聖闘士星矢

SAINT SEIYA

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
114
RELEASE
April 1, 1989
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Ages ago, the goddess Athena was served by fighters called Saints who channeled the power of the Cosmos within them. Now a youth named Seiya has trained to become a Saint himself by earning the mystical Cloth of Pegasus. He is joined by other Saints with Cloths of their own to fight for Athena.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Ikki
Hideyuki Hori
Shun
Ryou Horikawa
Shiryu
Hirotaka Suzuoki
Seiya
Tooru Furuya
Hyoga
Kouichi Hashimoto
Saori Kido
Keiko Han
Shaka
Yuuji Mitsuya
Saga
Kazuyuki Sogabe
Mu
Kaneto Shiozawa
Dohko
Kouji Yada
Camus
Rokuro Naya
Aiolia
Hideyuki Tanaka
Milo
Shuuichi Ikeda
Kanon
Kazuyuki Sogabe
Aioros
Yuusaku Yara
Aphrodite
Keiichi Nanba
Shaina
Mami Koyama
Death Mask
Ryouichi Tanaka
Shura
Kouji Totani
Marin
Yuriko Yamamoto
Aldebaran
Tesshou Genda
Julian Solo
Keiichi Nanba
Sorento
Yoku Shioya
Mime
Yuuji Mitsuya
Isaac
Ryuusei Nakao

EPISODES

Dubbed

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RELATED TO SAINT SEIYA

REVIEWS

DAGG
100/100
Saint Seiya: Knight of the Zodiac is the best anime you've never heard of!
I must say, at first it looks like a pretty ordinary shounen anime. It isn't until the 12 temples arc (starts in episode 36) that the story really turns into something else. The first 35 episodes work as a perfect introduction for the main cast, their abilities, their backgrounds, and their motivations to fight. The story doesn't waste time and has a tournament arc as soon as the second episode. After that, our main character fight against several forgettable foes (except the black saints and the silver saints). But, in episode 36, the real Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac magic starts. Seiya, Shiryu, Shun, Hyoga, and Ikki need to cross the 12 Zodiac Temples to save Athena, each temple is protected by a Gold Saint, each representing a Zodiac Sign (Aries, Leo, Virgo, etc). They are the most powerful saints in the world. And after this arc, it just gets better. Our characters go to Asgard to save it from corruption, they fight Poseidon, God of the Sea, and his army, and later on Hades and his army.

The series breaks a lot of stereotypes as well, instead of being dark and gloomy like most anime released at that time, Saint Seiya is filled with color, emotion, and it has its own unique vibe that really makes it stand out.

One of the most impressive aspects of the series is its music, it is easily one of the animes with the best soundtrack in history. With amazing fighting tracks like "Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken", "Glide! Pegasus", "Heated Saints", "Arrow Of Sun", "Saints Of Hope, Forever" sad songs like "Sad Brothers", "Frey - Hero Of Love And Justice", "Save The Goddess", "Remember Sadness" and beautiful songs like "Abel's Theme", "Blue Dream", and "Mime's Requiem". These are the songs composed by Seiji Yokoyama and they really make the series feel alive, making you feel the emotions that the series portrays in a magnificent way.

The series is also no stranger to gruesome violence, including blood and pain in many episodes, but in a way that it doesn't feel disgusting like other animes, but in a way, that you the viewer is able to see the struggles the characters are having and how big the challenge is for them to overcome.

Overall, Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac is an amazing series that will not waste your time!

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shimokitazawa
70/100
The Precursor of Shōnen
Saint Seiya (Knights of The Zodiac)
Now this is an anime that's not nearly as well known as it should be. Saint Seiya aired in 1986 (until 1990) and achieved most of its success in Latin America (mainly Brazil and Mexico) and France, as well as in some Southeast Asian countries. From what I gather, it did not perform well in the North American market.

One has to wonder why exactly Saint Seiya has not become as much of a hit as Dragon Ball Z or other big-name Shōnen titles, and I have my own take as to why that is.

As you (probably) read on the Summary, Saint Seiya is indeed one of the main forefathers of the Shōnen genre. Many of the tropes and constituents of the genre were firstly explored (or became more common and well established) within the various arcs of Saint Seiya. The one most obvious would be tournament arcs - Saint Seiya had one of the most defining/well established tournament arcs that not only ties into, but allows the story to flourish, while also serving as a great intro to explore the initial relationships with several of the main (and some of the supporting) characters.

Despite falling in a category for younger audiences, one can only truly appreciate the full depth of Saint Seiya as an adult, and that's probably one of the reasons why it didn't explode in popularity. This isn't to say this shouldn't be watched by said younger audiences - as a kid, I felt enthralled being pulled into this universe. A universe of courage, determination, friendship, struggle, the loss of loved ones...The show deals with all of these in an approachable way while still having great depth. That's not to say Saint Seiya is without faults, however, and it surely has quite a few.

One of the glaring ones are plot holes. I won't mention them because I want to keep this spoiler free but it's indeed one of the show's main problems. Pacing and inconsistency (both art and story inconsistency) being some of the others. Watching this as an adult (or maybe even a kid who's been exposed to more modern shows) will be a tad difficult for most viewers. While all of the characters (including supporting ones) tend to be unique, the anime struggles to keep them all involved meaningfully in the story, and it also struggles in maintaining the attention to those details in the art department. It can be a bit jarring at times - I didn't mind it as a child because I watched it back in the early 90s, but I think most youngsters would find it hard to deal with nowadays. Even I became more critical of it along the years despite Saint Seiya being the very first anime I watched and certainly one that left a lasting impression on me. You'll find that many of the early fights are heavily telegraphed, with characters having static skills and animation that's repeated one too many times.

That being said, what you'd get out of watching Saint Seiya in modern times is:
1. An engrossing and diverse cast
2. Story that involves cosmology, zodiac signs, some light philosophy
3. Understanding where many of the genre's tropes come from
4. Appreciate the work that has allowed the genre to flourish and become so popular
5. Amazing OST
This review is already far too long, but I feel I have to comment on this. The OST for SS is one that you can tell was composed with so much care for the series. Characters have their own themes suited to their story, battle scenes are made vivid by the music, and the sad songs are heartbreaking.

Make no mistake - This is a classic that opened the door for many others.
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WhatAGoodShow
99/100
The show that inspired many fighting shonen. Does it still hold up?
As one of the earliest fighting shonen, Saint Seiya inspired many series to come. It has elements like the Golden Power Up that inspired one in Gundum and might be the thing that someone inspired even the Super Saiyan, it has a tournament arc, has side characters with popularity that exceed the main character and a story structure that is used by shows like Bleach. In particular Bleach resembles a lot on Saint Seiya and can be considered a spiritual successor. Both series have male leads trained by a female character, have to fight people from an organization they are associated with, a traitor subplot and a lot more.

Saint Seiya is about Goddess of War Athena and her warriors referred as Saints who fight for the love and justice of the earth. The enemies range from Saints that abuse their power for evil to literal gods. While this anime is an adaptation of the manga with the same name, it handles things a little differently. As in the anime, the identity of Athena isn't revealed and even the person who is Athena is not aware of it, turning it to a great revelation when it was revealed.

Saints fight with what is called Cosmo. The power to manipulate atoms. With that they are able to destroy, gain abilities such as manipulating elements etc. The stronger the Cosmo, the stronger the character and their ability to change their own faith. There are several ways to increase ones Cosmo. Concepts like spiritualism play a major role, but the most simple way is wearing a certain kind of armor. The armor the saints are wearing are called cloth, which are based on the 88 constellations, and they come in 3 major categories:
- Bronze: The weakest kind of armor, allowing their user to move at mach 1 speed at minimum
- Silver: A rank higher than Bronze, depending on the cloth can move from mach 2 to 8
- Gold: The highest ranked, allowing users to move at the speed of light.
Just wearing a cloth can boost the power of its user to the minimum level they need to be, but like the Zanpakuto in Bleach, the cloth are living and can choose who they think is worthy to be worn by them. In certain situation, the cloth of another character would come to the aid of another. For example, Seiya who is the Pegasus Saint and thus wears Bronze Armor would receive help from the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius allowing him a chance to fight someone above his league. But saints cannot always rely on their armor and thus have to raise their Cosmo through other ways. Sometimes fighting Gold Saint tier opponent's without being able to wear armor where concepts like the seventh sense and spiritualism comes into play. There can be situations where they cannot use their armor as the series continues, there are foes who can pierce them leaving them without protection.

What about the fights? With 88 constellations and thus each being able to use abilities and moves based on that constellation, there are many characters that offer a different potential fights. Tho there are enemies that have similar abilities to our heroes or techniques, the fights bring other things like personal stakes. Examples as showing an enemy the value of friendship and how far people would go or clashing of ideals where neither side is technically wrong. Besides the stakes, fight can range from martial arts hand to hand combat, using abilities to their advantage, exploiting weaknesses of the enemy or teamwork.
A scene I liked personally, without spoiling the details, is when a character remembers a tale on how someone else defeated an enemy he is fighting. What that character did, is replicate the trick only for it to fail as the enemy was prepared for such a tactic. Thus the story would play with expectations making the fights even more engaging.
An advantage what Saint Seiya has over modern fighting shonen is that because of its age, it is not affected by censorship the same way, thus can offer scenes that rival or if not exceed the violence of the manga.

As for characters, this is when Saint Seiya shines the most. The character while all starting selfish and somewhat relatable, as the story goes, they would become more and more of people one would look up to. As they fight for the peace of the world and with honor. Some characters would inspire each other especially after seeing someone risked his life to safe theirs, they would risk their life in a similar fashion to repay them.

Seiya who appeared playful and disrespectful would risk his life several times for the other saints and Athena. Fitting his constellation the Pegasus. The author made him focus mainly fight on hand to hand combat with energy based attacks. Thus making the other lead characters stand out which is a clever way to make them intriguing for the audience.

Shiryu is the Dragon Saint. He has a technique that fills his fist with Cosmo allowing him to hit with a blade-like punch that takes the shape of a dragon which is strong enough to reverse waterfalls. He also has a great defense with his dragon shield which gives him the highest defense of all Bronze Saints. A perfect balance between attack and defense. However, often he would shed away his armor in fights showing that his strength comes from himself and not just from his cloth. As the saying would go, the man makes the armor and not the armor makes the man. Shiryu is the type of character who would put his life on the line to protect what is dear to him often leading him gaining the respect of those he fought.

Shun is the Andromeda Saint. He has two chains that serve as means to attack, defend and trap enemies. While the defense is not as high as Shiryu's shield or lacks the attack potency, he can protect him from enemies from any range and even reach enemies who are several light-years away. He is the only of the main characters who doesn't engage in hand to hand combat but instead fights with chains and flow like Cosmo, thus providing fight scenes with less aggression which fits his character. Shun is a pacifist and doesn't like to hurt others, even going as far as warning his enemies, only killing them when he has no choice.

Hyoga is the Swan Saint and focuses on freezing techniques, thus instead of focusing on destroying atoms by moving them, he focuses on halting their movement aka. slowing them down. He focuses on fighting up on personal or from the distance. His ice abilities come into play in several ways such as halting the movement of his enemies, shielding him from attacks or as projectile attacks. As a character, Hyoga became a saint for his selfish desire and also came as a kind of antagonist on the story, but over the course of the story, he would turn a new leaf. He would become a true saint who learns to learn to cherries the people around him and gets challenged the most for his ideals forcing him to fight those he respects for the name of Athena.

Lastly, Ikki, the older brother of Shun who wears the Phoenix Cloth. The Phoenix Cloth is the only cloth that can repair its name as the name suggest and is the mightiest of the Bronze Cloth. Aside of that, Ikki has a wide range of abilities. He possesses immense physical strength and some level of fire manipulation leading him to have some of the most aggressive fighting scenes. He has other abilities such as shooting the tail-feathers of the Phoenix Cloth like projectiles allowing him to finish off or protect nearby allies from enemies. However, besides physical harming enemies, he has strong illusion based attack allowing him to harm opponents psychologically as well. Thus providing fights that are not limited to simple beat downs but also battles of the mind. As the eldest in the group, he would often be the one who lectures the other bronze warriors. Despite being more of a loner, he can be seen as the closest of an older brother for all of them.

Many anime and manga fail in the regard, despite having on paper unique abilities like manipulating fire or lighting, in many series they serve the same purpose, but as I described these characters fighting styles, one can see that they operate completely different.

As an adaptation, the anime may not be 100% faithful. More than the things surrounding Athena has changed, but it does give more reason to check out both the source and the adaptation delivering a unique experience as neither is necessary superior to the other. With the more lose censorship from the past, fight scenes have a lot more freedom delivering entertaining action scenes. The Silver Saints feel a lot more important as they would not appear very early and get a lot more focus. The motivation of one of the Gold Saints who fought thinking might is right is more noble in this adaptation. And a bit of the past of the mysterious Gold Saint Aiolos gets explored.
Tho the anime does not adapt the whole manga and stops before the final arc, which got later adapted in form of OVAs years alter, it does have a filler arc. By more modern mindset, filler can be considered off-putting, the writers of Toei at the time seemed to be very adapted in the storytelling of Saint Seiya and delivered a very engaging story arc. Tho instead of Saint Seiya's Greek mythology, they implemented Nordic mythology. Probably with the reason of not getting into trouble if the manga add more contradictory events involving these new characters. So depending on how much you like the setting of Saint Seiya and feel like foreign myths could affect your enjoyment, you might make your decision based on that, as that arc will naturally flow to the arc after.

In terms of criticism, there is not much to say. At most some filler scenes could drag on for a bit too long and Toei being Toei would recycle one particular scene involving Shun and Ikki, as the older brother would come to rescue the weaker younger brother. Some of these scenes could come off in the way it is animated as yaoi bait. And despite Toei's best efforts, they could not stick to their guns and eventually do some continuity errors. Tho these are very minor.

Generally, Saint Seiya is a must watch. Especially for those who want to know how the older generation inspired the newer ones.
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