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Following on from Saint Seiya: Origin, Destiny continues to explore the Gemini Saints Saga and Kanon...as well as make even more obvious and egregious retcons. Obviously spoilers for this spinoff and the original manga shall be made.

The first part of the spinoff starts off well with how Isaac knew of Kanon's nature being revealed as well as a good job being made in showing Kanon's conflict and anguish with his own actions that led to his appearance in the Hades Arc. When the spinoff switches towards Saga's perspective, however, is where things get messy. Ker freeing Saga from Coctys is a poor retcon as it's ... shown and stated very blatantly in the original manga that Hades freed them rather than Ker, with her role needlessly inserting her into the manga's major events that has yet to be justified. Moreover, Deathmask and Aphrodite act contradictive to how they're portrayed as having redeemed themselves in the Hades Arc, swearing loyalty to Hades before the faerie watching over them was revealed to them. For a good Kanon portion and poorly done Saga portion, this spinoff chapter ends up being average at best.
Already talked about the characters and art in other reviews of Saint Seiya spinoffs and have little to say beyond this fleshing out Kanon's psychology and development more.

Overall, the Kanon segments have some good moments, though the retcons to the Hades Arc makes viewing it meaningless.

This prequel to the Saint Seiya manga and origin story to the Gemini Saints Saga and Kanon is a mixed bag centering around its central plot twist that reshapes all perceptions of Saga's character arc in the original Saint Seiya manga (shouldn't have to give a spoiler warning for those familiar with the series who'd be the only ones going into it, but here it is for moderation reasons).

The main reveal within this spinoff is that the evil personality of Saga that was the source behind the entire conflict of the Sanctuary Arc was an evil spirit that possessed Saga's body shortly after his birth ... rather than a true alternate personality and was brought in by the new character Ker. There's a lot of good and bad to this. For the good, it makes sense in how often Saga's evil self is compared to a demon, the conflict and differences between he and his brother Kanon making this twin nature something that needn't be Saga's defining trait as a Gemini and it fitting well into the mythological lore, as well as it being more understandable why it was erased by the light of Athena's shield and works with the previous Gemini Saint Cain/Abel being shown to be an anomaly rather than his alternate personality being tied to his destiny. On the other hand,retconning Saga's evil self as not being a natural part of him damages the thematic elements with how he represented the duality of man when brought to bipolar extremes and his evil self's desire to use his might to defend the Earth from the wrath of the gods could have been easily read as this personality being his good intentions being brought about through insidious methods without the context of this spinoff and, as a result, makes Saga slightly less of a complex character. Overall, logical consistency is far more important than decent themes which makes this change more good than bad, but it's still polarising enough for this spinoff to be more than average, particularly when what role Kurumada has for Ker's existence beyond retconning past events has yet to be shown.

For characters and art, there's little to say. Nothing new is revealed character-wise beyond the mentioned twist and Ker brings little to the table as her own character beyond trolling Athena's Saints. The art is typical of modern Kurumada, more distinct and worthwhile than most works of the 2010s, but less refined than it was in the 80s and 90s and nowhere near that of Shingo Araki's work on the original anime.

Overall, Origin introduces some interesting aspects to the lore of the Saint Seiya manga, though you can ignore it entirely and still find much appreciation for the characters of the classic manga.

Episode Zero is overall an okay short prequel to the Saint Seiya manga. Unfortunately, there's only one review on here currently and it's honestly a pretty terrible one that is lacking in some key areas, so this will be one part review and one part rebuttal for a more accurate analysis of it.

Obviously, spoilers ahead as there's no need to hold back when it merely fleshes out some of the established plot points of the original manga such as the circumstances surrounding Aiolos' escape and highlighting the conflict between Saga's two personalities. The latter is probably the highlight of the spinoff with it showing the ... guilt his true, good self feels very well. Perhaps the most surprising reveal of the story is that of Aiolos' Shadow Arrow technique, a unique restrictive move with specific conditions that's far more interesting than the typical rapid fire punch that was the Atomic Thunderbolt in his anime appearance or just him firing an arrow as is typical of a Sagittarius Saint (though not quite as impressive as something like his Infinite Break in Episode G).
Perhaps the two most controversial parts to casual fans of the series would be Aiolos not donning his cloth and Shura attempting to kill Athena, neither of which are issues for those who paid attention to the original manga. With the exception of those that have strong psychokinesis, cloths were put on manually in the manga rather than automatically and it was established depleted stamina and Cosmo could cause one to be unable to use their cloth efficiently, so it may have only hindered Aiolos. Those who complain about Shura's characterisation forget that his manga self and anime self are two completely different characters. Manga Shura made it evident he followed the same might makes right policy as Deathmask and Aphrodite rather than being a loyal follower of Athena (Aphrodite even citing him as being one amongst the three to have betrayed Athena and sided with Saga), so this is just Kurumada sticking true to what he showcased in the original manga rather than retconning Shura's character in the manner Episode G did. One piece of characterisation that is questionable though is that of Aphrodite being struck by Aiolos' kindness and sense of duty only for it to never come up again and him wholeheartedly betraying Athena. Sure, 13 years can change someone a lot, but the manga never really does anything to smooth over this development.
If there is one thing that stands out as a genuine flaw in the manga though, it's the portrayal of Aphrodite and Deathmask's age. They should be 9 and 10 respectively and were drawn with a childlike appearance during the events of Volume 13 detailing Saga and Aiolos' situation at the time, yet here they're drawn to look no younger than their mid teens. This is a pretty obvious inconsistency, though at least not one that affects the plot in a meaningful way.

As for the art, it's fine. Many people complain about Kurumada's style and its lack of change, but if it's not broke don't fix it. It may not have the detail in faces as Shingo Araki's take on the anime, but its unique nature makes it still far more worthwhile than the majority of modern works. I will say, however, that Kurumada's art here is less consistent than that of the original manga with some faces look very off (particularly Athena's in the epilogue) such as Deathmask's overly comedic portrayal during his confrontation with Aiolos.

Overall, Saint Seiya Episode Zero isn't anything worthy of praise, but is not bad as some may claim. It presents enough interesting aspects to boost it slightly above average and what flaws it has ultimately amount to nitpicks. A decent read for fans of the Saint Seiya manga wanting a little more detail on some events.

Heaven Chapter: Overture, was set to be the prologue to Kurumada's next arc for the Saint Seiya series to revive it after its manga's abrupt end with the Hades Arc. It's apparent both from this and the repurposing of its ideas in the manga sequel Next Dimension, however, that the concept was overall rushed and not well thought out.

Obviously, spoilers for the film, Hades Arc and other Saint Seiya material are to follow, so there's the warning.

The initial premise of Seiya left as an invalid, the Olympian Gods desiring control of the Earth out of fear of what Athena and her Saints have accomplished and ... Athena relinquishing control under the condition her sacrifice will stop the Gods from wiping out humanity are all good. That is where the positives for the first two acts end though as the rest is filled with questionable, contradictive or disappointing elements. The Gold Saints' souls being sealed in an unknown place not only isn't fleshed out, but seems an unnecessary punishment for destroying the Wailing Wall to prevent the Greatest Eclipse when it doesn't seem the Gods approved of Hades' ambitions. Seiya's condition is also utilised inconsistently with him quickly recovering from his coma and the claim that he can't use his Cosmo until after Athena's staff pierces him is contradicted by him being able to do anything to Icarus. Perhaps the most obvious poor element is the characterisation of Shaina and Jabu as abandoning Athena. Ichi is a little more understandable with his cowardly nature, but Shaina completely removing her feelings for Seiya as well as loyalty to Athena is character assassination that goes against all her actions in the series' 3 major arcs. The same can be said for Jabu when not only was he blindly loyal to Saori even before knowing her godly nature, but was willing to sacrifice himself to aid Seiya what was just days prior.
The battle against Artemis' Angels then begins, with it being a very rushed and lackluster experience. Not only are both defeated in very quick fashions with Theseus being oneshotted as soon as Shun and Ikki gain a resolve boost and seemingly gain the Cosmo of the Gold Saints and Odysseus is fatally wounded by Shiryu and Hyoga offscreen. Considering these two were capable of destroying Cloths even Hades' Judges couldn't, this is a very poor showing of such powerful characters. Icarus Toma is the only one who ends up mattering, with the reveal of him being Marin's brother being one good thing about the second act with that plot point being one that remained unresolved.
The third act is the best part of the film with Seiya's fight against Toma and Toma realising his flaws in a believable way. Athena only now using her staff to heal Seiya is questionable, though it can at least be assumed it was dangerous to do in his comatose state prior. The most famous and controversial part of the film is Apollo's appearance with him easily defeating Seiya and wiping the memories of him and Saori. This is fine for the idea of this being a prologue to the next arc and is the only real option given to the Gods beyond destroying them at that point, though it not being delivered on further obviously impacts its value.

One element the film succeeds at well are the superficial aspects. It has art and animation the franchise has only matched or bested through the previous theatrical releases (mainly due to the better colour tones within hand-drawn anime), the soundtrack has many iconic tracks of the anime and good new additions including a very good ending song and this is the last hurrah for the series' original cast for the Bronze Saints and Athena whose performances are far better than their successors. However, none of these can make up for a sloppily written plot.

Overall, as far as far later continuations of an anime franchise through a film, it at least isn't as much of a plot-hole riddled mess as something like Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, but is still far from being a product on par with what came before. It's still probably marginally better than the other Saint Seiya films due to having some sense of consequence and delivery on unresolved plot points, but it's still a redundant product with the more refinement of its ideas in Saint Seiya: Next Dimension. Only really worth checking out if wanting an idea of what Next Dimension may have in store once the pacing improves or if wanting to see some individual clips for the art and sound.

The final of the original 4 Saint Seiya films, Warriors of the Final Holy War, is probably the best of the bunch in both premise and execution.

First, to go over some spoilers for the first 1/4 of the film with its main premise, having the main enemies swiftly slay the Gold Saints and that enemy being Lucifer himself with his revival being through the Cosmo of the previous three defeated Gods (Eris, Abel and Poseidon) makes it a gold standard for premises compared to the previous 3 films combined. The Gold Saints' deaths obviously shows how dangerous the enemies are, the previous Gods ties it ... better into the continuity of the main series and previous films, but the most interesting point is drawing on Biblical lore which the series hadn't really delved into beyond a few references, terms and subtle parallels. Seeing the film go full-in with it and showcasing the difference between the Greek pantheon and Biblical figures is very fitting for a series that borrows equally from both and certainly isn't out of place when the anime gave implications towards Yahweh's existence and omnipotence as well as the series being very pantheistic in general.
The way in which Athena is incapacitated here is also more interesting than most with her not only willingly putting herself up as a sacrifice, but her walking towards the point of sacrifice with some nice Biblical imagery puts a more solid visual ticking clock on her potential demise than any other one. It does avoid being close to as well done as those in the main series though when Athena believing the word of the being constantly said throughout the entire history of Christianity to be the father of lies and having that come back to bite her is ridiculous.

Unfortunately beyond that, the film follows the typical plot structure of the other 3 I've already mentioned in previous reviews, though the abilities of the Demonic Angels as well as Beelzebub's dialogue gives them far more going for them as characters than the previous films' roadblocks masquerading as henchmen. The climax also has more over the top elements to make it less generic than that of the previous 3, although the part at the end of it being through the Bronze Saints' resolve creating and miracle rather than an act of God ruins it as a battle against Satan himself is one in which a deus ex machina of the highest variety would actually be appropriate for rather than just "something, something, resolve creates miracles."

Art-wise, there's nothing to say that hasn't been said in my previous reviews. It looks as gorgeous as the other films in art and animation, other than maybe a few shots of the side of Eligor's face looking a bit off with the shading.

Overall, the last of the original Saint Seiya films still has a lot of problems with its script and screenplay, but overall has enough interest generated by its premise as well as its unique elements allow it to be marginally better than the previous film, despite suffering the same flaws. Could've been a great story in the hands of a more competent writer and with a longer running time as either its own story or a coda to the premature ending of the anime with the Poseidon Arc until we were allowed a Hades Arc adaption in the 00s, but instead it ends up as pretty looking bad filler.

The third Saint Seiya film, Legend of Crimson Youth, manages to at least be an improvement over the cashgrabs that were its feature-length predecessors in both premise and execution. Much like the previous film was just a poor blueprint for the far better Asgard Arc though, so too was this film a poor man's blueprint for the better Hades Arc that was to come in the manga.

Obviously, that comparison requires some minor and major spoilers for both this film and the Hades Arc of the anime/manga, so there's the pre-warning for later parts of the review. To start off though, the film has an interesting ... premise with the threat being an original character with some new lore to hype him up as well as Athena's unwillingness to have her Saints be involved in fighting him being a fair bit different from the norm. This bait and switch on Athena's part as well as the revival of the dead Gold Saints can quite obviously be compared to the plot of the Hades Arc's first act and are a breath of fresh air for the films which had ignored any Gold Saint that wasn't Seiya in a Sagittarius Cloth, though it also shows the difference in writing quality for the series when Kurumada isn't on board and that the Asgard Arc was an exception and not the rule. Athena's plan to kill Abel herself makes no sense when the film tells us that he's on par with Zeus and required several Olympians to take him down, nor does her close approach when the Nike staff is what saved her from conflicts with Zeus in the past as implied by the end of the Sanctuary Arc. With the exception of Saga, the revived Gold Saints are also quickly killed off either by the Bronze Saints or the new Corona Saints serving Abel rather than serving any narrative purpose and all the unique aspects of the opening act go down the drain pretty quickly with it returning to the same formula as the previous films (see my reviews on them for what that is and why it failed).
With that, you can guess the finale is indeed Seiya saving the day against a God, though this case is more egregious than the prior two films due to the hype given to Abel in being far above Athena and comparable to Zeus, yet he can eventually be matched by a Seiya who at that point could barely do anything to a Poseidon nowhere near his full power or close to Athena's true power. It really makes it more apparent how little tension there is in the film continuity when the Sagittarius Cloth is reduced to a pure deus ex machina.

Despite these complaints of the film, I'd still say it has more saving graces than those that came before it aside from the premise simply being better. Saga is by far the best part of the film both in service to the fans and the narrative. We get to see the good side of Saga that we only had glimpses of in the Sanctuary Arc and see the onscreen debut of the Galaxian Explosion that the anime unfortunately couldn't add, as well as him serving his role well in acting as an opponent and mentor to Seiya. It's also interesting that the end of his fight with Jao is likely the inspiration behind his brother Kanon finishing the fight with Rhadamanthys in the Hades Arc. Even though it wasn't good how the Gold Saints were shafted, their deaths at least help showcase the henchmen as a genuine threat unlike the previous two films. Athena's "death" is also a double-edged sword. Her and the Nike staff being removed from the plot is good for tension in the main cast logically being less plot armoured...except the execution is hollow as they're more plot armoured than ever by the finale of the film.

As far as the superifical elements of art and animation goes, it's the same as the previous films; a stunning and fitting adaptation of Kurumada's great style and evidence digitally produced anime can't hold a candle to an 80s anime film with a decent budget, but still not awe-inspiring enough to mask how paper-thin its plot is.

Like the previous film, it's a poor first draft of a far better Saint Seiya story, but at least this one had some decent ideas behind it.

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.

As the first feature-length animation for the Saint Seiya franchise, the film Evil Goddess Eris is somewhat seen as a gateway representation of microcosm of what the franchise has to offer. Calling this film that, however, is the same as saying so for some of the less memorable DBZ films; at best true on a very surface level and at worst a complete misrepresentation of what makes the franchise good.

This is mainly due to both the structure of the plot, the display of its characters and how it relates to the manga at the time. Without spoiling much, the structure of the film is the ... Goddess Eris doing something that puts Athena at risk, the Bronze Saints having to fight their way through her henchmen (the Ghost Five Saints) before eventually confronting their main threat to save Athena. On the surface, this sounds like the general premise of the Sanctuary Arc that was ongoing at the time as well as the general structure of most story arcs in the main series from thereon, but the difference lies in execution. Unlike the main series, the fights are extremely short and lack any twists and turns in their combat, nor do the opponents provide any important growth for the characters as those within the main series did. Moreover, the climax of the film is a quick fix imparted by the Saggitarius Gold Cloth, and all of these poor elements would become the general structure of the 3 films to follow during the anime's original run.

On top of this, the characterisation in the film is very weak compared to the main anime with 5 Bronze Saints being boiled down to very thin and one-note caricatures of their true selves (Seiya's only defining trait is never giving up, Shiryu is the same but he takes off his Cloth, Hyoga has to get attacked with thoughts of his loved ones, Shun needs rescuing from Ikki and Ikki rescues Shun) which would unfortunately be the case for the other 3 non-canon films to follow. There's very little that can be said of their opponents either beyond gimmicks that were done better in the main series both before and after, nor do the Ghost Five seem that special when the manga at this point had transitioned beyond Silver Saints being impressive with the Gold Saints and the anime had just started doing so, leaving this as no more than a teaser of the power scale anime watchers could expect to come.

Narrative-wise, the only redeeming element would be Hyoga's bond with Eri as well as that initial plot thread being connected to the more mundane setting of the orphanage and Miho that'd sadly be almost forgotten once the 12 Zodiac Palaces conflict started. With it being apparent none of this would be revisited beyond this film, however, it's overall a waste. The one element that holds up is the art as it displays the beautiful art of the series with very fluid animation in a visual display that the weekly tv episodes couldn't always do. That said, the film certainly has a lot of good style, which is the only saving grace for its lack of substance.

Overall, Evil Goddess Eris has a decent premise and great art, but is completely vapid beyond that. If wanting an introduction to the Saint Seiya franchise or a good representation of it, just read the original manga or watch the original anime. Those who say this film serves as a taste of what the series is are fairly off the mark, with it only representing what the series could be in the hands of a writer who didn't care about making something of quality.

Bakuman is a series often given recognition as a realistic tale that explores the manga industry in-depth. If we're to take this as its core premise, then the manga is a fundamentally flawed one.

To explain why, the first volume's premise alone captures the core faults of its story with this supposed "realistic" story having about as many plot conveniences as a fairy tale (obviously, minor spoilers ahead). The protagonist, Moritaka, decides to pursue being a mangaka in order to win the affections of his school crush Miho. On its own, that's not bad, but then plot conveniences and contrivances pile themselves together one after another. ... Not only did Moritaka's uncle leave him a manga studio in his will to give him a jump start, but Miho's mother used to also be in love with Moritaka's uncle. As though that wasn't enough, Miho reciprocates Moritaka's feelings but, instead of actually dating and having a relationship like a normal person, she puts in place the prerequisite that they'll get married only once Moritaka has one of his manga adapted into an anime and she can star in it. So, what part of these events and character interactions sounds realistic? If you said none of it, congratulations, because you'd be right.
After that, the plot is just Moritaka working towards that goal. There's at least some attempts to not make the plot entirely straightforward with Moritaka's goals becoming closer to that of doing things for his own passion as a mangaka rather than a contrived promise, though not enough to make his character any more engaging, especially with how reliant the series can be on references during some character moments. The manga at least helps explore many aspects of the manga industry when it comes to things such as popularity polls and the like, though what information the manga conveys is mitigated by its plot having the illusion of the characters struggling in such an industry despite still doing fairly well and never reaching any true low points. The general tone of the manga can feel overly optimistic in the manner many Shonen works are lambasted for, with the majority of the cast parroting the idea that "creating manga is so cool!" and naysayers being shown the error of their ways, such as the female novelist who decides to break into the industry.
The one element of the plot that did seem realistic is at its conclusion where the one work of Moritaka to be given an anime adaption is the one with the most generic premise and execution of its ideas, which strikes true in how most manga/anime consumers would rather see similar premises being repeated than have something innovative. This idea, however, does seem a bit contradictive coming from Ohba and Obata when considering Death Note was their breakout success and still remains both the most popular and innovative of their works.

As for characters, we've already gone over Moritaka and aside from him, there's not much else to speak of. Most of the characters are fairly one-dimensional and don't really have much to make them interesting beyond being mouthpieces for commentary on the industry, with some such as Miho having nonsensical motivations for reasons already stated.

For art, it's decent as expected of Obata, but the shift from the more realistic style within Death Note to one far more typically cartoony, simplified and exaggerated hurts the series rather than helps as it would've at least superficially sold the idea that this was a grounded story meant to be seen as realistic.

Overall, if wanting a great insight on the series, it's better to read a book dedicated to learning about the creation process of manga and anime rather than wasting time on a story that fails hard when it comes to capturing the realism necessary for such information.

Slice of life is a genre that I'd consider to be inherently flawed when not having an additional element added to have it stand out from the crowd; for example, Planetes having the interesting premise and execution of slice of life elements in futuristic sci-fi or Haibane Renmei being slice of life in a fantasy setting with a philosophical focus. When not given a unique and specific focus to tie events together and allow it to stand out from the crowd, however, it causes a slice of life to not have much to make one interested or invested in it.

Solanin is an example of such ... a flaw. Whilst it does have some focus on music and the passage of time, the former is a minor focus for the first half and the latter doesn't start to appear until halfway through. Even when both these topics become integral to the story, neither is executed in a way that stands out compared to other series.
On the topic of music, this story focus shows how many parts of the series are limited by its medium. A lot of impact is taken away from a story with a focus on music when there is no way of hearing it, or even a way for music buffs to imagine the songs being sung when not even as much as the musical notes are present.

Speaking of not making the most of the medium, it's time to talk about the art. As far as the backgrounds and character designs go, they're fine, though not outstanding. One damaging factor that did stand out to me, however, is how many black spaces are used for monologues. Stylistic or not, it seems wasteful to limit the visual element of a visual medium so much.
That said, the series would have been a lot better had it been condensed into an anime original movie with some of the filler chapters removed.

As far as characters go, they serve their purpose, but are in no way any different from what you'd get in any typical slice of life or romcom series, nevermind stand outs for manga in general; and the time wasted focusing on the mediocre support cast causes the story to meander and weaken the series overall when the series would have far more worth as a conceptual piece than a character one. The main character at least has some development from events that transpire later in the series, though as far as female characters growing as people from a loss in their life has been done in far more interesting and fleshed out way through both Misato from Neon Genesis Evangelion or Kanna from 20th Century Boys.

Overall, the only reason Solanin seems to have gotten any sort of praise is for its relatability, though that element means little when every other factor of it is a mediocrity. I can at least give praise to the mangaka executing things competently for what they wished to accomplish, though that premise was just more of the same. If wanting to see interesting ways of how to make a focused story with slice of life elements, watch the anime Planetes, Haibane Renmei or The Tatami Galaxy; or far better, look outside of the anime/manga medium and watch The Sopranos. For Solanin, however, I can provide no sort of recommendation.