After having Inferno deviate away from the typical formula of the series, the final segment with the battles against Thanatos/Hypnos and Hades is the typical tale of Seiya getting a miraculous power up and the main cast overcoming their foe with the power of friendship, not to mention said climax being rushed and bland. It also doesn't help that it features other cheap plot contrivances such as Pandora's sudden change of heart or Seika suddenly getting over amnesia. One minor thing that disappointed me as well was the lack of the Athena Exclamation. It's introduction in the first act of the arc seemed like it would be foreshadowing for a later use, plus Thanatos being unaffected by it would really push forward the idea of how strong he was. Instead, we get an anime-exclusive scene of the Gold Saints just using their signature attacks.
That's not to say I dislike everything about the arc. The arc does a far better job at presenting the power of a God and the sense of tension as well as race against time are far better than in the Poseidon Arc. It was also good to see Athena be more than a damsel in distress and Seiya's fate at the end provided a pretty solid sense of repercussion to the climax (at least until both Next Dimension and Omega ruin this aspect).
As for characters, art/animation and sound, there's not much to say. The latter two remain unchanged from Inferno, whilst the characters don't really offer much personal engagement beyond a few highlights such as the reveal of Seika pushing forth Seiya's character arc or the supporting cast such as Marin and Shaina having their moment to shine. The three main villains of Elysion are overall bland in personality and only memorable in design.
As a whole, the Hades Arc started off good, but was ultimately disappointing by not being able to avoid some of the series pitfalls. It was definitely better than the Poseidon Arc due to a genuine sense of loss, establishing the power of a God far better and not sticking quite as heavily to the Sanctuary Arc structure, but was still nowhere near the peak of the series and remains average overall. The highlights and it's ending still allow it to be a better final arc than most Battle Shonen can hope to achieve, though that's really not saying much.
Overall ranking for both Elysion and the Hades Arc as a whole - 5/10
