Seinto Seiya: Meiô Hâdesu jûnikyû-hen

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.

Since the first installment of this series, this anime grew so big and big that it is now a global phenomenon (even if this part is only video available OVA). For this new season the plot improved in every way and it became extremely good, now you have plot twists and sub-plots.

I really like the first seasons but this is a much more serious work and you can tell it because it evolved in many aspects like animation, dialog, action sequences and even characters (well that was sort of expected since this part came out more than 15 years from the release of the last one). It is now an adventure tale with epic proportions which is a little less focused in the five main characters. Like it's predecessor it has many errors and contradictions but its improvements totally make it up. The only part I enjoyed less was the second half, since creator Kurumada hired a new production crew and the animation gets hurt a bit. Still is one of the best anime out there and everyone should take a look on this.

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.

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.