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Okay, let's skip the hello and welcome (you're welcome and hello, by the way). Here are the choices open to you in this not-so-small-anymore shrine:
Be warned, though, that the fanfics as well as the gallery's images, the Hades section and their comments contain spoilers for the series. Whichever you choose, I hope you'll enjoy the ride! =) Thanks to Naoki for some tips concerning banners and also for redesigning his own web site, forcing me to do something for a change and come up with the idea for this banner. Thanks also to Princess Athena for taking care of those annoying white pixel pests which kept clinging to bits and edges of the banner! ^^ |
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This manga was created by Masami Kurumada, and the duo Shingo Araki/Michi Himeno made the character designs for the anime.
What can I say that hasn't been said yet ? This series is loved and worshipped on my side of the Atlantic, and was adored in Japan in its time... 1986, yes I know that may seem old.
Background :
In the time when they created the World, the Olympian Gods divided it into four realms: Earth, the Oceans, the Heavens, and the realm of the Dead. To Poseidon went the sovereignty over the Oceans, to Athena the Earth, to Hades the Realm of the Dead, and Zeus ruled over the Heavens.
A balance should have been preserved between the four realms, but very early Poseidon and then Hades started wars to conquer additional territories and extend their realms. Athena, the Goddess of Earth, took humanity under her wing, and decided to create an order of Holy Warriors with whom she would protect mankind and defend it in times of direst peril, when the other gods' ambition or folly would make them turn their lust for power towards the Land that she ruled.
Those Holy Warriors were named Saints, and they lived in a place named the Sanctuary, hidden somewhere in the mountains surrounding the city of Athens in Greece, and forbidden to normal people. Athena's Saints were young men and women, who fought using a power called cosmo, a power which granted them inhuman strength and speed by tapping into the infinite force of the universe. It's said that with their fists they could rend the heavens, and that with their kicks they could tear through the earth. Still, despite those formidable powers, their bodies remained as fragile as those of simple mortals, and without protection they were wounded and died like anyone else.
When the Saints went into battle, they were shielded by very special armours: living beings called Cloths, which were in part the essence of the constellation the Saints who wore them had been born under. Those Cloths could be destroyed, however, and when it happened they died. It was possible to give a new life to a shattered Cloth, but it required a very heavy price, for the Cloth needed blood, a lot of blood to be reborn.
Since the dawn of humanity, there had always been a maximum of 88 Saints watching over it under the guidance of the Goddess Athena, or under the guidance of her representative on Earth. 88 warriors, the same number as the number of constellations in the sky. Every Saint was born under one of the night sky's constellations, and was bound to it, as well as to the Cloth which was an incarnation of the constellation it was named after.
Athena's Saints were forbidden to fight with weapons other than their own bodies, for the Goddess had deemed that the use of weapons was too dangerous. There was, however, one exception to this rule: one of the Saints had been entrusted with the keeping of twelve terrible arms, and his was the task to weigh the events and the wars, and to release the weapons to their rightful owners only in exceptional circumstances. We're now in 1986, and such exceptional circumstances haven't happened in more than 200 years.
We're in 1986, and the Sanctuary is ruled by the Pope, the representative of Athena on Earth, while the Saints wait for the time when the Goddess, who was reborn as a little girl thirteen years ago will come of age and take her rightful place at the head of the Sanctuary.
We're in 1986, and ten young people are returning to Japan after spending 6 years in training centers all around the world, 6 years of unbelievable hardships and inhumanity which claimed the lives of many other youths just like them. Those young men are coming back, answering the call of a powerful organisation which had ruled over their lives and mercilessly toyed with their destinies until now. There's nothing that binds them, nothing that unites them. Some want revenge, some want to find someone they lost, someone they love, some want release, some want ancient promises to be kept, some want power, some obey orders which strangely enough come directly from the heart of the Sanctuary, even though its first rule is never to interefer in the affairs of mankind.
We're in 1986, and once again the gods are about to awaken from their centuries-long slumber.
Why is it so much loved ? How can you explain liking Baileys or Chocolate ? Seriously though, it is hard to say. Among numerous factors are certainly the roots it has in Greek mythology, after all this particular mythology is at the base of a great many things here in Europe, and it has always been a source of dreams and inspiration.
Then, there are the characters... Andromeda Shun is my favourite, by far. Gentle, kind and peace-loving but infinitely powerful... Innocent and wise, torn by doubts, eternally fighting against himself and abhorring anything resembling violence, human in the most noble sense of the word.
The manga is composed of 28 volumes, and has three main stories : Sanctuary, Poseidon and The Hades. Only the first two made into anime, which is a shame because the best part, the part where all is revealed and explained is The Hades. It is very frustrating to come at the end of the anime with blank spots and questions that remained unanswered, important events that seem very bizarre, choices, or lack of them that seem to make no sense...
Since the end of the anime, there have been insistant rumors on the Toei completing their old project of making The Hades into a series of OVAs, and lo! It has finally come to pass. The Toei company will release a series of OVAs, starting November 9th 2002. They'll cover the first part of the Hades chapter (in the Sanctuary). Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno are once again the character designers. I look forward to finding out what they've done with this, and I look forward to a second series of OVAs that will cover what happens after a certain truth is revealed (that is, if they do it, I'm currently praying to all and any god, goddess or spirit there is). 0=)
It should also be said that while Masami Kurumada's art is a bit special, Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno made a superb job for the character designs, the result being simply beautiful.
All in all, I would say that both manga and anime complete each other.
One warning though : please, don't judge Saint Seiya by the movies. Although in my heart nothing will ever compare to Saint Seiya, I shudder when I look at those. Too short, a character design which, while it is beautiful where art is concerned, is absolutely worhtless in terms of character development (so Shun is a cowardly, weak-minded whimp who can't walk a step without his brother's help and whose sole utility in the series is to be a burden to the other Bronze Saints.... give me a BREAK ! >.< ), scenarii so trite I don't know whether to laugh or cry over them (yes, as a writer the richness and strength of a scenario matter to me! :P)... I must say I would despise Shun if I had only seen those. Their only redeeming features are the art, which is truly superb, and their fantastic soundtrack (anyone ever heard truly enthralling music? Well, don't look any further! ^^), but they definitely do not do justice to the manga and the anime. The characters are different, the story is good and interesting ! So please, if you have only seen those... Give Saint Seiya a chance...
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There are tons of things to be said on Saint Seiya. For those who would know more, I recommand the excellent files of the
fanzine called JAMM!, they have made the best file on Saint Seiya I know of in their 2nd and 3rd issues, as well as the FAQs made by Patricia Munson-Siter. Despite mistakes in her summaries of the episodes, and in some of the theories she supports, it's one of, if not the most ancient document you can find on Saint Seiya. Please be indulgent, and think that she wrote those in 1988, with no other source of information than original Japanese language tapes (likely awful nth gen at that). You'll find a link towards a zipped file of the FAQs here. You'll need WinZip or any other software of the kind to unzip and get the two text files included in it. The Zipped files are 178 Kbytes in size.
That's all I'll tell you about Saint Seiya. For more stuff, check the links below, or just click on the image of Shun on the right if you want to have a look at my gallery. Be warned, though, that the gallery's images and their comments contain spoilers for the series.
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And here's Shun drawn by... Why don't you guess ? The name is C***P ^^ |
Links !(yes I know it's high time I put some links here. Hey not my fault for being lazy ! ^^;;;) |
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On to the other parts :CLAMP Fanfictions Links to Friends Back to the Beginning
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