Podcast Saint Seiya · Podcast Saint Seiya

#097 | StarStorm! O Live-Action "Original" de Saint Seiya

·1 hr 13 min·6 clips

The Pegasus actor in the lost Saint Seiya live-action pilot was an adult film star.

1. Podcast Saint Seiya hosts Laura and Alan conduct a surprise live reaction to the Star Storm pilot after the previously scheduled guest Bruno could not attend. 2. Laura hosts while Alan contributes as a guest; the session also includes a live chat community called the Curumadistas, with participants including Pedro Lima, Jefferson Santos, Anderson Luiz, Ecos Digitais, Alberto Carlos Jr., and others. 3. The episode's core subject is the 1994 American live-action Saint Seiya pilot 'Star Storm,' produced by the Renaissance company, a competitor of Saban (the Power Rangers producer), and recently recovered by YouTuber Raymona. 4. Raymona spent an extended period investigating the lost production; she first found a prototype 2D animation called 'Guardians of the Cosmos,' then eventually the complete seven-minute pilot, which she published in a 35-minute documentary video. 5. The only prior evidence that Star Storm existed was a single Kurumada interview with French journalists in which he said he had not liked the result; no footage had been publicly available before Raymona's investigation. 6. The pilot was completed in December 1994 but sets its story in 2012, presumably to justify futuristic technology in the production design. 7. The plot follows Athena (named Karina) and her brother Bellatrix — a villain wanting to cleanse Earth of humanity — with the five knights chosen from birth by Karina herself, who is presented as a mythological entity rather than a reincarnating goddess. 8. The Kronos villain and Apollo-as-brother mythology anticipate later plot elements from the Saint Seiya anime's direct-to-video movies, prompting the hosts to joke that 'if you want to know what Kurumada will write after Next Dimension, watch Star Storm.' 9. Both performers playing Pegasus (one the 'mythological' version, one the active fighter in scenes) are identified by Raymona as having careers in adult film. 10. The armor design is assessed positively by both hosts as well-crafted for 1994, though the pieces are very small, barely covering the performers, with static non-moving wings. 11. The dragon knight Shiryu is depicted as a cyclops in the pilot; the hosts speculate this was designed to justify his power and his habit of fighting while blind, but find the execution comical. 12. Power-up sequences are described as static energy bolts rather than physical combat, which both hosts contrast unfavourably with Power Rangers' choreographed fight sequences. 13. The villain unexpectedly saves Athena at a moment when the Pegasus knight seems about to kill her — a plot element the hosts cannot explain from the seven-minute pilot alone. 14. The host who plays Athena/Karina is identified as having appeared in the 1994 Fox TV Generation X film (an X-Men adaptation), as well as other 1990s and 2000s productions. 15. The production company Renaissance is described as a rival to Saban that produced works in a similar style, including a Mortal Kombat-adjacent series the hosts cannot name. 16. The hosts speculate that Bandai commissioned the pilot to create a vehicle for selling the existing Saint Seiya doll line in the US market without acquiring Toei's anime rights. 17. Chat participants note that the armor in the pilot closely resembles the smaller-armored manga versions of the dolls rather than the anime versions. 18. The hypothetical question of whether Star Storm as a full series would have competed with Power Rangers is discussed seriously: Power Rangers succeeded despite being formulaic, while Masked Rider and Tattooed Warriors of Beverly Hills failed, making Star Storm's outcome genuinely unpredictable. 19. The episode ends with Alan declaring he can no longer complain about the 2023 Netflix Saint Seiya live-action film after watching Star Storm, and both hosts partially rehabilitating Star Storm for its armor quality. 20. Hardcore Saint Seiya fans with knowledge of the franchise's international adaptation history will find this most rewarding; casual viewers of the anime who are unfamiliar with the franchise's deeper lore will lack context for the character discussions.

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