Four Villains, Four Veteran Voices
The biggest reveal from the show's stage event at the Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair 2026 is the antagonist lineup. Zagato's faction, the group plotting Cephiro's collapse and under orders to wipe out the Magic Knights, now has four named members with voice actors attached, according to a report from Japanese anime news site Anime Anime.
Mamiko Noto (Ai Enma in Hell Girl, Mavis Vermillion in Fairy Tail) voices Alcyone, the faction's sorceress. Ayumu Murase (Shoyo Hinata in Haikyu!!) plays the summoner Ascot. Hitomi Ueda voices the illusionist Caldina, and Hiroki Yasumoto (Chad in Bleach, Germany in Hetalia) rounds out the group as the swordsman Lafarga.
Fans who grew up with the 1994 show will enjoy the cast comments. Murase said he first heard of Rayearth at his voice-acting training school, where classmates kept singing the original theme at karaoke, and he read the manga while preparing for his audition. Yasumoto remembered the original as a Monday prime-time anime and said what he feels now is less nostalgia than joy and a sense of duty. Noto described Alcyone's pursuit of love as devoted and painful to watch, and said she found herself pulled into even the sadder scenes by the visuals. Ueda, a longtime CLAMP reader, called playing Caldina in the new Rayearth a happiness she had to balance against the responsibility of touching a series so many people hold dear.
Two Cours, a New Trailer, and Two Theme Songs
The broadcast plan is now concrete. Episodes air every Wednesday at 11:45 PM starting October 7, 2026, on TV Asahi's national IMAnimation W block (some regions excluded). Two back-to-back cours means roughly half a year of weekly episodes, enough room to cover a good stretch of CLAMP's original story.
The second main trailer, posted on TMS Entertainment's official YouTube channel, shows the Magic Knights fighting wave after wave of enemies and gives the towering Mashin, the series' giant guardian spirits, their first proper showcase. It also debuts both theme songs.
The opening is "Otome no Tsurugi" (乙女の剣, roughly "Maiden's Sword") by singer-songwriter toaka (十明), released through EMI Records / Universal Music. toaka said she wrote the song around the heroines' straightforward, unclouded resolve: girls who suddenly have a world's fate dropped on them and keep their heads up anyway. The ending theme is "Hoshiakari" (星灯, roughly "Starlight") by Kawaguchi Yurina on Universal Music. Kawaguchi called herself a fan of the original manga and described the series as having both the warmth of a sunny spot and the pull of deep-sea darkness.
Who Is Making the Reboot
For readers who missed the earlier announcements, here is the full picture. Magic Knight Rayearth is CLAMP's signature series, originally serialized in Kodansha's shojo magazine Nakayoshi, and the original TV anime aired from 1994 to 1995. The new show arrives more than 30 years later.
The story starts with three second-year middle schoolers, Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji, on a school field trip to Tokyo Tower. They are abruptly summoned to the other world of Cephiro, where they learn that Princess Emeraude, who kept the land's peace and order through the power of prayer, has been taken captive. Emeraude called them there, and the three girls have to become the legendary Magic Knights to save her and the world.
Ayane Sakura voices Hikaru, Rumi Ōkubo voices Umi, and Rie Takahashi voices Fuu. Saori Hayami plays Princess Emeraude, Yūki Ono is Zagato, and Yūki Kaji is the mage Clef, with Mika Kikuchi as Mokona, Emiri Katō as Presea and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Ferio. Sakura, Ōkubo, Takahashi and Kaji were all on stage in Kyoto for the reveal.
Yui Miura directs at E&H production, with Shigeru Murakoshi on series composition and Satomi Watabe as character designer and chief animation director. The score is a three-way collaboration between Yuki Kajiura, Takumi Ozawa and Shiho Terada. TMS Entertainment, Kodansha and TV Asahi are the production companies behind the series.
Looking Ahead
The premiere is October 7, 2026 in Japan. Outside Japan, Crunchyroll has picked up the series for its Fall 2026 lineup, with an English dub planned but no dub date announced yet, and Ani-One Asia is listed for parts of Asia. In Japan, the show streams after broadcast on ABEMA, Prime Video, Hulu, U-NEXT, d Anime Store, DMM TV and other services.
The theme songs get digital releases the week after the premiere: toaka's "Otome no Tsurugi" on October 14, 2026, and Kawaguchi Yurina's "Hoshiakari" on October 15, 2026.
English readers can get ahead of the anime: the manga is available from Kodansha Comics, including the hardcover 25th Anniversary Box Sets released in 2019 and 2020, as well as digitally.