Preview: Saint Seiya Omega

Saint Seiya Omega is a non-canonic sequtel to the original story, which continues in the SS Next Dimension manga. The anime starts showig Saori and a baby in the Sanctuary. Suddenly, a villain named Mars (I think it has something to do with Ares) attacks and wounds Saori's arm. Seiya shows up in the Sagittarius cloth and rescues them. Fifteen years later, the baby, called Kouga is now a teenageger that lives in a remote island with Saori and her buttler, Tatsumi. He is also being unwillingly trained to be a Saint by Shaina. Mars attacks again and Kouga, who didn't believe in Athena, learns that the goddess he was supposed to protect was Saori. Mars tries to capture Saori and defeats Shaina. Kouga decides to save Saori and the pendant she had given him summons the Pegasus Cloth, since carrying the cloth around in a box is so 80's. Seiya talks to Kouga through the armor and Kouga's cosmo and Kouga uses Pegasus Meteor Fist. But he fails to save Saori and decides to go in a journey after her. This journey takes him to new friends and to Palaestra a school for Saints.

It isn't clear if Seiya is alive or not. The music is similar to the original series and the new version of Pegasus Fantasy isn't bad. The animation and the voice acting are ok. The new chara design is different, but is somewhat similar to Shingo Araki's in the original. It isn't as good as Lost Canvas', but it isn't bad. The problem is the art style. It's too simple and it has few details. And what's worse, they simplified the Cloths' designs, which are one of SS's coolest things. So far, only Okada in Episode G had changed the Cloths, but he did it to add more details (I prefer the originals), not remove them.

Kouga is that guy that knows nothing, but has limitless potential. Lionet Souma, Kouga's 1st friend is a cheerful guy, but also hot-headed. Aquila Yuna is a levelheaded bronze Saint (Aquila is a bronze Cloth in Omega) and Dragon Ryuho, Shiryu's son, is a very talented Saint, but he is one of those characters with a weak body so commonly found in anime.

The plot is simple as usual, but it has some holes that made me nervous. Female Saints mus wear masks. But Yuna just decides she won't wear and they use a totally lame reason for that. It would be better if they just said: well, we want a main girl, but she can't have her face covered, so we took her mask. Not only that, but the school is ok with that. And she is the only one to do it. Worse, Kouga is almost suspended for not obeying the curfew, but they're totally ok with Yuna breaking Athena's order from the mythological times?

The whole school for Saints is also weird, since in the original you were already trained after you became a Saint. And they created an element system. It would be interesting, if it wasn't completely ripped off from Naruto...

The series might end up being fun. It's SS after all. But it began with the wrong foot.