Saint Seiya was along with Dragonball the 2 animes that I have been following since my childhood. Based a lot on greek mythology, and despite myself being greek, I would have never known it if I was not leaving in France at the time of Club Dorothee's Japanese anime supremacy.
For some reason (maybe the continuously explicit statements about the good guys being Japanese and the baddies Greek) it never reached Greece.
To the movie now. I had high excitement and hopes of watching a decent introducing movie. Something in a different level than Dragonball evolution. Something respectable in the league of Rurouni Kenshin's franchise.
The opening was promising and Sean Bean was a great casting choice. Then came the surroundings of a badly written and casted Kasios. As the movie developed, and without knowing the numbers, the peanuts' budget seemed obvious. What a surprise that Toei animation bet their goldmine on a director of a couple of short stories and a few unknown writers. In addition, despite the supposed designer's recherche, the armours had nothing to do with neither the anime's nor any historically accurate original. The foldable mask could have been an acceptable touch only before the Covid pandemic.
Marin's training respected original material, but Seiya's development to knight had not the narrative of Sam Raimi's Peter Parker to Spiderman. Ikki's gen ma ken was not explicit in the interrogation room. They didn't need a huge budget to make them work. 30secs of smart cinematography with inspiring soundtrack and minimum CGI could have worked. But no.
Better give the budget to some fans to do it. Or sell the rights to Marvel to develop it from phase one. Or else this is doomed.
I gave 6 stars because it had potential and I really wish they could make a lot of money to invest it all in the 2nd. But this seems to be a summer night's dream.
For some reason (maybe the continuously explicit statements about the good guys being Japanese and the baddies Greek) it never reached Greece.
To the movie now. I had high excitement and hopes of watching a decent introducing movie. Something in a different level than Dragonball evolution. Something respectable in the league of Rurouni Kenshin's franchise.
The opening was promising and Sean Bean was a great casting choice. Then came the surroundings of a badly written and casted Kasios. As the movie developed, and without knowing the numbers, the peanuts' budget seemed obvious. What a surprise that Toei animation bet their goldmine on a director of a couple of short stories and a few unknown writers. In addition, despite the supposed designer's recherche, the armours had nothing to do with neither the anime's nor any historically accurate original. The foldable mask could have been an acceptable touch only before the Covid pandemic.
Marin's training respected original material, but Seiya's development to knight had not the narrative of Sam Raimi's Peter Parker to Spiderman. Ikki's gen ma ken was not explicit in the interrogation room. They didn't need a huge budget to make them work. 30secs of smart cinematography with inspiring soundtrack and minimum CGI could have worked. But no.
Better give the budget to some fans to do it. Or sell the rights to Marvel to develop it from phase one. Or else this is doomed.
I gave 6 stars because it had potential and I really wish they could make a lot of money to invest it all in the 2nd. But this seems to be a summer night's dream.