Two decades after its rise to anime fame, Saint Seiya remains one of the most iconic and influential series in the genre. While many fans are familiar with the anime, manga, and animated movies tied to the franchise, there has always been a shadow of mystery surrounding a lost live-action adaptation. Seint Seiya fan Ray Mona was finally able to reveal a lost piece of history. In a documentary uploaded to YouTube, Ramona revealed the complete episodes of the live-action Saint Seiya series. A treasure trove that has been speculated about for over 20 years.

The Discovery of the Lost Episode by Ray Mona

In a remarkable turn of events, Ray Mona, a Saint Seiya superfan and content creator, managed to track down the long-lost live-action pilot. Mona had spent years searching for rare and forgotten media related to the series, and after a year-long investigation, the fruits of his labor were finally revealed. In his YouTube documentary, Mona detailed the thrilling process of finding the pilot, which was part of a larger documentary project called The Secret Stories of Saint Seiya. The documentary also explored Mona’s previous discovery, Guardians of the Cosmos, another canceled Saint Seiya project.

The newly recovered pilot, known as StarStorm, has now been made available for fans to watch for the very first time. For many, this is a major event in the history of the franchise. “Thank you for your patience,” Mona said in his documentary. “I love my viewers very much and feel very fortunate to have been able to find so much lost material over the past three years.”

Renaissance Atlantic and the Power Rangers Connection

The lost pilot StarStorm was developed by Renaissance Atlantic, the production company that was responsible for the highly successful Power Rangers series. With the success of Power Rangers in the 1990s, Renaissance Atlantic hoped to replicate that formula with Saint Seiya for the Western market. The company believed that Saint Seiya could be reimagined in a similar style, drawing on the popularity of action-packed, live-action series featuring heroes and villains with elaborate costumes and martial arts-based battles.

A New Hope for Saint Seiya Live-Action Fans

While the StarStorm project never made it to the big screen, fans of the series were not left entirely without a live-action adaptation. In 2017, Toei Animation, the studio behind the original Saint Seiya anime, announced that it would be producing a new live-action film. This time, Polish director Tomasz Baginski was brought on board to helm the project, with actor Mackenyu starring as Seiya, the protagonist of the series. After several years of development, the film was finally released in April 2023, bringing a new live-action interpretation of Saint Seiya to a global audience.

The uncovering of this long-lost episode has reignited excitement in the fan community and given them a deeper appreciation for the complexities and challenges that arise when adapting beloved anime series into live-action formats.