Don’t tell me what’s “made for me” because I don’t care. Go over the history of this site and you’ll find things allegedly made for me that doesn’t fit my tastes. You’ll also find stuff made for people of different ages, genders (before the current culture nonsense), countries, cultures, and “races” (it’s all “human race” to me) that I totally get into. I don’t demand that something be changed to be “for me” because if I already like it, what’s the point?
Take for example Magic Knights Rayearth. I was introduced to CLAMP’s series through fandubs of the anime and went on to get official dubs as well as the manga. Yeah, there’s romance and girly things, but there’s also cool magic battles with giant mecha, and I’m usually down for that. You’ll find reviews of the manga when it was published by Mixxzine, as well as the officially hosted series in a previous Saturday Night Showcase thanks to TMS’s official YouTube channel. That series came out in 1994 and I rather enjoy it.
Because even Japan isn’t safe from the remake virus, a new version of the manga adaptation has recently come out. This new Magic Knights Rayearth has the same characters, a cleaner animation style because computers were used instead of out-of-use cels, and a somewhat different attitude I’ll get into after you’ve joined me in watching it. I’ll also tell you how I think it compares to the original. Crunchyroll’s YouTube channel has two episodes of the new version, but since I only posted the first one of the original series (accidentally twice over this site’s run), I’ll keep that trend going here. They use YouTube’s multiple audio tracks, so you can watch the same video in Japanese with English closed caption subtitles or in English language dub. I also recommend keeping the captions to spot the differences, but I’m going to be bringing that one up as well. Enjoy.
I’m not really a fan.
If this was the first time I was introduced to the Magic Knights I could see myself still getting into it. However, there’s a bit more “attitude” to the characters this time around, and it’s worse in the dub if you compare to the subtitles. It’s like the localizers wanted to boost how badly they treated each other while still making them all likable. I just found the original take more endearing and I felt a little more for their situation than on the remake versions.
Even I’ll admit the animation may be too clean for me, and that usually doesn’t bother me as much. I think’s more the coloring making them look more unreal, like it tried to be less muted than anything Hollywood’s shoving out in live action and went too far the other way. It just doesn’t look as good to me, but again it could be because I’ve seen the original and enjoyed it. Neat that they put the theme from the original show in the ending, but I think this is supposed to be the new intro:
Again, I’m going nostalgic on this one. I just liked the original version better. It was used in the SEGA Saturn game, too, which is the only way I could find it without the episode.
Chalk it up to history. I don’t hate the new version, but I’ll be watching what Crunchyroll adds to their YouTube channel more out of curiosity, while afterwards probably going back to my DVDs (still need the rest of season 2) or TMS’s YouTube channel. They also have the original on other streaming options, so look around. As of this writing, episode two has been added to Crunchyroll’s channel, but I’m guessing most of it will be behind their paywall because that’s how they make money.
I say watch both versions and form your own opinion. Also, check out the manga. Not a fan of the ending that was replaced by season two of the original anime, but it’s a good story. Nobody spoil the season one twist or they won’t be able to follow the story as intended. The twist is that good, which is rare for me and twists like that.
