Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth

Not much to say. I love the movie.

If you haven't seen Saint Seiya, then off course u'll find this movie annoying and will make no sense at all.

But if you have seen the series (at least till Seiya and his friends come back from Asgard) this movie will touch you forever.

Following the line of the sagas, and just using couple of characters from the anime Shigeyasu Yamauchi makes this art piece from nowhere, which by the way, every time i see it, i have a flashback to my childhood...

Sweet times, beautiful times and a beautiful movie.

Yeah, the plot is recycled from the series and the gold saint don't last long, but who cares? This is not a franchise you like because of its non--linear, audacious storytelling anyway. The single dream sequence with Aphrodite Pisces telling one of the most poetic lines out of all the Saint Seiya franchise is alone worthy of the ride. If you don't have the patience to appreciate this samurai/warrior poet version of the character because you can't envision anything other than punching punching punching from your bog-standard battle shonen, move along and drool over the fake pisces Albafica from the Lost Canvas and leave the guy to us his fans who understand and love him for what he truly is.

This is the only Saint Seiya movie I've watched so far. It's basically the classic "Saori/Athena is the damsel in distress, race against time" plot condensed in a single movie. Fights that would usually last at least two episodes only last five minutes in this movie.

What sparked my interest in this movie, and I bet there are other fans who felt the same, was the return of the dead gold saints. Will they fight different opponents? Will they have their revenge against the bronze saints who killed them? My interest was crushed during the movie. Shura and Camus have almost cameo-like appearances. Deathmask looks more like the kind of villain I expect to see in American cartoons.

Aphrodite actually shows he learned with his death and was quite ready for Shun. Unfortunately, just like in the Hades saga, Aphrodite is demoted from one of the strongest gold saints to a second class villain.

I would recommend this movie to Gemini Saga's fans, however. Nevertheless, it seems that these five saints were put in the movie simply to make people watch it.

What annoys me the most is this: if you watched the Poseidon saga, the last 20 minutes of the movie will be boring for you. In fact, they will make you feel like you wasted your time by watching it.

Some positives. The animation is clearly better than in the series. Very good acting from Taichirô Hirokawa, Keiko Han and Tôru Furuya (although I bet he didn't like saying "Saori-San!" so many times). Overall, you can live without this movie. And maybe you should watch this before the Poseidon saga. At least you'll have Shaina in the series to make it better.

Saint Seiya is one of the most beloved animes for people who grew in the 80s-90s. The series is inspired in the famous Masami Kurumada's manga "Saint Seiya" (Knights of the zodiac)

If you appreciate Japanese animes, specially the 80s ones, this movie will definitely make it for you.

It has great character design, great animation, great storytelling and mostly the music. Seiji Yokoyama's compositions are at his prime in this movie. Just take a listen of every single song of every scene of the movie and you will understand what I'm telling you about.

I have watched it every single time I get a chance and enjoyed every single minute.

A must see.

(You need to see the Saint Seiya series to get this movie, if not, take a pass).