what else has CLAMP written?)

Well....*puts on CLAMP-super-fan-nerd-hat*

Manga:
RG Veda
Clamp School Detectives
Man of Many Faces
Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders
Tokyo Babylon
X (X/1999)
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
Legend of Chun Hyang
Shirahime-syo
The One I Love
Wish
Angelic Layer
Clover
Chobits
Suki Dakara Suki
Tsubasa Resevior
xxxHolic
Legal Drug/Drug & Drop
Kobato
Gate 7

among other short one-shot comics

Anime:
(writing and/or character designs)
Blood-C 
Sweet Valerian
Code Geass
Moryo no Hako


among those, I actually preferred CLAMP's early stuff. Like Tokyo Babylon is one my favorite manga ever

Are any of the mangas magical girl? 

If not, which ones are the best?

well Magic Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura are their only magical girl manga (Angelic Layer and Kobato maybe if you bend the rules alot)

between the two I think it all comes down to taste. Rayearth is alot more dramatic and I think has a stronger plot. But Cardcaptor Sakura deals with more character studies and is much more episodic.

Oh, CLAMP's also the brains behind Sweet Valerian, a magical girl anime-only project. It's pretty silly. fun but weightless.

This was one of my favorites, I saw the anime first and started to collect the manga