History YMMV / SaintSeiya

** Sadly averted in English-speaking countries, where the series has notoriously failed to live up to the success of other classic shonen anime like ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. This is often blamed on the fact that no attempt was made to localize it for English-speaking audiences until 2003, by which point, the series had already aged poorly. Also, the US had already long been exposed to ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', a very similar anime that didn't require nearly as much censorship to broadcast on children's television. The original series didn't even get a complete English dub until ''2020'', which is '''34''' years after the franchise began, and '''''31''''' years after the anime concluded its run.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While Deathmask and Aphrodite were criticized for their poorly performance in the main series (specially during Hades Arc, where they got hit by TheWorfEffect twice in a row), they reception improved after pulling a HeelFaceTurn and helping the other Gold Saints to destroy the Wailing Wall; they were also better received in sequels, like ''Manga/SaintSeiyaEpisodeG'', ''[[Manga/SaintSeiyaEpisodeGA G: Assassin]]'', ''[[Anime/SaintSeiyaSoulOfGold Soul of Gold]]'' and ''Manga/SaintiaSho'' thanks to a better characterization, and for faring better during fights.

*** In the manga Shun is teased with only June, and Hyoga has no love interest, and they are canonicaly siblings nonethless. In the anime only, Hyoga have ShipTease with several girls.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: People who are seeing the series for the first time recently suffer from this. Probably one of the reasons of why it tanked on the USA. Didn't help that one of the series directly inspired by Seiya- ''Anime/RoninWarriors'' had aired in the U.S. almost a full decade before Seiya did, originally airing in syndication in 1995 and then airing on Toonami in 1999 and getting high ratings. The fact that Seiya aired on CN four years after Ronin did made people dismiss Seiya as a rip-off. Had it been dubbed during the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' craze when [[HenshinHero Henshin Heroes]] were all the rage on American television, it probably would have stood more of a chance (albeit heavily edited).

* UncannyValley: 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.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In the Tenkai-hen movie, why did [[spoiler: Shaina, Jabu and Ichi]] attacked Seiya? Were they BrainwashedAndCrazy? 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.

** The secondary Bronze saints are often the target of mockery by the fandom. There is an anime-only scene where all of them are defeated in just two seconds by Mizar Zeta Syd in the first episode of the Asgard saga. Jabu, in particular, is often compared to Yamcha from Manga/DragonBall.

** Milo and Camus have this in spades, and the anime ramped it UpToEleven.

** Anime/SaintSeiyaSoulOfGold ramps this UpToEleven. 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 CombinationAttack. Cue fangirls screaming in happiness.

** People also tend to ignore the canon age of the main characters, aging them up, since they don't act like teenagers and the ages don't make sense at all.

** The secondary Bronze saints are often the target of mockery by the fandom. There is an anime-only scene where all of them are defeated in less than a second by Mizar Zeta Syd in the first episode of the Asgard saga. Jabu, in particular, is often compared to Yamcha from Manga/DragonBall.

** The secondary Bronze saints are often the target of mockery by the fandom, du some anime-only scenes were all of them are defeated in less than a second by Mizar Zeta Syd in the first episode of the Asgard saga. Jabu, in particular, is often compared to Yamcha from Manga/DragonBall.

** Sadly averted in English-speaking countries, where the series has notoriously failed to live up to the success of other classic shonen anime like ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. This is often blamed on the fact that no attempt was made to localize it for English-speaking audiences until 2003, by which point, the series had already aged poorly. Also, the US had already long been exposed to ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', a very similar anime that didn't require nearly as much censorship to broadcast on children's television. The original series didn't even get a complete English dub until ''2020''.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In the Tenkai-hen movie, why did [[Shaina, Jabu and Ichi]] attacked Seiya? Were they BrainwashedAndCrazy? 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.

* {{Narm}}: [[Narm/SaintSeiya Now with its own page.]]

** The 80's anime and the first four movies fall under this as a whole. The animation is extremely dated, and therefore most of the time, the characters would look janky and OffModel, and there tends to be bits of poorly-done animation that's a bit too hard to take seriously. As a result, one of the earliest {{Tear Jerker}}s goes to HELL by pretty... questionable perspective shots. When [[spoiler:Esmeralda is fatally struck down by her own father]], we see [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler:Ikki]] is pretty much swimming in air or crawling to her air, thus making the impact of the scene go POOF.

** 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.

** The whole OST. To give an idea of its popularity in Japan, it was one of the first soundtracks to be released not with traditional J-Pop songs, but background music.

** 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 Next Dimension plot is still being concluded.

** Sadly averted in English-speaking countries, where the series has notoriously failed to live up to the success of other classic shonen anime like ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. This is often blamed on the fact that no attempt was made to localize it for English-speaking audiences until 2003, by which point, the show had already aged poorly. Also, the US had already long been exposed to ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', a very similar anime that didn't require nearly as much censorship to broadcast on children's television. The original series didn't even get a complete English dub until ''2020''.

* FoeYay: Rhadamanthys and Kanon.

** Sadly averted in English-speaking countries, where the series has notoriously failed to live up to the success of other classic shonen anime like ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. This is often blamed on the fact that no attempt was made to localize it for English-speaking audiences until 2003, by which point, the show had already aged poorly. Also, the US had already long been exposed to ''Anime/RoninWarriors'', a very similar show that didn't require nearly as much censorship to broadcast on children's television. The original series didn't even get a complete English dub until ''2020''.

* AmericansHateTingle: Despite the popularity of [[FightingSeries Nekketsu]] {{Shonen}} manga in English-speaking countries, the USA in particular; the show 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), [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny by which point any potential viewers were not hooked]] (partially due to other anime like ''Anime/RoninWarriors'' that were directly inspired by it having been dubbed into English several years earlier, resulting in people mistaking SS/KOTZ as a rip-off). Notably, even Discotek won't touch the show (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.

* AmericansHateTingle: Despite the popularity of [[FightingSeries Nekketsu]] {{Shonen}} manga in English-speaking countries, the USA in particular; the show 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), [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny by which point any potential viewers were not hooked]] (partially due to other anime like ''Anime/RoninWarriors'' that were directly inspired by it having been dubbed into English several years earlier, resulting in people mistaking KOTZ as a rip-off). Notably, even Discotek won't touch the show (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 popularity in the English-speaking Anime fandom.