Aries Mu

In Saint Seiya, the Cloths are a sign of strength granted only to the most powerful fighters in the world. Those mythical armors, however, require a special person to repair them; that person is Mu of Jamir.

We first encounter him when Shiryu seeks his skills to repair the Pegasus and Dragon armor that were damaged during the Galaxian War.

In the Sanctuary Arc, the Bronze Saints are lucky to encounter Mu, now revealed to be the Gold Saint of Aries, at the first temple.

Mu does not impede the progress of the Bronze Saints past his temple, because he knows that they are the ones fighting for Athena. Instead, Mu fixes their Cloths for the battle that is about to ensue. Mu serves as a close ally to the Bronze Saints during most of the series.

It is not until the Hades Chapter that Mu’s power is revealed. Using his Crystal Wall and Starlight Extinction techniques, Mu single-handedly fends off the resurrected Pisces and Cancer Saints.

His techniques are a deadly combination of power and psychokinesis. Later on he teams up with Leo and Scorpio in countering Gemini, Aquarius, and Capricorn, who use the forbidden Athena Exclamation in order to advance towards Athena.

Aries Mu comes in the signature EX box designed after the Pandora boxes in which the Saint store their Cloths.

In this case the Pandora box stores three plastic trays that hold all of the goodies for this toy.

We also get a nice glossy sleeve, with pictures of the toy, which goes over the box.

Aries, like the other characters in the EX line, sports a brand new body designed specifically for the line. The EX body borrows many of the articulation points from the Generation Three Saint Cloth Myth bodies, but is a little taller and much slimmer.

The reason that Bandai opted for an anorexic physique for the figures is to allow for better proportions when the armor is attached.

With this release we actually get treated to extra parts that allow for the creation of two different object modes.

The Aries object of the anime series uses the skirt armor as the face (and the face as the top of the head… kind of disturbing looking; it is like somebody snapped the poor ram’s head back).

We also get the object mode from the manga, which is almost the same as the anime version, except no creepy face on the back of the head. This is the one I like the best out of the two, because it looks the most like the ram of the Aries constellation/zodiac sign.

You can also use the segmented horns to display Aries Mu as he appears in the manga ( well kind off , since Kurumada used different colors for the character).

As with the other Ex Gold Saints, Aries Mu comes with a sweet three-piece plastic cape for all your dramatic-looking cape-posing needs.

We are treated to four face sculpts with Aries Mu, although that is one less than the previous two EX releases. It makes sense, however, that he would have less face plates, since both Gemini Saga and Leo Aioria had evil face plates and Aries Mu has always been on the side of good.

Making up for the loss of one face plate is a nice assortment of hair pieces, including the one on the far right that is meant to be used along with the helmet (which Mu rarely wears).

Each of the hair sculpts is very nicely detailed; you can see the individual strands of hair flowing down the back of Mu. This is a vast improvement over the hair of the old line, which looked more like a single mass of hair.

Bandai has also included five sets of hands, as well as the tools that Mu uses to repair armor.

The majority of the armor is made of diecast. A substantial amount of the armor, however, is made of plastic: the helmet, the covers for the top of hands, the plates for the midsection, the diamond that attaches to the front of the wait armor, and the horns.

I have two things that I did not like about the figure. First, you can see where the solid horns were cut at the factory. This is really annoying because it messes with the aesthetic of having a nice, clean, shiny horns on the figure. Considering the Mu from the original line and the Appendix did not have such obvious cut markings, it is a wonder why Bandai got lazy with what they are claiming to be the superior representation of Aries Mu. Second, there is a weird open space left between the shoulder pad and the body of the figure. This is not visible with Leo and Gemini, because their shoulder armor attaches to the sides of the chest armor; however, with Aries the shoulder armor clips onto the shoulder leaving that weird space that gives us a glimpse at the anorexic little man under the armor.

The EX release of Aries Mu is slimmer and taller than its predecessor. The color of the armor has also been changed from the rustic orange and yellow of the original release to a golden yellow.

The EX Mu also has a much better face sculpt than the original release.

This is another great addition to the EX line. Some may be skeptical to throw down some more money on a character that they already own, but I think that these figures are worth the money. Thanks to the EX body and the newly engineered waist and torso of the EX line, you can get the extreme poses that were impossible to attain with the original release. I, for one, cannot wait for the EX Scorpio to be released, since I will now be able to display Aries, Leo, and Scorpio performing the forbidden technique: Athena Exclamation!

Although you will have to prop up one of his legs to get a proper Athena Exclamation pose.

For those wondering what the EX means in the line, it was actually partially derived from name of the forbidden move that only three gold saints can perform: The Athena (EX)clamation.