- Last OnlineJan 25, 10:58 PM
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- BirthdayApr 21, 1990
- LocationCalifornia, USA
- JoinedJan 7, 2013
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Dec 22, 2013
***This is a spoiler free review***
Saint Seiya is a shounen manga that has many good starting ideas and lots of potential. However, it has numerous problems that prevent it from realizing that potential to become something great.
-- THE PROS --
The Cloth armors that the Saints wear (especially the Gold Cloths and Divine Cloths), by and large, are pretty cool looking. You may find yourself wishing you had a badass looking armor to wear every time you fight someone. In addition, this manga features a wide variety of nifty superpowers and abilities including: destruction of atoms, absolute zero attacks, illusions, telekinesis, barriers, energy
...
blasts, mental assaults, hand to hand combat, fighting at the speed of light, and much more. Of all the special attacks that the Gold Saints wield, Galaxian Explosion and Lightning Plasma are my two favorite finishing moves.
There are lots of characters in this manga: The Olympian Gods, the Saints, the Mariners, and the Specters. For myself, I am partial to Ikki, Hyoga, and Aiolia simply because they each have their moments of badassery as they show off their skills to wipe the floor with their opponents.
-- THE CONS --
First off, there are very few female characters in this manga. The ones that are present are relatively weak and largely irrelevant in every arc of the manga. So don't count on any of the twelve Gold Saints to be female. They are all men, a few of which are pretty boys, which makes for a yaoi baiting sausage fest of sorts. Athena, being an Olympian Goddess, is supposed to be extremely powerful given her tremendous Cosmos, yet the manga makes her out to be mostly helpless and pathetic. She always needs her Saints to rescue her. I have no idea why this manga insists on not having any competent and relevant female characters.
Second, without spoiling anything, it should still be noted that many of the battles in Saint Seiya are full of asspull victories. The characters will be in fights that they have no reasonable chances of winning, given the difference in raw combat stats between them and their opponents. So do they use clever tactics, strategy, and deceit to win? Well, no, they never do that. Do they get their asses handed to them, leave, train, and then return once they can hold their own? Well, no, they don't do that either. So what do they do, you ask? It's simple: They burn their Cosmos to match or exceed the power of their foe to defeat them. Seriously, almost all the fights follow this format: the enemy is too strong and is kicking the hero's ass, time for him to just burn his Cosmos and somehow overcome this challenge due to sheer love of friends/justice/duty. This is ludicrous because it allows the characters to be as strong or weak as the plot demands at that point and time, coherency be damned. This creates a sense of faux-drama and fake hype for enemies that we know are too strong, but in reality are going to lose not to superior wit and intelligence, but due to the mangaka's incredibly lazy writing.
-- CONCLUSION --
Saint Seiya is something that is good in theory, but is poorly executed, resulting in a mediocre reading experience. The manga is creative with Greek mythology, has a few characters with moments of badassery, and some nice superpowered attacks. But it is full of tropes and cliches that anyone not new to anime and manga has seen in shounen series billions of times already. The manga's cast of characters are relatively shallow and lack any interesting quirks, and it doesn't help that almost all of them are male to the exclusion of females. Though perhaps most damning of all: the fights are constantly full of asspulls/inconsistencies, which is extremely anticlimactic and is just a slap in the face of the reader who is expecting something at least somewhat credible.
Overall, I wouldn't say that Saint Seiya is a terrible series (I've seen FAR worse), but if you are looking for a quality shounen series to read, I strongly suggest looking elsewhere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Dec 21, 2013
***This is a spoiler free review***
Do note that this review will not go into exquisite detail about plot events or the growth and depth of the characters. Instead, my purpose here is to convey the tone and characteristics of this wonderful narrative in order to encourage you to read it.
If I had to use only a collection of individual words (rather than sentences and paragraphs) to describe this light novel they would be words like:
Intense
Gripping
Suspenseful
Unexpected
...
Despair
Dramatic
Heartwarming
While Ame no Hi no Iris (aka: Iris on Rainy Days) is the first light novel that I have ever read, I must say that I am very impressed with it. Despite its relatively short length and moe main character it is a very well written story that is gripping and chock full of drama and suspense.
-- STORY --
The story's setting is in a world where robots and androids of various kinds are used by humans. Some robots are used to do hard labor, others for military combat, and others for personal use by civilians. Iris is a sentient android who lives with her creator, Wendy Von Umbrella, and serves as Wendy's maid to shop, cook, clean, etc. The two are very close and live an easygoing, peaceful life.
So at first glance, Iris on Rainy Days appears to be a cute and mellow slice of life series. But things certainly don't stay that way. Through a series of morbid twists and turns that I will not spoil here, the story, far from being some sort of naively innocent tale, develops into an intensely dramatic and ominous narrative. There are even a few scenes that can only be described as gruesome. The atmosphere of uncertainty as to how everything will be resolved will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
-- CHARACTERS --
By far, the most prominent on characters are Iris, Lilith, and Volkov.
All three of them are sentient (Volkov to a less advanced extent). They explore the philosophical question of the meaning of their existence while trying to survive the horrific circumstances they find themselves in.
Volkov is a pure robot, rather than a human looking android with artificial skin like Iris and Lilith. Moreover, his speaking and thinking capacity are less advanced than theirs, and thus his speech is typically brief. Nevertheless, when he does speak it is spot on, concise, to the point, and sometimes even deep and profound.
Iris is kind yet can be timid and over-compliant. Through the hardships and tribulations she comes to value herself, others, and life itself. Most of the character introspection in this light novel is from her.
Lilith has some mild tsundere qualities, which might be either a plus or minus depending upon your preferences. Nevertheless, she shows herself to be an observant, resourceful, and loyal friend.
-- WRITING STYLE/VOCABULARY --
Iris on Rainy days is narrated primarily from the perspective of Iris. So as you would expect, the reader gets a lot of exposure to her inner thoughts and emotions.
The story has an easy to follow writing style that flows smoothly. It doesn't bog down the reader with hordes of perplexing words or ludicrous amounts of detail. So it is highly readable.
-- CONCLUSION --
In spite of this light novel''s cutesy cover art and short length, Iris on Rainy Days pulls a sleight of hand to take the reader on an intense roller coaster ride of suspense, drama, and the raising of existential questions along the way. Much like Madoka Magica's deceptively cute outward appearance, this story also turns the reader's expectation on its head. So give Iris on Rainy Days a try. You'll be glad that you did.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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