Magic Knight Rayearth II Vol 1

[meganbmoore]

Oh hey, Primera/Primela! I kind of love her Tsubasa version. Though now I’m looking for her boyfriend (Shougo?) to go with her.

And it’s a year later and RPG has been eternally ruined for the girls (Cackle when they talked about that? Me?) and every other country ever wants to invade Cephiro and become the Pillar. I’m not sure why they’d want to. It seems a pretty thankless and unhappy job.

Hikaru’s brothers are huge. And kinda generic Clamp males. But how are they so huge, and she’s so teeny? Did they all come first and steal all the height genes?

We highly approve of Lantis and his black armor and sword. We do not approve of Hikaru offering to let him hit her. Hikaru! Never mind Clamp’s Deep And Important “Special One Just For Me Staring” and the “you can hit me” bit being code of “this person never would,” we do not ask men a foot and a half taller than us who are solid muscle to hit us because we feel guilty! (And she killed his brother! And he feels sorry for her! And he has been in exile! And everyone hates him! Though I’m not sure I want to know how old he is…)

We also approve of Eagle and his underlings. Despite Eagle’s head gear. (A quick browse around the internet tells me that Lantis is both gay for Eagle and straight for Hikaru. This is Clamp, so I’ll just assume it’s canonically both.)

Fuu lands a prince? Most excellent! And I'm glad that they addressed her tricking Ferio. Though I was pretty sure he'd figured out what she was doing by the time he left them in Eterna.

But, is Ascot actually older and a teenager now, or just making himself look older hoping to impress Umi. If he’s still really nine or so…Clamp! We have discussed this! (And then she’s off having Meaningful Discussions with the guy who looks 10 and is actually several centuries old…)

Nice to see Gardina again (ok, and Ascot and Lafaraga and of course Presea…but I was worried we’d never see Gardina again!) and I love her insta-glomp of Hikaru and forcing Ascot to talk to Umi. I’m going to get very confused, though, if she has scenes with Tatra and Tarta. They both look like Gardina considering new outfits.


Is it just me, or does Clamp draw the girls as chibis more and more each volume, not to mention draw Hikaru with cat ears even more?

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

::says nothing about the Lantis and Hikaru and Eagle thing::

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

As expected. I love Clamp because it lets me say absurd things, and they have a good chance of being true.

So, who is it that you fangirl?

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Lantis.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

He is rather kink central, isn't he?

*is slightly concerned by the sheer size*

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is that.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I have the tall/short and even just tall kink bigtime, but at a certain point, I start getting worried.

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

Oh God, eighteen inches is a bit much. I mean, say nothing of like...ahem, endowment, but...seriously, I mean, proportional issues would present an, ahem, problem. XDDD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes, these are all factors. Manga sometimes takes the height difference to the point where I'm kinda "..."

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

*thinks fondly of scenes in Rurouni Kenshin where Misao is 1/4 and Kenshin is 1/2 the size of Aoshi*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

ROFL. Yeah, Misao reaches...what? his elbows? If that? Though, at least she (and Hikaru) is young enough that she may yet get another inch or two.

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

True. Misao is technically like barely fifteen, so...

I lol, though, at how short Kenshin and Kaoru (she's nearly seventeen, she's not going to grow a whole lot more) are compared to the rest of the RK (adult) cast. XD It's just funny.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

One day. I will have myself a flashing icon of Sano and various characters, saying "This is Sano. This is Sano with... an adolescent of average height. ...a woman of average height. ...a tall woman. ...a tall man. ...the hero." And end with Sano going "huh?"

[nebulia.livejournal.com]

HAHAHALOL.

I need to get me one of those. XD

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

I thought Ascot was older than his looks but didn't age, or something? *scritches head* <-can't remember

Oh well, I fangirl Umi and Clef anyway! (Even more in the anime, ahahahaha.)

Mmm, Lantis. XDDD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ascot acts pretty childlike, so who knows.

Lantis is quite nice.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

My stuffy old-lady self thinks that Lantis is too old for Our Hikaru. But OTOH, it's nowhere near the brain-breaking level of some of CLAMP's other age-mismatched pairs, so...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

How old is he? I was thinking early/mid-20s. Historical stuff has me accepting of 10~(or slightly more) year age gaps, but I prefer the girls to at least be 16-17~. But yeah, I did kind of deliberately "la la la" through "wait, how old is this hot and hits my kinks and fangirls a bit guy clearly not seeing Hikaru as a kid? WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS YOUNG MAN?"

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

I place him in early 20s, too. Which IMO is too old for, like, a 14-year-old!

Note that when I was 14 I'm SURE I would have had a different opinion. So, it's something I can accept on an analytical level[*], but makes me uncomfortable on a personal level.


[*] This is a fantasy story directed at teen/pre-teen girls, so of course Mr. Tall, Dark, Handsome, and Angsty will like the teenage girl heroine.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a year later, so she's actually 15, but yeah. It's so popular in fantasy fiction, though, to have the 15-17 yr old with the 20-something guy that I don't notice it as much as I should. I just sigh and accept it as long as it isn't screaming "OMG PEDOPHILE!" Still, you'd think Clamp could have at least made him look like a mid-teen in the flashback, so we could mentall de-age him to 18-20...

I have to wonder,though, if Hikaru even really thinks like that yet? I mean, Fuu obviously (and more age-appropriately-oor at least, Ferio looksaround 17~ to me...) and Umi probably, but Hikaru? She seems to be a few years away from that.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Re: Hikaru: That's why I try to look at it from the intended audience's viewpoint. Most 12-year-old girls have crushes on pop stars and actors who are much too old for them in any realistic sense, and most don't think too much about the mechanical aspects of how that'd work, but it's fine as a pre-teen fantasy. I don't want to get too spoilery here, but I don't think Lantis is intended to be seen as liking Hikaru so much in a sexual way, as admiring her pure heart, and whatnot.

Um, I think I am getting overly analytical here. Sorry.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how Lantis's noticing Hikaru here came across to me. We just know we're meant to turn into 13 year olds and screech "OTP!!!!" because of the Deep And Meaningful Staring Of Clamp's Everything Is True Love Obsession.

[lastseptember.livejournal.com]

Hikaru is made of win. You find out how made of win she is by the end of the series (I'll explain when you're done). I love how she's the shortest yet kind of the one people rely on so much. It's odd. They do seem to make them more chibi for a while, if I remember correctly.

On the pillar: you find out. On just about everything you've wondered: you find out. lol XD CLAMP actually does a good job not being too ridiculous in MKR. Maybe it's because it's their first series? o.O; Yet it's still ridiculously weird. Haha.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I do prefer Fuu and Umi as characters, but I adore Hikaru.

As I understand it, MKR was Clamp's first big hit, but RG Veda was their first series, and the copyright dates on my books also say Legend of Chun Hyang and Tokyo Babylon came first, though I don't know if the dates are based on serialized or collected runs.

I have noticed, though, that the series is pretty sparse. There's a very "Point A to Point B to Point C" feel to it, though I suspect a fair bit of that is the RPG setup.