>>8035125I agree that it was hype as shit because of the Sanctuary Chapter of Hades, which is great. How the dead gold saints outplay both Hades and their vows to Athena, Kanon in general, Shaka's fight against Saga's group, the way Hades feels like a mysterious otherwordly threat because of how everyone is scared shitless of him, Shion's final conversation with Dohko; some of these are among the best moments in Saint Seiya IMO though it's kind of ruined by the asspull that was the bronze saints reaching the eight sense out of nowhere but it doesn't ruin this section overall.
Then you get to the Inferno Chapter and nothing feels like it's at stake. Almost every specter is either a joke character, one shoot, or a jobber that can't even manage to create a sense of threat; most floors are walked through in an instant as if they were chores; most Specters are beaten in one hit as if they were chores. Fucking Garuda is slapped out of the manga by Ikki without putting up a fight. The Orpheus mini-arc and Pandora's development were great but those were the only good things about Inferno.
You might notice that I kind of fixated too much on the fights here but that's because a lot of the dramatism in Saint Seiya comes from their opponents being seemingly unbeatable. Kurumada could've also fleshed out the motivations of Hades' army better through its soldiers as he did before but instead he just writes a bunch of one dimensional jobbers that accomplish nothing.
I haven't caught up with Next Dimension yet but I can confidently say that Elysium is the worst arc in all of Saint Seiya. The fight with the twin gods is so weird and rushed that it starts distorting the difference in power between mortals and gods, and that part where Hades' spirit comes out and is all like "what are you doing? no! don't enter that tomb! mortals can't enter that tomb! noooooooooo!" is laughable.
I think it's a shame that Kurumada did that after such a good set up.
