Saint Seiya

***Saint Seiya***(聖闘士星矢, Seinto Seiya), is the famous manga created by Masami Kurumada, first published on December 3, 1985 in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.

## Story

### Sanctuary

The young man Seiya becomes the Saint of Pegasus, one of the goddess Athena's 88 Saints in his search to find his missing sister. He was raised by the Graad foundation, and prior to being sent to his training, he made a deal that if he obtained a Saint's Cloth, he would be helped in his search. He returns and is forced to participate in the Galaxian Wars by Saori Kido. THe other participants are several other of the orphans that were taken and raised by the Graad foundation, such as Dragon Shiryu, Andromeda Shun and Cygnus Hyoga. The tournament is interrupted by the Black Saintsand Phoenix Ikki.

### Hades

Episode 0
Origins

## Concept and creation

At first, Kurumada planned to create a wrestling-themed manga as he enjoys writing individual sports rather than collective sports. 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 Kuramada 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, Kuramada 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.

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.

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 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. 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.

## Releases

List of Saint Seiya volumes
The series was collected in 28 paperback tankōbon volumes from 1986-1991, and has since then been re-released in different versions.

* The first was a 15 volume aizōban collection, released in 1995 with or without a storage box.
* The second reissue was the 2001 bunkoban "Library Version", which is a larger hard-cover release of the aizoban version.
* The series was released again in 2003 in 19 volumes with art design images from the anime adaptation, and called the "Remix Version".
* The fourth reissue is called the kanzenban edition "Complete Version". Which was released in 22 volumes and contains additional colored pages as well as colored armor schematics.
* Another "Remix Version" was published at the end of 2007 to coincide with the broadcast of Chapter Elysion of the anime.
* Another "Remix Version" was published at the end of 2012.
* A final edition is currently in production at Kurumada Productions and will include changes in dialogue and art.

## References

3. ↑  magazine=June | number=34 | date=May 1987 | title=熱血漫画屋インタビュー
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 title=Kappa Magazine, number 80|year=1999|language=ja
5. ↑ http://kurumadapro.com/column/detail.php?id=92