[Anime] Saint Seiya Omega - Talk Up!

[Eldar]

And Yuna gets two whole episodes. She really is the main character.

 

[Galaxian]

Virgo Fudou, voiced by Tomokazu Seki (Domon from G Gundam, Gilgamesh from Fate, and the Mobirates in Gokaiger)

 

[Inui Takumi]

Anybody else feel that the show has sort of run out of steam after the 12 levels were introduced? I hear its the same in the original series, but it just seems like meaningless battles nowadays. They look cool but you lose sight of the goal very early on and just focus on them getting to the top. If it ends like this, I think the show will end up having a slow start, a very strong middle, but a lackluster finish. I hope im wrong though.

 

[Galaxian]

Ratings seems to agree with you. The series' average has dropped during the second half.

However, as someone who lived through the original 12 Temples arc, I'm loving this season a lot more than the first one. Except for the two Cancer episodes, I have liked everything in this arc. That's just my opinion as a long time fan of the series.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Nothing about this series feels personal anymore. Like Inui said, it started off pretty slow, but once it found its footing, it became a show you could marathon and not get enough of watching. At least that was the case with me. The moment the new Gold Saint stuff started, I knew we were in for trouble. It's true that it isn't nearly as bad as what happened in the original story, but it's still pretty bad. With a series running for, what's looking likely to be a year, reserving almost the entirety of the second half for these fights just isn't good.

When I watch the episodes in this second arc, they just sort of play along. I don't care about anything going on screen and the only episodes I've really enjoyed since the start have been Yuna's stuff and the recent Eden-heavy episode. Well, I enjoyed the Ryuho episodes, probably not for the reason anyone making the show intended. Even the sudden turn involving Kouga having a dark cosmos just doesn't pique my interests at all. The Gold Saints have these interesting personalities, yeah, but the show itself underplays them. I think my greatest issue with the show as it stands is that it's so formulaic, even when it tries to break out of it, you can tell the show is constrained by the formula. My greatest fear is that the 12 hours plays out in real time. That's not to say there wasn't a formula before this arc, but it was one that allowed for a story that flows naturally.

 

[Rider Kick]

I've been through the original Gold Saint arc and I gotta say this one just pales in comparison to the original. The original GSA was bloody and those fights nearly killed or did end up killing one side or the other. This new GSA is kinda sad because its more like they just wanna show the Golds a life lesson and then they get a free ride to the next level. And were in gods name is Ikki?! Seriously! There have been several episodes now(Mostly Eden related) where his appearance would have made complete sense to help push along the story like the other original bronzes.

 

[Lynxara]

I've been through the original Gold Saint arc and I gotta say this one just pales in comparison to the original.

One thing to remember about the original is that the story was written for manga format. And not just any manga format, but Weekly Shounen Jump. In that format, especially given Jump's loose content standards at the time, the long intricate battles can be acceptable as a showcase for the mangaka's strengths. For instance, Kurumada's anatomy is fairly bad, but he could come up with pretty good fight choreography, his layouts were strong, and his backgrounds were great. The Gold Saint arc played to his strengths pretty well.

The problem with Saint Seiya Omega is that due to its early morning kid show budget, it's just never been a show where the fights looked more than passable. So the high points of the series tend to be more plot or character-driven stuff, that can be written around the limited animation. If you decide to spend half a year on characters punching each other, though? Well, it's... going to really lampshade the show's shortcomings. I'm sure the life lesson thing is an attempt to work in more character stuff, which ought to play to the show's strengths, but it's still stuck with the "long, slow intricate battle" format.

 

[Galaxian]

I've been through the original Gold Saint arc and I gotta say this one just pales in comparison to the original. The original GSA was bloody and those fights nearly killed or did end up killing one side or the other. This new GSA is kinda sad because its more like they just wanna show the Golds a life lesson and then they get a free ride to the next level. And were in gods name is Ikki?! Seriously! There have been several episodes now(Mostly Eden related) where his appearance would have made complete sense to help push along the story like the other original bronzes.

Actually... the Omega Bronze Saints have done more than the original one.

-Aries Temple: There were both allowed to pass.
-Taurus Temple: After fighting the Taurus Saint they were able to convince him to allow them to fight.
-Gemini Temple: In the original Gemini was absent so the wander in the illusion he left there until Andromeda breaks it (with help). On the other hand, they actually beat Gemini in Omega.
-Cancer Temple: The Cancer Saint was killed in both.
-Leo Temple: In the original they fight until a minor supporting character sacrifices himself to break Leo free of his mind control and then he lets them pass (he even heals Seiya). On Omega they fight until they they convince Leo to let them pass.

So while the mortality rate was higher in the original (by one), the Omega Bronze Saint have actually done better.

Now they're in Virgo which follows too closely the original. Virgo pwns Bronze Saints: Check, tsundere character arrives to save the day: Check. If Eden manages to beat Fudou without blowing himself up he would have done better than Ikki.

 

[Lynxara]

Actually... the Omega Bronze Saints have done more than the original one.

To be honest, this is also probably putting off people who dislike this arc. The original Gold Saints arc worked despite the ropey premise, at least in part, because of the tone it managed to set and consistently maintain. The Gold Saints arc is the first real "holy ****" moment of Saint Seiya, where the characters are in an unbelievably terrible position. The series has carefully built up the ungodly high power levels of the Gold Saints at that point, and it really is difficult to imagine how on Earth the Bronze Saints are going to survive when the arc begins.

In Omega, there's never really the same tension. The original Bronze Saints have come to bail them out too many times, including Seiya, and we've seen too many explosions of super-ultimate miracle ass-saving power from damn near every member of the main team. I don't think people are in any real doubt when it comes to the Omega team's ability to pass through the Temples, they've just beaten way too many people of supposedly impossibly-high power levels. There's none of the tension and uncertainty that made the original arc work. Instead, you spend episodes just waiting for them to get done doing whatever they're going to do.

The show could write around this, but I get the feeling that the current scriptwriters are too in love with the idea of trying to duplicate the original Gold Saint arc's magic. I dunno, there might be a twist upcoming where they upend the idea that they're just redoing the Gold Saint arc's structure exactly, but I don't really expect that sort of thing from Omega. This just isn't a show that's been very good about doing unexpected things, it's been more about showing you why things happen.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I just finished watching 37 and I'm starting to think one of the biggest reasons I'm not enjoying the show too much is because the core five haven't had any real focus for some time now. It's almost as if the show wants to replace them with the Gold Saints as the main characters or something, episode after episode seems to focus on those guys and, while that's a nifty concept, I don't find any of the current Gold Saints to be interesting at all.

In Omega, there's never really the same tension. The original Bronze Saints have come to bail them out too many times, including Seiya, and we've seen too many explosions of super-ultimate miracle ass-saving power from damn near every member of the main team. I don't think people are in any real doubt when it comes to the Omega team's ability to pass through the Temples, they've just beaten way too many people of supposedly impossibly-high power levels. There's none of the tension and uncertainty that made the original arc work. Instead, you spend episodes just waiting for them to get done doing whatever they're going to do.

I think the show's being decent about having Kouga be unable to take down Eden or Mars, which might be the only two characters that matter in the eyes of the people behind the show. When it comes to Mars, I still can't fathom how any of the characters are going to be able to take him on and win. The only time they even came remotely close was when they had Aria supporting them. Beyond that, this show reminds me a little of Yu Yu Hakusho. The main characters are faced against these seemingly insurmountable odds, get beaten down so very much, and manage to win in the end. Yu Yu Hakusho always struck me as one of those Shonen Jump stories that did a great job at creating villains that actually seemed like immoveable forces of nature and had me wondering how in the world they would be defeated.