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Was this the last episode? Because it seemed so. The reveal of Ares-Saga at the end was totally unexpected.
Good and dynamic episode filled with action. Even some bad looking moments (there were some of them, unfortunately...) won't make it feel less entertaining for me, although it's a pity we had to deal with so many cheap looking scenes at random moments. Some of them looked hilarious, like Eris' "evil and bad face".
It seems that this episode was not that good without purpose. Eris Arc seems to be finished, and the next one with Ares is about to begin.
From now I have a feeling that the anime will go its own way. Is it good? Depends. I really like Saintia Shou's manga and I am worried about anime adaptation taking different course. Based on a great source material it happened to be rather bad adaptation that omitted important scenes and had problems with animation.
If this anime couldn't bear adapting things that already happened in the manga and were not that hard to put them in (while their importance for the plot was very significant), then I don't have high hopes about it going its own way, at least not on this moment of the story.
Is this the end? I'm confused, I don't know if Kyouko is alive or dead, but the "last" confront against Eris was actually cool. Aioria also won that battle against Saga, and hopefully got some closure after dealing with the one who sullied his brother's name. I guess I should spare some time to read this manga.
I was very surprised about the closure of the Eris arc in this episode. I liked how they handled the seal of Eris but as a manga reader I'm kinda disappointed about how they handled this adaptation. Sure, I get the poor animation quality stuff because is a low-budget project but ending the Eris-arc by rushing and omitting story elements & character development is not a good way to promote the series (for example, Erda just rode a bike in the anime without giving her some timescreen about her hate to Deathmask). The arc would be fine with 12 episodes format with that kind of finale. So far the only good thing of all this mediocre adaptation is the Opening song (I really love the lyrics and the VA singing it).
I would be more dissapointed but thankfully Saga appears in his "Ares" mode after the credits (pretty cool the reveal). If they going to keep releasing episodes, then would be nice that is something new for the manga readers like see his phantoms.
Can anyone confirm if this series are KANON? Get it? LOL
but seriously because in the original series this never happened and it was seiya and the others who recused Athena
Amerikaner said: Can anyone confirm if this series are KANON? Get it? LOL
About being KANON... Which SAGA you have in mind? xD
Amerikaner said: but seriously because in the original series this never happened and it was seiya and the others who recused Athena
And so they did in Saintia Shou during the Battle of the Twelve Houses of Zodiac. The thing is that most of the events from the conflict between Athena and Eris that were shown in Saintia Shou took part in the gap between original Twelve Houses Arc and Poseidon Arc. Bronze Saints who fought with Gold Saints were in the hospital, terribly injured and in coma. Saintia Shou tells us what happened in this time gap.
EDIT: Ayy, I clicked "submit" a little bit too late and Rei366 stole my thunder by answering faster. Oh well, the more info given the better. ;-)
I criticize a lot in this post and I just want to preface this by saying this is purely my feelings on the anime adaptation and I'm sure the manga is 10x better.
This episode was the one that made me most realize how sad it is that the animation and art don't capture the impact of attacks and the struggle of the characters appropriately. Despite the Eris fight being somewhat similar in structure to
the 4 v 1 against Ikki, all giving the last remaining one their cosmos, this felt super lacking to me.
The way Eris just pushed the Saintias around and the way we saw all their attacks, some we've nearly never even seen before all go off with no background before Eris just blocked it all was weak. And the final push that freed Saori was also like that, it was a big energy ball that just slightly pushed Eris back. In the Saint Seiya fight that was similar to this structurally, even with basic baddies like we had here, it was built up to and we saw everyone's attacks in detail before the final confrontation and, although both were cheesy the villain had so much going for him and each Saint had great moments that characterized their resolve.
I hope I'm not misremembering but I've never forgotten Shiryu cutting his wrists and bleeding on Seiya's cloth, Kiki bringing it to Seiya, Hyoga willingly sacrificing himself to freeze Ikki's arm and harm Ikki to help the others, Shun tearing up his hands and being bitten by snakes as he refused to let the poisoned Seiya fall and Seiya sacrificing himself by chopping the chain. There were so many moments in the buildup that were utterly awesome. It's unfair to compare this arc to that one despite them both occurring early in the series and having a vaguely similar structure, but this one just didn't have many moments, if any, that I feel I'll remember going forward long term outside of maybe the Shoko hug attack and Aioria trash talking Saga as he's being choked out.
I also haven't found the villains interesting in the same way as Saint Seiya's. I love the 'villains' in Saint Seiya and even the forgettable Silver Saints had fights that were totally rule of cool awesome and great at characterizing the bronze saints and the way they fight.
I felt a problem in the Aioria and Miro vs Saga confrontation because, the dialogue and ideals behind the fights along with the impact of each blow and the torturous struggle of the fighting saints is what makes the cheesy "good guy always wins" cosmos system awesome to me. Through intense struggle and perseverance and virtue and an explored sense of justice they win! Sadly, I thought the confrontation was lacking in those regards and the cheesiness of the win wasn't justified. It wasn't all bad of course, I loved how Aioria fearlessly fought Saga and beat the heck out of him. It was exciting, and the fact that Miro let Aioria have the fight himself showed a lot of respect and understanding between them.
I suppose my problem with the Saintia Sho anime I was forced to confront here is that nearly every aspect surrounding the fights and villains doesn't feel like Saint Seiya to me for the reasons stated. It's not completely different and it's still cheesy fun, but the memorable part of Saint Seiya and the deeper part that really left a mark on me is not seen here or it's much less prominent. The characters feel awesome and accurate and the music is great and I even like the art not involving the fights. its cheesy and fun and in the smaller scenes I really enjoy it. In the set pieces like this however it feels like something is lacking. Maybe that problem is simply because I came into this with the expectation of it being like Saint Seiya and, even though I often get that in Sho, here it really didn't feel like it outside of the same motifs being used.
To touch on some more things I liked, I did enjoy the Eris confrontation believe it or not. Shoko's little development she had in the fight was a little surprising but it was awesome how she acted and even looked like her sister, and how it tied back to Mayura's first trial where Shoko showed the self sacrifice she was willing to do for justice and more so her sister. At first I thought Shoko was going to Shiryu it, but instead of fighting she did the unthinkable and that was really cool. Since fighting fueled Eris she did the opposite.
The words at the beginning of the episode made me realize that maybe all the lines about how Kyoko accepted Eris herself are completely true and solely based on her love of Shoko and her own self sacrifice to gladly take her on fate.
Evil Saga smiled as he collapsed and seems to have become a god for real now somehow, his dream has come true... that should be interesting.
Edit:
MAL says this is finished airing and if I knew I would have written a mini review so I'll edit this post to do that now. I don't normally give fraction scores but for Saintia I kinda want to. The nostalgia factor was, at times, awesome. The music, and especially the characters from the original were well done. It even added one of my favorite Saga scenes and enhanced Aphrodite as a character and made Saori and her journey far more interesting. Sadly, none of that amounted to anything incredibly memorable or meaningful to me, and if not for nostalgia I probably would not care that much. I liked seeing it but it was such a small thing in the end and that's why I'm giving that an extra .5 in my rating.
It was fun and I enjoyed the first half of the series quite a bit but Saint Seiya is meaningful to me with the awesome characterization of the heroes, with the exceptional villains and idealistic battles, the thematic exploration of justice, the virtuous struggles of the saints, the over the top GAR manliness. Plus the art and the animation are some of my favorites in all of anime. The impact of the blows are strong and the colors are great and the injuries, blood, and damage are substantial. I didn't even care for the villains or what they were fighting for here. The Saintia's were cute but none even started to shine in my opinion. I own the first two volumes of the manga and I'm excited to read them as I want to support Saintia more but in the end all that was lacking and the poor pacing and art/animation made this an albeit fun but very very forgettable anime for me.
Non-existent characters uniting attacks coming out-of-nowhere in a supposedly "strong" scene against an almost evanescent threat?
2/5 Extremely uneffective on 99% of the content.
No sense of rythm nor narration, no care in drawings nor animation. Nothing was thought out, except the exploitation of Araki's style (and the imitation is at times pretty bad).
Yet another pure Myth Clothes expansion pack with not an ounce of ambition.
I read as well that episode 10 is the last one, at least for this season.
I'm wondering if we are gonna see one day Saintia Shou's continuation focused on Ares (he looked dank by the way, but I could not stop thinking about his design as "Mecha Saga", lol), with the plot going completely different way as the one shown in the manga.
Kinda hilarious how everyone all seem to know each other for a long time despite that Erda is a minor character (no idea wtf she listed as 'main character'), Katya reasons change like the wind and Xiaoling was just comic relief. Also, why Kyouko suddenly wanted to accept Eris's soul when it had been made clear that she was rejecting her in earlier episodes? But the worst insult is that they ruined characters from the main Saint Seiya like Saga and Aiolia in this trash with forced reasons.
I had mixed opinions during the first 5 episodes but the last 5 were terrible while 8-10 have the worst animations I've seen comparing them to Dragon Ball Super episode 5 for example! Terrible pacing, characters that appear and disappear for no reason, unexplained things. I am very patient with this series and I have even defend Soul of God but this anime is hated by almost everyone with good reasons. I'm more annoyed that they changed stuff from the original anime. Production is a mess, pretty obvious when it ended with only 10 episodes. And you can't use an old formula and expecting people to have the same reaction, times change!
2/10 for the anime.
NurguburuOct 5, 2020 11:49 AM
All weebs creatures of the galaxy, hear this message. Those of you who listen will not be struck by western animation. You will no longer know hunger, nor pain. Your Anime have come to lead you now. Our strength shall serve as a luminous sun toward which all intelligence may blossom. And the impervious shelter beneath which you will prosper. However, for those who refuse our offer and cling to their western animation ways… For you, there will be great wrath.