Knights of the Zodiac takes all the joy out of a beloved anime franchise

the good news is Knights of the Zodiac, Live-action manga and anime series coming in 2023 Saint Seiya, will immediately look familiar to longtime fans. The bad news is that the film appears to be based largely on 2019. Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya The CGI series is widely considered by fans to be the lowest point in Saint Seiya history. In all fairness to the series and the 2023 movie, it will take a lot of effort to make the live-action version look as good as the classic anime adaptation based on Masami Kurumada’s manga. . After about 40 years, it will be made into a live-action movie in Japan and the United States. But it’s unclear why director Tomasz Baginski and the writers decided to abandon the film altogether. Saint Seiya So much love in the first place.

First released in 1986, Saint Seiya animation Slowly build a world around the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena and warriors known as saints (or knights in some translations). Their strength comes from harnessing an inner energy called the Cosmos and the Cloth, a mystical ancient armor based on the constellations distributed to the “worthy” by Athena’s followers. . The saints use these tools to protect the goddesses and humanity from threats, including other Greek gods.

But nothing in 80s anime conveys to the viewer through such a simplistic and clunky exposition. Viewers only get to know snippets of the story here and there, some of which don’t appear until halfway through the series. The plot comes together over time into a fascinating whole. Combine this with brutal action and serious character drama and you have a show that was absolutely revolutionary when it first came out and still holds up nearly 40 years later.

2023 knight of the zodiacOn the other hand, it’s just that the characters explain the plot and its motivations loud and flat. The fanged action sequences don’t leave much of an impact, and what was once a gripping tale of Greek mythology and destiny is relegated to a run-of-the-mill “battle” between technology and faith/magic. It’s gone.

A quick summary is: knight of the zodiac Armand Kido, played by Sean Bean, takes in Seiya, a young wandering martial artist played by Mackenyu (son of Sony Chiba, a legend in the Japanese film world), and uses the armor of the mythical Pegasus to transform Siena, the reincarnation of Athena, Kido’s daughter. (Madison Iseman) is a story about training to protect. . All this takes place in a world much like ours, A sci-fi dystopia in the form of Grad (Famke Janssen), a militia leader who uses Saint Armor to develop a cyborg power suit and tries to kill Sienna because she believes she will destroy the world. leaving a lasting impression. Most of its plot isn’t from the original manga or anime, but it’s almost a remarkable adaptation of his little-loved 2019 CGI series.

Photo: David Lukacs/Stage 6, Toei Animation

Saint Seiya It ran for 114 episodes before being canceled in 1989. Saint Seiya Hades (2002-2008), the show that reminded 21st-century anime fans, “Oh yeah, this series was like this.” wonderful.That incarnation opened the door to new animated films and shows…which sadly included: Knight of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya. even if i pass by Rating on IMDB, rotten tomatoor even with your own eyes, it’s hard to argue that a CGI series isn’t a Saint Seiya story. at worst.

2019’s soft reboot recreates the original Saint Seiya The story is a dialogue-only story that reveals more plot in one episode than the original anime did in 30 episodes. Accompanied by a sudden and surprising disgust for the original show’s blood and violence, it introduces guns, helicopters, and other “evil” technology of the militia that the heroes must defeat with an inner burst of energy. To the villain Vander Graud.

At least the creators of the CGI series “Pegasus Fantasy” heavy metal opening (Original performed in Japanese by Make-Up and covered in English by The Struts) “Pegasus Seiya” of Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya). The live-action movie doesn’t even have the decency to maintain its fan-favorite elements, and everything else goes against it, so it basically doesn’t work when it arrives.

2023 knight of the zodiac The piece opens as expected with a colorful fantasy battle, but then the lighting switches to a dim fight club so quickly that it’s enough to cause tonal whiplash in the viewer. Seiya ends up participating in an underground martial arts match hosted by Cassios (Nick Stahl). In both the 80’s anime and his CGI series, Cassios is a giant in white Mohawk and mad his Max armor. But here he is… just a guy. He’s a normal, normal height, normal dressed guy (like a movie villain). Audiences should use this character to set their expectations for the film. Because director Tomasz Bagginski has scaled everything down and colorless from the source material, starting with Cassios’ intro, presumably to bring this interpretation to life. Saint Seiya More down-to-earth and down-to-earth — this is a really weird choice A story of a magic knight fighting an evil cyborg.

The world was preserved even in the 2019 show Saint Seiya colorful. Not so in the movies. When Seiya finally gets his signature Pegasus armor, it’s a dark gray (instead of the iconic white and red), with Graad’s black-clad cyborg ninja all blurry in dark tones. During the battle, Seiya becomes less visible. Also, since Mackenyu’s face is hidden, according to Hollywood’s FaceTime law, he must lose the helmet or the entire armor within five minutes of getting it.

Photo: David Lukacs/Stage 6, Toei Animation

In the original manga and anime, losing or damaging a saint’s armor was a big problem. By default, a robe can literally only be repaired with blood. In some cases, characters had to bleed to death in order to repair the saint’s armor. But in a live-action movie, that kind of damage isn’t a big deal.And that’s just one of many places where the screenwriters don’t seem interested in what happened. Saint Seiya Special in the first place. They are only interested in theatrical spectacle, mostly borrowed from other movies and comics.

Consider a battle in which Seiya crawls towards a super-powered character who can’t stop releasing destructive energy.basically the ending X-Men 3: Last Stand, It also starred Famke Janssen.The Underground Fighting Club Introducing Seiya Looks Like It Was Drawn From All Live-Action Tekken movies so far. Cassios ends up getting a power suit with permanently implanted bumps on her head, like the copyright-free version of The Rhino. Spider-Man. And then there’s Cosmos. This is the leftover energy of the Big Bang that exists within all of us, and is used by the Saints of the franchise to perform superhuman feats. That energy now exists in the blood and can be transfused between people. This is too close to the idea of ​​Midichlorians in Star Wars. First part.

knight of the zodiac Not a completely empty experience. Sean Bean plays her fatherly role with her loveliness, and audiences are skeptical of believing that Kido sees Sienna as a daughter he wants to protect, even though she is a literal goddess. I don’t think so. Famke Janssen is also much more complex than the CGI series Vander Graud. Here, she’s actually Sean Bean’s ex-wife and Sienna’s adoptive mother, seriously battling conflicting feelings about whether to save her child or save the world.

Mackenyu only seems to have two modes in the movie: boredom and confusion. But his fight scenes are great. knight of the zodiacThe style of martial arts looks very original, focusing on many flying kicks and a refreshing middle ground in between. matrixStyle kung fu and wuxia martial arts. The authors also touch a bit on the habits Seiya cultivated during his time of poverty, a lesson in how Seiya can’t reach his full potential until he overcomes his childhood trauma by devoting himself to a higher purpose. is also included. That new element really suits the character.Where the writers fail to understand Seiya, for example, by changing Seiya from a man who never backs down no matter the odds to a man who runs away from the first fight, they absolutely Make him a butcher. But sometimes they take him in new directions and broaden the franchise’s understanding of him.

But it only matters to those viewers who are already familiar with and interested in the production. Saint Seiya series. New viewers will only enjoy two things: Bean and Jansen’s disappointingly short performances, and his short, erratic creative action.like the people behind knight of the zodiac It started off by taking advantage of the worst parts of the series, but then gradually kept making bad decisions. The film’s only saving grace is that there once was a pilot for his ’90s American live-action TV ( 19 seconds of them survived), so knight of the zodiac at least not the worst Saint Seiya media ever made.

knight of the zodiac It hits theaters in the US on May 12th.