Seinto Seiya: Meiô Hâdesu jûnikyû-hen

There is little to say, here we reach very high peaks: the original Saint Seiya series from 1986, which for me remains one of the best anime ever conceived, is continued by this one, with modernized and beautiful designs, an exciting story full of shocks of a scene that revolves, at least at the beginning, around the Gold Saints, and a direction that would be the envy of the best anime.

You just have to sit back and enjoy it, but only after having seen the original series, otherwise you won't be able to fully enjoy the many facets of the many characters present, and also the avalanche of emotions that this anime offers.

The Sanctuary phase is really beaultifully animated, amazing soundtrack, story, voice acting, all top notch. Then comes the Hell and Elysium phase with it's almost mute soundtrack, static animation and terrible effects and leaves the viewer with a bitter taste. Shingo Araki was dearly missed in this time, and still is.

After the conclusion of the battle against the God Poseidon, the seal that imprisoned the Lord of the Underworld (Hades) disappears, awakening Athena's ancient enemy from sleep together with his 108 Specter warriors: thus begins the new sacred war.

The sanctuary of the twelve houses is attacked by those who turn out to be the deceased golden knights returned to life thanks to Hades wearing his armor, the Surplici, with the intention of killing the goddess Athena, under Pandora's order, before the twelve hours of life granted to them. Thus begins an adventurous climb of the twelve houses which will see a succession of spectacular fights, powerful techniques and events with very beautiful dialogues, extraordinary music and evocative scenography.

A "Hades" saga created with remarkable direction, beautiful drawings by Shingo Araki, a spectacular plot created by Masami Kurumada and wonderful music.

But hey, Hack Masami Kurumada finally saw the ending part of his "great" manga (that even manga lovers, not me who I can't stand them, laugh at it for its crappy quality) being "animated" with awfully drawn landscapes that not only look like they were drawn by toddlers but they're worst than backgrounds in series made by this same company in the friggin' 60's, even worst CGI animation that would make blush a windows 95 savescreen for its stiffness and total and complete boredom that I NEVER experienced once during ALL the original series runtime, even during the weakest of episodes on offer (meaning the retcon before the twelve houses saga). Really, the hard truth is that Saint Seiya, as a franchise, started and ended with the 1986 animated series, nothing else matters and nothing will ever matter period. Oh and congratulation to the most embarazzing of intros ever, the ridicolously effeminate two-minutes intro before the classic Pegasus Fantasy song rolls on, that was genius. Avoid this and The Lost Canvas at all costs.

This chapter is very good in story, art, fights and characters, the soundtrack is intense, emotional and amazing. I think the only critic I have is that some characters who are introduced as important end up being ignored or just abandoned, having a poor closing and a poor development: in fact, I think that these characters either shouldn't be used or if used, used properly, it feels like they're there just because they have to appear in the show, their actions are forgettable and their relevance to the story is very poor. By the other hands, the main characters get the attention, development and the respect they deserve. I really wish I had more of some characters.