Magic Knight Rayearth Remake: Why Nova Might Not Appear in the New Anime
The Magic Knight Rayearth anime remake has premiered, and one surprise caught Japanese fans’ attention: the original anime’s opening theme played at the end of the new version’s first episode!
I’ve already watched the remake’s first episode, and I really enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun, especially since it had been ages since I last followed a story by CLAMP.
But the new anime has also brought some interesting discoveries. It wasn’t until the remake premiered that some fans realized a familiar character from the original adaptation doesn’t actually exist in the manga!
Nova Probably Won’t Appear in the Magic Knight Rayearth Remake
A tweet about this discovery started making the rounds among Japanese fans, and I thought it was worth sharing.
“Wait, are you seriously telling me Nova doesn’t exist in the original story? So you’re telling me Hikaru lost to Nova EVERY SINGLE TIME in the anime because those scenes were anime-original!? IS THAT REALLY IT!?”
For anyone who hasn’t watched the original anime, Magic Knight Rayearth had two seasons: the first ran for 20 episodes, while the second had 29, bringing the total to 49 episodes. The franchise also has three OVA episodes.
And here’s the most surprising part: the manga has only six volumes!
Yep, Magic Knight Rayearth is a relatively short series, and its story wraps up much faster than you might expect. So, I think you can already see where I’m going with this, right?
Forty-nine episodes for just six manga volumes! In other words, the anime had to come up with quite a bit of its own material to fill out the story, and Nova is an anime-original character. She simply doesn’t exist in the manga!
Even though Nova was created specifically for the anime, she was developed by CLAMP at the request of TMS Entertainment. So her character design also comes from the famous manga artist group!
Honestly, I don’t expect her to appear in the Magic Knight Rayearth remake. I believe the new adaptation will follow the manga more faithfully.
But what exactly was Nova’s story in the original anime?
What Is Nova’s Story in Magic Knight Rayearth?
Nova was born from the darkness in Hikaru’s heart after she [SPOILERS, I’ll leave this part out] alongside the other Magic Knights.
Since Emeraude immediately sent the Magic Knights back to Tokyo, Nova was left alone in Cephiro, wandering aimlessly while searching for Hikaru.
She was eventually found and adopted by Lady Debonair, who convinced her that if she truly loved Hikaru, she should kill both Hikaru and everyone she cared about. That way, the two of them could be together forever.
Throughout the anime’s second season, Nova becomes one of Hikaru’s main enemies, coming up with all sorts of schemes to capture her. She even manages to break the protagonist’s sword and invade her mind!
Nova also receives the Rune God Regalia, and during the final battle, she captures [SPOILERS] to use his feelings against Hikaru. With help from [SPOILERS], however, Hikaru manages to free him and defeat Nova.
After her defeat, Nova realizes that Debonair never truly cared about her. That’s when Hikaru finally understands where the character came from: Nova was born from her own desire to learn how to love herself.
Once she understands this, Nova finds her true place and returns to Hikaru’s heart.
Basically, Nova is a part of Hikaru herself. So you could even call this self-yuri, since there are some pretty suggestive scenes between the two, as you can see in the images above. But at the end of the day, both girls are the same person!
I think it’s a shame that Nova will probably be left out of the remake, because she has such a great design!