Thoughts on Magic Knight Rayearth Remake

What I Would Like Changed

Magic Knight Rayearth is an anime from the 90s. I just wanted to yap about this anime because it really means something to me. If you've read my bio, you'd see it's in my top favorite animes ever. I really adore it, but I'm not doing a review. If you want, that could be another project, but for now I wanna talk about the recent news about it.

A few months ago it was confirmed that for its 30th anniversary, Clamp is going to do a Magic Knight Rayearth remake. I think the original is amazing on its own, but to be able to see it in newer animation would be like a dream come true. I am super hyped and excited, but I'm also really worried. This show is important to me, so there's a lot at stake, but it has a lot of potential as well.

I love the fight scenes in the original, but you can tell the animation is dated. I'm honestly impressed how great the action looks despite the clear aging and I'm really pleased with it, but really I hope that the fights in the remake will be longer and more flashy. Like Demon Slayer having real time fights. I don't want any One Punch Man season 2 or Sword Art Online action where it's just still images with flashy borders and sound effects.

That would do it injustice and I hope they don't cut corners with the fight scenes. There's actually really amazing battles in the show that I feel ended too quickly. Especially in the plot important battles. Despite its flaws, the fight scenes have weight to them with a lot at stake. Hopefully here they pump it up to 11 with the intensity and flashiness though.

The thing is, it's not about the fighting, so the story on its own more than holds up for me. I feel a lot of animes today have god tier animation and incredible scenes but with a basic plot just like “fight the bad guys.” There's nothing wrong with that of course. I love those as well, but this was made in an era where they had to rely on good storytelling to make up for the lack of particularly flashy animation. With those two paired together, it'd be an incredible watch even for casual anime watchers.

Another thing I want changed is the time spent in the world and how they explore it. Despite it having 20 episodes, it felt like they barely explored the other world at all and just stuck with their mission, which does make sense for the plot, but do I wish the more personal and smaller scale fantastical moments lasted longer. Cephiro is a beautiful world so I feel if it showed that beauty more it would make the later episodes much more impactful about the environment being changed.

I know they did have some moments but they didn't really react to anything beyond creatures and the occasional point of interest. They didn't really spend any time admiring how different or unique the other world is. It's just "Oh. Well that's quite odd." and then they move on without a second thought.

It's not the most important thing though, but I'd still really like it if they did.

Now let's move on about what I don't want changed.