“Saint Seiya”, “Saint Seiya: The Beginning” and United States of America – Difficulties and challenges. (April 16, 2023 - Translated by Google Translate)

 1) Saint Seiya and the goal of conquering the United States of America

It’s no secret to many fans that one of Toei’s biggest goals with Saint Seiya is to bring the adventures of Seiya and his friends to American audiences. Saint Seiya is one of the few anime that was successful worldwide, but not successful in the US. Many of the reasons for its failure are addressed in YouTuber Ray Mona’s fascinating documentary on the history of Saint Seiya in the USA.

Links:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/3jp4qrt2VGc

Part 2: https://youtu.be/EALBe_cxoDI

In short, Saint Seiya entered the American market very late indeed. By the time Saint Seiya appeared to the public, other anime had already been assimilated by the public. What was innovative in Saint Seiya was already present in its successors, so the public was not impressed. In addition, the complete story, with 114 episodes, was not made available in full. There were also two conflicting voiceovers, which further damaged the reception of the work.

It is a different story here, in Brazil, where Saint Seiya emerged as an innovative narrative. Children were not used to seeing drawings with serials and with a strong dramatic load as in Saint Seiya. The truth is that Saint Seiya is a kind of children’s soap opera, with a long and complex story. It is different, for example, from cartoons like Tom and Jerry, which have independent episodes, with autonomous stories. This forced the public to follow the series on a daily basis and, in this way, create an affective bond with the characters. This is perhaps why Saint Seiya is remembered and loved even today: fans love characters and suffer with them. This is a children’s audience who often had to be alone at home because their parents had to work all day. Saint Seiya, with its emotional involvement with the public, filled a void in these children. The most important thing about this reflection is that: it was the first cartoon to do this for this audience. Therefore, because Saint Seiya arrived late in the US, it makes sense that it did not have the same impact as in Brazil, Mexico and other countries, as other anime played this same role in the childhood of American children.

For me, who always suffered from bullying at school, Saint Seiya served as a daily solace. Saint Seiya made my life, which wasn’t happy, a little more bearable. For that, I have gratitude to the franchise. Saint Seiya is, therefore, a story that touched the emotions of many children and that is why it is special. But I’m not here to talk about myself, but about the relationship between Saint Seiya and the United States. This is a relationship that bothers me.

I have the impression that the producers of Saint Seiya never got over the fact that this anime was not successful in the US. There is also the fact that the US is a very important market on the world stage. With 300 million potential consumers, entering Saint Seiya in the US seems like a great idea. It’s a great idea, but the problem is how that idea is executed.

In Ray Mona’s documentary, we discover that there was an attempt to create an American version of Saint Seiya. The reason for this is that it was believed that the public would not get used to the Japanese aesthetic. However, it was later proved that the best way to insert anime in the United States is precisely not to adapt its aesthetics. We know that some adaptations were made, like in the Pokemon anime. At first, Satoshi and his friends ate “onigiri”, drank green tea, appeared with “kotatsu”. That is, elements of Japanese culture appeared more frequently. Afterwards, it is observed that the anime began to make cultural adaptations in these contents for audiences in other countries. It became more common for Satoshi to eat sandwiches, for example. However, there were no radical aesthetic changes to the anime in general. The trait remained the same, as well as the way of narrating the stories.

Currently, this supposed need to adapt anime for other countries has changed a little. The reasons for this are: popularization of anime around the world, expansion of the internet and expansion of fan culture. Fans prioritize respect for the original work, that is: today it is unthinkable that “Guardians of the Cosmos”, the American version of Saint Seiya that did not work, is something acceptable by fans.

2) The importance of fan communities in the reception of a product

So let’s talk about the fans. Although fan culture movements have developed in different ways in the west and east, with the internet, this scenario has changed, with the fusion of both. The “otaku” culture grew surprisingly when anime fans, previously isolated, began to communicate over the internet. Anime fans are no longer small communities and are now numerous and very noisy. These fans, who watched Saint Seiya and other anime many years ago, have grown up. Today some of them are YouTube influencers or journalists. Anime criticism ceased to have the parental point of view and started to bring the fan’s point of view. I remember that, many years ago, newspapers gave basic information about Saint Seiya and criticized it as a violent cartoon and not suitable for children. This is the parent’s point of view. Today we see these same newspapers bringing texts written by journalists who saw Saint Seiya as children and today speak from the fan’s point of view. They talk about Saint Seiya without being in an introductory way. In short, the fan is no longer an isolated individual and is now an opinion maker. This is very important. Fans, opinion makers, greatly influence the reception of a product. With that in mind, it is very common for companies to be more attentive to what these fan communities say.

I can’t talk about fan communities in Japan, but I can talk about Saint Seiya fan communities in Brazil. Although Henry Jenkins, in his important book Textual Poachers (1992), described the fan as an expert on the fan’s work, I fear that this scenario has changed a lot in recent years. Our forms of communication have become more immediate and shorter. The biggest example of this is the social network Twitter, where you have to write what you think in 280 characters. We also see short video productions, often under 1 minute. Fans are also reached by this type of more immediate communication. This type of communication also affects the depth of our reflections and impressions about the products we consume. It would be very difficult for me to write this long text on Twitter, wouldn’t it?

In this way, fan communities also began to present less elaborate and analytical texts. Fans, instead of being more analytical, are more reactive. That is, instead of carefully analyzing the product they consume, most fans only expose their reaction to certain material. As these fans are so numerous, producers are faced with reactive and not always analytical comments. These comments are very common in Brazilian communities of Saint Seiya fans. Many of these fans don’t have enough critical sense to say exactly what the product’s problem is. An example is the fan reaction to the trailer for Saint Seiya: the Beginning, in which many frustrated fans just reject the idea of ​​the film, without presenting a well-founded argument. This harms both communities and feedback to producers.

That is: nowadays, companies need to pay attention to comments and criticism from fans, but at the same time, many of these fans cannot even write a good review of the product they consume. In this way, pleasing Saint Seiya fans is far from being an easy task. Although Saint Seiya hasn’t caught on in the US, there is a fanbase there – and that’s something Saint Seiya producers can’t ignore, because it affects the product’s reception. This can affect, for example, the box office of the movie Saint Seiya: the Beginning, from the second week of exhibition in theaters, which is when fans start revealing their impressions on the internet.

3) Current Hollywood movies: “let’s touch the fans’ affectionate memory”

It’s been a long time since Hollywood survives on revivals of stories with which the public has some emotional bond. So we’ve had multiple Marvel and DC superhero movies. In the current scenario, we have the releases and announcements of the Dungeons & Dragons, Super Mario Bros and Barbie movies. Saint Seiya emerges in the same wave, albeit late. Unfortunately, the market is already saturated with superhero movies. We see, for example, that the latest superhero movies have not performed so well in theaters. A possible upside for Saint Seiya may be the desire of American audiences to want to watch something other than Marvel and DC. In that respect, it could be that this audience will go to the cinema to see Saint Seiya: the Beginning.

It is important that we address here why this type of film is successful. What attracts audiences to cinema is nostalgia and the desire to escape something from childhood. That is, this type of film is made mainly for those who have some emotional bond with the product. For Saint Seiya: the Beginning, the connection exists with audiences all over the world… except in the US. I’ll talk about that in the next section. I’ll talk more about this type of film.

What does the audience that already has an affective bond with the work want? The answer may seem simple, but it’s not.

When we talk about escapism when reviewing a product that is part of a person’s childhood memory, we are talking about aspects that escape the product itself. It is about feelings, sensations and a return to a past. However, even if that viewer revisits the product, that past time will obviously not return. It is a fact that this individual grew up, matured, began to deal with the responsibilities of adult life. This person no longer carries the innocence of the child, nor does he have the same perceptual capacity as a child. In this way, even if the producer delivers exactly the same product, or a variation very close to the original, the way this adult will receive the product is different. Exciting moments before won’t be as exciting anymore. The old way of telling the story may not be as effective anymore. That is, the revival film has the mission of bringing back a nostalgic feeling to an audience that has an adult perception. This feeling may be easier to achieve with playful aspects, such as the gameplay of a game. However, this can be more difficult for works focused on dramatic stories, such as Saint Seiya. Many Saint Seiya fans wept with the characters when Shiryu supposedly died in Capricorn’s house. Will those same fans cry when they see Aiolia mourn Lyfia’s death in Soul of Gold? The fact is, it depends. Is the revival built for an adult audience or just for kids? Thus, it is necessary to ask the question: should the producers deliver the same product or should they induce an identical emotion to that of the past for this audience that is now adults? In addition to this last question, another, very important, arises. How to build this narrative for adults so that children who don’t know the original can also enjoy it?

I don’t want to discuss whether it’s really possible to rescue this kind of nostalgic feeling, but the proposal of the revival film is this emotional escapism from adults to childhood. To bring that feeling back, there needs to be a degree of identification with the product. The process of identifying the product of the past with that of the present must happen by repeating elements or patterns of the original product. The viewer needs to find elements that remind him of the original product. At the same time, this repetition must conform to current standards of adult acceptance. With that, the difficulty of creating a revival of a work that was special in an adult’s childhood is evident. While patterns and elements should be repeatable and identified, they should be tailored to an adult, not child, target audience, while also being appropriate for younger viewers.

Since I’m talking about the public, I want to draw attention to a current fact, before the release of Saint Seiya: the Beginning. I saw many internet fans complaining about the movie not bringing the original elements or even the story. According to these fans, much of what allowed these fans to identify with the original was lost in the film’s material released until the present moment (before the premiere). While it’s true that a live-action film adapted from an old manga demands a lot of changes, I note that there is another element that interferes with adapting Saint Seiya: the Beginning. This is the US target audience.

4) The revival of something the American public has never seen.

So far, I’ve been speaking from the perspective of the audience that knows Saint Seiya. We need to talk here about the audience that is possibly what most interests the producers: the audience that doesn’t know Saint Seiya. More specifically, the American public. I believe that the audience that the producers want to reach in the United States is precisely the same as that of Marvel and DC superhero films. That is, the Saint Seiya film will be both for younger audiences and for older audiences, who are not consumers of comic books.

That would be a bold goal, because this is a very large slice of the public. I have friends who are not comic book consumers who have seen every Marvel movie because those were the big releases at the time.

However, it’s clear that a low-budget movie like Saint Seiya: the Beginning doesn’t have the potential to appeal to much of that audience. It would be very innocent for producers to invest in this project believing in the same success of titles like Avengers at first. In this way, the present film has a great challenge to achieve the desired success to obtain a sequel. For this, not only must the film attract a large audience at its premiere, but it must maintain public interest in the following weeks. It is at this moment that fans, who are opinion makers, can be decisive for the success or failure of the film. This is worrying, as many fans are unhappy with the 2D productions of Saint Seiya in the west and are rejecting the film. Another important fact is the quality of the special effects. Even though the movie hasn’t been released yet, I’ve seen people praising the special effects and others saying that these effects are too generic. That’s something we won’t know for sure until after the film’s release. But it is important to note that the US public is exposed to a large amount of productions with a lot of special effects. This can make this audience better able to notice when the special effects are not so well done, but are within the acceptable range.

Another major challenge for an adaptation for an audience that has never had contact with Saint Seiya is the story. As I mentioned, Saint Seiya works like a children’s soap opera for the public. It has a long story, full of characters, events, twists, separated into extensive arcs. If the producers tried to explain all of Saint Seiya’s intricate plot in one movie, I believe they would need a tedious 30 minutes or more. Therefore, although many old fans complain that the adaptation is not faithful to the anime of the 80’s, it is impossible to create an adaptation of Saint Seiya for a younger audience without rewriting the story. And this is also a big challenge, because the affective bond of Saint Seiya fans is very much linked to the history of this anime. It’s different from adaptations like Super Mario Bros and Sonic, which are game-based and don’t rely as much on stories to entertain their audience. Thus, for Saint Seiya: the Beginning to be successful, it needs to have a new plot that still speaks to the nostalgic feeling of fans without going through the important story of the anime. This is a tremendous challenge.

And here we come to the point that I consider the most conflicting in this adaptation.

5) Conclusion: Is reconciling very different target audiences possible?

From my understanding, Saint Seiya: the Beginning is not primarily aimed at the old fan. Its target audience is, first of all, the average American audience that doesn’t know Saint Seiya. This audience, who has never seen Saint Seiya, will not understand the references present in the film. This means that Saint Seiya: the Beginning needs to stand on its own with a good action movie. It also needs to have a standalone story. That is, the viewer needs to understand the film without having ever read the manga or seen the anime, which requires several changes. I wonder if the low budget, by itself, didn’t already put this film on the list of flops from the beginning due to the fact that Saint Seiya was not known in the United States.

For many fans, who want to revisit the nostalgic feelings of childhood, there is a difficulty too. This happens not only because the narrative is perceived differently, but also because of the numerous script changes for the public that does not know the story.

To me, pleasing fans and the general American public seems like two opposing goals. So far, I see many factors pointing unfavorably to the live-action adaptation. I have many fan friends who, observing the quality of the material released so far, do not intend to see Saint Seiya: the Beginning in theaters. I wonder if Toei, after having released so many products with poor animation quality, will reap the rewards it sowed by creating a lot of frustrated fans in the west. The answer to these ramblings will come with the performance of Saint Seiya’s return to theaters, which will be on April 27th.