Nostalgia hit in full force during this
weekend's Anime Expo panels. The production committee behind the ambitious new
animated adaptation of Magic Knight Rayearth (legendarily
known in our region as The Magic Warriors) released a brutal
trailer that finally lets us see the final visual work. The trailer not only
served to show off the redesign of the protagonists, but also marked October
7 as the immovable date for their debut on Japanese television,
occupying the coveted "IMAnimation W" night block of the TV Asahi
network.
Bringing back a mainstay from the 1990s requires
a team that understands the material, and E&H production's facilities
seem to be up to the task. The project marks Yui Miura's big
debut in the lead director's chair, backed by the veteran Shigeru Murakoshi,
who has the heavy work of structuring and modernizing the series' scripts. In
the visual section, Satomi Watabe assumes the character design, trying to
balance modern aesthetics with the unmistakable classic strokes. However, the
master move of the production company UNLIMITED PRODUCE by TMS was
to put together a luxury trident for the original soundtrack, adding the
legendary Yuki Kajiura along with Takumi Ozawa and Shiho
Terada to orchestrate the music of this fantasy.
The immortal legacy of the CLAMP group
For the new generations who did not live
through the original phenomenon, it is crucial to understand that this work
laid very important foundations for the modern isekai genre.
Created by the peerless artist collective CLAMP, the original
manga was serialized in the pages of Nakayoshi magazine
between 1993 and 1996. Its premise takes us directly to a school trip in the
Tokyo Tower, where Hikaru, Umi and Fū are unexpectedly dragged into the fantasy
world of Cephiro. There they discover that they were summoned to become Magic
Warriors and save the pillar of that universe, Princess Emeraude, from the
clutches of the priest Zagato. The original franchise exploded globally thanks
to its first anime broadcast between 1994 and 1995, followed by a brutal
reinterpretation in OVA format in 1997.
Having figures of the caliber of Yuki Kajiura
in the musical section.
