I'm not the first Saint Seiya fan to review this, but i thought i'd give a different opinion on those i've seen.
-----Designs------ So let's start with designs. I applaud them for trying new designs for everything. The Cloths(armor) that the Saints wear have been upgraded to be more functional with a helmet that can fold down and up at will. It is a very interesting function, and i do like it. Although some of Kurumada's interesting details on the cloths are gone. Cloth boxes are now transported magically via a dog-tag that the Saints wear, which was a strange leap from the theme of "Only proper training and guts will make you strong" that was persistent in the original series. The movies tries to cater to the current younger Japanese generation, with a different kind of humor. Hence small trinkets and such are shown for some seconds in order to promote the film's merchandise.
I loved that they changed Milo into a woman however, as it did give the Goldies more variation, and Milo was a good candidate since he didn't have much personality except being stoic even in the original series.
However, several designs are designed in a very stereotypical way, such as Saga's dual colored Gemini cloth. Aldebaran, the Taurus Saint has a nose ring, etc. etc.
Environment wise it's decent until we get to the Sanctuary which has been transformed into a Chinese MMORPG setting, with stone buildings flying in the air here and there. That was just bad design in my honest opinion, and was very out of place from the ancient Greek inspired setting of the original series.
The big bad Saga transforming into a Final Fantasy boss in the end did not help things.
I love the animation however.
----Plot and characters---- So adapting something that took around 40 episodes into 90 minutes wasn't the smartest idea to begin with, hence there would be hick-ups in the plot. A smarter thing would have been to do the Galaxian Wars plot first, and then move on to the Sanctuary in a second film.
Saori's story was a nice idea, but didn't work quite properly as in the manga she already knew she was Athena before the beginning of the story.
Many, and i mean many character's stories were left out, or only had a tidbit to make a newcomer confused. It is a hard job to balance the five Bronzies, but it would have been better to focus on Athena, Saga and Seiya. The movie doesn't deliver on any of them quite well. Saga has basically no backstory to why he is evil, while in the manga his reason are elaborated much further.
----Music----- The score has it's peaks and bring a nice feeling to most of the scenes. They aren't however memorable.
The Movie's theme song "Hero" by Yoshiki is a nice tune, but contains some horrific lyrics about a person cutting their wrist in order for their hero to come. I'm surprised such a song actually went so far in production....
-----Designs------ So let's start with designs. I applaud them for trying new designs for everything. The Cloths(armor) that the Saints wear have been upgraded to be more functional with a helmet that can fold down and up at will. It is a very interesting function, and i do like it. Although some of Kurumada's interesting details on the cloths are gone. Cloth boxes are now transported magically via a dog-tag that the Saints wear, which was a strange leap from the theme of "Only proper training and guts will make you strong" that was persistent in the original series. The movies tries to cater to the current younger Japanese generation, with a different kind of humor. Hence small trinkets and such are shown for some seconds in order to promote the film's merchandise.
I loved that they changed Milo into a woman however, as it did give the Goldies more variation, and Milo was a good candidate since he didn't have much personality except being stoic even in the original series.
However, several designs are designed in a very stereotypical way, such as Saga's dual colored Gemini cloth. Aldebaran, the Taurus Saint has a nose ring, etc. etc.
Environment wise it's decent until we get to the Sanctuary which has been transformed into a Chinese MMORPG setting, with stone buildings flying in the air here and there. That was just bad design in my honest opinion, and was very out of place from the ancient Greek inspired setting of the original series.
The big bad Saga transforming into a Final Fantasy boss in the end did not help things.
I love the animation however.
----Plot and characters---- So adapting something that took around 40 episodes into 90 minutes wasn't the smartest idea to begin with, hence there would be hick-ups in the plot. A smarter thing would have been to do the Galaxian Wars plot first, and then move on to the Sanctuary in a second film.
Saori's story was a nice idea, but didn't work quite properly as in the manga she already knew she was Athena before the beginning of the story.
Many, and i mean many character's stories were left out, or only had a tidbit to make a newcomer confused. It is a hard job to balance the five Bronzies, but it would have been better to focus on Athena, Saga and Seiya. The movie doesn't deliver on any of them quite well. Saga has basically no backstory to why he is evil, while in the manga his reason are elaborated much further.
----Music----- The score has it's peaks and bring a nice feeling to most of the scenes. They aren't however memorable.
The Movie's theme song "Hero" by Yoshiki is a nice tune, but contains some horrific lyrics about a person cutting their wrist in order for their hero to come. I'm surprised such a song actually went so far in production....