~ By Jordan

One was to look at MKR's story, is like looking at 400 minute RPG with anime inspired characters. (The funny thing is that a character named Fuu makes reference to that during one of the episodes.) 3 normal high school girls are sucked into the magical world of cyphiro, where they are then given a mission of aquiring the thier each individual master weapons and armor, and to discover the three rune gods. Completing these tasks will then turn our heroins into the Magic Knights. The evil overlord they are forced to fight, has even taken a princess hostage, for that much more videogame refference. This story works very well, and between it and the frequent characters introduced, everything in this series moves along quickly, and well-done. With alittle plot twists near the end, you can expect a pretty interesting story, from an un-original idea.

If your a fan of manga, you will defiatly be a fan of MKR. Manga Saucer-eyes are present on just about every male and female character. Like most other anime's tho, there are still episodes that look alittle sloppier than others, but nothing that would really effect the overall apeall of this show. Action scenes all look very good, between magic duals, to sword fights. Another cool aspect is as the girls collect more of the mystical armor, their appearence begins to change. Really only for the better. And when they finnaly become Magic Knights, their character designs are amongst the best!

MKR for one thing, does have an extremely diverse cast of characters. The Heroins, and heros are all very likable, and the villens you will hate with a passion. This all adds to you ruiting for good to win the entire way threw. Hikaru is the perky and udually too happy fearless leader, Fuu is a genious, that has an innocent cuteness, and Yumi is the preppy, rich girl who complains a lot. It is impossible to not enjoy ruiting for these girls in every episode. And in the end, these characters will only grow more on you.

The J-Pop in MKR is alittle lacking. Not only is there very little of it on the pionner dubbed, and bilingual versions, but the little that you will hear during the story is average. The main theme in Japanese is a catchy song, and I'll admit even in english, I was starting to enjoy it by the end. As for the orcistrated music in the show, we have a completely different story. It is very diverse, and usually always fits in perfectly with the situation it is played during. Finnaly the Dubbing was fairly good. I was surprised to hear such innocent sounding american voices do justice to the dramatic lines that they diliver at times. Original Japanese is still the way to go, but you dubbed fans will enjoy either version.

Right from the get-go, the girls are sucked into an alternate dimension, and the action starts right up. This is even before the girls get weapons worth using. As the series progresses, and the battles get fiercer, and the story gets thicker, its kinda hard to turn this one off late at night. I really can't get into much more praise.

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