viernes, 25 de abril de 2008

Saint Seiya


By: Hugo Cesar
Saint Seiya, also known as Knights of the Zodiac, is a manga series authored by Masami Kurumada, and later adapted to anime. The story follows five mystical warriors called the "Saints" (or "Knights"; the kanji is properly read as sei-tōshi "holy fighter" but the furigana has it pronounced "saint") who have adopted various constellations as their guardian symbols. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1987, but was cancelled in 1989 due to low ratings of the manga and anime. In 2002 Toei produced Saint Seiya: Hades, which continues adapting the manga story arcs that remained pending to be adapted to animation when the anime was cancelled in 1989.
Athena's Cloths
Characteristics: Athena's Cloths were fashioned by a lost tribe of smiths, and were actually the second group of Cloths created (as far as it is presently known). They were created to protect Athena's Saints in her first confrontation with Poseidon. Each of Athena's Cloth represents a constellation. Also, Athena represents justice and righteousness, and as such, if a Saint acts in a severely undignified manner, his Cloth will abandon him (as the Cancer Gold Cloth abandoned Deathmask due to his behavior).
Many Cloths lie "dead" in the "Cloth Cemetery" which is located in the mountains of Jamir. These dead Clothes were left there by perished Saints who wanted to reach the Aries Saint, Mu, so that he could repair their Cloths. The harsh journey before reaching Mu proved dangerous, or even fatal, for most Saints. A theory in the Saint Seiya taizen states that it was actually Mu who moved there because the previous battle with Hades took place there and left all the damaged cloths.
If a cloth has been damaged it can be repaired inside its respective "Box of Pandora". However only small damages can be repaired, otherwise one would have to seek out a person who knows how to repair them thoroughly. When a cloth is damaged to pieces along with its owner dead, the cloth will revert to a less powerful state when revived and repaired. There's three different kinds of boxes, 12 Gold for the Gold Cloths, 24 Silver for the Silver Cloths and 48 Stone for the Bronze Cloths. The 48 in Stone have due to their lower power status, a handle with a chain that opens the box whereas the others are relied on the owners cosmo to be opened.
In the Saint Seiya universe, there are 88 Cloths, each representing one of the 88 constellations. They are divided into 3 categories, from the weakest to the strongest: 48 Bronze Cloths, 24 Silver Cloths, and 12 Gold Cloths. The databook named "Cosmo Special" explains that there are also 4 Cloths which are still unaccounted for. However, in the Episode G manga and on some action-figures packaging, it is said that there are 52 Bronze Cloths. The theory is that 4 cloths became God Cloths, in according to Hypnos' statement that there haven't been any since mythological times. Vol. 24 of the manga positions Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun under the Argo Navis constellation, which may indicate that the 4 missing Cloths are of the four Argo Navis constellations: Vela, Pyxis, Carina and Puppis. In the Saint Seiya Encyclopedia, it says that the Graad foundation started piecing together some of the Cloths from the "Cloth Graveyard". And thus we got to see the Bronze Caelum cloth and the Sculptor Cloth whose owners has the duty of repairing cloths with. The Silver Cup (Crater) Cloth which owner has the duty of medic. And lastly the Silver Altar (Ara) Cloth, which owner has the duty of following the Pope around like a shadow and be his bodyguard.

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