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Short review:


Saintia Sho is another Saint Seiya’s spin off that is written by Chimaki Kuori. Despite having the appearance of a shojo series, it had the spark and spirit of a shonen.


This series has been ignored by certain fans who didn't like the idea of their precious nostalgic franchise having a female cast, and being adapted into shitty anime by Toei didn’t help either. Which is a true shame, because this is a good series. Sure, it may not be violent like Episode G and The Lost Canvas, but it still has that Saint Seiya vibe.


The art is very beautiful. I saw many fans ... saying that it has the best art in all Saint Seiya, but I would disagree. That's just my opinion though, the art is still beautiful. The idea of having a shojo art style while being a shonen manga is very cool to me.


The cast is great. Nothing special, but still great. I really liked some new characters (like Erda and Mii), but at the same time there were some characters that I found boring and some I even disliked.
There are also character executions that really didn’t sit right with me, one of things being related to Katya’s whole crush on certain characters.

As for gold saints, well I disliked Milo’s character. Now I really like Milo, he is one of my favorite gold saints in the original, but here he was just...bland. It’s very clear that Chimaki is a big Milo fangirl, but sadly she didn’t give him much personality. Well, it’s nothing new that someone wrote Milo with a different personality (looking at you Episode G).

But I have to give props to Chimaki for writing interesting Deathmask and Aphrodite. She made them much more interesting, that’s for sure.


The fights were nothing special. To say that I don’t care about fights when it comes to Saint Seiya would be a lie. While they are not the most important thing to me, I still wanna see epic fights. And sadly most fights in Saintia Sho were just okay. They were not epic like the Lost Canvas’ ones, nor were they violent and bloody like the ones in Episode G.


Overall this was a very solid read. It’s by no means the best Saint Seiya spin off, but it is a very solid read which I would recommend this to any Saint Seiya fan.

The Kishin Douji Zenki anime series consists of 51 episodes, which were based on the work of Kikuhide Tani and Yoshihiro Kuroiwa.

This was one of the few anime that were on TV in my country, but it never reached the same popularity as Dragon Ball and Yugioh.
I have no idea how popular Zenki is outside, but seeing the lack of it everywhere it's probably not that popular.

STORY/PLOT:
The story is nothing special, it follows a school girl named Chiaki Enno who is able to free Zenki, a powerful Demon God and together they try to stop Karuma and other bad guys. While ''main character ... who owns demon'' is pretty common trope, you have to remember this was made in the 90s.

CHARACTERS:
I have no idea how to feel about cast. It's small and it lacks development, but it's not like they are bad.
In the second arc the cast becomes bigger and Zenki even gets a teammate, who’s name is Akira, but despite having powers he doesn’t do much (well until the latest parts), which is a shame because I was really hyped, only to be met with the wasted potential.
The best characters probably would be Souma and Dog Deity.

SOUND:
The opening is banger. It is in the top 10 best old school anime openings, for sure.
As for voice acting, well I’m not a pro when it comes to it but I didn’t see any problem with it. I think it was fine. I mean I absolutely loved Zenki’s voice, when he was in his real/adult form of course.

ENJOYMENT:
Some episodes were meh, but most were nice. Even though I don’t like episodic anime, Zenki was surprisingly fun.
I just wish Zenki spent more time in his real form, instead of his dwarf/shota/little kid form lol.

OVERALL
Underrated gem. Despite it flaws, I had fun with it. If you love old school anime you should definitely check this one. Just don't except this anime to be on the same level as Yu Yu Hakusho or Dragon Ball.

That thing you are reading right now? Drop it and read this instead.
I'm joking...or maybe I'm not.

I was always familiar with the Saint Seiya, but I was not aware of The Lost Canvas (or any Saint Seiya spin-offs). Honestly, I have no idea how I discover this manga, or what made me want to read it, but looking back, I'm so glad I did it.
Side note: No you don't have to read the original before reading this, but at the same time, if you read it, you gonna appreciate The Lost Canvas way more.


STORY/PLOT: 9/10
The plot is simple, almost cliche. I mean, it's ... your typical Saint Seiya plot where some pretty kid gets possessed by God, so nothing new. But unlike any other Saint Seiya works, this is by far more well written, more deep and philosophical. Also, the fights were so amazing, making this story even more epic.


ART: 10/10
The art, oh God, it's so gorgeous. Probably the best art style I have ever seen. Seriously, I wish more shonen had shojo art style, the world would be much better place, that's for sure. The art even gets better in the latest chapters.


CHARACTERS: 10/10
The characters are the best part about this. They are all lovely, especially the gold saints. The gold saints are obviously based on the original golden saints, but here they are way better and have more depth (keep in the mind, this is more of gold saint wank, so it's more focused on them than the main characters). Same goes for the bad guys, the specters.
Main character Tenma is not bad. He is your typical shonen protagonist, but hey, at least he doesn't take all glory like most shonen protagonists do. Alone as villain is great, he is my favorite character in this story. As for Sasha, she is the best Athena in the Saint Seiya universe.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
The Lost Canvas is just so charming, but also tragic and overwhelming. My heart was always burning with the desire the more I read. It always left me wondering what would happen next. The more you read it, the better it gets.
I did not expect this beautiful story to affect me so emotionally. It was a nice journey while reading this.

OVERALL:
I know some Saint Seiya fans gonna kill me, but in my opinion, this is far superior than any Saint Seiya work (yes, even including original).
Obviously it's not perfect, and is far from masterpiece. There were some moments I wasn't really fond of, that I would personally change. But even then, it's still the great manga and I had great time reading it.
So, what did I learn from this? That the fate can be cruel. It shows that sometimes life is doomed to be a tragedy, but with the opportunity for grand and noble heroism along the way. But even in the death, all is not lost.

But what if this is no that deep and it's all in my head? Oh well, I'm sorry for fooling you into reading this.
So yeah, that's it. This manga is hidden gem and I wish more people would read it. I could talk about it all day, but I will stop here. Hope you enjoyed my review!


Tfw still crying over anime getting cancelled