Tomek (or Tomasz) Baginski’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Saint Seiya, otherwise dubbed Knights Of The Zodiac, is just weeks away from its subsequent releases in Japan and then in the U.S. between now and May. For this, it’s worth noting the importance of the study of a property’s origins before passing judgment on a project based on a certain thing, and I say this, especially to the marginal and often wilfully obtuse crowd of online movie curmudgeons and fandoms who enjoy doom-scrolling and tweet fighting and rage-baiting daily.
YouTuber and internet lost media sleuth Ray Mona did the work for us in her quest to dig into the history of Masami Kurumada’s popular manga franchise, Saint Seiya, which spawned several iterations of TV and OVA presentations, the latest of which includes Baginski’s movie from Sony Pictures, Stage6 Films, and Toei Animation. Her research looks into the Saint Seiya lore, and further spans months of effort to communicate with rights holders, producers, and anyone within range of the projects she uncovered, including an unaired American TV pilot known as StarStorm, and recently-unearthed episodes of America’s Saint Seiya push, “Guardians Of The Cosmos”. Her research dives deep into the reception and success of Saint Seiya in most territories around the world, including in Latin America, as well as the numerous trials by TV producers in the U.S. to make the original animated show more palatable for American viewers, and the disasters that followed.
Mona was also able to conduct at least one interview with Marlene Sharp, formerly of Renaissance Atlantic Marlene Sharp, who put together the twenty-second StarStorm promo for the fifteen-minute pilot before its abandonment by the studio, as well as by Kurumada. Topping it all off in the latter half of the second video is a presentation of one of the episodes of “Guardians Of The Cosmos,” which also lends a pretty nascent look at the design at the Americanized Seiya character which almost seems like a partial root inspiration for the armor design lead actor Mackenyu can be seen wearing in the footage presented in all the trailers and promos thus far.
I think it’s important to see these video essays by Mona to further educate and instill some understanding of the masses about what gets adapted and why. Most netizens are quick to flood any space with inaudible droll about what they think they know about the lore of an IP before segueing into indignant perorations about representation. It’s important because this was brought up time and again by the ill-advised pitchfork and torch mafia back in 2009 over Dragonball Evolution, and by the same idiots clutching their pearls over Jon Foo’s role in Dwight Little’s Tekken film a year later, fettering any legitimate discussions that could have been had about both films and what it was about them that failed and why.
I write all this whilst not having seen Knights Of The Zodiac yet, but knowing full well the importance of understanding an IP before judging its successors – advice long since handed to me oftentimes by many of the same people eager to get on social media and prove how right they are by saying all (or just a lot) of the wrong things. Of course, I’ll critique this film as usual when I see it, but I’m actually rooting for this film to be a success as well, in the sense that American audiences who see this film will go into it with an informed mindset and gauge it from there. No anti-Hollywood brouhaha required.
So, take 2.5 hours of your day, listen, learn, and enjoy, and definitely subscribe to Ray Mona’s channel as I have. Her videos are chock-filled with gems you can take plenty from if you’re all about fandom. Her IG is @theraymona.
