History Manga / SaintSeiya

* GainaxEnding: Because the Tenkai-Hen trilogy got scrapped after the first movie due to Kurumada taking issue with the corporate oversight on his story, the ending of ''Overture'' accidentally became this. A majority of its screentime is dedicated to setup (the Gold Saints being petrified in a stone pillar, introducing [[OurAngelsAreDifferent ancient greek heroes as enforcers of the gods]], not too mention finally touching upon the threat of Heaven towards Earth by Saga and Kanon during their {{Motive Rant}}s), resolving the aftermath of the Hades arc, and [[AlwaysABiggerFish introducing a new existential threat in the Olympians]]... only for the finale of the movie to end on Apollo having seemingly wiped everyone's memories as some sort of CruelMercy. The dissapointment and eternal blue-balling with no further Saint Seiya movies since then has permeated the community ever since.

** One of [[spoiler: Dragon Shiryu]]'s most famous scenes is him [[spoiler: plucking his own eyes out to defeat an enemy whose Medusa Shield [[TakenForGranite turns the target into stone with a single glance]], [[MortonsFork after neither closed eyes nor blindfolds work as counter-measures]]]]. In the TV series he gets better, though in the {{filler}} Asgard saga he temporarily loses his sight again after getting his eyes slashed in his fight with Fenrir; in the manga and the ''Hades Saga'' series he doesn't, and stays blind for the rest of his life.

''Saint Seiya'' began as a manga written by Creator/MasamiKurumada and soon became an anime produced by Creator/ToeiAnimation and later spawned [[Franchise/SaintSeiya own franchise]]; it would become [[FollowTheLeader launcher]] of the "pretty boys in armor" subgenre of shonen fighting manga/anime (shows that followed it include ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', ''Manga/LegendOfHeavenlySphereShurato'', and even ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' if you replace "armor" with "mecha". ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'' is a DistaffCounterpart[[note]]In fact, the two did a {{Crossover}} in the mobile game ''Symphogear XDU''[[/note]]). 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 WesternZodiac and pretty much every charted constellation.

* GainaxEnding: The ''very'' ambiguous ending of Tenkai Hen, which lefts many plot points and danglers unresolved.

* LoadBearingBoss: In the non-canon movie ''Warrior of the Final Holy War'', Seiya shoots an arrow at Lucifer, killin him and sending him back to Hell. On doing this, the fallen angel's Pandemonium palace crumbles.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** 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 JerkassGods instead of having Athena/Saori be the WhiteSheep of the bunch.
** In Shonen Jump pre-publications, based from the shape of the shadows, Scorpio Milo was intended to be his master, before Kurumada decided it made more sense for the Aquarius Saint to be his master.
** 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".

* BackFromTheDead: ''Twice'' in the Hades arc for the Gold Saints:
** In the Sanctuary phase, Hades resurrects the Saints that died in Twelve Houses arc (Saga, Deathmask, Shura, Camus and Aphrodite), as well as Shion, the previous pope.
** [[spoiler:In the Inferno phase, the same Gold Saints revive ''again'', this time to join their still living comrades (Mu, Aioria, Milo, Shaka and Dohko) to tear down the Wailing Wall. Aioros, who died at the start of the series, and Aldebaran, who died during Hades-Sanctuary, also reappear. Then everyone dies again.]]