Magic Knight Rayearth

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised

Review by Jennifer K.

A story about three girls who are complete strangers that meet by chance while on simultaneous school field trips to Tokyo Tower. The three are then sucked into another world that is called Cephiro. Their task: Rescue the captive princess in order to restore peace to a land in chaos. Along the way they obtain armor, weapons, control of magic, and the inevitable friendship and support of each other.

This series is chock heaping full of views on the importance of friendship. Unlike most anime intended for a female audience, which mainly focus on romance themes, Magic Knight Rayearth's main focus is that of friendship and the love friends have for each other. The power of the friendship between these three girls is traced throughout the entire series--from them starting out as total strangers to the ending, where only their intense friendship is strong enough to bind them together and defeat evil. Many, many good lessons on morality and what is "right."

Parent's Guide Rating:

Yellow (parental guidance suggested)

There is no sexual content whatsoever. There is some very brief nudity in the first fifteen minutes of the show when the three girls first get their armor. But it's okay because their bodies just turn colorful and sparkley. No details. I watched a subtitled version of the Japanese show, so there was, in fact, frequent cursing. The show has been bought and is schedualed to be dubbed, as well, so the company may choose to cover some of the cursing up. However, there is a great deal of violence. The only obsticals the girls come across are various monsters and the minions of the main villian. They must destroy the monsters, but they don't destroy any minions. They turn them into good guys, instead :) The ending is extremely sad and might upset little kids.