Saint Seiya: Saintia Shou

***NO SPOILER REVIEW****
When I first came across Saintia Shou and skimmed over the reviews, it gave me the impression of a half-baked show which people hated. However, as has unfortunately regularly been the case for many of the Saint Seiya shows after the original, the negative general trend of nostalgic reviewers have nothing to do with the actual quality of the show when seen with fresh eyes.

Saintia Shou is full bore Saint Seiya, with strong saints, key Saint Seiya elements and over-the-top melodrama wrapped in a classic feel. Sure, it has several shoujo elements such as petals flying around sometimes and magical girl elements but ... that's just a stylistic choice for this genre, the actual story is great and feels like Saint Seiya, only with a focus on female protagonists while much of the original show is happening in parallel.

Saint Seiya exists in a multiverse and this show's story is an alternate universe where much of the original show's events happen in parallel to the adventures of the Saintias however the new elements are where the main attraction lies. The show brings back Eris, a character from the first anime movie, expands her mythology and creates several interesting relations to follow as well as interesting world developments. The Gold Saints have a key role to play as well with the Bronze and Silver Saints crossing paths with the Saintias occasionally. Surprisingly, the Saint Seiya feel is preserved while working well with these characters as the female warriors are imbued with several of the characteristics usually associated with their male counterparts without taking away from their uniqueness.

Technically, the show is competently animated, the music is classic and great and the visuals are solid. Apparently the manga is much better (some of the negative reviews point that out) but without that baggage the anime is enjoyable and definitely got me interested in checking out the manga. The story also wraps up well and considering the manga is still ongoing changes to the scenario to achieve that are understandable (again, didn't read the manga when watching and enjoyed the anime).

TL;DR: This is a great and underrated show, watch it with an open mind and you'll have a lot of fun seeing what new things this story brings to the mythos while having strong female characters. It's a Saint Seiya show deserving of the name.

When I was a child, I used to enjoy this kind of anime very much. I didn't care if the character's background stories were lame or the anime plot itself was awful, I simply lied in front of the TV for the whole episodes and anxiously waited 'til next week to see what would happen after.

It's a pity I'm not a kid anymore.

When Saintia Sho was annouced, I jumped with joy. Finally I would see a kind of "what if the saints were girls?". Then I waited for it, watched the episodes... And got upset. I would say that at least the manga is truly ... a work of art, but I'm trying to focus on the anime - in which the art is the worst. Not in a Nanatsu no Taizai level but still awful. Sometimes the shadows are just wrong, sometimes the characters' bodies are terrible, sometimes the art guys don't even try to make their work well. You can just feel that they are doing that whitout giving a fuck about what you, spectator, will think about later. They don't even draw some faces correctly.

I cannot complain very much about the plot as it is set just for a Saint Seiya spin-off but it could be better. I know I'm reviewing an anime made for kiddos but Sailor Moon aims the same (and both of them are made by Toei) AND it still impresses me. The battle scenes are way better (I'm talking about the Crystal remake) & the villains too. I'm disapointed with the Saintia Sho anime & I hope Toei stops thinking that children anime have to be made in a careless way.

One of the worst things a fan of any manga series can experience is an underwhelming anime adaptation - not just one that fails to meet expectations, but one that completely misses the essence of the original, even making it look unintentionally laughable at times. Saint Seiya: Saintia Shou is exactly that kind of adaptation.

At first, it didn’t seem all that bad. A great source material and an anime style reminiscent of the original series (evoking the iconic works of Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno), yet with its own soul and distinct visual identity. Saintia Shou managed to develop its own, unique look, despite the ... clear inspiration. The first episode wasn’t terrible either (though not amazing). I remember feeling cautiously optimistic about the series. Well… I was wrong. As for the rest of the episodes? Overall, they ranged from mediocre to outright bad.

First of all, the visuals. It’s hard to watch characters whose proportions change at random moments. Heck, the heads, especially the heads, look completely off in relation to the rest of the body in way too many moments. You can see this even in the opening, in that scene where Shouko is looking up at the sky. It's just painful to look at. In most anime, openings tend to be visually impressive - often better animated than the series itself. In Saintia Shou’s case, the OP actually reflects the overall quality of the anime and doesn't even try to hide it (see the aforementioned example). Is that a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, because at least it’s honest (I know, it sounds like I’m trying to find something positive where there really isn’t anything, lol); no, because... well, the anime looks the way it looks. Sure, it’s colorful, full of vibrant tones, and it technically has animation when it needs it... but when push comes to shove, the animation is extremely limited (in one scene, an entire action sequence is reduced to a slideshow of stills), and the art style can go from beautiful stills to a frame showing Saori with a wildly disproportionate head.

As for the story, it’s adapted more or less faithfully up to a certain point. After that, the plot starts to fall apart, and the gap between the manga and the anime-original content becomes very apparent. Putting aside its obvious inferiority to the source material, from a purely neutral standpoint, it wasn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong - it wasn’t good either. But it did a passable job wrapping up the story in a way that felt… acceptable. It could have been worse. If the show was always meant to last just one cour, then this kind of rushed closure was inevitable. It couldn’t be helped, and I genuinely believe the writers tried to craft an ending that was at least serviceable.

That’s not to say the show has no merits. Credit where credit’s due: the attempt to emulate the original anime’s character designs was admirable; there were some nice, detailed still frames; the soundtrack was fairly solid and fit the show’s atmosphere; and the opening theme was a total banger (and it was sung by the voice actresses who voiced Shouko, Kyouko, Saori, and Mii, which was a really cool thing to hear). And… that’s pretty much it.

To sum up, Saintia Shou is an anime I’d recommend only to the most dedicated fans of the Saint Seiya franchise - whether they’re familiar with the manga or not. And believe me, it pains me to say that. Everyone else? I’d recommend reading the manga first, and only then deciding whether this adaptation is worth checking out - even if just out of curiosity. I mean, sure, you can watch it, but honestly, there are plenty of other one-cour series out there far more worthy of your time than Saintia Shou.