So I finished Magic Knight Rayearth season two. It's honestly so much better than season one that it still kind of surprises me. That isn't to say season one was bad. It was a good introduction for the three leads, had some good fantasy action and the conflict got more interesting as they were building up to the dark twist. While the girls don't get a lot of character moments, they still feel likable with fleshed out personalities and a believable friendship, which was all they really needed to do to make the trio work. Up until the twist, I just didn't think rescuing the princess was that interesting. She was effectively a plot device, a means for the girls to get home. While I understood why they had regrets over how that battle ended, it was hard for me as the audience to care the princess as a character when she didn't really feel like one until the end. Even then, she just felt more like the secret final boss of a JRPG.
The conflict with season two is far more interesting. Cephiro was more of a somewhat generic fantasy land design wise at least, so having them try to save it from destruction and invading forces is more engaging. It works because they already had connections with other characters from the first season. I thought that the villains were pretty weak in season one. They didn't come off as threatening or interesting, so having them be part of the supporting cast instead fits a lot more with their personalities. The invading countries at least had more personality than the villains of season one. Aska came off as the typical spoiled princess, but she became much more endearing than I would have expected by the end for example. Alcyone felt like a pretty generic villain, but they actually gave her some depth with her unrequited love for Zagato and it even made me feel bad during her death scene.
The tone is much more consistent and dark than it was in season one. I almost wish that I had waited until Netflix got both seasons up since going from season one right into season two must be a trip. It doesn't feel like a drastically different show exactly, but they are pretty distinct seasons and I could see how that could make this season feel more jarring. They still had comedic moments, some of which I didn't like. I could have done without kids looking up Umi's skirt, but they don't overdo the comedic moments and fortunately, the chibi moments for the girls only happens in the first few episodes of the season.
There are more character moments certainly for Hikaru, but both Umi and Fuu as well. Hikaru was always the obvious main girl of the trio, but I like that all three girls have pretty equal importance and screentime. I don't think that they're the most interesting magical girl group out there, but having three leads definitely made it easier to keep their screentime more balanced than it has been with larger magical girl casts. They do have nice moments that convey how much they care about each other and helps to make their chemistry feel genuine. I also watched the dub so hearing Umi and Fuu's voices reminded me of Fushigi Yugi when I first started the series.
It was pretty obvious where they were going with Hikaru and Lantias, but even when they established that she loves him, I kept thinking to myself "Sure. Okay." It isn't necessarily a bad romance. He looks like a dark knight in dark armor with a dark horse for a few reasons. Although, it was hilarious to see this small teenage girl standing next to this insanely tall man that could only be designed by Clamp. I kind of give them credit for waiting until season two to give Hikaru a love interest since that typically doesn't happen in the magical girl shows I've seen. Fuu and Feiro's romance also felt a bit sudden when it first was established in the first season, but they had a bit more screentime and moments together to make it more genuine. I think I was more into Hikaru and Lantias' relationship during the climax, but even she didn't know why she loved him. She just does. She is a teenage girl dealing with her first crush, so that is believable to a degree, but just not really satisfying for the audience. I understand her apparent love for Eagle even less. At least Lantias didn't kidnap her and had her clothes removed while she was unconscious. He isn't unlikable and his ending was one of the more intense moments of the season. I just found him even weaker as a love interest for Hikaru. I'm not sure if they were implying that he was in love with Lantias though. Primeria seemingly only existed to be an annoying tsundere about Lantias and set up the whole romance between Hikaru and Lantias. While she fortunately appeared so little that I often forgot that she existed, the season would have been at least five percent better if she was written out completely. Umi's crush on Clef was really tacked on. I guess they wanted all of the girls to have love interests, but they didn't do anything with Umi's crush. It wouldn't have made sense to confess after their climatic battle, but it also made the crush pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things.
I'm a bit torn on Debonair and espeically Nova. They were at least more intimidating villains, being so mysterious made them more interesting and they tied into the world of Cephiro being the land of the will. I honestly don't know how this country was able to function as long as it did with monsters feeding on and being created by the darkness of people's hearts. They were emphasizing how the people needed to believe in themselves to weaken the villains, but a world were your fear can physically attack you sounds like a nightmare to me. Nova was this mysterious villain connected so directly to Hikaru and being the darkness of her heart left on Cephiro does kind of fit with the worldbuilding. It's weird that it was only Hikaru and not all of the girls since they all had regret over what happened in the season one finale. Hikaru does tend to not express her problems to not bother her friends, so maybe that was part of the in-universe logic. It was almost certainly done to make Hikaru look even more like the main girl of the group.
It does give her some interesting conflict and good character moments during the season, but the implication that Nova is the physical manifastation of Hikaru's self-loathing still doesn't quite work. Nova said at one point that she loves Hikaru because she hates herself and even with their regrest with the princess in mind, I just don't buy that. Hikaru wasn't all happy go lucky all the time, even in season one, but I never really got the impression that she had that kind of emotional baggage either. It's not a bad idea, but I don't think that they laid enough of a foundation to make that kind of twist work. Hikaru embracing Nova back into her heart so that she could learn to love even her fears and regrets is a nice message on self-acceptance. I just don't know if the show really earned that kind of message, especially when Nova was so over the top evil, right down to her facial expressions. She was manipulated by Debonair, but the fact that she didn't even listen to Hikaru not wanting to kill her friends until just before Debonair abandons her makes it harder for her to feel like a victim of abuse or brainwashing.
Debonair certainly felt powerful due to the fear of the people and the final battle was good, but the way she was weakened so quickly almost felt anticlimatic. It tied into the world building, but it almost feels like simply having faith would have easily fixed their country and this threat a lot sooner. It was satisfying to have Hikaru get rid of the Pillar system. While the country looked nice before, the fact that it was held together with ducktape and prayers from just one person made it pretty unstable in the long run. You'd think that other pillars would have considered getting rid of the system too if it was just that easy, but I suppose Hikaru wouldn't feel as duty bound to keep that system going compared to people born of this world. It also wraps up the conflict nicely so that the people themselves work on making this world better instead of relying on basically the sacrifice of one person.
I almost wonder if they were expecting to get a few more episodes. Partly because of the anime only plots, but mainly because having new opening/ending themes in the last handful of episodes felt a bit strange. They were good songs and solid visuals. I just thought that was kind of strange. I wasn't sure if they could wrap up the story when I was getting to the last few episodes, but it did work out better than I thought it would. After all of the tension during the final battle, it's kind of a shame that the girls couldn't stay to deal with the aftermath or just hang out with their friends before going back home. Although, from what I've read, they could return to Cephiro any time in the manga at least, which makes sense. I think that they wanted to go for an ending where the two worlds stay separate in the anime, which kind of makes sense with the whole let the people decide this country's future, but having the power to return just feels more fitting in a way too.
While not flawless, I do think that this season was a huge improvement on Magic Knight Rayearth. It really made me appreciate the series more. The characters and conflict were more engaging, the battles were pretty solid and it wrapped up pretty nicely. There are times where you feel some plot points stretching, like with Hikaru's attempt to revive her sword or figuring out who the new Pillar will be, even though that made sense to stretch out since a new Pillar would and effectively did fix everything. But the pacing generally worked. Some of the anime only plots, that I've looked up at least, seem to have good setup and buildup, but questionable to weak payoff, like the stuff with Nova or Presea's twin sister. That does kind of make sense. As good as some of these storylines are, they may not have had enough time to make the payoff work, especially when they were already stretching things out as it was and still had to adapt the manga's storyline too. I am more curious about the remake coming out this year. I was already planning on giving it a watch, but even more now after seeing the original series. I'm pretty sure a good chuck of what I liked about this season is the anime only content, so I'm curious to see a more faithful adaptation looks, especially when it probably wouldn't take that long for them to cover the whole series.
