Two cents of ramblings on: “Saint Seiya Kogane Tamashī - soul of gold -” (Anime)...
...and why I recommend it to who enjoyed “Saint Seiya”.
GENERAL DATA
Title: Saint Seiya Kogane Tamashī - Soul of Gold - (聖闘士星矢 黄金魂 -soul of gold- “Saint Seiya Golden Soul -Soul of Gold-”)
Media: Anime television series
Spinoff of: “Saint Seiya” anime based on the “Saint Seiya” manga written by Kurumada Masami.
Genre: Fantasy, Martial arts, Mythological
Directed by: Furuta Takeshi
Written by: Takeuchi Toshimitsu
Studio: Toei Animation, Animation Services: Bridge
Original run: April 11, 2015 – September 26, 2015
Episodes: 13
WARNINGS: There’s possession, manipulation, murder.
The plot in short: The Gold Saints who died in order to destroy the Wall of Grief are revived in Asgard. In an attempt to discover why it happened they end up involved in a battle against a foe threatening Asgard.
HOW DID I STUMBLE INTO IT
It’s “Saint Seiya”! It’s the Gold Saints! I love them! I could I not stumble into it?
THINGS YOU MIGHT WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE TACKLING THIS
I’ll reference “Saint Seiya” manga and anime version and the second “Saint Seiya” movie, “Saint Seiya - Kami-gami no Atsuki Tatakai” (聖闘士星矢 神々の熱き戦い “Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods”).
MY TWO CENTS ON IT
THE SHORT VERSION… or what I can tell you about this while trying to keep spoilers at the very bare minimum.
Opening & ending: The anime uses as opening “Soldier Dream” by ROOT FIVE and, as ending, “Yakusoku no Ashita e” (約束の明日へ ‘To the promised tomorrow’) by ROOT FIVE. Now… “Soldier dream”, sung by Kageyama Hironobu, was the old “Saint Seiya” opening used for the Asgard saga… which okay, is iconic and awesome but… I wish the anime has just gotten his own opening. The visual is not bad… but it’s nothing special either and it spoilers the series a lot. It immediately implies Aiolia is the main character/hero of the series, that he gets a ‘love interest’ and that his main opponent will be Gullinbursti Fródi, that Hylda is not well, that Miro and Camus fight, and that the Gold Saints, despite having died in order to destroy the Wall of Grief, are somehow revived in Asgard, that Saga, Dohko and Mu will do the Athena exclamation, that Athena will give her blood to turn the gold cloths into god cloths complete with visual of them, that there’s Yggdrasil and let’s not forget Andreas’ scar. Really, all we miss is a shot of who’s behind all this. There’s plenty of shoots of the Gold Saint. Well, at least the Gold Saint aren’t depicted as thin as the Bronze Saint while being in Asgard… The ending song is pretty nice. Visually it doesn’t show much, just the Fire Clock of the sanctuary, the gold cloths and then the Gold Saints standing in front a giant Athena but I like the touch of having one of the flames on the Fire Clock to extinguish in each episode until all are extinguished and the series has ended. It’s worth to say in the last episode they replace the panning on the gold cloths with scenes from the series… which okay, makes sense but it’s not great.
The plot: Credits when it’s due “Saint Seiya” never had this complicate of a plot, it’s just battle after battle racing against time because Athena got herself in troubles but here they tried to toss in also mystery and other stuff and… and they made a mess, there’s plenty of plot holes. However, what’s really good is instead that they tried to close the Gold Saints’ character arcs in a satisfactory manner and they nailed this one correctly.
The characters: Well, let’s see. The Gold Saints are definitely mostly well developed in this one, they all get a role, something to do and a good characterization. I loved them.
Lyfia… is not that impressive as a character, but she works. The God Warriors… they tried to give them some character and dept but they are a lot less impressive than the old God Warriors of the anime. Still, they aren’t bad. Andreas has no character and the real bad guy behind all this is… just evil and that’s all he is. Freya and Hylda? Oh yes, I caught a glimpse of them. They don’t do much beyond being in the background occasionally.
The visual: I love the shining colors used for the cloths and the attacks, the dynamism, the fact the Saints here don’t seem about to drop dead of starvation (yes, decades have passed and here I am, still hung up on how “Saint Seiya” made the Saints progressively thinner). The animation quality isn’t always great but it’s still nice and, although the background aren’t extremely detailed, they’re still well cared for.
The musical background: “Saint Seiya” BGM has a history of being good (Yokoyama Seiji made really epic music!). This might be not as epic as the previous BGM for the Asgard saga but it’s still a pretty good one so kudos to Mizutani Hiromi.
Overall: It’s a “Saint Seiya” spinoff about the Gold Saints. To enjoy it, it’s required to know “Saint Seiya” and it has all the sins and all the virtues of a “Saint Seiya” story, meaning you’ll love it if you like “Saint Seiya” and the Gold Saints and you might end up disappointed if you hate them or have no idea who they are.
THE LONG VERSION… or what I loved and hated about this with, of course, TONS OF SPOILERS.
For once I’ll start with the weak points of the series so…
Okay, as the series started my first thought was: “Asgard AGAIN?!?” because it’s not like they hadn’t already milked Asgard in an original movie and in an original arc of the anime, right? Do we need even a spinoff placed in Asgard? Isn’t there some other places with Gods in which they could place the story? I don’t know, Egypt had cool Gods, why not to use it just for a change of pace and of climate?
But yeah, it’s Asgard again, and they even fished up 7 new God Warriors that never showed up to fight Saiya and Co during the Asgard saga because… they weren’t created yet… same as Lyfia, this new character who, had she appeared in a fanfic, would have surely be accused to be a Mary Sue.
Officially she’s just a maiden of Valhalla Palace, but it’s clear she’s put in the story to become the love interest of Leo Aiolia (poor Marin, previously SHE seemed to be the one for Aiolia), the main character of the series. At first she kind of seem to have the role that belonged to Freya in the anime, asking for the Gold Saints help, falling for one of them despite having a special connection from childhood with the God Warrior Gullinbursti Fróði (Freya didn’t quite fall for the main character but for Cygnus Hyoga and has a special connection from childhood with God Warrior Merak Beta Hägen) while Freya basically exists but has a nonexistent role in the story since she gets imprisoned again but that’s not all Lyfia does. She also gets Polaris Hylda’s role as she gets controlled by the main enemy so as to resurrect the Golden Saints and it turns out she’s actually Odin’s representative on Earth… all while Hylda lies sick in bed, confined in her room and does nothing beyond putting all her faith in Lyfia, so as not to steal Lyfia’s chance to shine.
Note that if Lyfia wasn’t such a blatant rip off of two previous main characters she wouldn’t be bad… and the fact she’s a rip off of two main characters is… well excusable because it’s part of how the “Saint Seiya” animation works.
I mean the anime only “Asgard saga” was inspired by the 2nd“Saint Seiya” movie which was inspired by the special one-shot from the manga “Kōri no Kuni no Natasha Hen” (氷の国のナターシャ ‘The Chapter of Natasha, of the Lands of Ice’) so well, why should I be surprised if now the “Asgard saga” became the inspiration for “Soul of Gold”?
Well, at least the Gold Saints don’t have to save Athena, but just to stop Yggdrasil from bearing fruits and, in order to do so, they’ve to go into the 7 chambers of Yggdrasil and shatter the 7 Mammoth Pillars… pardon, the 7 statues in there. Yeah, no originality here either.
Of course the God Warriors are provided with Odin new Sapphires, though this time their purpose is just to let them get even more power from Yggrasil… and, surprise, surprise, Andreas Lise is actually also possessed by the new enemy… a God who was closed into a amphora… yeah, like Poseidon.
Should I also mention that, although the series tried to explain why Grani Sigmund, brother of Dubhe Alpha Siegfried and someone who knew Polaris Hylda was being possessed, never showed up in the Asgard saga (and the same can be said for the other 6 God Warriors) the explanation don’t really hold up very well… and they didn’t even try to explain why Fróði, who’s from a family who long served Odin, never showed up either… and yeah, it’s probably worth to mention the 7 God Warriors aren’t that well developed or original either… and it gets kind of ridicule how Odin always has to count on Athena’s Saints to solve Asgard troubles and give them his cloth when he actually should have his own God Warriors.
And let’s face it, Loki is definitely underdeveloped, he’s just there to be the bad guy and that’s it. Okay, it’s in the myth that Loki wasn’t actually an Asgardian but a Frost Giant but the series doesn’t even explain this, just calls him a false God.
So, after all this you might wonder… then why should I watch “Soul of Gold”?
Because, let’s face it, originality was never “Saint Seiya” stronger trait but this series has some very good things. Although Andreas and the new God Warriors aren’t that developed and the new enemy is just evil and that’s it, this series take care to develop the Gold Saints, which is the main reason for which it was done. It gives all of them a chance to shine but also digs into either their past or their inner conflicts.
Deathmask finds back his good side and rejoin with his cloth, Aphrodite gets to show his connection with plants, Aldebaran and Mu’s psychology gets developed, Saga and Aiolos confront (remember? Saga tried to kill Athena and Aiolos had to protect her), Aiolia gets to confront with his feelings for Shura, the man who killed his brother, but also gets to work with his brother, and Camus shows us he used to have a friend in Asgard.
What’s more, Libra Dōko gets some development and… well, this younger version of the old master is interesting as a character… even if he feels pretty different for how I was used to him.
And hey, didn’t we all want to see Aiolos in action?
The episodes, more than plot driven, feel like a character study digging into them and giving them space to shine and this is SO GOOD!
It’s literally gold if you’re a Gold Saint fan, and should I mention the battles are well done, and you get to see all their special moves, and how they get those cool God cloths?
And, although I criticized the lack of originality in the plot, to be fully honest they tried to develop it a bit, even making it ‘mysterious’ as they kept the secret about who and why resurrected the God Saint and around Lyfia and Garmr Útgarðar, so they made an effort to make it more than just, let’s crash the 7 statues and beat the new bad guy who possessed someone…
It’s also worth to mention that, even if the God Warriors aren’t that well developed, especially compared to the God Warriors of the “Asgard saga”, let’s remember the “Asgard saga” counted 26 episodes, versus the 12 of this series and could take advantage by how Athena’s 5 Bronze Saints were already well developed so they didn’t need any character study. This gave the “Asgard saga” the time to take care of the development of the God Warriors and their backstories (they were awesome by the way), a time this series doesn’t have as it has to develop the Gold Saints.
So yeah, this is a good and enjoyable spinoff for the fans of the series, one I definitely recommend.
It might not work for people who don’t know “Saint Seiya”, they might feel lost and confused or just not being that impressed due to its flaws, but if you’re a fan is definitely a MUST SEE.
Also, even if it’s not something that touches me that deeply, I should probably mention it gives a lot of space to Aiolia, making him the new main character (in place of Pegasus Seiya) so, all the more, if you’re a fan of his, you should see it.
And now let's end this with an AMV about this series I recommend watching Black and Blue
10 notes
·
View notes