My Netflix’s Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac Review
As a warning, I grew up watching Knights of the Zodiac [with Bowling for Soup’s ‘I Ran’ as the theme song and it still is a fucking bop] on YTV and when I was older I watched and read Saint Seiya so I know all about this stuff. So I am actually rather bitter about the new Netflix version.
Pro’s: The Opening and Ending Theme’s- Actually really good? Not as good as ‘I Ran’ but still very fun.
The armour [also known as Cloth] upgrades are A+ even if they all still need to wear their proper helmets/headpieces lol
Their overall looks in the new animation are staying true to all the OG styles for each character. It does look like something from a video game cut screen, but not as annoying as I first suspected it to be. The old animation was still damn good and I will still love that style the most.
That they managed to combine the YTV version with the original Saint Seiya storylines and the name, which is appreciated.
Con’s: SHUN BEING A FUCKING GIRL! - Don’t get me wrong I am a female and I love the idea one of the Bronze Knights being a female (also why did they get rid of Shaina’s mask? There is history and reasons behind those masks!), but Shun was the was an emotional, feminine guy with long hair and didn’t want to fight [making him the opposite of the others in the show and respected in his own way by the viewers]. THAT WAS THE POINT OF HIM! By them making Shun a female [to show representation and all that, which I do get) with short hair instead of the original long hair, but literally changed nothing else about Shun [even the bullying stayed the same] thus this gender change was pointless and stupid!
Names: They are mispronouncing Shun’s name. They call Shun ‘Shawn/Shaun’, they are pronouncing the ‘A’ way too much and in the description of episode 4 or so has Shun’s name written the proper way but no one in the show is saying it right and wow I’m annoyed by that on many levels. Dragon is not known as Long in any version, it’s always been Shiryu. Swan is not Magnus [I can see them getting that from Cygnus, but that’s no excuse] he always has been Hyoga. Also, NERO instead of Ikki, are you KIDDING? Seiya’s sister wasn’t taken by Gold Knight Leo and was NOT named Patricia, in fact, the old dubbed anime they got it right. Her name is Seika. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Saint_Seiya_characters The plot: I get that they are trying to modernize it, but Vander and his army and trying to take on the Gods themselves? Add in that the Black Knights were created by him destroyed the point of the Black Knights and them being evil copies of the Bronze Knights. Just everything with Vander and his tech and army and how humans are now aware of all of this? Not how it works when it comes to the Knights and Gods, like ever! It was unneeded on many levels and now just an annoying side plot, which it will become when Sanctuary really starts to get involved. Hyoga working as an assassin from Sanctuary? The hell was that BS? Sanctuary is the BIG BAD for so long until Hades fully comes into play much later on and even when Seiya trained in Greece, he wasn’t forced to work for Sanctuary and Hyoga definitely never worked for them. (I can admit when I'm wrong and I was reminded this did happen in the manga but keep in mind I haven't read the manga in well over 10 years, but my point still stands lol) The whole Seiya has the power of Pegasus inside of him since he ever? Not how it works, they all have to train to harness those powers as they showed in the OG versions, all potential knights have that inside of them, but proper training is fully needed to bring it out. Those powers don’t just randomly appear when you’re in danger.
That’s all, I just wanted to say I was in actual pain for most of these 6 episodes and most likely will not keep watching. My childhood shows are ingrained in me and when you do them wrong, I am not impressed.
