Cephiro

Which is your favorite: the manga, the anime, or the OAV?

For me, it's very hard to decide.

The manga is sooo beautifully drawn... they're all so PRETTY! But... lotsa Asmi. Not enough Clemi. XDD

Then, of course, the anime is very cheesy... but lots and lots of Clemi goodness.

Then, of course... there's the OAV. An omgbishounen Clef... and lots Clemi.

-still undecided-


[Milieva: Added a poll for the hell of it]

I have difficulty deciding, but I think the Manga version is better.  I like the ending better. With them being able to visit Cephiro more often.

But the anime version is so much better is fanfiction terms! We all know how much us fangirls looove a good dosing of angst! (that was really bad grammar, wasn't it?)

The season two anime ticked me off. It bored me to death, mostly because it dragged on and on. For the amount of episodes, the backup characters were neglected, IMHO. The series has such rich characters, even the backup ones being very deep and developed...

But it was all "Hikaru is emo about this" and "Hikaru's got a problem" and "What can we do to help HIKARU?"
It really affected how I felt about her character! Hikaru's definately one to get depressed easily, but not wallow in it like she does! Also, while the first season had Hikaru as the focal character, Umi and Fuu had balanced screentime. Umi and Fuu got much more attention in the manga, too. The second season anime was all about Hikaru, and I was really bothered by that.

It has a lot of good points, of course. Nova is an awesome concept, although the thing with Debonair was handled cheesily, I think. The Knights developed relationships with the invading countries, which I think is very cool. And my favorite F/F scene... one of my favorite scenes for them indivifually as well... was when Ferio rescues Fuu from Fahren *3* Soo... yeah.


The art in the manga is so high-quality and becomes absolutely STUNNING by the end of the series. I miss a lot of the character development that was in the anime, but I'd have to pick the manga. <3


A lot of people didn't like the OVA, but I LOVE AU stories, which is what it is. I had to watch it through a couple times to understand it (watching it at 3 AM with terrible subtitles does not help) but I really like what they did with it. And while I dislike Clemi, I find it to be actually in-character in the OVA, thus, it doesn't upset me. XDD

Unfortunately, I've never read the manga and I'm still on an ongoing quest to get someone to buy it for me, or to find the money to buy it myself. :P I've watched the anime of course, so ya.... And, what still somewhat bothers me is the fact that my older brother has watched the OVA and I haven't. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?!?! We live in the same house, he's never been away from me for a super long amount of time with exception to 2 summers ago and he said he's watched it before then so.... how come he's watched it and I haven't!?!!?!! When did he do it!?!!??!!! ARGH!!! :P In this case, I can't decide 'coz I haven't been exposed to all the different forms of MKR. :D I love fanfics though. ;)

~Syv

I have a fairly biased view on this.

I have both the anime and the OVA, but I haven't read the manga.

I have a friend that has it and I can borrow it from him.  Until then, I'm afraid I'll abstain from voting until I read the manga, which if I'm lucky, will be next week.

If you lived closer, Rogue, I would offer it to you.? I am always willing to increase the fan pool.

I need to find out who has my OVA.? Or I need to buy a new copy. (something I will not be too happy about)

I appreciate the offer, Milieva.  I really do. :)

I'll read them one of these days.

The anime was ugly.
Ugly as sin.
It was so cheesy and bad, I'd just cringe watching it.
The orb that Ferio gave Fuu is ugly too. I prefer the ring.

The OAV, apart from Pretty-Pretty!Clef is rubbish and mostly fanservice for guys. And lesbians.

Clearly, the manga wins. Hands down.

I love the anime! How can you say it's ugly?  ??? I don't know about the manga but asmi scares me...

Never read the manga so I can't comment on that, but I agree that the anime was not ugly! I prefer the animation of the OVA (along with uber hot Clef goodness). So i'm torn between he two really. I like them both! ^_^

The anime is alright, but it just doesn't do justice to the amazing-ness of the manga.

I've actually managed to avoid the OVA thus far, so I can't really comment on that one ^^;

Quote from: Kisumisu on December 07, 2007, 06:16:49 AM
I don't know about the manga but asmi scares me...

Give it a go.  Clef holds Umi's hand.  All is right with the world. ^.~

The character development and the relationships are better.

Quote from: Milieva on December 14, 2007, 06:01:05 PM

Quote from: Kisumisu on December 07, 2007, 06:16:49 AM
I don't know about the manga but asmi scares me...

Give it a go.  Clef holds Umi's hand.  All is right with the world. ^.~

The character development and the relationships are better.

Aww.. You always quote me and answer.<3 Hugs.

Sounds good. I'm going to buy the manga then. nya~

Quote from: Kisumisu on December 14, 2007, 06:30:24 PM
Aww.. You always quote me and answer.<3 Hugs.

I find it makes it less confusing as to who I am replying to.  Especially since your comment was a number of replys above mine.

The manga is lovely.  I think you will like it. If not... Then I cannot help you.  *shakes head in dismay*

Quote from: Revolutionnaire on August 01, 2006, 10:21:07 PM
The anime was ugly.
Ugly as sin.
It was so cheesy and bad, I'd just cringe watching it.
The orb that Ferio gave Fuu is ugly too. I prefer the ring.

I am not sure if it as ugly as sin.  ^.~  But it isn't nearly as pretty as the manga.  What CLAMP story has really been made into a pretty series?  I really dislike Tsubasa's anime.  Then again, I read the manga fist, so I was spoilt.

The ring is definitely better.  but the orb could make for some cracktastic fanfiction. (actually I think it has.)

Quote from: Revolutionnaire on August 01, 2006, 10:21:07 PM
The OAV, apart from Pretty-Pretty!Clef is rubbish and mostly fanservice for guys. And lesbians.

Honestly, they could have at least shown Ferio shirtless at least once.  Damn male animators.  CLAMP would have given us fanservice. *pouts* 

But Clef was gorgeous. there is no denying that.

This was a question on my mind for a while, until I finished reading the manga.

I have to say that the manga would be my favourite; the beautiful, stunning, awe-rendering, detailed, classic, epic, masterpiece-like art(I am an artist, and I plan to be a manga-artist, so I pay a lot of attention to the art) was one reason. The second reason would be because the plot was awesome in my opinion(there's only one thing I don't like about it, the first part took place all in one day! It just went by way too fast! How did they accomplish all that in one day?!! That's one looong day if you ask me).

Characters that I didn't like before(*cough*Fuu*cough*) suddenly were awesome! Heck, even Alcyone was awesome(for the little time she was there). And the characters really showed their true colours in the manga. I also agree that the ending was much better than the anime's; I never truly liked Debonair that much(though she has the best evil maniac laugh ever in all of anime history)...

In the end, you have to credit the original story. (CLAMP FTW!)

I'm not gonna just completely side step the anime or the OAV though. I'm just gonna start ranting about how I love them both now... be afraid!

The anime is what I watched first, it's the one that created this absolute love for the series. Now, some parts are cheesy, and the art styles by some of the animators makes me want to laugh in hysterics; but the anime has much more pros than cons. Like the fact that they fixed that speed problem with the manga, and elongated it to make it a few weeks while keeping it interesting and relatively in-character(thank god for that, or it'd turn into another Naruto Shippuuden). It's a high quality series.

The anime has such wonderful, wonderful music, the OST is something to behold(I have discovered my favourite singer through it, Tamura Naomi ♥). And with the second season, not only does the animation and art improve, but they used the soundtrack at the perfect moments, giving it an almost feature-length movie feel to it (that's an opinion that me and a friend of mine have, it was my friend who noticed that first). In conclusion, the anime is one of those series that grows on you. ♥


And now for the OAV.

I loved the OAV. The art and animation was the quality in which I would of expected the anime to be if I had read the manga first. Well, no duh the animation would be better, that's why it's an OAV. To tell the truth, When I was into the first few minutes, I was thinking,"Oh please let them remember Cephiro, Oh please please please!" and other variations of that same sentence. Mokona pops up, Hikaru is bewildered, and my hopes are shattered. It's the same thing with Tsubasa Chronicles, when I saw Syaoran take up Rayearth, I suddenly got extremely angry saying, "That's Hikaru's Mashin, not yours!" But of course this is just a personal issue I have with the characters I love, which is why I hate AUs. Maybe that's a reason why I didn't choose the OAV as my favourite. 

Anyways, I absolutely loved the Magic Knights' friendship in here, even if it wasn't as emphasized on as in the anime and manga. It's just that they had a better base for their friendship, and their love for each other had been able to grow over time. It was more "realistic", the OAV. Including the fighting scenes, which is another reason why I adore the OAV. The battles were much more...gory, and that's how I like it. Not enough to keep out the Magic of MKR(irony...), but enough to make my inner fangirl rage in a burning fire of love and excitement. Uh, I'm a bit weird, I know...

{SPOILERS}
The ending was absolutely stunning. I loved it to death. Usually, in that kind of a situation, the battle scars and destroyed buildings would automatically regenerate themselves, and the whole city wouldn't of even known that something extremely extraordinary had happened. But the OAV didn't do that; the whole area was in rubble even after Cephiro had returned to it's own dimension. I remember someone saying that was to give a sense of permanence, showing that the whole experience would never be forgotten; most likely changing the way they'll live from then on.

(I was actually crying when I saw the city in ruins, it really hit me for some reason; that just shows how much the OAV pulled me in :'))
{/SPOILERS}

.....


Wow, I had a lot to say right there. ^^;;; I guess I've never been really able to rant enough about why I love MKR so much before.

heh, watch me ramble...

I love the manga. I actually own three copies of it - the oldest is the original tokyopop version, flipped and loosely translated, and it was the second manga series I ever bought.

It is, in fact, largely responsible for my intrest in manga, anime, japanese culture, and even the degree I took. XD It just swept me away - the art was so beautiful, and the story had so much to it - so many layers, and when it hit me with the truth of the role of the knights, I was lost forever to it. <3 So of course when the 10th anniversary re-edited/translated/unflipped version came out, I bought that too. XD and then I learnt japanese and went to japan and so of course I went and bought the japanese originals. XDDD (I still read them all, which is, uh, REALLY REALLY DORKY. XDDD I switch which one I pick depending on mood.)

I also managed to read the manga and get Clemi from it. *g* Well, through reading it and then beginning to write a fanfic which had Asmi in it, because it was the obvious choice, and realising that I couldn't make it work, at which point I re-read the manga and realised why it doesn't work for me. (Short version: imo Ascot has a crush on a vision of an Umi he doesn't know, and she has already made a connection to Clef. XD)

The anime I like, but it didn't shake me as much as the manga - the story is looser, the art isn't (in my opinion) as good because the manga set a bar so high nothing was going to come close on a series budget, but the voices and the music are brilliant. (I was terrified the first time I sat down to watch it that they'd get Clef's voice wrong and I'd not manage to watch the thing. ^^;;; I'm picky about voice with the characters I obsess over, but Nozomu Sasaki was amazing and I settled down to watch the whole thing in one weekend. XDD) Also, Clemi! Being more obvious!

I then got the OVA, and despite being unable to get a version with the japanese track on it, I still like it more than the anime. The art is better quality, the story is more compact, and Clef is SO PRETTY. XDDDD;;; Pretty enough to make up for the dialogue (I die everytime they talk about the dark side. I can't help it - StarWars was my first ever fandom. XDD) and the voices! Also, psycho!Eagle is the creepiest damn villain EVER. One day I will find it in japanese, and then my life's ambition will be fulfilled. XDDD

On a random note, I love the music from it all pretty much next to the manga - especially the OVA soundtracks, and several of the image songs. XD (Though Megumi Ogata as OVA Eagle scares the hell out of me even more when she's singing. XD;;;) Goran, taiyou da yo is one of my most played tracks ever, and I have over 50 gigs of music on my mp3 player. ^^;;;;

Quote from: Itena on March 13, 2008, 05:44:48 AMThe second reason would be because the plot was awesome in my opinion(there's only one thing I don't like about it, the first part took place all in one day! It just went by way too fast! How did they accomplish all that in one day?!! That's one looong day if you ask me).

Actually, the manga doesn't take place in one day - it just isn't obvious because Cephiro is out of sync with Earth in it. XD The extras have scenes in which Mokona provides an egg-shaped tent-thing for them to sleep in at nights, complete with nightclothes and massive bed. (Hikaru goes sleep-walking and Fuu sleep-tickling and Umi gets no sleep at all trying to herd them back inside. It's really cute. XD)

Quote from: Itena on March 13, 2008, 05:44:48 AMCharacters that I didn't like before(*cough*Fuu*cough*) suddenly were awesome! Heck, even Alcyone was awesome(for the little time she was there). And the characters really showed their true colours in the manga. I also agree that the ending was much better than the anime's; I never truly liked Debonair that much(though she has the best evil maniac laugh ever in all of anime history)...

In the end, you have to credit the original story. (CLAMP FTW!)

*agrees totally , but read the manga first and was then bemused by the Hikaru-obsession of the anime version*