Forum - View topicREVIEW: Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō GNs 1-2
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gaptoothsailor
 Posts: 100 Location: New York |
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I read the first volume and thought the same! The translation choice of keeping "okaasan" was really weird and kind of jarring, but otherwise this was a good read. To me, it seemed more like Mii was trying too hard to protect Shoko, and that's what made her spoiler[switch places with Shoko and give her the power of the gold cloth.] As a concept, I really like the idea of the main character (Shoko here) being told by everyone about her fate and when it's finally time for the big moment, spoiler[it's reversed]... Come to think of it, isn't that the premise of Harry Potter? LOL. Besides that I really like some of the art with scenes like Eris's followers using the powers of plants and the metaphorical imagery with the apple and snakes, which also felt kind of biblical in reference?
I already bought volume 2 so I'm looking forward to more  [/spoiler]
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2668 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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That's a good thought, my brain didn't even go there! Probably because my Orthodox uncle spent so much time reminding me that in the early Hebrew Bibles he's worked with the fruit from the Adam and Eve story is closer to a fig or a date than an apple.  But I think that's a valid addition to the mythological references in the imagery - at the very least the snakes could relate back to Medusa.
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Sailor Sedna
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I've only read the first book and am trying to get the second (same thing with Unmagical Girl, I'm starting to get more into Seven Seas' manga releases). The "okaasan" term never bothered me oddly, and I still found it very good and enjoyable (and I can still imagine Keiko Han's voice when I read Saori's lines). I wonder what kind of training Shoko's gonna go through, and considering the Saints had to go through really brutal training before they got their Cloths, I wonder if the Saintia have to go through similarly brutal or less brutal training...
And I agree, I never noticed the whole thing with the references to the Bible there, that's a thing I like in shows/stories, when they use different references to mythology/religions. I hope the Saintia Sho anime is good/great also (some people were complaining about them using Shingo Araki's art style, but I think both art styles in the manga/anime designs are good in their own way), considering how Toei Animation's recent anime have been very hit or miss lately, Sailor Moon Crystal starting off as a huge anathema before improving to only fairly decent/mediocre, Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold was alright from what I saw of it despite very inconsistent and poor art/animation for the characters, Mazinger Z: Infinity was great with excellent art and animation, a solid story and made me a new fan of that franchise, and from what I've read on comments, Cutey Honey Universe has been another failure and on par with Crystal's first two seasons. I really hope this anime version of Saintia Sho doesn't end up being a flop and once again destroy any possibility of Saint Seiya being popular in North America once again... |
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Eigengrau
 Posts: 107 Location: Belgium |
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Just one remark: Saintia Sho doesn't start right after the original series, as the review states, but just before it. it's one of those things like some of the Gundam OAVs, where it's neither a sequel or a prequel, but plays out at the same time as the original, just on another battlefront.
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2712 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Despite a couple of gaffes or misunderstandings from Rebecca (as mentioned, this isn't a "sequel", but rather it's a parallel storyline; also, Saints were never "required" to be male, as there are female Saints, though they need to wear masks, due to ancient tradition), this is a great review, and I fully agree that Saintia Sho is a perfect place for both old fans & newcomers to get into & meet. The prologue did admittedly run a bit long, but it looks like we'll now move on to the "main storyline", which apparently takes place after the Sanctuary Chapter of the original manga, whereas this intro takes place at the start of the original story.
I also agree that the translation is a bit too obsessed with Japanese, as there is no real need for "okaasan" to be used, instead of "Mother", and "Athena-sama" is a bit rough, due to the Saints being heavily multicutural & worldwide in nature, so "Lady Athena" would have been better, in my opinion. Finally, I've never seen any translation ever use "Monoceros" for Jabu, which is odd. Sure, looking it up, I get that the constellation is technically Monoceros, but is it really hard for the translator to keep some sort of continuity that's been around for the past 15 years (in official English translations), and simply call him Unicorn Jabu? Still, all that aside, I am desperately hoping that Saintia Sho does well for Seven Seas, and can result in the company being willing to give more Masami Kurumada manga a chance, and not simply more Saint Seiya. As much as I do love this franchise, there is so much more to the man than just Seiya, and a lot of it is honestly shorter, i.e. less risky in terms of costs, and just as interesting. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2668 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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That's totally my misunderstanding on the first one, and I apologize for it. The male saints thing is actually in this manga - in volume one, Shoko is told that women had to change themselves to be saints. I was a bit leery, but I read the original manga a long time ago in French, so I went with what was on the page here. (Which doesn't mean that I didn't somehow misunderstand something.) Anyway, I'm glad so many people are enjoying this! The upcoming anime was something I was only mildly interested in before, but now I'm really excited for it! |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3137 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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Cutie Honey Universe was not a Toei show, that was done at Production Reed and despite it's issues was probably for the best because Toei wouldn't have done a better job. Soul of Gold was Toei but was also a co-production that had it mostly done at studio Bridge who was never known for good animation (see Fairy Tail 2014).
Saint Seiya will never be popular in North America no matter how good Saintia Sho might be, we only got lucky with this manga getting picked up after the original and anime adaptations (including the movies and Lost Canvas) flopped not once but twice here and I expect the Netflix reboot will fail too, especially since it's a CG series. |
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elior1
Posts: 134 |
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[Deleted off topic post]
Stop spamming all our talkback threads with your request for us to write an article about something unrelated to the article. If you want to ask us to write an article for something you think we've overlooked, please email us at newsroom[at]animenewsnetwork[dot]com. -Managing Editor Crystalyn Hodgkins |
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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So excited to hear about this! I just might pick it up!
I'm surprised that Seven Seas licensed it, though--Saint Seiya was a Shonen Jump title. I wonder why a Saint Seiya spinoff isn't under Shueisha/Viz's umbrella? At any rate, I'm excited for that anime adaptation too. I'm always jonesing for a new Pegasus Fantasy cover.spoiler[In Spanish. ]
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2712 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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It's essentially "We're not against having female Saints, but they have to effectively throw away their identity as females in order to be Saints," hence why female Saints, like Seiya's teacher Aquila Marin or fan-favorite Ophiucus Shaina, wear face masks 99% of the time. The only successive rule is that if a female Saint's face is seen by a male, then she must either kill him or fall in love with him... Ah, aren't ancient decrees silly?
Saint Seiya was published in Jump, but no other Seiya manga is published in that magazine, or even by Shueisha, for that matter. Saintia Sho, Lost Canvas, Episode.G, & Next Dimension are all published by Akita Shoten & run in its Champion series of magazines (Shonen, Red, Cross, etc.). In fact, the only Kurumada manga that's currently being published by Shueisha is Otoko Zaka's recent content. |
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Sailor Sedna
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@NJ_
Oh, I see about the Cutey Honey Universe one, my bad (Toei could have found a way to screw it up, yes). 
Damn, and I remember hearing Discotek say if the selling of the original Sanctuary series failed they wouldn't continue to license it (I think it partially failed because of the bad subtitles though). Oh well, one can only dream... 
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2919 |
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not yoru fault at all, the publicity material kept on hammering that (wrong) point. My favorite part of this is that, by going in parallel it revisitsand fixes some of the plotholes the original series has, like, really minor spoiler next, spoiler[of ocurse the virgo saint is not fooled by the partriach, neither he fails to recognize athena, he just thinks (accorfding to this series) that if athena can't even fix the domestic problems by herself, there's no point to have her be athena for twhat's next] as a saint seiya fan,I found that to be very enjoyable and going well above the "saint seiya with chicks" first impression it might give. |
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NJ_
Posts: 3137 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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First off, that botched Sanctuary release wasn't Discotek's doing, it was by New Video/Cinedigm, the same company who released the Digimon dubs on DVD (except Tri which is Toei/Shout), re-released the Zatch Bell dub after Viz lost the rights, released Mononoke subbed (and was almost an improvement compared to Seiya except the last 2 episodes were screwed up) and for some boneheaded reason, re-released the Slam Dunk dub that was never finished. The screwed up subs on the Sanctuary DVD set was all on that company and they never fixed them except on the online streams. The set Discotek was referring to was Lost Canvas and because that set didn't sell (like the movies didn't for them), they're done with Saint Seiya. |
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Sailor Sedna
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@NJ_
You're right, I forgot again (I rewatched parts of the original on Crunchyroll and forgot about the Cinedigm logo:?)... |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I think TOEI will do a good anime adaption for this because it has become pretty obvious they do good anime when they are excited about the project and/or the project has potential for being updated/improved and IMO this manga has both.
Also, since you do not need prior knowledge to enjoy it, an anime has the possibility of becoming popular since (like the original sailor moon) it has a broad demographic appeal. But the chances are slim because each season keeps pumping so much good material that something that would have made waves 20 years ago nowadays doesn't even register in the radar. |
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