Saint Seiya: Kamigami no Atsuki Tatakai

This is the 2nd film of the Saint Seiya series which contains much more physical combat, but feels very much like the 1st movie.

The story starts off with Hyoga rescuing a person in need who is then defeated by the movie villains. Afterwards, Athena & the Bronze Saints rendezvous in Asgard where the God Warriors reside in. While it does have similar concepts of the much later Asgard filler arc, the stories & characters are vastly different. In this feature, the God Warriors simply wish for divine conquest & not much of their character are explored with the exception of Frey who could've been the ... primary focus of the movie due to certain Norse mythology.

In terms of visuals, The Heated Battle of Gods maintains the same creativity as the Eris film while placing more emphasis on the characters' hair as various scenes depict strong winds in combat. Another visual feature is Dolbar's Odin Shield which causes the background to change color on a repetitive basis but pleasing to the eyes.

One of the stylish choices of Saint Seiya is the usage of projectile based fighting, however the film decided to go with more physical hand-to- hand combat. Much of the fight scenes benefited from this use but sadly contains the same flaws as the first movie; the battles ending very quickly. While there was a movie highlight being a fight between Hyoga & Shiryu, it leaves fans wanting for more. One of the benefits of this movie is the villain Dolbar who actually battles in this movie who unlike Eris in her film didn't display any intimidating prowess. Lastly, the music in this film stands out more than the previous one with the signature theme being played via harmonica.

Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of Gods is a quick but pleasing movie displaying the good attributes of the Saint Seiya series. My personal cons to the film were the lack of more character traits as the Bronze Saints don't really express much personality in these feature films. Also, there wasn't enough scenes featuring Phoenix Ikki. Good movie with great visuals & a very atmospheric music score.

Esta review también está en español.

Greetings!
Stay a while and listen! (Or read... yea, read is better).
This is the second Saint Seiya movie: The Heated War of the Gods. This one is loosely based in a side story published in the 13 manga volume: Nastassja from the Land of Ice (the Asgard saga is based on this too, obviously).

Story: something wrong is happening in the north, and since Hyoga is the only one who works fine in the snow, he try to investigate. Since he doesn't come back, Athena and her Saints start to worry, and finally decide to find him. In Asgard, Dolbar, Valhalla ... leader, told the saints that he has no idea where the heck Hyoga is, but he will send a search party. Of course, that's just a lot of crap, and Dolbar promptly kidnap Athena with the intention of takeover not only Asgard, but the Sanctuary as well. So, Seiya, Shiryu and Shun (Ikki will come mid-movie) will fight the god warriors: Loki (Megrez Alberich look alike), Ull (waaaaaaaaay similar to Aliotho Phenril), Rung (Phecta Tholl's prototype, apparently) and Midgar (he kinda reminds me Merak Hagen), not only for saving Athena this time, but to find were the hell is the Cygnus saint.

Animation: Like the TV series. This was made back in 87, so if you are used only to new stuff, you may think is old and primitive (or, in a more polite way, classic). If you started back in the 80/90, then is pretty good. Back then, it was f*cking awesome.

Sound: The music is epic, as always. The voices... well, since you are reading the engrish version of this review, that means you aren't from Latin America or Spain. I assume that you are going to watch the japanese dub. It's pretty awesome, you may know the seiyūs from the Hades: Chapter Santuary (In Inferno and Elysion Toei change all the voices). Soooo, good voice acting.

Verdict: the movie is fine, but it resemble the Asgard saga too much. Or, Asgard saga resemble this movie a lot (since it came first)... whatever, is a bit redundant (more than usual, actually). But the plot is better set than in the Eris movie (plus, Athena is not the only source of problems here, which is kinda refreshing). The fights are well done, but there isn't a lot of time to make them fluid or more... complex, let’s say.
So, all in all, if you liked Saint Seiya, this movie will entertain (the third one is way better, though).
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Buenas!
Esta es la segunda película de Saint Seiya: La Batalla de los dioses. Esta ligeramente basada en una historia aparte que se publico en el tomo 13 del manga: Natassia en el país de los hielos (de acá también salió, obviamente, la saga de Asgard).

Historia: algo raro anda pasado en el norte, y como Hyoga es el único que se maneja bien en la nieve, va a investigar. Como no vuelve, Athena y sus santos empiezan a preocuparse, y terminan yendo a buscarlo. Ya en Asgard, Dolbar, el líder del Valhalla, le dice a los caballeros que no tiene ni idea de quién es Hyoga, pero que se queden a pasar la noche, mientras el manda gente a buscarlo. Por supuesto, esto es una trampa, y Dolbar captura a Athena con las obvias intenciones de dominar tanto Asgard como el Santuario. De esta forma, Seiya, Shiryu y Shun (Ikki llega más tarde) deben enfrentarse a los dioses guerreros: Loki (tiene un aire a Alberich de Megrez), Ull (muuuuuy parecido a Phenril de Aliotho), Rung (parecido a Tholl de Phecta) y Midgar (me recuerda a Hagen de Merak), al mismo tiempo que intentan averiguar donde se metió el caballero del Cisne.

Animación: La misma de la serie. Tengamos en cuenta que esto fue en el 88, por lo que si uno está acostumbrado a lo actual, por supuesto que Saint Seiya puede parecer primitivo, o al menos, “clásica”. Para los que arrancamos en los 90, la animación es muy buena, correcta, y todo eso (COPIADO DE MI REVIEW DE LA PELICULA DE ERIS... que quieren, técnicamente es igual).

Sonido: La música, épica, como siempre. En cuanto a las voces, depende de la versión que viste: la versión española es correcta para los españoles, supongo. Pero el consenso americano general es que las voces de España apestan. Después, esta la versión remasterizada mexicana, en la que Jesús Barrero y compañía están presentes :D. O al menos, los caballeros de bronce, con la excepción de Shiryu (la vos de Shun puede sonar distinta, pero es el original... solo que con más años. Los más jóvenes tal vez lo reconozcan por su trabajo como Neji Hyuga). Los actores de doblaje hacen un trabajo notable, y la calidad de sonido es muy buena (COPIADO DE MI REVIEW DE LA PELICULA DE ERIS... lo mismo que con la animación, de una película a otra no varía).

Veredicto: La película no está mal, pero se parece demasiado a la Saga de Asgard. O mejor dicho, la saga de Asgard se parece mucho a esta película... Como sea, tiende a ser un poco más redundante de lo habitual. Sin embargo, la trama me parece mejor planteada que en la película de Eris (y que Athena no sea la única fuente de problemas es muy original en esta serie). De nuevo, las peleas está bien hechas, pero hay muy poco tiempo como para que la acción se desarrolle. En resumen, si te gusta Saint Seiya, La Batalla de los dioses va a entretenerte.

Following on from the legacy of the previous film, the Heated Battle of the Gods continues the previous film's legacy of oversimplifying the plot structure and characters of the franchise, but to an even worse degree.

Without major spoilers and linking back to my review of the prior film, Evil Goddess Eris, the plot is the same structure of big bad wants to kill Athena -> Athena is trapped somehow -> Bronze Saints fight to save her -> Resolution involving the Saggitarius Cloth. What makes this film even worse in its execution of an oversimplified version of the main series' common structure is has to do ... with its main villain, his henchmen and the method in which Athena is incapacitated. Whereas Eris' portrayal in the previous film hearkened back to her depiction in mythology, Drbal being an evil Odin is not only inaccurate to the mythology, but makes him a very one-dimensional and stupid character (if he was strong enough to overpower Athena, why even bother with all the secrecy?). His henchmen are all very one-note or lacking in characterisation as well and serve as no more than punching bags for the Bronze Saints, and very soft punching bags at that when this was created during the time the 12 Zodiac Palaces battle was ongoing in the anime and presumably set after it commenced (given Athena's Saints being referred to as those of Sanctuary), yet none of the God Warriors required the Saints to use the Seventh Sense and even Drbal wasn't treat as an overwhelming threat to a Gold Saint.
The redeeming elements of this film, beyond the great art as with the first, would be Frey's actions in actively opposing Drbal's actions despite his affiliation with Asgard adding a bit more to character motivations than most of the other films did. On the subject of characters and Asgard, however, this further devalues the film as what potential to be found within its premise was executed to a far greater degree with the anime's Asgard Arc which makes this film absolutely redundant.

Overall, there's no need to waste time with this one beyond seeing some of its nice art and animation when its paper thin plot and characters were remade into something far better and even the later films' shared continuity completely ignores it. Easily the worst of the original 4 Saint Seiya films.