Spotlight: Saint Seiya

Now with Color!

Gather one. Gather all.

Saint Seiya Month begins here!

… well, technically it began more than a week ago, but whatever.

The Setting

I am the Main Character here!

It is said that when evil threatens the world, they will appear. Clad in cloths representing the constellations, they fight by exploding the Cosmo inside them. Their kicks break the earth, this first rend the heavens! The warriors that protect the peace and love of this world, Saints!

Man it felt so good to write that.

Anyway, last Saint Seiya post did a good enough job at explaining all you need to know for this. There are Gods. Athena is the only one who is not homicidal. Saints protect and help Athena, and do lots of bad guy fighting. The usual.

The Background Story

Not the face. Not my beautiful face!

Once upon a time there was a boy named Seiya. Seiya had a sister. The two kids were orphans but it didn't matter, because they had each other.

Then Seiya gets adopted by a guy named Mistumasa Kido and is separated from his sister. But hey, at least he gets a new family. And new siblings! About a 100 of them!

Wait, what?

Yeah, this Kido guy went in a bit of an adoption frenzy, because he totally loves kids and… what? Not really? He wants to send them all to brutal training camps where only a few of them may survive? So they can become Saints and all?

Man, what a jerk.

But there is a silver lining here. If Seiya becomes a badass Saint, then the old man will tell him just where his real sister is. Alright!

Years later Seiya returns… and the old man is dead. Luckily his granddaughter, Saori… doesn't know a thing about his sister… But she’s got money. Lots of money. Which she could use to find Seiya’s sister.

You know, if he’s willing to do the whole Saint thing properly and start kicking ass.

So begins Seiya’s carrier as a Saint. Fighting all sorts of evil. Looking for his sister. Having to put up with one bitch of a boss.

But hey, things can only go up from there, right?  Maybe he and Saori will find love or something.

Yeah, right!

How It Manages

Half of these guys are barely relevant

Awesomely!

Okay, The Story that I wrote is more or less background stuff. The actual plot is pretty straightforward shounen, and it is good straightforward shounen.

Big Bad. Underlings. “Go on, I’ll take care of this one.” Also, Rescue arcs.

You can even say Saint Seiya was doing rescue arcs before they were cool, though with some unique twists at times.

Now, Saint Seiya has plot holes. Pretty big ones at times.

Who cares? When you read Saint Seiya, you sit back and enjoy the ride of hot blooded battles. If you are unable to do that, then maybe it is not the anime/manga for you. If you can though, then you’re in for a treat. Saint Seiya has an old fashioned, even cheesy charm to it, that’s just great.

The Anime

The Five Man Band

If I were to point a flaw in Saint Seiya  that really takes out the enjoyment factor, it would be the pacing. It is, bluntly put, too fast at times. You barely have times to feel the relationships truly bloom, before the manga starts taking them as an established fact.

Luckily the anime fixes that.

The anime uses the old but reliable method of filler. In doing so it manages to expand on a variety of scenes, adds some character development and does a better job than the manga in developing certain points.

It also expands the fights entirely too much at times. Seriously there is only so long you can watch a guy being choked.

All in all, Saint Seiya is something I can definitely recommend to anyone that enjoys Shounen. It is a nice little gem, that’s sadly not that well known in the English speaking community.