FIF#165-Magic Knight Rayearth

In the magical world of Cephira, a cry for help has gone out.  Besieged by the evil Zagato, the imprisoned Princess Emeraude invokes a long held legend, calling to Cephiro the three Magic Knights who will save Cephiro.  Unfortunately, the legend forgot to mention that the three chosen warriors are also a trio of 8^th Grade School Girls from Tokyo: bubbly Hikaru, intelligent Fuu and elegant Umi.  Called to serve a fate they don’t understand, these three girls are the only chance Cephira has at returning to an age of peace and wonder.  Then, and only then, can they return home.
 
Since we’ll be spending the month of July with the legendary Pretty Guardian in a Sailor Costume, the last few First Impression Fridays are all going to be centered around Female Protagonists, both magical or otherwise.  We’re kicking things off today with a visit to the girls of CLAMP, the brain trust behind Cardcaptor Sakura, X-1999 and Tsubasa: Resevoir Chronicle.  And wouldn’t you know it, we also happen to find ourselves in another Issekai before Issekai became the dominant force in Anime.  In a away, Rayearth could be a Sailor Moon Issekai with a dash of JRPG…is this a good combo worth sticking around for?
 
I’ll give it this, Rayearth wastes no time getting right into things.  We’ve only barely met Hikaru, Umi and Fuu before their whisked away to Cephiro.  Personality wise, Hikaru and Umi stand out the most: Hikaru being so happy go lucky and quick to accept her apparent destiny; while Umi is the exact opposite, disbelieving and pretty selfish, saying Cephiro’s people should sort out their own problems.  Fuu plays the logical of the trio but it seems she mostly just sides with Hikaru on most matters so besides the cute brainy look, she stands out the least of the trio.  The trios mission is pretty straight forward: Save Cephiro and they get to go home.  To this end, they get Magical Armor and presumably they’ll get some weapons, learn some spells, all that JRPG goodness.  I hope that the girls do get more, if not better, armor down the line because right now, there’s just some slight cosmetic changes to their school uniforms, that’s it, kind of underwhelming thus far.  Which I guess is a bit of a nitpick because this show looks pretty good.  Rayearth is a mid 1990’s Anime and back then, most Anime looked pretty good on TV.    Cephiro looks incredibly pretty and looks to take some visual cues from Fantasia of the Never Ending Story.  And the character designs are pure CLAMP as well: super tall and a little lanky with big expressive eyes, a staple of the groups artstyle.  We do get to see Hikaru perform one magic spell in the premiere episode and while it’s a small beginning, the effect is pretty grand and animated quite nicely.
 
Magic Knight Rayearth hardly seems to come up in the circles of Magical Girl fans (maybe Sakura is the far more popular of CLAMPS Magical Girl offerings?).  That alone might make me a bit curious to continue on and see how it all plays out.  Maybe this could be a hidden gem or a flawed one.  I’d hope for the former because, again, this show looks great.  And there’s nothing like an old school 90s fantasy series to bring back good memories of Record of Lodoss War or Escaflowne to get you excited.  So maybe I’ll give Rayearth a bit more of a chance.  We’ll just have to see.