A novel general pattern of permanent magnet (PM) arrangement for the optimal design of magnetic gears (MGs) is presented in this work. The proposed general pattern can generate six different types of PM arrangements. By using this optimization pattern, the PM arrangement with high torque and low torque ripple in MGs can be obtained within a short computing time. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this optimization approach, the proposed pattern is applied to a reluctance magnetic gear (RMG), a promising type of MG suitable for power transmission applications in lightweight electric vehicles (EVs). The transmission torque and torque ripple characteristics of the RMG model are evaluated using finite element analysis (FEA), while its design optimization is performed utilizing a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) method. The superiority of this general pattern is demonstrated through a comparative analysis between the proposed RMG and a conventional RMG model.