Saint Seiya Saintia Sho is my new nostalgia-fueled pleasure

In the early 90s, I remember fondly that my brother's bed had Gold Saints stickers on its frame, and back then, I always wondered what those were as they sure looked cool as hell. It wasn't till later with the arrival of the internet that I started getting familiar with the series by visiting badly made yet informative Angelfire blogs about the show.  But let me you on a secret, believe it or not, I'm neither European nor Latin-American making me the odd Saint Seiya fan. Just go to any Saint Seiya video on YouTube and I guarantee you that it's filled with Spanish comments. 

Every-time there's a new Saint Seiya anime out in the horizon, I get excited for it even though it may disappoint many anime fans with a poor script or animation, but that doesn't prevent me from eating them all up just for nostalgia's sake. I watched every episode of Saint Seiya Omega, and frankly, it made for a very uneven experience with good highs, and absolutely terrible lows. I still stuck to it to the end, because hey, it's Saint Seiya!

Or Saint Jabu? 

But so far, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho delivers what I sort of expect from the franchise, although I can already anticipate the list of complaints from the anime community coming in already. "Why did they change the manga's art style to this faux Araki-esque style for the anime?" would be one of those.  The answer is simply nostalgia, a powerful drug that defies all adversity. 

Live action fan movie by an Italian director who's clearly way too much into Saint Seiya

Shingo Araki was the original character designer of the original Saint Seiya anime who had a particular talent in updating the "not quite there" but charming manga art styles of many manga artists of the 70s and 80s and in Saint Seiya's case, it was that of Kurumada's who had a very rough unpolished style that didn't quite lend itself well to animation.

Some examples of Araki's work

I wouldn't have minded at all if they actually went with Chimaki Kuori's more modern manga style, but I don't mind at all with what we got instead. If I made my peace on the art style choice, the anime certainly hasn't as it teases the viewer in the eye catch of every episode released so far. It's as if the staff weren't sure they made the right choice but now had to justify themselves to the fans of the original manga. "Look! We colorised the manga's art style, don't hate us!"

Episode 1 Eye Catch

Episode 2 Eye Catch

I must admit there's a downside with choosing that faux style. The male characters seem to benefit the most as they all look rather handsome in it, but some of the female characters just look like freaky dolls in comparison. Araki's impersonator doesn't seem to be doing a too good of a job on some of these characters, notably Athena. She looked pretty in all of the Saint Seiya anime despite the different art styles, but here, there's just something horribly off about the proportions.

Here's how she looks like in the original Araki design. Quite a difference, isn't it?

Onto the actual content, the story of Saintia Sho is typical Saint Seiya nonsense that probably breaks Saint Seiya canon in several ways, as did Omega, but no one seems to care because Saint Seiya is the kind of series that rely more on emotional appeal than cold facts and logic. For one, Saintias are basically the female maids of Athena turned into warriors and yet they were never mentioned even once in the original Saint Seiya anime or manga. Furthermore, isn't it the role of the Saints already to protect Athena? Why does she need Saintias now? Isn't Jabu enough? Also, If the author wanted to make a manga about the female characters of Saint Seiya, why invent this entirely new class of female warriors when she could have already contented herself with actual female saints such as Marin and Shaina? I know she probably had a legit reason to do this, but that decision escapes me. 

But if there's one thing it does right, is that it's not Ghostbusters (2016). The story takes place in parallel to the main events of the Saint Seiya series, and therefore doesn't erase any parts of the lore, but at the same time, I wished Saintia Sho happened well after the main events, that could have possibly filled the huge time gap left between the OG Saint Seiya and Saint Seiya Omega. I've read 10 volumes of the manga to know I'm not a fan of it, but animation's a different medium, and seeing Saintias in action should make up for a more thrilling experience. There is a rumour floating around that says that the show's only going to be 10 episodes long, and that means that not all of the source material will be adapted, but if that also means higher quality production values, I think I can take the deal, since I don't think I'm ready for another 97 episodes Omega experience. Overall, this series should keep my attention every week, but don't expect me to treat it more than just a short trip back in time.

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