Saint Seiya Vol 2 (1986)
Animation Production: Toei Animation
Released by: ADV Films
Official Website: Saint Seiya
Episodes: 6-10
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

This show continues growing on me! Episodes one through five were a great start and certainly helped in establishing a solid base from which the story could grow. With that base in place volume two of ADV’s Saint Seiya release hits the ground running and starts getting some traction that takes the story into some fun new directions.

Story

“The battle of the Saints continues. Saint Seiya and Saint Shiryu are locked in an epic struggle that shall test both their strength and will to survive. One of the two will die—the other will not be so lucky. Unicorn and Andromeda are slated to go head-to-head in the next battle. It will pit Saint Jabu’s fierce competitiveness against the miraculous wonders of Saint Shun’s Nebula Chain. But, looming in the dark corners of the arena, a long lost figure waits for his moment to return. Not a soul in the audience or a Saint in the ring will be safe from his pledge of vengeance.” -- ADV's Saint Seiya Vol-2 Page

Review

In these five episodes Saint Seiya begins to move away from the tournament aspect that dominated the first batch of stories and shifts into more of an action-adventure mode that takes the characters in several new directions.

Episode six starts where we left off as Seiya is in the hospital recovering from his previous match against Saint Shiryu, while Unicorn is engaged in a tournament bout against Andromeda. Unfortunately not all is as it seems…

After successfully beating Unicorn, Andromeda’s chains begin to pick up on a mysterious threat amongst those present at the arena, we soon discover that this person is no other than the 10th Saint, Phoenix, who has reappeared devoid of his human side and with the intent of stealing the Gold Cloth with the assistance of his Shadow Army of Black Saints.

I really loved this set of episodes! It took the characters out of the tournament setting that was so heavily established in episodes one through five and dropped them into new and more dynamic circumstances that allow for much needed character development to take place. After Phoenix steals the Golden Cloth it forces the Saints to work together in order to recover this precious and powerful armor, which needless to say this takes the one-on-one battles and individual character focus that permutated in volume one and turns them upside down as the characters now need to work together as a team out of necessity instead of going about things solo.

Phoenix’s appearance also helps push the story forward and give us the opportunity to learn more about the Saints’ past and what it is that motivated and drove them to fight and reach this point in their lives. This accomplishes nothing but wonders for the show and helps make us care for the characters. They begin to gain more depth and lose the 2-dimensionality that was present to a small degree in earlier episodes.

As with volume one the animation here is beautifully accomplished through smooth and crisp handrawn images and feature some amazing and rather dynamic sequences. The signature attack scenes are especially fun to watch and harkens back to older anime classics. What can I say I really love 80's anime!

The DVD itself comes packed with 5 episodes that include:

Episode 6: Phoenix - Back From Hell"
Episode 7: "Theft of the Golden Cloth"
Episode 8: "Phoenix's Black Shadow Army"
Episode 9: "The Four Black Saints"
Episode 10: "The Grave of the Sacred Cloth"

The DVD also comes with a couple of extras including a special that takes a look at the mythology behind this series, the original Japanese opening, English and Japanese dubbed soundtracks and previews for other ADV releases.

Final Thoughts

I said this in my review of volume one of Saint Seiya and I'll say it again, I cannot be thankful enough that releases like Saint Seiya are finally becoming a reality and hope that the trend continues. If there was an anime univeristy, Saint Seiya would be a required course, simple as that. This is anime gold and should be checked out by all anime fans. Trust us, this is good stuff!!!

Jeffrey Couto