Anime World Order Show # 220 – Witness the Beginning of Toei’s Dark Universe

This was originally the intro of Show 219, but it took a little longer to edit. So, PRESTO! In this, Show 220, Gerald–mere hours upon exiting the theater–shares his thoughts on the major critical and commercial disaster that every single one of us and every single one of you could see coming from a mile away, the 2023 live-action Knights of the Zodiac film adaptation of Saint Seiya. Despite originally recording this 3 weeks ago, we remain fairly confident that this is not something which you’ll have heard discussed to death by this point. Because that would have required people to SEE it! (We estimate the comments section will be the highest concentration online of people in the US who saw this movie. So…less than 10?)

No outlines or show notes for this one, really. The promo for Right Stuf Anime is from 21:13 – 23:52.

We last talked about Saint Seiya in Show 21 back in 2006.

I guess in the meantime you can watch the trailer and think “yeah, this was a bad idea.”

Or think about that recently unearthed from the Library of Congress pilot of “Guardians of the Cosmos” which was an attempt to make a more US TV-friendly animated version…and think “yeah, this was a bad idea.”

Or that live-action Starstorm pilot thing done around the time of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Or that CG Netflix one that everybody hated which this movie appears to be adapting itself from despite the aforementioned “that everybody hated.” You know what you can’t readily get, though? An unedited official English translation of the entire manga. Or the anime, for that matter. Hmm, you don’t suppose the reason “Saint Seiya will never be popular in the US, no matter how hard they try” is actually just because they’re not exactly trying properly? Maybe consider NOT putting the cart before the horse for once?

Don’t worry; we intend to release another episode in June that will be an actual anime review! Of something people like and you might have seen or heard about before, even!

4 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 220 – Witness the Beginning of Toei’s Dark Universe”

  1. I knew this was going to be a disappointing adaptation as soon as I saw the designs. That’s definitely not how you should convert those armors to live action.

    It has this tryhard “let’s go for dark and edgy vibe” which isn’t really how you should treat the property out of the gate. It might be too late to try again in another way, but…damn.

  2. I saw this movie as a choice of an upcoming movie in the Fandango app. I thought it was a live action Japanese adaptation not an actual international movie ie Dragonball Evolution. I couldn’t spend $15 for a bad movie. At least Shin Kamen Rider was more of a success for Toei in 2 days.

  3. Ima let you finish, but Chronicles of Riddick is a good space fantasy action movie. Dark Fury is koreanime. Peterchungime. [I mean, that’s what I said… —Daryl]

    Oh, and it hurts GI Samurai got a Bluray in Japan, but not in the west. I want to see it in HD but actually understand what they are saying. Without manually exracting subs from my old DVD copy.

  4. I have a new tagline for this movie: The custody battle between divorced parents becomes complicated as their daughter reaches puberty. Also featuring some guy in goofy armor.

    They did manage to use a couple of bars of Pegasus Fantasy, a slow orchestral version in the movie, it almost tricked me into thinking it was going to get good.

    I saw it opening day, I think there was maybe 6 other people in the theater. No clapping or cheering or anything, we all watched it and left.

    So Toei has this dreck and it gets national release and Shin Kamen Rider gets boutique limited hardly advertised release. Huh. I wish I could go see Shin KR again to wash the memory of Knights of the Whatever.

    Shin Kamen Rider was ‘HYPE!’ As I believe the kids say nowadays. Not perfect, I have some notes but DAY-AM! I want more. And maybe even a Shin Robot Detective film.

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