The Throwback: One of my Favourite Cartoons as a Child
Source: Manga UK
For most children that grew up in the 90s, Saturday morning programming was a sacred ritual. No one could tell me any different — there was always time to binge on cartoons! One must always make time for cartoons. Always. I mean, I could have cared less about spending time working on memorizing multiplication tables or working on sucking less at long division — The Animaniacs were on! Every weekend I would routinely wake up ridiculously early, run down the stairs at break-neck speed, and plop down in front of the television sitting only inches away from the screen as I couldn’t afford to miss a single thing. While downing sour cream and onion chips (at 7am… The breakfast of champions, I know), the synth-heavy, guitar-riff saturated theme songs of the shows I loved began to play. I, of course, knew every word to their sometimes cringingly cheesy theme songs (and still do). A huge one for me was Saint Seiya, also known as Knights of the Zodiac to North American viewers.
Created in Japan, the anime followed the story of 13-year-old boys that trained to become soldiers for their leader, the reincarnation of Athena — the mythological Greek goddess of love, justice, war and sworn protector of Earth. Pegasus Seiya, along with Dragon Shiryu, Cygnus Yoga, Andromeda Shun, and Phoenix Ikki furiously burned their “Cosmo”, the spiritual power encapsulated by all existing things, in order to attack and defend. The anime was quite gory at times, but ultimately Seiya and his friends were able to overcome adversity and ward off evil. The main character and his companions in union under their goddess Athena were represented by their guardian constellations, and were named as such, donning sacred thematically fitting armour given the moniker “Cloths”. In addition to this, there were three main ranks for the soldiers within Athena’s army: Bronze Saints (where the main protagonist and his companions begin), Silver Saints, and Gold Saints being the highest and the most revered. In some instances, the five protagonists created miracles through sheer passion and unrelenting spirit, reaching newer levels of strength and power that rivaled even the most decorated Gold Saint. This show was (and still is) my absolute favourite anime, as it taught the importance of never giving up especially in times where all hope is seemingly lost. In hindsight, I will admit that it is a little weird and slightly off-putting that they all basically started out as child soldiers, although their physiques do not suggest it.
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