There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to watch something. Either Bad or good, people should have the right to watch anything they want. Toei Animation is known for creating many animated features of various qualities. Toei produced thirteen original Dragon Ball Z movies, and fans are aware that not all of them were made to the same high quality. That makes Toei’s decision to abandon one of its most interesting and beautiful films all the more fascinating. It’s especially an odd decision considering it’s a movie from one of its biggest franchises, Saint Seiyaalso known as Knights of the Zodiac.
Saint Seiya: The Heavens-Overture was released in Japanese cinemas in February 2004. The film was released in the midst of the Saint Seiya: Hades anime, the animated adaptation of the final saga of the original manga. The Hades Saga from the manga had never been adapted before that point. Heavens-Overture was meant to be an exciting new beginning for the Saint Seiya franchise, serving as the first film in the franchise in fifteen years and featuring breathtaking art direction. However, the movie has since been abandoned and ignored by Toei Animation. The once promising future of the franchise has been left in unusual purgatory, mostly continuing through spin-off titles.
What is Saint Seiya Overture
While the original Saint Seiya manga and show were immensely popular in the late 80s, the anime adaptation was prematurely cancelled before it could adapt the full manga. The original anime only covered the first eighteen volumes of the original manga, ending at the Poseidon Arc in April 1989. The last ten volumes of the manga covered the Hades Arc, in which Athena and her saints fought a war against a resurrected Hades and his army of Spectres. For over a decade, that final part of the manga was never adapted. That is, until Toei Animation decided to complete the adaptation for the rest of the series with a new Saint Seiya anime, subtitled the Hades Chaptersin 2002.
To correspond with the Hades ChaptersToei also produced and released a new Saint Seiya film in 2004, Saint Seiya: The Heavens-Overture. The film was not only a direct continuation of the manga’s ending, but it was also originally advertised as canon within the events of the manga. Toei boasts the film incorporates breathtaking animation and art design, vowing to make a more philosophical and artful future for the series. For all its faults, Saint Seiya: The Heavens-Overture‘s art direction was undeniable.
The film used empty space and dark shadows to convey a forboding atmosphere, an overwhelming unease that almost pulls the viewer in. The movie’s tone matches Seiya’s character arc, as he’s left at the end of the series comatose and must relearn how to fight again, despite the whole world pressuring him not to. Specific shots of the motion picture are absolutely breathtaking, evoking strong emotions with powerful imagery and striking colors. Saint Seiya has arguably never looked as good as it did in The Heavens-Overture.
Saint Seiya Overture was a Failure and Made No Sense
Despite its undoubtedly gorgeous art direction, Saint Seiya Overture‘s plot was unnecessarily obtuse and borderline nonsensical. Although the film’s story can be boiled down to another Saints must rescue Athena again, the setting has been terraformed to be more surreal and abstract. Due to this surrealist setting, many of the scenes are loosely connected, making the plot difficult to follow. There’s a specific scene that features all twelve Gold Saints in hell, which has no bearing on the rest of the movie.
The Greek Goddess Artemis and her Angels are the main antagonists of the Saint Seiya Overturebut suddenly, Apollo appears in the last minutes to become the final hurdle. The antagonists’ switch only makes the finale come across awkward and unfocused. Moreover, Seiya is the only main character in a majority of the film, with the rest of the Saints only appearing in their respective fight scenes.
The movie’s overall dark tone borders on depressing, coming across as almost mean-spirited. However, the upsetting tone of Saint Seiya Overture helps make Seiya’s final triumph all the more satisfying. The film’s climax features Seiya launching into the air to deliver a single punch to Apollo, which is one of the franchise’s most uplifting moments. Unfortunately, that moment of triumph leads to one of the movie’s most confounding aspects. While Saint Seiya Overture displayed beautiful art direction, the animation can be pretty shoddy in certain moments. Rather than show the moment of impact when Seiya punches Apollo, the film instead instantly cuts to a wall of text and narration that only vaguely explains what happened. The final shot of the movie is still images of Seiya and Saori, seemingly meeting for the first time. It’s a puzzling end to the film that essentially resets the franchise without any clear path forward.
It should be noted that Toei released the film arguably at a poor time. Only the first part of the three-part Saint Seiya: Hades anime aired in 2004, and Saint Seiya Overture took place directly after the end of the manga. Not only was the ending of the film confusing, but the beginning was as well if you didn’t read the manga. The movie starts with Seiya comatos and in a wheelchair, a far cry from how the character is portrayed in the anime at that point. Saint Seiya Overtureas the name implies, was meant only to be the opening act of a bigger Heavens Saga for Saint Seiya that has yet to materialize. The film underperformed at the Japanese box office, with any hope for a Heaven’s Saga animated movie series dashed.
Nonetheless, Saint Seiya Overture remains worth watching, if only for the art direction and some of the shots. Toei has seemingly abandoned the film, as it is not even part of the Discotek Blu-ray collection for the Saint Seiya films that were released several years ago. Of all the Saint Seiya movies, it’s the most difficult to watch on legal streaming services. Even though the film’s story is objectively not great, there is a profundity with some of its images that makes it hard not to appreciate on some artistic level.
Saint Seiya: Next Dimensionthe manga follow-up by original series author Masami Kurumada, recently ended its run in July 2024, ending nearly the same way as Saint Seiya Overture. Seiya and Saori cross paths with each other, but neither recognizes the other, and they go their separate ways. Twenty years later, and the franchise is back to where it was. If only the brand accepted Saint Seiya Overturewe might have finally gotten our Heavens Saga.
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