Magic Knight Rayearth (魔法騎士レイアース, Majikku Naito Reiāsu) is a Japanese manga series created by CLAMP.

The series follows three eighth-grade girls who find themselves transported from modern-day Japan into a magical world, where they are tasked with rescuing a princess.

[citation needed] Magic Knight Rayearth focuses on three eighth-grade girls: the tomboyish, headstrong but short Hikaru Shidou (獅堂 光, Shidō Hikaru); the quick-tempered and no-nonsense only child Umi Ryuuzaki (龍咲 海, Ryūzaki Umi); and the intelligent and ladylike Fuu Hououji (鳳凰寺 風, Hōōji Fū).

The girls are then tasked with rescuing the current Pillar, Princess Emeraude, from her abductor, the high priest and antagonist Zagato, after which they will be returned to Tokyo.

After this, they finally reach where Emeraude is imprisoned, but the three learn that she had fallen in love with Zagato, which had hindered her ability to pray solely for Cephiro's well-being.

Feeling responsible for her actions, she had imprisoned herself, and eventually summoned the Magic Knights to kill her, as no one from Cephiro could harm the Pillar.

As such, Lantis, a powerful magic swordsman and Zagato's younger brother, wishes to end the Pillar system for those reasons.

Eventually, Mokona narrows the candidates down to two: Hikaru and the sickly Eagle Vision of Autozam, who is friends with Lantis and, as such, wishes to end the Pillar system for him with his eternal sleep.

As the two undergo the test to become the new Pillar in a recreation of Tokyo, Mokona reveals itself to be the creator of Cephiro and its laws, both of which it had created after sadly witnessing the violence and destructive nature of the people on its earlier creation, Earth.

[5] The editor-in-chief wanted a story that could appeal to elementary readers and older, while Clamp wished to bring in younger fans.

[5] According to Ohkawa, the magazine's success with the magical girl manga Sailor Moon (1991–97) made it possible for the group to pitch a serial with robots to its editors.

[5] Greatly anticipating the ending to the first part of the series, Clamp found the protagonists' initial adventures in Cephiro "really easy" to create.

[6] Written and illustrated by Clamp, Magic Knight Rayearth appeared as a serial in the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi from November 1993 to February 1995.

In 1997, Tokyopop licensed Magic Knight Rayearth for an English-language translation in North America, and serialized it in its manga magazine MixxZine.

The TV series was licensed in the U.S. twice, first by The Ocean Group, which was supposed to air on Fox Kids in a test pilot run in the 1990s, and second by Media Blasters and was dubbed by Bang Zoom!

[19] A three-part OVA was released in Japan a few years after the end of the manga and the TV series (July 25, September 26, and December 10, 1997).

One of them is Clef, who tries to guide the three girls in order to let them become the Magic Knights, awaken their Mashin and fight against the evil wizards from Cephiro, who are trying to invade the human world.

Eagle Vision fills that role instead, as well as being the main antagonist after he tricked Zagato to commit suicide in order to bring upon a false balance to Cephiro.

Magic Knight Rayearth, an adventure role-playing game (RPG) set in the first TV season, was released for the Sega Saturn.

[10] The first volume of Tokyopop's re-release of Magic Knight Rayearth II placed 44th on the list of the top 100 bestselling graphic novels for February 2004, with an estimated 1,446 copies sold.

[20] The first volume of Dark Horse's omnibus edition appeared at the 83rd place of the list of the top 300 bestselling graphic novels for July 2011, with an estimated 1,069 copies sold.