Adventures in Anime #7: Magic Knight Rayearth

It's time for more Adventures in Anime! My best friend Rachel & I team up for this collaboration where we pick out an anime, watch it together and then answer a series of questions about it for the blog. Since we always alternate between watching a new-to-us anime and rewatching an old favorite, and the last one we'd watched together was Your Lie in April, we decided we'd finally do a complete rewatch of Magic Knight Rayearth.

Summary: Three young women - Hikaru, Fuu & Umi - are on separate school field trips to Tokyo Tower. Without any warning, the trio are transported to Cephiro, an entirely different world from their own. They soon learn that they have been summoned by the rule of Cephiro, Princess Emeraude, in order to fulfill the prophecy of warriors from another land awakening the rune gods to save Cephiro. But there's more to their mission than meets the eye, and the end result of their quest leads to the fallout explored in the second season.

Brief Thoughts: I'll always have a special place in my heart for this series, as it was one of the first anime that Macky introduced to me in the earliest days of our relationship. I was immediately sucked into this story back in the day, and that remained true of this rewatch too. I was able to admire certain things about the series that I hadn't before - the actual tragedy of many aspects of the story, the CLAMP team's art style, the clever use of perspective in the narration of this tale. While I do feel like everything does occur on a much faster timeline than I recall and I could certainly have done with a little more lore and world-building, I still loved being with our trio and getting invested in their adventure. While it's no longer the perfect anime I remember it being in my head, and while it's not necessarily one of my top anime series, I'm still very fond of it.

Favorite Character(s): It's really a toss-up between Fuu and Hikaru for me! I relate the most to Fuu, with her reticence, caution and logical manner of thought. But I aspire to be like Hikaru, whose determination, bravery and kindness inspires both awe and ease. (This is not to say that I don't appreciate Umi, who was formerly my favorite of the trio, by the way. I love her, but just not as much as the others, especially with her initial attitude!) (Also, it would be terribly remiss of me not to shoutout Lantis, who I love with my whole heart. I realized upon this rewatch that my love for captain of the guards/stoic and serious but goodhearted guys started with him!)

Favorite Episode: It's going to sound like a copout, but I genuinely love the pilot episode for the first season. It just sets everything up so well, from the characters to the setting to the actual adventure. That being said, I also have a soft spot for the finale, because it hurts so good when it comes to one particular aspect of this story that I love.

Favorite Scene(s): I genuinely love whenever the girls talk about their friendship and vow to stand together. I've always appreciated that their friendship, while formed out of circumstance, ends up becoming strengthened by their choice to be there for one another. That being said, I also will never get over the scenes between Lantis and Hikaru for the obvious reason that they happen to be my favorite ship.

Favorite Quote: "I don't know what will happen, but I think what we can't do alone, we can do together."

Favorite Setting: Cephiro, but only when the world itself is stable and you can see the beauty of the land and people.

Favorite Kiss: No kiss to talk about, I'm afraid, but I will say that I yelled a lot during scenes between Ferio and Fuu (especially that one moment where they're in the castle and they hug) and, of course, between Lantis and Hikaru (there really are too many moments where I just got all the feels).

Have you watched Magic Knight Rayearth?