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.
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.
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.
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
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 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
The Saint Seiya movies certainly have great posters without a doubt. This next film effectively picks up in a similar fashion to the first one with things boiling to a head pretty quickly. It’s an effective movie with a lot of great fight scenes and moments. It’s also fun seeing the Asgard fighters again after the show although of course it’s a different set entirely here. Asgard always looks pretty corrupt in these things compared to Sanctuary though.
The movie starts with Hyoga saving a guy from a group of fighters and then being sent out to do some investigating in Asgard. Unfortunately things don’t go very well for him and he is promptly captured. Meanwhile the other Saints and Athena are worried about what happened with him so they arrive in Asgard. Dolbar lets them know nobody has seen Hyoga in the kingdom. This isn’t particularly convincing though as all of his God Warriors continue to glare and insult the heroes. None of the Saints back off which is good but they ultimately head out to do some secret searching.
Dolbar sees this as a good chance so he calls Athena back by herself and quickly kidnaps her soul in another dimension and puts her on a giant boat. Andromeda must have been sleeping since he was the assigned guard but he wakes up to find her and promptly starts getting beaten down by one of the God Warriors. It’s time for the Saints of Athena to show up and turn the tables but can they really reach her in time?
We’ve got a similar format to the first film but there are definitely some key differences. For starters, Hyoga is forced to fight for the god warriors so there is the increased stress of having to fight one of their own. Additionally, the terrain is very different in the icy Asgard which is certainly fun. Andromeda looks marginally better than he did last time and the main villain can actually fight this time.
I was quite happy to see Dolbar actually step in and start fighting it out physically. This was exactly what I had been waiting for the whole time. A villain who can just step in and start taking names as soon as possible. He was quite impressive too since even Seiya was having a lot of trouble with him. Okay that may not be surprising but it is still impressive all the same. Seiya ends up needing a little extra help in much the same way as the first film in order to counter this. It’s always a great way to end the film.
The God Warriors don’t leave much more of an impression than the villains from the first film. Again, they’re all pretty good but the heroes do have to mow them down fairly quick in order to keep the film moving at a rapid pace. I would say the most impressive fighter may have been the one who fought Seiya in terms of having a lasting impression thanks to his arrows of certain death. It’s a fun concept when you only need one hit to take down your enemy. It’s a very handy skill because you can imagine how deadly that would be if Seiya was throwing that with his Pegasus speed. Nobody could dodge that.
Seiya looks excellent here as always. He takes on a bunch of injuries and keeps on ticking. All of the Saints are able to do this but Seiya is always able to take those injuries and still manage to secure victories in the end. It’s the hallmark of a true hero. Of course Ikki looked great here as well. He comes in clutch with his fire abilities and also shows a lot of determination as he tries to save Seiya no matter what.
Shiryu gets a bigger role here compared to last time since he gets to fight with Hyoga. It’s a good battle and longer than you might expect as Hyoga uses every trick possible to take Shiryu down while the dragon hero is trying to subdue him with grapples and throws to avoid hurting the guy. Definitely a fun fight and it shows how Shiryu is willing to risk everything to get his friend back. As for Hyoga, it’s a little sad for his fans that he was basically controlled into doing this but by the end of the film he was still able to make the right calls and help out. In a way he’s at a bit of a disadvantage having to fight in a cold area where everyone is already used to the ice but he makes the most of it and still ends up coming out on top and at least contributing with the final boss. We all know who will beat Dolbar in the end anyway.
As for Andromeda…well he looks better than last time as I said but it’s still not great. His chains were utterly destroyed by his opponent’s sword. What’s the point of an invincible chain if it gets broken so easily? In general the characters’ armors haven’t looked so good in the movies. They tend to shatter almost instantly when fighting the enemies. They definitely need the golden armors at their disposal consistently. Andromeda does have a key scene where he rescues Seiya though so nobody can take that away from him.
The animation is certainly good as always. It seemed like they were trying for a slightly different look at times with the fights like when Hyoga fought the bandits. Maybe a thinner, more streamlined look? Either way it all looked good and the battles were a lot of fun. The soundtrack was also on point as expected. All of the classic tunes are still around and you can really get into the action.
Overall, This was a great follow up to the first movie. I think I would still go with the first one as the best Saint Seiya film so far but it is very close. They’re both similar in a lot of ways which is good because you shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken right? Saint Seiya is the kind of series that lends itself really well to having a ton of films so it’ll be nice if they can start announcing more films in the future at some point. Just follow this format and you’ll be in really good shape. It’s definitely a must watch for any action fan.
Overall 8/10
It’s time to look at the first Saint Seiya film. This was back when some films would be quite short at well under an hour and that is the case with this one. What that also means though is it gets to jump right into the action so that part’s fun. The action pretty much goes on for the entire film which is always hype. It’s a solid story that is well contained here.
The film starts with Seiya and friends enjoying a normal day at the orphanage. Hyoga and Eri even get to spend some time staring at each other. Unfortunately, an evil goddess known as Eris arrives and possesses Eri’s body. Eri then ambushes Athena on one of her horseback riding adventures and takes her away to a temple. Athena is able to resist the body snatching abilities of Eris so the villain decides to break her emotionally by destroying the saints in front of her. She sends a signal to Athena’s Knights to come and save her if they dare. Eris also summons the 4 Ghost Saints to take care of the heroes when they arrive. Seiya and friends do not hesitate as they head on over.
That’s really it for the plot because from here on our you can expect some hype battles between saints. It’s quite nostalgic seeing the heroes in this film. The movie includes the original theme song from the show and of course all of the classic tunes are here. Even the whole “A saint never falls for the same trick twice” line returns which is a classic. The heroes all have rather difficult battles but manage to overcome them as needed. The film feels like a speed run through an arc as Andromeda gets absolutely wrecked as expected, Shiryu has to drop his armor, Ikki shows up for a rescue, Hyoga lets his guard down, etc.
Of course, those are all great story beats so including them all in a film is bound to be a winning idea. Naturally Seiya looks great here. He’s a true hero as always and puts in a lot of dedication to survive to the end. He takes some particularly bad hits in the film such as hitting his head on a cliff when being thrown away and taking some seriously lethal blows. Fortunately he was able to survive these and keep on fighting as a true saint. Constantly throughout battles Seiya gets hit so hard he even loses all of his senses, even Goku might wince at this kind of damage. Just goes to show why the guy is still an absolute living legend.
Meanwhile Hyoga looks good but he does fall for the classic emotional trap. I’ll give him this, he got to have the best opening scene since he took down the car and saved a kid. In the fight he also looked good as he was overwhelming his opponent until he let his guard down. He’s typically the weakest member of the team outside of Shun but it’s more of a by default since the team is absolutely stacked. You have Seiya and Ikki at the top with Shiryu following close behind. I would say Hyoga is right under him and then Andromeda is way below the rest. I think Hyoga fans will still be satisfied since he was looking so dominant here which makes up for not having another fight scene.
It’s better than Andromeda fans at least as he goes down so quickly in this movie that he doesn’t even get to take out his chains. You would assume the guy isn’t a fighter based on how this one went down. It was more than a little embarrassing if we’re being honest. No Knight of Athena should go down in a single blow. Even in the main series Andromeda never looked quite so bad so…..ah man it must have been rough for his fans when they were leaving the theater.
Ikki looks absolutely amazing though. Not only does he step in to take that guy down but he also gets a pretty good fight against the main villain. It was actually even for a while and he was ready to keep on fighting until Seiya stepped in. I was glad to see him look so good here and it keeps reaffirming why he is my favorite character in the series. His fire attacks just look very cool and I like that unwavering confidence of his.
Meanwhile Shiryu also looks good. He was initially getting pummeled but that’s more or less part of his fighting strategy. The dragon within him gets stronger the more damage he takes. Shiryu’s specialty is stacking the deck against himself and this is completed once he takes off his armor and allows any hit against him to be lethal. Now that the stakes are so high he can really show his stuff. His ultimate move is a bit of a self destruction attack so he can’t use it often but it does always work. His sheer durability is probably the highest out of the cast. (I would consider Ikki’s infinite regeneration to be different from durability)
None of the villains are particularly noteworthy. They were all pretty good though. They talk tough, insult the heroes, and flex their powers. Basically they do everything you could want out of a villain. They may be a bit interchangeable in that sense but they all have different abilities. The one who fought Shiryu for example was really proud of his own strength while the one who fought Andromeda was more about ending his foes peacefully. At the end of the day their core personalities are similar though and that’s good since they were all impressive.
As for Eris, she can’t exactly fight so don’t expect her to get a big fight scene. Her plan wasn’t half bad though, just a little longer and she would have won. Honestly it would have been smarter not to call in the Saints though. I feel like Athena would have broken down soon anyway and then there wouldn’t be any danger. Maybe Eris just really enjoys a good fight though. Athena looked pretty bad here though. She should at least be able to defend herself a little bit right? Cmon, she is a goddess incarnate….
As expected the animation here is really good. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily at a higher level than the show but it does look really clear. I definitely have no issues with the animation. The fights certainly deliver and the soundtrack is on point as you would expect. There are a lot of powerful songs to listen to here and each one will certainly help to enhance the scene that they’re in.
Overall, This is a quick film so there’s not a whole lot to say. Still, it’s a great adventure since it’s really like a true mini arc. The Saints split up and systematically shut down each and everyone of their opponents. If that’s not true power then I don’t know what is. If you’re a fan of Saint Seiya or just like action in general then this is definitely a great film to check out. There’s one scene with a horse that might get you very nervous but fortunately the film didn’t go the way I was expecting. Things could have spun out of control really easily and it’s still the weakest scene in the film but fortunately he was okay in the end.
Overall 8/10
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