Saint Seiya( 聖闘士星矢 Seitōshi Seiya) , also known as Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac or simply as Knights of the Zodiac is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1986 to 1990, and adapted into an Anime TV series by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989.
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Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac |
The plot focus on a young orphan named Seiya who is forced to go to the "Sanctuary" in Greece to obtain the bronze cloth( known as armors in some other versions) of the Pegasus constellation , after he obtains the bronze cloth he returns to Japan in search of his sister who disappeared the same day Seiya left for the Sanctuary .
He is offered a deal in which if he is able to defeat the rest of the surviving orphans in a tournament called "Galaxian Wars" and claim the gold cloth of Sagittarius his sister would be found.
After several events Seiya and the rest of the bronze knight swear to protect the reincarnation of Athena and help her in the battle against the other Olympian gods.
Well once again is time for another one of my critiques and the first of the "Shonen Classics" I will criticize , but before we begin I would like to add somethings.
First this anime in contrast to the others in the "Shonen Classics" was not broadcast before the 2000's in the USA , but as the other it is well known worldwide and it also has a fair amount on innovations in shonen anime.
As always this is my personal opinion and it's completely fine if you disagree with me.
As many shonens Saint Seiya's plot is fairly straight foward ; Seiya gets the initial armor , bad guys appear , Seiya beats the bad guys by the use of "Cosmos" some pretty bright moves and lots of blood , then stronger bad guys appear , Seiya gets an armor power up and the process continue..
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| Nop..I see nothing wrong there.... |
A pretty simply plot....so what made Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac deserving of the title of Classic above many other good anime at the time?
Well for starters.....
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| Err...something..doesn't seem right.. |
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| Much better~ |
It was the first to have the villains pimp up!......ok no , but it was fairly popular outside Japan specially around Europe and Latin American countries...which explains why I couldn't find an English version of this....
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| Gotta admit..it is still funny~ |
It was also the first to shown the protagonist and heroes bleed...maybe..a bit to much?...
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| That doesn't seem to bad.. |
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| Another day on a bronze knight life? |
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| Ok..that gotta hurt... |
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| The "Cosmos" surly make it less painful right? |
The development was...well quite not as progressive...and usually Athena despise being the goddess of wisdom...ended up pretty much in way to many troubles she could just...avoid?....but hey it was the 80's and we all know what kids wanted in the 80's right?
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| VIOLENCE! |
The anime show us some..interesting looks , but I'm not sure this is what tourist do in Greece to have fun..
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| ULTRACOMBOOOOOO |
Though the scenarios of both Atlantis and Asgard had fairly good looking backgrounds and the story behind it it was fairly interesting..
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| Never would I have imagined there would be clouds under water.. |
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| At least they got some laser shows? |
The scrip is not bad and you have all the "epic" battle phrases , but in all honestly even if some of them could be cheesy or a tad over the top they still did a pretty good job to pump the audience up and in more than one opportunity I know several of us tried to do some of the moves and yell the special move name like in the show...well maybe except a few...
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| He still looks fabulous? |
On the art section they did a fine job , the art is not to shabby and for a shonen the character design was interesting and pretty original.
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| They might not protect them at all but..the armors look pretty darn good! |
You might have noticed my lack of...well opinion...in the different areas I usually do , but in it's defense the anime did a pretty good job on each area and they did had some innovation...then why is it hard to say something about this anime?
Well the reason is that taking out the "Nostalgia factor" the anime is not that exceptional as we might have thought as kids.
I still like some parts of the series and I have watched it a fairly amount of times...yet it didn't hold as good as the other Shonen I will be criticizing.
But despise the actual plot being so dull and repetitive the show charm is exactly that!
The cheesy moments and the over the top battles made us laugh way more than many other Anime did , it also gave birth to other great memes and jokes based exactly on those characteristics.
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| Now that would be an interesting fight |
Honestly I still think Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac earned it's right to be called a Classic even if not by the usual reasons or..the usual points I evaluate it is still an anime that had a great influence in our childhood and many of us have the franchise in high esteem (well some more than others)
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| That's pretty much how I remember it! |
Well I hope you have liked my critique and remember to share your thoughts and opinion on the comment section, that will be all for today see you all next time in another of the Professor Critiques.
Lastly I leave you all with my very own Evaluation Table of Judgement~
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