Cail Lantis - the defender of righteousness

November 21, 2009

  About Lantis: Lantis is the younger brother of Sol Zagato, or the High Priest as the anime calls him. During the time prior to the first series, Lantis was the captain of the guards for the Pillar of Cephiro and also the only known Cail (Kailu or Magic Swordsman). He is a strong silent type and enjoys to take naps during the day before twilight when all of the monster hunts take place. When he realizes that Zagato and the Pillar are in love, he decides to leave Cephiro without a word and become a traveler. During his travels, he stays the longest in the country of Autozam, home of a highly evolved technological society run by mental energy. There he befriends the one known as Eagle Vision, a high commander of the Autozam military. They become very close and he tells Eagle all about the pillar system and the love affair between the princess and his brother. Many think there is shounen ai (boy/boy love) between these two characters, but I have seen both the anime and read all of the manga and can say that there is NO reasoning to say this. They are just very close like brothers. When the pillar is destroyed and the barrier disappears from Cephiro, he decides to return home. Unknown to him, his friend Eagle along with Zazu Torque and Geo Metro, also travel to Cephiro in hopes of capturing the pillar system to save their dying planet. (but they are another story. ^_^) Lantis believes that the pillar system does not create a beautiful world, only a world without the system is beautiful, therefore he intends to destroy the system. Meeting Hikaru, Lantis seems drawn to her and after her confession of love to him, he gives her a necklace passed on to him by his mother. Even though Hikaru believes he could never love her, he shows a tendency to worry about her and care deeply. Upon realizing that the magic knight Hikaru and Eagle are the ones chosen to be the pillar, he begins to second guess himself to an extent. Getting hurt and captured by Hikaru’s shadow known as Nova, he is used against Hikaru and the knights in the last battle. Unlike his brother, he plans to live even if he can not be with the one he loves (which is sadly… Hikaru ;-; ), thus he is saved by Eagle. In the end he confesses his love to Hikaru. After this no more is known about him. ^_^

Zagato - the enchanting lord of darkness

 

             

 

 

Name	Zagato	Zagato
Alias
Race
Gender	Male	Male
Age
Hair	Black	Black
Eyes	Purple	Purple
Height	Tall	Tall
Weight	Thin	Thin
Status	High Priest of Cephiro	High Priest of Cephiro
Quote	“I’m surprised you made it this far.”
Voice	Lex Lang	Juurouta Kosugi
Debut
Anime	Magic Knight Rayearth	Maho Kishi Rayearth

Despite his rash actions, Zagato is not an evil person. He is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he reveals his reasons for Emeraude’s imprisonment to only a few people, his actions are justified. Near the end of the series the Magic Knights discover that Zagato was only doing what he thought was right, even though it went against his duties.

 

Zagato (ザガート, Zagāto^?) is the primary antagonist of the first season, his younger brother is Cail Lantis (introduced in volume four). When he is first introduced, he is seen as a terrible villain who has kidnapped the beloved Princess Emeraude, watching cruelly as Cephiro crumbles without its pillar. However, this image is far from the truth.

High Priest to Princess Emeraude and Clef’s right-hand man, Zagato fell deeply in love with the beautiful and kind Princess. Despite her best efforts to put Cephiro first and foremost, Princess Emeraude fell in love with Zagato as well. When Emeraude goes missing, Zagato came forth as having had kidnapped Princess Emeraude. In reality, Emeraude was so upset by her lack of will that she imprisoned herself in the water dungeon to avoid seeing Zagato. Zagato does not reveal this to the Magic Knights or Cephiro’s people, aiming to destroy the knights when they come after him.

The reason Zagato is this way is because of his deep love for Emeraude and equally deep hate for Cephiro’s Pillar System. The Pillar must devote every moment of their existence to praying for Cephiro and never seek happiness from anything except seeing the planet prosper. Zagato was tormented to see Emeraude chained down as such and even more so when she had to resist the love that had grown between them. He decides that instead of Emeraude returning as the Pillar and continuing to be a slave to Cephiro, he would rather have Cephiro cease to exist.

In the end of the first season, he is killed in battle by the Magic Knights in a final attempt to protect Emeraude; his last words tell her to “be free.” His death caused Emeraude to become lost in her own grief and rage, casuing her to be killed by the Magic Knights, who were only forced to.

 

Princesa Emeraude - the enchanted princess

   

               

 

Name	Princess Emeraude	Emeraude-hime
Alias	Pillar of Cephiro	Pillar of Cephiro
Race	Cephirian	Cephirian
Gender	Female	Female
Age	Ancient	Ancient
Hair	Blonde	Blonde
Eyes	Blue(Green in the manga)	Blue(Green in the manga)
Height	5′6″	168 cm
Weight
Status	Princess	Princess
Quote	“Please…save Cephiro!”
Voice	Wendee Lee	Megumi Ogata
Debut
Anime	Magic Knight Rayearth	Maho Kishi Rayearth

 

Princess Emeraude is the reason the Magic Knights are on Cephiro to begin with. She carries the position of the “Pillar of Cephiro”. She is the support upon which the entire land of Cephiro stands. The condition of Cephiro is a reflection of the condition in her heart. As long as she is praying for the land’s well-being, Cephiro remains healthy.

The trouble with such a setup is that Emeraude, despite the great responsibility she carries, is only human. She is expected to devote her whole being to Cephiro, but when her heart begins to yearn for a man, things begin to go wrong. That devotion does not allow for love, so when Emeraude fell for Zagato, she was caught in a terrible vice, and as a result, Cephiro begins to reflect that strife. Praying for a way out, she sent out a prayer to harken the strings of destiny…and this was how Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu were drawn into Cephiro.

What will stun the Magic Knights the most as their quest draws to a close is the exact reason she brought them here: their true destiny as the legendary Magic Knights. It has to do with the fact that, once the position of “Pillar of Cephiro” is taken, there really is only one way out. Especially for the emotional Hikaru, learning that way out will go against everything they believed.

Maya Natsume - the sexy killer!

 

 

         

 

 

 

Maya Natsume is a beautiful, almost gratuitously well-endowed girl who has long silver hair (purple in the anime). She is the older sister of Aya Natsume, and the younger sister of Shin Natsume. She is the captain of the Juken Club, and an upper level martial artist. Maya is not shy about her body, she usually wears revealing clothing and has no problem with her underwear showing.

She has a long standing relationship with Mitsuomi Takayanagi and may still be in love with him despite their bloody and violent history. Souichiro Nagi is in love with her, but her actual feelings towards him are unclear, romantic-wise, but she does take a very active interest in his continuing development.

Maya tends to do things in an indirect way, such as starving Souichiro to move his power to his gut enabling him to learn reverse striking faster. When Aya and Souichiro go to Kyushu against her orders (she knew they would go anyway); she says she was kicking them out of the group. It was actually for the purpose of freeing them of their obligations so they could handle the issue there more effectively. She tends to do somewhat foolish things as well, such as trying to fight Tetsuhito Kagiroi despite Makiko Nagi telling her she could not beat him. Her actions are arguably to blame for the events of the past; Chiaki thinks it all happened because Maya was just being stubborn. Her “Katana hunting” may have contributed a great deal to Shin’s mental break down, and was directly responsible for Shin nearly killing the members of his own gang. She has Bob Makihara doing intense physical training (mainly running) which, as Mitsuomi points out, is pointless as Bob is already one of the physically strongest in school.

She blames Mitsuomi for her brother’s death and believes he has been corrupted by his power, she has set the Juken Club in opposition to him as a result. So far her resistance has not been very effective, the vast majority of her club was beaten up and most subsequently left school all together.

Techniques & Abilities

The Looping Blue Wood Dragon

It is revealed that Maya’s Dragon’s Gate is associated with the element wood, allowing anything made of wood to become a weapon for her. She even uses this power to make her necktie into a wooden blade.

Amaterasu Dragon’s Gate

Recently Maya had the symbol for the Amaterasu Dragon’s Gate appear on her chest.(only in manga)The gate has the ability to neutralize all special powers, in the past Sohaku found a way to reverse the gates power to actually awaken red feather powers worldwide. Bunshichi even suggests this gate is why only she could help Shin keep control. A person with this gate is only born once every four hundred years, the last being Senihime four-hundred years ago.

This ‘gate’ is extremely special in that it possesses the desired qualities that Souhaku needs in order to bring about his ‘ultimate plan’ of awakening those with any sort of extraordinary powers across the lands. While nearly everyone’s energy flows in a clockwise pattern, the holder of the Amaterasu Dragon’s Gate is opposite - their power flows counter-clockwise. This is also why Reiki was considered ’sealed’ when with Maya - her energy effectively ‘nullified’ Reiki’s - and a by-product is that she was able to calm Shin down so easily.

Techniques

Maya fights using a style invented by her family, Natsume Goushin-Ryū.

Uraate (裏当て^?)

Translation: “Backing”

CMX translation: “Reverse Striking”

This is fulcrum-based transference skill; an example of Ki transmission that teaches one to shift the point and force of impact by striking the dead center of an object. At expert-levels, a practitioner can transmit the force of impact wherever they please, as long as a medium exists to transmit their power through. This technique forms the basis for most Ki-based techniques used throughout the series.

Natsume-Style Form Refinement^[1]

A body manipulation technique. It allows Maya to take the shape of an 8 year old girl to conserve her ki. Her ancient ancestor (with the same name as her sister), the feudal era Aya Natsume used a similar technique to have the opposite effect of allowing her to appear as an adult despite only being 9 years old.

Natsume Goushin-Ryū Kongou Hasshiki: Taizan Hougou^[2]

CMX translation: Natsume-Style Advanced Exercise, 8th Degree: Mt. Tai Demolishing Roar

A technique which uses “reverse striking” transference through a stiff-shoulder charge to shift the force and impact of the blow over a distant; demolishing most anything upon impact with its pressure wave.

Natsume Goushin-Ryū Kongou Hasshiki: Renkan Tenpen Tetsukageki^[3]

CMX translation: “Natsume-Style, Advanced Exercise, 8th Degree: Linking Heavenly Iron Attack”

This move is a set of precise, bone-crushing blows.

Natsume Goushin-Ryū: Radotenko (棗剛真流 羅どう天靠^?)^[4]

CMX translation: “Natsume-Style: Eye-connecting Heavenly Twist”

A technique combining a fierce shoulder charge with an immediate release of Ki upon impact; that sends the opponent flying backwards.

Natsume Goushin-Ryu: Tsuba Otoshi (棗剛真流鍔落とし^?)^[5]

CMX translation: “The Natsume Sword Handle Drop”

A sword-technique that puts emphasis on the handle while dealing an overhead swing, upping the cutting force of the blade. However, when facing the Iron Skin of the Kagiroi family, this technique proves utterly ineffective.

Tetsushikō

Translation: Iron Finger

Known to be a particularly lethal technique. Using one finger, the user punches through the muscle and directly striking the internal organs, particularly the liver.

Ryukei Qigong Tashikou (龍形氣功鍛針功^?)

CMX translation: “Dragon-Ki Qigong Forged Needle”

The Takayanagi family’s greatest secret technique’ one of the technique of the so-called Hatsukei, or “power release“. Utilizing the skill “Uraate”, the user can transmit their power through the air itself. The first step is collecting the constantly accelerating rotational force that begins from the feet on up, until it is forged into a needle using their Ki. Next, this honed, atmospheric force is redirected from the circular motion to a straight line (via punch), and sent barreling into the target. Mitsuomi taught this technique to her, during their blossoming relationship.

Ryukei Qigong Tashikou: Shiryū Enretsu Sen (龍形氣功鍛針功•四龍炎裂孅^?)^[6]

CMX translation: “Dragon-Ki Qigong Forged Needle: Four Flaming Raging Dragons’ Massacre”

A Triple Forged Needle combi-attack, which incorporates her Forged Needle with Souichiro’s in addition to Mitsuomi’s Twin King Dragon Flame Strike, producing an all-consuming, four-headed dragon of Ki.

Reiki

At a young age, Maya was entrusted by her father to function as a guard/sheath for Reiki, an evil ceremonial nodachi that is the family’s heirloom. She was told by both of her parents to never allow anyone to touch it, particularly her older brother Shin. She was picked as Reiki’s guardian since she can’t activate it, or be driven insane by it.

Given that Maya can’t activate it, Reiki is nothing more than a long katana for her. With the assistance of her sister she was able to activate it temporarily. As the casing over the blade has shattered, revealing it’s “true blade”, Reiki became an even more deadly weapon even though it was wielded by someone who can not activate it. Maya is fairly skilled in swordsmanship, although not as good as Madoka Mawari. Maya is still better than her sister, so she is definitely a formidable enemy with Reiki.