Magic Knight Rayearth

First off the Manga Cafe bookshelf is Magic Knight Rayearth!

Omnibus Edition, published 2011

ISBN: 978-1-59582-588-9
Story and Art by CLAMP
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Available through Dark Horse in digital format. (Correct at time of review publication)

Overview

Three high school girls are mysteriously summoned to a fantasy world of sword and sorcery.  In order to return to their own world, they must fulfill the legend of the Magic Knights by mastering their new gifts of magic, revive the ancient spirits, defeat the bad guy and rescue the princess!

"Magic Knights, huh?  Sounds like some sort of fantasy role-playing game." - Umi

Storyline: Seemingly very simple. A sword and sorcery princess rescue tale. Only rather than the traditional male knight in shining armour on a white horse, we have three fourteen year old Tokyo schoolgirls with magic!  Initially strangers to one another, their eyes meet on a field trip with their respective schools and are suddenly dragged out of their world into another, with a mysterious voice crying out for help.

It isn't long before these girls are on a mission and nothing is going to get in their way of their newly formed sisterhood and getting back to Tokyo!  They each receive a magical gift to aid them in their quest, but they have several tasks to fulfill before they take on Lord Zagato - they need to master their magic, find weapons, and join forces with legendary spirits.  Their journey takes them across dangerous lands, into the depths of the ocean and into the sky through the world of Cefiro, a world controlled by the will of its Princess.

Not that Lord Zagato is going to sit back and wait for them. Oh no.  The bad guy has a slew of powerful minions to do his bidding and they'll gladly take on the fledgling knights before they get too powerful and challenge their master.  It's no easy task going up against any of them and you'll get caught up in the action and tension of each encounter.

As far as the ending goes, I was not prepared for it.  When you're used to the fairytale / Disney formula of happy ever after, anything that deviates from that can be rather surprising to say the least.  For something that was originally pitched at children aged 7 and up, it's pretty jaw dropping.  (Dark Horse are presently recommending 12 years and up on their website for this edition.)  Suffice to say, events are somewhat more real and complex.  The premise is simple, but the complexities make this manga particularly enjoyable.


Artwork: The manga itself is considered shojo (geared towards the young girl market) but to be frank, it has some great dynamic battle scenes and it's far from 'girly'.  Just enough comedy relief in the use of chibi-characters and exaggeration without going over the top. The male characters look manly or at least appropriately boy-ish (rather than oddly feminine as I've seen in some work that'll I'll review in due course!) and the spirits are pretty awesome.  I find the artwork balanced enough that it should be appealing enough for boys for read too - between the battles, mecha, and humour, I would not say this is exclusively shojo.  Definitely something here for younger boys to enjoy too.

Book Bonuses: 

1. Artwork.

The original coloured cover artwork for individual volumes are included as dividers between each book.

Full coloured character portraits in various styles are also included: as powerful warriors, as schoolgirls surrounded by their respective elementals, a group sailor-theme, a group winter theme, tradition kimonos (my personal favourite), and each of the girls with their revived spirits.

2. Mini stories.

"Bonus Stage: Secrets of Mokona" are mini stories that answers questions about the characters that aren't addressed in the main story.  Nice little insights!

3. Character Profiles

Nice little addition covering several characters likes, dislikes, hobbies, starsigns etc.  Plus the main characters blood types which are considered something like horoscopes in Japan. It's quite normal for Japanese people to know their blood type so it makes sense to include it for their manga and anime characters bios.