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Saint Seiya
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, also known as Knights of the Zodiac, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada, and later adapted to anime. The story follows five mystical warriors called the "Saints" (or "Knights"; the kanji is properly read as sei-toshi "holy fighter" but the furigana has it pronounced "saint") who have adopted various constellations as their guardian symbols. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1987, but was cancelled in 1989.
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Encyclopedia
, also known as Knights of the Zodiac, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada, and later adapted to anime. The story follows five mystical warriors called the "Saints" (or "Knights"; the kanji is properly read as sei-toshi "holy fighter" but the furigana has it pronounced "saint") who have adopted various constellations as their guardian symbols. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1987, but was cancelled in 1989. In 2002, Toei produced Saint Seiya: Hades, which continued adapting the manga story arcs to animation that remained pending when the anime was canceled in 1989.
Plot
Six years before the events at the focus of the series, one hundred orphans from Japan are sent to different parts of the world to become legendary warriors known as "Saints", who are the soldiers under the command of Greek goddess Athena. These warriors are under the protection of a celestial constellation.
The power of the Saints originates from the understanding of the "Cosmo". The concept of the "Cosmo" advocates that each atom within a human body resembles a small solar system, and since the human body consists of billions of atoms, the totality forms a "small Cosmo" or a "small Universe". Each person's Cosmo has its own unique signature. The Saints take the knowledge of the Cosmo to the next level: since humans are composed of atoms, humans should be able to use the mysterious forces behind the atoms to achieve super human feats.
The story focuses on one of these orphans named Seiya. He is sent to the Sanctuary in Greece to become the Pegasus Saint. After seven years, Seiya becomes the Pegasus Saint and returns to Japan to find his older sister. Because his sister disappeared the same day Seiya went to the Sanctuary, Saori Kido, the granddaughter of the person who sent all the orphans to train, makes a deal with him to go to fight in a tournament called the Galaxian Wars, where the orphans who survived and became Bronze Saints must fight to win the most powerful cloth: The Sagittarius Gold Cloth. If Seiya goes to compete there, Saori would start a search to find Seiya's sister.
During the series, Seiya becomes the partner and friend of other Bronze Saints: Shun, Shiryu, Ikki, and Hyoga. As the myth of the saints, they must fight together to protect the reincarnation of the goddess Athena from any danger.
Production
When Masami Kurumada was in the process of creating Saint Seiya, he gave Seiya the name Rin at first, since Kurumada was going to title his manga "Ginga no Rin" (Rin of the Galaxy). However, as Kurumada continued developing his manga, he decided to change the name to Seiya, which was more fitting. First he spelled the name with the kanji that meant "Holy Arrow", to relate it to Seiya's condition as a Saint, but later decided to use the kanji that meant "Star Arrow", to emphasize the constellation and mythological motif. Finally, he changed his manga title as well, to Saint Seiya, once he fully developed the concept of the Saints. Also, Kurumada stated that one of the first ideas he conceived for Saint Seiya was the Pegasus Meteor Fist. Since his manga was going to use the constellations as a very important and ever-present theme, he wanted his protagonist to have a special move that would be like a shower of meteors.
When Kurumada designed Seiya's likeness, he was inspired by Takane Ryuji, the main character of his hit manga Ring ni Kakero, which he created 9 years before Seiya. Most protagonists of Kurumada's works bear a resemblance to Ryuji, because Kurumada subscribes to the revered Osamu Tezuka's Star System (a stable cast of characters) technique. The same process is done with almost all the other characters from the series.
Media
Manga
The first Saint Seiya manga was written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada and was published by Shueisha in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from January 1986 to December 1990 and collected in 28 tankobon volumes. The series has three main parts: Sanctuary (volumes 1 to 13), Poseidon (volumes 14 to 18), and Hades (volumes 19 to 28). Volume 13 also contains a separate short story called "Blue Warriors". The series is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media. Viz released the first collected volume of the series on January 21, 2004, and as of June 3, 2008 twenty-three volumes have been released.
In addition to the original tankobon volumes listed below, the series has been reissued four times. The first reissue as 15 bunkoban volumes in 1996 is called the "Deluxe Version". The bunkobon edition was reissued in 2001 with additional color images as the "Library Version". The series was rereleased in 2003 in 19 volumes with Setteis from the anime adaptation, and called the "Remix Version". The fourth reissue, in 22 volumes and called the "Complete Version", contains additional colored pages as well as colored armor schematics. In addition, the "Remix Version" was republished at the end of 2007 to coincide with the broadcast of Chapter Elysion of the anime.
Prequels
During 2002, a new manga called Saint Seiya Episode.G started being serialized. The story is situated 7 years before the events at the beginning of the original Saint Seiya Manga, and 6 years after the death of the Gold Saint Sagittarius Aiolos, making Leo Aiolia the main character. During the series, Titans are brought back to life with the mission of recovering their realm, and the Gold Saints are assigned to stop them to protect the humans. This new manga series is written and drawn by Megumu Okada, under the authorization of Masami Kurumada. The individual chapters are published in Akita Shoten's Champion RED, with fourteen volumes being currently released.
Also, during 2006, two new manga series started being published. These two manga tell the story of the previous Holy War that took place in the 18th century, 250 years before the original series in the Saint Seiya universe. The story centers on the relations between Tenma, the Pegasus Saint and his beloved friend, Alone, who would eventually become his greatest enemy, Hades. Both manga series are published in Akita Shoten's Shonen Champion magazine. The first one, named Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, is drawn and written by Masami Kurumada but at irregular dates. The second one, Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, is written and drawn by Shiori Teshirogi, under the authorization of Masami Kurumada.
Anime
The anime is based on the manga series of the same title (above). The animation series by Toei Animation first premiered on Japan's TV Asahi on October 11, 1986. The first anime series was produced by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989. It was directed first by Kozo Morishita (episodes 1 to 73) and then by Kazuhito Kikuchi (episodes 74 to 114). The character designers were Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, and Seiji Yokoyama composed the soundtracks. The chief scriptwriters were Takao Koyama and Yoshiyuki Suga. The series has three main parts: Sanctuary (episodes 1 to 73), Asgard (74 to 99), and Poseidon (100 to 114). In the United States, the series premiered in Cartoon Network on August 30, 2003 but only the first thirty-two episodes aired.
Novel
On November 9, 1988, Shonen Jump released a Jump Gold Selection Anime Special 2, written by Takao Koyama, with illustrations by the series' Animation Character Designers Shingo Araki & Michi Himeno. This special is just a detailed flashback to Gemini Saga's assassination attempt on the newborn Athena.
There is also a series of two novels written by Kurumada and Tatsuya Hamazaki with the name of Saint Seiya – Gigantomachia, which were published by Jump J Books. The first novel was released in Japan on August 23, 2002, while the second was released on December 16, 2002.
OVAs
These are a series of OVAs that cover the last arc of the manga, which was not previously adapted into anime. The first 13 episodes were broadcasted on Animax (a Japanese pay-per-view channel) from November 2002 to April 2003, and then released on DVD during the year 2003. These 13 episodes were named Hades — Chapter Sanctuary (Meio Hades Juni-Kyu Hen). This OVA series was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, still with character designs by Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, while the scripts were adapted from the manga this time by Michiko Yokote, and the soundtrack was entirely taken from Yokoyama's work on the previous TV series.
Two years after the first part of the Hades saga, Chapter Sanctuary, a second part was produced in 2005. This second chapter was named Hades — Chapter Inferno Part 1 (Meio Hades Meikai Hen Zensho) and consists of six episodes. However, most of the original voice actors did not reprise their roles. Hideyuki Tanaka, however, reprises his role as the narrator. Hirotaka Suzuoki, the original voice actor of Dragon Shiryu, passed away on August 6, 2006 due to lung cancer.
On the same Animax channel, Toei Animation released the first two OVAs on December 17, 2005, followed by the next two on January 21, 2006. The last pair were released on February 18, 2006. Shortly after their TV broadcasting, which lasted for 2 months, the episodes were released on DVD in 2006. This short OVA series was directed by Tomoharu Katsumata, but the other staff remained the same. Toei Animation officially announced the news on its website on July 18, 2006. Then, Hades — Chapter Inferno Part 2, which contains 6 episodes in total, was released.
As of June 28, Masami Kurumada announced on his personal blog that production on the Elysion chapter has begun. It was thought that the release was to be in mid-December 2007, as of the last two years with the performance of the two Inferno chapters (Zensho and Kosho), but no preview or released images were available as of the end of October. In November 2007, Toei Animation announced that the official release of the Elysion Chapter would be in March 2008 and not December 2007 as originally planned The Elysion OVAs were released in March (episodes #26 and #27), May (#28 and #29), and August (#30 and #31).
Movies
A fifth movie came out in Japanese theaters in 2004, Heaven Chapter — Overture (Tenkai-hen Joso), which is supposed to follow the regular chronology right after the end of the manga (which finished being adapted on August 1, 2008) as a prologue to a new chapter. Toei Animation first announced that this new chapter would be a new animated series, but later Kurumada stated that he wanted the movie to be part of a trilogy. Toru Furuya revealed Kurumada's wishes for the series during a press conference. After Pegasus Seiya eventually defeats Zeus, he is to go on and face Chronos, the god of Time. Toru was not allowed to say anything more.
Musical
In August 1991, a musical, sponsored by Bandai, was performed at the Aoyama theater in Tokyo, Japan. The story retells the Sanctuary and Poseidon chapters. The cast included members of SMAP as the 5 bronze saints and Poseidon. Mu, Aiolia, and Milo were portrayed by members of another band, Tokio.
Video games
Several video games have been released based on the series. For the Famicom, two role-playing games named Saint Seiya: Ogon Densetsu and Saint Seiya: Ogon Densetsu Kanketsu-Hen, were released in 1987 and 1988, respectively. In 2003, Bandai released another role-playing game game called Saint Seiya: Ogon Densetsu-Hen Perfect Edition for the WonderSwan Color, adapting the first 73 episodes. In 2005, Bandai released the Saint Seiya: Chapter-Sanctuary for the Playstation 2. It is a 3D Fighting game that adapts the same episodes as the previous game. A sequel for this game was released in 2006 with the name of Saint Seiya: The Hades adaptating the original video animations series. Unlike previous games, this game was released outside Japan, being released first in Europe in 2006 and later in Japan and Australia.
A new game called Saint Seiya Online will be released in August 2009 from SEGA Japan, and will feature orchestral music composed by Masamichi Amano and performed by the Angel City Studio Orchestra. Recording took place at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios.
Games featuring characters from Saint Seiya:
- Famicom Jump: Eiyu Retsuden (Famicom, 1989)
- Pop'n Music Animation Melody (Arcade, Playstation, Game Boy Color, 2000)
- Pop'n Music Animelo 2 (Arcade, 2001)
- Jump! Ultimate Stars (Nintendo DS, 2006)
- Saint Seiya Typing Ryu Sei Ken (PC, 2003)
Other
In the mid-1980s a line of Saint Seiya action figures were produced by Bandai, featuring most of the series characters. The toy line was a huge success inside of Japan, but also in other countries such as Hong-Kong, France, Spain, Brazil and Mexico . The figures have now acquired collector status and the Japanese originals are highly sought after. Some, like Odin's God Cloth or Kraken Isaac, have a very high value.
In 2003, Bandai created a new line of figures called Cloth Myth. Originally, only the 5 V2 main bronze Saints would be made, in commemoration of the Hades Saga being animated, but sold so well that they decided to continue the line and it continues to sell very well internationally. As of August 2008, there are over 60 figures available, and Bandai continues to release new figures regularly. The line seems to be nowhere near its end.
Reception
The original manga series of twenty-eight volumes have sold over 25 million copies in Japan as of 2007. When TV Asahi, a television network in Japan, conducted a nation-wide survey for the one hundred most popular animated television series, Saint Seiya anime came in twenty-fifth place. Animage also ranked the anime series within "Top 100" anime productions.
It is considered one of the biggest anime phenomenons of the 1980s. It would become the inspiration for future series, including Kurumada's later work B't X, Gulkeeva, and Gundam Wing. In The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy praises the series' complex plot and felt that designers' Shingo Arakai and Michi Himeno had worked "magic" with both the series and the movies. They also praised the grand soundtrack and Director Shigenori Yamauchi's ability to stretch out the tension and chose the perfect places to stop an episode to keep audiences waiting for the next one. Clements and McCarthy did, however, find the series disturbing in that its main emotional impact comes from the audience seeing "older boys and men fighting brave by neive teenagers" and through victories earning more weapons.
Yaoi dojinshi based on Saint Seiya popularized the term "yaoi" in 1987. Tite Kubo, the author of the manga series Bleach, considers Saint Seiya to be one of his biggest inspirations for the designs of the different types of weapons that his characters use in the story as well as the battle scenes. In Volume 9 of Gin Tama, Hideaki Soreachi notes it as one of the manga he read as a child, and even spoofs one of the battle stances in that same book.
External links
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