Magic Knight Rayearth Anime Second Season, Disk 4 (English)

April 14th, 2012

I pride myself in watching anime without expectation and my ability to clearly, concisely separate my delusions and desires from what is actually happening on the screen. We all choose to interpret what we see differently, but sometimes the information we’re give is clearer than others. Sometimes the holes are so huge, it’s impossible for me to ignore them, regardless of what I want to be happening.

Which brings us, in an oblique way, to Magic Knight Rayearth, Volume 4 of the Second Season Complete Box Set.

In this volume Nova put a full-on passive-aggressive seduction of Hikaru because, as she says, she loves Hikaru. Well, okay, but a second earlier she told Hikaru that the reason she hated her was because Hikaru hates herself. So, having been given that piece of information, we have to conclude then that Hikaru also wants herself in a sexual way. Or, we can presume that Nova is making it up (and being inconsistent about it) or – and this is my best guess – no one told CLAMP that that made no sense.

In any case, Hiakru remembers for the 17,000th time all the people who are counting on her and manages to get her sword back and call Rayearth for the first time in a few volumes.

More interestingly Fuu defeats Princess Asuka by being calm and cool and smart and unflappable. Standing her ground when Asuka attempts to renege on a deal was a beautiful moment – as was the emotional reunion with Ferio.

Umi’s relegated to a back seat for this volume.

We do get a few moment’s with Eagle, but it looks Lantis is out of the question for him, now that we’ve been told so many times that Hikaru and Lantis are an item. Snoooze. And Debonair-sama laughs evilly for a bit.

Now that we’ve had the Nova gay moment, I doubt that I’ll review the last two volumes individually, but I’ll probably do a single wrap-up for the series as a whole. I really don’t dislike it, but it was dragging there a bit. If we can get back to the plot, I’ll be happier.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4
Characters – 6
Yuri – 5, but bleah
LoserFanBoy – 3

Overall – 7

2 Responses

  1. DezoPenguin says:

    …clearly my fifteen-ish-year-old memories of the fansubs are grossly distorted; I’d always thought that Nova loving Hikaru was because Hikaru *hated* herself. That is to say, Nova’s emotions are a mirror of Hikaru’s. (Which would have made a lot more sense, since as you say it’s a little weird to think that Hikaru would be attracted to herself that way, unless some sort of meta-point about human psychology is being made here.)

  2. @DezoPenguin – That would make sense. When she says she hates Hikaru because Hikaru hates herself, then says she loves Hikaru…it’s left a little weirdly open to interpretation. ^_^

Leave a Reply to Erica Friedman