Seinto Seiya: Kamigami no atsuki tatakai
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
The story focuses on an orphan named Seiya who was forced to go to the Sanctuary in Greece to obtain the Bronze Cloth of the Pegasus constellation, a protective armor worn by the Greek goddess Athena's 88 warriors known as Saints. Upon awakening his Cosmos, the power of the Saints which is an inner spiritual essence originated in the Big Bang, Seiya quickly becomes the Pegasus Saint and returns to Japan to find his older sister. Because his sister disappeared the same day Seiya went to the Sanctuary, Saori Kido, the granddaughter of Mitsumasa Kido (the person who sent all the orphans to train) makes a deal with him to go to fight in a tournament called the Galaxian Wars. In this tournament, all the orphans who survived and became Bronze Saints must fight to win the most powerful Cloth: The Sagittarius Gold Cloth. If Seiya goes to compete there and wins, Saori would start a search to find Seiya's sister.
The tournament is interrupted by the revengeful Phoenix Bronze Saint, Ikki, who wishes to eliminate track from the people who forced him undergo his training. He steals parts from the Sagittarius Cloth and eventually fights against the remaining Bronze Saints: Seiya, Shun (Ikki's brother), Shiryū, and Hyōga, to complete it. Upon Ikki's defeat, the Bronze Saints are attacked by the Silver Saints sent by the Sanctuary's Pope to eliminate them. When they remain victorious, the Bronze Saints learn that Saori is Athena's reincarnation and that the Pope once tried to kill her as a baby. The Sagittarius Gold Saint Aiolos saved Saori but was killed shortly afterwards and gave Saori to her adopted grandfather, Mitsumasa Kido. Deciding to join forces with Saori, the Bronze Saints go to the Sanctuary to defeat the Pope, but upon their arrival, Saori is severely wounded by a gold arrow from a Silver Saint. Believing the Pope may be able to heal her, the Bronze Saints go to find him. To do so, they have to go through 12 temples, each one guarded by one Gold Saint (the most powerful Saints of Athena). Following several battles, Seiya gets to the Pope's temple and learns that he is the Gold Saint Gemini Saga, who in his madness killed the real Pope to obtain more power. With help from his friends' Cosmos, Seiya is able to knock out Saga and use the shield from Athena's statue to heal Saori. Shortly afterwards, Saga, having come to his senses, commits suicide as a self-punishment.
In the second story arc, the Greek god Poseidon reincarnates within the body of Julian Solo, the heir to a rich and powerful family, who follows his will of flooding the Earth. Saori goes to his Temple, where Julian offers her to reduce the flooding by absorbing the water inside the Oceans' Central Pillar. Following Saori, Seiya, Hyōga, Shun and Shiryū go to Poseidon's underwater Temple and are confronted by his underlings, the Marines. As Seiya, Hyōga, and Shiryū make their way to Julian, Ikki learns that the mastermind behind this war is Saga's twin, Gemini Kanon, who is manipulating Poseidon. During the final battle, Poseidon's spirit awakes within Julian and manages to defeat his opponents. Saved by the Saints from the Pillar, Saori seals Poseidon's soul within her amphora.
The third and last arc follows how Hades, the Underworld god, is freed from his seal and revives the deceased Gold Saints and the Pope Aries Shion, and alongside some of his 108 Specters, sends them to the Sanctuary to kill Athena. The remaining Gold Saints serving Athena are able to subdue the enemies, but Saori then commits suicide. This act is instead meant to directly send her to the Underworld to face Hades, and the Bronze Saints follow her. Shion reveals that the revived Gold Saints' true intentions were of giving Saori her own Cloth, and gives it to Seiya's group before dying once again. In the Underworld, as the Saints fight Hades' Specters, Shun is possessed by Hades. Saori reaches Hades and expels his soul from Shun's body. Hades then takes Saori to Elysium, and the five Bronze Saints follow them. In the final fight against Hades and his two followers, Hypnos and Thanatos, the Saints gain the strongest God Cloths and use them to aid Saori in defeating Hades. However, Seiya also sacrifices himself by receiving one of Hades' attacks, and the Saints return to Earth with his body.

Review: aka as Knigths of the zodiac. Hello this appears to be and ova a pretty common thing in japan where when some anime is skyrocketing in popularity with the fans and O.V.A might be made which it means that its not an series episode nor a full feature film with usually with about 90mim or so its just some sort of special treat for the fans sold in VHS or DVD nowadays its like a Micheal Scofield side adventure in DVD. Which in my opinion its pretty good so they don't have to rush the movie to be some summer blockbuster the is usually lame anyways- So don't be disappointed by the last opinion. If you are willing to see this you must be either a fan or someone interested in any way so i do recommend you have a go!I am from Brazil and we had the "knights of zodiac" as it is called over there and i think that the reason that the last user was upset is the way they show the series in TV in a manner that can only describe as abusive to the viewer making me wait for months on end while they repeated half a season over and over.So have fun but i recommend you see the series 1st otherwise will wont understand much this is not some batman movie that the origins of batman are explained every movie i used to watch this as a kid but this is most definitely not made for kids but fro teenagers and adults. I'm really disappointed!. I'm a Saint Seiya (or as we know the series in Mexico "Knights of the Zodiac") fan, but this has gone too far.I have yet to see the first Sain Seiya feature film (Saint Seiya Gekijoban, or The Legend of the Golden Apple, 1987), but regarding this movie, I hate to say that it's just plain old more of the same stuff! This movie is not only really, really short: 45 minutes (about the length of just two episodes of the series), but it also clearly non-canonical.Anything that happens in this movie, although it includes the characters of Saori, Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga, Shun & Ikki, has nothing to do with the series's continuity.Besides those two diminishing factors (its lack of real length and association with the canon), the base for the saints' conflict with the Kingdom of Asegard (sic) is barely something worth of suspense.There are no strong supporting characters, and the battles are short (really short) and meaningless. There's no reason behind the evil portrayed here.Now, I know how the Saint Seiya universe works, but this has gone too far. I REALLY hope the other Saint Seiya movie productions are better than this.Almost 20 years later, and not even nostalgia can save it from obligatory oblivion.. So much wasted potential!. First of all, I'm going to say that I'm big fan of Saint Seiya. I grew up watching this series, and even today it is one of my favorite Japanese animations.Sadly, this movie shares the same problems that other anime movies based on television shows have: It is not only necessary to have seen the original series to understand the plot and the personality of the characters, but also, the plot of this short movie isn't very good anyway, following a repetitive pattern that became almost a routine in the other Saint Seiya movies (With the sole exception of fifth one, that was released in the 2004)Basically, the plot of this movie is pilot of what would be the Asgard sage in the anime series (One of my favorite parts) Since this is just a pilot, many things concept that later appeared in that part of the series feel here relatively undeveloped: For example, the new enemies and characters that were introduced in this movie are mostly "experimental" version of their series counterparts, being mostly one-dimensional villains (Instead of the complex and troubled antagonists of the Asgard saga in the series) The new setting, influenced by Norse mythology had many possibilities to explore, but instead of that we have a clichéd succession of battles that are well animated, but which take place in a shallow context of a uninspired good vs. evil battle.There is a very interesting element introduced here: In this short movie, Hyoga, one of the good guys, plays the role of a temporal enemy. This is completely unexpected, and could have been the chance for a great character exploration. Instead of that, it just serves as an excuse to make him another one of the good guys. It is never explained why Hyoga turned on "the dark side" (Was he hypnotized? This movie doesn't bother to answer that question. There are not even any kind of suggestion about what happened to him...It just happen.) Then, at the end, he turns good again (This doesn't have any explanation, either: Another missed opportunity to add some complex character development)The saddest part is that it could have been something really great and epic...But instead of that, this prefers to follow exactly the same formula used in the previous movie (The one where the goddess Eris was the villain) At least thanks to this we had the excellent Asgard saga.The good points: The great atmosphere, the voice acting, the superb music (Composed by Seiji Yokoyama),the beautiful and stylish designs by Shingo Araki, some very good action scenes. And also, the nostalgic value.