Magic Knight Rayearth: Omnibus
When Dark Horse announced their releases of classic Clamp titles as omnibus editions in 2009, manga fans around the world rejoiced. The Clover and Chobits omnibus editions were released not long after in stunning presentation filled with beautiful colour pages, retranslations, and enough bonus features to make any Clamp fan squeal with joy, as well as truly raising the bar in how manga should be brought to the masses. However late 2010 then continuing onto 2011, numerous delays affected the new editions to the point that no release date could be confirmed, leaving many fans worried that they had been cancelled. This was not helped by having no official word from Dark Horse, so we simply had to rely on numerous delivery updates from the sites we pre-ordered the volumes from, and hoped they would someday land on our doorsteps. Luckily the summer became bright again when Magic Knight Rayearth was finally released in July, with the entire first arc (3 volumes in total) in one super duper book, along with 3 bonus stories and 25 glossy colour pages.
The story begins in Tokyo Tower where various schools are taking a class trip; Umi, Hikaru and Fuu are three girls from different schools who have never met before. Their normal lives however are interrupted when they’re summoned to the world of Cephiro – a realm with magic and monsters – by Princess Emeraude. The world of Cephiro is in danger with Lord Zagato the cause of it all, and only the three Magic Knights can stop him. Our heroines have been summoned to gather power from across Cephiro and become the knights that will save their world – but are the three high school girls up to the challenge?
“Swords and Sorcery – Shojo style!” it says on the back of the book, but it’s not just a title for girls. If you’re a video game fan (especially of the RPG variety) you’ll see many elements here that are very familiar to your experiences: characters acquiring materials to make weapons, gathering experience to level up big magic spells, and meeting friends/enemies to help them evolve into the prophesied Magic Knights. To provide the cute factor, we even get a creature reminiscent of a moogle (one of Final Fantasy’s many mascots) by the name of Mokona. The world of Cephiro is vast and contains various ‘levels’ that the girls must battle through including forests, caves, mountains and a castle where the final big boss lies. Like any good heroic mission to save the world, struggles must be overcome before the final target is reached and the manga is not afraid to show the shedding of blood from dangerous magic and sword slashes to get the message across. And unlike the video games, there are no save points – if the girls fail their mission they’ll die and never go back home to Tokyo. The battles are quite frequent, with the girls fighting singly or as a team and all the fights are grand – there are no incidences where one little spell is cast and the enemy is gone like in Sailor Moon; the girls are stretched to their limits and must learn their powers quickly. With all that in mind, Magic Knight Rayearth seems very shonen. But some of the elements that make this a shojo manga are the elaborate armour the three wear with feminine charm, flowing hair (typical of Clamp), the friendship between the three girls, and the speeches they deliver on how their working together will get them home in the end. All these combine to make Magic Knight Rayearth the perfect title for the tomboy manga reader wanting a bit more conflict in their shojo, or a video game fan wanting a paperback rendition of their favourite RPG tales away from the console.
The three heroines have distinct personalities. Hikaru uses fire magic and normally such characters tend to be short-tempered but it’s actually the water user Umi who is quick to shout her frustrations at Mokona. Fuu wears the glasses, giving off the reserved bookworm vibe, but she’s not afraid to point out the obvious in certain situations and she has some funny interactions with Umi about the strange situation they’re suddenly thrust into. The side characters are also colourful: the kind female blacksmith Presea, sword-wielding Ferio who serves as Fuu’s love interest, and Clef, the master sorcerer in a kid’s body. We don’t actually learn too much about them but they get our heroes to where they need to go, then leave before they outstay their welcome.
The story doesn’t take long to get underway or hang around in one place too long, flowing from one fantasy formula to another, creating a fun little tale of three normal girls trying to save the world. However, although originally published in 1993, it already has Clamp’s significant style of a twist ending, plus sudden moments when the series treads the darker route to really punch home the more sentimental moments. There are, nevertheless, several predictable moments that come hand-in-hand with shojo titles as well as RPG-led stories; the girls fight their way through Cephiro and achieve all their goals regardless of what they face, the power of their friendship conquers evil, and the heroines learn how to fight with weapons and magic with little to no training. The ending is also rather abrupt, fantastically delivered, but a bit of a downer – and we won’t get full closure until the second book/arc is released sometime in 2012. Regardless, the magical ride pulls you into the epic world of Cephiro, and faced with such a likeable cast and enjoyably nostalgic adventure, you’ll turn the pages, despite anticipating what’s happening next most of the time.
Praising Clamp for their artwork is like saying Studio Ghibli make good films, a bit of a no-brainer, but I’m going to comment on it anyway, as Clamp really went to town on this title. The world of Cephiro is filled with dragons, monsters, great spells, detailed outfits for the numerous characters and more; every part of this series shows Clamp’s imagination running wild. There’s terrific depth in every panel to the extravagant mechas to the wonderful portrayals of powerful magic very like what we saw in Cardcaptor Sakura. The battles are big, the characters are full of life; Clamp know how to illustrate fantasy and they shove all the other competition out of the door.
Despite being a big volume, the book is actually easier to handle compared to the Cardcaptor Sakura book; it’s thicker but 2/3 of the height and feels lighter, closer to the feel of the Chobits omnibus. Therefore it’s easier to read but still susceptible to unsightly spine creases, and not easy to stack away in your bag subtly.
Dark Horse may have left a big gaps between Clamp releases but the long wait has been worth it for a fun fantasy title that will be a pleasure to read for all audiences; whether girl, boy, man, woman, or just simply a Clamp fan wanting to experience one of their earlier and treasured titles.
