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NEWS: Live-Action Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac Film Unveils Cast, Staff

Well, I hope this turns out more like a Battle Angel Alita or Speed Racer and not a Dragon Ball Evolution, Death Note or Ghost in the Shell.
As an interesting aside, this in not the first Saint Seiya live action project, back in the 90s Bandai tried to make a live-action Saint Seiya show, probably due to the success of Power Rangers, it was going to be called StarStorm, there's only a clip available but it depicts the main Bronze Saints fighting against Cancer Deathmask. Seiya and Hyoga were played by white actors, Shiryu was still asian, Ikki was played by a black actor and Shun was played by a white woman. The armors looked more like the Myth Cloth figures from that time than the manga and anime designs. I wonder what would've happened if that adaptation got made, the anime already aired in Europe at that time but I think it was made before it premiered in Latin America. There isn't a clear reason why it wasn't made but Kurumada allegedly hated it.
It doesn't surprise me that the movie is being produced in China, the anime was pretty popular there as well. Changing the race of Mistumasa Akido feels kinda of weird, I guess they wanted to cast a well known actor like Sean Bean. Some were mentioning the Netflix show, which I didn't know changed most of the characters namesin the U.S., the dub version I saw still retained the Japanese names.

Sean Bean wrote:

"I've turned down stuff. I've said, 'They know my character's going to die because I'm in it!'. I just had to cut that out and start surviving, otherwise it was all a bit predictable,"

So yeah, I think Sean Bean is gonna be fine in this.

Now that Kozo Morishita is retired, I was actually hoping Toei would leave the Saint Seiya franchise alone for a while instead of tarnishing it with increasingly lackluster spin-offs and ill-conceived re-tellings of the Sanctuary arc, but I completely forgot that this stupid live-action movie was still happening. And I have to say the synopsis is even worse than I expected. I almost feel sorry for the actors, but hey, they got paid.

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glafrun wrote:

same I thought, I never watched saint seiya.. but to be fair the actual anime characters are pretty white looking lol... even so, this cast seems incredibly bland and trash. At the same time, in this instance I feel many times the anime artist are drawing white looking characters especially in older works and put the prospect of a hollywood movie in a lose-lose situation.

The characters in the manga/OG anime don't give the impression that the main characters are "white-looking" though. Going by their official nationality for the main cast, the only character that could get away with being white could be Cygnus Hyoga since he's half-russian IIRC, but the rest are Japanese. Anyway, no matter how much nitpicking I do for this, the movie already looks like trash, and the plot makes this movie seen like another one of the franchise's so many failed spin-off projects.

The Not so Chosen One wrote:

glafrun wrote: same I thought, I never watched saint seiya.. but to be fair the actual anime characters are pretty white looking lol... even so, this cast seems incredibly bland and trash. At the same time, in this instance I feel many times the anime artist are drawing white looking characters especially in older works and put the prospect of a hollywood movie in a lose-lose situation. The characters in the manga/OG anime don't give the impression that the main characters are "white-looking" though. Going by their official nationality for the main cast, the only character that could get away with being white could be Cygnus Hyoga since he's half-russian IIRC, but the rest are Japanese. Anyway, no matter how much nitpicking I do for this, the movie already looks like trash, and the plot makes this movie seen like another one of the franchise's so many failed spin-off projects.

I mean, I'm black... just to clarify... idk nothing about the show but doing a simple google they look white as hell in the anime photos. Maybe their names and origin aren't.. but they clearly look white.

glafrun wrote:

The Not so Chosen One wrote: glafrun wrote: same I thought, I never watched saint seiya.. but to be fair the actual anime characters are pretty white looking lol... even so, this cast seems incredibly bland and trash. At the same time, in this instance I feel many times the anime artist are drawing white looking characters especially in older works and put the prospect of a hollywood movie in a lose-lose situation. The characters in the manga/OG anime don't give the impression that the main characters are "white-looking" though. Going by their official nationality for the main cast, the only character that could get away with being white could be Cygnus Hyoga since he's half-russian IIRC, but the rest are Japanese. Anyway, no matter how much nitpicking I do for this, the movie already looks like trash, and the plot makes this movie seen like another one of the franchise's so many failed spin-off projects. I mean, I'm black... just to clarify... idk nothing about the show but doing a simple google they look white as hell in the anime photos. Maybe their names and origin aren't.. but they clearly look white.

The short response is that these characters looks Japanese to people in Japan. People from different societies think the same characters looks "Caucasian" or "Asian,” thanks to cues or markers instilled by the society they grew up in.

A 2004 essay by Rachel Thorn, a Kyoto Seika University professor on manga, is still one of the best breakdowns on the subject:

https://www.en.matt-thorn.com/single-post/2016/04/16/do-manga-characters-look-white

Egan Loo wrote:

glafrun wrote: The Not so Chosen One wrote: glafrun wrote: same I thought, I never watched saint seiya.. but to be fair the actual anime characters are pretty white looking lol... even so, this cast seems incredibly bland and trash. At the same time, in this instance I feel many times the anime artist are drawing white looking characters especially in older works and put the prospect of a hollywood movie in a lose-lose situation. The characters in the manga/OG anime don't give the impression that the main characters are "white-looking" though. Going by their official nationality for the main cast, the only character that could get away with being white could be Cygnus Hyoga since he's half-russian IIRC, but the rest are Japanese. Anyway, no matter how much nitpicking I do for this, the movie already looks like trash, and the plot makes this movie seen like another one of the franchise's so many failed spin-off projects. I mean, I'm black... just to clarify... idk nothing about the show but doing a simple google they look white as hell in the anime photos. Maybe their names and origin aren't.. but they clearly look white. The short response is that these characters looks Japanese to people in Japan. People from different societies think the same characters looks "Caucasian" or "Asian,” thanks to cues or markers instilled by the society they grew up in. A 2004 essay by Rachel Thorn, a Kyoto Seika University professor on manga, is still one of the best breakdowns on the subject: https://www.en.matt-thorn.com/single-post/2016/04/16/do-manga-characters-look-white

Yea, this just isn't true lol. I've lived in japan and have close friends from there.. the people I've talked to that wouldn't lie about something trivial like this doesn't agree. Some anime characters do... but many Obviously don't and it's more about them thinking white people look cool rather than thinking that's how they look. Lol