Saint Seiya (also known as Knights of the Zodiac) is a manga franchise started by Masami Kurumada, which contains numerous spin-offs.
The story follows Bronze Saints, the five youths who are trained in Supernatural Martial Arts and have recently joined the Sanctuary, a secretive superhero organization composed of warriors with Instant Armors each based on one of the 88 constellations. Soon after the initiation, they enter the tournament hosted by Saori Kido of Foundation Graude, and the winner of the tournament would be rewarded with the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, one of the Western Zodiac.
However, it quickly turns out Saori Kido is working against the Sanctuary, which is currently controlled by a warmonger Pope Ares, who has declared Saori, the human incarnation of the Goddess Athena and the rightful ruler of the Sanctuary, an imposter. The tournament gets interrupted and the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, being an Empathic Weapon, disappears. Bronze Saints decide to side with Saori, even if it means being regarded as traitors and going through Sanctuary's entire power ladder.
While and after Saori reclaims the Sanctuary, the series follows a Strictly Formula, which can also observed in movies and spin-offs: Athena is not the only God in Human Form and the world runs on Crossover Cosmology, so one after another different gods try to utilize their own sets of Instant Armor warriors to Take Over the World and Bronze Saints have to go through their hierarchy under limited time before Athena is sacrificed. Some spin-offs follow a different set of heroes.
Masami Kurumada was increasingly unsatisfied with the way the anime added Adaptation Deviation and anime-original content to his work. In 2004 Kurumada has reduced his cooperation with Toei Animation and they have agreed to treat the anime and its follow-ups as Alternate Continuity while he'd be free to make a continuation of his own.
Works (listed by release order):
Manga- Saint Seiya (1986-1990) — The original manga by Masami Kurumada, includes Galaxian Wars, the Sanctuary, Poseidon, and Hades arcs.
- Saint Seiya: Episode.G (2002-2013) — A Prequel by Megumu Okada.
- Saint Seiya: Episode.G Assassin (2014-2019) — A side-story of Shura and Aiolia getting stuck in Alternate Universe.
- Saint Seiya: Episode.G: Requiem (2020-ongoing)
- Saint Seiya: Next Dimension (2006-ongoing) — The canonical sequel series.
- Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas – The Myth of Hades (2006-2011) — A Prequel set in 18th century by Shiori Teshirogi, adapted by TMS Entertainment. Intended to be a Saint Seiya: Next Dimension spin-off but went into its own direction.
- Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas Gaiden (2011–2016) — A Prequel focusing on Gold Saints.
- Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho (2013-2016) — An Interquel by Chimaki Kuori featuring Distaff Counterparts to Bronze Saints, later animated by GONZO.
- Saint Seiya: Meio Iden – Dark Wing (2020-ongoing) — A spin-off by Kenji Saito about a Ordinary High-School Student dying and waking up as Specter Wyvern, with a few people he knows substituting other characters.
Anime
- Saint Seiya (1986-1989) — The anime adaptation by Toei Animation, includes the anime-original Odin's God Warriors arc.
- Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter (2002-2008) — The three-part adaptation of the last arc of the manga.
- Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold (2015) — A Sequel focusing on Gold Saints after the original ending.
- Saint Seiya Omega (2012-2014) — The Sequel series by Toei with a new generation of Bronze Saints.
- Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac (2019-2022) — All-CGI Cartoon Continuity Reboot of the original story for Netflix.
Films — Animated
- Saint Seiya: Evil Goddess Eris (1987) — A filler movie with Eris, the goddess of Discord as the villain.
- Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods (1988) — A filler movie with another set of God Warriors as the antagonists.
- Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth (1988) — A filler movie with Phoebus Abel, Athena's brother, as the villain.
- Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle (1989) — A filler movie and the wrap-up of the previous films with Lucifer as the villain.
- Saint Seiya: Heaven Chapter - Overture (2004) — A sequel movie with Artemis as the villain. Was intended to be the prologue to what would become Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, but Masami Kurumada and Toei have failed to settle creative differences and it was significantly shortened.
- Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary (2014) — All-CGI Cartoon movie retelling of the Sanctuary arc.
Video Games
- Saint Seiya Ougon Densetsu (1987) — A Platform-slash-RPG hybrid for the NES. It and other two games cover (in varying degrees of accuracy) the Sanctuary/Twelve Temples Saga.
- Saint Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Kanketsu Hen (1988) — A sequel for the same system
- Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Hen Perfect Edition (2003) — Video Game Remake for the WonderSwan Color.
- Saint Paradise - Saikyou no Senshitachi (1992) — A pure RPG with cute Super-Deformed sprites released for the Game Boy, which covers all the way up to the Poseidon Saga.
- Saint Seiya Typing Ryuseiken (2003) — is a turn-based Japanese-only typing game for PC.
- Saint Seiya: The Sanctuary (2005) — A PlayStation 2 Fighting Game based on the Sanctuary saga.
- Saint Seiya: The Hades (2006) — The continuation based on the Hades saga.
- Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle / Saint Seiya: Chronicles (2011) — A Dynasty Warriors spinoff for PlayStation 3 released by both Bandai Namco and Dimps.
- Saint Seiya Omega: Ultimate Cosmos (2012) — Fighting Game based off the 2012 Anime spin-off for the PlayStation Portable.
- Saint Seiya Online (2013) — A MMORPG released by Sega in collaboration with Perfect World in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and South America. All services ended on June 2020.
- Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers (2013) — A Versus Fighter game released in all regions, surprisingly including America this time. Covers the basics of all three main Sagas.
- Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Soul (2015) — A sequel for PS3, PS4, and Steam, includes the Gold God Cloths from Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold. Notable in that it is the first game to actually cover the anime-only Asgard arc, and the game is also the first to be dubbed into other languages (no English dub, however) since the PS2 games.
- Saint Seiya: Cosmo Fantasy (2016) — a mobile Gacha Game.
- Saint Seiya Awakening (2019) — A Turn-Based Combat gacha mobile game which covers the original manga's storyline, including Saint Seiya: Next Dimension.
Western Animation
- Guardians of the Cosmos (1993; aborted) — a Failed Pilot Episode for an attempted American adaptation of the series.
Comic Books
- Saint Seiya: Time Odyssey (2022) — A French Interquel comic.
Films — Live-Action
- Knights of the Zodiac (2023) — Mackenyu as Seiya, Madison Iseman as Sienna, Sean Bean as Alman Kiddo, Famke Janssen as Guraad, and Diego Tinoco as Nero. Nick Stahl and Mark Dacascos were also announced as part of the cast as Cassios and Mylock respectively, with Tomasz Baginski as the director.
