I cavalieri dello zodiaco: Saint Seiya - The Lost Canvas

I'm a big fan of the original Saint Seiya anime from the 80s as well as the 2000s Hades arc. This story is a solid addition to the legacy. Like the Hades arc, it's more modern than the original, but what sets it apart is the superior characterization. Characters here are deeper and more complex; I found myself caring about even those who appeared only briefly. My favorites, as with before, are the gold saints. Here they bear resemblance to their 20th century incarnations, nearly everyone more fleshed out, but there will be some pleasant surprises. For example, I was glad to see a dignified Cancer, while the Pisces saint is beyond cool.

One of the problems with SS was it started getting repetitive after a while. I'm happy to say not so with this story. It does draw many parallels to Kurumada's SS, making old fans feel warm and fuzzy. Yet, the story here is refreshing and unpredictable. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for all 26 episodes.

The 2 minor imperfections are one, the series ends before the manga, leaving you hungry for more, and two, it does get just a little repetitive and formulaic with the way gold saints are introduced and their fate. All things considered, the solid story and execution are quite possibly the best we've seen in SS thus far.

The best successor to the Saint Seiya myth. This is an OVA series.

Incredible graphics and animation. A beautiful soundtrack. The series remains dynamic with no downtime and a plot that unfolds with each episode.

I can't help but draw a parallel with the Netflix series Knights of the Zodiac, one of the worst series on this theme ever made.

The story fits perfectly with the rest of the mythology.

Ambitious animation that would have deserved a sequel.

This series only covers 1/3 of the original manga, which was unfortunately halted by studio TMS Entertainment for lack of revenue.

What a shame! Proof that money doesn't always go hand in hand with art!

And with that I mean one specific aspect: the fact that this series is clearly an attempt to give to the fans of the original '80 Toei classic a copious amount of fanservice by showing the version they wanted of certain characters...without understanding practically nothing of them, or at least what made them interesting to their fans in the first place. The absolute main offender being Albafica of pisces, who is what the non-fans of the poet warrior Aphrodite Pisces from Saint Seiya and the Youth of The Crimson Blood movie wanted without understanding what made him compelling to me and other people to begin with. Other gold cloths are not treated differently, in particular the other favourite of mine Virgo, and there are also copious amounts of continuity errors such as athena female saints removing their masks because reasens. On a side note, the OST is barely fit for a Saint Seiya product IMHO, reeking too much of bog-standard medieval fantasy tones and not enough of greek-inspired tunes. Better than the snooze-inducing, CGI infested Hades Chapter because of its fluid animation but still not really worthy of appreciation overall.

The anime is not finished due to cancellation. It has a really good plot, animation, OST, characters and art work; but it all went away when they didn't finish the anime

It's such a shame that TMS didn't continue this series because the art and animation was captivating. The fights were so fun to watch and this anime kept me on the edge of my seat. I also read the manga. I wish the anime was continued so we can see epic fights between the saints like Regulus and Radamanthys.