Magic Knight Rayearth
#6: Wake
Mediablasters
100 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
05/01/2001
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Magic Knight Rayearth
Mediablasters
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Some time ago, four faithful viewers sat themselves down in a third floor room in front of a dying 20" television and decided that that night would be the one where the entirety of Magic Knight Rayearth's second season would be watched. Three minutes after midnight, delay courtesy of Point Blank 3, it began. Now, it was soon made apparent why we should've started a bit earlier, as the majority of us nodded right off somewhere in the third disc of seven. What can I say? I'm not a fourteen year old girl, Joel's not a fourteen year old girl, JL had a sister who was once fourteen (and who he used to beat with hickory sticks). That's kinda close... If I was a fourteen year old girl, I'm sure that watching stuff like this at three in the morning and one would've been no problem at all. But, the simple fact of the matter is that I am not, fortunately it doesn't tarnish my enjoyment of this show one bit. As long as you can push and kind of squeeze your logic to the side for awhile, you'll probably find that you can get a little joy out of Magic Knight Rayearth as well. The first season was pretty ridiculous, what with all the powers of the heart and whatnot, this one totally trumps in it just the first four episodes. I'm not even kidding with you. |
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As far as we could figure it, the show resumes about a day after the first season ends. Everyone's really depressed and lonely, and Fuu seems to have an older sister stuck somewhere in the realm of 1810, judging by her clothing. It's a nice change to see the character's home life (especially this home life, woo!), but it's quickly stripped away and the girls once again find themselves on the back of a giant fish flying in the sky. Yeah, that's crazy, but we soon discover that the world of Cephiro is not so good off as one might have hoped. Seems that killing the Princess didn't do much more than give the girls major bummers. Now the world of Cephiro is wracked by lightning storms of the post-apocalyptic variety and the once green plains have been transmuted into your standard evil black mountain-style terrain. Everyone's either older now, or not dead. This certainly threw me for a loop! The beloved Master MC is back on his feet and boogying down with the best of them,** Presea seems no worse for the wear after being smashed by pillars and giant blob monsters, and Ascot seems to have aged about five or six years while the rest of the cast remains the same... or extremely more naked, in the case of Caldina! |
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The story this time goes something along the lines of: 'Hey, thanks for saving us but you didn't actually do anything except break your own hearts by killing the person you were trying to save, now a whole bunch of countries (AKA planets) are coming after us and it'd be really swell of you to stick around for awhile and help us out. Here's a few love interests to sweeten the mix!' Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes, but I couldn't honestly give you another way to give another way continue the storyline. All I know is that it should probably contain more of this. That, you know, and less extraneous stuff like giant spaceship technologically advanced races taking advantage of a world that's getting pretty crappy and wasn't really too great to start out with. I remember well Joel venting his ire sometime back about the eventually and undeniable victory of Cephiro over the technological super race that Autozam comprises. Yeah, but I think we're pretty much past the point of bitching about this, it's become standard fare where Shoujo-style stuff is concerned. I think our energy would be better spent on examining things like why the main battleship of Autozam is named after an 80s super pop group, or how someone is able to support themselves at such a supremely gigantic height. |
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Otherwise it's business as usual, the world is just as in peril as one expects it to be, and it's up to the legendary magic knights to pull their collective asses out of the fire once again. I have to question the logic behind Clef and Cephiro's greatest thinkers when they decide to bring back three fourteen year old girls to 'take care of business'. You know, because they did such a good job of it last time! If I were from Cephiro, the first thing I would do is move to a planet where the weather and appearance of monsters isn't governed by the fickle and subconscious emotions of a ten year old girl who lives in a clamshell. Second thing I would do is make sure that I don't (don't) entrust my safety to a group of barely pubescent girls, but I don't know anything about a woman coming of age so maybe it's better if I just stay out of this one entirely. |
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