Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac

I just loved it! They changed the plot correctly, updating and making everything more modern.
As a huge fan of the original series, i can say this remake is great.

They altered slow parts to make everything more dynamic, discarding unnecessary scenes. They changed the background of some main characters for better ones and rescued the original manga backgrounds for others.

The animation would be better in 2D, but if it is to suffer as we suffer in Saintia Shô with poor quality for lack of investment, 3D is the best option. However, the CGI is not bad at all.
I still think that Shun's sex change TERRIBLE and ... unforgivable.

EDIT: After finishing the serie i reach this conclusion: The story adapted from the manga is very good, better than original anime.
But the original story created for this reimagination is terrible and full of script holes.

In the end, I still consider this a great reimagination of the classic. Cant wait for new episodes.

Ok, I'm trying my best not to be as bias because as a super fan of the series that has basically watched and read all the canon manga up to date, I can't stand some of the decisions made for this series.

The story is 4

is disappointing, they introduce some new stuff to the series like no using helmets, men with assault rifles fighting saints, as I remember saints make cracks on the ground with a kick and blow the sky apart with their punches. Shun's depiction as female changes the original mythology; female Saints were forced to hide their faces in masks to renounce their ... femininity. The director and writers don't seem to have any kind of love or passion for the original Saint Seiya, the story feels childish. I had mixed feelings, and it also seems to forget that every bronze saint is related to each other, all bronze saint have the same dad

art is 6

it looks likes it was made to run on the PS3, 3DCG a quick and cheap way to make mediocrity, while some scenes do look good others just straight out suck

Sound 5

not the opening theme but the audio throughout the series was cheap, I can't describe the brain damage that it caused.

Characters 5

a lot of the character's personalities change, they feel dry. They don't feel like the ones I know, #NotMyShun

Enjoyment 4

I went in thinking it wouldn't be as bad, I saw the trailer and I was, it can't be as bad. Well, I thought wrong at least the trailer had better sound the show itself, is not worth the watch since I really can't see any reason for this to exist but if you enjoy kids show then you might like it. Personally, I don't as much I wish I had. it did gave me a feeling of nostalgia, so I went and started to rewatch the original series.

0verall 3

And Netflix managed again to completely destroy a good show again, childhood ripped apart, I know it's not the original but they could at least try and make a good one

now I would go and start a petition to let companies know not to sell the rights of the characters to Netflix, Netflix stay with your originals those are much better, except Kaz Kaan and his giant Toblerone, yes I'm looking at you Neo Yokio.

This show was doomed when Netflix changed Shun's gender, but Toei did that in Saint Seiya's last film with Scorpio Miro and even that Miro didn't participate a lot there were some that turned up their noses, yet Netflix thought it would be a good idea: "REPRESENTATION". They changed the lore, they added a new story, yet they couldn't add a 6th saint to represent a female, they had to change Shun.

Fast forward to its launch, it was a car crash, people hating it, people trying to understand it, a minority liking it, the score here - and anywhere else really - speaks for themselves, ... Netflix's Knights of the Zodiac is a complete failure.

I barely remember the first 6 episodes, but remarkable moments were the speaking manhole (talk about comedy relief), the Galactic Tournament on a desert, a front of army fighting a handful of saints able to move above the speed of sound, all that because they wanted to add that general that no one will even bother to remember the name, because 1: it is not lore; 2: we know he will be irrelevant anyway.

So let's talk about those 6 new fresh episodes, the half dozen they had 6 months to rework after the catastrophic release of the first half. It is the same leachate, kudos for at least showing a few moments of the Silver Saints Arc and Aioria's fight against Seiya. And here, once again, they changed the lore, let's start with Gemini Saga and the Pope in the same room when the order to kill Athena comes (if you watched the original you know that Saga killed the original Pope - the one that gave Seiya his Pegasus's cloth, which happened to be Shion a saint from 273 years ago that had direct contact with Athena, so, no, Shion wouldn't order Saori's death - and took his place asking Capricorn Shura to kill Sagittarius Aioros); Shina not wearing her mask (despite being obligatory for female Saints, because after Seiya saw her face on the beginning a female Saint has to either love or kill the man that saw her face, that's why Marin wears a mask, it is not to confuse viewers that she might be Seika. Not only that when OG Shun was training there was a female Saint with him, Chameleon June and she wore a mask too) and her consequent protection of Seiya against Aioria's attack, it wasn't because she became noble out of nowhere, Shina loves Seiya, the anime shows that, the show doesn't (even though they tend to put emphasis in the "romance" between Seiya and Saori); I don't like to repeat myself but the general that no one cares, after 3 episodes with some of the Silver Saints and Leo Aioria, all the rest are developed with the (fake) Black Knights which are general Cassius copies that don't add anything to the story, just to fulfil the idiocy that was implementing a new useless arc to the story, even the Steel Saints from the anime filler had more personality than the Black Knights, besides that they are powered by a gigantic wireless battery powered by "cosmos", how did the general was able to trap an immaterial energy that resides within a person in a material object is beyond me, I guess Netflix thought it made sense, by the way, even after this battery is destroyed, the general is able to enter "Iron Monger Armour" - that was totally an Iron Man rip off - and has energy somehow (even before getting hit by the Bronze Saints's blows (btw he can also absorb cosmo thanks to science).

But the cherry on top of the sundae is the REPRESENTATION that Netflix felt necessary to put: female Shun doesn't do anything, female Shun can't stand on their own whilst the males are fighting, female Shun just doesn't do anything. Congratulations Netflix, you defeated the patriarchy and all it took was to change the gender of an anime character.

They tried to hint a season two with the Gold Saints, when Sagitta Ptolemy hits Saori with an arrow, but how can Ptolemy use the same kind of portal that Mu used (and here it is another lore changing, since only Mu and people from Jamir can teleport)?

Pathetic show, there could have been a better adaptation, they could have added a new saint, someone like Yuna from Omega that doesn't want to follow the mask rule; that general arc was uncalled for, in 12 episodes they could have worked with the Galactic Tournament, Black Saints (the real ones) and Silver Saints; changing Shina (before mentioned) and using Saga as one of the saints that attacked Aioros is another stupidity (btw I even forgot to mention, Aioros was branded as someone that was trying to kill Athena, after his death by Shura the Pope would deny Saori as Athena and say that the real Athena was within the Sanctuary, protected).

Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya Review


Story (6/10) Fine

As a heavy fan of Saint Seiya and as you would assume from many other long fans, I feel comfortable enough to speak for the majority of us when I say we are not necessarily satisfied with the amount of changes to this story. As soon as I saw Seiya riding in on a skateboard I knew I was in for it. I think the biggest change to the overall story has to be the inclusion of the antagonist Vander. Who's goal is to use the power of comso to fight against the Gods instead of with ... them. Now I'm not going to necessarily say this is bad or inferior to the initial way the story was setup but you can best believe I obviously prefer the previous way the story was setup as I didn't necessarily have a problem with it. It felt like the director Yoshiharu Ashino wanted to explain things in the universe of Saint Seiya that 1) No one ever asked to be explained and 2) Didn't care if those questions were explained ever.
I guess someone did ask those questions and that person would be him. Nonetheless, I'll say this statement more than once in this review (so get use to me repeating myself when I say "if you aren't familiar with Saint Seiya and this is probably your first introduction to it then there's a high chance you didn't see any issue with any of this" but for me? A long time heavy Saint Seiya fan? I thought it was meh, it combined the Galaxian Wars and the Phoenix Ikki (or should I say Nero.. ughh) Arc with this new Vander plot and it wasn't too messy I guess, fast pace? definitely, but messy? not so much.


Art and Animation (7/10) Good Enough

I'm going to be completely honest with you, when I heard this would be CGI, disappointment filled my heart faster than a Gold Saint Attack. When I saw the trailers and saw the type of CG they were using I wasn't disgusted but I wasn't impress either. I think the best CG I've seen is from 2014's Saint Seiya Legend of Sanctuary movie, that was gorgeous. I wasn't a fan of the design changes but the CG quality was phenomenal. This on the other hand is a step down from that on both CG quality and animation. The fighting choerography was satisfactory I guess because that's something the 80s version was lacking for the most part so I'll give them that. It's good enough I guess but we all know what we really wanted was some nice handdrawn stuff. You know like Lost Canvas or The Overture Movie, Hell even Saint Seiya Omega S1 or the recent Saintia Sho levels of hand drawn quality would have been preferred by me over this which was suppose to be the new forefront Seiya Seiya.


Sound (6/10) Fair

Firstly I want to point out the fact that when I go about watching Saint Seiya I would prefer to listen to it in Japanese because that's how I always have, so seeing that Netlix decided to not even have one was quite disappointing. It's odd since the franchise was made in Japan and there's multiple different language voice options you can swap to, French, German, Italian and Spanish which we all know those were the languages this franchise were popular in sure but no Japanese? Really? Sigh What ever, I chose english and obviously this being the first time I experience Saint Seiya in English Dub I was not a fan (and for the most part that can be said about anyone watching anything in a language that they previously didn't listen to it in, we all remember the first time we heard Goku's JP voice actor right?). So just like the story section I don't think you would find anything remotely wrong with the voices, voice acting quality may vary. I didn't hear any impressive voice acting being done just average stuff nothing horrible so I guess that's fair. And the new English Opening of Pegasus Fantasy? Ehh It's okay, I can tell you for sure it's not something I can see myself re-listening to outside of this adaptation and I have with literally every other Saint Seiya Opening Spin off or not.


Characters (6/10) Fair Enough

So firstly I want to address the multiple elephants in the room. Why were there so many name changes? Seika = Patricia, Hyoga = Magnus, Shiryu = Long, Shun = Shuan, Ikki = Nero, Saori = Seinna. Literally the entire bronze saint cast's name got change except for Seiya which they obviously didn't change because his name is in the title. But hell even the word Saint isn't even used throughout the adaptation they are called Knights which sure that's what the old English Dub version called them also (but I had an issue with it back then too so yeah) but my point still stands WHY? One would assume "ohh well their names were change to be more western friendly who wants to say Shee-reee-you when they can just say Long??" Well if that was their reasoning then why was the Pegasus Ryu-Sei-Ken not changed to Pegasus Meteor Fist? And why was Rozan Shoryuha not changed to Rising Dragon Lord hell that one was changed into something chinese which is I guess is understandable because Shiryu is chinese but nonetheless my point is still the same and that is that all these name changes I feel didn't really needed to be changed. Like I said I feel this director was trying to change and 'fix' things that weren't necessarily broken.

Let's actually talk about the some of actual characters now shall we? Since that's what this section is about. So like I said they basically start the show off with Seiya riding in on a skateboard.... Anyway Seiya's character (it's been a while) is not what I remembered. He seems real reluctant into even becoming a Saint orr Knight should I say to begin with which was not the case in the OG version where he's excited as far as I remember. But I guess with the amount of changes to the overall beginning of the story his exciting attitude wouldn't make much sense now so his initial character is changed accordingly which is understandable from a writing standpoint so you have to take it or leave it. I'm personally not a fan of seeing Seiya basically act like a protagonist from a mech anime (Which is basically being reluctant to do what the plot requires him at first then coming around) they changed his backstory to fit their changes and doing so changing your outlook on the character this can be a positive or a negative thing depending on who you ask. And like I'll continuously say there's probably nothing wrong with it from a writing standpoint and I'm sure if you don't know what it initially was you most likely wouldn't have a problem with it either.

Seika/Patricia - Seiya's little sister was the first character they introduce that has a name change. And not only does she has a name change but a character design is changed too. In the original anime (and manga probably) her hair was not red it was brown like seiya's. And at first I was so confused as to why in the hell they made her hair red. And then when I saw Eagle Marin it all made sense.. If you don't know what I'm referring to I wouldn't say anymore but if you have watched or read anything Saint Seiya prior to this I assume you know as well as I do now what they are trying to do with this character and seeing as though they might not make it to the Hades arc in this adaption (or at least I'd hope they don't) they can probably get away with what they are trying to setup.

Shiryu/Long - Other than his name nothing as changed about my favorite character. Sure his fight with Seiya was drastically changed and definitely objectively watered down but this is about character wise and everything for the most part was the same about him.

Hyoga/Magnus - His backstory was changed slightly I don't necessarily remember him being ordered by the Sanctuary to kill Athena. I felt that was thrown in to express the plot more than anything else. I'll tell you what though they made him a jerk this time around his attitude is as cold as his attacks and I don't know how I feel about that. I guess they felt he was too boring of a character and this is what they felt they needed to do to spice him up? I don't know.. what I do know is that I knew people who's favorite character was Hyoga so I wonder how they'll feel about this drastic change in his character surely they don't mind right? I'm sure the fans of the next character I talk about would though.

Shun/Shuan - This character by far (even before this adaptation aired) was the most controversial. Because if you aren't aware of what the original version of this character was by now I'm surprised. She used to be a he and damn near everyone that I've talk to about this was not okay with this change. The director said his reasoning was because "there's no girl representation", my man Saint Seiya's target audience is always boys not girls. Girls had Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya Saintia Sho, although Saint Seiya was inspired by Super Sentai doesn't necessarily mean they should follow in their exact footsteps of having at least on female representation. I understand the want for pulling in new audience, making it more welcoming to that one girl that might have watched this show one Neflix and asked where's the girl saints? But fun fact (and I hate this fun fact in particular) but Saint Seiya was known as the catalyst series to jump start the popularity for Yaoi. It was because of the pretty boy look that all of the main cast had that actually made the girl watchers (which surprisingly even to me there was a handful of them) fantasize about them being together and doing... Yoai things..(ughhh). The point is you kind of took that away from the girl fans that had that because most of them loved pretty boy Shun, not "I'm a girl but I can fight too" Shuan. The dynamic of Shuan and her older brother Ikki (or Nero should I say..I shouldn't) was not only destroyed because of how it was initially setup in the original this version I felt didn't even do a good job in replacing that dynamic of the older brother/younger brother dynamic with this older brother/younger sister dynamic, it did not feel organic to me one bit. With the show going at a faster pace than the manga or 80s anime you could say they didn't have the time to focus on them too much but that's just failing to prepare on the directors part. But like every single thing I've critiqued prior I doubt you'd see a problem with any of this if you are new to the franchise. So who cares about the opinion of a long supporting fan right? You've got your new ones now right? I'm sure they'll support this franchise better than I ever did right? They'll carry the torch to the future of the success of the franchise! Only time will tell right!? You wanted to make Shun more unique by making him a girl but in actuality him being a girly boy is actually far more unique than actually being a girl.

Ikki/Nero - Other than linking his reasoning for taking the Gold Cloth to the new antagonist Vander, nothing has really changed about Ikki/Nero. I wasn't a fan of him getting hit with his own Genma Ken the sense be behind it was not to my liking but what ever right? This adaption wasn't meant for me as I was told.

Seinna/Saori - Nothing really changed other than her name.

Enjoyment (5/10) Medoicre

I wouldn't say that my enjoyment was good or even satisfactory as a long term fan. But I also wouldn't say that this was a terrible adaptation either. I feel the only reason I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have was because of my deep connection to the previous version, that 1986 version is my favorite anime after all time so this had some big shoes for me personally to fill and they didn't even fill the toe area. But like I said this adaptation wasn't meant for me and if they keep on pumping out Saint Seiya content like this they obviously don't care to keep someone like me entertained. Anyway this is only based off the first 6 episodes but I doubt the next 6 would change my opinion, if it does I'll update this review.


Overall (6/10) Fair Enough

I was intending on using this as a gateway introduction to anyone I would introduce to the franchise but now after seeing this, I don't know if I want to do that. Maybe this is a good gateway and my clouded judgement and deep connection to the previous version is preventing me from seeing the good in this or maybe it actually is trash that is ultimately your opinion to make. Either way take away from this what ever you can but as an OG Saint Seiya fan, if you ask me? Go to the 1986 Saint Seiya I'd still recommend it over this, because regardless what the director thinks I personally think it still holds up especially if you like 80s anime. But if you are like a 14 year old girl looking for some representation of a girl in a boys anime then I guess this one is most likely better for you to start off with.

As someone who knows nothing about the saint seiya series this anime didnt make any sense to me and I get the feeling thats because the 2 episodes I watched covered about 30 episodes worth of content, the first episode seemed pretty good but the second jumped about all over the place, felt very rushed and definately out of place which is a shame because the art and animation were nice and if the series has continued with the same pacing as the first episode then this could have been a very good series.

why does my review have to be longer than I want? ... minimum word count? that's stupid

Jokes on you Netflix I finally watched the whole thing, even if it was painful.

This is going to be a hate critique I don't find any qualities in this thing. In my opinion this adaptation just takes a dump on the original Saint Seiya. I'm a fan of Saint Seiya and I'm someone who likes omega. So with that in mind let's get started.

The story :
I don't understand what they were going for here, there is so much that doesn't make sense. First issue, the technology of the cloth, why ? I mean they never explained how the cosmos and everything works scientifically ... and that's alright because it doesn't need to be explained with science. Athena has kinghts and they have a thing called cosmos that gives them powers, it's like a mystic thing. So why creating a new character tarnishing the sacred part of cloth ?
So the changes doesn't makes sense and are not fitted to be in Saint Seiya, but that's still my opinion. Some people might disagree and it's okay. But one thing we cannot discuss are inconsistencies.
While watching the show I noticed it and that told me no one watched Saint Seiya. It's in a flashback scene, when the pope was choosing his next successor. What's wrong you might ask, we see Saga and Aiolos in front of the pope so what ? The pope is in his "evil" state, which may I remind you IS Saga, not Shion since he has a different appearance. So in a scene we see Saga and Aiolos in front of evil Saga. Nice.

The art :
As someone who like cgi animation I hated this one. It's slow and the effects are bad. The show just looks so cheap. Again it's an opinon but just look at the attacks. Not only they re-use animation so many times, again and again but they also represents them badly. Which makes me think they haven't watched Saint Seiya. In litteraly the first like 2 episodes Jabu or someone else states that the
Pegasus Ryûsei Ken are just big punches at an amazing speed. But in this version they are magical round things that act like projectiles. How can you miss something that important seriously

Sound :
For info I watched the french dub (just like the original saint seiya, the hades part and omega) so that mostly what I will talk about. I cannot express my disappointement in the french dub. Even in the 90' they were doing a better job. Yes I call the 90' version a better dub that this one, even if Shun and Mu had girl voices during some episodes, even if Seiya's name is Seiyar and even if I still don't know who they were calling Aior / Ayor. This new dub is souless, it has no punch, the only one who tries is Saori's and it's because It's the same as before but now she sounds too old for the character.
I don't remember the ost and can't say much about it (I'm not rewatching it)
But I do remember the awful opening song. Even the generic french version sung by Bernard Minet is better. Just the chorus seems dead, it's makes the whole song less dynamic.

Character :
This might be the largest part my bad
Seiya : He is annoying and not charming kind. I know he has an ego and sometimes does stupid things but he always have a good-willed personality. Here he just seems like an ass
Shiryuu : So we discovered a thing with a friend, he always says things that a chinese cliche character would say. Other than that he also seems stupid. During the fight with Persée he becomes blind to win the fight. Here, he decides to be blind in not even 5 minutes, coming off as a irrational choice.
Hyoga : My boy was butchered. First they did a mix up of sources, Hyoga wanting to kill Athena due to his master's orders. Yes it's true but he changed his mind very quickly, making him look dumb. Thank you horrible pacing.
Shun : Okay I'm not joking anymore, I hate her. Not only what she represents but also what she acts like. First Shun was turned into a female because they needed a female character in Saint Seiya, so they tured the girly man into one, because aparently if you have manners as a boy and have a more pacifist approach to conflicts, you're a girl. Another problem is that now Shun is a cliche, because she's a girl that acts girly and is pacifist, so people finding about Saint Seiya with this version will think she was put in here just to have a girl in the team and that she's weak. And they may be right since she doesn't do anything, she's useless. She just throw her chain while screaming and still fails to do something.
Ikki : Nothing wrong with the character itself but again inconsistency time. During a flashback, on his island, we see Ikki while training with a scar on his face. He gets it when his master kills his friend, so when he gets out of his island, done with training. I-
Saori : She's even more annoying and doesn't have this badass aura anymore, make her looks like a damsel in distress.
I think it was Vander (?) : If you add a character make sure he makes sense. He wants to kill Athena so he could prove that humanity doesn't need deities. Alright, how your weak ass knights and military army could even think of winning against Hades ? They needed in the arc divine cloth to just beat his two guards. And just going to Elysion needed them to have cloths with the blood of Athena. And why kill Athena ? She just wants to protect the Earth, you could ask Athena to let them do their jobs as humans and defend the Earth. Why spending time to kill a friendly godess and not searching for the possible new Poseidon and Hades ?
Some gold Saint can fly too, awesome

Enjoyment :
It was one of the first anime that made me that mad, that gave me headaches and was just painful overall. So you might think it was a horrible time.

Overall :
It's bad, really bad. If it didn't had so many bad elements it may be just a passable take on Saint Seiya but no. Why add helicopters, gun fights and science ? Why transform Shun into a girl ? Why did I noticed so many inconsistencies, have you watched Saint Seiya ? Why doing a bad Pegasus Fantasy version, look at how Omega did it, it's a beautiful opening, soft and strong with a more recent vibe.
It shouldn't exist. It's offensive to fans and was since the trailers. Just to say how bad it is, the most popular french anime website that rates very gently shows gave it overall 3.5/10. Don't watch it, please never do

You can rest assured, this is an analysis by the technical side, without revealing the plot of the story. Anyone who knows Saint Seiya in the manga knows that his story is more coherent than his anime version. Here the screenwriter tried to make the story shorter and with adaptations for our current era. In some ways it was interesting, but it took away the emotion of the dramatic moments, here it is understood that the screenwriter wanted to make this version more childish and light, something that nostalgic people will not enjoy. We don't know if the budget for the series went down, but ... the characters' hair textures are just mediocre. Making them look like clay dolls. The fact that they make the story shorter makes it less sentimental than its first version. It had the potential to be something bigger and better, but it seems that the other characters are mere ornaments. Everything revolves around Saori and Seiya. Anyway very weak compared to its first version.

There's been a lot of Anime that I thought would be the first one I'd review, I guess this ended up being it. I've tried not to be biased in thinking about it having been a fan of the original show, one of the first Anime I saw, so I ended up adding a couple points to the overall score, but it is still just a 4/10.

Art/Animation

There's a lot of bad CG Anime out there, but if I'm being entirely honest this isn't all that bad based solely on the look. I'll honestly admit I actually LIKE the way the characters look. It's new while ... still being close to the original designs. However, the animation itself many times comes off as just lazy. The Galaxian Wars (don't get me started on how sad it is that it happens in a basement with no spectators) is a great example of this. It seem to improve for the Black Knight fights but only barely, and in the end the same problem that they only last seconds is still there. Another notable example is the helicopter crashing.

Sound/Music

Credit where credit is due, the Pegasus Fantasy cover dub is great. Props to them for that. Every other part of the soundtrack though is just terribly generic. Voice acting in the dub is fine, but here is where I'll give out one of my main complaints from being a fan of the original: all the name changes are insult. Sienna was bad but already done in the Viz manga releases. Long instead of Shiryu? Okay, I can understand that being hard to pronounce correctly but still pointless. Nero instead of Ikki? Come one, it is not that difficult to say his name. Magnus instead of Hyoga? Honestly fuck you Netflix, how is that in any way better/easier?

Story

What a travesty. The addition of the military is unneeded to this story. The only part of their addition I like is that the Black Knighta make a bit more sense this way even if I don't fully like how they were handled. There's a lot that makes it obvious this was treated more as a kid's cartoon that a classic Anime: The AI man-cover; the horribly cheesy one-liners (and if you pay attention, sentences that contradict themselves); the power of friendship scene (this happens in the original as well, I'm just complaining on how they handled it. Lastly, and by far the biggest insult to the original series, is changing Shun into Shaun, not just in name but in gender. The beauty of his character was that he wasn't a warrior in the same way his friends are. He's sweet and kind, a and naturally caring. Someone who is generally opposed to violence but will fight if necessary to protect the ones he cares about. So of course they turned him into a girl. I would have been angry if they changed anyone else into a girl too, but doing it to him is just slightly worse. I'm sure they would have blundered adding a new character by making her super OP though. Whatever.

Overall

Just watch the original, kids aren't so sensible that the fights/blood are so bad, and it's a better story. The only con to that one is no dub (we don't talk about the unfinished one that's just terrible anyways). 4/10 so far for the 6 episodes released, doubt I'll watch any more, but hate watching is addictive so who knows.

I'm going to write this review from a slightly different perspective - of someone who wanted to get into Saint Seiya but the 80's anime is a hard pill to swallow.

TL;DR - this is a great entry point to those that aren't ready to invest a lot of time and effort into learning how to swallow some of the quirks and age of the original anime and a stepping stone into enjoying some of the more faithful media of the Saint Seiya universe.

Story: 3/10

This series reboot changes some things from the original, including new bad guys, excluding some series lore, and tweaking a lot ... at it. The story of Saint Seiya was always a pretty simple premise, and a lot of the reasoning behind anything the characters do is silly and fun at its best. The new enemy faction included in this series is a pretty poor inclusion, but it is cool seeing the Saints fight missiles, and that's what we're here for, right?

Unfortunately, a lot of the intrigue and backstories get lost as they made so many changes - it's a real downgrade from a story and character motive standpoint. As we went along, I would explain what was changed from the original anime and my partner would say "WTF that's dumb why'd they change it" every time.


Art: 7/10

The 3D animation is pretty solid and faithful to the original art style, keeping the 80's flair while mostly making it looks nice and modern (except you, Lizard Misty's hair).

The fights are flashy and have stunning effects when they pull off their special moves. There is repitition each time they perform these moves, and it can be quite glaring at times, but overall the anime is quite attractive to watch.

That being said, there was the interesting choice of the first 6 episodes having no blood, but the final six of this season the Saints learned to bleed. :)


Sound: 8/10

The OP and ED are quite nice - the OP in particular being super nostalgic for me. The Japanese voice cast did an excellent job, and my partner said the English dub was also quite good. OST as per usual slaps.


Character: 6/10

So, this anime adaptation decided to go down an interesting route of making Shun a girl. Personally, I think this is in poor taste, as it was refreshing to see a kind, empathetic male character shown in a strong light, but this show basically defined these traits as feminine.

On the other hand, Seiya is no longer a misogynist.

It kind of evens out.

Unfortunately, since this compiles so many episodes into such a short run time, a lot of the depth and detail gets cut out, and important points of characters are completely diminished for the sake of making it fit.

Shuurei who?


Enjoyment: 8/10

The show is fun, exciting, and it made me so happy seeing my partner not only enjoy the world and characters I have loved for a long time, but also get invested. Even with the changes, this is a fun, nostalgic series that captures the excitement of the battles, the badassery of the Saints, and leaves you wanting for more, especially with that cliffhanger. After watching this, since we had so much fun, we immediately moved into watching other media from the series - so it did its job!


Overall: 7/10

This is either for someone who wants to get into Saint Seiya, or hasn't seen the original two first arcs in so long they want a short synopsis. For diehard fans - this ain't for you.

The changes to the lore and characters for the most part are genuinely just bad moves, but the art is eye-catching, the fights are fun (albeit very concise), and if you go into it with the right mindset, this is a super fun ride that makes you want to see more flashy battles and silly antics they call tactics.

Let me make this especially clear, this adaptation removes much of what made the original anime so fun to watch. Yes, the 80's anime was corny, the original had power of X (friendship, love, XYZ) / villain of the week, but given the time period of the original anime that was a great formula for success. I've engaged in numerous versions of Saint Seiya content, from the anime, to its OVA's/ONA's, video games, and what the Netflix version does is ruin already existing characters progression for a false attempt at "inclusiveness" for lack of a better term. Just watch the original anime. Go onto the ... Hades arc, which is a 31 episode OVA, with an overture movie to watch. It is a by far better experience than this rendition will ever give you.

Short Review: (minor spoilers for the first episode)

This show is a failed attempt to Americanize a beloved IP defined by its 1980's antics and over-the-top shonen roots.

When I saw the score of this anime on MAL here, my instinct tells me to dodge it. But my curiosity got the better of me.

The opening sequence gave me some hope, as the English cover of the original title song feels at least respectful. Also, for someone who's been reading Saint Seiya since kindergarten time, I've got a soft spot for the shiny rendering of the saints' clothes here. If you have ever played with Saint ... Seiya figurines and imagined those shiny plastics to be really powerful clothes, you would know what I am talking about.

But the very first episode botched it. Seiya is now an X-man, just like his sister who got glowing hands. He was far from my favorite shonen lead character even in the original manga, but at least he was a true underdog in the original iterations. Now he's a generic Dragonborn who could punch a helicopter into a fireball without any training. All the suspense and classic Greek tragedies revolving their fate? Gone. Mitsumasa Kido, Saori's grandpa, just revealed the entire plot and core mystery of the first half of the original manga to Seiya with the modern magic of Powerpoint. I am not even kidding here. Perhaps the marketing team thought it's a good idea to "localize" this anime for a "wider" audience. However, this IP is unique exactly because its outdated antics. I used to think the original manga butchered Greek mythology by blending too many new-age elements into a mess (e.g. by making Virgo Shaka the reincarnation of Budda, and he somehow serves Athena?). But the Netflix show here convinced me the original iterations captured certain spirits of Greek mythology pretty well. In other words, what was hammy in the original iterations is even hammier and goofier here.

In conclusion, if you are a fan of the original manga/anime, never mind this CG adaptation. If you are remotely interested in this IP, just do yourself a favor and go read the manga.

So far, so good.

I wasn't very excited for this remake for the start, because there would be some changes that I judge essential to the plot, like genderbent Shun and the amazons not wearing masks anymore. More so, the english dub went full Funanimation and changed the characters japanese names. Since I watched the br-portuguese dub, I didn't get the chance to get angry.

But despite that, the other changes were made not only to make the show more dynamic (resuming nearly 20 episodes from the original run to 6), and to cover some plotholes (like the adjusting the age of the characters and changing ... the motivation behind the Sanctuary hunting Saori).

Even though this changes for younger audiences were nice, others still bother a little. The soundtrack is poor in comparison to the original, and the fights are so short and with little tension that they lack the emotion from the manga and the 80s show.

Still, it's not such a disaster like older people claim. Let's clear this out: The new show is NOT for a nostalgic audience. The remake is a new presentation for younger audiences, and must be seen without nostalgic googles. The previous show wasn't destroyed because of this, it's even available at Crunchyroll, and soon at Netflix.

Even with its flaws, I'm eager to see the rest of the show when the last 6 episodes will be released.

I grew up in the era of 80's anime, saint seiya, captain tsubasa, voltes v, but i never got around to watching saint seiya. i would always get bored and stop at 6 episodes in because it was dragging. But not this time, Saint Seiya 2019 got me hooked by updated animation. Sure it's cgi, but its way better than the Berserk 2016/Kingdom cgi. Those look like voxels compared to this. The color palette used pops like good ol anime and the vertex are smooth like anti-aliasing was in overdrive. Also the animation movement is smooth, though not 60fps ... smooth, but still better than the previous cgi based anime.

One more thing i liked about this version of Saint Seiya is the pacing. They don't try to fill the episode with fight talk like in dragonball or one piece where they milk battles for more episodes, some even squeeze in a "tournament" just to stretch the series. They could stretch a single fight into like 3 episodes. So i was like groaning when i first heard there was gonna be a tournament. Thankfully, the whole thing was over in 1 episode.

I never knew the full lore of Saint Seiya and maybe its a good thing because its what also allowed me to enjoy the ONA without thinking too much of the original lore and doing comparisons instead of just enjoying the series.

Among what we can mention as positive in this section, the designs of the Cloths of the Saints of Athena and the faces of the characters, which respect the shape of the originals, stand out. The failure regarding this point, meanwhile, would be the mechanical armor that equips the Black Saints, replacing the replicas of the Bronze Cloths they wore in the classic series. As for the details, several scenarios such as mountains and temples are loaded with them; However, others such as streets and buildings are too clean and flat. For its part, it is also remarkable the very good representation of scratches and ... dirt in the Cloths after the fighting.
Score: 8 out of 10

This point is perhaps one of the least prominent of all. The gestures of the characters seem unnatural at times and some of the attacks behave like simple balls of light coming out of their fists. Of course, some effects such as fire, ice and electricity are well achieved. The combat scenes, meanwhile, are endowed with dynamism and are approved; however, they sin very brief, mostly.
Score: 6.5 out of 10
Music:
The opening, an English remake of the famous "Pegasus Fantasy" by the British group The Struts, maintains the strength of the original and respects, beyond the necessary changes in adaptation, the message of the original lyrics. The ending, on the other hand, performed by the same band and entitled “Somebody New”, is a beautiful song, but it has the opposite that the content of its lyrics does not match what we see in the series. As for the BGM (background music), which was composed by Yoshihiro Ike, who was in charge of the music of Legend of Sanctuary, we can only say that it is reminiscent of the BGM of it, almost as if an extension of it will try. It is not up to the music of the classic by the hand of Seiji Yokoyama, but it does well.
Score: 7/10
Sound effects:
The sound effects of attacks, explosions and the metallic clash of the Cloths during the fighting, are very good. In this section there is not much else to highlight; It is normal for this type of children's series. It takes an approval.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Plot:
As already known for some time, the most controversial modification has been Shun's sex change. However, it is important to clarify that, despite this, her character has not been altered at all: she is still someone who does not like fights and prefers to avoid hurting people. Another point that many may not like, is undoubtedly the insertion of a new antagonist, which has an army of soldiers, helicopters and tanks. In addition, the exchange of the Black Saints for simple warriors with technological armor of generic design is something that may also not be well received by fans; However, a twist that involves one of them is quite interesting. For its part, it is important to note that some key scenes of the original, which stood out for the violent and bloody, were set aside; something totally understandable considering the audience to which the series is directed and the short duration of it. However, beyond these modifications that may displease more than one, the truth is that several aspects of the plot remain true to the original, which is appreciated.
Score: 7 out of 10

Conclusion:
Beyond the controversial changes made, the truth is that if we are able to see it with an open mind and think of it as what it is: a reimagining of the original story, which aims to captivate a new generation of fans (especially in US territory), the series can be perfectly enjoyed in several aspects.I know, that we are in dark times, with bad adaptations like omega, soul of gold, and the attempt of santia sho who made fun of the base material in her printed version of the Nadamas to sell figures. but the one with the real fault is masami kuramada that if he had entered fully involved with the opening movie and did not give him a bad name we would have already had the saga of heaven and the saga of chronos and rea, but that we have a half mainar saint saint seiya next dimension, which is published from time to time, and two short sleeves that killed sain seiya the original mentions and zero episodes but well that is fabric for another occasion.

So give this adaptation a chance, don't be like a senseless proud kuramada