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NAME: Sol Zagato
SERIES: Magic Knight Rayearth, a shojo manga/OAV series by CLAMP (my favorite artists!) that makes a parody out of fantasy RPG games
SERIES DESCRIPTION: While on a field trip, three eighth-grade girls are brought telepathically by Princess Emeraude to a magical fantasy world called Cephiro so they can "save" her chibi-fied self from imprisonment by the "evil" priest Zagato. While there, they encounter good and evil magicians, monsters of all shapes and sizes, and fall in love with various bishounen of the astral realm. Not to mention a cute marshmallow bunny cat type thing that hops around and yells, "Puu"!
CHARACTER DESCRIPTION (SPOILERS!): Sol Zagato is a priest, summoned to help the pillar of Cephiro (that would be
Emeraude) pray and protect the kingdom from harm. However, a rule of thumb in Cephiro is THE PILLAR AND THE PRIEST CANNOT FALL IN LOVE UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES!!! As luck would have it, they do fall for each other, and Emeraude would rather die than live life without her lover.
But Zagato can't stand it, and he imprisons her in fear that she will commit suicide, and without the Pillar's happiness, Cephiro is overrun by demons and
monsters when the kingdom reflects Emeraude's sadness. She tries to call on the Magic Knights to murder her because she can't, but they can't do it without first
killing Zagato...
INSIGHTS: Thanks to Zagato and Emeraude, "Magic Knight Rayearth" has almost a "Romeo and Juliet" like quality to it-
lost loves, forbidden romances, a balance between tradition and heart, everything, and that is what kept me coming to this manga, and saved the show from being a
sugary sweet children's tale not requiring a thought in your head , and due to it, I have no desire to see "MKR 2". CLAMP are masters of creating the perfect bittersweet
saga with endearing characters you'll remember long after they die (and being CLAMP, surely they will).
Misunderstood and hated, but with good intentions and a heart
of gold.
NOTES: I found out that almost all of the inhabitants of Cephiro are named after cars- Zagato is the name of a company that improves and makes Ferraris!
LINKS: I haven't found any links for pages devoted especially to Zagato; or a combination Zagato/Emeraude site- but
that's not to say I'm not still looking! I'll keep you posted...
EXTRA IMAGES: A pretty big image confirming the fact that CLAMP fashions all of their darker-looking males
after Trent Reznor...
I'm a real sucker for the Emeraude and Zagato images - this one is in the OAV style.
