Magic Knight Rayearth II

I personally felt this didn't live up to the first season. I really felt the impact of the ending of the first series. Sure it left things open, but it still felt conclusive at the same time. I thought the ending was really touching and you really feel how the three magic knights bonded with one another and you really see that. To me, making a sequel just takes away the impact the ending had on me. Personally, I thought if they were going to do a sequel, they could have just made them stay in Cefiro instead to try solve the remaining problems ithad and would eventually come and then end it the same way the first season did. The series doesn’t really have the same unpredictable plot twists the first series had impact wise. And I just really didn’t like the newer characters. The Chizeta twins and Lady Aska just came across as annoying and I didn’t like the rest of the cast. When you have your antagonists as your comic relief and not acting serious, it just goes down the toilet. I thought the magic knights were developed enough already and they were able to use their maturity and experience, but they just simply couldn’t develop any further to some extent. To me, at that point, they just hit their peak. If they didn’t go back and have that ending where they are embracing each other and crying, then this story would have worked out better. It’s just my main beef will always be that the ending had an incredible impression on me filled with emotion and resolution But by going back, and then coming back, you truly do see their development of how much they cared about protecting Cefiro. Along with the characters, we now have a lot of new elements to the series with design. Like the Autozam people represented industrial and robotic technology. Of course with the Magic Knights have those Mashins looking like mechs, the Autozam people have their own mechs like the FTO and the GTO. Their costume designs are pretty nifty as well. It has a descent balance of being fantasy and sci fi features to it. The FTO that Eagle pilots bares a very strong resemblance to the Dunbine from Aura Battler Dunbine which I thought was pretty cool, but had more of a First Appearance Iron Man twist to it. I also like how the other antagonists from Fahren and Chizeta were more cultural looking. Fahren was based on ancient China and Chizeta was more Arabic but they spoke in Osaka dialect. To combat the Mashin’s, Lady Aska brings a drawing that resembles her servant to a gigantic form and the Chizeta twins can use humongous genies. Which leads me to the action. It is more reliant on the lets say “mech action” and we don’t see much sword play or magic. I guess that takes away from using excessive recycled footage. I really like the action, but I just really miss the approach and how it tried to distinguish itself from other magical girl anime. Now it tries to be more like a mech anime. Granted I do like the designs of the Mashins and the FTO, but giant genies and weird drawings once again comes into why I didn’t like the humor. And the miniaturization of the characters isn’t really as prevalent as it was in the previous season. Ferio now being revealed to have royal blood is now dressed up more formally, and lets say Caladina shedded some clothing. Other than that, it’s the same old CLAMP school of how they draw eyes and faces. It’s a pity thanks to the circumstances of the story, we don’t get to see much of the scenery that the first season had which brought a great imagination element to it. Well, I couldn’t get past an episode of watching the English dub in the first season, so I never really bothered watching the dub for the 2nd season. But anyway, the cast still remains the same that were initially introduced in the previous series. The original cast still do their roles very well and convincingly. I still love how passionate and emotional Hikaru always comes across. Juurouta Kosugi who played Zagato is also back and this time he is playing his brother Lantis. I don’t think the role really requires his charisma or his dark voice, but character wise, it was important. Some additions to the cast are Inoue Yo and Hisakawa Aya as the Chizeta princess twins, Tatra and Tetra. Inoue Yo still has that calm voice you always hear in other roles as Belldandy from Ranma and Kasumi from Ranma. But she brings a more humorous tone with how she likes to joke around. Hisakawa Aya who has played Sailor Mercury as Chizeta is not really as recognizable as Inoue Yo. She is more darker toned and tends to sound more angry and serious. Some of the background music is still the same from the first season. Like instrumental versions of Yuzurenai Negai are still sometimes used and still plays very orchestrated music. A lot of the new background music is well cultural appropriate to some of the characters. Especially that of Tetra and Tarta who represent more of an Arabian kind of background and that kind of music is played to represent them. So I think it’s really well appropriate to the mood as usual. I can’t really get into the new opening theme, Hikari to Kage wo Dakishimete Mama. Sure it’s still sung by the same singer of the previous song, Naomi Tamura, but because I don’t like the themes of the story, the song also does a good job of telling it but doesn’t have the kind of pacing or the kind of emotion that was appealing that Yuzurenai Negai had. But on the other hand, the video clips does go pretty synch to the song. Well, in terms of story, on a conceivable sense, it was a great idea. I thought it took a very original and distinctive approach. I really miss the Japanese style RPG like characteristics it had. And as a result, there are no video games based on this particular story arc in considering the fact I do happen to still enjoy the Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo games. And with the art and animation, since the 2nd season aired a week after the first season ended and didn’t have a year break like how other anime seasons do, they really couldn’t do much to have any significant improvement in the design. But the newer characters were fresh, but not really that exciting or distinctive. The music is still alright and didn’t really change too much.

6/10 - A great sequel, but not a great show. I rated the first part to be 4.5/10 and I would give the over all Show of both parts about a 5/10 to a 5.5/10 when looking at the whole show. Part 1 is really a slog to go through, clearly grabbing every popular idea from anime in the 90's it was surrounded by to make the cluster F that is Magic Knight Rayearth. Part 1 was pretty poorly written, from its charecters to the actual adventure and morals it was trying to tell. However Part 2 really took all those ideas and made itinto something cohesive, that was easy to follow and knew exactly what it was and went with it. Despite this show being Saylor Moon Meets Gundam and lets just throw in as many IP's as possible, things in season 2 did not seem as much out of place. Part 2 tries to convey some pretty powerful messages, and unlike part 1 that I feel like was made for girls between the age of 8-12, this felt closer to a demographic of 12-15. Some of the lessons they tried to teach and explore that we do not see enough of: - Love yourself, not just other people - Just because you love someone else doesnt mean they will love you - Just because you go to war doesnt mean you are right and they are wrong -- Both sides can fight for justice and be correct ---the side you fight for can actually be wrong, and to not have blind faith (Ironically it does this last point pretty poorly by contradicting itself and saying that you should have blind faith in people that fight for you...) These messages its trying to teach young girls or really anyone that has watched this can be some powerful stuff at a young age and I do commend them for attempting to due such a thing, even if it wasnt the best executed, the information was so ham fisted it was kinda hard to not get some of these messages. Pros: - Mokona was such a savage in Part 2 where it was the do all annoying mascot of Part 1... what a glow up -Like part 1 the show was surprisingly violent when it needed to be, but never felt out of place --death is not meaningless and when people die they actually stay dead -they didnt throw away any of the cast from P1, and cast of part 2 didnt get too big -actually explored romance a bit even if it was lacking -they left the monster of the week type of approach for a more character driven story -if you made it through part 1, I assume you enjoy Clamp art style - as much as Nova was annoying, I think the whole dark side "im everything you arenot" wasnt terrible -The ending was rewarding, unlike part 1... almost felt like part 2 was just to make up for how part 1 is --I swore the creators of Gurren Lagann saw literally the final ep of this and went... yeah we could totally make mechs with faces like that lmfao Cons: -The romance they go through are pretty unexplained and people just love each other for no real reason... kinda like real life -tho the show was better animated then part 1 by todays standards it was hardly animated and really showed its age -music score was lacking just like part 1 -so many scenes like part 1 of, oh I got you all down and I could defeat you... time to retreat I guess and let you power up and heal -English dub like part 1 was atrocious, im glad we have left this erra of trash dubs -Writing was leagues higher then Part 1 which was just objectively bad, however part 2 is was not amazing by any regard -power level system is still complete nonsense -why didnt all the other nations leaders at the end just evacuate people... -so many potholes but the story felt like it did end correctly... so im torn here -not a single well written character, no not even Eagle between both seasons lol All and all I dont think I would recommend this show to anyone over the age of 18 unless they crave CLAP, Shojo/Shonen fusion or need magical girls in robots. But I do think that if you Finished Part 1 you forsure should watch Part 2... Part 1 is just so hard to get through despite only being 20 ep. But those 20 ep were so, so long that I cant imagine doing that again. This show will live on in the eyes of complete nostalgia for most and be in the bin of weird anime that kinda get good in later seasons like KINGDOM, but with such a bad start no one will get to this season. Alas. Show your kids this one and move on.

Well, watching this season hard on the heels of the first season is a mistake. You should allow yourself a couple days between them simply to absorb the first season fully. That said, however, this season is as good in some ways as the first one. Granted the land is missing and you have only one scene that isn't a spaceship or in space, but they manage to make do with what they do have. The story is what I like to focus on, and there this season is a worthy successor. It took what could have been an awkward ending tothe first season and continued it along logically and believably. I was not upset by the reuse of a plot device, and there was less of a video game feel to it, and more of a real emergent situation that needed to be dealt with now. You get some more backstory in this, but in my opinion it focuses too much on one character, leaving the other two to languish in near obscurity. They do have their moments however. Additional characters are introduced, and the only complaint I have with that is that the three invading nations who are coming appear to only have two or three people on the entire huge capital ships until nearly three quarters of the way through the series, then you find out there are actually other people there. True, those others are cutouts and one dimensional, sometimes nearly literally, but they do exist. The stories weave together in a tight whole though and I was very interested to watch it. The plot twist at the end is nearly anticlimactic as they have been hinting at this, and giving it away in the main opening sequence, since the series started. However, that said, the REAL plot twist really does surprise. If you enjoyed the first season, you will enjoy this one more. I think it's a good sequel, and I would have liked it to continue on, with the heroines resting on their laurels in the place they helped create.

MKR's second season answered my wishes for a better, more expansive view at the world of Cephiro; and at this, it succeeded, but at the cost of everything else. MKR's art is its best quality, hands down. Beautiful, fluid fight animation that in a shoujo anime would be unheard of today. Not to mention spectacular art direction and character design from CLAMP--the whole world just oozes charm. With the introduction of new kingdoms comes new cultures--some definitely more stereotypical than others!-- we see more variety in character dress and character designs, our personal favorite (the owner of this account and the person I watched this with)being Autozam. Unfortunately for Rayearth, it cannot survive for 29 episodes off just visuals. Everything besides some worldbuilding suffers in season 2. The entire supporting cast (including Feiro, who was The Boy last season) is sidelined, as well as Umi and Fuu, the literal other two protagonists. Instead of the supporting casts doing literally anything, they spend the series mostly watching the girls have cool mech fights in the sky, with Ascot intermittently remembering that he has cool friends who can fly and help the girls. The entire supporting cast is replaced with Lantis and Eagle, two newcomers who I’ll get to in a bit. As for Umi and Fuu, while Hikaru does a soul-searching/love triangle quest, they’re stuck dealing with the new, deeply underdeveloped antagonists, who exist pretty much only to give the other two girls something to do while Hikaru stakes half of her character development on a gay man. Clef is more there than he was last season, but its mostly in a mentor role. Sometimes, the show remembers Lafarga exists, and sometimes, they even remember Caldena is there too. Poor Feiro gets the worst treatment out of the bunch, completely stripped of his rowdy personality in favor of being in love with Fuu. Congrats on CLAMP for failing the male equivalent of the Bechdel test, somehow. Lantis takes center stage as The Dude, and boy I sure wish he didn’t. Lantis doesn’t have a personality outside of being nice to children and aurafarming. He is emo, he doesn’t talk, and he wants to make sure the tragedy of season 1 doesn’t happen again, somehow. He does not care for Hikaru, no matter how much the show tries to convince me he does. He is not more caring towards her, or really talks to her, or hangs out with her beyond their immediate duties of trying to prevent the continent from crumbling into dust. He just is not charming at all as a second male lead, beyond some of his moments with Eagle. Cephiro is a deeply frictionless world, the bad guys turned good don’t have much conflict at all with the rest of the cast, and the girls still don’t have much of a dynamic between each other besides being best friends, they’re all extremely mature and supporting of Hikaru all the time, and that is just absurd for a group of teenage girls. Which leaves the most interesting dynamics in the show be the ones that DO have some conflict, and unfortunately, it’s between men. Eagle Vision, a man with one of the dumbest names I’ve ever heard, is unfortunately one of the only characters in the entire show. Leader of Autozam, the only invading nation not depicted in an orientalist lense, Eagle is also one of the few characters with agency--someone who moves the plot forward, instead of reacting to the events happening around them. I feel completely terrible for preferring a man over the trio of female protagonists, but fuck man, those girls just aren’t very interesting. They feel grief over what happened with Emmeraude and they react to that grief mostly by being sad about it, save for Hikaru, who does react much more strongly but not in a way I think is very well executed. Being solely reactive to problems isn’t the real fault with our heroes--they’re stuck defending a nation that’s being invaded on three different fronts, and there’s not much to do in that situation except react. But when everyone’s all hunky dory with each other, when there’s no real friction within the palace despite the absolute dire straits--that reactive nature is infinitely less interesting. The only sources of conflict are two distractions, Eagle, and the actual bad guys who are pulling the strings and also there I guess. Eagle pursues actual goals. Eagle has motivations and flaws and relationships beyond his two sidekicks. One of those is with Lantis, but like at least it's something. The rest of Eagle’s deal enters spoiler territory, so I’ll leave it there for now--at the very least, Eagle has really good yaoibait. Nova, who apparently is an anime original, steals the show a lot of the time. She has a striking design, very good VAs and actually poses something beyond a physical challenge for Hikaru, allowing her to ruminate on some more complex emotions. Unfortunately, Hikaru is a very simple person who keeps reacting to the shit Nova pulls in the exact same way, making their conflict feel dragged out during the 29 episode run. Speaking on Nova and the overarching villains more, they are definitely there and that’s about it. They’re not very fleshed out, and while their existence technically makes sense, I feel like the citizens of Cephiro should know way more about this “mysterious threat” than they actually do considering some facts that are unfortunately spoilers. The final confrontation feels somehow rushed after everything felt super dragged out for the whole series. Cephiro is a land of the will but they could not have willed for better pacing in the end. Rayearth is an iconic piece of CLAMP’s stories and unfortunately my favorite character is a man who isn’t even a main protagonist. I can’t in good faith recommend this to anyone who isn’t a CLAMP or shoujo superfan that wants to learn more about the genre. What kills Cephiro is its lack of narrative friction, bloated and sidelined supporting cast, and character arcs that lack spunk. P.S. I hope that fucking fairy goes into a mosquito lamp and gets electrocuted to death