Anime Spring 2013

[phil_]

I'm assuming that Chamber went with "Anyone who wasn't picked up by my super-tech biometric scanners on Gargantia is a bad guy." Or, that's what I thought while the credits rolled. I'm assuming that he's passively scanning all the time, given that they're waiting for a response to their distress beacon, info gathering is good form when presented with an unknown location and situation, and he already said he'd been scanning in the first episode when he told Ledo that the air and gravity were good.

Maybe they'll explain it, but leaving it as a demonstration of "Chamber is a very, very powerful and advanced robot" seems like better story-telling. It's beside the point how he did it; the point is establishing that Chamber is an untouchable god of death to Earthlings. Also shock value, but this is Urobuchi and that should go without saying.

[phil_]

So, Saint Seiya. Are we gonna have a story where all the Saints are good guys? Has that happened before? You'll have to fill me in, Bells; I didn't manage to finish the original Saint Seiya. Also, it'd be cool if all the Pallasites continue to have signature weapons, although that might be difficult to maintain for a year. It'd be a better way of differentiating them from Saints, who only rarely get weapons (Andromeda and Libra are about it, right? Should I count Wolf Haruto's claws?), than just the bug theme which the Marsians also had. It's a more obvious difference, weapons vs. fists plus COSUMO.

Subaru's still comedy relief at best. Shaina is still super cool, in that shounen fightin' way.

[Bells]

Well, alrighty then! Here comes the full wiki...

So, in the world of saint Seiya there are a few rulings you must have in mind.

Athena's Saints are not allowed to use conventional weapons. The only weaponry allowed is the one that is part of their sacred cloth ( Chameleon's whip, Hydra and Wolf claws, Cerberus had Discus, Andromeda Has chains, Medusa and Dragon have powerful shields, there is at least 1 silver Saint with Ball and chain...). These could all be onsidered "arena" style weaponry. And saints are allowed to use them because its part of their constelation. But anything else is forbidden, and their main force of power must be their own bodies (so, Cosmo and fists basicaly)

Then, we have 2 special cases... first is Libra which is the Great Arbitrer. He is the guardian of the Golden Weapons, the full set of Stardust metal weaponry that is sealed away by Athena with the Libra Cloth. They are blessed with the power of Athena and made from the same metal that makes the Golden Cloths, being the only real weapons that Saints can have acess to and the only ones that can break through the Protective power of other gods. As such, for instance, during the battle against poseidon, only the Libra weapons could break the Ocean pillars of Poseidon, since their power could pass Poseidons barrier.

However, the Libra Weapons are so powerfull they can only be used with Athena's approval or under the Judgment of the Libra Saint. As using them against normal enemies or anything other than an emergency is consider unfair and cowardly.

The second special case is Sagittarius. The Golden arrow of the Sagittarius saint is consider a "God Slaying weapon". So much so that he only has a single arrow. It can only be used with the express purpose of defending Athena's life and is consider an ultimate measure of force. Which is not to be confused with Sagitta, which was a silver saint that used a wrist mounted crossbow to shoot phantom arrows, one of wich is a legendary poisonous golden arrow that slowly kills the target, but can only be removed by the power of Athena (as a show of mercy), thus when used against Athena herself... its big trouble.

The warriors of other gods might have other rules, but most follow similar rules to the Athena's saints.

The Pallasites are underlings to Pallas, wich is the Daughter of Triton, which is the Son of Poseidon, who Athena defeated but is in somewhat of Friendly terms with... if it follows through that Logic, Poseidong Generals where almost as powerful as golden saints, but they didn't have Weapons either aside from maybe one or two...

As for Saints being Evil... that's actually the most interesting underlining of Saint Seiya... they are not! Its a greek tragedy, its good guys fighting good guys.. sorta.

You see, Athena's saints are devoted to Athena, they are born and raised under destiny to live and die for Athena and her goals. These are kids that at age 8 are trained in hellish ways to become some of the most powerful beings in existence by age 15-16. ALthough the artwork doesn's show it, the oldest person on the Original Saint Seiya was Saga, and he was between 18-20 years old.

Also worth mentioning that a lot of these kids do not survive their training... or simply run away and never become saints or get killed for running away from their destiny to serve Athena and protect her world. This is actually the rules of Athena´s sanctuary... that she abides to. Same as to crossing the 12 temples without being invited. Doesn't matter who you are, if you are not summoned, you will be killed.

So, you might imagine... these kids... They are more powerful than any human in the face of the earth, choosen warriors of destiny to dawn incredible armors to live, serve and die for the Goddess of earth...they have an Ego.And they listen to the Pope, who is Athena's second hand. he is the Guy responsible for running the entire show...

Now imagine this scenario, you are this Holy saint of Athena, you survived hell to become of the most powerful warriors in history... then you hear these stories, of this Japanese girl. Who claims to be Athena, your goddess. The one you were told is safe and sound in your sanctuary, being guarded by all the Holy Golden saints and the Pope himself, keeping the secret of the holy saints that have been shaping history behind the scenes for ages...

And then, this new False prophet... taints the name of Athena by making a Tournament full of Bronze saints, the foot soldiers and errand boys of the sanctuary, in full spectacle on TV for all to see. And the prize they fight for is the great Golden Holy Cloth of Sagittarius.

Now mind you, one of the ground rules of being a Saint is that you live and die by your constellation. You were born a Bronze, you will die a Bronze... (a rule that Omega kinda Breaks but acknowledges when Seiya becomes the Sagittarius saint but it still called as the "Golden Pegasus". He is essentially chosen by the spirit of the Cloth to be Athena's guardian, that's why he can wear it)

So, you would imagine... they get a little pissed about it. Specially when they hear that this False Athena is coming to the sanctuary in order to take over it...

Of course, some of the enemies are portrait as "evilish" because anime... but in reality, they are not really. The Medusa Saint turned a bunch of Foot Soldiers in stone because they were fleeing from the Sanctuary and leaving their training Behind... Sanctuary rules, Silver Saint complies. Even though Athena herself was more likely to be merciful (Then again, its the same Athena that just told Seiya to kill a 8 year old Pallas with a Golden Dagger before she became a problem...) in the original series Many recognize Saori as Athena, unfortunately most only do so in their death beds... most are dicks. that's for sure. But the one actual evil case i can tell ya was Deathmask the Cancer saint. Simply because when he facing shiryu he admited that he was fighting only for himself and that he didn't care for Athena's goals at all and at that point he Golden Cloth rejects him completely.

So, while the Saint truly believes that he fights to protect Athena and her goals, he will have her protection. That's why you had Golden Saints fighting for Mars, they believed they were serving Athena's goals through Mars. When Sonia question this, the Scoprion cloth leaves her and essentially kills her with an overload of power (the Cloth's cosmo gets added to that of the user) .

So, in reality, All Saints are actually heroes serving Athena above all else. Some are just pricks about it... and during the Mars storyline, they broke cannon a little bit by having People receive protecting from Mars and thus remain wearing their Cloths... but there are theories for that...

For this current story arc i dunno where they are going to go... Pallasites are pretty much what the 108 stars of Hades where, Evil Saints. But you can bet on Triton showing up in 20 episodes or so. And i would not be surprised if Subaru was somehow connected to him... All gods use Human vessels, Athena uses Saori, Poseidon uses Julian Solo, Hades used Shun, Apsu used Kouga... Triton needs a body too.

[phil_]

Man, I really did leave out a bunch of weapons. Like, how could I forget the countdown arrow that made the Sanctuary arc work? Also, that makes Sonia's death a lot easier to understand. I had just written it off as "Soma gotta win, cosmo-something-cosmo." Thanks, Bells.

[Ryong]

Shingeki no Kyojin 03
REALITY ATTACKS! CRITICAL HIT! Protag's willpower leaves him with 1 HP! Protag used Full Heal!

Suisei no Gargantia 03
How much meat can Ledo be given until he gets pissed off?

[phil_]

Suisei no Gargantia 03
How adorable can Ledo be while fumbling over "Arigatou?"

[phil_]

Just watched what I guess is the last episode of Straight Title Robot Anime. It was sad and I want to cry.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by phil_

Just watched what I guess is the last episode of Straight Title Robot Anime.

You should put that last bit in spoiler tags. Don't wanna ruin the punchline.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by Kim

You should put that last bit in spoiler tags. Don't wanna ruin the punchline.

For a punchline, IT WASN'T FUNNY, KIM!

[Kim]

Originally Posted by phil_

For a punchline, IT WASN'T FUNNY, KIM!

spoilerz