Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter - Elysion

The final segment of the Hades Arc is overall mediocre. After having Inferno deviate away from the typical formula of the series, the final segment with the battles against Thanatos/Hypnos and Hades is the typical tale of Seiya getting a miraculous power up and the main cast overcoming their foe with the power of friendship, not to mention said climax being rushed and bland. It also doesn't help that it features other cheap plot contrivances such as Pandora's sudden change of heart or Seika suddenly getting over amnesia. One minor thing that disappointed me as well was the lack of the Athena Exclamation. It's introduction inthe first act of the arc seemed like it would be foreshadowing for a later use, plus Thanatos being unaffected by it would really push forward the idea of how strong he was. Instead, we get an anime-exclusive scene of the Gold Saints just using their signature attacks. That's not to say I dislike everything about the arc. The arc does a far better job at presenting the power of a God and the sense of tension as well as race against time are far better than in the Poseidon Arc. It was also good to see Athena be more than a damsel in distress and Seiya's fate at the end provided a pretty solid sense of repercussion to the climax (at least until both Next Dimension and Omega ruin this aspect). As for characters, art/animation and sound, there's not much to say. The latter two remain unchanged from Inferno, whilst the characters don't really offer much personal engagement beyond a few highlights such as the reveal of Seika pushing forth Seiya's character arc or the supporting cast such as Marin and Shaina having their moment to shine. The three main villains of Elysion are overall bland in personality and only memorable in design. As a whole, the Hades Arc started off good, but was ultimately disappointing by not being able to avoid some of the series pitfalls. It was definitely better than the Poseidon Arc due to a genuine sense of loss, establishing the power of a God far better and not sticking quite as heavily to the Sanctuary Arc structure, but was still nowhere near the peak of the series and remains average overall. The highlights and it's ending still allow it to be a better final arc than most Battle Shonen can hope to achieve, though that's really not saying much. Overall ranking for both Elysion and the Hades Arc as a whole - 5/10

The actual conclusion, the final clash, which leaves in some respects a feeling of disappointment. *SPOILER* After the sacrifice of the golden knights and the destruction of the wall, the protagonists set off (for the umpteenth time) to rescue Athena, in the Elysium. The clashes with the last specters quickly end, and there is a good flashback with Pandora (perhaps the only good thing about this final piece). The battle is in the Elysium, against the gods, Hades and two of his followers, Hypnos and Thanathos, obviously much stronger than the protagonists. Here we have gods, very powerful beings, who can't kill 5 kids (because the protagonists can'tdie at any cost), and not even marginal characters left on Earth, ridiculous. We then have Poseidon who, after having sworn revenge before being sealed, suddenly becomes good and helps the protagonists, sending the golden armors. Gold armors that will be destroyed in 2 seconds by Thanathos, yeah. Then Seiya, and following his friends, make yet another senseless miracle, divine armors, and defeat the twin gods easily. Clash with Hades, the final boss, fast, fight dominated by him, until "the power of love" arrives. THE END. Besides being totally devoid of logic and disappointing as a final, it leaves the impression of a hasty closure. Without mentioning, Seiya's sister. It was one of the main themes for the protagonists, ended up on the third floor, although during the series many clues were launched towards Marin, the Pegasus teacher. But no, Seiya's sister is found at random, and they don't even meet. A "mystery" solved at random. The only nice thing about the Elysium would be that Seiya dies, but unfortunately this fact was changed by the author about 15 years after the end of the manga (first with the movie Tenkai-Hen, and later with Next Dimension).

Overall: (6.5 / 10) The truth is that to be the "final" arc of a whole story that lasted for so long and transcended between different generations, I had much more expectations in this regard. I am one of those who grew up watching this series on television until the "Poseidon" saga and then I had to lose track of it until now, but let's return to the present. Strictly speaking of these "Elysion" OVAs, they were very brief and with a forced history rhythm. I do not consider that the battles seen against Thanatos and Hypnos, including Hades himself represent their true powers, since it wouldfinally take at least 3 or 4 more chapters to develop good battles, but they cut everything due to the time that these 6 chapters gave. In the same way, the plot in general was felt, as in the case of Pandora's Death, which is quite questionable, being very superficial and transmitting nothing to the viewer. Also added the partition of Seiya's sister in all this, it seems that they put her only to be the focus Thanatos, since there were never any real clues of her and suddenly she appears with Marin as if nothing, only to give an excuse to the Power Up of our protagonist. Last but not least, the battle against Hades. Honestly it did not feel like such, it was just an average battle that they had to put in by obligation to end at once, and it did not really matter if this was able to reach some kind of empathy to the viewer, they just put it in and that's it. The "death of Seiya" is so fast that they don't give time to anything if he wants to say goodbye as he deserves. I clarify that I am aware that there is a film from "Tenkai-hen" that is later, but no matter how much they make up this does not remove the disappointment that it leaves. Version en Español: General: (6,5 / 10) La verdad es que para ser el arco "final" de toda una historia que perduro durante tanto tiempo y trascendió entre distintas generaciones tenia muchas mas expectativas al respecto. Soy de los que se crió viendo esta serie por televisión hasta la saga de "Poseidon" y luego me toco perderle el rastro hasta ahora, pero volvamos al presente. Hablando estrictamente de estas OVA "Elysion", se las vio muy resumidas y con ritmo de la historia forzoso. No considero que las batallas vistas contras Thanatos e Hypnos, inclusive el mismo Hades representen sus verdaderos poderes, ya finalmente llevaría al menos 3 o 4 capitulos mas desarrollar buenas batallas, pero recortaron todo debido al tiempo que daban estos 6 capítulos. De igual manero se sintió la trama en general, como en el caso de la Muerte de Pandora que es bastante cuestionable siendo muy superficial y no transmitiendo nada al espectador. También sumado la partición de la hermana de Seiya en todo esto, que pareciera que la pusieron solo para ser el foco Thanatos, ya que nunca hubo pistas verdaderas de ella y de repente aparece con Marin como si nada, solo para dar una excusa al Power Up de nuestro protagonista. Ya por último y no por ello menos importante, la batalla contra Hades. Sinceramente no se sintió como tal, solo fue una batalla promedio que debían meter por obligación para terminar de una vez, y no importo verdaderamente si esto era capaz de llegarle algún tipo empatía al espectador, solo lo metieron y listo. La "muerte de Seiya" es tan veloz que no dan tiempo a nada si quiera de darle una despedida como mereciera. Aclaro que estoy al tanto de que resta una película de "Tenkai-hen" que es posterior, pero por mas que maquillen esto no quita la desilusión que deja.

I enjoyed the Hades arc when it started but the arc to got more boring as it went on. I can't really put my finger around it, the fact that they spent multiple episodes fighting 2 gods when they already spent episodes fighting the Spectres, the "God Clothes" came out of nowhere, Hades gets beaten in a super anti climatic way with Saori beating him with the power of "love". Seiya's sister coming out of nowhere and despite Sanctuary attacking Marin for being Japanese, no one ever even spotted or even noticed that there was another Japanese woman in Sanctuary before she showed up, alot of the other characters mostly being sidelined and were just cheerleaders. The amount of times characters die, get brought back and then die again. The ending being super anti climatic. Honestly, by the time I was done this part of the arc, I was glad it was all over. Not because it's bad but it was really starting wear out it's welcome both the arc and the tropes the series loves to pull as a whole like characters dying but then coming back then dying again, Saori getting kidnapped or is a damsel in every arc(seriously the reincarnation of Athena in this series was basically a purple haired Princess Peach), and the fights being special move spamming and then the characters saying, "the same move doesn't work twice" just to spam the same attacks again, all of it was just starting to get tiresome. I did wish the ending was better so I could've felt satisfied when I got to the end but I am left underwhelmed. I get a lot of the behind the scenes drama regarding the series, and the whole thing reminds me of something that would happen in Marvel and DC with editors disagreeing with what the creators want but all of it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I wish I can say I got *something* from watching the Hades OVAs and the Overtrue movie, but all I get is just is "why did I bother?" I am sounding like a downer but that's how I felt.