Anime anniversaries sometimes come and go without anything major in the way of announcements, but not so for Magic Knight Rayearth. The ’90s shoujo staple based on the manga by CLAMP is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a brand new anime project.
The news came from TMS Entertainment and the official series accounts for Magic Knight Rayearth. There aren’t a ton of details to go along with it, but the X (formerly Twitter) account for the series stated, “In celebration of “Magic Knight Rayearth” anime’s 30th anniversary, a new animation project has been launched!”
A brief teaser trailer and a gorgeous visual arrived along with the announcement.
CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth manga ran in the pages of Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine from 1993 to 1995, with a sequel following from 1995 to 1996. Nestled right there in the middle of it all was the TV anime adaptation from TMS Entertainment and director Toshihiro Hirano, which aired for 49 episodes from 1994 to 1995. A three-part OVA came through a couple years later in 1997.
That’s all to say that Rayearth is a very ’90s series, which is one of its many charms. It spun an exciting isekai yarn before every other anime on television was attempting to do the same thing. The story follows Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji, who find themselves transported to the fantasy land of Cephiro while on a school field trip to Tokyo Tower. When Princess Emeraude calls out for the Magic Knights to save her world, it’s up to the unlikely trio to take up arms and harness their powers.
Take me back to 1994
It’s easy to watch the classic Rayearth anime. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray, and it’s also currently available to stream on Crunchyroll. If you want to play the excellent Sega Saturn game it inspired, though, you’ll need to shell out a major chunk of change.
Released in Japan in 1995, the import version can be picked up for a reasonable price, and it’s great if you can read Japanese or don’t mind not following the story. The top-down action-RPG also made its to North America through Working Designs in 1998, and hoo boy, you better buckle up your bank account if you go searching for that one. Complete versions typically sell on eBay for dangerously close to a grand. I’ll simply cherish my memories of playing it back in the day and wait for the new Rayearth anime to whisk me away to Cephiro once again.
