[Anime] Saint Seiya Omega: New Cloth - Discussion Thread

[Aoi Kurenai]

New year, new thread! The Mars arc is over and the saints are now joined by Subaru, a young Steel Saint as they fight against Pallas, an ancient enemy of Athena.

 

[Eldar]

I'm sure all those who missed the boxes and more clunky armor will be happy. But I thought this was a really downgrade from what Omega did well. There wasn't many good character moments and little reflection about the events from last season. Just Kouga being angsty and OOC while refusing to fight.

Really bad first episode and way too much time spent advertising the new merchandising tie-ins.

 

[Galaxian]

Haven't watched the episode yet, but I loved the new opening.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-V1MdCNGqo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-V1MdCNGqo[/ame]

 

[Blaze Dragon]

I'm sure all those who missed the boxes and more clunky armor will be happy. But I thought this was a really downgrade from what Omega did well. There wasn't many good character moments and little reflection about the events from last season. Just Kouga being angsty and OOC while refusing to fight.

Really bad first episode and way too much time spent advertising the new merchandising tie-ins.

It's okay, it's the first episode. I'm sure we'll get more character moments once the new Cloths are properly introduced. By itself, next episode apparently will be about Souma (whose Cloth still hasn't changed, I guess it will during the episode).

I watched it but since I don't understand Japanese very well I can't really say much (I just found it by mistake and said why not?), but I can say that the new opening is really good. Definitely a step up from Next Generation. The art also looks somewhat better. Kouga looked more mature. Might've just been me, though.

I've said it before, but I really like the new Cloths. Going back to the good ol' style in which armour was armour is definitely something I can agree with. Hell, even the Ryuseiken was far closer to the original version (a physical attack with multiple high speed blows) than the Omega version (a bunch of beams of light).

I hate Subaru so much even though I skipped his scenes entirely. The opening basically puts him as the second lead...when we already have a cast of characters we grew to love, and ANOTHER set of characters that we loved far before this series even existed. Instead, fucking Steel Saint. At least his Cloth seemed pretty damn weak against that...err...Parasite? That's a pretty weird name. I guess it's a pun on Pallas but...

Talking about the opening, apart from being really damn good, again we got an entirely fake one. All of the scenes were from either this episode or previous ones, sans for the beginning (until the title card) and the end (Kouga vs Subaru, pose). I guess we'll get the opening proper next episode, just like with Next Dimension.

Also Kiki used Starlight Extintion. I can't say anything more. Kiki, keep rocking. He seemed to be saying some pretty badass things too...not like I understood him, other than "here's all the Cloths of dead people, lots of Saints died", and somehow the Gemini Cloth isn't there. Pretty weird. We'll see what it means later, I guess. Either Paradox changed sides, or we're getting another Kanon. Honestly, I'd like Aquarius and Libra to go to Hyoga and Shiryu now that they can fight, but Saori's future vision thing showed both with their Cygnus and Dragon Cloths (though the latter in its Hades arc design, huh...)...while Ryuho also has the Dragon Cloth...

...Somehow I only noticed this now. Now THAT'S interesting. I seriously doubt it's a mistake, so now I'm looking forward to what will happen. Having a team up between the new Saints, the legend Saints and the new Gold Saints would be a pretty great thing for the arc. Have Seiya and the others do something now! Show us more of Kiki and Harbinger, I love those guys. And I guess Fudo and Genbu too, but...I don't care much about them. Oh well.

Also Kouga's Pegasus Cloth shows its wings in the opening. That's also pretty interesting. We already knew the Pegasus Cloth had that ability, but...I wonder what it means for it to show up again.

 

[kuroihikari]

Was there any particular reason why they brought back the idea of Steel Saints? They were already an annoyance in the original series and seemed to be shoehorned in.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Really bad first episode and way too much time spent advertising the new merchandising tie-ins.

Just how much merchandising does this show actually have? I know there were hardly any traditional toys released for the series in its first year and only a couple of branded items. The biggest item I can think of is the Koga Figuarts, which obviously isn't targeting kids.

 

[Blaze Dragon]

Was there any particular reason why they brought back the idea of Steel Saints? They were already an annoyance in the original series and seemed to be shoehorned in.

Selling toys, what else. Probably a reference to the original series for the older fans, too...but I guess they didn't quite get that said older fans, me included, absolutely hated the Steel Saints.

 

[Eldar]

Kiki using Starlight Extinction was great callback to the original.

I hate Subaru so much even though I skipped his scenes entirely. The opening basically puts him as the second lead...when we already have a cast of characters we grew to love, and ANOTHER set of characters that we loved far before this series even existed. Instead, fucking Steel Saint. At least his Cloth seemed pretty damn weak against that...err...Parasite? That's a pretty weird name. I guess it's a pun on Pallas but...

It's a double pun. Parasite, but also Pallasite, which is a type of meteor.

But I agree about Subaru. I dislike him. I just hope he turns out to be a secret villain, but giving he is selling the new steel cloth, I don't see a villainous turn happening.

Just how much merchandising does this show actually have? I know there were hardly any traditional toys released for the series in its first year and only a couple of branded items. The biggest item I can think of is the Koga Figuarts, which obviously isn't targeting kids.

The overhaul in designs suggest probably figures and totems for all 7 main characters.

Was there any particular reason why they brought back the idea of Steel Saints? They were already an annoyance in the original series and seemed to be shoehorned in.

Toys and more kid appeal character to induce more purchasing of merchandise.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

There haven't been any toy catalogs released for this show yet, so I'd imagine we're still not going to see a typical figure line or anything more than what we got from the very start.

I've heard the theory that this show was produced solely so Toei could sell it to other countries, it would make sense to have power ups so they can be marketed as new toys in any other countries that might produce their own toylines.

 

[Eldar]

There haven't been any toy catalogs released for this show yet, so I'd imagine we're still not going to see a typical figure line or anything more than what we got from the very start.

I've heard the theory that this show was produced solely so Toei could sell it to other countries, it would make sense to have power ups so they can be marketed as new toys in any other countries that might produce their own toylines.

That doesn't make sense.

Why introduce a Steel Saint if you are not going to sell toys to kids domestically? The people in Europe and South America who would buy the merchandise dislike Steel Saints.

Or why even redesign the clothes if you aren't going to do toys? Given their schedule right now that they haven't even finished their new opening, redoing their animation bank and creating new transformation and attack sequences for all seven characters is going to take up even more time.

I can understand how season 1 was mostly intended to be ported overseas. But season 2 is written way too much like a giant domestic advertising commercial.