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Meikai.
Engraved in stone, this single word marks the end of the thirteenth and last episode of Saint Seiya Hades, Sanctuary Hen.
I'm in awe.
The first page I dedicated to this OVA series was a review. The others have been image galleries with my own story-telling comments. Let this last one be a homage to the fantastic experience that this Sanctuary Hen has been.
It's been a long, ten years-long wait, years spent denying and chasing away the most insane rumors, years during which the crazy hope of one day seeing The Hades made into anime dwindled almost to extinction--but what a wonderful present it was the Toei's team offered all those who had treasured the dream of seeing the Hades come alive! After welcoming the beginning of the OVAs series with more than a bit of wariness, I watched as it slowly unfolded its wings to soar high in the sky and carry the spectator away with it with episode 9.
It followed the manga's scenario, in which the Hades Chapter also starts with a sequence of battles whose meaning is all but lost on the viewer--dark, obscure combats which do not trigger intense emotion in their wake--to better deceive the spectator and strike him directly in the heart when comes the confrontation in the House of Virgo.
I was wary of unwise adaptation choices beforehand, and when the presence of Silver Saints in the first episodes was announced, I dreaded the worst.
I was wrong.
The scenarists did a fantastic adaptation job. Not only were they able to compensate for some plot holes, but what's more they managed to truly convey the atmosphere of the manga's strongest scenes.
Considering the first part of the OVA series, episode 3 should be singled out for its superb introduction of Pandora and Rhadamanthe, two characters who come out stronger and better thanks to their their early appearance in the anime. Episode 4 must also be singled out for the heartwrenching confrontation between Milo and Kanon. Finally, among the things added to the manga's storyline, the brief, small scenes hinting at the events to come in the Meikai Hen are a treasure.
Even though this Sanctuary prelude to The Hades chapter gives the Gold Saints precedence, yielding the leading roles to them, allowing only short, limited appearances to the manga's main characters, the scenarists had chosen to modify this approach in order to give the Bronze Saints more airing time. Most likely, this choice was made in order to give the audience characters who had remained familiar to them despite the long, ten years hiatus. There again, I feared mistakes might be made. Once more, the scenarists proved me wrong.
The Bronze Saints are there, but the Gold Saints are depicted with such maestria and such strength that they are in no way eclisped by the heros' appearances.
Mysterious characters surrounded by an aura of almost divine power, they sparked a lot of interest during the whole TV series. However, their refusal to intervene in past battles dismayed people, and their seemingly withdrawal from the reality of the world set them apart, separate from the viewer.
The Hades Chapter is the perfect occasion to at last lift the veil of secrecy dissembling them, and to show how human and moving they can be.
The manga ended the Hades Chapter's overture in Sanctuary in a cruel and unfair fashion; the anime's scenarists chose to do those magnificent characters justice.
Every episode is a web that weaves us and the Gold Saints together--that binds us to them, just a little bit more each time. And when the first lights of dawn mar the perfection of darkness above a deserted castle--when the Sanctuary's horizon is tainted with light, the viewer blinks back tears and takes a deep breath in a futile attempt to hush the grief burning in his heart.
It's in this moment that the spectator realizes just how perfectly the trap was set by this team of directors, animators, artists, character-designers, voice-artists and composer. The OVAs' start is a slow one, meaning that they don't trigger a lot of emotion in the first episodes. Gradually, the characters grow closer to the viewer, the series' quality rises in a linear fashion--except for some absolutely superb scenes in episodes 3 and 4--then everything explodes in episode 9.
From thereon, I fell in love with Saint Seiya all over again. Once again I felt a strength in the story, a soul and a spirit comparable to that of the best moments in the TV series, and perhaps even stronger. Once episode 9 starts, there's no more respite, no space left to breathe. Inexorably, the story's vise-like grips closes around the viewer, never to let go. And once the sun has risen over the world, once the curtain has been drawn on the terrible and beautiful ending of this prelude, the spectator is left with a single word:
Meikai!
So... It's one very enthusiastic review to make for a series of OVAs whose design looks and feels ancient, plagued with an imperfect scenario and sometimes rather awkward attempts at 3D computer graphics (even if those grew better with each episode)... That assessment is most likely correct.
Saint Seiya Hades, Sanctuary Hen, cannot be merely watched.
It must be felt.
Don't waste your time looking for an intellectual or a philosophical challenge. Don't waste your energy to search for a never before seen direction or a perfect quality of animation. It never was these OVAs' goal, and what's more to aim for such results would have been both a betrayal and a mistake. As I mentioned before, The Hades was never meant for viewers who'd discover Saint Seiya through them. The Hades was meant for all those who followed the old TV series, for all the people whose heart beat in synch with it, for all those who were moved by it--for all the people who loved it and for whom it will forever be a wonderful and unforgettable memory.
The OVAs infuse life once more to this universe and its characters, and it pays them the most beautiful of homages.
It's an invaluable present given to the fans by the whole team who worked with impossible deadlines.
Oh, of course the gift isn't exactly free, but it doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned, I'm more than happy to help financing the Toei and to participate in the success of its sales. This piece of entirely subjective prose is dedicated to all the birds of ill omen who predicted that these OVAs would be a bitter failure, and to all the people who despise Saint Seiya or claim that a title can be good only if it features impeccable technical and scenaristic qualities.
You're wrong.
A series can be fantastic and beautiful thanks to the intense emotions it gives rise to, be it through its music, its character design, its characters, the memories it calls out to, or for any other reason.
You can love something for no "better" reason than it moves you deeply. You can watch with your heart and your guts. Each title has its own identity, its unique features. Each series may or may not move people. Saint Seiya moves me, and it succeeds because it calls out to those emotions that are so often disparaged and looked upon with contempt.
When I watch this series, I watch it with my heart, and it will always be the most beautiful present that Japanese animation ever gave me.

On to the other parts :


Back to the previous page of my Hades Hen gallery
Back to my Saint Seiya Hades Hen review
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