Saint Seiya Lost Canvas final promo!

This is the promo for final episodes of the second season, which correspond to episodes 24 to 26.

Exciting to say the least!

Good news for Toei Animation!! Finally!!

Toei Animation reported earlier this month that its operating income from overseas copyright licensing is increasing 66% or about 500 million yen (about US$6 million) during the fiscal year ending in March of 2012, compared to the previous year. In particular, sales of character goods are growing in China and Europe.

Sales in licensing are projected to rise 66% to the range of 1 billion yen (US$12 million) in the current fiscal year. Sales of Saint Seiya T-shirts are launching in China in collaboration with a local company, and these sales are expected to lift Toei's income from licensing. Similarly, One Piece, Precure, and other franchises are being merchandised as items such as toys and stationery in Europe.

President Hiroshi Takahashi added that the domestic licensing business is off to a good start this fiscal year, but the business is still feeling the unavoidable impact of the previous year's downturn.

Source: Nikkei, ANN

I think this has mostly to do with the success of the Lost Canvas series, how it's raising the awareness of the Saint Seiya franchise, as for One Piece, I think that speaks for itself with its millions of fans around the world that buy and collect the merchandise.

Toei Animation Incorporated got sued for 1 billion!

Japanese studio Toei Animation announced that a man, named Isaac A. Potter, Jr, filed a lawsuit against Toei's American subsidiary, Toei Animation Incorporated (TAI), over rights related to the Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya in Japanese) anime series.

Potter alleges that TAI's Knights of the Zodiac infringed on his copyrights and trademarks. In addition to TAI, Potter named the United States of America as a defendant. Potter is seeking an injunction against TAI, US$1 billion in punitive damages, and additional statutory damages.

Toei adapted Masami Kurumada's 1986-1990 mythological fantasy manga Saint Seiya into a 1986-1989 television anime series of the same name. ADV Films and DiC Entertainment released the anime in North America in two versions: a version with English subtitles under the original name, and a version with English dubbing under the name Knights of the Zodiac. As such, Toei filed for registration on a U.S. trademark on "Knights of the Zodiac" for animation, trading cards, clothing, and toys on May 20, 2002, and received the registration on May 20, 2008. The dubbed Knights of the Zodiac version premiered on the American Cartoon Network on August 30, 2003.

The plaintiff and his brother Samuel J. Potter, under the name Potter Boys' Creations, obtained copyright protection for a drawing entitled "Zodiac Knights 2000" on October 10, 1995. They then filed a U.S. trademark for "Zodiac Knights 2000 ZK" for clothing, games, advertising, and other services on February 24, 1997, although the status of this trademark has been "abandoned" and "dead" since April 9, 1998. They also filed the trademark "Zodiac Knights 2000" separately in Indiana on March 1, 2004, and the status of that registration is "live."

In May of 2003, the Potters published a book called Zodiac Knights 2000 Featuring Creatures of the Knights: Creatures of the Knights (A New Era). Potter used the services of 1st Book Publishing, a company that offers to print books for authors seeking to self-publish their works.

Toei consulted with its legal representation and asserts that it finds no legal grounds for the plaintiff's current lawsuit. Toei said that it will fight the suit and could try to dismiss it. The studio added that it does not believe the suit will affect its business.

Talk about absurd!!! Looks like someone wants to churn money out of the wrong pothole!!!

Toei confirms that there's a new Saint Seiya movie in the works

But it will be a CGI one, which could mean a slap in the face for the hardcore old-school fans that hated the 3D effects in the first Ovas of Hades Sanctuary.

However, the plot could turn out interesting, if they follow the Tenkai-hen saga, and have a Final Fantasy feel to it.

The film marks the 25th anniversary of this classic cult series by Masami Kurumada.

There's even a stream trailer available on Toei's official page.

Crunchyroll will stream Saint Seiya Lost Canvas OVAs!

The first two episodes of the second season of this series are scheduled to be released on Crunchyroll on the same date as their DVD release in Japan, that is, on February 23rd.

The series will also only be available (in theory) to users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Finally! Lost Canvas second season teaser!

Despite not having precisely the best acceptance among the purist fans of Saint Seiya, the second season of this series continues with its second season, set to premiere directly DVD/BD on February 23rd.

Curiosities: where does the term 'yaoi' come from?

'Yaoi' can be considered an interchangeable term with 'shonen-ai', meaning 'boy's love' or any story whose protagonists are males that have great chemistry, and the possibility of becoming an actual homosexual couple is always foreshadowed.

But 'yaoi' stories go beyond that and are more explicit in their content, featuring more 'slash' situations.

Believe it or not, the term comes from Saint Seiya slash fanarts from the 80's! 'Yaoi' referred to the potential pairings between the protagonists of the series, especially with Shun of Andromeda.

And after recalling the infamous classic scene with Hyoga in the House of Libra, well...



Now you know where 'Yaoi' comes from :)

And don't forget Aphrodite of Pisces!



Yaoi situations can always potentially emerge in series where all protagonists are boys or men and they practice activities that are supposedly oh-so-masculine, like being samurais, warriors or ninjas. Just ask Naruto and Sasuke ;)

Is Saint Seiya such a commercial failure?

With the news of the second season of Lost Canvas making it straight into DVD rather than being aired on Japanese TV, I can't help but ponder what's going on with this classic series by Masami Kurumada.

The classic 1986 series had the seal of character animators Shingo Araki and  Michi Himeno, which marked an important point in the making of future anime series.  

Despite being a cult 80's hit with 114 episodes and 5 movies, the making of the Hades saga into anime took 12 years when the first OVAS of Chapter Sanctuary came out in 2002.

It's important to note that the Saint Seiya anime had huge success in Europe and Latin America, but this series wasn't dubbed to English until 2003, when it aired on Cartoon Network, and even then, only 32 episodes were aired. English speaking audiences still have to conform to English subtitles IF they buy the DVDs.

The quality of the first 13 OVAS was phenomenal and they were aired by Animax channel, but you could slowly see a decline in the Inferno Chapter, until we got to see the abysmal and embarrasing Elysium Chapter that put an indefinite and low-key end to the classic manga's adaptation.







Just when you thought that Saint Seiya was done for, a new manga based on the previous life incarnation of the original story characters came out and it's none other than Lost Canvas.

This new version by mangaka Shiori Teshirogi, started to be serialized in 2006 in Weekly Shonen Champion magazine by Akita Shoten, and as of today it has achieved 20 volumes, having a great reception among fans. Then why is the anime adaptation a failure? Quality is not an issue here as the episodes are greatly animated, have great pacing and follow the storyline to a T. Its style is quite reminiscent of D-Grayman.


However, it doesn't seem to have a good reception among the die-hard, purist fans who are not fond of the new drawing style and the look of the armors, aside from being dissapointed on how the last OVAS of the classic series were done in such an anticlimatic quality.

Plus, it has been a frequent complaint that the storyline of Lost Canvas is almost the same as the original, with slightly few variations that allows us to explore certain characters that weren't explored in the classic manga.



Saint Seiya's success has been quite a mixed bag, with more than 25 million copies of the manga sold worldwide, it made the 25th place in TV Asahi's list of the 100 most popular television series, and it has inspired many artists like Tite Kubo himself.

Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas will have a second season!

The series will keep having an OVA format and will not be broadcast on television like the first season was. This is due to the poor ratings the first season received in Japan, and companies are not willing to allot for 13-episode seasons when the format is 26 episodes per season. :(

This was all according to a TMS Entertainment spokesman at the "XVI Salón del Manga" convention in Barcelona, Spain.

The second season will premiere on February of next year and it will be a straight to DVD/BD release.

Quite a mixed bag, isn't it?

(source: AnimeNation)

This week's featured AMV! (14)

The featured video of this week is a tribute to Camus of Aquarius, the cold and mysterious Gold no Saint from Saint Seiya.

Not to mention that he's probably the most hand drawn beautiful guy ever!!! Shingo Araki's art puts all bishonens to shame!



Video done by Amarichanek of Youtube. The song is 24 by Jem.