YMMV / Saint Seiya

• Adaptation Displacement: Fanarts depicting the Saints with their anime hair colors are far easier to find than fanarts having them in their manga hair colors. The anime hair colors are so iconic, they ended up becoming the actual hair colors of the characters in Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: In the Tenkai-hen movie, why did Shaina, Jabu and Ichi attack Seiya? Were they Brainwashed and Crazy? Did they betray Athena and started serving Artemis? Were they trying to keep Seiya out of the battle in order to protect him? The fans have some theories, but since the sequel of the movie was cancelled, the reason for their behavior in said film remains a mystery.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Despite the popularity of Nekketsu Shōnen manga in English-speaking countries, the USA in particular; the series failed to replicate the success it obtained in Latin America and Europe. This is usually blamed on the fact that it took until 2003 to bring it over (the violent content made it difficult to import), by which point any potential viewers were not hooked, partially due to other anime series that were directly inspired by it (such as Ronin Warriors) having been dubbed into English several years earlier, resulting in people mistaking the series as a rip-off. Notably, even Discotek won't touch the series (or any other Kurumada anime) because their sub-only DVDs for the movies and The Lost Canvas bombed hard, even for their niche standards. However, there are quite a few dedicated English-speaking fans who consider the series to be underrated and bemoan its lack of popularity in the English-speaking Anime fandom.
• Angst? What Angst?: Shiryu losing his vision(for the first time...) was completely ignored by the cast in the manga. On the other hand, this is subverted in the anime when the characters are in shock upon learning of Shiryu's disability; Ikki decides he is unfit for the team, Shiryu falls in a deep depression now that he is no longer fit to battle, and Seiya not only blames himself for this, but spends a filler episode trying to redeem himself by finding a special healing water that can heal Shiryu's eyes. And it works, but much later.
• Archive Panic: Saint Seiya is a difficult series to get into. The reason for this is due to the drastic changes done in Toei Animation anime series, which included not only filler, but characters created by the staff that were related to the protagonists. This wouldn't be so bad, but the multiple spin-offs tend to favor either the manga continuity by Masami Kurumada, or take elements from the anime, and unless you're familiar with what goes where, you can get intimidated by it.
• Ass Pull:
  • Whenever Seiya or another character get their asses kicked, expect a flashback involving an overpowered technique or a tactic to beat the villain.
  • Expect inconsistences in the passage of time in the Twelve Temples Arc. Some characters outside of the area are able to make it a temple much faster when it takes the Bronze Saints a full hour to get from one to the next.
• Badass Decay:
  • Regardless of how powerful a Bronze Saint is, expect him to turn into an underdog in the next arc until they remember the 7th Sense.
  • Aldebaran was hit so much in the fillers that Dohko mocks him in Soul of Gold and motivates him to regain his reputation.
• Base-Breaking Character: Out of the core five, Andromeda Shun is the most polarizing character. Some hate him for being The Heart and a Technical Pacifist with girly looks that wears a pink armor made for women, while others respect his pacifism and points out that he Took a Level in Badass during the Poseidon Arc, by defeating Scylla Io and Siren Sorrento by himself. He is also very popular with the female demographic (and Yaoi Fangirls) of the fanbase. Most of the criticism is because of the anime version (especially in the movies), where his role is being defeated by one of the Big Bad's minions, so Ikki can make a Big Damn Heroes entrance and save him.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "Tomb of the Sacred Cloths" in Jamiel: a path where skeletons wearing dead Cloths attack anyone who wants to get to Mu (and it happens to be Shiryu who needs to get past them). This is a weird sequence that is never mentioned again either in the manga or in the anime and raises a lot of lore questions, but seemingly is just there to give Shiryu a cool scene. The anime even has a Filler episode where Seiya visits Jamiel but the ghost skeletons are nowhere to be seen (they're only vaguely referenced in a Freeze-Frame Bonus).
• Broken Base: The eternal discussion about who is the strongest Gold Saint: Saga, Shaka or Aiolos? Occasionally Kanon is debated too.
• Common Knowledge: No, Deathmask didn't decorate his temple with the severed faces/heads of his victims; those are actually their souls haunting his house until he finally meets his demise at Shiryu's hands.
• Complete Monster: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle: Lucifer himself, once endowed with beauty, power and wisdom by his Creator, is released from Hell and sets off for cruel vengeance. Unleashing the spirits of evil gods to kill countless humans, Lucifer demands Athena in her human guise of Saori Kido offer her life after murdering the Gold Saints, intending to torture Athena with every step under threat of destroying all mankind should she refuse, which he unleashes his trapped gods to do anyways.
• Damsel Scrappy: Saori Kido, who to be saved by the main characters about five times in the original manga, four other times in the movies, twice in the spin-off anime, and once in the manga sequel. Of course this gets her bashed six ways from Sunday by many fans.
• Designated Hero: Both the anime and manga treat Mitsumasa Kido as a noble man who only did what he had to do. Keep in mind, he is also the man who sent a group of children to a Training from Hell, separated Seiya from his sister against his will, allowed Tatsumi to beat those children (Ikki, in particular). He is even worse in the manga, since The kids he sent to a Training from Hell are actually his own children. Even worse, they were about 100 and only 10 of them actually managed to survive.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • The Hyoga/Shun shippers are ferocious towards Freya and June.
  • And the Seiya/Shaina shippers hate Saori.
  • Seiya/Saori shippers also hate Shaina and Miho, 'despite'' how Miho, the poor Shy Blue-Haired Girl is firmly put in the Unlucky Childhood Friend role..
  • The Shiryu/Seiya and Shiryu/Mu fans that bash Shunrei.
  • Aiolia/Marin shippers tend to dislike Lithos or Lyfia, who are also teased as Aiolia love interests.
  • Dégel/Kardia shippers aren't fond of Fluorite, Seraphina and Calvera.
  • Alone/Tenma may dislike Sasha.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Crystal Saint.
  • The very sparsely featured Chameleon June is very popular for such a minor character.
  • Algol is one of the more popular Silver Saints. The manga has Ikki outright pointing that he is a league above regular Silver Saints, and in the anime he has the balls to flip off Aiolia, a Gold Saint (though this specific fact had not been revealed at this point). It also helps that he was assigned a VERY remarkable and popular VA in Japan.
• Epileptic Trees: The Tenkai Hen movie's ending. It was meant to be the first chapter of a trilogy resulting in that confusing climax which goes from Seiya fighting Apolo to Seiya travelling to an unknown area without memories... to Seiya fighting Apolo with a Cloth never seen before.
• Estrogen Brigade: Saint Seiya is the original Bishounen battle shounen. The amount of fujoshi doujin written for it is absolutely immeasurable.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon in Latin America.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Many fans affectionately dub Shiryu as the "walking blood bank," for obvious reasons.
  • Seiya is known within the South American fandom as the "cockroach saint", since he is considered a plague who nobody can kill (even Chuck Norris!).
  • Shaka is constantly called Barbie or Aino Minako/Sailor V due to the characters' very similar looks.
  • And Camus... oh Camus, he gets way too many nicknames that are ice related. Some are cool and some are downright ridiculous. He's even known as 'penguin'.
  • Deathmask. His lack of a proper name has had fans coming up with various hypotheses. One of the most popular is Angelo. Carlo is another frequent choice.
  • Among Saltybet betters, Seiya is known as Yuri Di AAAAAAA because the MUGEN Seiya yelling Yuri and screaming at the top of his lungs often.
• Fanon:
  • Due to the age of the series and the fact that it was posted on the Internet more than ten years ago, a lot of people actually believe that Deathmask's real name is "Angelo". The alternate name was popularized on Stayka, an infamous Saint Seiya based fan site, and stayed in the fandom conciousness since. It's a deliciously ironic name, granted, but it's not stated anywhere in the actual series. And although it is true it's not canon, many fans still prefer to call him that anyway (after all... he NEEDS a name).
  • There is actually so much of this that there is an entire Fan Wiki!
  • Ikki is commonly depicted as a Knight Templar Big Brother when it involves Shun to a point where he becomes overprotective. While he was like this when they were young children and he always appears to save Shun when he's in a tough spot, Ikki always made a point to want Shun to find strength to defend himself.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Got plenty of them to choose from.
  • Some fans might refuse to acknowledge Episode G as being part of the canon Saint Seiya universe, due to the personality of the protagonist, Aioria, not matching the character's personality traits and goals in the original manga, added to other details that don't match the narrative in the Kurumada's story.
  • Others might do the same and add to the discarded list the Lost Canvas due to considering Next Dimension the original timeline, even though Next Dimension's plot has yet to come to a head and be concluded.
    • Most fans write out of their minds characters used during fillers specific to the anime. And then you have the movies. You can add to that the Hades, Inferno and Elysium OVAs.
    • God Does Not Own This World is a main factor for the discussion, as Kurumada stated that the anime and manga are different continuities. And there's was no animation that adapted the manga's story in a satisfying and faithful way, filling the gaps while respecting the source material.
    • Discontinuity Nod also happened in the anime, in which the filler elements were ignored in the Hades arc in favour of the canon story in the manga, contributing to the Fanon Discontinuity discussion in the fandom
    • Continuity Snarl and Continuity Reboot in the animations, that ignore the story of Next Dimension manga, making completly different sequel for the anime: Omega. Not to mention the movies that have random stories and the endless fillers in the original anime that contradict the mangá which it's based.
  • The ages of the protagonists and Gold Saints are often ignored by the fandom, and the characters are often aged at least 3 years due to Improbable Age.
  • Some people also ignore the whole "all the Japanese bronze saints are actually half-brothers" reveal mostly because of shipping, and partly because of the absurdity of Mitsumasa Kido managing to impregnate at least 99 women.
• Fan Wank: The internet fights over which parts of the franchise are canon and how (or even if) they all connect can reach immense levels.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The anime-only Ghost Saints.
• Friendly Fandoms: In the late 2010's/early 2020's, Saint Seiya's fanbase grew a minor overlap with Fire Emblem's, thanks to the characters from that franchise having an 80's flair in their designs (Most noticeably with the Judgral characters) and the designs of the armor in Saint Seiya not looking too out of place in Fire Emblem, as well as both franchises also drawing inspiration from various European mythologies, most notably Norse Mythos.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Both the manga and the 80's anime were well received in Japan, and they're quite the Cult Classic. But it achieved its greatest success in Europe and Latin America, where it's really, really big, thanks to the excellent dubbing.
    • Adam Newman from S.H.Figuarts has said that the brand's Saint Seiya products are hugely popular in Europe and Latin America, and used it as an example of a brand that sells better overseas than in its native Japan.
  • Basically ask any male (and quite a few female) Chinese anime/manga fan of ages 20-30, they can at least quote 2 lines from the show. Pegasus Meteor Punch and Cosmos were so popular it had meme status in China even before memes were classified. Just watch this affectionate parody of one Chinese comedy show about a bunch of guys doing an online profile for their Japanese manga artist friend living in Shanghai. See it here
  • The Asgard filler arc was much better received in Latin America and Europe than in Japan, where the padding and focus on the Filler Villains backstories caused the show's popularity to drop.
• Growing the Beard: Say what you will bout the story looking afterward, but many of the things that made Saint Seiya what it is started because of the Sanctuary arc.
• Harsher in Hindsight: During the Poseidon saga Ikki fights Lymnade Casa, who tries to trick him by pretending to be Shun. Ikki doesn't buy it and kills him easily. Then, during Hades saga, Ikki has to actually kill Shun, who is possessed by Hades. He is shaking, crying (in a dream sequence) and, in the end, he can't do it.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The Latin-American TV dub for the Hades Saga has Seiya voiced by Irwin Daayán. Irwin's break-out role, 12 years ago, was... another Seiya.
  • The original Latin-American dub for the TV series had Daniel Abundis momentarily replacing Shiryu's VA Ricardo Mendoza. MANY episodes later, Abundis rejoined the cast as one of Shiryu's most memorable adversaries, Cancer Deathmask.
  • In the Asgard Saga, people from there believe that having twins is a sign of bad luck. Now, who was the Big Bad from the Sanctuary Arc?
  • Ryō Horikawa voices the brother of Ikki, the first Arc Villain in the series, who lasts beyond his defeat and ends up joining the rest of the heroes. Just three years later and Horikawa would voice a character much like that in a certain other famous Shonen anime by Toei.
  • In the Sanctuary arc Shiryu blinds himself in order to defeat a foe with the powers of Medusa, spends a while as a Handicapped Badass, and then eventually has his sight restored. a certain other famous superhero who fights for the Greek Gods had something similar happen to her nearly two decades later (except in her case, it was the actual Medusa).
• Ho Yay:
  • Episode 59 features the infamous "House of Libra" scene, in which Shun volunteers to warm a frozen Hyoga back to life with his own body. It doesn't help that the episode is titled, "Revive, Swan! Life, Death, and Love," nor that the next time we see them finds Hyoga carrying (an unconscious) Shun bridal-style and talking tearfully about how Shun "rekindled his heart."
  • Most Silver Saints proclaim that they are out to avenge Misty and the others. One wonders: "How come he was so popular?"
  • Milo and Camus have this in spades, and the anime ramped it up.
  • Dohko and Shion, oh so very much, even if there were a few mere scenes in the Hades saga. And then came Lost Canvas...
  • Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold ramps this up. Aiolia/Shura, Milo/Camus, Shaka/Mu, Deathmask/Aphrodite, Shion/Dohko, Aiolos/Saga... ALL pairs have their own moments there. Heck, Milo/Camus and Deathmask/Aphrodite once attacked Loki with a Combination Attack. Cue fangirls screaming in happiness.
• Improbable Age
  • Upon learning that apparently the oldest saint (sans Dohko) is Saga at 28, many just choose to ignore that and add whatever age they think the saints look like instead of believing these 30-something year olds are actually 13-20.
  • People also tend to ignore the canon age of the main characters, aging them up, since they don't act (or look) like teenagers and the ages don't make sense at all.
  • Some fans also prefer to pretend the main characters are at least 3 years older, due to the Improbable Age of some events in the manga. One example of these events is the backstory of Pandora with Ikki and Shun, with Ikki and Pandora being 3 years old yet acting like they were at least 7.
    • The spin off Legends of Sanctuary actually aged the characters, giving a more realistic take on their ages.
• Incest Yay Shipping:
  • There are LOT of people who do ship Ikki/Shun and Aiolos/Aiolia, because both Shun and Aiolia have a SEVERE case of Big Brother Worship.
    • And in Ikki/Shun's case, it doesn't help that Ikki is VERY protective to Shun and he chose Esmeralda BECAUSE she reminded him of Shun (he said that to her face, even!)
  • The famous ship Shun/Hyoga is actually incest because both are children of Mitsumasa Kido, making them half brothers.
  • Saori/Seiya is technically legal incest. They aren't related by blood but Saori is Mitsumasa's adopted grandaughter and Seiya is his biological son.
  • For people who are into Twincest, Kanon/Saga , or to a lesser extent, Hypnos/Thanatos.
• Inferred Holocaust: In the non-canon movie Warriors of the Final Holy Battle, at the beginning of the movie, the ghosts of Eris, Poseidon and Abel start to create natural disasters to destroy the world and kill humanity, like plagues (Eris), volcanic eruptions (Abel) and tsunamis (Poseidon). The implication is that humanity is killed in droves, until the Saints and Athena defeat Luficer. However, at the end of the movie, there is no text or mention of the dead people, nor any mention of a Reset Button that restored the world.
• LGBT Fanbase: The amount of yaoi fan-art^note 8 out of 10 fan created pictures you'll find online are somehow related to shipping and/or FABULOUS! and fan-fiction of this series is quite incredible.
• Macekre: Poor Cartoon Network got the short end of the stick with DiC's Knights of the Zodiac dub.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Gemini Saga is a man who had wrested with the evil in his heart his whole life. After murdering the Pope and taking his place, Saga frames fellow pure-hearted Gold Saint Sagittarius Aiolos for his attempted murder of baby Athena and has him mortally wounded, ruling Sanctuary for thirteen years with almost nobody the wiser. Having his forces close in on Athena, Saga later recovers his goodness and ends his own life to atone for his misdeeds. Later revived by Hades, Saga turns out to deceive Hades the whole time to free Athena from mortal constraints and gives his life to help Seiya and the other Saints.
  • Virgo Shaka is known as the Man Closest to God. A living Buddha, Shaka is known as perhaps the mightiest Gold Saint and one of the craftiest. Effortlessly outplaying Leo Aiolia, Shaka controls his mind to send him to fight the Bronze Saints and later faces Phoenix Ikki as a skillful fighter. When the revived Gold Saints come to Sanctuary, Shaka effortlessly defeats Hades' Spectres and then allows his own end at the hands of the revived Saga, Shura and Camus to send his soul to aid Athena to the end.
  • Capricorn Shura is one of Saga's Co-Dragons, helping to keep control of Sanctuary and directing their forces for total control despite known Saga is an imposter. Having lost faith in humanity, Shura reveals himself as a dangerous and skilled killer who faces Dragon Shiryu, finally overwhelmed as Shiryu prepares to sacrifice himself. Recovering his ideals, Shura gives his own life to preserve Shiryu's, later returning as part of Saga's conspiracy to help Athena and participates in the final sacrifice to assist the Bronze Saints.
  • Sea Dragon Kanon is the twin brother of Saga, the leader of Poseidon's Mariners who helped to awaken Poseidon to manipulate him and the Mariners in flooding the world. Using them as his secret army to help pave his own road to world domination, Kanon later repents and inherits his brother's mantle as "Gemini" Kanon, ultimately proving an invaluable ally who infiltrates the underworld to help stop Hades and dies a loyal Saint of Athena in a suicide attack against one of Hades' top minions.
  • Wyvern Rhadamanthys is perhaps the most powerful of Hades three Judges of the Underworld. Distrusting the revived Gold Saints, Rhadamanthys sends a secret force of Spectres to attack Sanctuary behind his superior Pandora's back and lures three Gold Saints to a trap where their powers are reduced so he can easily defeat them. When the Bronze Saints team up with the supposed defector Lyre Orphee, Rhadamanthys is the only one to block his binding music and deals him a fatal blow. Forming an enmity with Kanon, Rhadamanthys is able to even go head to head with the Gold Saint, showcasing himself as one of the mightiest and most intelligent generals in all of Hades' army.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Shun, due to the anime (in the filler stories) and non-canon movies' trend to make him weaker than in the manga, often needing to be saved by his big brother Ikki.
  • The Silver Saints (in general), due to being Out of Focus compared to the Bronze and Gold ones. It's worse in the anime version, as some of them were revived by Hades only to be killed in one hit by the -now stronger- Bronze Saints.
  • Aldebaran, of the Gold Saints, is often considered by fans to be the weakest member because he has lost every battle in the story. Even his major moment of awesome in the Hades arc uses Taking You with Me to be killed (so, a draw this time!).
  • The secondary Bronze saints are often the target of mockery by the fandom, due their We Are "Team Cannon Fodder" role in the story. Jabu, in particular, is often compared to Yamcha from Dragon Ball.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Mexican Spanish dub is full of this, especially Death Mask calling Shiryu evil for burning his hand. Once again, the pot called the kettle black.
  • Another notable one, the image of Shiryu crying Manly Tears and saying "Ese es un verdadero hombre" ("That's a true man"). The original full dialogue actually was "Eso significa que a un hombre al que puedes encomendar tu niño después que mueres es un verdadero hombre." ("That means that a man you can entrust your child after you die is a true man") after he and the other Bronze saints read Aiolos' testament in the Saggitarius House.
  • From the Latin American Spanish dub: "DANCEN ROSAS PIRAÑAS, AAAAAAHHHH!" ("DANCE, PIRANHA ROSES, AAAAAAHHHH!", a parody of Aphrodite calling his Black Rose attack), "MUERE SEIYAAAAA!" and "A OTRA DIMENSIÓN!!" ("DIE, SEIYAAAAAA!" and "ANOTHER DIMENSION!!", delivered by Saga's LA-VA in an extremely hammy manner), and a Gag Dub of the first OP that parodies the Ho Yay in the series.
  • The "DIE, SEIYAAAAAA!" meme exists among the Portuguese-speaking fans as well, complete with a short video of Saga's Brazilian VA delivering the line - with a twist. You know it's a meme when even Adult Goku's VA says it!
    • Translating for English speakers, he says "Die, Seiya, you little fag!". Even funnier considering that Saga's VA is Seiya's VA's father.
  • The Pope yelling Leo Aiolia's name is done in such a hammy way in the LA dub ("¡AIORIA! ¡AIORIAAAA!") that it became one of his most memorable phrases in said dub, and making fans like to imagine that he constantly yells Aiolia to do even the most mundane of tasks (something even Aiolia's LA-VA has joked about).
  • A mistranslation in the LA dub led to Shun, while fighting Saga, mentioning the Junini Saint^note He meant to say the Gemini Saint led to the joke that there's a hidden, thirteenth House in the Sanctuary where the Junini Gold Saint resides in ^note Hilarious in Hindsight once Next Dimension added a thirteenth Gold Saint.
  • Saint Sea Hat[1], courtesy of the one and only Buffalax. This resulted in an expanded version with animutation-like visuals by Jezero[2] and a French version called C'est une Sega![3]
  • "Shiryu, amigo!" Shun is saved from falling down a cliff and, upon finding it was Shiryu, not Ikki, who saved him, shouts "Shiryu my frIIEEnd!" in an extremely dopey voice tone. Hyoga saying "Im also ready" afterwards sounds like a non-sequitur, and Shun replying "That's nice, Hyoga!" is considered hilariously dismissive.
  • "What happens in the House of Libra, stays in the House of Libra", in reference to the infamous scene where Shun saves Hyoga via Intimate Healing.
  • Many on LA started using stillframes of the Pope when the patriarchy is mentioned due to his title being translated as "the patriarch".
  • Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the third movie’s Corona Saints and the Corona Temple became memes fast.
• Memetic Molester: Saori, after an infamous scene that reveals she used to ride Jabu like a horse when they were kids.
  • Also Saori again, after she tried to kiss Seiya while he passed out.
• Narm:
  • When Hyoga finds his old friend Isaac turned into one of Poseidon's Generals he starts crying in joy. Isaac appears to hug him for a second but gives him one big kick and starts mocking him. The way Kurumada drew this made this really look like Slap Stick.
  • Also in the anime, Saori wakes up more or less unharmed in the middle of the canyon that she and Seiya threw themselves into in a Suicidal "Gotcha!" and sees Seiya lying unconscious not too far from her. Then she goes to him, which is okay... except that there's a cheesy J-Pop ballad by Mitsuko Horie as Background Music. Her absolutely atrociously animated run doesn't help either.
  • Due to the way he’s drawn, Lucifer’s angry face makes him look like he’s pouting.
  • In the first episode Asgard arc, the filler Bronze Saints are defeated in around 10 seconds! T
• Never Live It Down:
  • One would think that Shiryu is only known for losing his sight.
  • Docrates is an anime-original villain who's very imposing and powerful and it took three Bronze Saints teaming up to defeat him. However he's mostly remembered (and mocked) for running away at the sight of the police (who are never a factor anywhere else in the series).
• Once Original, Now Common: While the series was pretty popular and influential in its heyday, most battle manga following it have taken its elements and improved upon them. As such, it's not uncommon for modern viewers coming to it for the first time to find it lacking and simplistic in comparison to modern battle manga in terms of storytelling, characterization and fights, not helped by Masami Kurumada's fairly dated art (the anime helps with the visuals, but does little to address other issues). This is also probably at least part of the reason why it never managed to get a foothold in the anglosphere, as the anime only made it to US shores in 2003 (airing on TV in a heavily censored version), more than 15 years after the series originally came out. In fact, one series directly inspired by Saint Seiya — Ronin Warriors — had aired in the U.S. almost a full decade before Saint Seiya did, originally airing in syndication in 1995 and then airing on Toonami in 1999 and getting high ratings, making it easy for casual viewers to dismiss Saieiya as a rip-off.
• One-Scene Wonder: Apollo in the Tenkai-Hen movie, who shows up for the last 5 minutes of the movie and completely steals the show with awe-inspiring abstract super attacks and a gritty yet smooth radio voice, as well as some of the best lines in the franchise. Unfortunately with the cancellation of the Tenkai-Hen trilogy, we're unlikely to ever see what his deal even was.
• Periphery Demographic: Saint Seiya is filled with action, violence, and blood, yet amassed a large and healthy female fanbase nonetheless that still persists thanks to the anime adaptation and the series' Cast Full of Pretty Boys. More than one of them have gotten the honor of creating side material for the franchise, and it definitely shows, as some of them try to keep a female audience in mind.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: While Deathmask and Aphrodite were criticized for their poor performance in the main series (specially during the Hades arc, where they got hit by The Worf Effect twice in a row), their reception improved after pulling a Heel–Face Turn and helping the other Gold Saints to destroy the Wailing Wall; they were also better received in sequels, like Saint Seiya: Episode.G, G: Assassin, Soul of Gold and Saintia Sho thanks to better characterization, and for faring better during fights.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • The anime started losing popularity during the Asgard filler arc, which came right after the incredibly popular Sanctuary arc. One major criticism is that padding became more frequent during fights; in particular a lot of screen time is given to the God Warriors' backstories, only for each of them to be killed off (in contrast to the Gold Saints, who remained mysterious characters and played roles in later arcs). The arc also saw the replacement of character designer Shingo Araki with Michi Himeno. That said, the arc is more loved in Latin America and Europe.
  • Each chapter of the Hades OVAs is less beloved by fans than the last. While Sanctuary boasts incredible animation and a well-paced story often compared favorably to the Twelve Temples arc, the animation quality noticeably declines in Inferno and Elysium. The latter two parts also neglect to expand upon the original manga story, resulting in a fairly rushed pace.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • First we have het shippers that, i.e, trash either Saori or Shaina due to their common interest in Seiya: Shaina is "a stalker and a bitch", Saori is "pathetic and not feminist enough". And everyone hates Miho.
  • The discussion of who is better for Aiolia: Marin, Lithos or Lyfia?
  • Alone x Tenma x Sasha x Sisyphus ship war.
  • Also in Lost Canvas, ship wars between Dégel with either Kardia, Fluorite or Seraphina. And Kardia with either Dégel or Calvera.
  • Then we have the heterosexual-pairing-hating camp, which denies any positive and possible romantic influence the girls may have on the guys.
  • Shunrey may get ignored as Shiryu love interest.
    • Shun/Hyoga shippers are really bad about it, bashing the filler character Princess Freya despite how much of a Plucky Girl she is and hissing at the mere mentions of Shun's Unlucky Childhood Friend Jun.
  • And then we go to the Yaoi fangirls. Which guy is the right one for the male they ship around? These can get very, very bloody: i.e. you do NOT go into the path of a Shiryu/Seiya fangirl and tell her Shiryu should go with Mu instead without expecting at least some snark, and at worst some flames.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Many fans started shipping Seiya with Hades of all people, after the former complimented on the latter's sad but beautiful eyes. This becomes especially Hilarious in Hindsight when you read Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas and see that, not only are former Pegasus Saint Tenma and former Hades's vessel Alone best friends, but Alone actually harbors feelings which are way beyond platonic for Tenma.
  • Many sites are rife with fanarts of Shaina and Milo for some reason. Would it be because their constellations represent poisonous and dangerous animals?
• Signature Scene:
  • Seiya using the borrowing his friends Cloth abilities during his battle with Ikki.
  • The Silver Saint Lacerta Misty is mostly remembered for taking all his clothes in the middle of his fight against Seiya to take a bath in the sea.
• Signature Series Arc: No matter the quality disputed for any of the arcs, the one that fans will recognize almost immediately is Sanctuary, having been done multiple times in many adaptations and coming with the added bonus of introducing everyone's favorite Gold Saints.
• So Bad, It's Good: DiC Entertainment's English dub. All of the voices, really, but especially Hyoga (they gave him a surfer accent) and Ikki, whose deep voice is hilariously over-the-top. All the failed attempts to censor the show (blue/purple blood, flashes instead of punches) just make it more awesome, and the appropriately 80s theme song is just icing on the cake. This is in comparison to the ADV dub, which is more accurate to the text but ends up not being as memorable or unintentionally funny.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • Like most older Anime, Saint Seiya has moments of janky and Off-Model animation. But by far one of the biggest examples is during one of the earliest Tear Jerkers, with questionable perspective shots. When Esmeralda is fatally struck down by her own father, we see Ikki rushing to the victim's aid... and we see him running towards her from below, as if there was a camera underneath the scene. This gives the impression that the crying Ikki is pretty much swimming in air or crawling to her air.
  • While they did better at cutting scenes deemed too violent or disturbing for children to watch, DiC's poor attempt at censoring the blood in their dub is too hard to take seriously, because rather than outright removing the blood, all they did is...recolor most of it...in bizarre colors.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The Poseidon arc was better received than the Asgard due to the former being an adaptation of the manga rather than filler. This was also due to faster-paced fights, Shun being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap by being the only Bronze Saint who takes down two Generals, and Seiya, Shiryu and Hyoga wearing the Gold Cloths together for the first time in one overwhelming finale in which Saori finally stops being a Damsel in Distress.
  • The Hades Sanctuary OVAs also get this for its improved animation, the return of famous recurring characters, the new scenes exploring the Bronze Saints as well as the well-delivered soundtrack. However, next OVAs did not receive the same praise.
• Theme Pairing: Cancer Deathmask and Pisces Aphrodite are popular for being the only genuinely evil Gold Saints, as well as quite dreaded for their cruelty. It's helped by the fact that they're always seen together in the OVAs.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Aiolos is noticeably not revived as a Specter in the Hades arc, unlike the other deceased Gold Saints; he doesn't even appear until the other Gold Saints team up to destroy the Weeping Wall. As a Posthumous Character, the opportunity to finally see him in action (particularly against Seiya and/or his younger brother Aiolia) is thus squandered. He could have been used in place of Shion — another Posthumous Character who acts as a Fake Defector and comes into conflict with an old friend, yet is only meaningfully introduced within the arc itself.
• Tough Act to Follow: The Hades Underworld and Elysium OVA suffered from a lot of limited animation and toned down violence when compared with the Hades Sanctuary OVAs that stand out thanks to their notable budget. To make it worse, the main voice cast was replaced.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Eurydice suffers from a questionable character design, with her wholly black eyes that have a little white sparkle in them; they're unsettling. Combined with the fact that she's a lump of rock from the shoulders down for most of her screentime, she looks more mystical than human.
• Unexpected Character: Hydra Ichi, who is playable in the latest video game, Brave Soldiers. He's even the only other non-main Bronze Saint to be playable aside from Jabu, who was DLC in Sanctuary Battle.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Most of the dudes who look like ladies, most notably Aphrodite, Misty (who even wear lipstick in the anime), Shun (whose pink armor doesn't help) and Sorrento (whose armor has a quite long skirt which doesn't help either). But there is an easy way to decide whether that character is male or female: Are they not wearing a mask? Are they wearing pants and shirt instead of Leotard of Power and Chainmail Bikini? Are they flat-chested instead of well-endowed? Are they speaking in male voice? If all of your answers are "yes", congratulations, the character in question is a guy.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • While the show is very dated by today's standards, being 35 years old at the time of writing, it was an absolute pioneer in the use of gorgeously stylized still images and making use of held shots usually done purely to save money for dramatic tension between characters.
  • Any time two characters are about to confront each other at the end of an episode, where their constellation figures will inevitably appear behind them, and if both warriors have an animal as their guardian star, you can bet they'll be roaring and baring teeth at one another in the sky above them.
  • Shiryu discarding his armor and fighting Black Dragon, where both of them turn into Eastern dragons wrestling and fighting through the skies accompanied by majestic Japanese 80's butt rock.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While the anime adaptation tones down some of the most graphic scenes from the manga, it still manages to display several instances of bloody violence and death. When the show was brought to Europe and Latin America, it was shown on kids' programming blocks without any censorship (And it was very popular among kids, as the Germans Love David Hasselhoff mentions) eventually leading to some controversies due its content.
• Woolseyism:
  • The Italian dub. The anime was translated into Italian by Enrico Carabelli as "I Cavalieri dello Zodiaco" (Zodiac Knights). Trying to convey for Italian viewers the same sense of mystery and awe that classical mythology, which they are all too familiar with, inspired in the culturally distant Japanese, he cranked up the "epicness" of the dialogues, added quotes from classical Italian poems and Dante's The Divine Comedy, and generally raised the stylistic level of all dialogues. Though he also introduced a number of inaccuracies and misinterpretations of the original plot, the dub had exceedingly good reception; and to this day many Italian fans say that they don't actually like Saint Seiya, they like the Cavalieri.
  • On a similar note, the (really good, voice-acting wise) Latin American Spanish Mexican dub of Saint Seiya used the Italian opening translated into Spanish, and to this day, any Mexican born between 1985 and 1990 insists that the good opening is the one from Caballeros del Zodiaco.
  • Brazilian dub's Saga's laugh. Even if you don't speak Portuguese, you'll find it memorable. The redubbing did it as good as the original, and put a professional rock band to adapt the original Japanese openings into a nice Metal-driven Portuguese version, instead of the J-rock in the original version. It's claimed to be one of the best versions in the world, because not only includes the Woolseyisms of the Italian and Mexican versions, but adapt their own as well.
  • And then, there's Saga's "morra, Seiya" (Die, Seiya), which sounds extremely awesome and hammy as wells.
  • Some translations give Cancer Deathmask the Dub Name Change of "Cancer Mephisto," which is a lot more subtle and makes him less Obviously Evil.
  • The 2003 English DiC dub is notorious for this, changing much of the original dialouge or storylines of the characters such as Hyoga's motive of wanting to win the Sagittarius cloth is to help reawaken his mother who instead of being dead, was put under a spell that put her in an eternal slumber or Shiryu going blind but in a "mystical way". This paired with having to heavily edit or completely cut scenes where blood was shown. Also since the show tries to avoid anyone actually dying, expect the script finding some way to make an excuse of how the character survived their death.
    • One of the examples being originally when Ikki is being trained by Guilty and gets angry at his daughter Esmerelda for interfering, he attempts to goad Ikki into giving into his rage(which Esmerelda was discouraging him from doing much to Guilty's anger)and ends up inadvertently killing her which finally makes Ikki snap and kill Guilty in rage. Whereas in the dub, it's said that she survived but was so horrified by Ikki giving into his anger that she ran off in terror. There's something tragically poetic about Ikki alienating someone he cared about through giving into his violent urges.

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