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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of THE best shoujo manga ever written!!!!!!!!!! - Arenas, October 19, 2004
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Magic Knight Rayearth I, Book 1 (Paperback)
Magic Knight Rayearth is definite must-buy. Here are some reasons why:
~THE ARTWORK~
This series' artwork is the best I've seen so far.The shading foe textures, greys and blacks used is amazing, and the color artwork on the front and back is even better. So vibrant and lively, the shading used by this team makes the characters stand out.
~THE CHARACTERS~
The characters are thoughtfully created and easy for us readers to relate to.
Hikaru is lively, happy, cute, caring, optomistic (very so for someone her age) and very loyal as a friend to Umi and Fuu. She is also way too innocent and pure to be a real person.
Umi is probably the closest made-up character to reality as you can get. At the beginning, she thinks the entire ordeal is crazy, and comes out as a tad snobby. She has a bad temper, along with being annoyed very easily, but has a kind and brave heart. It also seems that she dislikes Mokona for constantly freaking the girls out.
Fuu, who is not a ditzy airhead, like some people like to portray her as, is bright and handles thier situtation with a logical manner. Fuu is very bright and probably the easiest character for me to relate to. If there was a brainiac in MKR, it's definetly Fuu.
~OVERALL~
I would rant on more, but my fingers are getting tired. However, I would not recommend this to a little kid because of some things like bloody (VERY VERY bloody) violence although the back of the manga says 'Youth - 10+'. This series definetly belongs in a teen's collection. (BTW , I am 15 and have a younger brother who likes to sneak reads at my manga while I am not there, so I'd know.)
There are no flaws in this series. Go buy it now!!!!!!!!!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Puu! Puuuu!!!, February 8, 2005
This review is from: Magic Knight Rayearth I, Book 1 (Paperback)
This is the first manga I ever read, the first I ever even touched!!! (So I¡¦m obsessed, so what?) Anyway, it was excellent, I loved it, and I¡¦m dying to get my hands on more and more manga, but I¡¦m currently staying in Egypt where manga in nonexistent. Lot¡¦s of anime on TV, translated into Arabic, but no manga ƒ¼.
To get down to Magic Knight Rayearth.
It rocks! And so does CLAMP, the famous all-female team of four women who have earned fame¡Xand fortune¡Xthrough their breathtaking manga. Now, anyone into manga likes to know some things before they buy one, such as:
1. Story: Great story, very classical Shoujo storyline, but definitely original and captivating. The story is about Hikaru, Umi and Fuu, three 14-year-old girls who find themselves magically transported to Cephiro, a land where the strength of your will determines your strength. Will is everything in Cephiro. They meet Clef, a 745-year-old magician (and the cutest shonen ever!!!) who gives them magical armor, and sends them on an epic quest. They must revive become the Legendary Magic Knights and save Princess Emeraude from the evil Zagato¡¦s clutches! But first they must get weapons¡K Now if that doesn¡¦t spark your interest, than you are not a Shoujo manga fan. (Bow your head in shame)
2. Love Interest: Come on guys, it¡¦s a Shoujo manga; it¡¦s got the cutest love stories ever, but in the first cycle only Fuu gets a love interest, but boy! What a guy she gets! Don¡¦t worry parents, nothing offensive, and there isn¡¦t even any kissing ƒ¼.
3. Artwork: Gorgeous. And you can trust my opinion; I draw manga, so I know good artwork when I see it, seriously. Mokona and Fuu are not drawn to my tastes in the first cycle; Mokona has these weird cheeks, but that¡¦s just me. The rest of the artwork will have you drooling (especially over Zagato) and the character design is scrumptious, but some of the battle scenes are confusing until you get the hang of them and know what to look for.
4. Translation: Great translation; great fonts. Princess Emeraude and Zagato both have their own personal fonts, a really neat stylistic quirk. It really adds depth to the story. There is a small problem cuz Japanese isn¡¦t written like English, so the speech bubbles are taller than they are wide, but that¡¦s usually not a problem. ¡¥Why don¡¦t you¡¦ is spelled ¡¥Whydoncha¡¦ and Ferio charmingly greets the girls with, ¡¥who are y¡¦all?¡¦ but overall it was perfect.
5. Quality: Excellent Quality, it¡¦s a beautiful book that will not fall apart like the Sailor Moon manga reportedly does. It reads from right to left; Japanese form, but since I can read and write Arabic, it came naturally to me. On the last page is a quick, useful tutorial to show you how to read authentic manga in it¡¦s original form. Words don¡¦t lead off the page or anything, and the paper is beautiful.
6. Mokona: Puu! Puu! (seriously, how can you resist a book with Mokona, the pokemon-like fluffy bunny creature in it?)
7. Nudity: NONE
8. Price: Ok, now, as much as I love manga, ten bucks for a 120-page comic book is kind of a lot. I have to buy everything online, so I¡¦m under my parent¡¦s thumb, and though I would gladly produce the money myself, they don¡¦t approve of it. ƒ¼ -sigh-
This is as good as you can get, an original storyline, cool characters, nonstop action uninterrupted by chapters, and a shocking ending! Buy it now!
Puu! Puu! (Mokona says to buy it, too) =^-^=
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Magic Knight Rayearth, October 17, 2005
This review is from: Magic Knight Rayearth I, Book 1 (Paperback)
When I first started reading this series, I admit that I didn't really see anything special about it. The plot and characters seemed to be a little generic and the series got off at a bit of a slow start. However, I wanted to know what the big fuss was about with this manga, so I kept on reading it and by the time I got to the end of the second volume, I was hooked. There's a lot more to this series than what meets the eye. One thing I like about Rayearth compared to other magical girl series is that even though Hikaru is clearly the star, she doesn't steal the spotlight from Umi or Fuu. All of the Magic Knights get an equal amount of character development and magic spells. They all have their own weakness and strengths, and unlike other magical girl battles, the fights in Rayearth are unpredictable as each of the Magic Knights also get an equal chance to use their attacks. I thought the inclusion of mechas in this series was a unique addition, too. I think that plot twist right there was what got me so interested in the series.
All the characters are developed well and you really become attached to all of them. I like how none of the characters in Rayearth are truly good or evil, but rather they all have their own reasons behind their actions, making them a little more interesting than your usual Saturday morning cartoon villians. My favorite of the protoganists in Rayearth is Umi. She's really funny with her spunky attitude and the arguments she constantly gets into with Mokona. My favorite of the antagonists is Caldina. She's also a very funny character and she has a neat Osaka accent, too. The artwork is fantastic as always from Clamp, but the most impressive moment in Rayearth has to be the ending to the first story arc. I was so wowed by it that I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it, and by the time I got to the end, I was moved to tears. It was just one of the best manga endings of all time.
When Rayearth was first released in English by Tokyopop back when they were called Mixxzine, it was originally released in a flipped format. The artwork suffered by being inferior in quality to the Japanese release because of this, Ferio was given a Southern accent when he originally didn't have any accent, Caldina was given a valleygirl accent when she originally spoke with an Osaka accent, attack names were constantly being screwed up, and the dialog was Americanized. Fortunately, Tokyopop has re-released the manga unflipped with a new, revised translation. Unfortunately, the translation for the re-released manga is still less than perfect. While they did keep any mentionings of Japanese culture and got the attack names right this time around, Ferio still spoke in a Southern accent and Caldina still spoke valleygirl. Even the Magic Knights appear to be a little snobbier than what they actually should be. For example, in the original English release of volume one, when Hikaru is spying through the telescope from the top of Tokyo Tower, she just comments that she can see a baby from there. But in the unflipped release, Tokyopop has her rudely say, "That's one fat baby down there!". Now, you tell me, would the real Hikaru say that?
Despite the poor translation, the Rayearth manga is still an enjoyable read. Although it is a little bit of a slow starter at first, it starts to become more interesting later on and just the ending itself makes the series worth reading. Fans of RPGs will also enjoy Rayearth since it pokes fun at the RPG genre along the way. Rayearth is a classic manga series and now I can understand why it was such a break-through hit for Clamp. But if you already have the flipped version and don't care about the artwork being flipped or having some of the dialog Americanized, then you might just want to stick with that version instead, since the unflipped version isn't that much better. However, I highly recommend this series, especially to fans of magical girl manga and Clamp.
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