Knights of the Zodiac

(Viz, 2003–Present)
™ and © Viz Communications, Inc.
Black and white series; read right to left.

For a kid’s fighting manga done in a simple cute manga style, this has an unbelievably cruel and brutal premise: The pluck-and-hard-luck hero Seiya is one of the lucky 10 out of the original 100 obviously expendable orphans who manage to survive gaining super-powers the Japanese way, by training really, really hard. This is all done for some mysterious higher purpose by “Lord” Nobu, whose work is carried on by “Princess” Sienna. (How a dubious lord can produce a spurious Princess isn’t explained.) Clearly, she’s supposed to be our heroine, in spite of the flashback in which she treats young Seiya like a slave and demands to ride him like a pony. That is, in a nutshell, what’s wrong with this series. While it has all the trappings of a successful manga franchise, heroes with cool Greco-Roman names and outfits who are compelled to shout out the names of their signature finishing moves, it just doesn’t have the characters. Sure, kids want action, but without anyone the reader can feel for or believe in, it’s just an empty exercise.

— S.A. Bennett

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