The upcoming TV anime remake of Magic Knight Rayearth was featured in a panel at AnimeJapan 2026.
During the panel, it was officially announced that the series will begin airing at TV Asahi on Wednesdays starting in October 2026—likely timed to coincide with the anniversary of the original anime, which also premiered in October.
A new key visual was revealed:
A new PV was revealed as well and you can watch it on the TMS YouTube channel.
The voice actresses cast as the three main heroines were also revealed, and they made an appearance at the event in person (each wore clothes inspired by their characters). The main cast will be:
Hikaru Shidou: Ayane Sakura
Umi Ryuuzaki: Rumi Ohkubo
Fuu Hououji: Rie Takahashi
Below are comments from each cast member:
Ayane Sakura
“If only I could one day become the kind of person who could lend my voice to a CLAMP work…” I’m sure countless actors have thought this, and while I had almost given up on the idea, I’ve spent my nights—those sleepless nights when I cling to CLAMP works just to keep going—thinking that I could never have imagined fate would bring me the role of Hikaru Shidou. To live up to the name of Hikaru, who has lived among so many people that this moment feels inevitable, I’ve spent the last little while striving to become a person worthy of her.
I spend my days imagining all the possible reactions you might have when you hear this news, rereading “Rayearth” and rewatching the anime to keep myself sane.
I am Ayane Sakura, and I will be voicing Hikaru Shidou in the Reiwa era. I’m an Aquarius with blood type B. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.
Rumi Ohkubo
I’m Rumi Ohkubo, and I’ll be playing the role of Umi Ryuusaki.
The day has finally come when I can say these words…!
I’ve always been a huge fan of CLAMP’s work—I’ve been reading Nakayoshi magazine since I was in kindergarten—so I followed both the Rayearth manga and the Heisei-era anime as they were released.
Umi-chan has always been my absolute favorite. Out of all the female characters in CLAMP’s entire body of work, she’s my number one.
“Belief and the strength of one’s feelings become power”—I repeated this to myself over and over as I approached the audition, and when I heard I’d been cast, I was so happy I cried.
I’m incredibly lucky to be playing my absolute favorite character, but once the voice recording begins, I’ll be facing Umi not as a fan, but as an actress.
Both as the actress playing Umi and as a fan who loves Umi-chan and Magic Knight Rayearth, I’ll do my best to help make this series a success! I look forward to your continued support!!
Rie Takahashi
My name is Rie Takahashi, and I’m honored to be voicing Fuu Hououji-chan.
I am truly honored to be part of this project, drawn not only by its inherent charm but also by the deep love of the fans. The passion of the team I’m working with is so dazzling and inspiring. As someone who was chosen for this role, I felt a warm sense of “myself” welling up from within, hoping to be of help to Fuu-chan—and by extension, to all of you.
In this story, where inner strength is key, I pledge to do my very best and give it my all until the very end.Somehow, I was not expecting the cast to be the same as the classic anime, so this is fine to me. I am not familiar with any of the three voice actresses, but they are all have a very long list of roles on their curriculums, I’m sure they will do a great job and they all seem very honored to play these characters. Hikaru’s voice actress even dreamed of voicing a CLAMP character, so I am sure she will do a great job.
The main staff was also revealed:
Director: Yui Miura
Series Composition: Shigeru Murakoshi
Character Design: Satomi Watanabe
Music: Yuki Kajiura, Takumi Ozawa, Shiho Terada
Planning & Production: UNLIMITED PRODUCE by TMS
Animation Production: E&H production
The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the main staff is mostly made of women, which is awesome. Although the director does not have a lot of works in her portfolio, she’s a woman and that is the highest position on an anime staff. It will be the first time Magic Knight Rayearth has a female director — and quite honestly, maybe even the first time for any CLAMP anime adaptation as far as I can remember… It will be interesting to see a TV Anime adaptation of Magic Knight Rayearth from a woman’s perspective this time around. UPDATE: Yui Miura is a man. “Yui” is typically used for women so I thought it was a female director. What a bummer.
Other female names on the list are Satomi Watanabe (character designer), Shiho Terada and Yuki Kajiura (music). I’m not a fan of Yuki Kajiura’s work on Tsubasa Chronicles (I know I’m in minority here), but she’s very popular so I’m sure a lot of people are happy. I watched the PV and the music does not appeal to me (I don’t like all these choirs she always adds to the songs…). I had strong Tsubasa Chronicles memories hitting me and that’s… not good.
Ohkawa-sensei is not listed as series composition. Somehow I also expected this. I mean, of course I would love her to be in the staff, and she might still be invited to write a few episodes, but if the plan is to follow the original manga as close as possible, there is not much need to have her there. The source material should serve as main guidance.
I was surprised to see a different studio other than TMS animating it. I understand that TMS is in charge of the overall production and planning but the actual animation will be done by E&H production, which is a studio founded by a former director of MAPPA.
CLAMP have also left a message and drew a new illustration for this occasion!
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the production team for taking the time to reflect on, cherish, and continue the story of Magic Knight Rayearth, which began in 1993, here in 2026.
It was also a true honor to be among the first to witness the wonderful performances of the new cast and to hear the beautiful music.
We, too, will cherish and watch over the journey of Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu as they travel through Chepiro, together with all of you.CLAMP
Clef looks so nice!!! I wish the three girls were not in their chibi forms but oh well, I was not expecting a new illustration from CLAMP at all, so this is really nice. The message and the illustration are clear indicators that CLAMP are supporting this project (unlike TOKYO BABYLON 2021 where they almost didn’t say anything).
The animation itself looks good. The one I have more problems with is Umi. It was like that since the first key visual they revealed where we could see their faces and it’s also here in the PV. Fuu and Hikaru are very good in my opinion, but there is something about Umi’s eyes or face that seems off to me. I guess I’ll just have to deal with it…
Here’s wishing for a very successful run! May this adaptation be made with the utmost respect that any CLAMP work deserves, and may this anime bring CLAMP’s popularity even higher.
