It’s time for another journey into the world of Rayearth! It’s a really chaotic adventure this time as they have to squeeze in a whole lot through only 3 episodes. The episodes are around double length but that’s still a tall order. While it’s certainly not as good as the full length TV shows, I thought this was pretty fun. It’s a very different take on the series and one that really isn’t bad. Sort of like watching an abridged version with everything compressed as much as possible. I’d like to have more alternate universe adventures like this.

Rayearth starts with a mysterious fairy appearing on Earth. It heralds the beginning of the end as a bunch of space invaders show up. They want to destroy everyone on Earth in some crazy attempt to save their home world of Cephiro. Only three girls can stop them, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu. They have the qualifications to become defenders of humanity by enacting a pact with 3 legendary deities. This will be very risky though as they are still outnumbered and have no real way to practice for this fight. They will have to learn on the job and their only ally is Master Mage Clef, a man of unbelievable power in theory but never in reality.

Right away you can tell that the vibe is a whole lot different than the TV show. It’s less fantastical and more dread filled. You never know when the next casualty is going to arrive and quite a few people are wiped out. I know by the end of the OVA they make sure to mention that there were surprisingly few casualties but it doesn’t feel like that in the intro. Additionally there was a lot of destruction across the whole city so repairing it all will take a while. The members of Cephiro may not all be evil but they are definitely willing to wipe out all of the humans so you’re not going to be coexisting with them.

There is also much less time for Hikaru and her friends to try talking of peace with them. The only option is to go on the offensive right away. Hikaru is really the leader of the group like always and does well. She is the first hero to enter the fight and while she ultimately isn’t able to take too many Ws before being taken down, the bravery is what counts here. She wasn’t going to back down without a fight and her confidence never wavers.

There isn’t a whole lot of time to delve into her character but that was always going to be the case with how short this title is. Hikaru’s a very direct person so you get what the series is going for here. Meanwhile her friend Umi does really well. She won her fight with the greatest amount of ease not counting some resurrection shenanigans. While she was not brave enough to help Hikaru in the past, she made up for it in the present. She even had time to save Fuu from her opponent so Umi made the most of her screentime.

Fuu looked like the weakest as always but to balance that, the OVA made her the strongest of heart. She’s not the most outgoing kind of person but still got up the courage to reach out to Hikaru back when she was ostracized at school. She also still fights to the end like the other two. Ultimately all of the characters were pretty solid there. The most annoying hero would probably be Master Mage Clef because the guy just seems a little too helpless. I would have liked him to have actually fought back at least one of the villains. He spends most of his time giving up or telling the girls to run.

The villains tend to suffer a bit more from how fast paced everything is though. Initially you have some of the villains talking about how they love tormenting weaker opponents and all that but later on it seems like a bunch of this is dumped as just being due to their queen’s dark influence. I’m definitely more than a little skeptical of this. I just wouldn’t have done the redemption arc for Fario here, let him stay on the side of the villains.

Eagle was a really big villain here even if Lantis could have taken him out at any point. Letting him hang around definitely backfired with how close he came to destroying everything. It was fun to see him as a true threat though. As a hero he was a really difficult mastermind to deal with so it makes sense that as a villain he would be just as dangerous. Then Lantis works well as a guardian type figure who is ready to help. You do feel like he probably could and should have helped out sooner though. Aside from not taking out Eale, he had the speed and teleportation needed to take down any of the other villains.

I think he probably just couldn’t force himself to hurt these former friends but you have to take big steps when they are this far gone. Lantis still gets the MVP throughout the OVA for being the reason that the heroes won though. Without him, the heroines would not have had a chance. His sword was critical and he was the only one able to fight off the evil spirits. The deck was really stacked on the side of the villains before and Lantis was the only one who was able to start balancing those scales.

Emeraude ends up looking rather mindless for most of this series though. She can’t stop singing but is also trapped within her own mind. She was not able to handle the present situation and so that’s why she retreated. It’s all a really bad look for her. By the very end of this saga she has finally woken up but man did it take her a long while. I don’t think it would be possible to forgive her by that point. Of course there is no tie to go into the pillar system in this version but it would definitely be another strike against it.

The animation is definitely pretty good here. I wouldn’t say that it is flat out better than the main TV series per say but it does have a very theatrical feeling to it. I like the way that the colors look and of course taking place in a big city is a big win. It gives the fights more weight to them and that sense of danger is always all the way up. The colors and attacks are all striking while still giving you that ominous feeling that the villains could be around any corner. The soundtrack is less memorable though as it is a big step below the show. It can sound rather dramatic but a lot of the music tends to sound more like public domain themes than anything really striking. Still, it’s enough to keep you on the edge of your seat here.

The way the deity fusions work feels like it was changed to add in a bit of fanservice for no real reason. It’s nothing crazy though and only stands out because of how different the transformed forms are. In terms of violence, there definitely tends to be a bit more blood with how the magical girls feel every injury from their deity form. Alcyone also ends up getting the worst end from the characters but none of it is all that bad. It’s just enough to keep up the serious atmosphere of the heroes being in trouble without going too far in any direction.

A final complement I have to give to the OVA is how it throws you into the action without overly explaining a lot of things. You’re really left to your own devices to figure out what’s going on and that’s a good thing. They don’t make a whole lot of these nowadays. The quick story beats you get within the episode just have to be enough and I’d say that they are. You can reason out the rest and then just follow the adventure. It feels a little more like a mystery box this way.

Think of it like you’re one of the main characters. You don’t really need to know the whole story, just enough so that you can fight off the invaders. The primary concern here is about protecting Earth and so it would be nice if Master Mage Clef would at least be able to share some weaknesses with you. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen but I suppose in this case the villains maybe didn’t have many real weaknesses. Mix that in with having the strongest Deities around and it’s no surprise that they have had so much success up to this point.

Overall, This was a fun watch. It’s nothing that’ll change your life but I would recommend giving it a whirl. I’d even think of it more like a quick anime movie than a full on OVA since the 3 episodes combined would roughly get you to that point in terms of length. Everything moves very quickly here so you don’t need a whole lot of context here. There will be a lot of unanswered questions but that can be left for a sequel someday…maybe. This works as a stand alone and the heroines could essentially be called Magic Knights with how they mix spells and physical abilities. The ending is a bit rushed but it’s a worthy price for having a lot of nonstop action scenes.

Overall 7/10