Saint Seiya

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Saint Seiya (Japanese:聖闘士星矢) is an anime/manga series about a group of five mystical warriors called the 'Saints' (or 'Knights') who have adopted various constellations as their totems of power. They are given the task to protect Saori Kido, the reincarnation of Athena (the goddess of wisdom and war), and to fight against evil forces. It is based on the manga series of the same title by Masami Kurumada. The animation series first premiered on Japan's TV Asahi on October 11, 1986.

The series is currently being aired in North America on Cartoon Network every Saturday night as an edited-for-TV version called Knights of the Zodiac. An unedited subtitled version is being released by ADV Films. Viz's Shonen Jump titles the manga Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac for American audiences.

The series was able to make so much success in certain parts of the world that it gained the status of "cult". In Brazil, for example, the debut of Saint Seiya in 1994 was responsible for changing the face of animation in the country, making people enjoy Japanese animation for the first time.

Saint Seiya begun to be known in the west as Knight of the Zodiac after it started making success in France, where it was given the name of Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque.

Warning: Plot details follow.

Table of contents

1 Characters
2 Summary
3 External links

Characters

The main characters are:

Seiya (knight of Pegasus)
Shiryu (knight of Dragon)
Ikki (knight of Phoenix)
Hyoga (knight of Cygnus/Swan)
Shun (knight of Andromeda)

Notable antagonists:

Saga, Master of Sanctuary (Ares) who also possesses the Gemini gold armour
Hilda, possessed by the Nibelung Ring (thus, controlled by Poseidon)
Poseidon, Lord of the Seas
Kanon, Saga's twin brother, who cursed him
Hades, King of the Hell

Summary

The story in the anime series consists of 114 episodes and can be basically divided into seven main parts:

The tournament for the gold armour of the Sagittarius
The search of the stolen parts of the gold armour of the Saggitarius (and battle with the Black Saints)
The battle against the Silver Saints and other kinds of close encounters
The battle of the Sanctuary
The fight in Asgard
The battle in Poseidon's kingdom
The Hades' saga (13 OVA - unfinished)

The first 13 episodes of an OVA set in Hades' kingdom were released in November 2002. Before that, the Hades' saga could only be seen in the manga series. There have also been four theatrical releases. Those movies are generally considered as not belonging to the regular chronology. Nevertheless, a fifth movie came out in japanese theatres in 2004, Tenkai-hen Overture, which is supposed to follow the regular chronology right after the end of the manga (which has not been entirely adapted in anime yet) a prologue to a Zeus chapter wich has neither been announced as manga nor anime.

The manga has certain differences with the anime, like the lack of the Asgard saga.