Saint Seiya

Pegasus Seiya in his anime-only Cloth.

Staple manga and later anime during the '80s by Masami Kurumada. It tells the story of five friends who serve the reincarnation of the goddess Athena, Saori Kido, in her quest to reclaim her place as ruler of the Saints, a group of warriors themed after the Western Zodiac and pretty much every charted constellation.

Each saint gets a suit of armor that can transform from a sculpture of their signature constellation into functional battle armor. There are three grades of armor, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with each grade being far more powerful and resilient than the last. Each armor is also an Empathic Weapon and has some amount of choice in who wears it and whether they deserve to use it, as well as at least one special property.

The five core cast members are:

The first arc is the Sanctuary Arc. Saori Kido, heiress to a vast empire, holds special games to see which among the bronze saints deserves the Sagittarius Gold Cloth: an armor so powerful it is considered to confer the power of a Weapon of Mass Destruction to its wearer. Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun (among others) meet there to fight for it, but before the winner can be decided the Gold Cloth is stolen away by the Black Saints, renegade saints led by Ikki.

The story in the anime and manga differs considerably following Ikki's defeat, but it centers in the Bronze Saints facing several other saints sent by the Sanctuary with orders to kill them (and in the anime only, recover the Sagittarius Cloth helmet, the only part of the Cloth the good guys were able to keep). Midway through the battles against the Silver Saints, it is revealed that Saori is the reincarnation of Athena and leadership of Sanctuary is hers by right, which at the time is under control of the nefarious Pope (no, not that one), who wants her dead so he can claim her position as protector of the Earth. Eventually Saori and all the Bronze Saints decide to challenge the Pope directly, and travel to the Sanctuary. Due to some treachery, Athena/Saori is hit by an arrow powerful enough to fell a god in twelve hours... time which the Saints must use to defeat the other eleven Gold Saints and use the shield on the statue of Athena to save their goddess from death.

Later arcs tend to follow this form, with a series of fights to reach the offending god or mortal intent on bringing about a worldwide calamity while working under a time limit, failure leading to Athena's death or the destruction of the world. These arcs were Asgard, Poseidon, Hades, and Heaven. Both the last are ongoing.

The series was dubbed in English as Knights Of The Zodiac (which is actually the name the series has in most of the world outside Japan) and shown on Cartoon Network, but the plot and characters didn't receive very good treatment, and it wasn't very popular. ADV Films would later re-release the series on DVD with a new, much more faithful dub (note the page image). However, outside the States it was immensely popular. In Latin America, in particular, Los Caballeros del Zodiaco/Os Cavaleiros do Zodí­aco has a raging Fandom up to this day, and the series is re-run constantly. Part of this is attributed to its phenomenal dub and respect for the source material. And in Europe it's not slouch either, specially France and Spain, where even to this day the manga sells by the crap loads.

And it turns out that an OVA telling of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas is being produced and entered its second season in 2011. In the meantime, we recommend another of Kurumada's works, B't X.

In Spring 2012, there will be a sequel to the original series[2] titled Saint Seiya Omega.

Right now, Saint Seiya Episode G, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension and Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas are still being released in manga form.

Saint Seiya also received myriads of video games, but none of them usually reached high qualities. However, recently, a Dynasty Warriors spinoff called Saint Seiya Senki/Chronicles for Play Station 3 is in the works, by both Bandai Namco and Dimps. Thus far, this seems to be the most highly anticipated Saint Seiya game ever.

Tropes used in Saint Seiya include:
  • The Abridged Series: Currently done by French fans which turns out to be the first French abridged series.
    • On the site, there are transcripts for each episode so if you don't speak French, you can copy that and translate it.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Shura's Excalibur can cut through flesh, armor... dimensions.
  • Achilles' Heel: When Shiryu unleashes the Rozan Shoryu Ha, his defense wide open for a small second - and if you hit him there, he's as good as dead. When Seiya points that out in the tournament, Shiryu freaks out.
    • Anime-only god warrior Alpha Siegfried shares his Achilles' heel with his namesake from the Nibelungenlied—he slays a dragon and bathes in its blood, making himself immortal, but at that very moment a tiny leaf falls on his back (coincidentally over his heart), preventing that bit of skin from being touched by the blood, and therefore making that spot the only part of his body that can be dealt a mortal blow.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: The hair colors in the manga tend to be realistic, whereas the ones in the anime range between green, pink, purple and other funky colors.
  • All Myths Are True: We have Greek Mythology, Shaka is reincarnation of Buddha, one of the movies features the Saints fending off Satan, Norse Mythology, etc. While it is odd, Kurumada simply puts this stuff in because he thinks its cool.

I like horror and ghost stories quite a bit. I get excited when people tell me about frightening experiences they've had or supposedly true encounters with ghosts. Just as I don't believe in gods or Buddha, I don't really believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits. But the beauty of a great story lies in that logic-defying ineffability. That's the fun of it.
Masami Kurumada 1990
Knights of the Zodiac: Vol 23

  • Almost Kiss: Seiya and Saori, Seiya and Miho, and some fans will even say Hyoga and Shun from the infamous House of Libra scene.
  • Alpha Bitch: Saori, when she was a kid. She grew out of it, though.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English dub received a new theme song called "I Ran" by Bowling for Soup.
  • An Ice Person: Hyoga, any of his masters (Camus or the anime-only Crystal Saint) and his Rival Turned Evil Kraken Isaac.
  • And I Must Scream: What happens when Cancer Deathmask kills you and enslaves your soul.
  • Animated Armor
  • Anime Theme Song
    • First Season Opening (Galaxy Tournament Arc to 12 Houses Arc): Pegasus Fantasy.
    • Second and Third Season Opening (Asgard Arc to Poseidon Arc): Soldier Dream.
    • Second and Third Season Ending: Blue Dream
  • Anti-Villain: Several of the Golden Saints, as well as some of the Asgard Warriors. See the entry for details.
  • The Archer: Sagittarius Aioros's Golden cloth is shaped as an archer centaur or a mounted archer. Subverted because Aioros never gets to use the cloth's arrows save once during the Hades saga. Seiya, on the other hand, makes plenty use of it in movies.
    • The Silver Saint Sagitta is protected by the Arrow constellation. He doesn't have a traditional bow, but shoots arrows made of his cosmo and materialize them into real golden arrows. He's to blame for poor Saori getting hit by said golden projectile and almost dying.
  • Armor Is Useless: Variation. Sometimes armors are vital in the fighting strategies, sometimes they can be destroyed and nothing happens.
    • This becomes certainly amusing when Shiryuu cuts through the Capricorn armor... with his bare hand, because he'd been stripped off his armor by Shura. Rule of thumb: If the bronze saints' armors are still intact and in their normal shape, the fight's nowhere near over yet.
    • By the end of the series, helmets become useless. Everyone's helmet is either broken, lost in a fight or simply not used (because they look cool that way).Athena has hers for a single page and then loses it when Hades strikes her shield.
  • Art Evolution: Justified. See Promoted Fanboy entry.
  • Artifact Title: Not on the original series itself, mind you, where Seiya always played an important role; but the subsequent spin-offs / prequels don't even feature Seiya at all! (OK, The Lost Canvas is about his previous incarnation, but still!)
    • Funnily enough, the international title, Knights of the Zodiac, always stays relevant because it applies to all the Athena's Saints / Knights.
  • Artistic Age: The main cast's age average is 14!
    • The animators of the anime themselves seem to have forgotten about this fact since at one point Hyoga is shown driving a car.
    • And don't let us get to Ikki's flashbacks in which he's seen carrying Shun, as a baby, in his arms! And that's supposing Ikki is 15 and Shun is 13!!!
    • At one point Kurumada himself might have forgotten how old he set his characters are, it get bizzare when Julian Solo who is Poseidon's vessel proposed Saori aka Athena. Julian was celebrating his 16th birthday that time and Saori was 13 years old. Noted loooong time ago in Japan's feudal era it was possible but surely it was not when Kurumada write this story.
  • Asleep for Days: Athena spends most of the series fliping in and out of this state.
  • Badass Grandpa: Libra Dohko in his old form.
  • Band of Brothers: The Bronze Saints in the Anime.
  • Barrier Maiden: Saori often has to take the place or tasks of another God or make a life-risking Batman Gambit to ensure buying time for her Saints to beat up the Bad Guys. Shun is also placed in that situation sometimes. Lampshaded in Shun's backstory since his armor is protected by the constellation of Andromeda, the one named after THE Barrier Maiden of Greek mythology.
  • Batman Gambit: Saori. See "Barrier Maiden" for more details. Other users of this technique are Saga, Ikki, Kanon, Mu, Dohko, and both Hilda and Alberich in the Asgard saga.
  • Battle Aura: All saints have one. Usually accompanied by a spectral vision of their constellation when they really start to turn it up.
  • Battle Royale With Cheese: The Saints fall one by one and it's up to Seiya (and Ikki, sometimes) to face the Big Bad.
  • Berserk Button: Guilty eventually found Ikki's by murdering his love interest, Esmeralda (which the anime even turned into Guilty's daughter). Deathmask also found out at his expense that messing with Shunrei won't make Shiryu happy to say the least.
  • Between My Legs: Shaina gets this shot in episode 30.
  • Big Heroic Run: In the iconic first opening. Our heroes charge forward to the beat of a Badass Guitar Solo.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: The Kido Family. Saori Kido turns out to be the Goddess Athena, Mitsumasa Kido in the manga has 100 kids and then sends them to go become Saints. Let's not forget Hyoga and his Oedipus Complex with his dead mother.
  • Bird Run: Everyone, after the Sanctuary arc.
  • Bizarre Baby Boom: The 100 orphans are all close to the same age and are all related in the manga.
  • Blasting Time: The Aurora Execution.
  • Blind Seer: Shiryu.
  • Blood Knight: Cancer Deathmask and Cassios.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Hagen, in regards to Freya. Maybe both Thor and Siegfried, in regards to Hilda. Jabu, in regards to Saori (anime only). Possibly, Seiya towards Saori.
  • Bowdlerise: Oh sweet merciful Athena!. "Kill" becomes "I'll use my psychic powers to put him to sleep", and a punch through the rib cage becomes "hitting a pressure point".
    • This only applies to the version aired on Cartoon Network. Both the video and audio of the DVD version released by ADV Films are uncut and even use the original terminology.
    • Viz's release of the manga is nearly uncut, except for using a few terms from the edited version ("Knight" instead of "Saint", "Mephisto" instead of "Deathmask"). Oddly, the name "Death Queen Island" remains unchanged.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Leo Aioria and Anime-only Crystal Saint are extremely brutal examples of this trope. So much it takes death (of another person, in Aioria's case; of himself, in the Crystal Saint's) to de-brainwash them.
  • Breakout Character: The Gold Saints serve primarily as the ultimate obstacles for the heroes in the Twelve Houses Arc but, due to their popularity, their roles started to become more important as time passed by and more prequels where created to the point that they have perhaps surpassed the heroes in terms of screen-time (anime and manga combined) and became the protagonists of their own manga in Episode G (and Lost Canvas to some extent).
  • Brother Chuck: The Steel Saints. A common joke/explanation among fans is that they must have missed the plane for the Sanctuary or took the wrong one. Phaeton and Spartan from the anime. Giggars is usually believed to be one as well, but he's seen struck down by Ikki in the Flame Saint chapter, and gives off the impression he's as good as dead.
    • Asterion in the manga. Later subverted in the Kanzenban, in which his grave can be seen in one pannel.
    • Chameleon June is specially odd, as she appars once, is left on the care of Tatsumi and is never seen or heard off again in neither adaptation.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Hyoga is half Japanese, half Russian.
  • Cain and Abel: It looked like Ikki and Shun would become this, and they were in the beginning, but ultimately Ikki pulled a Heel Face Turn and subverted this. Kanon and Saga (and in the anime, Sid and Bud), on the other hand...
    • In the "childhood friends" sense, we have two pairs: Shiryu and Ohko (anime only) and Hyoga and Kraken Isaac. Both cases end up in death.
  • Calling Your Attacks: "PEGASUS SUI SEI KEEEEEEEENNNNN!"
  • Canon Discontinuity: The Heaven Chapter prequel movie has been retconned out due to events of Saint Seiya: The Next Dimension.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: ... Come ON.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: EVERYONE
  • Canon Foreigner: Several, including from anime (Docrates, Giste, Spartan, Arachne, etc) and movies.
  • Canon Immigrant: The Pope's brainwashing technique, the Genrou Maouken, appears in the anime before its debut in the manga. Lyra Orpheus too, as he appears in the 1st movie first (though he was also designed by Kurumada back then).
  • Combined Energy Attack: A good deal of battles, particularly arc-ending battles end with Athena's Saints (usually just the Bronze Saints, but sometimes the Golds if they're available) willingly relinquishing their Cosmo to either Seiya or Athena herself to deal the final blow. Even more notable in that the Saints' patron constellations (like Cygnus, Draco, Phoenix, Andromeda, or Pegasus) manifest visually as helpers to the character delivering the attack.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Wow, who would've thought that Saga would lock Kanon up in the one place that would lead to the jar imprisoning Poseidon with all the General's Cloths perfectly ready to be used?
  • Convection Shmonvection: One filler episode had Ikki fight a pair of Silver Saints at the top of a volcano. A little girl who was going to thrown inside it but was saved by Ikki didn't suffer from the heat either.
  • Crossover Cosmology: Saori/Athena and her fellow Greek Gods have various other mythological pantheons' heroes or figures as servants or rivals, and their followers are completely free to worship competing religions. For example...
    • Shaka Virgo is a reincarnation of a Buddha and quite capable of mopping the floor with just about any opponent. In the english dub, there is a translation error that stated he was the Buddha and not a Buddha.
    • Capricorn Shura has the legendary sword Excalibur in his arm (not literally, more like it's spirit) allowing him to cut anything.
    • Far up North, a whole culture lives in worship of Odin, led by Hilda (name comes from Brunnhilde, the strongest of the Valkyries) and her sister Freya (name was taken from the Goddess of beauty and love). Odin's Asgardian God Warriors (named after Norse mythological figures) had a patron star in the Ursa Major constellation.
    • Hyoga was nominally Christian (he sometimes explains the basics of Christianity to his fellow Saints), and one OVA movie had the saints fight Lucifer. (This one is not actually canon though.)
    • Poseidon's Generals are each patterned after an ocean, so you have typical Greek water demons as well as Kraken Isaac from the Arctic Ocean and Chrysaor Krishna from the Indian Ocean.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Hyoga tends to dish this big in the early chapters of the manga. Ichi, Black Cygnus, Babel and (much later in the story) Troll Ivan can attest to that.
  • Cute Shotaro Boy: Shun. Who else?
    • Even to the point that Pisces Aphrodite called him a girlface. And the pot called the kettle black.
  • Damsel in Distress: Saori's role every single arc, basically.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Shiryu's Ultimate Dragon.
  • Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: Poseidon wholly took over the body of young Julian Solo right after he turned 16. Technically, he had possessed the guy much earlier, but wouldn't be able to take over until then and just lay dormant inside, influencing his subconscious. Lampshaded when Kanon woke Poseidon up and the God himself said he'd only truly control Julian in that day.
  • Dark Action Girl: Ophiuchus Shaina in the beginning.
  • Darker and Edgier: Both, manga and anime, can be this to each other depending on the situation yet the first still has the upper hand.
  • The Dark Side: Several saints have fallen for this. Most notably the Gemini Saints.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond: The brothers Leo Aioria and Sagittarius Aiolos. If we go to a White-Haired Pretty Boy version, Noble Demon Crysaor Krishna counts as well. Cassios is a VERY Ax Crazy version.
  • Death Is Cheap: To the extent where it just flat out becomes Fridge Logic.
  • Deceptive Disciple: Ikki had to kill his master to take over the Phoenix cloth. He didn't want to at first, but after seeing said master horribly and gleefully show his Complete Monster credential by killing Esmeralda, Ikki's Morality Pet, he lost it and did it.
  • Defeat By Genre Savvy: In the manga version of the battle against the Pope Ikki and he hit each other with their brainwashing techniques. Ikki's induces illusions and the Pope's causes his victims to obey him. The Pope decides to play it safe and make sure Ikki is under his control by having him stab his own arm before ordering him to kill Seiya and Ikki apparently does so until things go back to normal. Ikki remarks that had the Pope ordered him to kill Seiya right away, Ikki couldn't have shaken off the mind control fast enough.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Ophiuchus Shaina, in the end
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Quite a few times, they could convince their opponents they're actually on the same side.
  • Descending Ceiling: Used in the Sagittarius Temple (anime-only).
  • The Determinator: All five of the main Bronze Saints, to varying degrees.
  • Disability Superpower: Averted; whenever Shiryu becomes blind, he learns to compensate for it but gets no extra powers out of the deal. In the manga, however, Dohko mentions that Shiryu's cosmos is stronger due to his blindness when he strikes Deathmask in their first bout.
    • Disability Immunity: On the other hand, it granted him protection from certain techniques. When he blinded himself during his duel with Algol, it was to avoid getting petrified by his Medusa's Shield. And later on, he avoided being fooled by Gemini Temple's illusion, allowing him and Seiya to find the exit of it.
    • Whenever someone starts losing a few of his senses, expect them to become stronger unless he is the current villain.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The Cloth of Sagittarius.
  • Divine Chessboard: Athena with her saints against Poseidon with his generals and later Hades with his specters.
  • Driven to Suicide: In the manga, Saga kills himself to atone for all the horrible sins that his evil side committed for years, once Seiya cleansed him with Athena's shield, in the process of saving Athena at the last remaining second. In the anime, his good side also kills himself, but at this point his evil side is about to be destroyed from massive pummeling from Seiya and the main cast, he has lost his Cloth, and desperately leaps to punch and kill Athena; at which point his good side becomes this, as he uses his other hand to grab Athena's scepter and stab himself with it rather than harming the Goddess that should be his ward.
  • Drowning Pit: Saori is put inside one of these by Poseidon. Also, Kanon was locked in another one by Saga several years ago, before meeting Poseidon
  • Dual-Wielding: Shun's Andromeda Chain and Cerberus Dante's chained spikeballs. The weapons in the Libra Cloth all come in pairs too.
  • Dub Name Change: Most of the main characters' names are changed in the Italian dub, usually by giving them the name of their constellation (eg: Seiya becomes Pegasus, Shun becomes Andromeda and so on) or by giving them a totally different, non-japanese name (Shiryuu becomes Sirio, Hyoga Crystal, Shaina is Tisifone and Saori is Isabel).
  • Eighties Hair: Athena's Army. Half of the Golds have mullets. The Amazons and the beautiful Saints have big hair.
    • As the series got older, the Eighties Hair became less prominent with Mariners and Specters sporting shorter hair cuts. The sequel Saint Seiya: Next Dimension finally phased it out with straighter, shorter hair (for the new characters at least).
  • Elemental Powers: Each Cloth and Saint have elemental focuses and affinities. Explicitly stated with the anime-only Steel Saints.
  • Elemental Eye Colours: Hyoga, An Ice Person has blue eyes. Strangely averted in the Manga with Aquarius Camus who despite being An Ice Person as well, had red eyes.
  • Enlightenment Superpowers: Virgo Shaka.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: All male cast excluding cannon fodder troops. The show could as well be names Estrogen Brigade Bait: The Series. And the fangirls approve.
  • Everybody Hates Hades: Played painfully straight.
    • Though to be fair, it seems more to be a case of Everybody Hates All the Gods except their own (Athena from the heroes' perspective but Specters love their God as much which is Hades).
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: Most of the love interests: Eurydice, Esmerelda, June, and Freya. You could also count Misty in this due to the fact that most of the Silvers are determined to avenge him.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning:Seiya's Pegasus Rolling Crush attack, Shun's Andromeda Chain defense.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Hyoga's harsh training. Every time you see him, he or Crystal Saint are out wrestling and testing moves with bears. Geki also illustrates the difficulty of his training on the fact that he had go out and kill bears with his own hands.
  • Expy: Kurumada reused character designs from his original manga series, Ring ni Kakero in this (Ikki is a far more bitter and less narcissistic expy of Superstar Kenzaki Jun (while retaining the same insane level of awesomeness), and Seiya is an expy of Takane Ryuuji). Likewise, series that came after Saint Seiya, such as B't X, borrowed from its designs as well.
    • By the way, the design porting is so blatant in Kurumada's drawing style, this borders around Only Six Faces in his whole manga work. Luckily the anime's character designs avert this.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Subverted: Shaka, the Virgo Saint isn't blind, but he keeps his eyes closed as if he really were, so he can focus his energy; him opening his eyes is followed by a tremendous release of accumulated psychic powers that can and WILL litterally render you senseless. According to the Genre Savvy Aioria, you must do everything in your power to NOT make Shaka open his eyes. On the other hand, Asmita Virgo, Shaka's Expy from the Lost Canvas story -is- blind.
  • Eye Scream: Shiryu, Hyoga (during the Poseidon Arc) and his friend Isaac.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Hyoga; Averted by Kraken Isaac, who has no qualms in showcasing his damaged eye.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Athena, towards Hades.
  • The Faceless: Ikki's master on Death Queen Island, Guilty, wears a demon mask. Athena's female Saints also wear shiny and expressionless silver masks.
  • Faux Action Girl: In the anime, poor Marin is a Silver Saint and an excellent big sister mentor for Seiya, but she ends up just too often hit with The Worf Effect. This is thankfully averted in the manga, since all her defeats are anime-exclusive.
    • Subverted with Shaina. She managed to dodge it once she pulled off her Heel Face Turn.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Several Cloths, most notably the Aquila Cloth, whose upper body has an armored and unarmored side.
  • The Fettered: Shun.
  • Fighting From the Inside: Say what you will about Shun's pacifism making him wimpy, but it gave him the resolve to throttle Hades while he was possessing his body! It gave Ikki an opening to kill Hades at the cost of his life.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: Pisces Aphrodite, Lizard Misty and Papillon Myu.
    • Pope Saga, or atleast his evil side is shown being overly boastful about his "beatitful body" during his Shower Scene in the manga.
  • Final Speech: Several characters do this before dying, with the Asgard Warriors as the main offenders.
  • Five-Bad Band: This series has quite a few of them.
    • The Black Saints played it straight however—in which they were a sort of Evil Counterpart to the main bronze saints early in the series, with Phoenix Ikki as the Big Bad before his Heel Face Turn.
    • The Asgard characters:
    • The Gold Saints, while not evil per se, fit this during the 12 House Arc.
      • Big Bad: The Evil Pope Gemini Saga
      • The Dragon: Capricorn Shura, Scorpio Milo and Cancer Deathmask. Pisces Aphrodite can also be one, due to his house being the last before the Big Bad, and that he was sent to assassinate Shun's Master. Virgo Shaka as he's the most powerful among the Gold Saints, said to be the one closest to God.
      • The Brute: Taurus Aldebaran
      • Evil Genius: Aquarius Camus and Virgo Shaka
      • Dark Chick: Pisces Aphrodite, doubling as Dragon.
      • Token Good Teammate: Aries Mu and Leo Aioria
  • Five-Man Band: This series also has a number of these as well.
  • Form-Fitting Wardrobe: The Cloths (armor).
  • Free Sample Plot Coupon: In order to save Athena in the last third of the Sanctuary Arc, the main characters must walk through the twelve zodiac houses and confront the Gold Saints whenever it's necessary. Fortunately, Aries won't be a major concern. Mu, the house's guardian, is in the good guys' side, and after jokingly faking a battle with them, he proceeds to repair their (at that point weakened) armors so they can be better prepared. Mu also gives them suggestions about how to confront the remaining Gold Saints.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Seiya and Saori/Athena in Tenkai Hen(5th movie) against Apollo.
  • Gambit Roulette: Kanon's plan to take over the world * and* have his payback against Gemini Saga includes deliberately telling his very powerful yet mentally unstable twin brother about his personality problems to mess up with his mind, worm his way into a powerful God's favor, help stage the war against the Sanctuary and, in the anime, manipulate his godly boss into using a powerful yet peaceful priestess to re-start everything when he loses against Sanctuary...
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In an early episode, Docrates actually said "bullshit".
    • The homosexual undertones in the anime version of Shun weakening under the strain of burning his cosmos to its max to save Hyoga.
  • Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Obviously the Gold Saints, but later on the Bronze Saints as well.
  • Good All Along: Camus, so much it hurts. He did not care about the struggle for Athena and did nothing to stop Seiya and Shun from running past him. All he wanted was to awaken Hyoga's Seventh Sense... And of course, that would come in handy later on.
  • Grasp the Sun: In a short but sad scene, Ikki's on the ground and sees the snow. He reaches to it and mutters how he promised he was going to show snow to Esmerelda one day.
  • Heel Face Turn: After being Poseidon's Man Behind the Man, in the Hades saga Kanon takes over the Gemini cloth that his deceased twin brother Saga left behind and joins the good guys.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: So you've got Amuro Ray and Bright Noah together again, kicking ass, along with Rei repairing armor instead of tearing it apart with his fingers, and Kou Uraki using chains all the time. Oh, and his brother is Schwarz Bruder. And he never dies. Also, Prime Minister Wong Yunfat is actually a good guy, Lalah Sune is Amuro and Bright's lady in liege, and Kycillia Zabi wants to either love or kill Amuro.
    • The next generation too. We've got Ichigo Kurosaki and Suzaku Kururugi kicking ass together. And there's also the immortal KAMINA. And their Goddess? Rukia Kuchiki!
    • And some Gold Saints' Darrins are worth this one too. There's... Byakuya Kuchiki for Gemini Saga/Kanon, Ky Kiske for Capricorn Shura, Axel Almer for Aquarius Camus, Genjo Sanzo for Scorpio Milo... to name a few...
    • For Lost Canvas we have Simon as Tenma, Lelouch and Suzaku as Kagaho and Minos, Lockon as Shion and Tieria as Albafica; quite the giant robot reunion I see.
    • There's one notable one in (uncut) English Dub: Edward Elric is very obvious as bit character Unicorn Jabu. He also plays the very feminine Lizard Misty, skewing his voice into a hilariously high pitch.
      • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the Brazilian Dub (actually older than the English one), the also fan-favorite VA Marcelo Campos voices Jabu, Misty AND Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist. In Saint Seiya, he provides Mu's voice as well.
  • High-Pressure Blood: The series is INFAMOUS for that. Poor Shiryu.
  • Hijacked by Jesus: Several of the Big Bad enemies that oppose Athena and her Saints are either gods (like Hades, Poseidon, Artemis or Eriis) or priests of other gods (like Hilda, priestess of Odin). Also, Virgo Shaka is the incarnation of Siddharta Gautama aka Buddha.
  • Holy Halo: Part of the Indian Ocean armor worn by Chrysaor Krishna.
  • Honor Before Reason: Sometimes the Saints' rivals acknowledged they were wrong, but preferred to go down fighting anyway and/or refused to pull a Heel Face Turn out of loyalty or love to their masters.
  • Hot-Blooded: Seiya
  • Hotblooded Sideburns: All five of the Bronze Saints, but especially Seiya.
  • Human Popsicle: Hyoga, with Milo explicity saying that preserving him was Camus' intention all along. Hyoga's deceased mother Natasha is forever preserved under the waters of Siberia.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Taurus Aldebaran is an interesting case. While he does not use a sword, his Signature Move, the "Great Horn", works with a very similar mechanic. Seiya even takes advantage of this fact in order to deal with said technique during their fight.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: It was pretty common for the Silver and Gold Saints to condescend to fight the Bronze saints on a handicap, only to go all out once they proved strong. Hyoga was also very guilty of this while fighting lower-level Bronzes (just ask poor Hydra) and random Mooks.
    • Worth to mention that this backfired spectacularly in Shaka's case. Shaka Opened his eyes, which means he is taking the fight seriously, while fighting Ikki and used one of his special moves to strip the latter of his five senses. Turns out that when you're completely alone with your thoughts nothing can distract you from the Seventh Sense.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Saori aka Athena finally defeated Hades.
  • Instrument of Murder: The Razor Floss producing harps/lyras of Benetnasch Eta Mime and the two Lyra Orpheus (1st movie and Hades chapter, respetively).
  • In the End You Are on Your Own
  • Intimate Healing: After Hyoga is released from an ice coffin but is nearly dead from the cold, so Shun burns his cosmo while lying with Hyouga in his arms in order to revive him. Cue to LOTS of Ho Yay-tinted squealing coming from the Estrogen Brigade (can't fully blame them, though).
  • It Only Works Once: Hypothetically, each saint can adapt to any other saint's attack and defend against it. However; quite a few prideful antagonists would show off their entire repertoire at low power and act shocked, shocked! that the bronzies had found a way to defend against or exploit it. Most villains paired it with an Adaptive Ability. It's worth noting that in later arcs some attacks had little or no defense, and enemies could use them repeatedly against each other.
  • It's All Upstairs From Here: LITERALLY. Though once, they go downstairs as well...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seiya and Hyoga start as this, but soon are somewhat nicer (though Hyoga is also a Kuudere). Ikki is more of a straight example.
  • Jossed: The identity of Seiya's older sister and Marin's little brother. See Luke, I Am Your Father below.
  • Kick the Dog: Kaza uses his shapeshifting abilities to lure Seiya (transforming into Marin) and Hyoga (transforming into Camus) in and then hurt them. Camus sinks the boat where Natasha's body is placed to force her son Hyoga to fight him. In the final arc, Thanatos does his damndest to kill Seiya's helpless older sister Seika just to punish him. Similarly, in a small anime filler two Silver Saints kill an old man and throw his granddaughter inside a volcano to lure Ikki out of his refuge inside said volcano.
  • Kid Hero: The Saints are a lot younger than they look.
  • Kill'Em All: Lots of people die. As in: for good. It simply isn't noticeable until the Hades arc. All the Gold Saints (13, including Kanon), all the Silvers excluding Marin and Shaina (14), all the Mariners excluding Sorento (5, if you exclude Kanon), God knows how many filler villains and normal characters (i.e. Cassios, Hyoga's mom, etc.)...
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Hurt Shun in any way and you'll have Ikki screaming Mind Rape on you. Try to kill Shunrei and her adoptive brother Shiryu will throw you into the pits of Hell.
  • Kuudere: Camus. Dear God, Camus.
    • It also rubs off on Hyoga.
  • La Résistance: The Bronze Saints against the Sanctuary.
  • Lady of War: Aquila Marin. Saori, after she finally activates her own Cloth in the manga Arguably, Eris, Pandora and Artemis. Ophiucus Shaina is too Ax Crazy at the beginning to count, but she becomes one later on.
  • Large Ham: Phoenix Ikki. This is him being discrete.
    • Almost anyone in the main cast in the Italian dub. They often quotes Real Life poems and famous works.
    • Ophiuchus Shaina, at least in the brazilian dub.
  • Last Breath Bullet: Aldebaran pulls this one to Deep Nyobe in the Hades Saga.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Gold Saints are the strongest warriors of all, because they wear the shiniest Cloths of all (Gold).
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: The Bronze Saints seem to do this quite a bit.
  • Levitating Lotus Position: Virgo Shaka awaits for the intruders to the House of Virgo in a Levitating Lotus Position. No surprise here for someone thinking he's the reincarnation of Buddha. Bonus points for keeping the pose while wearing the Gold Cloth armor of the Gold Saints.
  • Life Energy: The key to the Saints' power is their cosmos. Whoever can burn his cosmo to the higher level wins, no matter how injured or weakened they are.
  • Lighter and Softer: Both, manga and anime, can be this to each other depending on the situation yet the anime gets progressively less bloodier towards the later arcs.
  • Light Is Not Good: The Angels in the Tenkai Hen Overture Movie.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Overloads at the Hades saga.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: When she grew up, Saori became one of these before she turned out to be The Messiah. Also, Julian Solo until Poseidon took over him.
    • Julian's surname is literally alone in spanish. That's quite the Meaningful Name you've got there.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shiryu and his Dragon Shield. Also, the Libra Cloth has two huge shields that can be used defensively and offensively, since they had chains and it allowed the user to flail them around if needed. Also, Lacerta Misty and the Sea Horse's preferred method of defense has them set up barriers, then stand smugly before Seiya's unending unslaught (until he figures it out, at least.)
    • Subverted (and, for the fandom, played for laughs) in Shiryu's case: he always claims that the Dragon Shield is indestructible; yet, it tends to break constantly (not in every fight, but still...). Though it was able to resist Excalibur. Once. Nothing else can even hope to do something like that.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted: No, Seiya, Marin is NOT your long-lost older sister. Her brother Touma is one of your enemies and your true sister grew up into a Waif Prophet.
    • Also played straight (in the manga at least): Mitsumasa Kido was actually the birth father of all the orphans he sent around the world to be trained as Saints. Busy guy, specially in how all of the children he sent... all of them have a VERY close age range.
  • Magic Countdown: Averted somewhat in the Sanctuary Chapter. Even though the flames from the Zodiac clock cheated in their length before disappearing, the whole thing did last around 12 hours, slightly more but justified with Seiya actually taking a bit more than 12 hours to grab the Shield of Justice.
  • Manly Tears: This series could very well be described as "Manly Tears and Greek Gods".
  • Man Behind the Man: Kanon to Poseidon
  • Marionette Motion: This is Gryphon Minos' power, "Cosmic Marionation".
  • Martyr Without a Cause: The five Bronzes.
  • Meaningful Name: Almost all characters have meaningful names.
  • The Medic: Saori, at the end of the Twelve Houses chapter (anime-only).
    • Aioria is given Healing Hands in the anime, which he uses twice to heal Sheena and Seiya.
  • Meditation Powerup: Shaka.
  • Medium Blending: For some odd reason, in the Hades Sanctuary OVA, Seiya's transformation sequence was done completely in a very generic 3D. It is later partially averted when Shun's transformation sequence used traditional animation for his character and 3D in the back and it looks awesome.
    • Tôei was poking around and trying new stuff for the Hades OVAs in 2002, which was the first St S related production in years. The 3D transformation sequence got such violent backlash from the fans, they decided to go back to traditional animation for Shun's transformation in OVA 3.
  • Melodrama: The heroes have been through so much Wangst, it looks like they're fueled by it.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Despite the high death count, all the female Saints, Marin, Shaina and June, manage to survive while all but the five main bronze boys die.
  • Merchandise-Driven: The Steel Saints were inserted in the anime at the request of Bandai to sell action figures about them. The redesign of the first version of the Bronze Saints Cloths (compared to those found in the manga) are also due to Bandai's request, one could argue it was for the better.
  • The Messiah: Saori aka Athena, after she's revealed as such. Hilda, until she's forcibly turned into a Dark Messiah. She gets better.
  • Middle Child Syndrome: The Silvers. Even in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas they do nothing and are only there to get killed by the Bronze Saints or the Specters.
    • The Mariners qualify as well. Their arc is greatly overshadowed and again, in The Lost Canvas, Poseidon's threat is pretty much glanced at.
  • Mind Rape: Ikki's Phoenix Genma Ken. Virgo Shaka's main techniques, Rikudō Rinne and Tenbu Hōrin. Any Gemini saint and their Genrōmaōken to some degree as well. In the anime, this includes what happened to Hilda's good side when she was brainwashed by the Ring of the Nibelung and her Super-Powered Evil Side took over; she was forced to see how her Asgard God Warriors died one by one.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Subverted: the most fanservicy character was a male. Who possessed a very muscled body and had at least two very fanservicy bath and shower scenes. Obvious bait for the Estrogen Brigade watching the show.
    • The one and only instance of female fanservice was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene of Shunrei, Shiryu's adoptive sister, bathing in a river.
    • Chameleon June's Cloth: Eye boob cups.
    • Shaina sleeping naked under the covers while Cassios was taking care of her.
  • Multinational Team: There are many nationalities among the Saints, the Mariners and the Specters.
  • The Musical: A musical was performed back in the early nineties featuring popular JPOP group SMAP playing the lead roles and another JPOP group Tokio playing some of the other characters.
  • Musical Assassin: Mime (harp), the two Orpheus (lyre), Sorrento (flute) and Sphynx Pharao (harp).
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: You sometimes want the Saints to just stay down so they don't take more damage and then they get up and ARGH... Hello, Seiya and Shiryu.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In the Asgard saga, Seiya has a huge Freak-Out when he thinks he's killed Hilda instead of de-brainwash her. And before that, Saga's suicide is triggered by this.
    • About the first example: Of course, his chosen method of de-brainwashing was apparently bonking her on the head with a legendary sword... It would have made more sense to try to strike the Ring of the Nibelung, or cut off the finger/hand Hilda wore it on, but no, Seiya had to go for swordblade to the head. Good thing it worked, though.
      • Then again, Seiya did hesitate heavily before he struck Hilda down, unable to bring himself to harm her since he knew she was Brainwashed and Crazy. He only did so when Odin himself told him "STFU and use my sword, kiddo!" He can't be fully blamed for what happened.
    • One of the most symbolic example of this happened in the anime, when Capricorn Shura realized the baby he tried to kill several years ago was in fact Athena. This epiphany was all the more powerful considering he took most of his pride in believing to be her most faithful knight.
    • Also spoken verbatim by Shiryu after winning an OVA duel against a Brainwashed and Crazy Hyoga. Arguably one of the best, most fast-paced and intense fights of the series, too.
  • Nakama: The Bronze Saints, one of anime's closest-knit nakama.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Cancer Deathmask, definitely.
  • No Endor Holocaust: Averted, see the main entry
  • No Eye in Magic: Perseus Algol exhibits a similar petrification power to the mythical Medusa—not through his own eyes, but through the image of Medusa in his shield. This power could affect his victims through cloth or blindfolds, because it acted directly on the retina. The recipient could protect themselves with the Dragon Cloth's shield, however, and it doesn't work on the blind either.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Hyoga in the Knights of the Zodiac dub.
  • Now Let Me Carry You: In one episode, Saori protects an unconscious and badly injured Seiya from Shaina and Jamian.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Saint Seiya portrays at least two examples of this trope:
    • Libra Dohko: an old man of more than 250 years old that walks using a stick (and that's actually an Expy of Star Wars Yoda), can be even more Badass than any of the younger Saints. Not to mention that he actually hides his young shape intact, shelled inside his old body, ready to use if becomes necessary
    • In the spinoff Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, is revealed that the ancient Virgo Saint, Asmita, is in fact blind. However he absolutely doesn't need sight, as his powers and perception are in the ranges of Pure Awesomeness .
  • Obi-Wan Moment: In Hades arc, Virgo Shaka elaborates on the ephemeral nature of life, and how death is only another step, as he is assassinated by three gold saints. Extra points for him staying in lotus position all the way through it, much in a Buddha-like manner. It is later revealed that accepting death was needed for one to freely wander in the realms of Hades.
  • Oedipus Complex: Hello to you now, Hyoga.
  • The Ojou: Saori Kido, an insanely rich heiress and ex Libby turned into a serene, gentle strategist and genius businesswoman. She's even referred as ojou-sama (milady) in canon.
  • One-Way Visor: Female Saints of Athena. They apparently use Cosmo sense instead of their eyes.
  • One-Woman Wail: Two of them. And both are beautiful yet so damn sad
  • Ordered Apology: When Shun demanded that Aphrodite apologizes to his dead Master or else he will kill him.
  • Out of the Inferno: Ikki, literally.
    • Several times.
  • Overdrawn At the Blood Bank: Shiryu. Full stop.
    • It's actually ridiculous in the Scorpio Milo vs. Cygnus Hyoga battle, during which the latter gushes out more blood than his entire body could possibly contain. And not only does he live through it once Milo has realized the truth and stopped the blood loss via pressure points but he's back on his feet and fighting at full strength not even five minutes later.
  • People Puppets: Griffon Minos uses this on others.
  • Petal Power: The Pisces Saint.
  • PhysicsGoofs: Saint Seiya brings up real physics concepts all the time, but tend to ignore them.
    • Traveling at the Speed of Light: The amount of energy needed for any of the Gold Saints or anyone to perform light speed attacks is extremely high. Even approaching light speed would require more energy per second than all of Earth's industries use per year.
    • Ice Breaker: Anytime Hyoga or any of the other people who use ice use one of their signature attacks. Hyoga's skin would be destroyed anytime he touched anything and in the battle with Camus, Camus would've shattered instead of simply turning blue and dying. He wouldn't have been able to talk.
    • No Conservation of Energy: Whenever work is done, energy has to come from somewhere. In Saint Seiya, the source is the body and the atoms(miniature universes) from within the body. However, the body doesn't have the ability to create enough energy to do most of the attacks in the series. While this trope could be adverted by stating that the Cloths themselves are the source of energy, there are several times where the Bronze Saints become more powerful without their Cloths (example: Shun and Nebula Storm) despite it being a possible energy source.
    • Space Is Noisy: Another Dimension. Sorry Shun. No matter how much you call for Hyoga, he technically can't here you due to the fact that sound cannot travel in a vacuum.
  • Playing Against Type: Mitsuko Horie as Hilda. Prior to that, she had played only cute girls and had a career as anime OP singer, and then she's hired to play the Brainwashed and Crazy Princess of the Nibelung... Mrs. Horie herself lampshades the trope when she's asked about this in interviews, recalling each time how shocked she was when the role was offered to her.
  • Plucky Girl: Saori. If you can withstand 12 hours with a golden arrow stuck in your chest without complaining a single time and even sending your own cosmo to your warriors when they're in trouble, you've got to be one really resilient girl. Lampshaded few after she gets the arrow, when Saori weakly but calmly tells a panicking Seiya to just go and fight out there in the Sanctuary whereas she'll endure the pain and be patient.
    • Honorary mention goes to a Naive Everygirl named Helen, who saw her grandpa being murdered by two Silver Saints looking for Ikki and was tossed in a volcano by them, but managed to grab and hold onto its inner walls and climb her way back up in time to give Ikki the Heroic Resolve he needed to punish her attackers
  • Power Gives You Wings: The Sagittarius Cloth, prone to arriving on its own in the nick of time to assist Seiya, has vast golden wings on its back. Furthermore, the Surplices of quite a few of Hades' Specters (on par with the strongest Gold Saints) have demonic or sinister-looking wings. The best examples, however, are Divine Cloths—Athena and Hades' have wings naturally (the latter has six major wings and a multitude of smaller ones over its joints,) and the Bronze Cloths all grow immense wings when they become Divine Cloths.
  • Power Levels: The intensity and strength of each characters' Cosmo functions as a rough gauge for power, health, and even mood.
  • Power Makes Your Hair Grow: While it has more to do with bad art, both Shun and Ikki have this problem when they go from their normal street clothes to their V1 Cloths, which sport full-head helms. Shun's normally shoulder length green hair reaches down to his waist while Ikki's is a little more obvious. It goes from very short, to past his shoulders. V2 Cloths (and onwards,) which traded the full-head helms for tiaras, eliminated this issue.
  • Power Tattoo: Dragon Shiryu has a Chinese long dragon tattooed on his back. The intensity with which it's visible indicates the strength of his Cosmo. If it's completely gone, he's as good as dead.
  • Power Gives You Wings: All the Bronze God Cloths have these.
  • Promoted Fangirl: Shiori Teshirogi, the author who writes Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, was actually a shoujo author who once met Kurumada. Saint Seiya was always her favorite series and she jumped at the chance of making a new story when Kurumada pitched the idea to her, and what was originally thought to end up being a rather brief series has exploded in popularity.
  • The Problem with Fighting Death: Aside from the practical concerns of fighting a god, he can also resurrect all his fallen minions.
  • Psycho for Hire: Cancer Deathmask. With a name like that, what else can you be?
  • Psycho Rangers: The Black Saints
  • Race Against the Clock: All its arcs are built around that whether it is the completion of the 12 Temples within 12 hours to save Athena, freeing Hilda from the Nibelungen ring before the glaciers completely melt and to save Athena, breaking Poseidon's pillars to prevent an ongoing worldwide flood and to save Athena, stopping Hades before the alignment of the Planets / Total eclipse and to save Athena...Can you guess what is the common factor in all of these?
  • Rant-Inducing Slight: Used in almost any My Name Is Inigo Montoya moment.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Several males have this, but Dragon Shiryu's long black hair reaches his knees. Aside of that, Saori's light purple hair goes down her hips, and Pandora's black-purple hair is just as long.
    • As there are far more males than females in Saint Seiya, the males tend to get more impressive hair. Out of admittedly few women, only Athena and Pandora have this hair, with the other girls having shorter (and more practical) styles - however, Shion, Mu, Saga, Kanon, Shiryu, Aldebaran, Aphrodite, Shaka, Camus and Hades himself all possess rather extreme hairstyling on the part of Kurumada. Considering this is a shonen anime, one wonders what he was thinking.
      • Fan Service, man, Fan Service. He knew Saint Seiya was very popular among the ladies, so...
  • Razor Floss: The two Orpheus and Benetnasch Eta Mime from the Asgard saga.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Shun and Misty.
  • The Red Sonja: Variation: each and every Greek female saint had to use a mask and never let any man see her face. If one ever did she only had two options: a) Kill him or b)Love him. This only applies to Athena's Saints, though: Mermaid Tethys, Poseidon's messenger, was excepted. (And some fans even joked that the true reason was that Athena couldn't stand not being the hottest chick in the whole place.)
  • Redemption Equals Death: Just * too* often. Cassius is one of the most tragic cases; even Seiya bawls when he dies through Heroic Sacrifice to de-brainwash Aioria. Other cases involve Saga, Siegfried, Ikki's first death...
  • Refuge in Audacity: as noted above, what made the series (kinda) infamous shows up in the first episode. Yup.
  • Relationship Voice Actor: In the original series, Seiya was dubbed by Tohru Furuya (Amuro in Mobile Suit Gundam), Shiryu was dubbed by Hirotaka Suzuoki (Lt. Bright in Mobile Suit Gundam) ; this pair of "best buddies" is also noticeable in Dragon Ball. (Also, what to say of Dragon Shiryuu's seiyuu finally done in by... Cancer); Also, due to Writer on Board (Kurumada wanting to change Shun's voice actor triggered Tohru Furuya and everyone else's resignation, much to everyone's chagrin) and Executive Meddling (Toei wanting to get Saint Seiya done with) combined, in the Hades Inferno and Elysion arcs, Seiya and Ichigo Kurosaki now share the same voice actor, whereas Shiryu is now voiced by Suzaku Kururugi.
  • Reluctant Warrior: Andromeda Shun.
  • Right Makes Might: Several times, often went hand in hand with Defeat Means Friendship. It's also subverted: when Cancer Deathmask tries to pull that one on Libra Dohko to make , the other just shrugs Deathmask's words away and calls him a fool.
  • Say My Name: "ATHEEEEENAAAAAAA!" "SAORI-SAAAAAAAAN!" "MARIIIIIIIN!" "MAAAAASTEEEEEEER!" "SEEEEEEIYAAAAAAA!" "SHIIIIIRYUUUUUU!" "BROOOOTHEEEEER!"
  • Scary Impractical Armor: In the beginning of the series, this is mostly averted, but by Hades Saga, we see a lot of stuff like this. [dead link] Although certain Cloths are far too bulky to walk in, let alone fight in, they're justified as being more status symbols than anything, and the more intricate the design, the less likely the enemy is to lower himself to throwing punches, what with being a powerful demigod who only needs to raise a finger to send everyone flying.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Twice: During the Age of Myth, Athena imprisoned Poseidon's soul within a jar sealed with a talisman bearing her name. Similarly, Hades' lieutenants, Thanatos and Hypnos, were sealed in a chest which came to the possession of Pandora's family.
  • Self-Sacrifice Scheme: Shun came up with this twice. The first was when he knocked out Shiryu in order to offer himself to Ikki to stop his rampage and the second was in the Hades Saga when Shun was allowed Hades to possess him so that his brother could kill him again. Both plans were foiled.
  • Sentai: A fantasy anime example.
  • Sexy Mentor: Seiya's trainer Aquila Marin is one really hot young woman. So is Cassius's trainer Shaina.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: done by Lymnades Kaza
  • Shirtless Scene: Dragon Shiryu seems to enjoy doffing the upper half of his Cloth, helm and armguards included, at the drop of a hat.
    • he inherited that habit from Dohko, the young libra saint hinted liked doing this even when he was young.
    • The opening in Saint Seiya Hades: Sanctuary first shows all five bronze boys like this.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Most villainous characters wear Cloths, Scales, or Surplices with these. In a unique variant, Shun's shoulderguards are just as huge, but are set diagonally instead of horizontally—without the magic of animation, he shouldn't be able to raise his arms at all.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal!: Deathmask attempts to justify endorsing the Sanctuary's corruption by claiming that good and evil are concepts decided by the victors and that all morality is relative. Dohko Libra's response can be summed up as "Oh, shut up".
  • Shower Scene: We got our first one with freaking Shun. You may scream now, girls.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Phoenix Ikki and Andromeda Shun. Gemini Saga and Gemini Kanon.
  • Single-Stroke Battle: What the Phoenix Genma Ken and the final blow of a successful Pegasus Ryusei Ken look like.
  • Sleep Mode Size: Dohko. He looks like a small old man a la Yoda, but if he does need to fight, he'll shred his disguise and show that he has not aged at all, thanks to a special power given to him by one of Athena's past incarnations
    • To specify, while a regular human's heart beats 100,000 times a day, Athena has blessed Dohko with the Misopetha-Menos technique, which makes his heart beat 100,000 times A YEAR. So while 243 years have passed since he was given the technique, he's only aged 243 days.
  • Smug Super: Most of the Silver Saints and the Spectres.
  • Speed Blitz: All Gold Saints and the five Main Bronze Saints are capable of moving at the Speed of Light.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Shun's Master wins this hands down with seven different names. No wonder nobody remembers him.
    • In the Manga: Daidaros, Daidalos, Didaros
    • In the Anime: Albiore, Alviore, Albione, Albion
  • The Smurfette Principle: Sanctuary only has three Amazons, the Mariners have Thetis, and Hades only has Pandora.
  • Spikes of Villainy: The Sanctuary's Pope, full stop. During his more benign days, he tends to wear a golden (but not Gold) helm with extremely wide shoulderguards. When he goes evil, these shoulderguards come with gigantic spikes that make him almost as wide as he is tall.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: The stated power of the Andromeda Chain: while the arrow-headed one is used for offense, the ring-headed chain becomes an impregnable wall when Shun spins it around himself. Note that, for all its supposed defensive power, its very susceptible to The Worf Barrage against anything stronger than a Silver Saint.
    • He did have one rather awesome use of it in the Poseidon Arc though. When facing Scylla Io, the marina general used an attack that was actually six in one on a "low" setting to taunt him. However, since It Only Works Once and Shun's chains are stated as early as the first tournament arc as being hyper adaptive to enemy attacks, Shun proceeds to counter each of his attacks, destroy his armor, and bind him in chains.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted in the Poseidon arc, since the Bronze Saints are not only stronger than they were when they fought the Gold Saints, but the Mariners are actually inferior to the Gold Saints in terms of power.
  • Soul Jar: Julian, for Poseidon. Who later is trapped into a real jar. Also Shun, for Hades.
  • Spoiler Opening: Hades Inferno where they show Shun as Hades.
  • Stable Time Loop: Next Dimension seems to be heading this way with Saori being sent to the past as a baby arriving at the feet of the statue of Athena 200 years ago or so. The most likely outcome will be that when she'll come back to the present time, it will be as a baby as well to create the events that started the original series
  • Star Power: It's built on this early on, with both heroes and villains taking their powers from a constellation (From Pegasus Seiya to Gemini Saga). Later enemies have other sources for their powers, though.
  • Start of Darkness: It seems Gemini Saints have these curse. Gemini Saga fell pray to the taunts of his own brother Kanon. Who would, ironically, become his successor after his Heel Face Turn..
  • Stripperiffic: While the Silver and Bronze Cloths don't cover as much as practical armor should, the few female Cloths have Breast Plates, cover less, are designed to be sexier and curvier, and often sport stiletto heels. This is also true for the Mermaid Scale, though the trend is very much averted by the anime-only character Ghost Saint Geist.
    • To be fair... it's stated that to create a Cloth almost all of its materials are pretty rare, so no wonders if lower ranked Cloths are created with less amount of materials. It's just more logical if you see the Bronze Cloths after Mu repairs them (anime-only): their helmets become tiaras and the belt-part is noticeable reduced. Mu probably fixed them with limited materials and some parts were beyond repair.
  • Suicide by Cop: Volker from the Asgard saga taunts his adoptive son Mime into killing him to atone for all of his crimes... including the deaths of Mime's biological parents. Mime doesn't realize this until it's too late, and when Ikki shows him the truth, he freaks out.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Cassios, in the anime. Also several of the Asgard warriors, specially Fenrir, Hagen and Syd
    • A few of the Marinas, most notably Scylla Io and Kraken Isaac.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side - Saga's split personalities. And Shun, being Hades' vessel
  • Take a Third Option: Seiya takes a Suicidal Gotcha and jumps off a cliff with Saori in his arms, rather than fighting Shaina to death or handing Saori to her and Silver Saint Jamian.
  • Taken for Granite: Algol Perseus's main ability.
  • Taking the Bullet: Seiya and Shiryu often do this.
  • Taking You with Me: Subverted and played straight several times.
  • Team Mom: Saori aka Athena, sometimes Marin as well.
  • Theme Twin Naming: Saga and Kanon.
  • This Cannot Be!: EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER.
  • The Power of Friendship: One of the major themes of the series.
  • Time-Delayed Death: The Mind Rape-inducing Phoenix Genma Ken, which strikes the opponent's brain usually has this effect, once the madness has subsided. Also, Specter Deep Niobe suffered this from Aldebaran's Grand Horn.
  • To the Pain: Scorpio Milo calmly explains the effect of his Scarlet Needles to Hyoga as the other bleeds to death. Shaka describes the Seven Stages of Hell as he mind-rapes Ikki. And that's just him warming up.
  • Tournament Arc: The Galaxian Wars in the beginning of the series.
  • Tranquil Fury: Virgo Shaka. Do NOT piss this polite and cold psychic off enough to open his perpetually closed eyes.
    • Even Ikki was compelled to run away from him, which doesn't work too well as he can't get too far, since any long distance to Shaka is like his enemy is running in the palm of Buddha, much like what happened to Sun Wukong.
    • To the point it took Gemini Saga, Aquarius Camus AND Capricorn Shura to take him down!
  • Transforming Mecha: Sort of. Each manga volume has several extra pages detailing exactly how the pieces of a sculpture representing a constellation turn into the elements of a suit of armour. The anime takes this further as the Steel Saints' mechanical Cloths actually do become fully-functional, albeit small, animal-shaped vehicles.
  • Trash Talk
  • The Worf Effect: Taurus Aldebaran was often the recipient of such attacks after the Sanctuary arc. From the Asgardians, Poseidons generals, and Hades' Spectres. Killing him off screen might've been a Mercy Kill for him.
  • Twang! "Hello.": Ikki loves to introduce himself by using the Phoenix cloth's metal feathers right before jumping into action.
  • Variable-Length Chain: Shun, Spica, Leda, and Albiore's chains. Silver Saint Cerberus Dante makes use of variable length chains attached to spiked balls.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Happens to Gemini Saga. And it's EPIC.
  • Villains Out Shopping: During any given saga, the Big Bad Final Boss (and some other enemies) will usually be shown waiting for the heroes doing things like taking a bath, feeding birds, sunbathing, or just walking about. Saga's bathing and shower scenes were infamous for this.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: The Asgardians during the Asgard Arc.
  • Waif Prophet: The missing Seika grew up to be one of those.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: Even though almost all character in Saint Seiya have beautiful eyes, which the main reason of Viewer Gender Confusion that happened through the series. The only one who got lampshaded is Hades himself! It didn't help the one who lampshade it was Seiya who said What are those beautiful eyes! I can't believe these eyes belong to feared Hades, the King of Underworld. They have the depth of a very deep well. Oh boy...And as you all know Kurumada seems so fond of putting hint of Ho Yay in this series. And in Hades and Seiya's case... Foe Yay. and also to add more seasoning to the Foe Yay. Stoic Hades snapped when he just realized he knew Seiya since LOOOOOOOONG time ago, and enraged because Seiya dared to reincarnate himself again and again. The irony is... Hades seems to believe Seiya did this not to protect Athena and human race but to come and wound him. He made it sounds like Seiya or Pegasus saints was obsessed of him after Seiya wound Hades once in the age of myth.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The Poseidon arc goes out of its way to depict devastation brought upon Earth by global flooding. No mention is ever made again about how humanity recovered from these disasters. A similar situation happened with the Sanctuary arc in the anime, showing off scenes of war amidst the world which are never mentioned or brought up again.
    • Once the (Sagittarius) Gold Cloth, grand prize of the Galaxian Wars, is recovered, no attempt is made to continue the tournament. Especially noticeable when several other fights with Silver Saints and the Sanctuary's henchmen take place at the tournament coliseum! The ticket-buying public likely forgot all about it during the aforementioned, offscreen global wars.
  • Whip It Good: Chameleon June, with a dominatrix-styled Cloth to go with it, though her Broken Bird personality isn't the usual type for this type.
    • Balrog Lune and his signature "Fire Whip".
  • Will They or Won't They?: Seiya and Saori especially during the fight with Jamian.
  • "With Our Swords" Scene: The fight between Seiya and Ikki. After his friends are knocked out, Seiya is forced to fight alone and is systematically helped by Shiryu's Dragon Shield and Shun's Andromeda Chain. An interesting variation happens at the climax of the battle when Seiya finds out he has received Hyoga's "Diamond Dust" and uses it together with his "Ryu Sei Ken" for increased power.
  • A Wizard Did It: The only logical explanation for the Sagittarius Cloth suddenly changing under water, thought Cloths are alive and have a certain degree of free will.
    • But in the manga is actually Mitsumasa Kido did it
    • The anime drops a mention about Mu, the cloth smith, having been gone for a while in some unspecified mission around that time, suggesting he was responsible. Still, did he work on it underwater in between scene cuts?
  • Wolverine Claws: Ophiucus Shaina's primary weapon and she just LOVES to use them!
  • Woman Scorned: Ophiuchus Shaina.
  • World of Ham
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Seiya uses this to refuse fighting Shaina. BAD idea, of course.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Deathmask says that "Winners write the history books" so he follows the "most powerful man" - the corrupt Pope. Things, uhm, don't work that way.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Princess Freya from the Asgard arc is a more stubborn, outspoken version of the trope. Also, Shunrei is ethnically a Chinese Girl, but otherwise she's a perfect example of the trope.
    • A possible male example would be Andromeda Shun, who is very gentle and borderline passive but is not to be trifled with when his friends are in danger.
    • Let's not forget Miho, Seiya's Unlucky Childhood Friend who helps run the orphanage she was raised in (alongside both Seiya and Seika, in the anime).
  • You Are Already Dead: Very common, to the point where someone can give an entire speech in the time between receiving an attack and it actually taking effect.
  • Younger Than They Look: Ok, so we know already about the main characters but when you think that the Silver Saint are in their teens while looking like 30-somethings it start to get weird.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The manga had normal hair colors, mostly, but that was changed in the anime, mostly for pragmatic animation reason. Notably, the many Gold Saints with blond hair were a contrast nightmare.
  • You Shall Not Pass: Played straight and inverted. See the article.
  1. ↑ (Only to later get better)
  2. ↑ and maybe Next Dimension
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