CLAMP, the creators of Cardcaptor Sakura, have been one of the most prolific groups of manga creators for many years. That’s why it’s no surprise that they’ve had numerous anime adaptations that have also stayed popular over the years. And now, they’re beginning to resurface in the form of projects that once again bring back works that, despite being years old, still have fans eager to see them adapted again.
A truly unique manga, then and now
That’s the case with Magic Knight Rayearth, a three-volume CLAMP manga that was adapted between 1994 and 1995 into an excellent 49-episode series. But it had one drawback. The series had to make up an ending because the manga didn’t finish until 1996, so both anime and manga ended up with two very different endings. Until now.
On October 7 a new anime will premiere on Crunchyroll, directed by Yui Miura and scripted by Shigeru Murakoshi, which combines CLAMP’s classic style with a more modern anime aesthetic. All while keeping what makes Magic Knight Rayearth special: a story blending mecha, isekai, and fantasy in which three teenage girls are summoned to the planet Cephiro to fulfill a prophecy: obtain their magical weapons, develop their magical powers, awaken the Mashin (the enormous mecha they will have to pilot), and defeat the great evil that stalks Cephiro.
Although the episode count hasn’t been confirmed, we should probably expect an adaptation of 24 or 26 episodes, given the length of the manga. So we could be looking at the definitive version of a manga that never quite got a definitive adaptation in CLAMP’s catalog.
