Saint Seiya Part 1: Saint Seiya TV

Aired: 1986 - 1989 Genre: Action Age Group: Teens Episodes: 114 Based on the Saint Seiya Manga by Masami Kuramada Written by SirFranks Well I was told I should write Anime things since I watch too much Anime. So I am going to write an Anime thing! To this end I will introduce the Anime Attack! On a weekly basis (ideally) expect an Anime review to attack the site and interrupt the stream of game related materials. This will be the first of three semi-reviews of Saint Seiya. This first part will cover the original TV series from the late 80s. First to introduce the basics behind Saint Seiya. The Saints are warriors who serve the Greek goddess Athena. The show is set in a modern time and roughly every 200 to 300 years Athena and the Saints reappear to fight off evil and save the world. It’s an action show very similar to all the old action Animes like DBZ. They get in lots of fights get owned initially, but through strength of will; completely destroy just about every enemy they encounter. That’s how every fight plays out, you might think during 114 episodes they would try new things but they don't. The show also is highly filled with the themes of friendship and honor. It kind of follows the typical old action anime style to the letter. But there are things that set it apart and make it interesting (at least to me). All the Saints are linked to various constellations and in-turn usually linked to the Greek myths that the constellations are derived from. The constellations are linked in through the armor (known as a cloth) that they wear. There are so many various mythological tie-ins in the show you probably won't notice them all or even recognize a great deal of them. The mythology is a little weak though in the beginning as is the plot but as the show progresses it picks up rather well. Much of the first half of the series revolves around the Gold Cloth of the Sagittarius constellation and progresses into a battle for Athena to regain control of Athena's Sanctuary in Greece. The gold cloths are the ultimate cloths for the Saints and only the strongest 12 Saints wear them with each of these 12 being linked to the signs of the Zodiac. The Saints use the power of the cosmos to get their strength and those that can burn their cosmos to its greatest will always win. Now that’s probably a bunch of random nonsense to anyone who hasn't watched the show, but somehow despite the cheesiness of the old action show elements it all results in something I found kind of awesome. The problem with Saint Seiya though is the show gets really awful and boring in the second half of the series. After the initial story arc from the beginning to over halfway through the series ends; the story just gets repetitive and so does the action. As I mentioned before they always get beat initially and then through they're strength of will, kill their foe in a single powerful attack. The whole story arc where they fight the warriors of Asgaard can and should be skipped; it saddens me to no end that the Viking warriors were so lame. The episodes just aren't worth watching and I have read that these episodes are original to the anime and therefore are filler. The show picks up again by the end of that arc though all the way until the finish. Beware though if you plan on watching this series. Like I mentioned several times it’s an Action anime. This means everything is dragged out and the plot is overall just too slow in places. Although not to the extent of something like DBZ, Naruto, or One Piece, the show could do with some speeding up. To conclude I would say this show is neat enough overall if you don't mind spending hours upon hours on it. It can also be really awesome in some places. The real reason why you might want to watch the whole thing of this series is so that you will have the full story when you watch the Saint Seiya OVAs. The show was initially canceled before finishing adapting all of the manga and the best part of the story happens in the end after where the show stops. But about 15 years later the final portions of the story were finally made into anime with the Hades chapter OVAs which I will cover in the remaining two parts. My Rating: 2.5/5 Other things to note: -The first theme song of the show is a song I find to be extremely epic. I have no idea why and I don't typically even like that type of music. But something about Pegasus Fantasy is quite awesome to me. -I always watch all anime in Japanese with English subtitles. This show is only about halfway subbed by proper means. The second half has some varying quality crappy Hong Kong subs. If you have seen other shows with these subs you should know what the problem is. In some places the subs are so bad it made me want to break things. Especially since some of my favorite episodes only had these bad subs. Some of the subs aren't bad though so don't let it stop you if you think you might like the show. Next Week: Saint Seiya Part 2: Saint Seiya - Hades: Chapter Sanctuary OVA