Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary (Toei is spending 100 million dollars)

[Lord]

Toei animation is spending around 100 million Dollars on a CGI animated movie based on the hit manga and anime: Saint Seiya. Known also as "Knights of the Zodiac"

Trailer is already out:

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Poster with the main characters:

I was more surprised about the amount of money they spent than anything else, this is a large investment for a Japanese movie and is close to what an American Blockbuster spends. With how little it's known of this i wonder how they'll be able to get their money back, the designs alone may turn off a lot of people, and with Dragon Ball and One Piece, i don't remember how Saint Seiya was their main choice for a project of this size.

Either way i wish them hope, i guess we can count on it being released Internationaly, Universal Pictures is aparently going to be the company releasing it worldwide.

 

[Donut]

They could have done something epic with Dragonball with that budget

 

[Lord]

I wonder why they didn't just go with live-action, you could market it better that way, spend that money on people with experience that could bring in something the audience would buy and use decent actors. Dragon Ball and One Piece are much more popular than Saint Seiya, yet even a project like this would be very risky. They also have Sailor Moon, if they wanted to they could start producing live action films out of what they have, which if done risk would probably do better than this.

 

[Lord]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-30/japanese-box-office-june-21-22/.76114

So far it has made 2 million dollars in total, very smart business decision indeed. Toei's kinda dumb doing business, just last year they spent 30 million dollars in a captain Harlock movie, they give the best animation to other projects instead of giving it to franchises that deserve it like Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and One Piece.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Saint Seiya is huge, has a cult following, tone of merchandising and is no less deserving that Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon etc. It's a matter of opinion.
The Harlock movie was so remote from the show I saw as a kid that I was very disappointed.

Edit : well, huge but maybe not in the US apparently

 

[Lord]

It has potential to be a huge franchise if taken proper care of, i know about its following, but this project was just a realy bad decision, who spends this much money on a CGI film that may not even be able to be released worldwide?

Either way, regarding sales, the volumes of the new SS mangas still sell a fraction of the number of Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon or One Piece, even though it's quite big in certain countries.

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

I don't know, someone thought it was Ok to green light it and it might earn a profit with video sells.

 

[Lord]

Doubtful, the Evangelion films get 60 million at most, even their other animated film was a flop, they would need an unprecedent profit in order for the film to make its budget back.