#30: Saint Seiya Omega

I never watched Saint Seiya when I was younger and it was on American television under the name Knights of the Zodiac.

I think I can vaguely remember seeing snippets of it a time or too, but I might be confusing it with Macross or Robotech or even Voltron.

My first memory of Saint Seiya is seeing this amazing tattoo my little sister got based on some of the manga artwork. After pushing down the insane amounts of tattoo related jealousy I had (which is stupid really because my Ghost in the Shell tattoo is way more awesome) I looked up the anime series itself.

The original series is old with synthesized 80's music, flashy effects, terrible costume colors, and rather sub-par dubbing.

I love it.

And I've always kind of wished that someone would update the series with some flash new school animation.

Apparently the anime gods have been listening to this fangirl's wishes, cause Saint Seiya Omega is exactly that. A new look at an old series, full of modern effects and colors and character designs.

And believe me, this show is flashy. If you are one of those that get convulsions from watching crazy flashy anime you might want to skip this show. The battles are kind of just flashy chaos.

I thinks this series might also pick up from where the last one left off. Or something. Cause it certainly doesn't seem to start at the very beginning where the original Saint Seiya did. And I have never seen all of the original story as it wasn't available in the US and I don't actually know if it ever made it all the way from manga to anime.

But it is all good. The basic premise is the same. There are these warriors known as Saints who explode their internal energy - or "cosmos" - to battle each other and bad guys. Each symbol of the zodiac has a Saint (hence why it was called Knights of the Zodiac in the US) and there are several levels of power as well as several awesome costume changes.

There is also lots of fighting. Lots and lots of it. It is just that kind of show.

And there's other stuff too, of course, but if you haven't seen any of the series it won't make a whole lot of sense.

Point is I liked this new addition to the Saint Seiya series. So far it looks good, sounds good, and is fun to watch. I'm curious to see what happens next in the story. 

#27: Voltron

Here is another show with so much potential to be awesome, but somehow it doesn't manage to live up to that potential. I think its the horrible voices. Like He-Man, this show suffers from some of the worst American dubbing I have EVER heard. Sven and Pidge and that other guy are all main characters and talk all the time and they sound horrible and I want to scream and hit them whenever they open their mouths.

Also, no one hooks up with the princess properly. Why not? She's pretty hot all things considered. And kinda tough. She even gets her own robot lion and her own seat in the Voltron after a while. So with all this girl power going on, shouldn't someone be trying to hook up with her? Maybe the red team leader guy? He has dumb hair but he looks like he could otherwise be a handsome love interest.

Maybe I'm watching this show the wrong way. I know I liked it when I was little. And the giant robot made up of smaller robots and piloted by a team of perky young heroes has become something of a ubiquitous cultural reference, so lots of someone else's must have liked it too.

But watching it now it kinda sorta stinks. And not just because its so old skool looking. I love old skool animation. I would have nothing against it for that.

Its the story that sucks. Its dragged out ridiculously long and there is too much action and not enough dialogue or tone. The characters are basically the same people when the series starts as they are when it ends, which means the character development is practically nonexistent.

And those voices are really, REALLY, annoying.

I hate seeing things from my youth that I've built up to legendary status come crashing down in my adulthood. It makes me sad and it makes me feel old and cynical and no fun.