Magic Knight Rayearth 01 (2026)
魔法騎士レイアース
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
SHIDOU Hikaru is with her all-girls junior high school classmates at Tokyo Tower. She encounters HOUOUJI Fuu from another junior high school and RYUUZAKI Umi from yet another junior high school. All three get summoned to the world of Cephiro by the imprisoned Princess Émeraude. While free falling, a flying fish catches them in the air and delivers them safely to the ground.
There, they are met by the boyish-looking, 745 year old mage named Guru Clef. He explains the situation to them and says they are the Magic Knights set to save the world. They must wake the Mashin (technically “Majin” or “Demon gods”, but used as a pun on the English word “machine”) from their sleep to save Émeraude from her captor, the High Priest Zagato. No one from Cephiro can accomplish this, no matter how powerful they are. However, Zagato is aware of the girls arrival. He sends Guru’s former apprentice Alcyone to kill the girls. To that end, Clef sends the girls to safety.
Thoughts/Review:
I though I read the manga Magic Knight Rayearth 01 is adapted from. I vaguely remember elements from this first episode. But I find I remember next to nothing about the series. So maybe I only skimmed through the volumes? That might explain why I never reviewed them. Also, it would explain why when I skipped the Dark Horse release, nothing looks familiar. 😅
Regardless, for this first episode, it is fairly cliched mahou shoujo/magical girl stuff. That includes the lengthy, nude henshin sequences for each of the three girls. 🙄 It’s a Japan thing, so I roll with it even though I’ve never liked that in my anime.
As to the story, the three girls adopt very quickly to their situation. That’s not really believable, but standard fare for isekai stories. The villains are fairly cliched as well. Since the protagonists are three teenage girls (14), I’ll give Zagato a pass for only sending one person to deal with them. However, whether this is from memory or not, I figure she’ll fail. Zagato will send another, but never enough to completely obliterate the girls.
As to the adaptation, this 2026 version is more faithful to the source material than the original anime adaptation was. However, I’d score it as 80% faithful at best. There are lots of little moments cut from the anime version. And some scenes are shifted around in the narrative even though the shift provides no story structure benefit.
As to CR’s subtitles, they are certainly more accurate than the Dark Horse version. However, the one use of “-sama” was changed to “Lord”. No other honorifics popped up in the text, so we’ll see.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Magic Knight Rayearth 01 was a mostly inoffensive start to a magic girl, isekai series from “ages” past. There’s nothing here to really jazz me yet. But it is a CLAMP work, so I’m sticking with it.
