What I want from Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac)? (April 7, 2023 - Translated by Google Translate)

 The purpose of this blog is to vent about my frustration with Saint Seiya. I love Saint Seiya. I am and always will be a fan of this very special franchise. But it’s been years since I last felt that Saint Seiya was special and meaningful to me. I’m talking about audiovisual productions under the responsibility of Toei Company. Since the end of the Hades saga (Sanctuary phase), being a fan of Saint Seiya has been very frustrating.

I see happy fans, but I also see a lot of dissatisfied fans with Saint Seiya releases. We had the film “Tenkai-hen Joso” (2004), which had a very beautiful animation and with a wonderful soundtrack composed by Seiji Yokoyama, but with a rather weak story. Then, we had the animes of the following phases of the Hades saga (Inferno and Elíseos). The Hades saga is very good and special to me, but the anime adaptations of these two phases were made with terrible animation quality. Their animation was so still that it bothered me. The low-frame animation, similar to Netflix’s adaptation of Gokushufudo (“極主夫道”), looks more like video manga than actual animation. I want animation with movement and a lot of quality! It looks like they used all the money on Tenkai-hen and there wasn’t any left over for the famous Hades saga…

We still had the series “Saint Seiya Ômega” (2012), which also had a very still animation. In addition, the Ômega series had some elements that I disliked. An example is the education of saints, as if it were a school. This type of mass education is really something I didn’t want to see in Saint Seiya, because I like how the education of saints takes place in a very personal relationship between master and disciple. Considering that the characters are orphans, I think the relationship they establish with their masters is beautiful. The mass education proposal is the opposite of this idea. Another criticism: Omega had a weak plot and also created more plot flaws when the Palas phase began. The attempt to please the fans ended up generating inconsistencies in the plot that bothered me a lot.

The animation “The legend of Sanctuary” (2014) was also released. This animation was clearly made to please the US audience. This was why there was a ridiculous Deathmask musical in the middle of the film. The problem is that the producers don’t know how to please the US public. At the same time, fans were faced with a story told in a hurry and with little emotion. It was a frustrating movie too.

Then the anime “Soul of Gold” (2015) was released. It’s about the adventures of the Gold Saints in Asgard. Unfortunately, it was also an anime with very poor animation. The story has an interesting premise, but it’s told in a rushed way. 13 episodes are not enough to develop each Golden Saint well. Stories that should have been more exciting were told quickly and without depth. This rush made everything very superficial and dull. Soul of Gold had potential, but turned out to be another disappointing release. It is a shame. I think Aioria is a good protagonist.

After that, there was the anime adaptation of the manga “Saintia Sho”, by Chimaki Kuori, in 2018. I don’t know what the author, Chimaki Kuori, thinks about changing the line of the drawing in the animation. I like Shingo Araki’s trait, I like it a lot. But I think they should have kept Kuori-sensei’s trait, which is very beautiful. Also, unfortunately the anime Saintia Sho had a very still animation with little movement. This bothered me a lot and made me frustrated.

In 2019, the animation “The Knights of the Zodiac” (Netflix) was released in CGI (Computer Graphic Imagery). I hated this release. To be very clear in translations, I repeat: I hated “The Knights of the Zodiac” (Netflix). Shun’s gender change was a misogynistic and wrong decision. I’m a woman, and I think Eugene Son’s justification for Shun’s gender change is completely misguided. I am against any involvement of Eugene Son with Saint Seiya. Among the Bronze Saints, Shun has always been seen as the “feminine one”, and that is a stereotypical view of women. Making a gender change based on a stereotypical view is prejudice, it’s misogyny. It is not representation. Of all the changes Toei made to Saint Seiya, Shun’s gender change was the worst of them all. It hurts values that I consider very important and that’s why I hate the series made for Netflix. If I ever have children, I will never let them watch this version of Netflix.

And now we come to the movie “Saint Seiya: The Beginning”, which is yet to be released. Do I have expectations? No. I think this movie was made to please American audiences. I don’t think fans like myself are the main target audience for this movie. Also, I’m a frustrated fan. I was frustrated again and again by Toei with their weak releases. This left me pessimistic and unwilling to watch this movie. I don’t expect this movie to reconnect me with Saint Seiya again. And that makes me sad, because I love Saint Seiya.

In summary, what I want from Saint Seiya?

I want a very well crafted story in the adventures of the saints. The stories should appeal to both children and adults. That is, Saint Seiya needs to mature with better, deeper and more exciting scripts.

Along with these better scripts, I want well-made animations with lots of movement and lots of frames. I can’t stand still animations anymore, because they get in the way a lot.

It’s frustrating to see animes with good scripts, but a stopped animation. It’s also frustrating to see anime with good animation but a bad script. I want to have a good experience with Saint Seiya.

The idea of this blog, “What I want from Saint Seiya”, is to analyze all the frustrating aspects in my experience as a fan and say what I want from Saint Seiya. I’m not the type of fan who just complains. I’ve been writing Saint Seiya fanfics for over 20 years and creating dozens of new scripts with the Saints. I have IDEAS to improve Saint Seiya. I’m not the type of fan who doesn’t want changes in Saint Seiya. Saint Seiya urgently needs changes. But these changes cannot be just any changes. I also don’t think there’s only one way to make Saint Seiya special again. However, these changes need to go through a review of Saint Seiya’s current target audience and, consequently, Saint Seiya products. After all, not even a man will want to buy a golden saint underwear… I also intend to analyze other animes and releases and show how they can help us think about Saint Seiya.

Finally, you may find my writing quite simple and repetitive. This is on purpose, because I will be posting Google translations in English and Japanese. And it’s going to be Google Translate, because I’m too poor to pay for translators and too lazy to translate on my own.

I hope my opinions reach those who can make Saint Seiya a less frustrating product. To the people who have read this far, my thanks.