Yes, I also do love Anime. We have a pretty big love for anime here, I haven’t posted much because of my focus on games and the beginning of the site…fighting games are a demanding mistress. Regardless, we all have our first anime. The one that gets us into this fantastic hobby. As I was growing up, Saint Seiya was that one for me. I’ve always loved it, and still do. Imagine my joy/reservation when a follow-up series, Saint Seiya Omega was announced. The series continues? It happens in the distant future? The original creator is not involved? Such suspense. The first episode just came out, how did it do?
The legend of the Saints is a simple one. Whenever evil threatens the earth, Saints will appear to protect it. One day I will give a much more detailed recollection on this series, for now, let’s focus on this new iteration. Saint Seiya Omega takes place 25 years after the Holy Wars of the 20th century that the original five Saints were involved in. During this time, Athena is still on Earth, and Seiya is revered as a legendary Saint. A new threat is on the horizon, so a new group of Saints must rise to take it on. It’s still too early to tell what else has happened since the last Holy War.
From the beginning, it tries to get the old viewers like myself to feel nostalgia. Seiya is seen defending Athena from Mars, the newest threat to the Earth. From here, we go straight to the intro. The intro song is a remix of “Pegasus Fantasy”, the intro song to the first season of Saint Seiya. It has a bit more of a Rock feel to it, I like it. From there, we go to the teenager, Kouga, who is destined to be the next Pegasus Saint. He seems like a whiny little brat who’s complaining about his fate and not being able to pick it…hmmm, think I’ve seen this before…He is being trained by Shaina, one of the main female Saints from the original series. Even his training is a nod to the old series, as vets like myself will catch many little homages to the original series, including a lot of the themes, which are remixes from Season 1. The episode ends when Athena is attacked by Mars, and Kouga burns his cosmo in desperation, donning the Pegasus Cloth for the first time.
Just by looking at the intro a few times over(at least six by my count), you can see the remainder of the team, which includes five more Saints. It seems only the Dragon Cloth makes a return, as all the rest are different Bronze Cloths from the original five. You can see they took inspiration from the original five, my current favorite is the Orion Saint, who seems to have a mean streak reminiscent of my favorite Bronze Saint, Fenix Ikki. He’s also the oldest of the group apparently…hmmm…coincidence?
The production values are pretty high. The art style is a bit brighter than the original series, and the characters seem more upbeat, definitely focusing on the fact that this is a younger, new generation. It’s way too early for me to pass judgement on this series, but so far, it has me interested. I really want to see how the old cast is represented, and how they help usher these young Saints into a new era with the Goddess Athena. I will keep you all posted on how the series progresses. For now, keep an eye on it, I think it can really be great if they do it right.