Trivia / Saint Seiya

• All-Star Cast:
  • The Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese dubs of the Saint Seiya franchise both use a large cast of veteran voice actors; Brazil goes the extra mile to recruit a few actors from Rio de Janeiro (the classic series was limited to São Paulo), as Seiya's voice actor Hermes Baroli spent a few years in Rio.
  • For the Japanese version, we got Tōru Furuya and Masakazu Morita as Seiya, late Hirotaka Suzuoki and Takahiro Sakurai as Shiryu, Koichi Hashimoto as Hyoga, Ryō Horikawa as Shun, Hideyuki Hori and Katsuyuki Konishi as Ikki, Keiko Han and Fumiko Orikasa as Saori/Athena, Mami Koyama and Yuka Komatsu as Shaina, Hideyuki Tanaka as Aeolia and Narrator, Yūji Mitsuya as Shaka and Mime, Shūichi Ikeda and Toshihiko Seki as Milo, Yusaku Yara as Aeolus and Thor, the late Kōji Totani and Takeshi Kusao as Shura, the late Rokurō Naya and Nobutoshi Canna as Camus, Keiichi Nanba as Aphrodite and Poseidon, the late Kaneto Shiozawa and Takumi Yamazaki as Mu, Tesshō Genda as Aldebaran, the late Kazuyuki Sogabe, Akio Nojima and Ryōtarō Okiayu as Saga and Kanon (Nojima not playing as Kanon), Ryoichi Tanaka as Deathmask, Akira Kamiya and Mitsuaki Madono as Siegfried, Mitsuko Horie as Hilda, Bin Shimada as Hagen, Shigeru Nakahara as Alberich, Black Pegasus and Sho, Yuu Mizushima as Syd, Bud and Misty, Show Hayami as Baian, Keaton Yamada as Casa, Ryūsei Nakao as Isaac, Takehito Koyasu as Radamathys, Koichi Tochika as Minos, Shin-ichiro Miki as Aeacus, Maaya Sakamoto as Pandora, Akio Ōtsuka as Hades, Toshio Furukawa as Thanatos, and Hiroshi Kamiya as Orpheus.
• Box Office Bomb: Tenkai Hen: Overture. It was originally meant to be a trilogy that would even show the return of the Gold Saints. However, these plans were obviously canned due to its enormous cost and poor reception.
• Christmas Rushed: According to Bryson Baugus, the Netflix dub of the original anime (114 episodes) was entirely recorded in 8-9 months.
• Completely Different Title: The series is known as Knights of the Zodiac in several countries outside of Japan, each with their own translations, such as Les Chévaliers Du Zodiaque in France, Los Caballeros del Zodiaco in Spanish-speaking countries, Os Cavaleiros Do Zodiaco in Brazil, and Rycerze Zodiaku in Poland.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Averted. Except for pre-puberty boys, the anime went extra length to have female characters voiced by actresses and male characters voiced by actors, which helped the audience quite a lot in clearing Viewer Gender Confusion.
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub of the TV series, Jesús Barrero was the ADR director as well as the voice of Seiya.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • As of 2020, three English dubs have been produced. When the show aired on Cartoon Network in 2003, the first dub was produced by DIC Entertainment at Kaleidoscope Studios in Toronto, but it only lasted 32 episodes in the US, and 40 episodes on YTV in Canada. For the unedited DVD releases that same year, another dub of the first 60 episodes were recorded at ADV Films in Houston under sub-license from DiC, but ADV was unable to record more episodes because that's all DiC had licensed. In October 2019, after Netflix acquired the rights to stream the series in North America, a new dub was once again recorded in Houston, this time by ADV's successor Sentai Filmworks, but using the new cast from the 2019 reboot. Notably, this is the only dub to cover all 114 episodes, with the final 41 being released in April 2020.
  • Due to corporate politics involving Toei, the Hades Saga OVA's received two dubs in Latin America, one made for TV with newer actors at Larsa and La Cuarta Pared, and one made for DVD with as much of the original cast as they could get at CBAudio.
  • There is a intense rivalry in Brazil between fans of first dub, from Gota Mágica studios in 1994 (based on the uncensored version) and the one who took more liberties, and the second one done by Alamo in 2003 (based on the censored version) which was more faithful with the original source.
• Dueling Works: With Fist of the North Star. Both are manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in the mid-to-late 80s where the constellations are the power motif.
• Executive Meddling: Why the Netflix dub calls the Saints "Knights" and their Armor "Cloth" beginning with episode 42. However, alternate takes were recorded with the correct terminology for future use.
• Friday Night Death Slot: DiC's dub originally aired on Cartoon Network in 2003 with a decent time-slot, on Saturdays at 7:00pm. However, after only nine episodes, the show was booted to 12:30am due to low ratings before being canceled altogether after episode 32.
• He Also Did: Mark Leiden-Young, a Canadian playwright and filmmaker who was an ADR scriptwriter for the short-lived DiC dub, was a writer for ReBoot and Beast Wars.
• Inconsistent Dub: The Netflix English dub switches to calling the Saints "Knights" and their Cloth "Armor" beginning with episode 42 due to Executive Meddling from Netflix to match their reboot. However, alternate takes were recorded with the correct terminology for future use in case the dub got reissued elsewhere.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • DIC Entertainment's edited version of the anime only lasted 32 episodes before Cartoon Network cancelled the series in April 2004. Outside of VHS and DVD releases (which only covered 28 episodes), their version has become hard to find. This dub also covered episodes 33-40, but they only aired once on YTV in Canada, and haven't been seen since. Though, the dub’s theme song being “I Ran” from Bowling For Soup doesn’t help the dub’s chances of seeing a rerelease…unless it’s changed to a suspiciously similar song….
  • With ADV's liquidation in 2009, their release of the first 60 episodes are completely out of print and DVD copies are expensive to find. This was alleviated a bit by Netflix streaming the series in North America and Australasia with a new dub by Sentai Filmworks from October 2019 to December 2021.
  • While in Japan, all five Saint Seiya movies were released in a set, the US only had a set that features all but Tenkai Hen in it in 2013.
  • The first Brazilian Portuguese dub ran on Rede Manchete from 1994 to 1997. The second one, on the other hand, is still in circulation to the point where it has been streamed on both Crunchyroll and Netflix.
• Late Export for You: In spite of its popularity in Japan, Europe, and Latin America, Saint Seiya didn't reach the United States in any form (a false start or two notwithstanding) until 2003, roughly 17 years after it was created. This long gap is often seen as the reason why the series hasn't enjoyed the same success in the West that other anime from its era did.
• Missing Episode: DIC Entertainment's localization of the anime suffered this fate. Of the 40 episodes made, 28 still have official copies and 22 have off-air recordings. This is why there's never been a complete DVD or Blu-ray release of the DiC version.
• Newbie Boom: Netflix began streaming the anime in North America and Australasia in October 2019, creating a wealth of interest and new fans in the process.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Gemini Saga, originally, was performed by two people; Akio Nojima played his good side, while Kazuyuki Sogabe voiced the evil one. The latter eventually continued to voice Saga in the third movie, even after being redeemed. Following Sogabe's retirement, the character was given to Ryōtarō Okiayu despite Nojima still being active.
  • Kaneto Shiozawa died in 2000, just hours after a stairfall incident. His role in the 1986 anime, Mu, was taken over by Takumi Yamazaki in the Hades OVAs, which adapts the final arc of the original manga.
  • When the series began streaming on Netflix in October 2019, a new English dub was recorded at Sentai Filmworks in Houston using the same cast from the Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac reboot ONA.
• Overtook the Manga: The whole Asgard arc is created after the Sanctuary Chapter which surprisingly enough became one of the fan favorite arcs. On the other hand, they created several episodes in the Sanctuary Chapter which led to some confusions notably with the introduction of the Crystal Saint as Hyoga's mentor when it was later revealed in the manga that Hyoga's mentor was in fact Aquarius Camus. It was handwaved by making Camus the mentor of the Crystal Saint who was still the mentor of Hyoga the Cygnus Saint, thus establishing some kind of "coherent" hierarchy.
• Playing Against Type: Mitsuko Horie as Hilda. Prior to that, she had played only cute girls and had a career as an anime OP singer, and then she's hired to play the Brainwashed and Crazy Princess of the Nibelung... 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.
• 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.
  • YouTuber and voice actor, Alejandro Saab (aka KaggyFilms) was a huge fan of Saint Seiya growing up, in 2019 he ended up being cast as Scorpio Milo in the Sentai Filmworks dub, needless to say he is very happy to be in one of his favourite shows.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Ikki and Tatsumi despise each other, but did you know that the two actors who played them, Hideyuki Hori and Yukitoshi Hori are really brothers?
  • If a man sees an female saint's face they either have to love them or kill them. Seiya and Shaina were forced into this dilemma, but in real life, Tōru Furuya and Mami Koyama did get married. Unfortunately, it didn't work out but they are still friends.
  • Seiya and Shun's Latin American Spanish voice actors (Jesús Barrero and Jose Gilberto Vilchis respectively) were uncle and nephew respectively.
  • Saga and Seiya's Brazilian voice actors (Gilberto Baroli and Hermes Baroli respectively) are father and son, respectively.
  • Mitsumasa Kido was originally voiced by Pedro D'Aguillón in the Latin American Spanish dub. By the time the Netflix ONA was released, D'Aguillón had already died of diabetic ketoacidosis, so his son Pedro D'Aguillón Jr. voiced him instead. It should be noted this is not the first time D'Aguillón Jr. has voiced him before.
• Recycled Script: The fandom sees Athena as repetitive Damsel Scrappy in every single arc. Shun always needs to be saved by Ikki in his fights, while he is always somehow the one standing thanks teamups and or improved Cloths. Now ready all these cliches four times and we have four movies with the same content.
• Role Reprise:
  • When the second Brazilian Portuguese dub began airing on Cartoon Network in 2003, most of the original cast members returned to reprise their roles. However, there were a few exceptions due to retirement or death.
  • Most of the English cast of the Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac reboot reprise their roles for the 2019 Netflix stream of the original anime. Interestingly enough, Marty Fleck (Mitsumasa Kido) has the distinction of being the only original cast member from the ADV dub to reprise his role again. Many other actors from ADV have also returned, but in different roles.
• Still Born Franchise: Not the franchise as a whole, but rather Tenkai Hen itself. The film, Tenkai Hen: Overture, was initially set up to serve as the prologue to an Anime sequel of the original manga, but the financial failure of the film, as well as Kurumada being upset with the end result, lead to said anime being scrapped, and instead most of the elements from the film were used in Next Dimension.
• Troubled Production: The Hades Saga: Inferno and Elysium. Kurumada was so upset with Toei that he fired all six of the main cast's voice actors(the Bronze Saints/Saori) and casted new ones.^note  Kurumada did want to keep Toru Furuya as Seiya, but Furuya refused and willingly walked out on Kurumada Also, the animation for the later two OVAs noticeably doesn't match the same level quality from the previous Sanctuary Chapter OVA, with most scenes being mostly traced from the manga.
• Unfinished Dub: DiC's Canadian localization of Saint Seiya only covered the first half of the Sanctuary arc.
• Voiced Differently in the Dub: Hyoga was given a Surfer Dude accent in the DiC dub, which sounds drastically different compared to the original Japanese and other English dubs and it only led to hilarious results.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Given the infamous line where Hyoga says they will never give up on fighting, even if they have to kill Athena... One wonders where the plot might have gone if Kurumada had decided to make ALL of the Greek Gods Jerkass Gods instead of having Athena/Saori be the White Sheep of the bunch.
  • Again from Shonen Jump pre-publications, before the Pisces fight, there was a capper mentioning the next chapter would be about the fight between Shun and...Raideen? Japanese fandom assumed this would be the Pisces Saint or a fellow trainee from Andromeda Island, and another Expy of a Fuma no Kojiro character using electrified chains! It should be noted Shun would be the "wind god" to the "thunder god" Raideen, from the japanese saying "Fuujin Raijin".
  • While YMMV on the redesigned V1 anime Cloths, there was concept art featuring Seiya and Shiryu with original manga colors and Cloth designs◊ as well as a Red and Yellow Seiya and Ikki with his Manga colors and Cloth design◊. Image taken from the website, Mu's Corner.
  • In the manga, Scorpio Milo was to be Hyoga's master. In fact, if you look closely, you can see the outline of Milo and not Camus◊. This probably explains why Milo was shown early on speaking to the Pope as well as the attack that sank Hyoga's mother's ship resembled a well-placed Scarlet Needle. Image taken from Mu's Corner.
  • Had the show not been cancelled, the Hades Saga would have been made. In fact, a CD was released in 1990 with cover art of what it may have looked like using the Classic animation style◊. The songs that were on the CD were eventually used in the OVAs in 2003.
  • Kanon was originally not in the Poseidon Saga, but due to Executive Meddling was put in as The Chessmaster of the entire thing. Had none of this happened, Kanon would have been the good counterpart to Saga instead of the two being evil. This was later fixed in Saint Seiya: Next Dimension where there is one good twin and one evil one.
  • As noted above, Tenkai Hen: Overture. However, because it bombed, the next thing we got instead was The Next Dimension, which put Overture into Canon Discontinuity, and the anime-original Saint Seiya Omega.
  • There were plans for a Live-Action Adaptation back in the late nineties by the same producers of Karate Fighters, possibly inspired by many Toei series being adapted such as Power Rangers called Starstorm. It was drastically different, as the characters races were changed, wore the golden armors over their naked torsos, the names were changed, and Shun was turned into a woman. A 15 minutes pilot was made, but never released, but a few seconds of it were found. According to an interview done in 2003 and 2005, Kurumada did not approve. It wasn't until 2017 when Toei announced that a new live-action film adaptation was green-lit for development.
  • There was another attempt to make an American adaptation in the mid-90s, though animated this time by Fred Wolf Studios (of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) fame), under the name Guardians of the Cosmos.
  • Before the series was ever published to begin with, it was originally conceived as a sports manga about Professional Wrestling. Then, after a viewing of The Karate Kid, Kurumada was inspired to retool his concept into a series about karate instead. It was only after his initial pitch was rejected that he decided to incorporate supernatural elements.
• You Sound Familiar: The 2019 dub from Sentai has many actors from the short-lived 2003 ADV dub in different roles, which makes sense since they were both recorded in the same city.
  • This includes Blake Shepard (Peacock Shiva in 2003, Shiryu in 2019)
  • Kira Vincent-Davis (Shaina in 2003, Kiki in 2019)
  • John Swasey (Hydra Ichi in 2003, Dohko and Lionet Ban in 2019)
  • Cameron Bautsch (young Seiya in 2003, Wolf Nachi in 2019)
  • Rob Mungle (Bear Geki and Deathmask in 2003, Jango in 2019)
  • Greg Ayres (Daichi and Tatsuya in 2003, Mime in 2019)
  • Jay Hickman (Shiryu in 2003, Deathmask in 2019).
  • The only returning actor to reprise his same role is Marty Fleck (see above).
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: A big reason for the various inconsistencies in original manga, is that Masami Kurumada was on a very tight schedule and had a very short window to figure out where his manga was going next. Examples include the main characters going from swearing they'll fight Athena herself if they have to, to swearing eternal loyalty to her one chapter later.

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