# Saint Seiya

Saint Seiya (Japanese: 聖闘士星矢（セイントセイヤ）, Hepburn: Seinto Seiya), also known as Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac or simply Knights of the Zodiac (translated from the French title Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1990, with its chapters collected in 28 tankōbon volumes. In North America, the manga was licensed for English release by Viz Media.
The story follows five mystical warriors called the Saints who fight wearing sacred sets of armor named "Cloths", the designs of which derive from the various constellations the characters have adopted as their destined guardian symbols. The Saints have sworn to defend the reincarnation of the Olympian goddess Athena in her battle against other gods who want to dominate Earth.
The manga was adapted by Toei Animation into a 114-episode anime television series broadcast on TV Asahi from 1986 to 1989. The anime series was followed by a 31-episode original video animation (OVA) series, subtitled The Hades Chapter, released from 2002 to 2008. Four animated feature films premiered in Japanese theaters from 1987 to 1989, with a fifth in 2004 and a sixth in 2014. A live-action film adaptation premiered in 2023.
The Saint Seiya manga had over 50 million copies in circulation by 2022, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. Both the original manga and the anime adaptation were successful internationally across Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
A manga sequel by Kurumada, titled Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, was serialized from 2006 to 2024. Several spin-off manga by different authors have also been created.

## Plot

The story focuses on an orphan named Seiya who was forced to go to the Sanctuary in Greece to obtain one of the "Cloths" (聖衣（クロス）, Kurosu), the Bronze Cloth of the Pegasus constellation, a protective armor worn by the Greek goddess Athena's 88 warriors known as "Saints" (聖闘士（セイント）, Seinto, or "Knights" in some adaptations). Upon awakening his "Cosmo" (小宇宙（コスモ）, Kosumo), Seiya acquires the ability to unleash the true power of a Saint through what is variously described as the "burning", "explosion", or "big bang" of his "Cosmo" (alluding to the Big Bang of the universe). He then quickly 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 adopted granddaughter of Mitsumasa Kido (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. In this tournament, all 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 and wins, Saori would start a search to find Seiya's sister. The tournament is interrupted by the vengeful Phoenix Bronze Saint, Ikki, who wishes to eliminate the people who forced him to undergo his especially harsh training. He steals parts from the Sagittarius Cloth and eventually fights against the remaining Bronze Saints: Seiya, Shun (Ikki's brother), Shiryū, and Hyōga.
Upon Ikki's defeat, the Bronze Saints are attacked by the Silver Saints sent by the Sanctuary's corrupt Pope to eliminate them. When they prevail, the Bronze Saints learn that Saori is Athena's reincarnation and that the Pope once tried to kill her as a baby. The previous Sagittarius Gold Saint Aiolos saved Saori but was mortally wounded shortly after escaping and gave Saori to her adopted grandfather. Deciding to join forces with Saori, the Bronze Saints go to the Sanctuary to defeat the Pope, but upon their arrival, Saori is severely wounded by a gold arrow from a Silver Saint and will die at the end of the day. Believing the Pope may be able to heal her, the Bronze Saints go to find him. To do so, they must go through 12 temples, each one guarded by one Gold Saint (the most powerful Saints of Athena). Some of these Gold Saints are friendly, but others are just as corrupt as the Pope and take a sick pleasure in fighting the Bronze Saints. Following several battles, Seiya gets to the Pope's temple and learns that he is actually the Gold Saint Gemini Saga, who suffers from a split personality: one good and one evil. His evil side took over completely and had killed the real Pope to obtain more power. With help from his friends' Cosmos, Seiya is able to knock out Saga and use the shield from Athena's statue to heal Saori just in time. Shortly afterwards, Saga, his good side having regained control, commits suicide as a self-punishment.
In the second story arc, the Greek god Poseidon reincarnates within the body of Julian Solo, the heir to a rich and powerful family, and plots to flood the Earth. Saori goes to his Temple, where Julian offers her to reduce the flooding by absorbing the water inside the Oceans' Central Pillar. Following Saori, Seiya, Hyōga, Shun and Shiryū go to Poseidon's underwater Temple and are confronted by his underlings, the Marines. As Seiya, Hyōga, and Shiryū make their way to Julian, Ikki learns that the mastermind behind this conflict is Saga's twin brother, Gemini Kanon, who is manipulating Poseidon. During the final battle, Poseidon's spirit awakes within Julian and manages to defeat his opponents. Saved by the Saints from the Pillar, Saori seals Poseidon's soul within her amphora.
The third and last arc follows how Hades, the Underworld god, is freed from his seal and revives the deceased Gold Saints and the Pope Aries Shion, and alongside some of his 108 Specters, sends them to the Sanctuary to kill Athena. The remaining Gold Saints serving Athena are able to subdue the enemies, but Saori then commits suicide. This act is instead meant to directly send her to the Underworld to face Hades, and the Bronze Saints follow her. Shion reveals that the revived Gold Saints' true intentions were of giving Saori her own Cloth so she could fight alongside her knights, and gives it to Seiya's group before dying once again. In the Underworld, as the Saints fight Hades' Specters, Shun is possessed by Hades. Saori reaches Hades and expels his soul from Shun's body. Hades then takes Saori to Elysium, and the five Bronze Saints follow them. In the final fight against Hades and his two subordinates, the gods Hypnos and Thanatos, the Saints gain the all-powerful God Cloths and use them to aid Saori in defeating Hades. However, Seiya also sacrifices himself by getting stabbed by Hades' sword, and the Saints return to Earth with his body.

## Production

At first, manga author Masami Kurumada planned to create a wrestling-themed manga, as he enjoyed writing individual sports stories rather than collective ones. He was initially inspired by The Karate Kid (1984) to conceive a story about a young karateka named Seiya found by a karate master and his female assistant; however, his publishing department did not approve the idea. Since he thought simple sports like judo or karate would not be interesting enough, he added aspects from Greek mythology and constellations to make it innovative. However, the basic concept of Saint Seiya was to be a nekketsu manga with a "fashion" touch added by the Saint Cloths. After the quick cancellation of his previous work, Otoko Zaka, in 1984, this "fashion sense" was something Kurumada thought would be an aspect that would attract fans, making it different from his previous manga with simple high school uniforms. Although they look like European medieval armors, Kurumada said his main inspiration for the Cloths was Hajime Sorayama's 1983 illustration book Sexy Robot. Besides from fashion, the Cloths were created because Kurumada wanted characters to throw explosive sparks and the armors was a way to give them some protection. Initially, he could not decide what type of armor it would be, considering even Buddhist kasaya; based on the Greek motif, he designed the actual Saint Cloths. The usage Greek mythology came up when reusing elements from his previous work, Ring ni Kakero.
When 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. While at first Saint Seiya was not a popular manga during serialization as they did not understand the themes of Cosmos or Sanctuary, it took half a year for the series to become popular. All concepts and names were elaborated to be connected with Clothes (聖衣) being based on ancient sacred clothing (聖なる衣) The evolved God Cloths were created as a means to defeat Thanatos in the final volume, but Kurumada considered that he went too far with the concept. Whether Athena's Cloth or Hades and Poseidon's protections are also God protections were left in vague. The Hades arc was inspired by Dante's Inferno. The Gold Saints were revived due to their popularity in the fandom but with the twist of they being traitors. The Pope Aries Shion was included specifically to clarify his strength by making him Aries Mu's mentor so that Cancer Deathmask and Pisces Aphrodite would not be able to face Mu. While Gemini Saga remains as an antagonist, his twin brother Gemini Kanon was written so that he would jump from being an antagonist to an ally especially when redeeming himself in front of Scorpio Milo. Kurumada put carefully his emotions into writing this scenes which he thought was popular in France. Other major twists like Hyoga facing his mentor who turns out to be the Gold Saint Camus and Shun turning out to be Hades' new vessel were created at the moment as Kurumada did not plan much of the story.
When Kurumada designed Seiya's likeness, he was inspired by his character Ryūji Takane, the protagonist of his hit manga Ring ni Kakero, which he created 9 years before Seiya. Most protagonists of Kurumada's works bear a resemblance to Ryūji, as Kurumada subscribed to 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. After creating Seiya as a nekketsu character, he decided to give different personality traits to each of other main characters: Shiryū is the "righteous and serious"; Hyoga is "posed and classy"; Shun is the "lovable boy"; and Ikki is the lone wolf. Nevertheless, he noted that he wrote so many characters besides the five main heroes, that there were several supporting characters who overshdaowed the leads in terms of popularity like Kurumada's previous works. While Saint Seiya ended with the Saints battle against the God of the Underworld Hades, Kurumada had ideas for new story arcs involving Apollo and Artemisa as there are still several gods of the Olympus to explore. However, he feared that he might die drawing too much. Instead, he was more busy writing a sequel to Ring ni Kakero. While Ring ni Kakero made Kurumada popular in Japan, Saint Seiya gave him international fame. Regarding the anime adaptation of Saint Seiya, Kurumada commented that, on the positive side, it made him happy, as he felt that his work would receive more publicity and popularity; on the other hand, he recalled that his master once told him that when a manga becomes an anime series "it's like giving your daughter away in marriage." Nevertheless, Kurumada was pleased with the adaptation, particularly highlighting the sound effects, noting that "the intensity of a sound cannot be compared to an onomatopoeia." Kurumada participated in the adaptation of the final arc by composing the final song "Kami no En: Del Regno" (神の園～Del regno～), and was pleased with the final product.

## Media
### Manga

Written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada, Saint Seiya debuted in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on December 3, 1985. It finished in the magazine's 49th issue of 1990 (with cover date November 19), and the last chapter was published in the first issue of V Jump (released as an extra edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump, with cover date December 12, 1990). Shueisha collected its 110 individual chapters in 28 tankōbon volumes, released from September 10, 1986, to April 10, 1991. Shueisha has also released the series in other editions; 15 aizōban volumes, from November 20, 1995, to January 20, 1997; 15 bunkoban volumes, from January 18 to August 10, 2001; 22 kanzenban volumes, from December 2, 2005, to October 4, 2006. Akita Shoten began republishing the series in a shinsōban edition on June 8, 2021. As of September 6, 2024, thirteen volumes have been released.
In North America, the series was licensed for English release by Viz Media in 2003. Under the title Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac, Viz Media released its 28 volumes from January 21, 2004, to February 2, 2010.
Kurumada started a sequel to Saint Seiya in 2006, titled Saint Seiya: Next Dimension. A prologue chapter was published in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion on April 27, 2006, and the series officially debuted in the magazine on August 23 of the same year. The collected volumes are published in full color. The series finished after eighteen years of publication on July 4, 2024.
Kurumada published in Akita Shoten's Champion Red a series of special in-depth chapters of events from the manga; Saint Seiya: Episode Zero, from December 19, 2017, to February 19, 2018. Saint Seiya Origin, from December 19, 2018, to January 19, 2019; and Saint Seiya: Destiny, on December 19, 2018. The three chapters of Episode Zero were included in the first volume of the series' shinsōban edition.

#### Spin-offs

A spin-off series by Megumu Okada, titled Saint Seiya Episode.G, was serialized in Akita Shoten's Champion Red from December 19, 2002, to June 19, 2013.
A second spin-off series by Shiori Teshirogi, titled Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion from August 24, 2006, to April 7, 2011.
A third spin-off series by Chimaki Kuori Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō, was serialized in Champion Red from August 19, 2013, to July 19, 2021.
A fourth spin-off series by Kenji Saito and Shinshu Ueda, titled Saint Seiya: Dark Wing (聖闘士星矢（セイントセイヤ）・冥王異伝　ダークウィング, Seinto Seiya Meiō Iden: Dāku Wingu, lit. "Saint Seiya: An Alternate Tale of the Underworld Emperor – Dark Wing"), started in Champion Red on December 19, 2020.
A fifth spin-off series by Tsunakan Suda, titled Saint Seiya: Rerise of Poseidon (聖闘士星矢（セイントセイヤ）・海皇再起, Seinto Seiya: Kaiō Saiki, lit. "Saint Seiya: The Return of the Sea Emperor"), started serialization in Champion Red on September 16, 2022. The first volume was released on October 19, 2023. As of November 8, 2024, two volumes have been released.
A sixth spin-off series by Seira Shimotsuki, titled Saint Mariya (聖闘士真理矢（セイント マリヤ)）), started in Akita Shoten's shōjo manga magazine Princess on January 6, 2025.

### Other print media

Three Saint Seiya Anime Special mooks, published by Shueisha under its Jump Gold Selection imprint, were released from July 13, 1988, to April 19, 1989. A databook, titled Saint Seiya Taizen (聖闘士星矢 大全, "Saint Seiya Compendium"), was released by Shueisha on August 17, 2021.
A series of two novels by Tatsuya Hamazaki, Saint Seiya: Gigantomachia, were published by Shueisha under its Jump J-Books imprint. The first novel was released on August 23, 2002, and the second on December 16 of that same year.
Saint Seiya 30 Shūnen Kinen Gashū Seiiki – Sanctuary (聖闘士星矢 30周年記念画集 聖域 ―SANCTUARY―), an art book which contains over 90 illustrations by Masami Kurumada, was launched by Takarajimasha on October 21, 2016.

### Anime
#### Television series

An anime adaptation of Saint Seiya was first proposed in June 1986 three months before the first manga volume was published. After Toei Animation started a partnership with TV Asahi, they looked for sponsors. Bandai got interested in selling the Saint Cloths as merchandise so it began development. Masayoshi Kawata, producer of TV Asahi, thought Saint Seiya was the perfect fit for the "hero show" they were looking for. By July of that same year, scriptwriter Takao Koyama had written the first episode scheduled to be broadcast in October. Since an episode adapts several chapters the anime goes faster than the manga, which led the TV series staff to create some original stories to fill the gap. The series was broadcast on TV Asahi from October 11, 1986, to April 1, 1989. It was directed first by Kōzō Morishita (episodes 1–73) and then by Kazuhito Kikuchi (episodes 74–114). The character designers and aestheticists were Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, and Seiji Yokoyama composed the soundtracks. Following Kurumada's storylines from the manga closely, the chief scriptwriters were Takao Koyama (1–73) and Yoshiyuki Suga (74–114). The series has three main parts: Sanctuary (episodes 1–73), Asgard—an anime original story arc (episodes 74–99), and Poseidon (episodes 100–114). The series was cancelled and left unfinished, with the final story arc of the manga not animated until it was adapted into an original video animation series in 2002. The entire series was later released on two Blu-ray box sets on June 20 and September 24, 2014. It was re-broadcast on TV Asahi in 2015.
After Japan, Saint Seiya was first broadcast in France in 1988 on TF1's Club Dorothée [fr], under the title Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque (which inspired the title in other language versions), and the series became quickly popular. The series was broadcast throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America, where it was a success as well. In North America, the series was first licensed by DIC Entertainment, under the title Knights of the Zodiac, in 2003. The DIC version was edited for broadcast, cutting overly violent scenes, coloring the red blood to blue, adding in previously non-existent digital scene transitions, rewriting the scripts, renaming several characters and replacing the music themes and the original soundtrack. This version premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on August 30, 2003, and in Canada on YTV on September 5 of the same year. Unlike other territories, Saint Seiya did not succeed in North America, and DIC only dubbed forty episodes. ADV Films licensed the home video rights to the series. They released the DIC-edited version and an uncut version of the show with English subtitles, which also included a new dub (with a different voice cast than the one used by DIC). ADV Films released the first twenty-eight episodes of the edited version on seven DVDs from January 27 to October 25, 2004, and released only sixty episodes of the uncut version on twelve DVDs from October 21, 2003, to May 31, 2005. A box-set collection was released on January 13, 2009. New Video released the first seventy-three episodes on a subtitle-only DVD set, titled Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Classic Complete Collection, on April 15, 2014. On October 15, 2019, Netflix began streaming a third English dub, featuring the cast from Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya; the first fifteen episodes premiered first and episodes 16–41 were added some days later; episodes 42–73 were added in January 2020; and episodes 74–114 were added in April 2020, in effect making the Netflix dub the only complete English dub of the entire original series. The series was removed from the platform in December 2021. Crunchyroll added the series to its catalogue in April 2023.
A spin-off television series, Saint Seiya Omega, was broadcast for ninety-seven episodes on TV Asahi from April 1, 2012, to March 30, 2014.

#### Films

Four animated feature films were shown in Japanese theaters from 1987 to 1989. A fifth animated film came out in Japanese theaters in 2004, Heaven Chapter – Overture (天界編 序奏, Tenkai Hen Josō), which was 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 film to be part of a trilogy. Tōru Furuya, Pegasus Seiya voice actor, 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.
Despite the first film being released in 1987, none of the films received an official English release in North America until it was announced by Discotek Media in 2012 that it had acquired the home video rights to the first four ones and intended to release them across two DVDs, each containing two films. The DVDs contain Japanese audio with English subtitles.
On June 21, 2014, Legend of Sanctuary was released. Animated in CGI, Legend of Sanctuary is based on the original series. It was produced by Toei to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise.

#### Original video animations

The last story arc of the original manga series, which was not previously adapted into the television series, was adapted into an original video animation (OVA) series, subtitled The Hades Chapter (冥王ハーデス編, Meiō Hādesu-hen) and released across three parts. The first part, Sanctuary (十二宮編, Jūnikyū-hen, "Zodiac Chapter"), was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, still with designs by Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, while the scripts were done by Michiko Yokote, and the soundtrack was entirely taken from Yokoyama's work on the previous TV series. It consists of 13 episodes, and before its release on home video, it was broadcast on the pay-per-view channel SKY PerfecTV! from November 9, 2002, to April 12, 2003, with the episodes released by Bandai Visual on seven DVDs from January 25 to July 25, 2003.
The second part, Inferno (冥界編, Meikai-hen, "Underworld Chapter"), consists of 12 episodes; from this part onwards there was a recasting for the main characters. The first six episodes were broadcast on SKY PerfecTV! from December 17, 2005, to February 18, 2006, and were released on three DVDs by Avex from February 22 to April 26, 2006; the following six episodes were broadcast on Perfect Choice [ja] from December 15, 2006, to February 18, 2007, and were released on three DVDs by Avex from January 31 to March 28, 2007.
The final part, Elysion (エリシオン編, Erishion-hen), consists of six episodes, which premiered on Perfect Choice from March 7 to August 1, 2008, and were released on three DVDs from March 28 to August 22, 2008.

#### Original net animations

An original net animation (ONA) series titled Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold began streaming in 2015.
Another ONA series, Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya, premiered on Netflix, with six episodes, on July 19, 2019. Another six episodes premiered on January 23, 2020. The second season premiered on Crunchyroll on July 31, 2022.

### Live-action film

In 2003, the French magazine AnimeLand published an interview with Masami Kurumada where the author revealed that a company in Hollywood had approached him some years prior with a fifteen-minute pilot of a live-action film of Saint Seiya. The project was abandoned as Kurumada did not feel the essence of the series had been preserved. In a later interview published in 2005 the reporter was allowed to see the video and commented on how the names of the main characters were changed and noted that one of them, Andromeda Shun had been changed from male to female.
In 2017, a collaboration between Toei Animation and Hong Kong-based production company A Really Good Film Company was announced. In the press conference, plans for a live-action Saint Seiya film were detailed, and Polish director Tomasz Bagiński was announced as being in charge of filming, based on the 1986 series, which was supposed to take place in 2019. The film was released in English under the title Knights of the Zodiac. It stars Mackenyu as Seiya, Madison Iseman as Sienna, Sean Bean as Alman Kido, Diego Tinoco as Nero, Famke Janssen as Vander Guraad, Nick Stahl as Cassios and Mark Dacascos as Mylock. The film premiered in Japan on April 28, 2023. Sony Pictures distributed the film outside Japan, except in China and the Middle East.

### Stage plays

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 five Bronze Saints and Poseidon. The characters Aries Mu, Leo Aiolia, and Scorpio Milo were portrayed by members of another band, Tokio.
A stage play adaptation of the first Saint Seiya film, Evil Goddess Eris, ran at Shibuya's Space Zero [ja] theater from July 28–31, 2011.

### Video games

Several video games have been released based on the series.

### Discography

Seiji Yokoyama was the main composer for the Saint Seiya original anime series. A selection is listed below:
* Saint Seiya Original Soundtrack I–VIII (1987–1989)
* Saint Seiya – Piano Fantasia (1989)
* Saint Seiya – Hades (1990)
* Saint Seiya – 1996 Song Collection (1996)
* Saint Seiya – 1997 Shonenki (1997)
* Saint Seiya – Gold Collection: Best Songs & Symphonic Suites (spanning 5 CDs) (1997)
* Saint Seiya – Memorial Box (spanning 5 CDs) (2002)
* Saint Seiya – Song Selection (2016)

### Other media

In the early 1990s, Renaissance-Atlantic Entertainment planned to produce an American animated version of the series titled Guardians of the Cosmos. Only a pilot was made, and the intro was revealed at the end of YouTuber Ray Mona's documentary on the subject titled The Secret Stories of Saint Seiya in December 2022. The full pilot was showcased in the follow-up documentary The Secret Stories of Saint Seiya Part 2 in April 2023. In September 2024, Marshall uploaded to her channel the pilot episode of StarStorm, a proposed live-action adaptation of Saint Seiya made in the 1990s.
An exhibition was held in Akihabara in June 2016 to celebrate the manga's 30th anniversary, with numerous commemorative gadgets on sale; a second exhibition was held in Hong Kong in August of that same year; a third exhibition was held in China (Shanghai) from December 2017 to March 2018.

## Reception

The Saint Seiya manga has sold over 25 million copies in Japan by 2007. It had over 35 million copies in circulation by 2017, and over 50 million copies in circulation by 2022. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1987. In Animage's 2001 "Top-100 Anime" ranking, Saint Seiya was 53rd. In 2006, TV Asahi conducted a nationwide survey for the one hundred most popular animated television series, where Saint Seiya came in 25th place. In NHK's "Best 100 Anime" online poll ranking, celebrating a century of Japanese Animation, Saint Seiya came in 123rd place.
The series was considered one of the biggest phenomena of the 1980s. It would become the inspiration for future series, including several Gundam series such as Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato, Ronin Warriors, Wild Knights Gulkeeva, and Kurumada's later work B't X. In The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy praises the series' complex plot and felt that animation designers' Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno had worked "magic" with both the anime series and the films. They also praised the grand soundtrack and director Shigeyasu 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 but naive teenagers" and through victories earning more weapons. Jason Thompson describes the series as being "almost pure battle".
Yaoi doujinshi based on Saint Seiya popularized the term "yaoi" in 1987. Saint Seiya was particularly popular as a subject in yaoi as it had a large cast which was predominantly male. This allowed "an incredible number" of pairings, although Andromeda Shun was one of the more popular characters to create yaoi for.
Tite Kubo, the author of the manga series Bleach, named Saint Seiya as 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.
Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold (2015) drew a 50 million viewership worldwide by September 2015.