Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac - Battle Sanctuary

Having a bad start is always negative for any product's future, especially when we are talking about animated reboot of such iconic and popular series as Saint Seiya. CGI reboot had such start. Sexist decision to turn the least macho character into a woman, bizarre or simply bad modifications done to the lore and its arcs... There were many problems mostly in the first half of CGI Knights of the Zodiac from 2019. They were discussed among fans a lot of times, so no need to expand upon them here. The situation was dire to the point that many people simply lost hope in CGI ... KotZ. Luckily, Battle for Sanctuary proved that with enough effort you can try to fix the situation and end up with something good for both old fans and people new to the franchise.

I decided to divide the very core of this review, unlike other reviews I've written, into three sections, each one about different aspect of this show. Whole text will be free from spoilers.

Story:
Battle for Sanctuary starts at the exact moment the first season ended. Saori (Sienna) was struck with mysterious golden arrow and Bronze Saints (Knights) need to head out for new adventure - the eponymous battle for Sanctuary.
While the anime from 2019 was criticized for too many changes done to such holy ground as established content from canon arcs, Battle for Sanctuary's creators chose more timid route and sticked more to the source material, but without completely casting away artistic freedom or elements that had been introduced in the previous season. The last point was important to me, because whether changes done to the original story were good or bad, they happened and retconing anime early on would've been really bad idea ruining the consistency of this anime as a whole. Luckily, presented story was faithful to the manga at its core, with fillers not affecting said core, and with some anime-original elements from the previous cour being subtly reminded here or there.

Art, animation and direction:
As for visuals, while they represented similar quality to what we had seen in season 1, I think they looked slightly prettier in Battle for Sanctuary. Perhaps it's because of how gorgeous Gold Saints looked like? I can't really tell if Gold Cloths' charm was the case here, but I felt Battle for Sanctuary's visuals were better, even if only a little, than what we could see in the first season.
I noticed far more improvements in animation's quality. Action sequences looked more dynamic and more polished in general; static sequences, while not as rich in action as fighting scenes (obviously), were done well and felt natural.
Animation is one thing, but improved direction is what allowed to fully flesh out potential of these improvements. Heck, while there were still re-used sequences with Saints performing their attacks, they were used less frequently and in most of cases fit the moment in which they appeared, instead of feeling as if they were there only to make each episode last long enough.

Music and sound:
I say it's safe to say that audio neither improved nor worsened in this season. Good music themes, nicely done sound profiles of attacks or transitions between scenes. Were they better than in the original anime series from 1986-1989? I say no, but they fit into atmosphere presented by CGI show nevertheless.

Saint Seiya is about humans making miracles. Battle for Sanctuary's first 12 episodes are surely not the end of this story. Will conclusion of iconic Sanctuary arc done in CGI format be good to the point many fans might say "Battle for Sanctuary has redeemed CGI Saint Seiya"? I can't tell, but surely I have fingers crossed for creators of this anime to continue walking the road they paved in this cour.

Note: My personal rating is 5/10, but it is only because I am familiar with the source material and its anime adaptation. That's why I compared Battle for Sanctuary with manga and old anime, and such approach affected my personal rating. However, if I were to look at it from anime only fan's point of view, I'd definitely give higher rating to this anime. That's why my final critical rating is 6/10.
Whether you are anime only viewer or not, I recommend checking out this show.

No spoilers so go ahead

After seeing the 12 chapters I can say that it has potential unlike the first season, someone will tell me but if you said that about the first season, I know that it still has that potential, but unfortunately we are not its target audience, if not for the new generations, but it corrects many things from the first, but others persist, such as the soundtrack that keeps failing.
The plot of the prophecy of athena no longer feels forced, they expand it mainly because it is a danger, thank god it does not come out or mention bander grad as they ... remembered it was the weakest point of the first season with plot holes as to why ikki was allied/still unresolved).
They develop the characters more. Its epic moments improved, it no longer feels as forced as the first part, all summarized in the saga of the silver saints, it is more entertaining, this adaptation continues to adapt characters, events that only came out of the manga, especially from other media, let's remember that it is another universe, the classic manganime that we still have has not taken us away so enjoy this version and hopefully soon the second part, above all we hope that this version of this alternate universe of saint seiya continues to improve (please take it that way it will be more bearable and It won't be shocking) because remember that it is a new generation audience.
Readers who saw my post of the first season, yes I know what I said, I know that the first part is a suitcase but I wanted new people to see the adaptation, if you don't want to read the manga, see the adaptations .. ..