story

This is a rather in-depth summary of what happens during volumes 1-3 (arc one) of the 6 volume manga of Magic Knight Rayearth. Please note that this summary contains spoilers. Don't forget to check out volume 4-6, which is the concluding arc to this series.

volume one

Tokyo 1998 - Umi and her school is visiting the Tokyo Tower when a bright light shines through the entire tower. Umi and two other girls from different schools, who are also visiting Tokyo Tower that day, are transported to a different world. The three girls decide to introduce themselves to each other...since it's the proper thing to do. Fuu is a blond-haired girl with glasses who goes to a prep school for the intelligent and the same age as Umi. Hikaru, a bouncy little kid, is unbelievably in the same grade as Fuu and Umi.

After they are done introducing themselves, Guru Clef, a mage, pops out and ask them to take on the mission to become the Legendary Magic Knights and save this world's (Cephiro) princess. The world that the three girls have fallen into is known as Cephiro, which is ruled by Princess Emeraude. The girls don't know exactly what their mission is or how they are going to save Princess Emeraude. In spite of being transported to an unknown world, Hikaru decides to believe and listen to Guru Clef. She is the first to receive her magical powers. Clef tries to convince Fuu and Umi to believe in their hearts to help, but during this process an evil witch, Alcione, ambushes them. Alcione was sent by Zagato, the high priest of Cephiro, whom Clef believes has taken Princess Emeraude.

Clef decides to hold off Alcione and sends the Magic Knights off to continue their quest on becoming full fledged knights. Following Clef's instructions they must go into the Legendary Forest of Silence to meet Presea, an artisan. The three girls enter Presea's house to not only find the aforementioned but also a weird looking bunny named Mokona. Presea asks them to retrieve the legendary Escudo, which is a material used for making Magic Knight weapons. So the three girls set out on a journey to find the Escudo equipped with weapons borrowed from Presea and Mokona to show them the way. They must travel through to Legendary Forest to reach the Escudo. However, when one is in the Forest, they are unable to use any magic at all, thus the girls are forced to use physical attacks on all the monsters they encounter.

Each girl has their specific fighting style. Umi uses fencing techniques, Hikaru uses her kendo skills, and Fuu was part of the archery club back at school. While going through the forest, they encounter another monster, but instead of killing it, another person beats them to it. They meet Ferio, a handsome young man, who uses an extremely huge sword to kill monsters.

volume two

The girls are wary of any strangers in the forest, especially in this new world. Extremely intelligent Fuu decides to step in and tricks Ferio into protecting them throughout the forest. While on their way to the Escudo, Ferio tells the girls the legend of the Magic Knights. A bit of a romance blooms between Fuu and Ferio while in the Forest.

Once they all make it out of the forest, Alcione ambushes them again. Umi is gravely hurt because she runs directly into the surprise attack of Alcione's. Hikaru begins to battle with Alcione to avenge Umi. Umi, who is still hurt, wants to help Hikaru with all her heart. In Umi's mind she hears Clef talking and he indicates to her to believe in her heart. With these instructions, Umi gains her first magical attack and successfully defeats Alcione. Fuu, seeing all of this decides to also take responsibility and learns her first magic skills, which is to heal. Ferio decides to leave the girls at this point, saying that he only agreed to escort them out of the Forest. Before he leaves he gives Fuu one of his earrings and kisses her on the hand.

The girls finally find the place where the Escudo is, known as the Fountain of Eterna. The girls jump in the two dimensional fountain (it just looks like a line from the side, drives Umi crazy) to retrieve the Escudo. Each girl is tested before they can have the Escudo. They have to fight against evils that look like the ones they love. Princess Emeraude appears in their minds and tells them that their real loved ones would never try to hurt them in any way, and thus the girls have the strength to defeat the fakes. They finally find the Escudo.

Presea appears in front of the fountain and takes the Escudo to create weapons specially made for the Knights. These weapons will evolve/mature as the hearts of the owner of the weapon matures. Mokona ushers the girls onto their next step into becoming Magic Knights. The next place the girls visit is underneath the ocean where they uncover an ancient shrine. There they find a dragon known as Celes.

volume three

Also waiting in the underwater shrine is a villain. Ascot, looks like a child who has the ability to summon monsters out of other dimensions. Hikaru and Fuu try to fight him. Umi on the other hand is in some sort of trance right when she steps inside the shrine. She has no idea what is happening to Hikaru and Fuu, and only sees Celes. The water dragon, Celes, tells Umi that she must prove herself worthy enough to don him and become a Magic Knight. Umi finally comes out of her trance to find that Fuu and Hikaru are hurt. Umi begins to kill off all of Ascot's summoned monsters. He yells at her to stop, because she is killing his friends. She finds out that Ascot is not really evil, but only wants to protect and play with his monster friends. Umi believes him, because she feels the same way about Hikaru and Fuu. Celes takes this as proof of Umi's strong heart. He dissolves into Umi's armored hand gem. Celes indicates that when the time comes for Umi to don him, he will appear as a Mashin (something like a Gundam...fighting machine).

The girls' next stop is a wind shrine in the sky. Fuu experiences the same trance that Umi does. Fuu meets her mashin Windom, a bird with four wings. Zagato sends another one of his minions to defeat the girls. Caldina is a lovely gypsy who uses her dancing as attacks. Fuu finds out that Caldina is only doing Zagato's work because she needs the money. She reasons with her and Caldina stops attacking. Windom takes this as proof of Fuu's strong heart and becomes Fuu's mashin.

Only Hikaru is left to find her mashin. The girls travel to a volcano and meet the fire-wolf Rayearth. Zagato's last henchmen Lafarga is there waiting for them. He challenges Hikaru to a swordfight. Because Lafarga is a swordsman, Hikaru refuses to fight him with her magic. Lafarga decides to kill Hikaru with her own sword, but when he touches it, the sword turns into fire, burning him out of his hypnotic state. (The swords which Presea made for the girls can only be handled by them; no one else can use their weapons). Rayearth finds this as proof if Hikaru's strong heart. Hikaru's, Fuu's, and Umi's hearts are now mature enough to don their mashins.

They fly up into the sky to meet Zagato. He tries to kill them but is unsuccessful and the girls kill him. The girls reach Princess Emeraude but find her in terrible pain. She turns evil as she begins to tell the story of the true mission of the Magic Knights. Magic Knights are sent to Cephiro to kill the Pillar, in this case Princess Emeraude. The Pillar is someone who prays for all of Cephiro, they cannot love or think about themselves except goodness for Cephiro. Emeraude broke this pact because she fell in love with Zagato. She asked the Magic Knights to come kill her because she has broken her promise as Pillar of Cephiro. In the end, Emeraude is consumed with hatred of the Magic Knights for killing Zagato. Her hate reflects into the world of Cephiro, and the world begins to slowly crumble under her corruption. The Magic Knights must kill her in order save Cephiro. Hikaru, strongest in heart, of the three finally unwillingly kills Princess Emeraude. The girls are transported back to Tokyo Tower embracing each other in tears.