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Lol, can Athena be more useless?
We got a fast recap of what happened in the first anime and now we're back to the start, but with Eris as the evil Pope.
I couldn't help but laugh with that. At first I was kinda excited with this anime, I mean, the manga is somehow interesting, but the overall quality of the anime is going down and down.
Not that much rushed nor chaotic episode this time. Fast recap on what happened with Bronze Saints, then Athena winning the battle of 12 Houses, after that regular plot with Shoko, ending with another problem that's gonna be solved in the next episodes.
Well, Saintias need their own version of "evil thing piercing through Athena leaving some curse with certain amount of time to repel it in order to save Athena's life". :P
Grub4dos said: I can't believe Mayura has been on her feet for twelve hours.
That was the worst element of this episode for me. Mayura standing in one position, watching how Mii and Xiaoling are trying to cure Shoko. She was doing her work with them fragments of souls being gathered by Eris' evil attraction, protecting Sanctuary etc. In my oppinion it was a very bad idea to not to show her in action and instead of it make scenes with her as we saw. Even if made better, the concept was just bad.
Aye, it was funny to see it like that, but to be frank I didn't expect something better. Manga was not expanded in the part of presenting how Bronze Saints fought in the battle of 12 Houses.
I'm glad we got to see some of the duel between Seiya and Saga, including their attacks (Seiya's Pegasus Sui Sei Ken and Saga's Galaxian Explosion).
@Smuto , I noticed it as well and my first thought was Seiya yelling "I HAVE THE POWER!!!". xD
Adnash93 said: That was the worst element of this episode for me. Mayura standing in one position, watching how Mii and Xiaoling are trying to cure Shoko. She was doing her work with them fragments of souls being gathered by Eris' evil attraction, protecting Sanctuary etc. In my oppinion it was a very bad idea to not to show her in action and instead of it make scenes with her as we saw. Even if made better, the concept was just bad.
I was joking about Mayura, but yes, it's evident that details of the manga have been omitted, apart from the bad quality of the series.
Wow 12 hours summarized in 12 minutes. It seems Xiaoling and Mii tried to.. do what they were trying to do for 12 hours. I really loved the Saga and Aiorios segment added, I always assumed Aioros stumbled upon Saga trying to kill Athena but this gives it far more purpose. It was a cool direction to take, only in my opinion adding to the original backstory. Am I right to assume it was Aries Shion who's memories flooded Shoko? Or perhaps it was Aiorios?
Since I talk a lot about the original here I'm going to spoiler tag this section to be safe.
But being a Saga fanboy I was really unhappy with what followed. I loved how the original humanized Saga as the series went on showing stuff like his fear of the gold saints all turning on him and following the real Athena to take him down as well as how it was later realized. I especially adored the last interaction between Saori and Saga where he told her in far more than the single line like he spoke here "a little girl can't protect the world", that he was doing this to protect the world with power so he could fend off the future God's who want to take it. Saori telling him that a world without hope or love is not a world she wants to live in at all is such a wonderful moment. It felt as though Sho really focused on him in awesome ways with the scene where he tried not to kill her and the added backstory. Yet, then we had his two sides feel as though they were complete opposites whereas a part I loved in the original was how they had a lot of control over each other even if his evil side was more prevalent. For the shield to knock his evil out of him and them him to commit suicide as the good side just really wasn't what I wanted to see out of him. He had a noble cause in the original and here it was as though he was manically evil as he laughed "I WILL BE THE NEW GOD MUHAHAHAH" even in the last moments until that evil was washed away all at once. It only briefly touched on why I loved him so much and for new watchers I don't think it carried over.
I suppose my complaint here is that the 12 hours that went by were not reflected in the healing of Shoko, as did it go into her being possessed/Saori being shot by an arrow far too quick for my taste. The characters acted as if no time went by at all. Further last episode showed so much time had past and their training didn't hold any weight because it went by in seconds. The pacing is all over the place these last episodes. That said I felt the series has gone down hill through this recap as it clumsily tries to fit into the original, yet the first 5 episodes were awesome in their own right and blended into the original quite well (outside of the saintia academies).
I also couldn't help but laugh my butt off when Saori was immediately given plot device cursed pattern treatment. Obviously this isn't anything new to Saint Seiya as in the original
Saori gets an arrow that will kill her in 12 hours, then has to stand on an icy platform in Asgard to hold off a storm while nearly freezing to death, then gets put in an underwater cavern and nearly drowns, all of which are just ploys to keep her in trouble and have the saints fight for her.
But to immediately go into another one of these and set up a temple that the Saintia's will have to fight through to save her was kind of hysterical to me. No subtlety here!
So, even plot wise I was very confused. The lingering regrets of the dead woke up due to Eris waking up from the blood of the Sanctuary battle and the saints memories flooded Shoko knowing she was supposed to be the host of Eris, perhaps trying to fly to Eris, and those saints regrets, aka Aiorios and Shion's told Shoko the story of what was ongoing. Then she started to float around as a ghost observing it somehow and gave Seiya her cosmos. Confusing, especially the floating around as a spirit part, but maybe the memories pulled her spirit to see the events unfolding because they were so closely related to them? Then the battle is finished and Eris who salvaged Kyoko's body pulls her into the abyss which led to Eden, maybe her temple, and somewhere her and Kyoko used to play at as she needs Shoko to do something for her. It seems she wanted to sweet talk Shoko at first and when that didn't work she cursed Athena and told Shoko the only way for her to save Athena is to do that thing she wants her to do. At least that's my read on the situation. Then it plopped them on a path that I assume will be walked in a very similar way to the Sanctuary battles to save Athena from her second arrow- I mean cursed pattern.
I may be wrong about that stuff but that's my read on it and I need to do some mental gymnastics to really say I "understand" what went down. That on top of the weird pacing and the focus on even expanding on the sanctuary battles while clearly not focusing on them at all and rushing through them was just awkward.
At least I've been waiting for true Saint Seiya battles, 1 v 1 long ideological battles that test both sides and make both motivated and likable and it seems like we're getting there. So although these last episodes have been a mess despite some good qualities, at least it seems we may be getting into the best of the series now!
@Rei366 I see! Interesting things to note. I hadn't known about how the manga was so different regarding #2. To be able to finally see it animated for the long time fans makes me far more lenient! I had assumed it was a decision to speed everything up. Thanks, as always. :)
The first half of this episode was quite something. I wasn't expecting to have a summary of the battle at the Sanctuary. I feel kind of bad for the people who are watching this without having watched/read the original, I mean, if they even exist. lol
But well, those shots were great, and they really made me remember those battles while evoking emotion. The part with Eris was pretty cool too, poor Athena though, she just recovered from that arrow, but she is already dealing with another deadly curse, this time one cast by a goddess like her. lol
I'm enjoying the anime so far, but it also feels... I don't know, lackluster I guess.
This episode was pretty terrible. I'm supposed to believe that the Saintias just stood at the edge of that pit for 12 hours, tracing Shoko's cosmos or whatever, and no one did anything else? Then, there's the subpar animation (at this point, I'm pretty used to that), the QUALITY Gold Saints, the super rushed feeling of everything (again, getting used to it, sadly), and the ridiculous plot device of Athena going into yet another coma after literally just coming out of one. They couldn't vary it up a tiny bit? Imprison her like in the Poseidon arc or something, not two comas in a row. The scene with the old pope was cool, the Gold Saints pledging their allegiance was pretty cool too. The scenes with the Bronze Saints were alright. In terms of continuity, though, I thought Saga stabbed himself with Athena's staff in front of Seiya, and that the Gold Saints went through all the houses reviving the Bronze Saints and making their way to Seiya all as a group. I don't know why they felt the need to change that.
I've been holding off on reading the manga because I usually prefer watching anime, but at this rate I think I will read it and hopefully its better than this mess. I'll continue watching this train wreck anyway, though. Man, can we get an actually good Saint Seiya adaptation again? The Hades chapter was so long ago...
I was joking about Mayura, but yes, it's evident that details of the manga have been omitted, apart from the bad quality of the series.
Yeah, I got the joke, however it's still sad that this scene looked so bad because of the concept chosen by the creators to portrait events that happened there.
Great to see an hairy Aldebaran and Saga's actual suicide animated, despite the drawings and golden blood (this makes me want to watch the Sanctuary pachinko videos again). But the episode was unnecessary filled with those Sanctuary scenes.
gfsdfgsdgsdfgs said: 1. I always assumed Aioros stumbled upon Saga trying to kill Athena but this gives it far more purpose
2. For the shield to knock his evil out of him and them him to commit suicide as the good side just really wasn't what I wanted to see out of him.
3. Shô gave Seiya her cosmos.
1. The Kurumanga has its own ("official") depiction of the events, it's called Episode Zero (a 2parts one-shot).
Saint Seiya G as well.
2. Well, Saintia simply took the events from its elder manga, some people have waited for a long time to see the actual version being animated. ^^" (it's one of the "big" changes from the original). I always loved the scene where he commits suicide in front of Saori after she comes to him. Also, now, his "evil side" has been officially coined as a possession case under Hades evil doings (although that last part had already been infered through dialogues about the dagger in the manga, I think) so the timing is nice.
3. This part was a bit strange since the "cosmo" sharing was due to the extremely strong bonds between the young boys (accessorily half-brothers).
@Alexeon It adapts the Shô manga who is derivative from the Kurumanga, not its TV adaptation. (even the Hades Sanctuary OAVs did take over from the paper continuity, despite all their own changes)
TF was that recap. Honestly I have no problem that the conflict develops with the 12 houses but what the hell was that. Did the girls were there helping Shoko while Mayura standing in one position for like 12 hours? lmao On top of that they animated the original manga version - inferior to the anime in every way - and they make Athena useless as ever putting her in danger again!!!
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