Saint Seiya Review: 114 Episodes of Cosmic Climbing, and the Score It Earned

Saint Seiya ran for 114 episodes on TV Asahi, from October 11, 1986 to April 1, 1989. It is one season of television that behaves like four, and it is the reason a generation of viewers outside Japan can still name the twelve Zodiac temples in order.

The show was produced by Toei Animation, based on Masami Kurumada’s manga. It follows five mystical warriors called Saints who fight in sacred armor called Cloths to defend the reincarnation of the Olympian goddess Athena against other gods who want the world. That premise is absurd on its face. Saint Seiya commits to it completely, and that commitment is the whole reason it works.

Seiya and the Pegasus Cloth

Seiya trains in Greece to master cosmic energy and becomes the Pegasus Bronze Saint, one of eighty-eight warriors sworn to Athena. He returns to Japan to find his missing sister, Seika. Foundation head Saori Kido tells him her whereabouts will be revealed only if he enters her Galaxy Wars tournament.

That is a cold bargain, and the show treats it as one. Seiya fights because he has no other lever. The tournament is disrupted by the vengeful Phoenix Ikki, and Seiya and his allies — Cygnus Hyoga, Andromeda Shun and Dragon Shiryū — defeat him. The victory draws the attention of the Sanctuary in Greece, which is where Saint Seiya stops being a tournament show and becomes something bigger.

Toru Furuya voices Seiya. Hirotaka Suzuoki is Shiryu, Ryo Horikawa is Shun, Koichi Hashimoto is Hyoga, Hideyuki Hori is Ikki, and Keiko Han is Saori Kido. Hideyuki Tanaka narrates and voices Aiolia. Mami Koyama plays Shaina, Yuriko Yamamoto plays Marin, and Kazuyuki Sogabe plays both Saga and Kanon. That is a deep bench for a 1980s anime, and the doubling of Sogabe across Gemini’s two halves is the kind of casting choice that pays off in the final act.

Twelve Temples, One Shield

The Pope sends assassins after the Sagittarius Gold Cloth in Saori’s possession. Saori is revealed as Athena’s reincarnation. The Saints travel to the Sanctuary to confront the Pope, who mortally wounds her. To save her, the Bronze Saints fight through the twelve Zodiac temples, each guarded by a Gold Saint.

The structure is a ladder, and Saint Seiya climbs it without apology. Seiya secures the Athena Shield to heal her. She confronts the Pope, exposed as the imposter Gemini Saga, who then kills himself. Peace does not hold. Hilda of Polaris, controlled by Poseidon, attacks. The Bronze Saints beat her warriors in Asgard and break the god’s hold.

Then Poseidon’s vessel, Julian Solo, kidnaps Athena. In his undersea temple, the Saints learn the plot is led by Gemini Kanon. The Gold Cloths of Sagittarius Aiolos and Aquarius Camus and the weapons of the Libra Cloth turn the fight. Athena seals Poseidon away and vows to protect the world forever.

Broadcast and Release Order

The show spawned four animated feature films, multiple video games and merchandise, and was exported to more than 75 countries. Toei later adapted the manga’s Hades Arc as an OVA series, The Hades Chapter, released from 2002 to 2008. The studio made Saint Seiya: Heaven Chapter – Overture in 2004 as the final continuation of that arc.

Nearly 14 years after the show ended, it was licensed for North America, Australia and New Zealand. Two English dubs followed. One premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States and YTV in Canada in 2003 under the title Knights of the Zodiac, covering 40 episodes. A later dub covered all 60 licensed episodes and hit DVD from 2003 to 2005. In 2019, Netflix took the North American streaming rights and Toei Animation Inc. hired Sentai Studios, a division of Sentai Filmworks, to produce another English dub.

What Holds Up and What Does Not

The Asgard and Poseidon arcs are where Saint Seiya gets bloated. Hilda’s turn and Julian Solo’s kidnapping repeat the same rescue shape the Sanctuary arc already perfected, and the show does not find a new idea for either. The Gold Cloths arriving as reinforcements is a fine image. It is also the third time the series solves a problem by handing Seiya better equipment.

What holds up is the ladder itself. Twelve temples, twelve Gold Saints, one wounded goddess on a clock — that is a machine for generating tension, and Saint Seiya runs it hard. The Bronze Saints are not chosen ones in the modern sense. They are the bottom of an eighty-eight-warrior hierarchy, and every fight is them climbing past someone who outranks them. Ikki’s grudge, Shiryū’s loyalty, Shun’s reluctance, Hyoga’s cold — the ensemble carries the middle stretch when the plotting sags.

The Hades Chapter OVAs, arriving more than a decade later, are the proof that the original earned its ending. Toei would not have returned to Kurumada’s material in 2002 if the 1986 series had not built an audience that stayed.

The 8.5 out of 10 is the TMDB audience score across 1,464 votes, and it is the right number for the wrong reason. Saint Seiya is not a great-looking show by the standards of its own decade, and its pacing in the back half is a genuine problem. It earns the score on structure and on nerve. A series that asks you to accept eighty-eight armored warriors channeling the power of the Cosmos, and then makes you care which temple they are stuck in, has done something most long-running anime never manage.

Watch the Sanctuary arc. Stay for Saga. The rest is a victory lap that occasionally forgets to end.

Anime · Knights of the Zodiac · Masami Kurumada · retro TV · Saint Seiya · Toei Animation