by Rayearth on 6th of July, 2001
Contents
It contains 7 DVDs in one openable box, each with different cover art and descriptions of contents on the back. They cover all of season 2 (episode 21 to 49) of the TV series, the extras on the DVD contain:
- MKR Art Gallery
- Character Profiles
- Alternate Openings & Closings
- Omake Endings
- Magic Spell Index
- Outtakes
- Mokona Song
- Production Sketches
- Storyboards
- Directors Commentary
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Overview
Magic Knight Rayearth continues as Hikaru, Umi and Fuu defeat the very person they had been sent to rescue, Princess Emeraude. Filled with regret, the three were finally able to leave Cephiro and return to their families in Tokyo. Now the three girls have been summoned back to Cephiro by an unknown force, and they will have to complete a new quest if they ever want to return home again. Cephiro is crumbling without a Pillar, and the Magic Knights must find a new candidate before the world is completely destroyed. To make things worse, invaders from the three neighboring countries of Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren have arrived in Cephiro with their eyes on the Pillar! Now the girls must fight, and once again their opponents are not only monsters, but desperate people with hopes and dreams of their own. Will they bring themselves to find someone for the most sorrowful position in Cephiro, or will the Magic Knights and the invaders alike be swallowed by the mysterious darkness known as Lady Debonair?
Review
Much, much better than what they managed to do for the first box set. From the design of the box to the menus of each DVD, it was what MKR deserved on a DVD release.
The DVD box is black now, and doesn't really look right when placed together with the first season box. It's a bit thicker (since there's 7 DVDs instead of 5) and the cover art is edited shots from the second ending with each knight in the foreground and their respective Mashin in the background fitted in the MKR Manga style frames. The front side of the box is also openable now as opposed to the traditional paper box type used for the first season box.
They've also put more thought into what to put in the special features, instead of having repeated Character Profiles and Magic Spell Indexes, they've put more interesting stuff in, like the commercials of MKR merchandise that went on Japan and even some of the storyboards for the openings and endings. There's also a Director's Commentary for the last episode which basically was the director talking you through the last episode, kinda like what you get from western movie DVDs. They've also made the DVD scrollable (so I can jump to any spot when I'm watching).
However, there are a few sort comings, they used the third opening instead of the second. However, they did put the creditless version of the second opening (from memory, it's the second version) in the extras section. They've also replaced all (except the first episode on the last disc) the Japanese MKR logos with the English one. Although I never liked the interviews on the first DVD box set (since the audio recording was so poor you can't hear what they're saying), there weren't any interviews in this release, so you kinda loose the close feeling you have with the English cast since you don't really know what they think about when doing the recordings - then again, I never bothered listening to the English track. Another thing is the opening movie where the Media Blasters and AnimeWorks logos show up, it's no longer skippable.
Verdict
Very good DVD, although there are a few short comings, it's still worth it. Any serious MKR fan should get this.
