cephiro - introduction

i n t r o d u c t i o n
What is Magic Knight RayEarth?

Magic Knight RayEarth started way back in October of 1993, when CLAMP released the first chapter of the manga (by now, I'm sure you know that is what the Japanese call their comics such as RayEarth) in the November 1993 issue of Nakayosi, a manga anthology "phonebook" publication by Kodansha. The series proved to be immensely popular in the approximately two and a half years, with approximately 30 chapters running in two parts until the two-part finale in the April 1996 issue. The whole of the series is collected into six tankoubon (graphic novels), three volumes for each section. If interested, look in the manga section.

art by lauren nicolo. Ah, what good is a manga series nowadays without anime (they aren't cartoons, and they aren't just sex & violence!) ? Without fail, the anime production companies created an animated TV series called, surprise, Magic Knight RayEarth. The first 20 episodes followed the first section of the manga relatively faithfully, with its own extra episodes to fill in a few more gaps. The second season, however, they went a completely different route. CLAMP leader Nanase Ohkawa helped as the screenwriter for Magic Knight RayEarth Dainishou (i.e. MKRE: The Second Chapter) to take a life of its own, with characters unique to the TV series. This second arc, complete with two (yes, two) sets of opening and closing sequences, totaled at 29 episodes. All 49 episodes are available on VHS and LaserDisc, with a DVD version on the way. More information is available in the TV section.

art by heather chan The goose that lays eggs of gold can't be completely forgotten, even after a year or two. Over a year and a half after the last TV episode aired on November 27, 1995, the folks at Kodansha and Tokyo Movie Shinsha announced that they were going to make an Original Animated Video series called RAYEARTH. Now, mind you, you're going to see the same characters (with slightly different designs), but this is no Magic Knight RayEarth. The story is nothing like either the manga or the TV series. There is lots of destruction in Tokyo (like, oh, X). Furthermore, there are two versions of this OAV. Look in the OAV section for more details.

This series is one that is actually loved by people all over the world. As far as this I know, the manga has been translated into French, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Spanish, and English. The English version is still being serialized in Tokyopop (what was Mixxzine), a magazine by Mixx Entertainment that used to be a manga anthology but is apparently morphing into its own genre (I dunno what to call that genre...). The TV series is currently being brought over to this side of the Pacific by the folks over at Media Blasters. And the OAV series? Manga Entertainment has licenced it (and they announced so during the summer con season) so it should be coming out in the future. Whether they will release the original 3-volume set or the Director's Cut movie version is yet to be seen.