Catching up on Saint Seiya.

[Femto]

So I used to watch this show when I was a kid back in Ecuador but for some reason, right when Seiya fights Aioria in the 12 houses, the series would start back from the first episode. It was really annoying and I never got to find out what the hell happened next.

Fast forward some 8-9 years later and something reminded me about the series and that I never finished watching it so I started downloading and re-watching the entire show, the spanish dub no less.

Here are my thoughts.

The Sanctuary arc is probably the best and the ending to that story is pretty awesome. It just takes so long to get there. There's this whole chapter of everyone fighting the Silver Saints that just takes forever and almost every fight follows the same pattern: bad guy introduced, Pegasus Meteors/Diamond Dust/Andromeda Chains/whatever results ineffective, bad guy's attack nearly kills Seiya/Hyoga/Shun/whatever, Pegasus Meteors/Diamond Dust/Andromeda Chains/whatever effective again for whatever reason. In fact, nearly every fight in the entire show follows that formula. It gets boring but it's specially tedious in the silver saints arc.

I skipped Asgard because Norse mythology has nothing to do with the Greek mythology that is so present in the show and I assumed it was TV filler (which I later confirmed) and went straight to Poseidon. The Poseidon arc was kinda boring. I loved the setting (reminded me of Wind Waker, though Saint Seiya obviously pre-dates it) and the new armors but it was just so cookie-cutter. I liked the revelation of Kanon but that was about it. Poseidon was a shallow villain and the whole part with Seiya shooting Sagittarius' arrow over and over even though it kept stabbing everyone on his side was just very silly.

I've only seen Hades Sanctuary so far and it was quite good. I liked Shion's background and Dohko's rejuvenation and the part where two Athena's Exclamation clash. I like how they kept the original character designs and music but, aesthetically, the show is a mess. The computer coloring looks so bad, everything looks muted and lacks that vibrancy compared the original TV show. The backgrounds are terrible as well, over-textured, heavy on black and, again, lacking that vibrancy the series originally had. And then there's all the CG which does not fit at all with the more classic character designs of the show. Animation is mediocre though I still like how faces get distorted when somebody gets hit with a strong attack.

I absolutely love all the Greek stuff in the show. I was reading about it and it's the small things like, for example, the fact that Aldebaran is Taurus' brightest star, that really add to the universe being built up here. There is zero character development in the show and I still don't like most of the Saints attitude of "I don't care if I get killed even if my death accomplishes absolutely nothing." I keep relating that to Kenshin's Kyoto arc and how Kenshin ultimately became a stronger person by finding a will to live, which I always thought was more noble, interesting and engaging than most anime where getting madder makes you stronger.

I'm going to start watching Hades - Inferno now.

I might post impressions on that later.

[The Herald]

It was on YTV for a while in Canada, it didn't get very far. It was called Knights of the Zodiac for some dumb reason, and the blood was all green.

[Starnum]

The blood was green? Man I'm glad I never watched that version, they tried to show that in the US too. Was that the 4kids version? I heard that Hyoga talked like a surfer dude *barf*. I had already started watching fansubs of Saint Seiya before that version came out. I also like the show, and I've seen like all of it I think, heh, except the movies. Which I hear are really bad, and even make DBZ movies look good, heh. I agree with a lot of what you said Femto, The original series was probably the best, but it did drag on with the Tin Saints, that's what I call the Silver Saints, lol. The fights with the Gold Saints were great though. I watched Asgard too, and I liked it, but I'm a fan of Norse mythology so that might have something to do with it. Poseidon was good, but still not as good as the 12 temples stuff. I've also seen Hades Sanctuary and Hades Inferno, and at first it seemed weird to me, but then when they started explaining everything it made sense and then it get even better in Inferno. My question is, where's the fuggin ending to that series? It's like there isn't one. They're supposed to do another sequel called Saint Seiya: Illisium (As in the Elysian Fields, hence the squeal to Hades.) I want to watch this but I don't know if they've even made it yet or what the plans are. So if anyone has any information on this, I'd like to know about it. Also, my favorite saint is Ikki, of the Phoenix Cloth. Though you might already know that if you remember that I had an avatar of him for a while. That was a while back but not really long ago, and that's when I caught up on the different series and watched everything. At that point I had already seen everything but the last few fights with the gold saints, and like you I wanted to see the rest, and ended up watching all the other series as well, heh.

[Femto]

My question is, where's the fuggin ending to that series? It's like there isn't one. They're supposed to do another sequel called Saint Seiya: Illisium (As in the Elysian Fields, hence the squeal to Hades.) I want to watch this but I don't know if they've even made it yet or what the plans are. So if anyone has any information on this, I'd like to know about it.

The Elysion OVAs are out already.

It's six episodes and I'm sure you'll be able to find it around somewhere.

More interesting than that perhaps are the fourth and final arc in the series.

At the end of the Sanctuary arc, Saga says something about overtaking Poseidon, Hades and Zeus himself.

I was reading up on that and it seems that Zeus is to be the next arc in the series, after Hades.

Then the Saints are supposed to take on Chornos, God of Time, so it's going to be a while before the story really ends.

The creator hasn't even started these in manga form so who knows when, or if, we'll ever see them animated.

Anyways, I was about halfway through Inferno and the next two episodes aren't subtitled so I have to redownload them before I can continue watching.

Inferno has been kinda boring so far though.

[Starnum]

Ah cool, well I'll have to find Elysium sometime soon and watch it then.

[The Herald]

Do they still look like the old style?

[Starnum]

What do you mean by that exactly. If you mean badass dudes in kick ass armor, then yes. XD

If you're referring to the animation, then of course the newer shows look better. Well there's a noticeable difference in Hades anyway. The art design is basically the same though, of course. They still look like themselves, for the most part. Though the armors do change a little each time I believe, as Femto was saying. You either like the changes or you don't. I tend to like most of the designs. Though Starnum's astral armor looks, and is, way cooler than any of the saint's cloths.

[The Herald]

I just meant that I liked the old way they drew things in the 80s, that's all.

[Femto]

So I finally finished watching the whole series sans Asgard.

Spoilers ahead.

I thought the Inferno chapter of Hades was pretty terrible except for the part where we see all 12 Gold Saints together and when the Shun/Hades relationship is revealed. I mean, they spent a lot of time on Orpheus and a bunch of other stuff and I just honestly didn't care. Elysium was much better, if short and without a proper ending (though I read online that Seiya is supposedly wheelchair bound after the end), but it had an awesome "holy shit" part in episode 4 I think that I got a huge kick out of of. I warned against spoilers but I'm still not saying what that is in case you guys haven't seen it. The scale or scope of the story is starting to get pretty big at this point and it seems like the story of the 5 Bronze Saints we've been following since the beginning is being thrown on the wayside.

The Sanctuary part of "Hades" was probably the best of the entire arc. It just had so many revelations, the rejuvenation of Dohko being probably my favorite, and there was still this huge mystery of what the hell was really going on. We got to meet Mu's master, Shaka's "death" really cool and the Athena Exclamation showdown was awesome (Aioria: "Aren't you forgetting something, Saga?" Milo:"We have three Golden Saints on our side too." = awesome). It was also interesting because it was like the Sanctuary arc from the TV series but backwards where you're actually rooting for the Golden Saints this time as opposed to the people that are invading that Sanctuary.

It's a pretty decent series in general.

I'm glad I finally caught up with it but I'm saddened by the fact that the artist isn't moving the story forward at this point, he's working on a prequel or something which I don't really care about.

And why is it that the first thing that happens to any character is that they get their helmets/headpieces knocked off?

Everyone looks so much cooler with them.