Saint Seiya: Tenkai-hen josô - Overture (2004)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Shigeyasu Yamauchi

Writers:

Masami Kurumada (comic)
Masami Kurumada (story)

Release Date:

14 February 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation

Plot Keywords:

Manga | Based On Comic | Character Name In Title

Cast

Tôru Furuya	...	Pegasus Seiya (voice)
Hirotaka Suzuoki	...	Dragon Shiryû (voice)
Kôichi Hashimoto	...	Cygnus Hyôga (voice)
Ryô Horikawa	...	Andromeda Shun (voice)
Hideyuki Hori	...	Phoenix Ikki (voice)
Keiko Han	...	Athena (Saori) (voice)
Hikaru Midorikawa	...	Tôma (Ikaros) (voice)
Fumiko Inoue	...	Yôshô Tôma (voice)
Yuriko Yamamoto	...	Marin (voice)
Mami Koyama	...	Shaina (voice)
Masaya Onosaka	...	Ichi (voice)
Hideo Ishikawa	...	Jabu (voice)
Nobuo Tobita	...	Sion (voice)
Ken'yû Horiuchi	...	Dôko (voice)
Yurika Hino	...	Artemis (voice)

Runtime:

Japan:115 min (theatrical version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | Japanese

Color:

Color

Company:

Toei Animation Company

Movie Connections:

Followed by "Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Inferno" (2005)

More of the same

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Athena's knights are back for one more battle against the gods. This time is Artemis and her angels that threaten the Earth... OK... I'm a fan of the series, but still i'm amazed at the total lack of originality of this movie.

Everything is the same as the previous movies, and the series. A god wants to destroy the Earth, Athena is in danger and only the Saints can same humanity, bla bla bla. The Saints led by Seiya have to defeat several enemies, that interestingly never attack in group(to get their asses kicked more easily, I imagine), and save Athena before she bleeds to death.

The problem is that nothing in the movie holds the viewer attention.

The more annoying thing is the constant rattling of the Saints about their total devotion to Athena and the fact that they would they gladly die for her. Pratically every dialog focus on this, and it's 1h30m of film! Instead of grabbing a chance to make a movie with a different approach to the Saint Seya universe, instead we get exactly the same message of the previous movies and the series. Why bother making this then?? Another low point is the battles. Althougt the fights are very well choreographed and the movements of the characters are very fluid, there is no suspense about the outcome. The Saints take a tremendous amount of punishment, and then some, but there is no doubt that they will win in the end, normally with only one hit on the opponent. So all the fights don't make much of an impression, instead the Saints being a punching bag for 90% of the duration of the battles.

On the plus side we have an excellent animation with a good attention to detail and a very good atmosphere, particularly the way water is shown through the movie.

Only recommended for hardcore fans.