Magic Knight Rayearth Gets New Anime
Magic Knight Rayearth, one of the manga collective CLAMP’s first major successes and one of the first wave of isekai series, is being adapted for a new anime.
Being made to mark 30 years since the first anime adaptation, it is not yet known what format the series will be (i.e. whether it will be for TV, film etc.), but a new visual and promo video has been released by TMS, which includes footage from the original anime.
A new poster for the series describes the plot of the series:
While on a field trip to the Tokyo Tower in 1993, three eighth grade girls, Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji meet by chance. After hearing a girl’s call for help from the illuminating glow outside the window, the girls find themselves transported to the other world of Cephiro. Guided by Guru Clef, they embark on a journey to save Cephiro as the Magic Knights.
The original manga ran from 1993 to 1996, and is currently released by Kodansha. When it was first adapted it was made into a 49-episode-long series, but as it ran between 1994 and 1995, the ending differed to the original source material. In 1997, a three-part OVA was made which differed considerably from the manga in that this version was a reverse isekai, with the characters from Cephiro coming to Earth. The anime is released in the UK by Anime Ltd.
Rayearth was one of a collection of series that formed what is now retrospectively dubbed the “first wave of isekai” or “shojo isekai”, with series such as this, Fushiji Yugi, Inuyasha and The Vision of Escaflowne emerging at the same time, before the current modern dominance of the genre. Like Escaflowne, Rayearth is also a mecha series.
