This is the Saint Seiya gap year nobody filled: Saga is dead, Poseidon hasn't surfaced yet, and instead of following Seiya and the boys, you're stuck at Athena's side with the girls who actually guard her in person. Shoko is the hook. She's not a prodigy, she's a kid chasing her older sister Kyoko into the Sanctuary, and the Equuleus cloth she ends up in is about as low on the totem pole as armor gets. Then Eris and that golden apple turn the search-and-rescue plot into the worst possible outcome, where winning means hurting the one person you came for. The animation budget is not the reason you're here, and the show knows it, leaning on Kurumada-brand cosmo speeches and sisterly melodrama instead. If you've ever wanted the franchise's emotional register pointed at something other than punching your way up twelve houses, this is the one.

The story picks up right after the civil war that the Gemini Gold Saint Saga started, a conflict that put the whole Sanctuary in danger, and before the Poseidon arc of the original Saint Seiya. Where the original followed Seiya and his fellow Saints, this spinoff centers on Shō, a female Saintia who battles evil gods to protect the goddess Athena. Adapted from Kuori Chimaki's spinoff manga, this action adventure follows the girls who guard Athena through love and hard fights as they resist destiny and grow up.