Magic Knight Rayearth 2: TV Series Season Two

Customer Reviews:

Concluding the story..........2005-10-09

This box set contains the entire second season of Magic Knight Rayearth in a nice, inexpensive package. I will review the packaging, the quality of the DVDs, and most importantly, the show itself.

First off, the show. The second season has a completely different feel from the first. The dark turn that was taken at the end of the first season continues and increases as one goes through the second season. Cephiro is still in great danger, and it's up to the Magic Knights and their Mashin (Rune Gods) to try once more to finish saving the world they've grown to love.
Many new characters, worlds, and challenges are introduced in this season, and all of your old favorites return...with a few surprises, of course.

I personally had difficulty with the change of gears from season one to season two. The first time I saw it, I hated it. However, after a second viewing, I've come to realize that while I liked the atmosphere of the first season better with the lighthearted interaction between the girls, the second season a bit deeper and complete. The questions that arise from the first season, particularly about the position of the pillar are for the most part in explained in the second season. Plus, the Magic Knights continue to learn and grow. Although, I did dislike the extreme focus on Hikaru, no matter how necessary it actually was.

The quality of the DVDs is a little bit questionable. I have only viewed the Japanese language version with English subtitles, so I can only comment upon it. The subtitles during the opening and ending sequences are a little bit blurry, and the title screen for each episode looks very choppy as well. Plus, there seems to often be some mis-timing when moving from the summary at the beginning of each episode to the episode title screen, as well as there being an odd jump during eyecatches in the middle of the episodes. This isn't always the case, but it did happen several times. There are also many typoes in the subtitles throughout the season. If there was one or two, it would be easy to look past. But I know I saw at least a dozen. And I didn't have that problem when watching the first season Economy Box. A little more time and effort should have been put into the subtitling and timing of the second season DVDs.

The boxset itself is built a bit better than the first Economy Box. The packaging features a nice little piece of art, not a difficult challenge when one is working with art from such a beautiful series. And this time, the disks do not overlap. That means the box is much bigger (about twice the size of the first), but you don't have to worry about the disks getting messed up when you're taking them out and putting them in as you did with the first Economy box.

Overall, if you're a fan of Magic Knight Rayearth, this really is a great buy. The second season is different, but if you realize that from the outset, you will likely enjoy it, if only because you will see your favorite characters once again. There may be a few problems with subtitle quality, but not enough that it should detract from your viewing pleasure. This is truly a great budget alternative to buying the DVDs individually or purchasing the more expensive original boxsets. You don't get all the fancy extras (there is no episode guide, etc), but you still get what is important: all 29 episodes of the second season for a reasonable price.

Average customer rating:

Once
Major changes from the manga, good nonetheless
^-^ MKR2
Hikaru in the spotlight
Second Season Magic Knight Box Set

Magic Knight Rayearth: Season 2
Starring: Julie Maddalena , Dorothy Elias-Fahn , Wendee Lee , Bridget Hoffman , and Steve Staley (II)
Director: Hitoyuki Matsui , Keitarou Motonaga , and Hajime Kamegaki
Manufacturer: Anime Works
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000059POU
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Description

Magic Knight Rayearth continues. Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are finally able to leave Cephiro, after they had killed the very person they were sent to rescue. Filled with regret, they returned to Tokyo. Now, the girls are summoned back to Cephiro by an unknown force, and must find a new Pillar before Cephiro disintegrates!

Customer Reviews:

Once.......2004-03-21

Season 2 was good, but not great. I would recommend if you have a friend, to borrow it from them. It's not worth buying, but worth seeing. It is alot more serious than the first season and some parts don't quite make sense.

Major changes from the manga, good nonetheless.......2003-07-01

***Warning: contains spoilers!***
If you have watched season one of MKR, and most of you probably have, the second series has some major deviations from the manga (while the first season pretty much followed the manga). Overall, this season is darker and somewhat more violent than the first season, and the relationships between characters are examined more closely. Ok, now since I properly warned you in the beginning of this review that I am going to reveal important plot points, don't be angry or bitter if you feel all this spoils your precious MKR2 watching experience.
First of all, new characters were added, namely the villian characters of Nova and Lady Debonair. I thought these were interesting additions because of how these villians were created. Nova was inadvertantly created by Hikaru just before she left Cephiro after killing Zagato and Emeraude in the first season. Her intense negative emotions about killing Zagato and Emeraude created Nova. I thought bringing this character was an effective way to force Hikaru to deal with the conflict inside of her. Lady Debonair was created in a similar manner, although she was created by the fear and uncertainty of the people of Cephiro. Lady Debonair's character gave the different "factions" (Cephiro, Autozam, Chizeta, Fahren) an ultimate evil to unite against. Isn't that what we like to see, a showdown between the forces of good and evil?
While I thought the two aforementioned characters brought some interesting aspects to the series, I thought that it could seem a bit "cluttered" at times, jumping back and forth between what was going on with Nova and Debonair and Chizeta and Fahren and Autozam. The way they kept going back to Alcione was especially annoying to me, but I guess she provided a way for Debonair to invade Cephiro's castle. And Debonair's laughing was VERY annoying...
The second major change was the ..The third major change is the absence of any important function of Mokona. True, in the first season he guided Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu while they became Magic Knights. But in the second season he is reduced to just being cute and jumping around and saying his standard variations of the word "puu." ... In the anime however the role of The Creator is never mentioned and the Magic Knights summoned themselves to Cephiro. It was interesting to find out in the manga that Mokona had created Cephiro in response to humans on Earth. Unfortunately, all this was left out of the anime.
Also, as a stated in the intro, this season of MKR is darker and more violent. There are more battles and more blood ... But the battles and actions sequences were exciting.
The relationships between various characters are more pronounced in the anime than in the manga, it seems that everyone is in love with everyone else. ...Overall, I liked MKR2, despite the major changes. There were changes I thought were improvements but there were changes that I thought were steps backwards, but I love MKR and still loved the anime and thought it was wonderful. Decide for yourself if you can overlook the major changes. Happy watching!!!

^-^ MKR2.......2003-05-24

Yeah, I love MKR. Season 2 is good, but doesn't follow the Manga close enough...

I still like this. I find that Nova, Hikaru's...uh...shadow is an awesome character, but she wasn't in the manga...but hey! It is still an awesome series from CLAMP and is worth every penny.

Dvd boxset box looks MUCH better than the first season's did. Pretty...picture. (I'm obsessed with pictures, fyi.)

One of my most hated moments in this season. I'm sorry to say this if you haven't watched this is that different from the manga, Eagel dies, which I hate! Thus why this is my least favorite of the MKR collection.

My MK Rayearth rankings:
1: MKR Magna (Direct from CLAMP's minds, of course.)
2: MKR TV Season 1 (Yeah...it's BASED on the Manga by CLAMP)
3: Rayearth OVA (Screwed up; twisted revamp of the story. Still cool.)
4: MKR TV Season 2 (Yet again BASED on the Magna; THEY CHANGED IT TOO MUCH FROM THE MANGA!)

Hikaru in the spotlight.......2002-10-13

I agree with almost everything the other reviewers said. Although I found the first season to be a little bland and childish, the second season blew me away. The themes are far mature and you can work with it to form your own opinion, I was grateful for the much needed romance factor that was mostly absent in the first season. However, I do not agree with the reviewer who said that Hikaru getting more time than the three knights was a downside. In the manga, sidekicks are generally made into different people, but in the first season of this anime, they basically were triplets. Everything one said, the other mirrored, changing it slightly. I am eternally grateful that the second seasong had less off this, althought I picked up a lot of it with Umi and Fuu(this sidekicks). I also certainly don't have a problem with Eagle's voice actor being a girl, although I think the voice is out of place a bit for such a hottie, or someone so tall ^_^ Happy viewing, you should definetly buy this.

Second Season Magic Knight Box Set.......2002-09-03

The second season of Rayearth is really a must see if you liked the first season. As other reviewers have stated, it's considerably more serious then the first season, but it most certainly has its lighthearted moments.
There are a few downsides, of course...for example, Hikaru becomes the sole main character. In the manga, the relationship between the three Knights is much more balanced, with each girl getting about equal screen time. The animation in the show can get a bit off at times, but that's what happens with all anime at one point or another.
Honestly, I would reccommend the manga above the anime at any point in the Rayearth series. The manga art is breathtaking, the plot more intriguing, the story is faster-paced with fewer 'filler' episodes....and NO NOVA! And there was much feasting and rejoicing!
Of course...with the anime, you get Ogata Megumi as Eagle's Japanese voice actress (Yes, he's played by a girl, you got a problem with that?!). So that more then makes up for Eagle's fate. (IwillnotspoilIwillnotspoilIwillnotspoil...)
Overall, buy this if you're a Rayearth fan. But buy the manga first.

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