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The story
In episode 1 of the new “Magic Knight Rayearth” TV anime, which aired on TV Asahi affiliates on the 8th, the 1994 anime’s theme song “Yuzurenai Negai” (performed by Naomi Tamura) played as an insert song, sending “Rayearth” to the number one spot on X’s trending topics. The new series marks the franchise’s first new anime in 29 years, since the 1997 OVA, and the song also got its first-ever digital release after 32 years. On 5ch, fans celebrating the musical touch posted things like “that’s such a classic track,” while others were harsher on the character designs, calling them “degraded” or saying “the eyes are creepy” — leaving the thread split between praise for the music and criticism of the art.
Episode 1 of the TV anime “Magic Knight Rayearth” aired on the 8th (late night on the 7th) on TV Asahi affiliate stations. The new anime is the franchise’s first in 29 years since the 1997 OVA release, and it’s generating buzz online after Naomi Tamura’s “Yuzurenai Negai,” the theme song from the original Heisei-era anime (1994), played as an insert song.
“Yuzurenai Negai” is a hit that sold over a million copies and was even selected for the 1995 NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen (Japan’s biggest New Year’s Eve music special), and it was used again as an insert song in episode 1 of the new anime, giving the story’s opening an extra boost. The song also just got its first-ever digital release, 32 years after its original 1994 release.
Fans had been watching closely before the broadcast to see whether the song would make an appearance in the new series, and when it did play as an insert song, reactions poured in online: “Whoa!!! Yuzurenai Negai just played!!!”, “Such a classic song!”, “Is it really okay for even the sound to stay exactly like the Heisei era!?”, and “Rayearth just has to have this song!” Amid the wave of surprise and delight, “Rayearth” shot to the number one trending topic on X.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's faithful — look at the arcade prize goods:
https://www.sk-japan.co.jp/charatoru/chara/rayearth/amgoods-57850
Why does the art get worse the more time passes? They've learned so much more than they knew back then, yet it really does come down to talent and sense.
The manga and the anime already differ, so if that's the direction they're going, isn't it fine?
Did that song really sell that well?
I remember it playing nonstop at pachinko parlors.
It sold a million copies and was on Kohaku, so yeah —
even people who don't know the anime might know 'Yuzurenai Negai.'
Especially that it's a day field trip and not an overnight class excursion.
Like going to see historical ruins or important cultural assets?
I don't know Rayearth well, but I know the song, so it got to me a bit.
Remake anime disappoint a lot by not using the original songs, whether that's a rights issue or just a production call.
They should've gone with a more modern-looking design.
A few years back, a remake project for another CLAMP work got announced, and for some reason the studio said they were updating the character designs to look more modern.
Then it came out that the new designs were basically ripping off a bunch of existing works,
and the whole remake project ended up getting scrapped. A real disaster…
Classic case of everything looking worse once it goes digital.
Looks like early-era Chinese anime.
The old one had its animation fall apart partway through too lol
Honestly the original's character designer had such a strong personal style that I never really liked it.
Still not quite used to that.
Pretty sure the old one did that even more.
'Mom, hugging a Hikari-Tokage'* (*wordplay: mash 'Hikari' [the heroine] and 'kage,' meaning shadow, together and it sounds like 'tokage' — lizard — turning 'holding onto light and shadow' into 'Mom hugging a light-lizard.')
Actually, unusually for this kind of show, it didn't really have those toy-driven tie-in items.
Sega was the main sponsor, so it was mostly arcade-related goods and games.
—ra-aaaaa-nai-iiii (together with the post above, this spells out "tomaranai" — "can't stop" — a meme bit split across two replies)
So that's why, even though it's technically a robot show, it's unusual it never got robot toys unlike other shows from the same era (G Gundam, Macross 7, etc.)?
If Bandai had held the merchandising rights, they definitely would've put out robot toys.
Then again, the robots (the Mashin) barely even show up in the main story (Part 1), so toys of them wouldn't have sold anyway.
She does still pop up at anime song festivals now and then to sing it though.
Unlike the original, which ran around 50 episodes, this one's probably only getting about two cours (roughly half a year).
They need to move things along faster or it'll feel cut off before it's done.
If they're only covering Part 1, two cours is plenty.
The original anime padded itself out with anime-only original characters (like Inova) anyway.
If it's popular they can just do a second season, so it's not really a problem.
This scene was the best.
These days people would probably say 'lol isn't this just Bravern' (a nod to the 2024 mecha anime Brave Bang Bravern!!, known for its over-the-top dramatic moments)
Background and Key Points
“Magic Knight Rayearth” was adapted into a TV anime in 1994, and after a 1997 OVA, the franchise went without any new installments — until now, 29 years later. The theme song “Yuzurenai Negai,” sung by Naomi Tamura, sold over a million copies and even appeared on the 1995 NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen; the notable twist this time is that it wasn’t used as a brand-new opening but as an insert song within the episode itself. Alongside the broadcast, the track also got its first-ever digital release, 32 years after it originally came out. The thread was split between reactions to the music and reactions to the artwork: some were moved just to hear the song play, while others criticized the new character designs as “worse” or said “the eyes are creepy.” That said, the original series was also known for shaky animation quality back when it aired, so this may be less about which version is objectively “right” and more a generational difference in taste. The thread also filled in some trivia that might not be obvious to readers unfamiliar with the franchise, like why robot (“Mashin”) toys were never released back in the day.
*This article is composed as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Breaking News+) thread “‘Magic Knight Rayearth”s Tasteful Musical Callback Trends #1 — Original Opening ‘Yuzurenai Negai’ Played as Insert Song“.
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