WARNING:This review will contain spoilers
Story (5):
''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' is basically about the fight against Hades that took place in the 18th century.Its basically centered around the three main characters(who grow up as friends in an orphanage):Tenma who becomes the one of the Saints that serves Athena,Sasha who's the reincarnation of Athena and Alone who turns out to be the reincarnation of Hades.And thus by a cruel twist of fate Alone turns into Tenma's and Sasha's enemy.
The story isn't bad however considering that its 223 chapters long even though it focuses on one war makes it rather superfluous in a lot of parts(especially the
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''Bluegrad''arc,the ''Ship of Hope'' arc and the whole reveal about the secondary god Kairos) especially considering that the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga manged to cover one civil war against the Pope,a war against Poseidon and a war against Hades in no more than 110 chapters.Speaking of being superfluous,I couldn't help but find that whole philosophy against death between Pope Sage and Cancer Manigoldo to be pretentious as hell.Its like ''Dude,death happens to everyone even without war so get the fuck over it''.The whole angst arc with Sagittarius Sisyphus was also annoying because he was basically feeling himself guilty and falling into darkness for something that wasn't even his damn fault and was is something stupid to feel guilty about to begin with (He basically felt himself guilty for doing his damn duty as a Saint to get Athena from an orphanage and bring her to Sanctuary and someone he thinks that this has something to do with the fact that she got forced to battle her friend Alone who got turned into Hades.Sorry but this is stupid as fuck because a Saint who should think about what benefits the safety of humanity over the feelings of some kids who's friendship got ruined by Fate).
Besides how superfluous it feels in a lot parts,I also can't help but be annoyed at how many scenes it has that are copied from the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga.Sure,you could say that it was the mangaka's way of paying tribute to the original however there are only so much tribute scenes that you can add without making it look like you are adding them only when you can't come up with more original ideas.Examples include:
-The entirety of ''Bluegrad'' arc feels like a mashup between the ''Poseidon'' arc and the anime-only filler ''Asgard'' arc from the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga and anime.Thats mostly because just like in the ''Asgard'' arc we have an antagonist(Unity) who's from a cold wasteland that he wants to transform his country into something better and just like in the ''Poseidon'' arc he happens to take the identity of the Sea Dragon Marine General and wants to use Poseidon's power for his own ambitions.Not to mention that the former friendship turned rivalry between Aquarius Degel and Sea Dragon Unity feels just like Hyoga's and Isaac's relationship from the original.
-Sagittarius Sisyphus sacrifices his eyesight in order to defeat Garuda Aiacos just like Dragon Shiryu did during his fight against Perseus Algol.
-The Gemini Saint is once again a traitor who's now on Hades' side. Also I might add that just like in the original ''Saint Seiya'',there is the background story that reveals that the Gemini Saint was a power hungry man who wanted to rule the world instead of Athena.However in this one his plan fails because his true intentions get discovered by the other and he gets killed before being able to kill the Pope in order to take his place.
-The Gemini Twins are once again in a rivalry with each other just like in the original.
-Libra Dohko's battle against Bennu Kagaho felt just like the battle between Dragon Shiryu and Capricorn Shura from the original
-You have the souls of the dead Gold saint coming back to life for a group attack.
Also despite what the ''Lost Canvas'' fans claim,the truth is that the story does have annoying plot holes.For examples:
-It turns out that Gemini Defteros had a bottle with Athena's blood in it which he gives to Libra Dohko and tells him to put it on Athena's statue because it will be vital for the battle against Hades (obviously referring to the fact that when that Athena's Cloth gets formed when her blood touches her statue).The question is; why does Defteros have a bottle with Athena's blood?It never gets explained.Also Defteros told Dohko that only the Pope knew what would happen when Athena's statue would come in contact with her blood.Since the Pope knew about how to get Athena's Cloth all along then why didn't he tell this to Sasha/Athena when the war against Hades started?This creates a huge plot hole because there's no way that the Pope would forget about something as important as this.
-Why does Athena's Cloth get revived with Libra Dohko's blood touching the statue?Sure he had Athena's blood infused in his body after Defteros used it in order to heal him but wouldn't the impurity of Athena's blood(the one of a Goddess) being mixed with his blood(the one of a mortal) make the blood unsuitable for the creation of Athena's Cloth?
-During Pegasus Tenma's battle against Morpheus,Tenma's Cloth suddenly turns into a God Cloth without any explanation even though in the original it was made clear that a normal Cloth could only be turned into a God Cloth if it received the blood of a God/Goddess.
-Why the hell did Athena's reincarnation descend in Italy instead of Athena's Sanctuary in Greece?
Art (8):
I'm one of the few people who doesn't really like the artstyle but I still have to admit that overall the art was really good.
Characters (3):
Pegasus Tenma - Tenma is basically the typical cliched battle shounen protagonist who fights to protect his friends and bla bla.And to make him even more cliched,it gets later revealed that Tenma is..SURPRISE,he's actually the son of the God Kairos and Partita who turns out to have been a messenger of Athena because we just can't have a normal mortal as a lead character.
The fact that he is so cliched could be forgiven if he wasn't damn useless during the majority of his fights.Since the begin of the series we are told how strong he is and how he is the one destined to defeat Hades however during the majority of the time he gets his ass kicked by his enemies and has to be saved by a Gold Saint.
Sasha/Athena - She is exactly a bad character however she's fairly bland because she's the typical female character that has the heart of an angel.The majority of ''Saint Seiya'' fans claim that she is better than Saori/Athena from the original because she is much more active but the truth is that they're just lying to themselves because she isn't anymore active than Athena.I mean sure she helped Sisyphus getting out of the Dream World during that stupid angst arc and is kind and grateful to all of her Saints but when it comes to fighting thats not much that can be said about her.For example lets just take a look at her ''accomplishments'' :
-In the first time when she appears as Athena she is shown getting attacked by a Specter and Tenma has to protect her(which he miserably fails at and Aries Shion has to save them)
-She uses her powers to built a protective barrier against Sanctuary which Hades easily manages to destroy (lol)
-When our heroes are about enter the Lost Canvas in order to fight Hades,our ''active'' Athena gets attacked by Pandora and Tenma has to protect(something that he again fails at and Hades has to tell Pandora to stop)
-Once our heroes enter the Lost Canvas,Hades finds a trick to get Athena's hair to block her cosmo with it.
-Even when she gets her cosmo back,she still isn't given an active role until the end when she fights against Hades.
Alone/Hades - Without a doubt the only one from the main trio who's actually interesting.The fact that he was able to block Hades from getting fully revived and the big reveal at the end about why he created the Lost Canvas in order to bring Salvation through death to humanity were especially interesting.
Unicorn Yato and Crane Yuzuriha - Both started as part of the main team with Tenma and were given background stories that showed their motives for becoming Saints however as the story goes on they get quickly pushed aside more and more to the point that they became nothing more than third rate characters.
The Gold Saints - They certainly aren't bad characters and they have interesting background stories that explain their motives for becoming Saint very well however the fact how overpowered they are is rather annoying .Also I have to say that it came become annoying that the introduction arcs of Gold Saints like Pisces Albafica,Virgo Asmita,Taurus Rasgado,Capricorn El Cid,Cancer Manigoldo,Scorpio Kardia,Aquarius Degel basically follow the same formula:
-Gold Saint gets introduced
-Gold Saint shows how strong he is by fighting against an enemy
-His background story gets revealed
-Gold Saint sacrifices his life in an epic way to defeat the enemy
This formula became tiring because of how predictable it was.Thankfully,the other heroic Gold Saints like Leo Regulus(who's so overpowered that it gets annoying) and Sagittarius Sisyphus to fight longer before they died in war and as we know Libra Dohko and Aries Shion are the only survivors in the end.
The traitor Gemini Aspros felt like nothing more than a freaking Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain and his rivalry with his twin brother(who btw,he manipulated with his Genro Mao Ken technique in order to make him kill the Pope,a plan which like I mentioned before ended up failing) doesn't help much either.Later on we get a convenient subplot that reveals that he actually isn't evil but that Kairos was apparently the one who planted an evil seed of him(talk about a lame excuse to justify someone evil behavior)
And despite all the shit that he did,the Gemini Cloth still comes back to him after he becomes ''good'' again which is too stupid.
When it comes to his twin brother Gemini Defteros he was certainly a good character but his love and sacrifice for his brother despite the fact what he did to him made him a dumbass character in the end.
Pandora - she was anything different from her counterpart from the original expect that she gets more screentime and wear much more revealing clothes
Thanatos and Hypnos - Are often praised for being better than their original counterparts but they honestly aren't.In the original it took the Bronze Saint to get the God Clothes to beat them but in ''Lost Canvas'' they got sealed by Pope Sage and his brother Hakurei (who's an ex-Silver Saint for crying out loud).Also the fact that Manigoldo could stand Thanatos' attacks at the begin(and well up until he was killed) was bullshit considering that in the original Thanatos managed to shatter 5 Gold Cloths at once.Came to think of it why the hell didn't he just use his Terrible Providence attack to kill Manigoldo in the first place?And then use it to kill Sage as well? That just goes to show that he suffers degradation for the sake of making the plot long and more exciting just like he did in the original.Also when it comes to Hypnos he has the powers to make people fall asleep with his Eternal Drowsiness attack so why the hell didn't he use that attack on Hakurei?At least in the original he used Eternal Drowsiness on Andromeda Shun and proceeded to kill him before being stopped by Cygnus Hyoga and Dragon Shiryu.
Mesophisto Yoma/Kairos -Certainly the most annoying character that randomly comes out of nowhere to reveal he is Tenma's father and that he had a ''big role'' in the story by taking Hades' vessel away from Pandora and bringing him to where Tenma and Sasha were staying so that the Tenma and Hades' vessel would grow up as friends in order to make their fated rivalry more interesting or some shit like that.He also plans to use Tenma's powers to create a war between the gods so that he can rule in the end or some shit like.Honestly though,who the hell freaking cares?This was just some dumbass character that was added to make an superfluous plot even superfluous because fuck the story,what we need is even more bland overpowered characters for the fanboys to root for.
When it comes to the other villains there are so many of them to the point that it becomes annoying however the only ones really worth mentioning are Bennu Kagaho and Violate Behemoth.
Jul 7, 2019
WARNING:This review will contain spoilers
Story (5): ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' is basically about the fight against Hades that took place in the 18th century.Its basically centered around the three main characters(who grow up as friends in an orphanage):Tenma who becomes the one of the Saints that serves Athena,Sasha who's the reincarnation of Athena and Alone who turns out to be the reincarnation of Hades.And thus by a cruel twist of fate Alone turns into Tenma's and Sasha's enemy. The story isn't bad however considering that its 223 chapters long even though it focuses on one war makes it rather superfluous in a lot of parts(especially the ... |
