Magic Knight Rayearth Season 1 - Remastered Volumes 1- 4, Eps. 1-20

Indeed, Magic Knight Rayearth was designed on purpose to reflect the world of a typical J-RPG. There's a world in need of saving, a princess in need of rescuing, lots of leveling up, and a series of monsters and bosses to fight before the characters are ready to take on the bad guy and fight through the epic showdown. The interesting thing is the execution of the idea. You might expect a story based on such common ideas to be very by-the-numbers and predictable, as just about every other series based on an RPG is, but excellent character development, fantastic art, great action sequences and beautiful music make this show much more than it could have been. It's not perfect, but it is a classic.The first time I saw this series I didn't like it. Everything seemed to just take too long and to be too predictable. Zagato sends out a minion to kill the young heroes, they defeat him/her, the minion begs for another chance, fails again, another minion gets sent out, rinse, repeat. It was actually only upon seeing the second season of the show that I realized I loved it (for me it just doesn't really have a happy ending or wrap up emotional loose ends until the very end of the second season, to say nothing of some much needed character development for some of the minor characters from the first season).The three protagonists of Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are the three extremes of Japanese school-girls, and a huge about of the time of the series is spent with their arguments and tantrums, emotional rants or pinings. Fuu is incredibly shy and formal, addressing everyone (in the Japanese dub) as "san" or "sama" (Sir, Ma'am, Lord, Lady), and her quiet and mild demeanor makes the danger she faces and the self-confidence she has resonate that much more. Umi is your typical rich-girl spoiled brat, albeit with a good heart. She almost always insists on doing things her own way and constantly complains, but her childish ranting conceals a person who actually cares about others a great deal.The reason why I love this show, and perhaps what will make it or break it for you, is the emotional center of the series, Hikaru. This girl is about 15 years old like the other two, but looks like she's 12. She addresses the other two constantly as "chan" (again in the Japanese dub), a term only used by or to describe children. She is excessively cute (not to the point of nausea thank goodness), and thinks of everything in a childish way to a large degree. She also is the most emotionally open, and by far the most skilled fighter of the three. I might go so far as to say she is the dragon personality of this anime (you know, the character who's a little over-honest and brash and given to anger, but has more sincerity and fire inside than anyone else). Throughout the series, she is always the first to volunteer to try to save someone, the first to be willing to sacrifice herself, the first to blame herself when anything goes wrong, and absolutely the most emotionally invested in the outcome. Again, Hikaru is the emotional center of the show. When I realized that (her rune god is the one called "Rayearth", talk about obvious!) the show seemed to take on a much deeper meaning for me. Her story of sacrifice and heroism is the real driving force behind this show, and when she has to reach deep inside of herself to save her friends later in the show, no matter how many times she's done it before, the sincerity just comes across beautifully.At its heart this is a "magical girl" anime, like Sailor Moon and the like. So there isn't much logic to a lot of it, but rather, a lot of believing in yourself and protecting your friends and never giving up no matter how bad things look. And like those shows, the "monster of the week" phenomenon is in full swing with the heroes slicing and dicing through just about every kind of bad guy you could imagine. But like Sailor Moon, you aren't watching for plot, you're watching for characters. The characterization in this show really is very very strong. Each of the villains have a back-story, and every side character too (no matter how briefly they appear in the main story. If the over-blown emotional rants of Sailor Moon and company make you roll your eyes you'll hate the same here, but if you just love that kind of stuff, you're really going to dig this show.Beyond the simple story (with a nice plot twist at the end that you'll probably see coming from miles away), and the fantastic characters who make the show a classic instead of a snore, there's all the other elements. The artwork is absolutely fantastic, but sadly not consistently excellent. If the artwork quality had been as high as the OVA, everyone would want to own this show. As it is, it's far from sub-par, and at times quite beautiful, but the opening animation makes you long for that quality throughout. The animation is consistently well done, and the action sequences flow with suitable manga flare (light flashes and motion-freezes on finishing blows and fast attacks, showing quite a bit of style to keep things from getting boring). The fights are consistently contests of magic hurling (flame-arrow!, water-dragon!, Winds of Admonishment!) and sword slashing, but manage to also have emotional gravity (and increase the sense of danger) through their severity (Hikaru in particular gets slashed, torn-up, and is bleeding by the end of some of them).The music is hard to describe. Is is quite good, but strangely seems to alternate between synthesizer music which is re-used to the point where it might be over-used, and fantastic orchestral sweeping fanfare that is incredibly inspiring and heart-string-pulling. For what it's worth I'm getting the soundtracks, and absolutely love the opening song (to the point where I almost always listen to it before each episode). The English dub is pretty cheesy, but the Japanese dub is a gold standard for excellence. Perfect.If you love the Magical Girl genre of anime you should buy this show right now and prepare to love it (just make sure you watch BOTH seasons, as the end of the 1st Season is NOT where you will find a happy ending, and the character development and growth in the first season sets the stage for the even better second season. If you hate shows like Sailor Moon and roll your eyes every time someone learns a new attack fighting a new foe or says stuff about believing in yourself and your friends, stay far away from this one.

This is one of CLAMP's earlier works back in the 90's. The plot was very well done. Follows girls on a quest through a mystical land to save a princess which later twists along the way. I sort of thought of this as kind of like how Zelda plays only not female and full of tragic heartbreak and trauma. Link never had it this hard but then again the characters aren't Link nor is it Legend of Zelda. Overall it was a great anime title.

This has always been my favorite anime of all time. This complete season made go back in time and live again the magical world of these three brave girls. I highly recommend this as a gift or just a way of letting your mind go free.

I've always loved this anime and I bought this set for my niece for her birthday, and recieved it very quickly! If you're interested in this title it's awesome, if your are wondering about the company they send there stuff out quickly!

I read the manga of this show and I just love it. I'm glad that nothing was cut from any of these episodes as well. Great anime.

Perfect

The quality is better and love he new look

If you're new to the series, I'd definitely read another review detailing the DVD release.If you're interested in product details, peruse on...Anime Works got a hold of the original master film for Magic Knight Rayearth, Season 1 and they have faithfully dished out a new 4-disc DVD set, digitally remastered; 2 less discs than previous incarnations. Is it worth schilling out yet more money for yet another release??? Simply put : YES. The picture quality is nothing short of STUNNING. Where the old versions were dark, grainy, fuzzy with black particles floating everywhere, this release is pristine, sharp and extremely colourful. I literally was shocked.To add yet another bonus... the missing sections from the episodes, around 4 minutes, has been gratefully restored... with the original Japanese title intro, commercial exit/intros, the preview for the next episode, and the 'guessing game' (that was previously part of the 'extras'). Very much like what Hasbro has done with the 25th anniversary release of their Transformers cartoons.Is there a downside??? Anything negative???Unfortunately just one, that can pretty much, for the most part, be slightly overlooked... the awful method of packaging they chose... not only do we get another thin, flimsy cardboard slipcase... the disc holders are also extremely thin cardboard digi-paks... so wish it was boxed with at least jewel-cases or something a bit more sturdy.Otherwise, it is quite worth the purchase alone for the digitally remastered DVDs. At the time of typing this, Amazon has the set priced at $35; and though I'm pretty loyal, [...] does have the set for $25 shipped. I believe I saw a listing for Season 2, a July 2010 release on Amazon as well, so look forward to that!

I am very pleased with this remaster but do not buy this one until you check out the insane price of part 2 of this. I'm stuck with only part 1 because I did not buy part 2 quick enough and now it's being sold at extremely inflated prices. So, if you're like me, and would rather have a full collection than no collection at all - check out part 2 before buying this one.If I knew I could not get part 2 at a reasonable price I would never have bought part 1.