A Review: Magic Knight Rayearth 2 by CLAMP

3/5 stars.

CLAMP is a team of four women who produce manga. A lot of manga. Their manga are in the shojo style (girl's comics), but if I understand things correctly they are known for combining this style of art with the darker subject matter usually found in shonen (boy's comics). It was a great combo for me when I was a teenager reading the first Magic Knight Rayearth series. In that story three girls are summoned from Tokyo to the magical realm of Cefiro to become the legendary Magic Knights and save the Pillar – a person whose force of will keeps the world stable. It's explicitly an RPG plotline – Hikaru, Umi and Fuu get armor, learn magic and “level up” as the series goes along.

Now that I am in my thirties, reading about the exploits of leggy Japanese teens tends a little bit toward the creepy. Thankfully, Magic Knight Rayearth 2 has also grown up. There are no forced references to experience points and no random monster encounters. This is somehow both a more personal story and a more expansive story. The events of the first series left Cefiro without a Pillar and now a new one must be chosen. The Magic Knights return to find representatives of three other realms vying to become the Pillar and remake Cefiro in their own image. There is a lot less action in this tale, at least from the Magic Knights. They mostly stand around watching Eagle of Autozam, Tata of Cizeta and Aska of Fahren duke it out. That's the more expansive part.

For the more personal story CLAMP has focused much more on the motivations of the “young women from another world.” Why did they want to return to Cefiro? How did they return if there is no Pillar to summon them? Why do they fight now? In particular, Hikaru is the focus as she wrestles with baggage from the first story line and what she wants for herself and and her friends this time around. In fantasy tales magic is often equated with willpower. In Cefiro, magic IS willpower. Thus the motivations of all the characters and what they are able to do because of what they desire is the focus of the storytelling. That's an element of the story to be appreciated at any age.

As the citizens of five (or more?) worlds clash together over the shape of the future, the comic becomes quite intense. The end is not really a surprise, but I still won't say. After the drama is over it all ends on a very cheesy note, but I guess that is to be expected; it is a shojo comic after all.