Magic Knight Rayearth is a popular manga and anime series created by Clamp. The story follows three ordinary high school girls, Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki, and Fuu Hououji, who are transported into a fantasy world called Cephiro. In Cephiro, they are chosen to become the legendary Magic Knights. These Magic Knights possess magical powers that they can use to fight against evil and restore peace to Cephiro. Each girl is granted a unique elemental power: Hikaru wields the power of the fire element, Umi controls the water element, and Fuu commands the wind element. The magic powers of the Magic Knights are not only tied to their elements, but they also reflect their individual strengths and personalities.
Age: 15 (this is a fact, Zasz says so in the anime)
While Lantis and Zagato are brothers who cared for each other deeply, they couldn t be any more different when it comes to their respective personalities. Alcyone is one of the starter villains our beloved Magic Knights faced back in the first season but she came back full-force in the second season of the anime for the sake of revenge towards the three girls.
The magic powers of the Magic Knights are not only tied to their elements, but they also reflect their individual strengths and personalities. Hikaru's fire magic represents her determination and passion, Umi's water magic reflects her calmness and adaptability, and Fuu's wind magic showcases her intelligence and resourcefulness. Along with their elemental powers, the Magic Knights also gain access to powerful weapons known as the Mashin.
[For Magic Knight Rayearth Fans] Let's talk about Lantis.
With Lantis's appearance in the "Super Robot Wars T" Game, I've decided to re-watch the Magic Knight Rayearth series recently and I am every bit as in-love with the Anime as I did more than 25+ years ago. Back in the 90's, when I was just a kid, it was one of the most popular Animes alongside Dragon Ball Z, Card Captor Sakura, Yu Yu Hakusho, etc. With Lantis appearing in the recent "Super Robot Wars T" game, I decided to look back on one of my favorite characters of all time. The characters in this series are top-notch but there's one character that caught my eye. He became my most favorite character in the entire series. It's my boy, Lantis!
Lantis is the younger brother of the first season's main antagonist, Zagato. He debuted in the 2nd season of the anime and manga where characters have took note of his very familiar voice, especially his soon-to-be lover - The Magic Knight of Fire, Hikaru Shidou. He also has a very beautiful, cute and tiny fairy (or pixie? I don't know) companion (and self-appointed Assistant) who goes by the name of Primera, who is very much in-love with him and follows him wherever he goes. Lantis doesn't mind this, though, and let's her heal his wounds and buff his spells to support him in every way she can.
Lantis being badass!
Lantis's personality slightly differs somewhat in the anime and in the manga. Since the anime is the first thing I've watched, and the Lantis that I developed an attachment to, we're going to mostly talk about his version here. But, we'll also delve into his manga counterpart for some tidbits of fun later on.
In the anime, Lantis is a very stoic individual. Unemotional, enigmatic, quiet, supernaturally handsome, and dare I say, very, very badass! He is the quintessential "Alpha Male" of the anime with Lafarga coming in close second. (Sheesh, is it any wonder why Hikaru and Primera are so smitten?) His current personality is most likely because of losing his beloved brother, Zagato, and the Princess Emeraude, both of whom he cares very deeply for. He's completely aware that the Magic Knights have killed them (albeit un-willingly), and while there was a moment where he felt some slight twinge of grief, he just closed his eyes and accepted that the Magic Knights did what had to be done and forgives them. Lafarga and the others are very suspicious of him because he just came back from Autozam from a long vacation no sooner than when Zagato and Emeraude died. And what do you know? It's just about the exact time where the country of Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren were launching a full-scale assault on the land of Cephiro, attempting to invade the (former) lovely country for their own gains. Lantis, however, being the "Alpha Male" that he is, never bothered to explain himself. He's just all "I came back to my homeland, and I don't need to explain shit." It was at this moment that the Magic Knights learned from Lafarga that Lantis is the younger brother of Zagato, the man they killed alongside Princess Emeraude.
Despite Lantis's cold exterior, he is a very kind and gentle man who loves nature and the people of Cephiro with all his heart; hard on the outside, but a softie on the inside, like Snickers.
It's revealed later on by Clef that Lantis is a "Cail" - a term only used for individuals who have mastered both magic AND swordsmanship. Lantis is quiet possibly THE strongest character in the anime (and one of the strongest in the manga) by pure skill alone. And yes, even stronger than Zagato. While his elder brother, Zagato, is a master of magic and has a Mashin (Rune God), Lantis doesn't need no Mashin to be strong. He defeated Eagle Vision's FTO mecha in single-handed tournament back when he was in Autozam, gaining Eagle's huge respect and showing that he also has mastery over commanding a Mashin, if he wants to. In fact, it's possible that Zagato's Mashin could have been Lantis's, as well. Both brothers can use the dark Mashin if they want to (as shown in "Super Robot Wars T", where Lantis pilots Zagato's Mashin and is very proficient at it, too). Clef said that Lantis's command over magic is enough to match Zagato, and is THE best swordsman in all of Cephiro. It's a good thing he's on our side, people. To avoid Lantis destroying the plot because he is just THAT strong, the anime makes sure to atleast make convenient moments where he is temporarily out of the picture doing something else or make him hold back in order to make sure there IS a plot to the anime (one example is when fighting Nova, she said that Lantis was really holding back on her). Otherwise, the plot will be over with Lantis just going "all-out" with his powers.
A lover of nature. Thorough and thorough.
Lantis's most defining trait is his very close connection with nature. He loves relaxing in the ambience of the mother earth, and is very fond of taking naps atop large trees. Animals, especially birds, and cute critters absolutely love and adore him. He has a special affinity with animals. Mokona, for example, loves to take every opportunity to hug him and sit in his lap. One of his magics also involve summoning a spirit black horse for him to ride into battle that can fly as if galloping on air. Great! as if he's not enough of a badass already. He can freakin' summon a pet horse from hell that can fly to the ends of the earth atmosphere! If that's not badass and manly, I don't know what is! Also, remember Primera? His tiny fairy (or pixie? I don't fuckin' know!) companion? Fairies and Pixies are "Nature Spirits". And given Lantis's close bond with nature, it's no wonder Primera is so in-love with him!
Love Hurts, Love Scars.
I wish I can also have a loyal companion like Primera much like Lantis.
When it comes to Lantis's relationships, he has two primary women in his life. Lantis is loved by both Hikaru (and by extension, Nova, in the anime) and Primera in both the anime and manga. You can say that Lantis is the "Archie" to Hikaru's "Betty" and Primera's "Veronica" (for anyone familiar with the "Archie and Friends" comics). Although on the latter's part, it's totally one-sided. Lantis DOES care about Primera, but it's platonic. He did save her, after all, and let's her support him in his battles. But, that's how far he can go with her. Primera, however, is totally devoted to the idea of staying with him forever, and always claiming that Lantis is hers and hers alone. She dreams of being his wife but it's not gonna happen. Besides, how can you even make babies with a fairy who is only about the size of your own hand, anyways? Still, the relationship between Lantis and Primera can be entertaining at times. If Primera had the ability to change her size at will, it COULD have worked out and there's a possibility that Lantis may develop feelings for her. But, nope!
That pendant is not just some ordinary piece of jewelry. It's the symbol of Hikaru's pure love for Lantis.
Lantis's overall relationship with the Magic Knight of Fire, Hikaru Shidou, is one of the main focus of the anime. Hell, even Mokona ships Lantis and Hikaru in the anime and manga, and takes every opportunity to have them be together as much as possible and gets rid of any competitions and interruptions (i.e Primera). In the anime, Hikaru is deeply in-love with Lantis but struggles to accept her feelings because she fears that Lantis may never love her back because she killed his elder brother, Zagato. And while Lantis did say to her earlier on that he accepts that the Magic Knights are not to be blamed, Hikaru still has a hard time accepting this. She confessed her love to him at one point before falling unconscious in his arms, but could not remember that she did after she woke up. Lantis, again being the "Alpha Male" that he is, did not bother to remind her about her confession of love to him, and just stayed silent (now THAT's another badass moment!). Lantis also gave her his mother's pendant; his most treasured possession. In turn, Hikaru would associate the pendant with him with all of her love. The pendant would always remind her of how much she loves Lantis and by the end of the series, the pendant even followed her all the way back home to Tokyo. It's very possible that Lantis is also already in-love with Hikaru at this point earlier on, but knowing what kind of person he is, and the fact that there are far more important things at stake than focusing on his feelings at that time, he could not place his love for Hikaru on his list of top priorities at the moment. That said, we can all be glad that they acknowledged their love for each other in the end, and became the anime's third official canon couple along with Fuu and Ferio, and maybe Umi and Clef if Umi didn't hold her tongue in that final moment when she was about to confess her love to him.
In Hikaru's flashback dream, both Lantis and Zagato are looking at Princess Emeraude. But in this scene, it makes it look like the brothers are looking at BOTH Hikaru and Emeraude (even though Hikaru is invisible). This perfectly symbolizes the similarities between both pairings.
Lantis and Hikaru's loving relationship perfectly mirrors Zagato and Princess Emeraude's loving relationship. They are counterparts to each other. When Hikaru becomes the next "Pillar of Cephiro" at the end of anime, it further drives the point home. But unlike Zagato and Emeraude's tragic love story, Hikaru and Lantis's love story ended in a happy ending. And while Hikaru did get seperated from him at the end of the anime, she expressed the desire to return to Cephiro once again to see him. Lantis's pendant is still with her back in Tokyo, she caresses the pendant, showing that she will always love him and WILL definitely be reunited with him again someday.
Nova, Hikaru's dark side, also has a twisted feeling of love towards Lantis. After all, she is also Hikaru, but more psychotic and sadistic. She always openly states that she HATES Lantis because he is the person Hikaru loves the most, and declares that she will kill him in the most violent way as possible. But, she never went through with this. She threatens to kill Lantis, but she also says that she wants to make him hers and hers alone. In a way, this is Hikaru's "Toxic" version of love for Lantis. Nova wants to force Lantis to be hers, unlike her counterpart's more healthy version of love, her's is more toxic with her possessiveness. Could this be just a way for Nova to spite Hikaru even more? It is actually more complicated than that. If it is just to spite her, she would have just simply killed Lantis and get it over with so Hikaru could suffer even more. But instead, she chose to keep Lantis alive even when she captured him. The worse thing she had done to him was to simply stab him in the gut but avoided his vitals (where's all that talk about wanting to kill Lantis as violently as possible?). This proves that for all her talk of wanting to kill Lantis, Nova can't go through with it because she also loves him, as well. There's an old saying: "The more you hate, the more you love.". Because the opposite of "Love" is NOT "Hate", it's "Indifference".
If only she can have another chance at life.
This relationship is exclusive to the anime, but is an extreme tear-jerking bond that would most likely make you cry. Alcyone is one of the starter villains our beloved Magic Knights faced back in the first season but she came back full-force in the second season of the anime for the sake of revenge towards the three girls. In the manga, she died much earlier on and never came back for the second part. She has also become much stronger as she can even hurt the Magic Knights inside their Mashins. But it turns out that she was just being brainwashed by Debonair, the main villain of the anime's second season. Not to mention the poor woman has lost her sanity, horribly broken, traumatized, angry, and an empty shell of a human being, deluding herself into thinking that Lantis IS her beloved Zagato when they first met who abandoned her years ago since not only does Lantis looks like Zagato, but his voice is EXACTLY like Zagato's. To add more punch to the viewer's guts, Alcyone is cursed by Debonair to be erased from existence if she ever reveals the latter's existence to the good guys, which is DEFINITELY gonna happen since Debonair needs to be defeated for Cephiro to flourish once more. This pitiful lady is destined to die. How do you feel about that?! When she was imprisoned inside the Cephiro castle, she was being pumped for information regarding Debonair, and the only one who can make her "feel" something is Lantis. Later on, Lantis decided to gently pump her again for information, and it's at this time that Alcyone finally realized that he is NOT Zagato, but his younger brother instead. But she still clinged to him, nonetheless, because she was THAT broken and needed someone to be there for her. Who can blame her, really?
We get to see more of Lantis's gentle and affectionate side here. While Lantis and Zagato are brothers who cared for each other deeply, they couldn't be any more different when it comes to their respective personalities. It's pretty clear that Lantis cares for Alcyone as much as he cares for the people of Cephiro. Is this pity? He sympathizes with her situation and he wanted to show her kindness that Zagato never gave her. Zagato only sees Alcyone as an expendable tool to get what he wants, Lantis doesn't. Could it be that Lantis was just trying to manipulate her to get the information that he wants? No, not really. Lantis is NOT that kind of person. As what he said to Eagle near the end of the anime, "I'm not like my brother. "
Tragic Bromance, at it's finest!
When it comes to Eagle, this one is a bit interesting even though I'm not into YAOI or anything. I do admit that Lantis's relationship with Eagle is one of the more entertaining things in the anime and manga but not in a romantic way, atleast for me. In the manga, Lantis and Eagle were in a "Love Triangle" relationship with Hikaru, but she ended up choosing both of them as lovers which I really, REALLY hate. I personally don't like love triangle-relationships being the END-GAME of a series but this is CLAMP we're talking about. So, I guess I can respect that. SHOUJO series almost always have Love Triangle relations. An example would be "Fushigi Yuugi", where the female protagonist, Miaka, has two lovers - Tamahome (the main love interest) and Hotohori (the secondary love interest). And while Hotohori ended up losing to Tamahome in the Love Triangle by the end, and even having a wife and child of his own, his last words before dying is stating that he will always love Miaka. "Vampire Knight" is also a good example of this with it's characters - Kaname, Yuki, and Zero.
In the anime, the staff clearly doesn't want any "Love Triangles" going on this time. The staff clearly wants Hikaru to be with Lantis. So, aside from Eagle comforting Hikaru when Nova successfully kidnaps Lantis, that's just about it. Hikaru and Eagle's feelings for each other here are mostly just platonic. This is proven in the final battle when Hikaru has a flashback of all of her friend's happy faces when she's trying to contemplate why she's so in-love with Lantis, Eagle's face transitioned quickly in her mind like Umi's and Fuu's faces along with the others, while the last to be seen in her thoughts was Lantis's face AND the screen is zooming-in close-up on him, no less. This further shows evidence that she loves Eagle as much as she loves Umi and Fuu. But her feelings for Lantis is something more. By the end, even Eagle ships Lantis and Hikaru together by telling the latter that the former loves her, as well. The staff further avoided the "Love Triangle" thingie by having Debonair kill off Eagle. And as a FINAL nail in the coffin, just to make sure, Eagle's dying words to Lantis was to beg him to "Please. make Hikaru happy. "
However, Eagle DOES have a close relationship with Lantis and Geo. He has some "Tragic Bromance" with Lantis going on because as much as he doesn't want to invade Cephiro (because it's Lantis's homeland), he has to for the sake of his country. In fact, when he leaned on Geo's shoulders after his confrontation with Lantis, he said that he was about to change his mind about continuing his invasion "when Lantis looks at me like that. ". He has some lovely moments with Geo, as well. But, I won't delve into that. It doesn't help that Eagle's Japanese seiyuu is a female, and is the same one who voiced Princess Emeraude, to boot. Oh, and in the Latin America dub, Eagle is female and also voiced by a female voice actor to avoid the YAOI or Gay moments with Lantis. It's weird, I know. But, it's probably because at that time, Latin Americans cannot tolerate and gay subtexts so they made Eagle a woman there.
Some final thoughts from me. Which do I like better? Is it the anime version of Lantis, or the manga version of Lantis? I personally LOVE Lantis's version in the anime better than his manga counterpart. His cold and enigmatic personality quirk really stuck with me. It REALLY suits a male supporting character who is the younger brother of the previous season's main villain who one of the female protagonist eventually fell in-love with. That personality fits him like a glove! Plus, did I mention that black armor looks absolutely gorgeous on him? I'm not really a fan of his manga version where the roles are switched around. For one thing, instead of black, he wears primarily white. In the manga, Hikaru was the most oblivious to love and Lantis was the one who fell in-love with her first, and even the one to confess to her first! Yeah, typical "Harem" bullshit. Man, what a joke!
Lantis, you are supposed to be the younger brother of the previous season's main villain! Please, PLEASE act like one! And by that I mean please act more mysterious and enigmatic like your anime counterpart! And that's why I don't blame the anime staff for changing his personality a bit. The anime staff did a fantastic job even though the anime's pacing is rushed! I can confidently say that this is one of the rare cases where I will consider the anime version to be far superior than it's manga version. What about you guys? Do you prefer anime Lantis or manga Lantis?
Thank you all for reading!
These Mashin are giant robotic creatures that aid the Magic Knights in battle. Each Mashin is associated with a specific element and possesses unique abilities that complement the Magic Knight's powers. As the series progresses, the Magic Knights grow stronger and learn new spells and techniques. They also discover the true purpose of their journey in Cephiro and the fate of this magical world. Through their bravery and friendship, the Magic Knights overcome numerous challenges and become symbols of hope and courage in Cephiro. In conclusion, the magic powers of the Magic Knights in Magic Knight Rayearth are a significant aspect of the series. Their elemental abilities, combined with their individual strengths, enable them to fight against evil and protect the world of Cephiro. Their journey showcases the power of friendship and the importance of staying true to oneself..
Reviews for "The Significance of Magic Powers in Magic Knight Rayearth"
1. John - 2/5
I found "Magic Knight Rayearth" to be disappointing in terms of its portrayal of magic powers. The magic system seemed arbitrary and poorly explained, leaving me confused about how the characters were able to perform certain spells. Additionally, the spells themselves lacked creativity and originality, often resorting to generic fire and ice attacks. Overall, I felt that the magic powers in this anime lacked depth and complexity, which hindered my enjoyment of the series.
2. Sarah - 3/5
While "Magic Knight Rayearth" had its moments, I was ultimately let down by the portrayal of magic powers in the show. The abilities of the characters felt underdeveloped and lacking in uniqueness. The main characters often relied on the same basic magical attacks throughout the series, which became repetitive and uninteresting. Furthermore, the explanation of how magic works in this world was vague and inconsistent, making it difficult to fully engage with the storyline. Overall, I wished for a more imaginative and well-defined approach to magic powers in this anime.
3. David - 2/5
I was not impressed with the magic powers in "Magic Knight Rayearth". The abilities of the characters felt cliché and predictable, with nothing truly innovative or standout. The use of elemental magic, like fire and water, felt overused and lacked creativity. Additionally, the show didn't provide a comprehensive understanding of how magic worked in this world, leaving me with unanswered questions. Overall, I found the magic powers in this anime to be unremarkable and uninspiring.
4. Emily - 2/5
"Magic Knight Rayearth" failed to captivate me with its portrayal of magic powers. The spells and abilities exhibited by the characters were simplistic and lacked complexity. The concept of magic in this world was not properly explored or explained, leaving a lot of room for confusion. The magic system felt half-hearted and underdeveloped, diminishing the overall impact of the anime. I was disappointed by the lack of depth in the magic powers and wished for a more intricate and engaging portrayal.