Saint Seiya

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Zodiac Knights

Japanese: 聖闘士星矢

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 28

Chapters: 110

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 3, 1985 to Nov 6, 1990

Genres: Action, Adventure

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Kurumada, Masami (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.51¹ (scored by 9,843 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2901²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #955

Members: 20,476

Favorites: 898

Resources

Wikipedia

7.51

Ranked #2901Popularity #955Members 20,476

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Kurumada, Masami (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /28

Chapters: /110

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Synopsis

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: ANN)

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Background

As of 2022, over 50 million copies of Saint Seiya are in circulation.

The series was published in English by VIZ Media as Knights of the Zodiac from January 21, 2004, to February 2, 2010. It was published in French by Kana from March 8, 1997, to December 9, 2000; in Italian by Granata Press from July 1, 1992, to June 15, 1994; in Spanish by Panini Comics; in German by Panini Comics; in Brazilian Portuguese by Conrad Editora from November 2000 to January 2004.

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Reviews

Feb 6, 2018

PharuanUndearth

Recommended

A great story with imo shitty art(very dated) but that's to be expected from such an old manga. The Story score and Character scores are so high because the story is one of a kind and told very well, the characters are real cool being based off constellations, which ties in with the story. I can't really break down the story that well as there are 109 chapters which may not seem like a lot but considering there are about 100-150+ pages per chapter, which is above the current norm of 20-~40 pages, that would be a little difficult. For those yet to read the ...

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Dec 22, 2013

Exaccus

Mixed Feelings

***This is a spoiler free review***

Saint Seiya is a shounen manga that has many good starting ideas and lots of potential. However, it has numerous problems that prevent it from realizing that potential to become something great.

-- THE PROS --

The Cloth armors that the Saints wear (especially the Gold Cloths and Divine Cloths), by and large, are pretty cool looking. You may find yourself wishing you had a badass looking armor to wear every time you fight someone. In addition, this manga features a wide variety of nifty superpowers and abilities including: destruction of atoms, absolute zero attacks, illusions, telekinesis, barriers, energy ... blasts, mental assaults, hand to hand combat, fighting at the speed of light, and much more. Of all the special attacks that the Gold Saints wield, Galaxian Explosion and Lightning Plasma are my two favorite finishing moves.

There are lots of characters in this manga: The Olympian Gods, the Saints, the Mariners, and the Specters. For myself, I am partial to Ikki, Hyoga, and Aiolia simply because they each have their moments of badassery as they show off their skills to wipe the floor with their opponents.

-- THE CONS --

First off, there are very few female characters in this manga. The ones that are present are relatively weak and largely irrelevant in every arc of the manga. So don't count on any of the twelve Gold Saints to be female. They are all men, a few of which are pretty boys, which makes for a yaoi baiting sausage fest of sorts. Athena, being an Olympian Goddess, is supposed to be extremely powerful given her tremendous Cosmos, yet the manga makes her out to be mostly helpless and pathetic. She always needs her Saints to rescue her. I have no idea why this manga insists on not having any competent and relevant female characters.

Second, without spoiling anything, it should still be noted that many of the battles in Saint Seiya are full of asspull victories. The characters will be in fights that they have no reasonable chances of winning, given the difference in raw combat stats between them and their opponents. So do they use clever tactics, strategy, and deceit to win? Well, no, they never do that. Do they get their asses handed to them, leave, train, and then return once they can hold their own? Well, no, they don't do that either. So what do they do, you ask? It's simple: They burn their Cosmos to match or exceed the power of their foe to defeat them. Seriously, almost all the fights follow this format: the enemy is too strong and is kicking the hero's ass, time for him to just burn his Cosmos and somehow overcome this challenge due to sheer love of friends/justice/duty. This is ludicrous because it allows the characters to be as strong or weak as the plot demands at that point and time, coherency be damned. This creates a sense of faux-drama and fake hype for enemies that we know are too strong, but in reality are going to lose not to superior wit and intelligence, but due to the mangaka's incredibly lazy writing.

-- CONCLUSION --

Saint Seiya is something that is good in theory, but is poorly executed, resulting in a mediocre reading experience. The manga is creative with Greek mythology, has a few characters with moments of badassery, and some nice superpowered attacks. But it is full of tropes and cliches that anyone not new to anime and manga has seen in shounen series billions of times already. The manga's cast of characters are relatively shallow and lack any interesting quirks, and it doesn't help that almost all of them are male to the exclusion of females. Though perhaps most damning of all: the fights are constantly full of asspulls/inconsistencies, which is extremely anticlimactic and is just a slap in the face of the reader who is expecting something at least somewhat credible.

Overall, I wouldn't say that Saint Seiya is a terrible series (I've seen FAR worse), but if you are looking for a quality shounen series to read, I strongly suggest looking elsewhere.

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Feb 14, 2023

DionisiusMayr

Not Recommended

Funny

Brilliant idea, awful execution.

This is the best example of what not to do regarding "Power Levels".
The manga states clearly that there are 3 kinds of cloths: the weakest ones, bronze, the median silver, and the almighty golden cloths.
However, that makes absolutely no difference throughout the series. A bronze can easily kill a silver/gold and vice versa.
Besides, somewhat early on the manga you already see "speed of light" moves, and latter it gets tricky to make something stronger/faster than that. Imo, the series had almost no planning and definitely wasn't prepared for the success it achieved.

The battles are lame, to say the least.
You will be seeing ...

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Poll: Saint Seiya Chapter 26 Discussion JVskunkape - Dec 2, 2024	5 replies	by SakataGintoki20 »» Dec 4, 2024 3:14 AM
Poll: Saint Seiya Chapter 3 Discussion jeanfarias - Mar 2, 2012	4 replies	by JVskunkape »» Nov 25, 2024 2:50 AM
Poll: Saint Seiya Chapter 1 Discussion jeanfarias - Jan 26, 2012	5 replies	by AndersonMSz »» Dec 26, 2022 11:07 AM
Where to read the original chapters? Henriqueta - Sep 11, 2022	2 replies	by Henriqueta »» Sep 12, 2022 6:17 PM
Poll: Saint Seiya Chapter 110 Discussion linkjoker - Dec 26, 2017	6 replies	by hypermegakakar »» Aug 23, 2022 5:34 PM

Saint Seiya
Knights of the Zodiac
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