Tag Archives: Pegasus Seiya

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Review

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Uh oh, it’s time to look at the big Saint Seiya sequel. Basically this series is really trying to see just how far a good fight scene can take you. The story is a mess, the power levels are all over the place, the concepts are all recycled and the ending is terrible. And yet….I would say this is still a very solid series so just how good is the Saint Seiya cast to pull this off? I would think of it as a title of ultimate missed possibilities that tries its best to sabotage itself at every turn but was unable to finish the job. That’s the best way to look at this title and it really makes you think.

After Seiya took out Hades, he has been unable to regain consciousness in the present. In the present, the other Saints head to the past in order to find a way to wake him up. They then get to fight alongside Tenma and relive the events of Lost Canvass but in a very watered down, abridged version of that series. They have unfortunately not stayed sharp in their training and so they have a super hard time against all of the Gold Saints there but they have to keep on trying. The god of time Chronos has some plans of his own but this isn’t Episode G so the series never does much with him. Then meanwhile the angels have shown up to murder Seiya and have to contend with Marin and Shaina. They must be pretty weak eh?

So the series is jumping around a whole lot here. There are over 100 chapters but don’t let that fool you, the series itself is not as long as it sounds. A bunch of chapters are less than 10 pages long and you can often go several chapters without much actual plot progression. This is rough because this is a series that was trying to have a super big and ambitious plot. Without that at the ready, it starts to fall apart a bit. The main complaint the series has is that it’s just recycling ideas from the main Saint Seiya all the time and I have to admit that this is very valid. It basically replays the original series to a T.

The Saints run through the temples as they fight every Gold Saint and then take on the mastermind. We actually do this more than once as the bronze saints run the gambit but then a gold saint does too. There’s not much rhyme or reason to the fights as the bronze saints should be crushing these guys in their sleep but have a super tough time for no reason. The fights tend to be short and just follow the same format over and over and over again. There’s no creativity or originality to be found here at all so you better enjoy the confrontations themselves.

Then of course you have the prequel stuff with Tenma. Again, Lost Canvass did that better but this series tries its best. We get to see Tenma get a lot of fights and Hades gets his moments but there’s just way less time for them to do anything. Episode G, Lost Canvass, and the Saint Seiya Heaven Overture movie all handled their plots better because they had the time for it. This is trying to adapt parts from all 3 at the same time and ends up failing completely as an adaption there. My recommendation is to treat this title as not being canon and then you’re in a good space.

Well in the prequel timeline, Tenma is still a fun character. He may effectively be a watered down Seiya most of the time but he still has ambitions and tries to get stronger to fulfill them. I give him credit for standing up to every villain in his way and never giving up. The previous Hades is a lot more weak willed since he can’t resist the dark powers at all. I suppose it’s good that he at least had the powers so he wasn’t just getting destroyed the whole time.

Dohko and Shion get the biggest roles out of the old Gold Saints to mirror how that was the case in Lost Canvass as well. They’re not bad but do tend to follow the rules a bit too strictly instead of making their own decisions. Shion talks tough but will usually just go along with what Dohko says. Dohko may try to be the rebel but at the end of the day he goes for all of the traditions so I don’t quite buy into that image they were going for. He certainly does look more impressive than the others from a power perspective though and actually fights more than 1 big battle. I like Dohko so seeing him get a big role is always cool.

On the villains side, most of them don’t actually get to have a big role. The various specters are around but they tend to be discarded quickly. The biggest villain is definitely Suikyo who gets to do quite a lot. He used to be a hero and then he went over to the dark side which shocked everybody. His power levels are immense and he has his own very convoluted reasons for working with the villains. You may understand them but good luck on agreeing with them. He’s the kind of character that you just shake your head at because he created the situation that he is now trying to stop.

The most interesting plot is in the present so that’s why it’s a shame that almost the whole series is in the past. Lets take a look at Artemis, she’s Athena’s older sister and someone with a lot of power in her own respect. We could get some interesting dynamics and banter here but unfortunately Athena herself prevents that from happening with how passive she is. She spends the whole series letting every character tell her what an awful person she is, then she has to die again, and finally the other gods bad mouth her in the climax.

I’d like Athena to just get tough and start fighting back by this point. It’s clear that nobody is going to agree with her or help her out at least from the gods so she should try to take them out. If she loses then they’ll end up murdering her but that’s what they’re going to do anyway. I dare say that Athena is probably one of the worst leaders that you can possibly ask for. I can’t think of a more annoying figure to have to serve in a situation like this.

Then we have Apollo who has a cool design and everything but it’s not like he’s any more reasonable. He’s another villain who thinks that humans are pests. No matter how he tries to frame this, the guy is a complete villain. He wants to murder everyone on the Earth so you can’t really get out of that. In this series it feels to me like Athena is the only god who is on the heroes’ side. That’s yet another reason why she should be trying to take them down instead of listening to their whims.

At least Chronos is being helpful in the series even though you know that he absolutely has an angle. At least he’s going to wait and betray the heroes later on so we’ll take what we can get. Marin and Shaina look good in the present even if it doesn’t make sense that they can do anything against fighters of this level. It’s definitely more than a little cheesy and I would have advised the author to not even include them to be honest. At least not in any of the fights.

Seiya really only gets to actually do stuff for about a chapter but it was still nostalgic seeing him around. As always he is one of the only characters who will actually get up and start making some noise while the gods are attacking. A lot of the characters will look the other way or try to buy time but Seiya just does what he has to and I appreciate that. It’s why he is still known as such a legendary main character. Any future story needs to make sure to involve him a lot earlier this time. Like the chapter where the angel shows up to take him out was excellent and then from there the series couldn’t capitalize on this.

Ultimately a big reason for this is because the Seiya plot was actually new content. It wasn’t just the same story beats once more but this time it was a completely original story. Keeping up with more of that would have done a world of good for the story. Like Phoenix Ikki’s first appearance is incredibly awesome because of how it felt different. He shows up talking tough that he would beat the specter and the gold saint. That was really good and as always Ikki is a top tier character. Nobody was able to match that kind of aura.

Andromeda fans can be happy that he appears a lot here but it’s a double edged sword. On one hand, for a decent chunk of the series it’s just him and Tenma running through the temples while the other Saints are still in the present. However, Andromeda tends to lose a lot and doesn’t look even remotely impressive. The fact that Gold Saints are literally one shotting him is absolutely embarrassing. That should not be happening to any of the main characters. He has gone up against gods, why is he falling backwards like this? Like I said before, power levels are thrown out here.

Hyoga and Shiryu don’t get huge roles here compared to the others but you can still be assured that they get their big fights. They struggle at first and then they mount the comeback in exactly the way you would imagine that they would. It may not be original but at least in this way you know exactly what to expect ahead of time. That should be a load off at least although we would all take a new story any day. Hyoga’s entrance wins from the two though as he at least gets to scare off one of the angels which looks real impressive on his end.

Then we have Ophiuchus who shows up as the 13th Gold Saint. I’m not totally sure what the point of him was when we already had Suiryu but this guy gets a ton of hype. He’s the nicest guy out there but also has a super dark side like the Gemini saint. He’s really all over the place and works as a true wild card in a lot of respects because absolutely nobody can trust him. He’ll be fighting at your side one second and then suddenly he will be stabbing you from the back. What can you even do in that kind of circumstance right? I didn’t like him as a character because of how he lacked will power but he makes for a good villain.

I will say that the art is still solid as always. The series really nails the condescending look that the series is known for. Characters will diss each other with their eyes closed which I think is the absolute ultimate level of this. It shows that they are absolutely not messing around and will go to any lengths to mess with the other characters. The fights are also good when they happen although now they tend to be more like one shot fights towards the end of the series. Gone are the days of the longer fights which were always more fun.

Okay so with all of this bashing you may be wondering how this can possibly get a positive score. Well, it all comes down to the source material being that good. Think of it like playing a color swapped version of your favorite video game that promises a secret level at the end of it. Almost everything is old and done already but you’re still having a good time because the old levels are still fun. That’s how this one goes, it may be the same plot developments that you have seen already, but they are good plots.

At this point I’ve watched the first arc of the Saint Seiya series so many times with all of the remakes and adaptions. What’s doing it one more time right? At least in this case there are some slight differences as well which is important to recognize. So it’s not completely old even if in the large scheme of things that is what’s effectively happening here. You do wish that the series would do more but hey it’s still a blast. One thing that really helps is that I didn’t get caught up until later on so I didn’t have to wait nearly as long as the fans who were around since day 1. I know for those guys the wait was certainly more brutal so I get it.

The ending can also make the whole series feel like a waste of time. I’d say it helps that I can just look at Lost Canvass and the Saint Seiya movie to make those canon instead of this series. The hardcore fans may say that is impossible and in a sense it is, but I don’t get tied down quite as tightly by that kind of logic. So if I had a better time with the other story then I’ll still keep it as the real continuation.

Then this series avoided fanservice, any real big holes, and kept up a lot of action. So once again I say if you look at this series objectively without taking the other titles into account, I would call it a great series. It’s hard to look at it in a vacuum since of course this series is a sequel and is intended as such but that’s the best way to look at it. Or as a crazy AU and then you’re able to have more fun with it.

Overall, I tend to be rather desperate for more Saint Seiya content. It’s a franchise that is just way too awesome and interesting to put down. There’s always something cool happening here and the power levels go absolutely crazy. It’s just a lot of fun but this series really squandered all kinds of opportunities. This should have been an extremely easy 9/10 with just the bare minimum amount of effort. It’s clear that the writer just isn’t as engaged with the series at this point though and I have doubts that it can continue with the final 2 arcs. If this is the end of the series…well it definitely ended on a whimper that’s for sure. This will always be known as the series that fell short even if I did have a great time with it overall. Hopefully it can get a really high budget anime adaption which can take some of the spotlight away from the story.

Overall 8/10

Pegasus Seiya vs Cassios

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This is a tribute to the Knights of the Zodiac film. As always Seiya looked pretty good here as he was ready to fight for what was right and never backed down. He’s definitely the kind of hero you want to help you out because he’s determined and never gives up. Cassios actually looked really good in the movie as well but at the end of the day he’s just not quite on Seiya’s level. Pegasus Seiya wins.

Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Pegasus Seiya and friends. This CGI movie is certainly one that never got big but always sounded interesting. Whenever a movie tries to adapt an entire saga in one shot it gets my attention because that is incredibly ambitious. I don’t think many movies can effectively match an anime or manga because of how much you have to cut out. On the other hand the movie should in theory still be great because that means they will have to be squeezing in a ton of fights into a short amount of time and shouldn’t that be a recipe for a great movie? Well this one ends up being pretty good although I wouldn’t be able to call it great per say.

The movie starts off with mysterious beings battling it out in the skies. Two of them end up being shot down. Some local excavators come into contact with one of them who dies but not before showing them what happened through telepathy and then entrusting the baby Athena over to humanity. 16 years pass and she has been raised to be known as a lady named Saori. Her car driver starts to explain this to her but he was at least a day late because they are attacked by enemy saints sent by the Grand Pope. Fortunately Seiya and friends save her. They explain that Sanctuary has marked her as a fake and will be sending everyone to murder her so they have to head to Sanctuary and explain the situation quickly. This is a whole lot for Saori to take in all at once but it’s not like she has much of a choice in saying no to the adventure since the assassins will keep on coming. So the heroes head high into the sky in order to take down Sanctuary once and for all.

Now this probably does sound a bit crazy and that’s one of the things about doing this so fast. There’s a whole lot of convenience in the air like the Saints attacking right after the guy explained everything to Saori. Then you also have the power levels to worry about since the Bronze Saints shouldn’t be any match for the Gold Saints without a lot of dramatic power-ups in order to unlock their cosmos. Well the film has an interesting way of dealing with that which is to have some of the Gold Saints help out. This is actually a change that makes sense because some of the Gold Knights look way more reasonable as a result.

Virgo Shakka is a big one. Here he realizes that the Pope is evil pretty quickly and steps in to help the heroes. Mu and Taurus can also be counted on and so just like that you have 3 Gold Saints who are back to being heroes. Aphrodite definitely gets the shaft as he’s one shotted and Libra doesn’t get to appear while the rest mainly get their usual roles, even if they are really condensed. Of course the problem of Virgo Shakka being a good guy is that he doesn’t get to fight Ikki. So Ikki’s only role here is to destroy the archer saint and then to lose to the Shura saint. It was too bad that Phoenix couldn’t have looked better because in this version you would definitely assume that he is all talk at all times.

I still like what they were trying to do with Phoenix’s personality but you know that it only works because you knew him previously. To anyone going into this film fresh you would be wondering what to think of him. I would only put Seiya above him from the main cast but usually even Seiya would fall before this guy. Ikki is just way too awesome. Hyoga, Shiryu, and Andromeda look good here but of course there isn’t much time for their personalities. Shiryu is in a way one of the more comedic characters as he likes rambling and wearing his armor which the others poke fun at. Andromeda is not averse to fighting this time around so he gets his hits in and Hyoga is generally confident. He flat-out took down Camus with a draw where his opponent fell first and didn’t need any help which was impressive. Shiryu also took down his opponent.

Deathmask was an odd fellow in this version as we get a really random musical number during his fight. I was definitely not expecting that at all since it really came from out of nowhere. I guess the movie wanted to have some singing in here but it was still not quite what I had expected and the song went a bit longer than I thought. The movie made him appear to not be quite as evil since he said the faces were all people who challenged the temple as opposed to murdering civilians but even so he still comes across as super petty like when he tries to stab Shiryu in the back. So this guy just can’t win in any setting.

Seiya is of course the stand-out character. He’s always willing to put his very life on the line to save his friends and is the first to jump into battle. He never hesitates and continues to get even stronger. He uses a pretty cool attack to end his fight with as well. His determination is unmatched and he’s also just a fun guy who has a good time throughout the movie. So the adaption definitely did him justice.

In general the humor could be on the weaker side for the film but on the whole the writing was pretty solid. The story is good and a lot of the decisions the film made you could understand in terms of the pacing. It may have been an abridged version but in the end we did adapt the arc which is definitely impressive. The film cut out the fluff and even a lot of main events and focused on getting to the end. Not all of the choices were winning ones but I appreciate the boldness of it all. This was a movie that was not going to do anything halfheartedly.

In terms of animation, this one’s CGI so you shouldn’t expect it to look as good as the original anime but the colors are sharp here. I liked the style of CGI here better than in the CG show. The main drawback is that the armors don’t look quite as good. They remind me a lot of the Mortal Kombat suits but then mix in the colors that blend together like in Transformers. At least each character has a light that glows when they power up their armors but those aren’t color coded the way you would expect. Seiya gets red so Andromeda gets green and I think Shiryu’s may have been blue or purple. The colors don’t match the armors. Maybe this was to make them stand out more but it’s just a bit odd because the whole time you’re expecting the armor and the color to match.

The actual fights are on point and this is where it passes the show in that I felt like we got a lot more actual movement here. Each fight really showed off the speed of the Saints. It’s also all played in real time so there are no video game type cinematics for the super moves. The characters just use them. If the live action movie were to follow this template I think it would work fairly well. The Saints already have their training and meet up with Saori who would be the general audience in this case. It’s a fine script, you just need to touch things up and preferably keep this as a two part movie and you don’t have to sacrifice as much.

One thing I would cut out entirely is the climax though. As seems to be movie tradition we get a giant CG creature which shows up so he’s basically a damage sponge as everyone attacks. That just about never makes for a very thrilling fight scene. Only Fate Grand Order pulled that off for the TV show and even then it was because all of the heroes were so OP so it was intense to see a monster just take all of that and keep it going. Gemini Saga should still be the main villain and just have him be dominating the heroes the whole time until they start fusing powers. It would also make sense since he’s so strong.

This film has serious power level issues that can’t be ignored so you would probably want to clean that up as well. Maybe add some kind of rule that you absorb the cosmos of the opponents you defeat so they get stronger after each battle and begin to approach the gold saints. I think that would work as a quick (albeit a little convenient) solution to taking on Gold Saints so quickly. I did like how they remodeled the temples though. It’s clear that the movie took a lot of inspiration from Final Fantasy in terms of the layouts and character designs that worked really well.

The soundtrack could also use some work. A lot of the tunes sounded like something out of Tiger & Bunny which is a reasonable soundtrack but a bit more generic and public domain type than what you expect to see in Saint Seiya. We need more thrilling tunes for battles between Saints to really get you involved and so you can appreciate all of the hype feats. Also, the movie completely ditched the fake Athena plot which was odd. Where did she even go? I have to assume there was a scene cut out where the Pope destroyed her or something because otherwise it’s odd to just have a subplot vanish like that with no resolution. Based on the mask she was wearing it was likely Shaina or Marin but we need confirmation.

Overall, It was pretty cool to see what this arc would look like abridged. At the end of the day there is certainly no reason to watch it this way as opposed to the whole show but it’s worth checking out as a fun experiment. It’s too bad they couldn’t continue and try out the Poseidon arc next. The most important thing is if you know that you can’t possibly beat the original format, then you should absolutely re-tool things so that you deliver a different experience. The movie completely changed the context around the arc and altered a number of things which was smart to avoid a direct comparison. It could have still done things better but in the end this is a movie that I’d be able to re-watch because the replay value is there and it’s still a pretty good movie.

Overall 7/10

Nagumo vs Pegasus Seiya

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Nagumo is a very skilled assassin but it’s fair to say that he would not last very long against someone like Pegasus Seiya. Seiya is just on another level and could end the planet in an instant if he really wanted too. Nagumo has no real answer for that kind of power and would not have the speed needed to dodge any of his attacks as well. That is why he would ultimately be doomed here. Pegasus Seiya wins.

Pegasus Seiya vs Pegasus Tenma

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It’s time for a battle between the two main Pegasus saints. Both of them got incredibly powerful by the end of their series but I think it’s fair to say that Seiya will still have the edge here. He has more consistently been shown to take on every manner of being from saints to gods and just keeps on fighting. His determination is second to none and in a fight this evenly matched that is something to consider. Pegasus Seiya wins.

Pegasus Seiya vs Boyle Samejima

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This is a tribute to Saint Seiya: Heaven Chapter. Pegasus Seiya is one of the strongest main characters out there and he’s always ready for action. Even in a weakened state he fought to save the world and Boyle could learn a few things from him on that kind of determination. Seiya is in a class of his own in terms of power so Boyle is definitely going to be out of luck here. One Meteor Fist attack should end this. Pegasus Seiya wins.

Saint Seiya: Hades: Chapter 3: Elysion Review

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It’s time to wrap up the Saint Seiya saga. Chapter 3 closes out the Hades arc. It took 3 OVAs to knock out the arc but I’m glad that they persisted and kept churning these out until it was over. The arc ends in an epic fashion and is certainly not an adventure you are likely to forget. It’s been an emotional ride with the Saints from start to finish but every adventure has to end at some point. With great fights, story, soundtrack, and animation, you are in for a very solid time here.

The OVA picks up immediately where the last one ended. The heroes are finally closing in on Elysion, but are confronted by some more spectres. Shiryu stays behind to fight them while the other Saints arrive to take down Hades and the other two gods who serve him. Meanwhile Phoenix Ikki is getting ready to make his own move but what secrets of the past bind him together with Pandora? Her assistance could be the critical point of the war or if she stays evil, that could signal the final defeat of the Saints. Will Athena’s awful plan look any better in hindsight? Time to find out!

With only 6 episodes the OVA has to move quickly but we still get a good amount of time for the fights which is the important thing. There are a lot of characters running around at this point but the OVA juggles them well. At this point the only plot you probably won’t care about is with the other bronze and silver saints at home. They have a crucial moment where they protect against Hades’ attacks but otherwise you’re ready to go back to the Saints where all the battles are taking place.

Shiryu gets a big role to start things off with his fight against 3 spectres at the same time. I always thought that was a really impressive moment in the manga and it definitely keeps that same intensity in the OVA. Each spectre is no joke power-wise so beating 3 is impressive. You don’t expect the Saints to get a whole lot to do now that we’re near the end so it’s cool that Shiryu got to have one last hurrah. He is around during the climax fight as well but this is a match he can say that he won completely on his own.

For example, Andromeda and Hyoga get moments of their own of course but not in quite the same way. Hyoga takes on one of the top 3 Spectres and even manages to win on a technicality that they can’t exist in the void since they have no god blood while Hyoga does. Then you have Andromeda who is closely tied to Hades with a lot of twists there. This was a good way for Andromeda to finally be relevant though so I was all for it. In a power sense he’ll never be one of the top Saints but he at least did well in trying to hold Hades back the whole time. Ultimately Ikki was never going to sacrifice him though.

Phoenix Ikki looks great here as always. You have to give him a lot of props, right up through the final arc he is holding his own with Seiya and getting involved in the battles. He actually gets to go up against Hades and is the final Saint left standing with the main character. I like Ikki’s confidence and he also tends to be the most perceptive of the Saints. He was able to get here on his own after all which is impressive and he officially took down the final Spectres as he swore to avenge Pandora.

Even the scenes of him as a kid protecting Andromeda are really intense since most kids would have folded at that point. Ikki really did the rest of the Saints proud and I would expect no less from such a true fighter. He always reminds me why he is my favorite Saint Seiya character although Kanon and Aiolos are both very close. Saint Seiya really has a stacked cast here. Then of course you can’t forget Seiya himself who does well here as always. He really has to put up with a lot of punishment but always manages to get up.

He embodies the saint saying that no attack will work on him twice. He may go down after the first hit but once he gets up then you know that there is no chance left for the villains. Seiya’s an inspiring character who leaves his defeated opponents to trail behind him. Ultimately he steps up when it counts at the end of this OVA as well and does well in his golden mode. I would say he tanked the ending and made it back safely but there are definitely different ways to interpret the ending as you see the credits start to roll. Either way it makes for an emotional end to Seiya’s character arc.

The only aspect that isn’t very satisfying is how Seika reappears. So throughout the entire series Seiya has been looking for her but she was nowhere to be found. Even Saori with her vast resources and wealth could not locate her and we find out that Seika just had amnesia and was wandering around for a while. That’s really not a very satisfying resolution, certainly not the one you would expect to see after such a big build up. She comes in clutch with motivating Seiya to fight on but it just felt like this was a forgotten plot point that was thrown in at the last second.

As for the villains, in general I liked all of the important ones. The throwaway Spectres were mainly forgettable but the three judges and then the two gods were on point. The only exception to this would have to be Hades himself. I just never cared much for the villain and seeing as how I didn’t like Poseidon much I guess you could say that Saint Seiya has a bit of a main villain problem. It’s not that Hades is weak or anything but his goals and motivations aren’t super interesting.

So he wants to create a great eclipse so that the underworld will rise and he will rule over all. Athena tries to talk him out of the plan a few times and he refuses but it’s hard to even get a gauge on the guy’s character. He seems to be annoyed when anyone attacks him since the guy sees himself as being above everyone. He has the arrogance of a god type villain but none of the usual charisma that you need with it. I like his character design at least. Hades looks the part and appears as a very intimidating threat. He’s just not interesting and always lets things escalate until it’s far too late for him to stop the heroes. Even in the Lost Canvass he didn’t get to do much and that series went out of its way to develop everyone a whole lot.

For a main villain who improved here, I have to say that Poseidon was impressive. I didn’t like him in the last arc but it was cool to see him pitch in a bit here to help out when the chips were down. It shows that at the end of the day he will protect the planet and that makes sense since if Hades wins that will be the end for everyone. The oceans won’t be exempt from such a fate. It’s a very small cameo but I thought it was an effective one.

As for the gods Thanatos and Hypnos, both of them were fun. Hypnos certainly seems to be the wiser one and also a little more powerful. He warns Thanatos time and time again not to get too overconfident and yet the guy does so anyway. This is often the folly of any fighter who goes up against Athena’s saints. Lost Canvass retroactively makes this look even worse for Thanatos since he never learns his lessons. In this case, I prefer Thanatos’ confidence to Hades though. Thanatos has the charisma that Hades was lacking and I just like to see him talk a good game. He was able to back it up for a while as well with how his fight against Seiya went. Ultimately he gave it his best effort but he just wasn’t strong enough. Hypnos also gets a good fight but it is quite a bit shorter.

Then we have Pandora who I always thought was a very interesting character. At first glance she is just the evil version of Athena only in her case, Pandora was pretty much forced into this life. Her whole family was murdered and two gods threatened to make things quite rough for her if she didn’t help them out. While you can’t really throw out excuses for her since Pandora still acted as a villain, there’s not much stronger coercion than that. Unlike Athena she can actually fight as well. The Spectres are actively afraid of Pandora and she ends up being rather helpful in the arc. Without her, Ikki wouldn’t have made it to the end and without Ikki, Seiya would have certainly been defeated. So it’s no exaggeration to say that she saved the day here. That’s why she is a very memorable character and also a solid villain. Ultimately you know that things won’t end very happily for her but that’s just how it goes.

Finally, to answer the question on if Athena’s mission/plan looks any better in hindsight….it doesn’t. So lets look at the plan here. Athena decided to destroy herself and allowed the evil Saints to murder almost all of her guards so she could go to the Underworld. From there she would travel to meet Hades and ask him nicely to stop his plan of destroying the world. She would let him murder her and in exchange he would stop and allow the world to continue. I have so many problems with this plan but the biggest one is that there’s no reason to assume this would ever succeed. I don’t think Hades has any problems with lying so he could just say “Sure, I’ll be good” and then after murdering Athena he goes through with the plan.

Alternately he doesn’t even need to lie. He could just wink and say he’s going to destroy the world anyway. Athena is far too weak to stop him and she has helped decimate her own forces. Athena is probably one of the worst rulers I’ve ever seen. She is consistently attacking her own members by proxy like when she refused to let Seiya help out and her plans are poorly thought out. At no point in this entire scheme did she do something that made sense. Stopping the Spectres from the start would have been the absolute best plan of hers. Given how powerful the Gold Saints are shown to be, they likely would have won the battle.

The villains can regenerate which is true, but not when Shaka uses his beads so there is a counter. It’s not full proof but the odds of victory would have still been terrific. Athena’s Saints are simply stronger and that’s all you really need to know in such a battle. I never quite forgave Athena’s plan here. At the end of the day it just resulted in countless deaths that were completely needless. None of the characters call her out on this which is probably the worst part.

As expected, the animation is solid here. Considering how much newer it is than the show, it may not look as spectacular as you would hope but it does the job. The character designs are on point and the fights are good. The armors are really shiny which is always cool. If anything that’s the first part that always catches your attention for any Saint Seiya product so you want to make sure that it looks on point. The OVA did well here so I was satisfied.

As for the soundtrack, it’s got all the usual tunes you would expect from the show so that’s good. The battle theme and every other song are just iconic by this point. Eventually I’d like to see the series experiment with some more songs but considering that this was the end of an era, I really don’t see an issue with bringing the same tracks back. It can work as a very nostalgic kind of thing.

Overall, This was a great way to end the Hades arc. It really ended up being a blast and it’s good to have made it to the end. It’s easy to see why the Saint Seiya franchise has expanded so far. The characters are fun and the battles are always intense. The plots are easy to follow so it’s the kind of title you can pick up and watch at any time. The fights are dramatic and the stakes are always super high. Sometimes pride will keep the characters from making the right decisions but you know that the bronze saints will always be around to reign in the Gold fighters if they go too far off the path. If you haven’t seen this OVA yet, then you will want to change that so you can say that you’ve ended the saga once and for all. It’s only 6 episodes so it won’t take long and it’s almost all nonstop battles. After all, this is the climax now so there’s no time to rest.

Overall 8/10

Pegasus Seiya vs Yubel

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Suggested by Sonic Yubel is one of the strongest Yugioh cards out there. The fact that she is immune to all spells and traps while reversing damage from normal attacks is absolutely crazy. That’s definitely not a balanced card but it won’t make a difference to one who is as attuned to the cosmos as Seiya is. His Pegasus Meteor Fist will definitely strike her down right away and she has no hope of dodging. Pegasus Seiya wins.

Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy War Review

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Saint Seiya returns once again to fight their most powerful opponents yet. If you’ve seen the first three films then you know you’re about to see another epic installment in the franchise. Athena may not look great here but she has improved quite a bit since the last film. This one’s back to being a bit on the shorter side but it cuts right to the action so you’re still going to get a lot of epic battles.

The movie starts with a bang as Lucifer has been resurrected. He sends his minions to go and take down the Gold Saints first. They quickly murder each one in an instant and then after that they go with Lucifer to take Athena down. Athena is unable to stop these guys and even Seiya and friends are defeated. It all just happened so fast and now the world is in ruins as towns are being flooded and cities are being destroyed. Lucifer gives Athena once chance to save the world. She will have to walk over to his throne across a valley of thorns and sacrifice herself so that the world will live. Athena has decided to do this but her Saints aren’t thrilled at the prospect. They’ve decided to rise and fight against this guy.

Shiryu missed out on the initial battle involving the main saints so he is the only one still at full power while Seiya, Hyoga, and Shun are already at death’s door. Of course Ikki also wasn’t there but he never is. Due to this, Shiryu actually gets some of the best scenes in the film such as taking on two of Lucifer’s minions at the same time. Considering how these guys handled the other Saints so easily, it was a pretty intense moment. We also got to hear him say the catchphrase “The same technique never works on a Saint twice” which was hype.

Shiryu fans will definitely enjoy his appearance here as I would say it is his best appearance across all of the films. Then you have Shun who gets beat as usual but I suppose he did hold his own for a bit. The issue is that his opponent could literally slice through his chains without any effort which is an issue. Not much you can do if your chains aren’t strong enough to defend with right?

Ikki naturally gets to step in and look good though. Again I would say his role here is rather small but he takes his opponent out pretty quick with his illusions which is always fun. It’s clear that his abilities are near the top when it comes to all Saints around the board. There’s not much to complain about when that’s the case since I suppose he would end up stealing the show if he was there the whole time. He has a pretty hype scene where he tells Shun that he needs to get up on his own though.

Hyoga also looks good here. He may not stand out as much as in the last film since he got such a big focus there at times but he takes on his opponent and looks quite good. Then you have Seiya who definitely looks great here. He doesn’t back down and isn’t afraid to give his opponents some attitude as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s Lucifer or Hades going up against him, Seiya always fights hard for Athena. He gets to unleash his Meteor Fist and of course takes out his trump card near the end.

Compared to the last film which was going for more of an ambitious setup, I would say this film is really going back down to basics. Athena is defeated/put in a position where she will die soon so the heroes have to save her as soon as possible. We get the big fights as the heroes near the end and then the climax has arrived. There are really no side quests or anything to distract you.

That said, if you think about it some more then the Gold Saints look pitiful once more. When even Virgo Shaka was taken out in an instant I had to shake my head at that. I mean…I guess you could say since it was 4 on 1 that if they go all out from the start even Virgo would lose but it’s hard to see it being that quick. Lets say we take it to be fact that all of the Saints are massively faster than light so that one instant was actually a few minutes of their time in battling. Couldn’t Virgo have landed any real hits or something? I don’t see him calling for backup but the guy was always shown to be one of the most powerful Saints so losing just like that was hard to buy.

It is an effective way of building up hype for the new villains though. Since the heroes surpassed the Gold Saints in Arc 1 I am fully comfortable with them defeating the guys who beat the Gold Saints as well. That tracks for sure, but why didn’t some of the other Gold Saints arrive to help like Roshi? At least he could have offered some kind of assistance. Athena really needs to fire all of her Gold Saints since they never help her anyway.

The animation is very solid as always. It doesn’t really use any super cool effects like the fire blasts in the last film but it’s all very consistent. Ikki’s illusion was certainly fun and all of the battles have a lot going on. Keeping up with the close range blows and projectiles is fun. The choreography here is definitely on point. As expected the soundtrack also delivers the whole time as well as it amps up the battles.

Overall, Saint Seiya continues its run of solid films. You do feel like there’s not much of the Earth left to save by the time Lucifer is done with it but I suppose that’s at least something Athena and her magic can work out. At least it gives her something to do when all is said and done. Since the series uses all kinds of inspirations from around the globe for each set of villains it was fun to see a Biblical interpretation here. Lucifer certainly makes for an intimidating villain in that sense and existing in the same series as Hades will naturally have you wonder which fighter is stronger. If you like action films then you’ve definitely got to check this one out. It’ll give you all the fighting you could ever want with the characters inspiring you as they get up after each hit.

Overall 8/10

Momo Sakaki vs Pegasus Seiya

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This is a tribute to the second Saint Seiya film. Seiya continues to show why he’s a great lead as he takes down all challengers and rises to the top. He’s not a hero who backs down easily and he can burn his cosmos with the best of them. Momo may be good at playing it cool but even he will start to get worked up when Seiya unveils his Meteor Fist attack. There’s no dodging that. Pegasus Seiya wins.