Monday, July 18, 2011

[Review] Magic Knight Rayearth Omnibus 1

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Magic Knight Rayearth Omnibus 1 (of 2)! published by Dark Horse continues their line of CLAMP manga compilations. I've noticed that the ones printed in Canada are smaller and have the paper that feels rougher. The Cardcaptor Sakura and Clover omnibuses are printed in China and have smooth paper. I'm not a paper expert, but do prefer the feel of the smooth paper. It feels like the ink might rub off of the rough paper. Rayearth 1 is 645 pages covering 3 original volumes with the omakes and extra color illustrations.

As with my other reviews, you can easily look up the story on wiki, and everyone agrees that the strongest feature of CLAMP's story is that they successfully combines the magical girl genre with the shounen mech genre. The twist in the middle of the story (at the end of this omnibus) is also one of those refreshing 'manga is awesome' moments. It has been a fairly long time since I've read this manga, so I can't comment on how accurate the translations are, but Dark Horse has been consistent with how well they are editing these manga releases.

[Magic Knight Rayearth 1 @ Amazon]
[Magic Knight Rayearth 2 @ Amazon out January 2012]

The anime was recently remastered and released by Animeworks. There were a few differences in the story and the production is quite old, but overall, the anime is entertaining. I'm a fan of the 3rd opening song.

[Magic Knight Rayearth Season 1 @ Amazon]
[Magic Knight Rayearth Season 2 @ Amazon]

ETA: Mid-reading note~ Wish the editor would refrain from LOTR or other specific pop cultural references, and use footnotes or endnotes. I think there was a LOTR reference in another English-translated manga I read recently. I hope it wasn't a CLAMP one because that would just be a big annoyance to an otherwise nice production.

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