| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/main03_5.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:The Bronze Saints and Athena.]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"Greek legend tells of the heroic Perseus, who severed the head of the monstruous Medusa. From the spilled blood sprang Pegasus, the magnificently winged sacred horse. Pegasus then took flight into the Heavens and became a constellation...\ |
| 5 | For sure, humans witnessed and became a part of the gods' wars. However, there were times Athena had to leave the battefield, so she left it in the care of brave, young men. There men came from all over the Earth, and were the epitome of true courage and power. They didn't use normal weapons, for their own bodies were weapons. Their fists were known to rend the Heavens and their kicks to crack the earth. The ages tell that wicked times would inevitably come again, and that the saints would be the warriors of hope."'' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ''Saint Seiya'' began as a manga written by Creator/MasamiKurumada and soon became an anime produced by Creator/ToeiAnimation and later spawned [[Franchise/SaintSeiya its 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. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | All saints receive a Cloth, a sculpture of their signature constellation that transforms into functional battle armor. There are three grades of Cloths: Bronze, Silver, and Gold with each grade being [[ElementalCrafting far more powerful and resilient]] than the last. Each armor is also an EmpathicWeapon and has some amount of choice in who wears it and whether they deserve to use it, as well as at least one special property. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | The five core cast members are: |
| 12 | * '''Pegasus Seiya''' ''[[BeamSpam (Light]] and [[RapidFireFisticuffs Energy)]]'': The leader who often succeeded thanks to ThePowerOfFriendship. He is brash and loyal to a fault, although all his friends never give up. He's so HotBlooded that he often was the most capable of pulling off HeroicResolve. He often veered into TooDumbToLive territory, and is almost as hard to kill as Ikki. |
| 13 | * '''Dragon Shiryu''' ''[[MakingASplash (Water)]]'': TheRival to Seiya at first. Despite his tendency to become blind in battles[[note]]Only to later [[ThrowingOffTheDisability get better]][[/note]], he is one of the stronger fighters, not to mention the wisest one. Usually [[HighPressureBlood bleeds at least]] a [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank quart of blood]] per fight. |
| 14 | * '''Cygnus Hyoga''' ''[[AnIcePerson (Ice)]]'': Despite being a more-or-less devout Christian, he wholeheartedly helped Athena... yeah, good thing the setting was into CrossoverCosmology. He's also recognized to be the smartest Bronze Saint. Notorious for his Oedipus complex. |
| 15 | * '''Andromeda Shun''' ''[[VariableLengthChain (Chains]], [[BlowYouAway Wind]] and [[PureEnergy Energy)]]'': He has perhaps the most destructive power of the core five, [[ReluctantWarrior and the most restraint on using it]]. He doesn't snap very often, but when it ''does'' happen, ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes SNAP]]'' he does! |
| 16 | * '''[[ThePhoenix Phoenix]] Ikki''' ''[[PlayingWithFire (Fire]] and Rebirth)'': The loner in the LonersAreFreaks sense, he's Shun's over-protective older brother and the BigBad in the Galaxian Wars Arc. Most likely to use CoolAndUnusualPunishment and FateWorseThanDeath with his [[MindRape psychic attacks]]. Also, possibly [[{{Immortality}} immortal]]/unkillable; since whenever people think he's dead, he'll keep on coming [[StayingAlive back...]] and [[DeathIsCheap back... and back...]] To make matters even better, [[CameBackStrong he always came back STRONGER]]. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | The first arc is the Sanctuary Arc. [[TheOjou Saori Kido]], heiress to a vast empire, holds special games to see which among the bronze saints deserves the Sagittarius Gold Cloth: an armor so powerful it is considered to confer the power of a WeaponOfMassDestruction to [[PersonOfMassDestruction its wearer]]. Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun (among others) meet there [[LetsYouAndHimFight to fight]] for it, but before the winner can be decided the Gold Cloth is stolen away by the Black Saints, renegade saints led by Ikki. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The story in the manga and anime differs considerably following Ikki's defeat, but it focuses on the Bronze Saints facing several other Saints sent by the Sanctuary with orders to kill them (and in the anime only, recover the [[MacGuffin Sagittarius Cloth helmet]], the only part of the Cloth the good guys were able to keep). Midway through the battles against the Silver Saints, it is revealed that Saori is the reincarnation of Athena and leadership of Sanctuary is hers by right, which at the time is under control of the nefarious Pope (no, not [[UsefulNotes/ThePope that one]]), who wants her dead so he can claim her position as protector of the Earth. Eventually Saori and all the Bronze Saints decide to challenge the Pope directly, and [[StormingTheCastle travel to the Sanctuary]]. Due to some treachery, Athena/Saori is hit by an arrow powerful enough to fell a god in twelve hours... time which the Saints must use to [[BossRush defeat]] the other ''eleven'' Gold Saints and use the shield on the statue of Athena to save their goddess from death. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Later arcs tend to follow this form, with a series of fights to reach the offending god or mortal intent on bringing about a worldwide calamity while working under a time limit, failure leading to Athena's death or the destruction of the world. The original anime ended in 1989 before it could cover the series' final arc, the Hades arc, but from 2002 to 2008 a series of [[OriginalVideoAnimation OVA]]s adapting the arc were produced. This divided the arc into three chapters: "Sanctuary", "Inferno", and "Elysium". |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Wishing to repeat their success with ''Anime/SailorMoon'', the series was licensed and dubbed in English as ''Knights of the Zodiac'' (which is actually the name the series has in most of the world outside Japan) by Creator/DICEntertainment and shown on Creator/CartoonNetwork, but the plot and characters [[{{Macekre}} didn't receive very good treatment]]. It wasn't very popular, and only 32 of the 40 dubbed episodes aired. Creator/ADVFilms would later re-release the series on DVD with a new, much more faithful dub (note the page image), but they only had the license up to episode 60 due to it being the last episode that [=DiC=] had sub-licensed to them. In 2014, New Video Group released the complete Sanctuary arc in its subbed form, but even ''that'' flopped as well. Eventually, in October 2019, Netflix began streaming the series with subs and a new English dub produced by Creator/SentaiFilmworks, featuring cast members from [[Anime/SaintSeiyaKnightsOfTheZodiac the 2019 CGI reboot series]] and the ADV dub. This dub finally reached the end of the series in 2020. However, the series was permanently [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes removed from the service]] on December 14, 2021. In the lead up to [[Film/KnightsOfTheZodiac the live-action Hollywood film adaptation of the series]], the Sentai dub reappeared on Crunchyroll on April 21, 2023, misleadingly promoted as a "remastered" dub. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | However, outside the States [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff it is IMMENSELY popular]]. In Latin America, in particular, ''Los Caballeros del Zodiaco/Os Cavaleiros do Zodíaco'' has a raging {{Fandom}} up to this day, and the series is re-run constantly. Part of this is attributed [[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing to its phenomenal dub]] and respect for the source material. And in Europe it's no slouch either, especially France and Spain, where even to this day the manga sells by the crap loads. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Creator/DiscotekMedia licensed the first four ''Saint Seiya'' movies and released them in Japanese with English subtitles (whether they'll release the fifth film remains to be seen), while Cinedigm released a new DVD release of the original anime covering the entire Sanctuary Arc. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | The story of the original manga is continued by Kurumada in ''Manga/SaintSeiyaNextDimension'', which (thanks to TimeTravel) simultaneously acts as a sequel and prequel to the original story. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | A [[{{Recap}} recap page]] for the original anime is in progress [[Recap/SaintSeiya HERE.]] |
| 33 | ---- |
| 34 | !!'''Saint Seiya''' provides examples of: |
| 35 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:0-D]] |
| 38 | * TenMinuteRetirement: Manga only where, [[spoiler: all the Bronze Saints quit after finding out that Kido was their father along with ninety-five other orphans around the world. They changed their mind as soon as Saori gets kidnapped again.]] |
| 39 | * TheAbridgedSeries: Currently done by French fans which turns out to be the [[http://cdz-serie-abregee.over-blog.com/ first French abridged series.]] |
| 40 | ** On the site, there are transcripts for each episode so if you don't speak French, you can copy that and translate it. |
| 41 | *** [[WebVideo/LesChevaliersDuZodiaqueLaSerieAbregee Now has its own page.]] |
| 42 | ** There's also a [[https://www.youtube.com/user/vaiseiyaoficial Brazilian abridged series]], with 15 episodes. There was also an adaptation of the first movie, but since Toei Animation apparently doesn't like to see their product being mocked (even on a non-profit basis), it's been taken down. ''Twice''. The creators have managed to put the channel up again, but have been dedicating themselves to other, not ''Saint Seiya''-related endeavors. |
| 43 | *** The "Vai, Seiya!" troupe also did a parody of ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheCosmos'', the failed American pilot for the series. |
| 44 | ** There's even a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77z-Uy-hbQ Nostalgia Critic mash-up]] comparing both English dubs. |
| 45 | * AbsurdlySharpBlade: Shura's Excalibur can cut through flesh, armor... dimensions. |
| 46 | ** But not through Camus's Freezing Coffin (at least not in the original Sanctuary arc) |
| 47 | *** Case in point, the twin swords on the Libra Cloth do accomplish the feat; it's understandable considering that its weapons are the only melee weaponry allowed to the Athena Gold Saints, which are supposed to fight unarmed for the sake of honor. |
| 48 | ** Chrisaor Krishna's lance was able to cut through Dragon Shiryu's shield, which is almost indestructible. |
| 49 | ** Seiya was able to cut Taurus Aldebaran's horn from his helm, when no other being save a God can even scratch a Gold Cloth. It has never been explained just how the hell he was able to accomplish the feat, which was impressive enough for Aldebaran to throw the towel. |
| 50 | * AchillesHeel: |
| 51 | ** When Shiryu unleashes the Rozan Shoryu Ha, he lowers his defense by a smidge, and only for a fraction of a second--but if you hit him ''there'', since that spot lies directly over his heart, he's as good as dead. When Seiya points that out in the tournament, Shiryu freaks out. |
| 52 | ** Anime-only god warrior Alpha Siegfried shares his Achilles' heel with his namesake from the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}''-- he slays a dragon and [[BloodBath bathes in its blood]], making himself immortal, but at that very moment a tiny leaf falls on his back (coincidentally over his heart), preventing that bit of skin from being touched by the blood, and therefore making that spot the only part of his body that can be dealt a mortal blow. This serves not just as an homage to the original Norse myth, but is also a CallBack to Shiryu's weak point, as Siegfried's God Robe is based on another famous dragon, Fafnir, and it was Shiryu himself who recognized Siegfried's weak spot. |
| 53 | * AdaptationDyeJob: The hair colors in the manga tend to be realistic, whereas the ones in the anime range between green, pink, purple and other funky colors. This is however [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as since the manga's hair colors were realistic, there were only blond, brunet and black-haired. Two-third of the Gold Saints are blond which can be pretty jarring for viewers, so the dye-job gave a better color balance, making it easier to distinguish the characters. One funny thing though, the animators seemed to be very fond of blue hair... |
| 54 | * AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Many in the anime version of the Sanctuary Arc, due to WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants. |
| 55 | ** In the manga, Aphrodite killed Shun's master. This caused Shun to vow revenge. However, in the anime, it was shown that Scorpio Milo arrived first, killed half of the trainees and fought with Albiore evenly afterwards. Aphrodite shows up later, but only throws a rose to weaken the Cepheus Saint with Milo makes the killing blow. However, Shun is still wanting revenge against Aphrodite ''even though he didn't kill anyone'' with Milo's contribution against the destruction of Andromeda Island left unresolved. |
| 56 | ** The introduction of Pope Ares by itself created so many plot holes that it would be too lengthy to explain here. |
| 57 | ** The Pope says that he needs the (Sagittarius) Gold Cloth because it will help him achieve world domination. When the anime catches up to the manga, it's revealed that not only are there more Gold Cloths, [[spoiler:the Pope has his own, being the Gemini Saint himself.]] |
| 58 | ** Aiolia says at the hospital that not even the Gold Saints know how many of them there are. This is despite, as shown shortly thereafter, them living in the 12 Temples which are structured in a way that makes it very clear how many Gold Saints should be there... |
| 59 | ** In the anime, Saga never uses his Galaxian Explosion technique, yet Ikki still recognises it when [[spoiler:Saga's twin brother Kanon]] uses the same technique in the Poseidon arc. |
| 60 | * AdaptationalBackstoryChange: In the manga, Esmeralda is a slave saved by Ikki when he saw her being whipped by her owner. In the anime, she became Guilty's daughter. |
| 61 | * AdaptationalBadass: |
| 62 | ** Centaurus Babel in the anime. In the manga, he faces Hyoga alone at the beach and is easily defeated. In the anime, he attacks all the Bronze Saints at the ruins of the Coliseum and gives them a hard time, and Hyoga only beats him with the help of the Steel Saints. [[spoiler:Oddly crosses into AdaptationalNiceGuy, as after the fight, Babel gets a kind-of "redemption" by accepting Saori as Athena, which does not happen in the manga.]] |
| 63 | ** Sort-of happens with Rhadamanthys, believe it or not. While he's unquestionably portrayed as badass in the manga, it's made explicitly clear that [[spoiler:he's only able to kill Mu, Aiolia and Milo because of Hades Castle's protection slowing them down, and he sees the Bronze Saints as a threat because their Clothes revived by Athena's blood negate such protection and allows them to fight him on equal terms (his minions interrupt before the fight can happen). In Hell, where there is no such protection against Saints, he has significant trouble fighting Kanon (needing the other Judges to save him), and Seiya is able to hurt him and break his Surplice (though Rhadamanthys is still left standing and Shun becomes Hades before the fight can continue)]]. In the anime [[spoiler:the protection in Hades Castle is not mentioned during those first fights, and Rhadamanthys' minions never interrupt his confrontation with the Bronze Saints. He mops the floor with them and none of their attacks work until Seiya gets his HeroicSecondWind and drags Rhadamanthys with him to Hell - a much different performance than their brief skirmish in the manga.]] |
| 64 | * AdaptationalNiceGuy: |
| 65 | ** Hyoga was much meaner and arrogant in the manga (although he gradually mellows out towards the end of the Sanctuary Arc), and only entered the Galaxian Wars tournament to [[spoiler:kill the Bronze Saints by orders of the Sanctuary]]. A lot of his harshness was dialed down in the anime, and in there he enters the tournament for sport [[spoiler:and has no intention of murdering anyone]]. |
| 66 | ** Seiya, sort-of. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness At the start of the manga]] he had a rebellious attitude and was a bit of a DeadpanSnarker - he even constantly talked back to Saori, even after discovering she's Athena reincarnated, and refuses to fight for her before Aiolia's attack at the hospital! This was watered down in the anime, and that slowly made its way to the manga. |
| 67 | * AdaptationalWimp: Happens a lot in the anime's Filler episodes and OVA movies for RuleOfDrama, usually with the Bronze Saints. |
| 68 | ** Shun is hit pretty hard with this. In the manga, he is established as being possibly the most powerful of the protagonists, being held back only by his unwillingness to kill. In most of his anime-exclusive fights he is straight up unable to defeat his opponents and needs Ikki's help. |
| 69 | ** Also happens constantly with Seiya. In the manga he has a clear evolution where he gets stronger and more capable as the series goes on, to the point where in the Poseidon Arc he has relatively little trouble fighting the Mariners, and in the Hades Arc his attacks are strong enough to break Surplices. In the {{Filler}} episodes, Asgard Arc, OVA movies and [[AdaptationExpansion anime-exclusive Hades Arc scenes]], he is often little more than a punching bag for the villains before getting his HeroicSecondWind (if he gets it at all). |
| 70 | ** Seiya's teacher Marin is very unfavorably portrayed in the anime, being constantly bested by Shaina and losing almost every fight she gets in. This gets worse during the 12 Temples part of the Sanctuary Arc in which she's defeated by a random giant Mook [[spoiler:and is presumed dead for a few episodes]]. |
| 71 | * AllMythsAreTrue: |
| 72 | ** Saori/Athena and her fellow Greek Gods have various other mythological pantheons' heroes or figures as servants or rivals, and their followers are completely free to worship competing religions. For example... |
| 73 | ** Virgo Shaka is a reincarnation of a Buddha and quite capable of mopping the floor with just about any opponent. In the English dub, [[DubInducedPlotHole there is a translation error that stated he was ''the Buddha'' and not ''a Buddha''.]] |
| 74 | ** Capricorn Shura has the legendary sword Excalibur in his arm (not literally, more like its spirit) allowing him to cut ''anything''. |
| 75 | ** [[GrimUpNorth Far up North]], a whole culture lives in worship of Odin, led by [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Hilda]] (name comes from Brunnhilde, the strongest of the Valkyries) and her sister Freya (name was taken from the Goddess of beauty and love). Odin's Asgardian God Warriors (named after Norse mythological figures) had a patron star in the Ursa Major constellation. Hilda herself has Polaris as her guardian star. |
| 76 | ** Hyoga was nominally Christian (he sometimes explains the basics of Christianity to his fellow Saints), and one OVA movie had the saints fight [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]]. (This one is not actually canon though.) |
| 77 | ** Poseidon's Generals are each patterned after an ocean, so you have typical Greek water demons as well as Kraken Isaac from the Arctic Ocean and Chrysaor Krishna from the Indian Ocean. |
| 78 | ** To sum it up, we have [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]], Shaka is the reincarnation of a Buddha, one of the movies features the Saints fending off Satan, Myth/NorseMythology, etc. While it is odd, Kurumada simply puts this stuff in because he thinks its cool. |
| 79 | --> ''I like horror and ghost stories quite a bit. I get excited when people tell me about frightening experiences they've had or supposedly true encounters with ghosts. Just as I don't believe in gods or Buddha, I don't really believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits. But the beauty of a great story lies in that logic-defying ineffability. That's the fun of it.'' |
| 80 | ---> '''Creator/MasamiKurumada, ''Knights of the Zodiac: Vol 23'' (1990)''' |
| 81 | * AirplaneArms: Throughout the first few arcs, the characters would typically run swinging their arms like regular people. After the Sanctuary Arc, and the new and improved Cloth redesign, the wispier, thinner character designs also brought along a tendency to run and leap with their arms spread out like wings. |
| 82 | * AlmostKiss: |
| 83 | ** Seiya and Saori after jumping off a cliff together to escape from Shaina and Jamian. Saori nearly kisses an unconscious Seiya, but is interrupted by an [[ClingyJealousGirl angry Shaina]]. |
| 84 | ** Seiya and Miho, but they're interrupted [[MomentKiller by the orphan kids.]] |
| 85 | * AlternativeForeignThemeSong: |
| 86 | ** The English dub received a new theme song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpxrsEAIMT4 "I Ran"]] by Music/BowlingForSoup (well, covering Music/AFlockOfSeagulls, but yeah). |
| 87 | ** And who can forget the European intro, originally made for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqAkCLy_GOA France]] and its Spanish translation, used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fiPVeuaxXk Spain and Latin America]] |
| 88 | ** Italy initially had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyMqX8lEIg two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoTRYi6dcFc openings]]. Subsequently, when Mediaset started airing the anime, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_E0oSPKpKo new opening]] was made (later replaced by an Italian version of "Pegasus Fantasy"). |
| 89 | * AndIMustScream: |
| 90 | ** What happens when Cancer Deathmask kills you and enslaves your soul. |
| 91 | ** What Shaka does to you when he slowly and methodically takes away your senses... one... by... one. [[spoiler:It backfires on him when his intended victim, Ikki, uses this as an opportunity to focus his Cosmo and awaken to the [[EleventhHourSuperpower Seventh Sense]].]] |
| 92 | * AndTheRest: Hilarious example in episode 27. Shaina and two Silver Saints ambush the heroes. |
| 93 | -->'''Shaina''': I'll deal with Seiya. You can look after... the others. |
| 94 | -->'''Shiryu and Shun''' ''(indignantly and at unison)'': Who are you calling ''the others''? |
| 95 | * AndThisIsFor: When Ikki gets his hands on Lyumnades Kaasa, he gives him punches for all of the heartache Seiya, Hyoga and especially Shun went through. |
| 96 | * AnIcePerson: Hyoga, any of his masters (Camus or the anime-only Crystal Saint) and his RivalTurnedEvil Kraken Isaac. |
| 97 | * AnimalMotifs: Naturally. Most, if not all Saints and Marine Generals whose patron constellation is an animal or a mythical creature pattern themselves after it, from their [[CallingYourAttacks attack names]] to their personalities and even their clothing. Which becomes a bit of FridgeLogic in that many of such Saints had already adopted these motifs long before even attaining their respective Cloths. And of course, the Cloths themselves are primary examples of the trope. |
| 98 | ** Uniquely, the Asgardian Fenrir was chosen to become the Epsilon God Warrior ''because'' of his association with wolves, rather than the other way around (that he already had [[MeaningfulName a very appropriate name]] for it was just a bonus). |
| 99 | ** Shiryu's anime-only rival for the Dragon Cloth, Ouko, themed himself [[TigerVersusDragon after tigers]] when he came back for revenge. |
| 100 | * AnimatedArmor: Both Gold Saints of Gemini have used their armour to defend their temple without actually having to be there or wearing it. Shiryu overcomes the first instance of this quite effectively. |
| 101 | ** Also, in Saga's epic hallucination/dream/vision/omen of doom sequence during the Sanctuary Arc, all of the 12 Gold Cloths and the five Bronze Cloths currently making the plot are seen to be what would pass as empty but moving-if it weren't for the eyes. Whatever happens, they turn on Saga. |
| 102 | * AnimeThemeSong |
| 103 | ** First Season Opening (Galaxy Tournament Arc to 12 Houses Arc): Pegasus Fantasy. |
| 104 | *** '[=DiC=]' dub opening and closing : I Ran (Music/BowlingForSoup version) |
| 105 | ** First Season Ending: Blue Forever |
| 106 | ** Second and Third Season Opening (Asgard Arc to Poseidon Arc): Soldier Dream. |
| 107 | ** Second and Third Season Ending: Blue Dream |
| 108 | ** Hades Sanctuary Opening: Chikyuugi |
| 109 | ** Hades Sanctuary Ending: Kimi to Onaji Aozora |
| 110 | ** Hades Inferno & Elysion Opening: Megami no Senshi Pegasus Forever |
| 111 | ** Hades Inferno Ending: My Dear |
| 112 | ** Hades Elysion Ending: Kami no del Regno |
| 113 | * AnotherDimension: |
| 114 | ** These are ''weaponized'', used by Gemini Saga [[spoiler: and Kanon]] as a way of removing opponents from the battlefield without much difficulty. Gemini Saga's [[CallingYourAttacks delivery of the attack]] tends to be [[LargeHam really overblown]], to the degree of becoming a MemeticMutation in some fringes of the fandom. |
| 115 | ** Phoenix Ikki also uses one at one point [[spoiler:in an attempt to defeat Virgo Shaka by [[HeroicSacrifice sending both him and Shaka there]]. [[DefeatMeansFriendship This gesture earns him Shaka's respect]], and he asks Mu to bring ''both'' Ikki and himself back]]. |
| 116 | * AntiVillain: Several of the Gold Saints, as well as some of the Asgard Warriors. |
| 117 | * ArmorIsUseless: Variation. Sometimes armors are ''vital'' in the fighting strategies, sometimes they can be destroyed and nothing happens. It doesn't seem to matter a lot of the time what order your Cloth is. More than a few Silver Saints had their cloths completely shattered by Bronzes they'd spent the whole episode kicking around, too. (Though, the Bronzes are admittedly outliers and have potential beyond their station, even by that point) |
| 118 | ** This becomes certainly amusing when Shiryu cuts through the Capricorn armor... with his bare hand, because he'd been stripped off his armor by his adversary. Rule of thumb: if the bronze saints' armors are still intact and in their normal shape, the fight's nowhere near over yet. |
| 119 | ** By the end of the series, helmets become useless. Everyone's helmet/headpiece is either broken, lost in a fight or simply not used ([[RuleOfCool because they look cool that way]]). [[spoiler:Athena has hers for a single page and then loses it when Hades strikes her shield.]] |
| 120 | * ArtifactTitle: Not on the original series itself, mind you, where Seiya always played an important role; but the subsequent spin-offs/prequels, don't always feature him, examples include ''The Lost Canvas'' and ''Episode G'', (OK, ''The Lost Canvas'' is about his previous incarnation, but still...) |
| 121 | ** Funnily enough, the international title, ''Knights of the Zodiac'', always stays relevant because it applies to all the Athena's Saints/Knights. |
| 122 | * ArtisticAge[=/=]ImprobableAge: The protagonists are all depicted as young men in their late teens/early twenties, but are actually ''13-15''. Considering the violence in the series, this may be to avoid the connotations of violence against children. |
| 123 | ** Case in point, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Athena-manga22.jpg this]] is, at most, a 15 year old girl and that's assuming at least 1-2 years have passed since the beginning of the series to that point. |
| 124 | ** Not to mention the Gold Saints, who all looked to be in their Mid 20s at least, yet when their ages were revealed only a few of them are past 20, with the oldest among them (Saga) being 28, in particular Aioros who looks to be in his 30s, and has one of the deepest voices you'll hear was only 14 [[spoiler:when he died]], and [[BigGuy Big Guy]] Aldebaran being only 20, despite looking to be in his Late 30s-40s. This was most likely due to the author [[DidntThinkThisThrough not thinking that much]] about it given the discrepancies caused to certain plot points. |
| 125 | ** And don't let us get to Ikki's flashbacks in which he's seen carrying Shun, ''as a baby'', in his arms! Bear in mind Ikki is 15 and Shun is 13!!! |
| 126 | ** The animators of the anime themselves seem to have forgotten about this fact since at one point Hyoga is shown driving a car. |
| 127 | * ArtisticLicenseBiology: |
| 128 | ** Most of the versions of the Cancer gold cloth depict fiddler crabs with varying claw sizes. However, the first time it was depicted in object form, the cloth looked boxy and awkward, not resembling any species of crab at all. |
| 129 | ** The amount of blood loss and the blunt force trauma to the head and torso almost all of the Saints go through would've certainly killed even the strongest of Saints many times over. Not to mention the fact that they tend to fall head-first to the floor doesn't help either. |
| 130 | ** The cloths of Mizar Zeta and Alcor Zeta depict long-toothed sabretooth cats, which were not native to Europe. Sabretooth cats like Smilodon were confined to the Americas, while species with smaller teeth lived in Eurasia. Also, unlike the cloths, no sabretooth cats had long tails. |
| 131 | * ArtisticLicensePhysics: Saint Seiya brings up real physics concepts all the time, but tends to bend their actual application for the sake of the plot, or outright ignore their implications. |
| 132 | ** [[FasterThanLightTravel Traveling at the Speed of Light]]: Leo Aioria claims that, while Bronze Saints move at or above the speed of sound, Gold Saints can attack at the speed of light. But the amount of energy needed for any of the Gold Saints or anyone to perform light speed attacks is extremely high. Even approaching light speed would require more energy per second than all of Earth's industries use per year. |
| 133 | ** IceBreaker: Anytime Hyoga or any of the other [[AnIcePerson people who use ice]] use one of their signature attacks. Hyoga's skin would be destroyed anytime he touched anything and in the battle with Camus, [[spoiler: during which both Saints attacked each other with an attack that reached absolute-zero, Camus would've shattered instead of simply turning blue and dying. He wouldn't have been able to talk.]] There's also the matter inherent to all [[AnIcePerson people who specialize in ice- and cold-manipulation techniques]], in that they must ''remove'' heat to reach those temperatures, leading to... |
| 134 | ** NoConservationOfEnergy: Whenever work is done, energy has to come from somewhere. In Saint Seiya, the source is the body and the atoms (miniature universes) from within the body. However, the body doesn't have the ability to create enough energy to do most of the attacks in the series. While this trope could be averted by stating that the Cloths themselves are the source of energy, there are several times where the Bronze Saints become ''more powerful'' without their Cloths (example: Shun and Nebula Storm) despite it being a possible energy source. |
| 135 | * AsYouKnow: In universe: the saints keep reminding their opponents that a technique [[ItOnlyWorksOnce will only work once on them]]. |
| 136 | ** Eventually lampshaded by Ikki: (after [[CurbStompBattle Curbstomping]] [[spoiler: Aiacos]] ) "The same technique doesn't work twice on a saint. This should be common sense by now". |
| 137 | * AtlasPose: Dragon Shiryu when the tunnel underneath the Sagittarius House collapses and he stays behind to support it as the others escape. |
| 138 | * AttackItsWeakPoint: Inverted at least once. Marin taught to Seiya if your adversary is too strong, you attack his/her STRONG point. The theory went if you destroy his/her best weapon, finishing your enemy off will be an easy task. This notion came as early as Seiya's duel with Shiryu at the Galaxian Wars tournament, where, after being pulped into so much mush, Seiya figured out the best tactic to take down the Dragon Saint was to destroy both his fist and his shield--both of them considered, at that time, the strongest ones in existence. |
| 139 | * AttackReflector: |
| 140 | ** This is first revealed by Poseidon (and demonstrated by Phoebus Abel in the NonSerialMovie) as an ability gods possess. |
| 141 | ** The Gemini Saint has a Dimension VideoGame/{{Portal}} approach to the problem. |
| 142 | ** Hyoga managed once to pull this with Ikki's Phoenix Demon Illusion Fist by virtue of reflecting light. |
| 143 | * BackFromTheDead: |
| 144 | ** ''Twice'' in the Hades arc for the Gold Saints: |
| 145 | *** 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. |
| 146 | *** [[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.]] |
| 147 | ** In the non-canon movie ''Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth'', Phoebus Abel, Athena's divine brother, revives Saga, Deathmask, Shura, Camus and Aphrodite to act as his enforcers along with the Corona Temple Saints. |
| 148 | * BandOfBrothers: |
| 149 | ** The Bronze Saints in the Anime. |
| 150 | ** In the manga too. See volume 5. |
| 151 | * BarrierMaiden: Saori often has to take the place or tasks of another God or make a life-risking BatmanGambit to buy time for her Saints to beat up the bad guys. Shun is also placed in that situation sometimes. Lampshaded in Shun's backstory since he bears the armor of, and is himself protected by the constellation of Andromeda, the one named after THE BarrierMaiden of Greek mythology. |
| 152 | * BatmanGambit: Saori. Other users of this technique are Saga, Ikki, Kanon, Mu, Dohko, and both Hilda and [[TheStarscream Alberich]] in the Asgard saga. |
| 153 | * BattleAura: All Saints have one. Usually accompanied by [[AnimalBattleAura a spectral vision of their patron constellation]] when they really start to turn it up. |
| 154 | * BearsAreBadNews: |
| 155 | ** Hyoga's harsh training. Every time you see him, he or Crystal Saint are out wrestling and testing moves with bears. ''Polar'' bears. (Though amusingly, the anime at one point shows him happily visiting the polar bears at a zoo, so apparently there were no hard feelings.) |
| 156 | ** Geki also illustrates the difficulty of his training in the Rocky Mountains by describing how he had to kill wild bears with his own hands. |
| 157 | * BeautyIsNeverTarnished: You can kick a saint in the face with enough force to shatter a brick wall and still not break his nose or knock out his teeth. Aesthetically-placed bruises and scuffs, and rivers of blood flowing from a head injury hidden somewhere under their giant manes of hair? Sure. A black eye? Good heavens, none of that! |
| 158 | * BestHerToBedHer: Variation: each and every female saint of Athena has to wear a mask, and it's considered a grave dishonor to be seen without it. Should any man see the female saint's face, she only has two options: a) Kill him or b) Love him. This only applies to Athena's Saints, though: Mermaid Tethys, Poseidon's messenger, wore a practical, full-head helmet with an open face. The masks serve two purposes: to make the female Saint be seen as a warrior regardless of gender, and to avoid identification. It so happens that the female Saints shown in the series are ''[[BeautyIsNeverTarnished markedly beautiful girls]]'', which is a point against ''kicking people's asses'' without reservation from both parties in the battles. It also doesn't help that, although the masks are meant to depersonalize the saints, these usually customize their masks to their personal tastes, adding fangs, decorative paint, or artistic engravings. |
| 159 | * BetweenMyLegs: Shaina gets this shot in episode 30. June as well in episode 69 during a flashback of Shun looking at the MelancholyMoon. |
| 160 | * BigHeroicRun: In the iconic first opening, the whole set of Bronze Saints charge forward to the beat of a [[ThePowerOfRock Badass Guitar Solo]]. In the second opening [[note]]and the third, which only varies slightly from the second[[/note]], the central five heroes do the same thing but with AirplaneArms. |
| 161 | * BigScrewedUpFamily: The Kido Family. Saori Kido turns out to be the Goddess Athena, Mitsumasa Kido in the manga [[spoiler:has 100 kids and then sends them to go become Saints.]] Let's not forget Hyoga and his Oedipus Complex with his dead mother. |
| 162 | * BizarreBabyBoom: The 100 orphans are all close to the same age and [[spoiler: are all related in the manga.]] |
| 163 | * BlackBlood: In the [=DiC=] localization for the US. Shiryu is even featured as the image source where he goes from the bloodbank to the oilbank. |
| 164 | * BlastingTime: Hyoga's Aurora Thunder attack consists of him clasping his hands together over his head, and then repeatedly bringing them down to blast out gusts of icy wind from his fists. The Aurora Execution, the ultimate evolution of this technique, consists of raising one's hands overhead again, but keeping them up long enough to charge a single, absolute-zero blast of ice. |
| 165 | ** Gemini Saga has a variation of this, where he performs a complicated motion with his left hand that ends up with it raised high over his head... but his right hand, the one that ''actually' grasps the energy ball to unleash Galaxian Explosion, is held tightly by his waist, and that is the hand that goes into the "3-o'clock" position when releasing the attack. |
| 166 | * BlessedWithSuck: The Saints and their foes are both so fast and strong that, unprotected, they would turn to dust even by their own attacks, hence their armors (cloths, surplices, etc). The armors protect them from both attacks by foe and from their own power. The cloths themselves are living things, which means that with enough damage ''these can be effectively killed too'', necessitating the craft of a master armorer like Aries Mu to both revive and revamp them. |
| 167 | * BlindSeer: |
| 168 | ** Shiryu lampshades this trope after he loses his sight. Thanks to this, he is not deceived by Saga's illusion in the Gemini Temple when he and Seiya are trapped. He says he senses no obstacle and knows where the exit is. Shiryu grabs Seiya and runs off dragging him by force. Believing they would get killed, Seiya screams as they pass the Gold Saint of Gemini, and finally end up exiting the Temple. |
| 169 | ** Ikki of Phoenix uses this as well... to an extreme. [[spoiler:In order to defeat Shaka after being killed by the Gods-Knows-What-Number-th time by the Gold Saint (and suffering MindRape ''twice'' from Shaka's part), he lets Shaka disable each of his senses in order to augment his Cosmo beyond its normal limits, mimicking Shaka's own EnlightenmentSuperpowers, and reaching the Seventh Sense all on his own. Shaka himself is AWESTRUCK into a HeelFaceTurn at the notion, and taken quite a few pegs down.]] |
| 170 | * BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Subverted [[AdaptationalDyeJob in the anime]] with Heracles Algethi (white hair), Canis Major Sirius (dark blue hair) and Musca Dios (brownish red hair), the trio of Silver Saints that attacks Seiya when he's fighting Aioria in the forest. |
| 171 | * BloodKnight: Cancer Deathmask and Cassios. |
| 172 | * BodyguardCrush: Hagen, in regards to Freya. Maybe both Thor and Siegfried, in regards to Hilda. Jabu, in regards to Saori (anime only). Possibly, Seiya towards Saori. |
| 173 | * {{Bowdlerise}}: ''Oh sweet merciful Athena!''. "Kill" becomes "I'll use my psychic powers to put him to sleep", and a punch through the rib cage becomes "hitting a pressure point". That leaks ''BlackBlood''. |
| 174 | ** This only applies to the version aired on Creator/CartoonNetwork. Both the video and audio of the DVD version released by Creator/ADVFilms are uncut and even use the original terminology. |
| 175 | ** Viz's release of the manga is nearly uncut, except for using a few terms from the edited version ("Knight" instead of "Saint", "Mephisto" instead of "Deathmask"). Oddly, the name "Death Queen Island" remains unchanged. |
| 176 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: Leo Aioria and Anime-only Crystal Saint are ''extremely'' brutal examples of this trope. [[spoiler: So much it takes ''death'' (of another person, in Aioria's case; of himself, in the Crystal Saint's) to de-brainwash them]]. |
| 177 | * BreakoutCharacter: The Gold Saints serve primarily as the ultimate obstacles for the heroes in the Twelve Houses[=/=]Sanctuary Arc but, due to their popularity, their roles started to grow in importance and more prequels where created to the point that they have perhaps surpassed the heroes in terms of screen-time (anime and manga combined) and became the protagonists of their own manga in Episode G (and Lost Canvas to some extent). Of course, the Gold Saints are ''supposed'' to be Athena's elite guard, so it's not unreasonable that they'd finally get out of the house and actually serve her directly during the Hades Arc. |
| 178 | * ButNotTooForeign: Hyoga is half Japanese, half Russian. |
| 179 | * ButForMeItWasTuesday: The walls of Cancer Deathmask's house [[AndIMustScream are decorated with the heads of people that he has killed... including little children]]. When an enraged Shiryu asks "Have you also killed little children?" Deathmask ''smirks'', shrugs and replies "Who knows? Maybe they were in the wrong place at the wrong time." |
| 180 | * CainAndAbel: |
| 181 | ** It looked like Ikki and Shun would become this, and they ''were'' in the beginning, but ultimately Ikki pulled a HeelFaceTurn and subverted this. Kanon and Saga (and in the anime, [[spoiler: Sid and Bud]]), on the other hand... [[spoiler:However, Kanon eventually inherits (with Saga's blessing) the Gemini Cloth, and wears it in his brother's name and for his own redemption.]] |
| 182 | ** In the "childhood friends" sense, we have two pairs: Shiryu and Ouko (anime only) and Hyoga and Kraken Isaac. [[spoiler: Both cases end up in death]]. |
| 183 | * CallingYourAttacks: "PEGASUS SUI SEI KEEEEEEEENNNNN!" |
| 184 | * TheCameo: [[Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo Minky Momo]], of all people, appears in the audience at one point in episode 5 of the classic series. You can also see a spectator with Kenshiro's face. |
| 185 | * CanonDiscontinuity: The Heaven Chapter prequel movie has been retconned out due to events of Saint Seiya: The Next Dimension. It lives on in official merch and special anniversary figurines, though. |
| 186 | * CanonForeigner: Several, including from anime (Docrates, Geist, Spartan, Arachne, etc) and movies. |
| 187 | * CanonImmigrant: The Pope's brainwashing technique, the Genrou Maouken, appears in the anime before its debut in the manga. Lyra Orpheus too, as he appears in the 1st movie first (though he was [[GodCreatedCanonForeigner also designed by Kurumada back then]]). |
| 188 | * CanonWelding: A strange variation: the non-canon movie ''Saint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle'' welds up the previous non-canon movies (about Abel and Eris) with Poseidon, who is the antagonist of the ''canon'' Poseidon Saga of both anime and original manga. |
| 189 | %%* CastFullOfPrettyBoys |
| 190 | * CavalryOfTheDead: In "Hades Arc", Hades brings back to life fallen Gold Saints of Athena, granting them 12 hours to bring him her head. If they do so, he may bring them back to life for good. [[spoiler:It turns out that they remained loyal to their Goddess nonetheless and only accepted Hades' deal to warn her about the upcoming Holy War and give her crucial intel, while killing some members of Hades' army in the process. Once the 12 hours delay expired, they disappeared to return to the Underworld (where they join again with the still living Gold Saints to fire a super CombinedEnergyAttack).]] |
| 191 | * CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Lots of people die. As in: [[KilledOffForReal for good]]. It simply [[DeathIsCheap isn't noticeable]] until the Hades arc. [[spoiler: All the Gold Saints (13, including Kanon), all the Silvers excluding Marin and Shaina (14), all the Mariners excluding Sorento (5, if you exclude Kanon), God knows how many filler villains and normal characters (i.e. Cassios, Hyoga's mom, etc.)...]] |
| 192 | * CharlesAtlasSuperpower: EVERYONE. Even at a young age, "enough training" can allow a tiny child to break down a huge cliff, move faster than sound, or channel the energies of the universe. |
| 193 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: |
| 194 | ** The Steel Saints in the anime. A common joke/explanation among fans is that they must have missed the plane for the Sanctuary or took the wrong one. |
| 195 | ** Phaeton and Spartan from the anime. Gigars too, but it is assumed that he simply ran away after falling out of favor with the Pope, hoping to avoid a YouHaveFailedMe scenario. Ikki did strike him down and he did collapse in pain, but he is seen running away after the Flame Saint is offed by Ikki. |
| 196 | ** Asterion in the manga. Later remembered in the Kanzenban, in which his grave can be seen in one panel. |
| 197 | ** Chameleon June is specially odd, as she appears once, is left in the care of Tatsumi and is only seen at the Foundation's hospital in a flashback with Marin, but never seen or heard off again after that in neither adaptation. |
| 198 | * ClothingDamage: |
| 199 | ** Constantly done in the manga to visually demonstrate the heroes' struggle and the enemies' defeat -- the anime does it to a much lesser extent, since its MerchandiseDriven nature means that the closer the main characters stay faithful to their toys, the better. In pretty much every manga battle, the heroes' clothing will end up dirty, bloodied and/or slashed to go with their bruises... However, in the rare cases that it doesn't happen, it's an obvious indicator of the enemy's [[{{Mooks}} absolute pushover]] status. |
| 200 | ** In the manga, starting from the late Poseidon arc, [[LosingAShoeInTheStruggle losing only the tiara]] is a visual indicator of an important battle without having to break the whole armor (or, in the case of the second Pegasus Seiya helmet, a way to remove it from the story to never appear again) [[note]](i. e. Ikki vs Kanon, Gold-armored Bronze Saints vs Poseidon, Seiya vs Cerberus, Ikki vs Aiacos, post-Hades possession Shun, Cygnus vs Minos, Shiryu vs [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Rhadamantys' bodyguards]], Seiya-Ikki vs Hades' urn)[[/note]]. Notice that this is also the usual way to show a major Gold Saint battle, since their armor always stays undamaged (although not their Surplice copies). |
| 201 | ** An [[ArmorPiercingAttack armor-breaking attack]] is usually done to establish the enemy's power over the main characters: if the rival deals a piece-breaking attack it's usually a major arc fight[[note]](i. e. Seiya vs. Shiryu; Shun-Hyoga vs. Ikki; Seiya vs. Misty; Hyoga vs. Milo; Shiryu-Shun vs. Phleygas)[[/note]], while a full armor break from the heroes' side is usually reserved for climatic arc fights [[note]](i. e. Seiya vs. Asterion, Saga or Valentine; Shun vs. Black Andromeda or Sorrento; Ikki vs. Saga, Kanon or Hades; Shiryu vs. [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Rhadamantys' bodyguards]], everybody vs. Hades)[[/note]]. If the heroes' armors get completely vaporized, however, this means that they're either [[FinalBattleInducedShirtLoss fighting their very last arc fight]], and/or dealing with a enemy far beyond their current power (i.e. flashback Phoenix vs. Shaka, Bronze Saints vs. Poseidon or Hypnos-Thanatos) -- in the latter case, [[OncePerEpisode always]] expect a DeusExMachina involving new armors. |
| 202 | * ColorCodedCharacters: By their Bronze armors and Cosmos colors. |
| 203 | ** Seiya: Red (despite his armor having a metallic light blue color, [[PrimaryColorChampion the red of his under-armor suit is more striking]]). |
| 204 | ** Shiryu: Green. |
| 205 | ** Hyoga: Blue (same case as Seiya, but Hyoga's armor has a more silvery tone and his under-suit is sky-blue). |
| 206 | ** Shun: Pink. |
| 207 | ** Ikki: Orange (although his Cloth changes colors and doesn't have much orange to begin with, this color refers more to the phoenix's flames.) |
| 208 | * CombatPragmatist: As expected from the warriors of the Goddess of War (intended as ''fighting smart''), the Saints tend to fight dirty, with even the most honorable ones having no qualms about hitting the enemy's weak points, or [[AwesomenessByAnalysis analyzing and deconstructing the enemy's fighting technique to find weaknesses]] or [[ItOnlyWorksOnce no-selling their best moves after seeing them once]]. Some examples: |
| 209 | ** During the fight to decide who gets to become the Pegasus Saint, Cassios backhands Seiya while he's busy admiring the prize and without the fight having officially started, and follows up by starting to choke. The only one to protest is Marin, Seiya's teacher, and she's quickly shut up by Shaina pointing out it's Seiya's own fault for taking his eyes off his opponent. ''Then'' Seiya hacks off Cassios' ear and shamelessly takes advantage of him being in too much pain to defend himself. |
| 210 | ** We see Seiya remembering when nice and sweet Marin taught Seiya on how to deal with a stronger enemy by ''breaking whatever limb they favored to attack''-and him doing just that immediately after. Seiya is one of the most honorable of the Saints, and he has some compunction against fighting women (though the anime flip-flops a bit on that). |
| 211 | ** The Hydra Bronze Cloth has claws and talons that secrete venom into an enemy, even through their own Cloth. Then they snap off so they can continue to pump venom into the opponent's body, and the Cloth just ''grows them back''. |
| 212 | ** The Bronze Saints shamelessly ganging up on Ikki due his superior strength. He ''still'' overpowers them, having kept in reserve his best technique precisely in case this happened, but points for trying. |
| 213 | *** They later gang up on some of the Sanctuary's assassins... Who, being Saints themselves, try and do the same on them. |
| 214 | ** When facing Misty, Seiya catches him ''completely naked'' in the sea and [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn is too weirded out to attack until he's back to shore and dressed again]]. Misty ''not'' taking advantage of the situation to use his mountain-destroying attack on Seiya is what clues the latter on the fact it doesn't work in the sea. |
| 215 | ** Asterion uses mind-reading ''and'' a DoppelgangerAttack. At the same time. |
| 216 | ** Saga defending his Temple with illusions and an AttackReflector, keeping his opponents busy for hours without moving from his throne or endangering himself. |
| 217 | ** The Cancer Temple is made specifically to unnerve the enemy, and Deathmask will send your soul directly to Hell, or enslave it in a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 218 | ** Shura let the Bronze Saints pass through his Temple so he could attack them from behind and throw them in a fissure. Being a Saint himself, Shiryu anticipated it and foiled the plan. |
| 219 | ** The DeadlyGas-emitting roses after the Pisces Temple. |
| 220 | ** When fighting Seahorse Baian, Seiya suddenly starts hitting him through his supposedly impenetrable shield. Baian asks him how he was able to get through the shield to which Seiya explains to him that Misty used a nearly identical shield, and while with Misty it was more convenient to just throw him into the sea and beat him to death there he still knows how to bypass Baian's barrier. |
| 221 | ** Even non-Athena Saints like to get an advantage over their rivals. God Warrior Hagen of Merak Beta is both AnIcePerson and [[PlayingWithFire Plays With Fire]], but since he can't beat Hyoga at the former, he quickly moves the fight ''into a volcano'' where he can use the magma to augment his fire attacks while Hyoga is weakened by the terrain's extreme heat. Meanwhile, Fenrir of Alioth Epsilon isn't above siccing his wolves on Shiryu while he gloats, and Alcor Zeta Bud's favored approach is to attack enemies from behind while they're busy handling his twin brother Syd. |
| 222 | * CombinedEnergyAttack: A good deal of battles, particularly [[FinalBattle arc-ending battles]] end with Athena's Saints (usually just the Bronze Saints, but sometimes the Golds if they're available) willingly relinquishing their Cosmo to either Seiya or Athena herself to deal the final blow. Even more notable in that the Saints' patron constellations (like Cygnus, Draco, Phoenix, Andromeda, or Pegasus) manifest visually as helpers to the character delivering the attack. |
| 223 | * ComicBookTime: Strikes in the Sanctuary arc. The last hour lasts for about six episodes while the previous one lasted only one episode. |
| 224 | * CommonTongue: Every character speaks and understands each other no matter where they are from. |
| 225 | * ContrivedCoincidence: Wow, who would've thought that Saga would [[spoiler: lock Kanon up in the one place that would lead to the jar imprisoning Poseidon with all the General's Cloths perfectly ready to be used?]] |
| 226 | * ConvectionShmonvection: |
| 227 | ** One filler episode had Ikki fight a pair of Silver Saints, Shaka's apprentices, at the top of a volcano. When they tossed a little girl into the crater, she was saved by Ikki, whose [[ThePhoenix natural association with flame and heat]] saved both of them from a horrible death. |
| 228 | ** Averted in Hyoga's battle with God Warrior Hagen. When the latter brought the fight into a cave vent in a volcano, [[AnIcePerson Hyoga]] had to spend a considerable amount of his Cosmo not to ''die'' from the extreme heat, let alone keep up with his enemy, while [[PlayingWithFire Hagen himself]] was happy as a clam. |
| 229 | * CosmicMotifs: The characters are all [[StellarName named after constellations]] and the names are usually {{Meaningful|Name}} or refer to the myths behind them. |
| 230 | * CostumePorn: While at first the armors (named cloths) were relatively simplistic looking, as the story advances, they became more and more detailed, having some pages at the end of each manga volume to show them in full detail. |
| 231 | * CrapsackWorld: The entire ''Saint Seiya'' universe qualifies as one of these, once you take everything about the gods, the Saints and especially the afterlife into consideration. While society itself closely mirrors the real world (at least, the real-world of the 80s, where the original series was set), if peaceful gods like Athena aren't there to preserve peace, countries are very, ''very'' quick to descend into war and barbarism all on their own. This is why more belligerent gods like Hades and Poseidon are so willing to wipe the slate clean with divine disasters... which only make humans much more desperate to survive. |
| 232 | * CrashInThroughTheCeiling: The Bronze Saints enter Hades' Castle in this manner. |
| 233 | * CrazyEnoughToWork: Early in the Anime, Seiya and Shiryu had an extremely brutal fight where Seiya was seriously battered and Shiryu was about to die. The only way to save him was to punch him in the back, right where his heart is located, with a punch exactly, and we do mean ''exactly'', as strong as the one that originally stopped his heart--which, somehow, would ''restart'' said heart. Just a tiny bit stronger, or a tiny bit weaker, and it would just completely finish off Shiryu instead of reviving him. Against all odds, it worked! |
| 234 | ** Mind, this scene followed Seiya's ''even crazier'' idea to ram Shiryu's shield with his head [[BatmanGambit in the hopes that]] Shiryu would break both his own fist ''and'' his supposedly impervious shield trying to crack Seiya's head between them. Even the other Bronze Saint onlookers were flabbergasted at how insane this plan was, never mind that it ''worked''. |
| 235 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Seiya's master, Marin, taught her disciple this "If you meet someone stronger than you, attacks his best weapon. If he punches hard, aim for his arms. If he kicks strong, aim for his legs. After you destroy it, you will be able to win with no trouble." Early on the series, Seiya met Bear Geki, a warrior had focused his training in reinforcing his arms to the point of he could easily throttle ''grizzly bears''. As soon as Seiya managed to break his arms, Geki was defenseless and the battle was over. |
| 236 | ** Subverted with Shun. Since the Andromeda Cloth is one of a very select few that's allowed to wield weapons (namely, the Andromeda Chain,) more than a few of his enemies assume that he's only effective with it. While other chain-wielders ''are'' indeed helpless without their weapon, Shun's best-kept secret is that he deliberately uses the Andromeda Chain as a PowerLimiter so that he doesn't have to rely on his astonishingly powerful, unarmed Nebula Storm to win a battle. |
| 237 | * CrypticBackgroundReference: While the full roster of Saints is 88, nowhere near that amount is ever shown in the manga (of note, while there are supposedly 48 Bronze Cloths, only 11 appear). Additionally, four of those Saints have Cloths that are neither Bronze, Silver, nor Gold. What makes them different from the other ranks and how they fit into the heirarchy is never explained. |
| 238 | * CurbStompBattle: Hyoga tends to dish these out in the early chapters of the manga. Ichi, Black Cygnus, Babel and (much later in the story) Troll Ivan can attest to that. |
| 239 | * DangerousForbiddenTechnique: |
| 240 | ** Shiryu's Ultimate Dragon, which is basically a [[TakingYouWithMe suicide strike]] that flings himself and his opponent ''into space'' where they'll be burnt up by the atmosphere. |
| 241 | ** Shun considers the Nebula Storm this, not because it would hurt him (it doesn't) but because it's so powerful and deadly he expressly forbids himself from using it. |
| 242 | ** Among Athena's Saints, the Athena Exclamation is spoken of only in hushed legends... or, if they see it about to go off, in ''horrified screams'', because it has the potential to duplicate [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill the entire energy output of the Big Bang]]. It requires three Gold Saints [[GodzillaThreshold who are so desperate and focused on their goal they have thrown all caution to the wind]], and are willing to risk destroying the Earth to achieve victory, because if just one of them loses concentration for an instant, that's exactly what will happen. |
| 243 | * CutShort: |
| 244 | ** The series was dropped after the Hades arc (with the final chapter being printed in ''V-Jump'' instead of ''Weekly Shonen Jump''), despite plans for a "Heaven" arc with the other Olympians as the antagonists. After the ''Tenkai-Hen: Overture'' movie failed to make a splash, it was [[CanonDiscontinuity ignored]] and the story continued with ''Manga/SaintSeiyaNextDimension''. |
| 245 | ** With dwindling ratings during and after [[{{Filler}} the Asgard arc]], the anime ended in 1989 after the Poseidon arc, leaving the Hades arc unadapted until a series of [=OVAs=] in the 2000s. |
| 246 | * DangerousSixteenthBirthday: [[spoiler: Poseidon wholly took over the body of young [[LonelyRichKid Julian Solo]] right after he turned 16. Technically, he had possessed the guy ''much'' earlier, but wasn't be able to take over until then and just [[SoulJar lay dormant inside]], influencing his subconscious. Lampshaded when Kanon woke Poseidon up and the God himself said he'd only truly control Julian in that day.]] |
| 247 | * DarkActionGirl: Ophiuchus Shaina in the beginning. |
| 248 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Both, manga and anime, can be this to each other depending on the situation yet the former still has the upper hand. |
| 249 | * TheDarkSide: Several saints have fallen for this. Most notably, and ''because'' of [[SplitPersonalityTakeover their dual nature]], the Gemini Saints. But some regular saints were simply corrupt to begin with, and only got worse when they achieved the rank of Saint, hinting at how bad things had gotten at Athena's Sanctuary during the goddess' absence. |
| 250 | * DealWithTheDevil: [[GodOfEvil Hades]] brought some dead Saints back to life in exchange for their service. Said service namely being [[spoiler:to attack the Sanctuary and [[KillTheGod kill Athena]]]]. |
| 251 | * DeathAsGameMechanic: The 3D games made by Creator/BandaiNamco and Dimps (''Chronicles'', ''Brave Soldiers'' and ''Soldiers' Soul'') have the option to revive for a last battle after being defeated, in which just like in the series, the fallen Saint is on the ground and the spirit of Goddess Athena (Saori Kiddo) as well someone loved by the Saint encourage him/her to get up and continue living, with the player smashing buttons to make energy to the Saint can get up. If the player achieves it, the Saint comes back to the battle with a portion of energy to finish the battle. But if it's beaten again, the mashing buttons would be harder in the next intent until the Saint can't get up again. |
| 252 | * DeathIsCheap: To the extent where it just flat out becomes FridgeLogic. Very dramatic deaths, which were explicitly stated and insisted to be complete, real, honest-to-goodness deaths in the Sanctuary Arc were easily undone [[spoiler:when Athena came by to revive the characters. Then again, she IS an actual deity]]. The deaths that stick, though, become even more meaningful because of this. |
| 253 | * DeceptiveDisciple: Ikki had to kill his master to take over the Phoenix cloth. He didn't want to at first, but after seeing said master [[spoiler: kill Esmeralda, Ikki's MoralityPet]], he lost it and did it. |
| 254 | ** Shiryu's rival Ouko didn't start out this way, but became increasingly arrogant and violent in their competition for the Dragon Cloth, and eventually came back to exact revenge on both Shiryu and Dohko. |
| 255 | * [[DeathByGenreSavvy Defeat By Genre Savvy]]: In the manga version of the battle against Saga [[spoiler:Ikki and he hit each other with their brainwashing techniques. Ikki's induces illusions and Saga's causes his victims to obey him. Saga decides to play it safe and make sure Ikki is under his control by having him stab his own arm before ordering him to kill Seiya and Ikki apparently does so until things go back to normal. Ikki remarks that had Saga ordered him to ''kill'' Seiya right away, Ikki couldn't have shaken off the mind control fast enough.]] |
| 256 | * DefrostingIceQueen: Ophiuchus Shaina. She starts off hating Seiya for having the gall to be a) an outsider, and a foreigner at that, who b) would defeat her personal student Cassios for possession of the Pegasus Cloth. Then she went on to ''loathe'' him for unmasking her and seeing her bare face (and even calling her "cute"), which is considered the gravest of sins for a female Saint. Then she [[HighHeelFaceTurn fell in love with him]] and slowly became his ally, even TakingTheBullet for him [[spoiler:or his sister]] more than a few times. |
| 257 | * DefeatMeansFriendship: Quite a few times, they could convince their opponents they're actually on the same side. Particularly notable in the case of the Gold Saints, as many of them were made to believe Athena was still hidden away in Sanctuary, and honestly believed they were defending her from invaders, but became convinced of Saori's true identity (and the Bronze Saints' devotion to her) after being defeated. |
| 258 | * DescendingCeiling: One of the many traps intended to prove the Bronzes' resolve in the otherwise Saint-less Sagittarius Temple (anime-only). |
| 259 | * DesignatedGirlFight: |
| 260 | ** Shaina with Marin in the anime where the Aquila Saint gets her butt kicked with soldiers watching. Strangely averted in the Manga. |
| 261 | ** In Poseidon Arc Thetis with Shaina. Though she does give Shaina quite a run for her money. |
| 262 | * TheDeterminator: All five of the main Bronze Saints, to varying degrees. They are the main players and survivors of multiple Holy Wars and a conflict that amounted to a civil war (the conflict with the Sanctuary that culminated in the battles against the 12 Gold Saints). |
| 263 | * DisabilitySuperPower: |
| 264 | ** Whenever Shiryu becomes blind, he learns to compensate for it but gets no extra powers out of the deal. In the manga, however, Dohko mentions that Shiryu's cosmos is stronger due to his blindness when he strikes Deathmask in their first bout; in their second encounter, Shiryu awakening (briefly) to the Seventh Sense while in the Underworld is what allows him to restore his eyesight when he returns to the land of the living. On the other hand, it granted him protection from certain techniques. [[InvokedTrope When he blinded himself]] during his duel with Algol, it was to avoid [[TakenForGranite getting petrified by his Medusa's Shield]]. And later on, he avoided being fooled by Gemini Temple's illusion, allowing him and Seiya to find the exit of it. |
| 265 | ** Whenever someone starts losing a few of his senses, expect them to become stronger unless he is the current villain. |
| 266 | ** Played straight in both adaptations with Shaka. He voluntarily keeps his eyes shut, as giving up one of his senses would let him focus and raise his Cosmo (only to be fully unleashed the moment he opened them). Also, while fighting with him, Ikki tricks Shaka into destroying most of his senses, which in turn let him become strong enough to defeat him [[spoiler: and die in the process]]. |
| 267 | * DismantledMacGuffin: The Cloth of Sagittarius during the Galaxian War Tournament and Silver Saints arcs. Originally intended to be the prize of the tournament, it is disassembled and stolen by Ikki's Black Saints, then by Sanctuary agents, but Saori and the Bronzes are able to obtain the helm, which then becomes the MacGuffin over which all subsequent battles are fought. Shortly before the Sanctuary Arc begins, though, the body of the Sagittarius Cloth flies out of Sanctuary by its own will, and the helm does the same from the Kido mansion, and they reunite and hide away in a lake, [[EmpathicWeapon waiting for a worthy Saint to wield them in Athena's name]]. |
| 268 | * DivineChessboard: Athena with her saints against Poseidon with his generals and later Hades with his specters. In the anime, Poseidon also uses the Asgardian Hilda and Odin's God Warriors as pawns to wield against humanity and Athena. |
| 269 | * DivineConflict: It turns out that ''every'' conflict (save the very first one) in the mythos is between gods. |
| 270 | ** Season 2 Athena had to fight Hilda, also under brainwashing, this time from Poseidon. |
| 271 | ** Season 3 She fought Poseidon directly. |
| 272 | ** Season 4 (And in prequel ''Manga/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'') she fought Hades directly. |
| 273 | ** In the various movies (of questionable canonicity), she fights Apollo, Eris and Lucifer. |
| 274 | ** In ''Anime/SaintSeiyaOmega'' she's had to fight Mars, who though a god was [[spoiler:indirectly brainwashed by Abzu, an Ur god of elemental evil.]] |
| 275 | ** In season 2 of Omega she fights [[spoiler:not one but ''two'' gods, Pallas and Saturn]]. |
| 276 | * DoomsdayClock: |
| 277 | ** Standing close to the Twelve Zodiac Houses is a tower whose clock has blue flames where the numbers would normally be. When Athena gets hit by a cursed arrow, [[ExactTimeToFailure the flames tell how many hours remain until the arrow pierces the heart of the wounded goddess]]. Once every hour, one flame is extinguished, so the main characters have only twelve hours to travel through the twelve houses, defeat the Gold Saints patrolling said houses, and convince the head honcho to remove the arrow from Athena's chest. In the end, [[spoiler:all twelve flames in the clock disappear, but Seiya manages to point Athena's Shield in her direction, lifting the curse and the arrow - in the manga it even makes Saga's evil side leave his body like it was some kind of ghostly possession]]. |
| 278 | ** Also inverted in the first half of the Hades Arc. As the [[FaceHeelTurn resurrected Saints]] and Specters invade Sanctuary, they are allowed only 12 hours back among the living; for the Gold Saints, lighting up the Flame Clock marks how long they have to HoldTheLine against the assault, for their resurrected former allies, it's literally a countdown to their deaths. |
| 279 | * DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: In the manga, Saga kills himself to atone for all the horrible sins that his evil side committed for years, once Seiya cleansed him with Athena's shield, in the process of saving Athena at the last remaining second. In the anime, his good side also kills himself, but at this point his evil side is about to be destroyed from massive pummeling from Seiya and the main cast, he has lost his Cloth, and desperately leaps to punch and kill Athena; at which point his good side becomes this, as he uses his other hand to grab Athena's scepter and stab himself with it rather than harming the Goddess that should be his ward.]] |
| 280 | * DrowningPit: [[spoiler: Saori]] is put inside one of these by [[spoiler: Poseidon]]. Also, [[spoiler: Kanon was locked in another one by Saga several years ago, before meeting Poseidon]] |
| 281 | * DualWielding: Shun's Andromeda Chain and Cerberus Dante's chained spikeballs. The weapons in the Libra Cloth all come in pairs too. |
| 282 | * DubNameChange: Most of the main characters' names are changed in the Italian dub, usually by giving them the name of their constellation (eg: Seiya becomes Pegasus, Shun becomes Andromeda and so on) or by giving them a totally different, non-japanese name (Shiryu becomes Sirio, Hyoga Crystal, Shaina is Tisifone and Saori is Isabel). |
| 283 | * DudeHesLikeInAComa: In a story, Seiya and Saori jumping off a cliff together to escape from Shaina and the Silver Saint, Jamian. Saori nearly kiss an unconscious Seiya, but is interrupted by an [[ClingyJealousGirl angry Shaina]]. |
| 284 | * DudeLooksLikeALady: Given that almost every man in this series is beautiful, many of them fall into this. But there are four most notable examples: |
| 285 | ** [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8f/e2/22/8fe222d7696e09056b5a25cc74b4f671.jpg Pisces]] [[GenderBlenderName Aphrodite]], whose beauty is [[InformedAttractiveness commented on]] by many characters, [[SuckMyRose uses roses to attack]], and suffers from ShesAManInJapan in many adaptations. The only way to know that he's male is that he has male seiyuu and doesn't wear a mask. |
| 286 | ** [[GenderBlenderName Lizard Misty]], who [[http://img09.deviantart.net/edc6/i/2016/089/3/5/lizard_misty_1___saint_seiya__render__by_fernandohko-d9x4j6k.png looks so pretty]] he rivals the female Saints, and he also considers himself to be [[TheFightingNarcissist the most beautiful of all]], only inferior to Athena. But this guy [[CloudCuckooLander takes off his clothes in the middle of the fight just for a bath]] so the confusion doesn't last long. |
| 287 | ** [[ChainPain Andromeda]] [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/saintseiya/images/7/7d/Andromeda_Shun_-_ND.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130104085035 Shun]], whose constellation is based on a ''princess'', wears [[RealMenWearPink pink armor]], has a [[BadassPacifist pacifist nature]] and is the nicest, gentlest of the Bronze Saints. His brother Ikki falls in love with a woman who [[IdenticalStranger looks ''exactly like him'']] save for her gender and hair/eyes colors, for Athena's sake. |
| 288 | ** [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/saintseiya/images/a/a9/Sorrento.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130929201411&path-prefix=es Siren]] [[BrownNote Sorrento]], whose constellation and cloths are also based on female sirens who use their beautiful singing voices to kill ship passengers. He's too pretty even for this series' standard, and if you only read the manga he will [[ViewerGenderConfusion confuse you greatly.]] Thankfully, he has male seiyuu in the anime, and at the end of Poseidon's arc, [[spoiler: he is seen accompanying Julian in a male, masculine vest.]] |
| 289 | * DuelingMessiahs: The reason behind the ForeverWar is Athena wanting to allow the world to develop on its own terms while Poseidon wanted to flood it and Hades wanted to make it a new Underworld by blocking the sun with the Ultimate Eclipse, both to "fix" it. |
| 290 | * DwindlingParty: The Saints fall one by one and it's up to Seiya (and Ikki, sometimes) to face the BigBad. |
| 291 | [[/folder]] |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[folder:E-H]] |
| 294 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: |
| 295 | ** The art in the beginning of the manga was a bit rough, with characters sometimes looking off-model and having a "chubby" silhouette. Kurumada redrew some scenes in the [[UpdatedRerelease Final Edition]] because of this. There's a bit of this in the anime, too, to a lesser extent. |
| 296 | ** The manga designs of the Saints' Cloths were initially markedly basic and boxy, this being the reason why the Cloths for the Bronze Saints (and not just the main five) were redesigned for the anime to be more sleeker and appealing to the eye, and hence more marketable. Albeit those barely look like armor, the cloths in the manga [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/saintseiya/images/0/09/Pegasus_Cloth1design.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090801213124 didn't even have shanks or foot coverings.]] |
| 297 | ** Seiya, Hyoga and Shiryu had quite different personalities in the first chapters of the manga: Seiya was more of a rebel and DeadpanSnarker, often talking back to Saori and even refusing to fight for her at first when she reveals to be Athena. Hyoga was meaner and more morally ambiguous, having actually been sent by the Sanctuary to kill the Bronze Saints. Notably, the Black Swan's reveal in the manga was played out as a suspense over whether it was Hyoga himself enacting his plan to kill the other Bronze Saints or another Saint with similar powers. Shiryu was cocky and belligerent on his first showing during the Galaxian Wars tournament, though this was forcibly corrected by Seiya. |
| 298 | ** The first appearance of the Sagittarius Gold Cloth, which looked outright like a Gundam. It is handwaved in the manga as Kido changing its appearance (how he managed to do that is never elaborated) to deceive the Sanctuary and prevent them from figuring out it was the real thing. |
| 299 | ** Ikki trying to wear the Sagittarius Cloth in the anime, which he almost did if not for Seiya kicking him at the right moment and separating the Cloth. [[spoiler:This is especially weird and funny because Ikki would eventually don the Leo Cloth and become heir to it!]] |
| 300 | ** The Black Saints. As the lore about the Saints is explained more, questions are raised about them: Where do they come from? How did they get their Cloths? The Black Phoenix mooks that follow Ikki also count, as nothing of the sort ever appears again and they're never mentioned (even when a proper Black Phoenix Saint appears in the anime). |
| 301 | ** Most of the {{Filler}} villains during the Sanctuary Arc count, due to their designs and motivations not matching the real Saints. |
| 302 | ** The whole story about the new Pope being the younger brother of the defunct one, and committing all manner of ObviouslyEvil acts in the name of the Pope's lineage, using anime-only henchmen to sow trouble around the whole world. As the anime got closer to the manga's story, most of this was either forgotten or [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants hastily explained in contrived ways]]. |
| 303 | ** Saori having a DeadPersonConversation with her late grandfather in her planetarium, appearing to her as a SpiritAdvisor (which the anime narration explains as "advanced technology"...). She confides in him her worries to him with the whole situation with Phoenix Ikki and what came after, and in turn he tells her she will have to become "like Athena" for the sake of her Saints. Can border on FridgeBrilliance, but it's likely back then the anime did not know [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants where the manga would go with Saori]]. |
| 304 | *** This and the story about Kido Mitsumasa having 100 kids actually fueled [[EpilepticTrees the theory that he was Zeus in disguise.]] |
| 305 | ** That and the whole idea of dictatorships and evil in history being defeated in the shadows by the Saints, led by TheChosenOne who would wear the Gold Cloth. Though eventually this was reworked into other Gods meddling with human history and the Saints preventing that. |
| 306 | ** The Pope being very persistent in his efforts to recover the Sagittarius Cloth's helmet, which the heroes have, lamenting the fact he can't start his plan for world domination until he has it whole, under lock and key. |
| 307 | *** Actually causes a lot of questions when the other Gold Saints come into play (since [[spoiler:as Gemini Saga he has his own Gold Cloth!]]), and the Cloth decides to vanish of its own volition to... transform into its current shape. With not even a handwave. |
| 308 | * EightiesHair: Athena's Army. Half of the Golds have mullets (and the mullet Ikki sports in his initial appearance is ''breathtaking''). The Amazons and the [[DudeLooksLikeALady beautiful Saints]] have big hair. |
| 309 | ** As the series got older, the EightiesHair became less prominent with Mariners and Specters sporting shorter hair cuts, and even the occasional crewcut (but they would still try to even out with a rat-tail, to varying success). The sequel ''Manga/SaintSeiyaNextDimension'' finally phased it out with straighter, shorter hair (for the new characters at least). |
| 310 | * ElementalPowers: Many Cloth and Saint have elemental focuses and affinities. Explicitly stated with the anime-only Steel Saints. |
| 311 | * ElementalEyeColours: Hyoga, AnIcePerson has blue eyes. Strangely averted in the Manga with Aquarius Camus who despite being AnIcePerson as well, had red eyes AND hair. |
| 312 | * EnlightenmentSuperpowers: Virgo Shaka is explicitly shown to use disciplined meditation to augment his spirit, rather than physical training. |
| 313 | * EpisodeTitleCard: The original anime series had one in each episode. |
| 314 | * EverybodyHatesHades: Played painfully straight. Hades is Athena's arch-nemeses, hellbent on counquering the world -- in other words, ''nothing like'' his mythological counterpart. |
| 315 | * EveryoneLovesBlondes: Most of the love interests: Eurydice, Esmerelda, June, and Freya. You could also count Misty in this due to the fact that most of the Silvers are [[EvenTheGuysWantHim determined to avenge him]]. |
| 316 | ** Excluding Deathmask (grey), Camus (red), [[spoiler: Dohko (grey in his aged form, black in his youth)]] and Shura (black), all Gold Saints have blond hair in the manga. |
| 317 | * {{Expy}}: Kurumada reused character designs from his original manga series, ''Ring ni Kakero'' in this (Ikki is a far more bitter and less narcissistic expy of Superstar Kenzaki Jun (while retaining the same insane level of awesomeness), and Seiya is an expy of Takane Ryuuji). Likewise, series that came after ''Saint Seiya'', such as Anime/BtX, borrowed from its designs as well. |
| 318 | ** By the way, the design porting is so blatant in Kurumada's drawing style, this borders around OnlySixFaces in his ''whole'' manga work. Luckily the anime's character designs avert this. |
| 319 | * EyesAlwaysShut: Shaka, the Virgo Saint, isn't blind, but he keeps his eyes closed as if he really were, so he can focus his energy; him opening his eyes is followed by a tremendous release of accumulated cosmic powers that can and ''will'' literally render you senseless. According to the GenreSavvy Aioria, you must do ''everything'' in your power to ''prevent'' Shaka from opening his eyes. On the other hand, Asmita Virgo, Shaka's Expy from the Lost Canvas story, ''is'' blind. |
| 320 | * EyeScream: |
| 321 | ** [[spoiler: During the Poseidon Arc Cygnus Hyoga allows/begs Kraken Isaac to hit his eye... since Isaac lost an eye ''because'' of him, after getting impaled through it [[KillItWithIce with a stalactite]] while saving Hyoga's life]]. |
| 322 | ** 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]]]]. |
| 323 | *** Shiryu actually goes through several instances of this, and recovering as part of the rule of symbolism around Justice being blind. After the aforementioned gesture against the Medusa Shield, he recovers his eyesight in the Yomotsu Hirasaka (pretty much the antichamber of the Realm of the Dead, where one sees with the soul anyway), and after awakening the Seventh Sense. In the anime, it is further explained that Seiya looking for water from a magic healing source also helped the process. |
| 324 | *** Then in the {{filler}} Asgard saga he temporarily loses his sight again after getting his eyes slashed and blinded with blood in his fight with Fenrir. |
| 325 | *** And then, in the Poseidon saga, upon taking Chrysaor's blinding technique, he loses his eyesight again. While in the anime he does recover it, in the manga he loses it for good, and remains blind in the ''Hades Saga''. (Of course, barring the stint in the actual Realm of the Dead for the aforementioned reason) |
| 326 | ** During the anime's rendition of the Galactic Tournament, right before his death Black Cygnus took off the swan ornament from his helmet and crushed it to send information to his boss (a still not {{Heel Face Turn}}ed Ikki). In the manga, he plucked one of his eyes instead. |
| 327 | * EyepatchOfPower: [[spoiler: Hyoga]]; Averted by [[spoiler: Kraken Isaac, who has no qualms in showcasing his damaged eye.]] |
| 328 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Athena, towards Hades]]. |
| 329 | * TheFaceless: Ikki's master on Death Queen Island, Guilty, wears a demon mask. Athena's female Saints also wear shiny and expressionless silver masks. |
| 330 | * {{Fanservice}}: Notably, the series features very few scenes of "male gaze" fanservice and is instead focused almost exclusively on the many ([[CastFullOfPrettyBoys very pretty]]) male characters [[ShirtlessScene stripping off their shirts]] to show off toned physiques or [[ShowerScene down to nothing for a bath]]. |
| 331 | ** The one and only instance of female fanservice was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene of Shunrei bathing in a river, and another five-second glimpse of Shaina sleeping naked under the covers while Cassios was taking care of her. |
| 332 | * FashionableAsymmetry: Several Cloths, most notably the Aquila Cloth, whose upper body has an armored and unarmored side. |
| 333 | * FastballSpecial: In the Poseidon arc, this is how [[spoiler: the Main Breadwinner of the Marine Realm is finally destroyed. Using the combined force of their attacks, Shiryu and Hyoga hurl Seiya into the Pillar, bringing it down along with Poseidon's kingdom.]] |
| 334 | * FauxActionGirl: In the anime, poor Marin is a Silver Saint and an ''excellent'' big sister mentor for Seiya, but she ends up just ''too'' often hit with TheWorfEffect. This is thankfully averted in the manga, since all her defeats are anime-exclusive. |
| 335 | ** Subverted with Shaina. She managed to dodge it once she pulled off her HeelFaceTurn. |
| 336 | * TheFettered: Shun. |
| 337 | * FightingFromTheInside: Say what you will about Shun's pacifism making him wimpy, but it gave him the resolve to [[spoiler: ''throttle'' Hades while ''he was possessing his body!'' It gave Ikki an opening to kill Hades at the cost of his life.]] |
| 338 | * TheFightingNarcissist: Pisces Aphrodite, Lizard Misty and Papillon Myu. Misty is particularly famous (or, to some, infamous) for stripping naked right then and there on the beach where he fought Seiya, because he felt "unclean" after a single drop of Seiya's blood fell on his cheek, and desperately wanted a bath to wash it away. It was more than a little awkward when a very-much-alive Seiya came out of the ocean and had to wait for Misty to get dressed again to resume the fight. |
| 339 | ** Pope [[spoiler:Saga, or at least his evil side]] is shown being overly boastful about his "beatitful body" during his ShowerScene in the manga. |
| 340 | * FinalSpeech: Several characters do this before dying, with the Asgard Warriors as the main offenders. |
| 341 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Many examples, especially with regards to the characters donning Gold Cloths. |
| 342 | ** Combined with a bit of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, but as Saori is at a loss with what to do about the whole situation with Phoenix Ikki and the stolen Gold Cloth, Mitsumasa Kido's ghost tells her she will have to become the Saints' leader, she will have to become their Athena. At this point it is intended metaphorically, but then she realizes it was the literal truth. |
| 343 | ** When Ikki defeats Shaka, the Virgo Cloth reflects Shun's image, hinting that he is Virgo's successor. [[spoiler:It becomes true in the Elysium OVA, though the Cloth is destroyed almost immediately after he puts it on.]] Further confirmed outright and spelled out by Shaka's spirit in Next Dimension. |
| 344 | ** When the Libra Cloth appears, it seems to synchronize with Shiryu, who proceeds to remove his own Cloth, and demonstrate the Libra weapons. For the barest second, it seems like he would be donning the Gold Cloth, and while he doesn't, he gets to do so in the Poseidon Arc. |
| 345 | ** The same could be said for Hyoga when you read his profile data in the manga at the end of the Sanctuary Arc. It states he is also an Aquarius, just like his master, and he gets to don the Aquarius Gold Cloth in the Poseidon Arc. |
| 346 | * FormFittingWardrobe: The Cloths (armor). |
| 347 | * FreeSamplePlotCoupon: In order to save Athena in the last third of the Sanctuary Arc, the main characters must walk through the twelve zodiac houses and confront the Gold Saints whenever it's necessary. Fortunately, Aries won't be a major concern. Mu, the house's guardian, is on the good guys' side, and after faking a battle with Shiryu, he proceeds to repair their (at that point weakened) armors so they can be better prepared. Mu also gives them suggestions about how to confront the remaining Gold Saints. |
| 348 | * FullFrontalAssault: Seiya and Saori/Athena in Tenkai Hen (5th movie) against [[spoiler: Apollo]], albeit with BarbieDollAnatomy. |
| 349 | * 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 disappointment and eternal blue-balling with no further Saint Seiya movies since then has permeated the community ever since. |
| 350 | * GambitRoulette: Kanon's plan to take over the world ''and'' have his payback against Gemini Saga includes [[spoiler:deliberately telling his very powerful yet mentally unstable twin brother about his personality problems to mess up with his mind, worm his way into a powerful God's favor, help stage the war against the Sanctuary and, in the anime, manipulate his godly boss into using a powerful yet peaceful priestess to re-start everything when he loses against Sanctuary...]] |
| 351 | * GenreSavvy: |
| 352 | ** In the Hades Chapter Inferno anime, Orpheus brings a giant box of flowers to Hades. Pandora is suspicious enough to stab them six or seven times to make sure no one is inside. [[spoiler:She's right, but Shun and Seiya manage not to be badly hurt and don't react to the attack. We are also told afterwards that Shun covered for Seiya with his body, as we see Pandora tend to Hades' body once he possesses Shun.]] |
| 353 | ** Hypnos' attacks puts his enemies in an eternal sleep. He doesn't like violence and prefers this technique over murder. He still tries to kill Shun afterwards because he realizes he will probably shrug it off due to Athena's blood and not underestimating the miracle of a God Cloth manifesting. |
| 354 | * GodInHumanForm: Saori/Athena and Julian/Poseidon. |
| 355 | * GoldColoredSuperiority: The Gold Cloths, seeing how all the Gold Saints are extremely powerful. The full breakdown in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' is Bronze < Silver < Gold < ''God''. This last one is used only by Gods, though there is an important exception late in the Hades Saga. It's also worth noting that five Bronze saints, basically {{Mooks}}[=/=]RedShirts for the good guys, manage to fight their way up that chain all the way up to god and beat their opponents throughout the course of the series. |
| 356 | * GoldMakesEverythingShiny: Obviously the Gold Saints, but later on the Bronze Saints as well. |
| 357 | ** Many characters over the course of the movies and series also get to exhibit the Golden Cosmos aura normally reserved for Gold Saints, which indicates they are either reaching the power threshold required that makes them equals to Gold Saints at least for one instant, or when they are about to don an actual Gold Cloth. When you see a character exhibit this, you can know beyond a doubt that you will be in for a very satisfying HellYesMoment. |
| 358 | * GoldenSuperMode: When Bronze Saints get upgraded Cloths through the blood of Gold Saints. Then this trope is in full effect as their regular armors take a temporary golden shade to highlight their full power. |
| 359 | * GoodAllAlong: Camus, so much it hurts. He did not care about the struggle for Athena and did ''nothing'' to stop Seiya and Shun from running past him. All he wanted was to awaken Hyoga's Seventh Sense... And of course, that would come in handy later on. |
| 360 | * GraspTheSun: In a short but sad scene, Ikki's on the ground and sees the snow. He reaches to it and mutters how he promised he was going to show snow to Esmerelda one day. |
| 361 | * HadToBeSharp: The training to become a Saint is incredibly hard, to the point that of one hundred highly selected and prepared candidates provided by Mitsumasa Kido for Bronze Saint status (the lowest tier, and presumably the easiest) 10 succeeded and of the others 88 died, one survived but failed ([[spoiler:or rather succeeded but [[DemonicPossession was taken over by Typhon]] for doing the ''really'' dangerous part unsupervised]]), and one went homicidally insane and either survived by pledging himself to Eris or died and was resurrected by Eris. |
| 362 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: After being Poseidon's ManBehindTheMan, in the Hades saga Kanon takes over the Gemini Cloth that his deceased twin brother Saga left behind and joins the good guys.]] |
| 363 | * HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: While a lot of the Cloths do feature a CoolHelmet they are also the first thing that gets knocked off or destroyed during fights. |
| 364 | ** Also, when Seiya and the rest of the bronze saints had their Cloths repaired between season one and two of the anime, their helmets were replaced by tiaras. |
| 365 | ** Among the many unexplained physical changes that the "Gold Cloth" from the beginning of the series underwent as it was formally renamed as the ''Sagittarius'' Gold Cloth, its full-head helmet (which basically only revealed the eyes) became a tiara with a few spiky decorations on the forehead. In fact, only half of the Gold Cloths have helmets that cover the entire head[[note]]Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Virgo, Capricorn, Pisces[[/note]] while the rest are just tiaras, crowns, or "big headbands with sideburns". |
| 366 | ** By contrast, most enemies (God Warriors, Marine Generals, Specters) still wear helmets, and those who wear tiaras or crowns are in the minority. |
| 367 | * HeroesFightBarehanded: While some saints do have some sort of weaponry with them, most of them fight barehanded. All of the gods have a distinctive artifact that they tend to use as a weapon, though: Athena's Crosier, which represents Niké, Poseidon's famous Trident, and Hades' Sword, all of which get used [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice to stab someone]] in the climax of their respective arcs. |
| 368 | * HighlySpecificCounterplay: In-universe example. During the Poseidon arc Shun fights against Scylla Io, an opponent with multiple fighting techniques that almost succeeds into killing him. To defeat his opponent, Shun manages to create on the spot a bunch of new attacks involving his chain which are specifically made to counter each of Io's techniques (a spider web to entangle the bee, a net to catch the eagle, a spiral duct to strangle the snake, a spiked trap to catch the wolf and a wrap to stop the bear). |
| 369 | * HighPressureBlood: The series is ''infamous'' for that. Poor Shiryu. |
| 370 | * HijackedByJesus: Several of the BigBad enemies that oppose Athena and her Saints are either gods (like Hades, Poseidon, Artemis or Eris) or priests of other gods (like Hilda, priestess of Odin). Also, Virgo Shaka is the incarnation of Siddharta Gautama aka Buddha. |
| 371 | * HolyHalo: Part of the Indian Ocean armor worn by Chrysaor Krishna. |
| 372 | * HonorBeforeReason: Sometimes the Saints' rivals acknowledged they were wrong, but preferred to go down fighting anyway and/or refused to pull a HeelFaceTurn out of loyalty or love to their masters. |
| 373 | * HotBlooded: Some characters with Seiya as main example. He is stubborn, headstrong, impulsive and very similar to a classic Japanese teenager. |
| 374 | * HotBloodedSideburns: All five of the Bronze Saints, but especially Seiya. |
| 375 | * HotWings: Phoenix Ikki almost always appears with a fiery, phoenix shaped aura. His most powerful attack always manifests as a phoenix in one shape or another. |
| 376 | * HumanHeadOnTheWall: In one of the creepiest scenes from the "Sanctuary" arc, Seiya and Shiryu find out that the walls of the Cancer Temple are ''full'' of human faces. There's one face per each person that Cancer Deathmask, the BloodKnight among the Gold Saints, has killed - [[AndIMustScream and their souls are bound to them]]. Understandably, [[OhCrap neither of the boys react well to the discovery]] or to [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Deathmask's flippant reaction to their horror]]. [[spoiler: When Shiryu kills Deathmask, he and Shun soon see that the "heads/faces" are gone, [[UndeathAlwaysEnds meaning that the souls of these people are finally free]].]] |
| 377 | * HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler: Hyoga, with Milo explicity saying that preserving him was Camus' intention all along. Hyoga's deceased mother Natasha is forever preserved under the waters of Siberia.]] |
| 378 | * HyperspaceArsenal: In Episode 8 of the anime, the Bronze Saints are chasing the Black Saints, who have stolen the pieces of the Sagittarius Cloth. The Black Saints are not shown carrying the pieces, nor is there anywhere on their person where they could conceivably be hidden. Nevertheless, every time one of the Black Saints is defeated they "drop" a piece, almost like a videogame. |
| 379 | ** This is actually a common occurence in the original series. An even worse example happens in a later arc: three saints disguise themselves by wearing enemy Cloths, and when they are destroyed to reveal their identity they appear wearing their normal Cloths. So they were wearing a set of armor on top of another set of armor, and ''there was no visual indication this was the case''. |
| 380 | [[/folder]] |
| 381 | |
| 382 | [[folder:I-L]] |
| 383 | * IaijutsuPractitioner: [[TheBigGuy Taurus Aldebaran]] is an interesting case. While he does not use a sword, his SignatureMove, the "Great Horn", works with a very similar mechanic. But using ''his bare fists'' instead. [[TheHero Seiya]] even takes advantage of this fact in order to deal with said technique during their fight, allowing him to unleash the Great Horn and ''then'' attacking in the microsecond when Aldebaran is wide-open. |
| 384 | * IAmNotLeftHanded: It was pretty common for the Silver and Gold Saints to condescend to fight the Bronze saints on a handicap, only to go all out once they proved strong. Hyoga was also ''very'' guilty of this while fighting lower-level Bronzes (just ask poor Hydra) and random {{Mook}}s. |
| 385 | ** Worth to mention that this backfired spectacularly in Shaka's case. Shaka [[IAmNotLeftHanded Opened his eyes]], which means he is taking the fight seriously, while fighting Ikki and used one of his special moves to strip the latter of his five senses. Turns out that when you're completely alone with your thoughts nothing can distract you from the Seventh Sense. |
| 386 | ** It also backfired even ''worse'' against Aphrodite, as destroying the Andromeda Cloth with his Piranhan Rose didn't take Shun out of the fight (by destroying the Andromeda Chain), it removed Shun's ''PowerLimiter'' and forced him to use the [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Nebula Storm]]. |
| 387 | * IAmYourOpponent: Pretty much all the time. The heroes' standard operating procedure is to run through the enemy's stronghold and face each one of his lieutenants individually. Typically, one or more of Athena's Saints will arrive at a new battleground, he'll be faced with the [[YouShallNotPass guardian du jour]], and an ally [[BigDamnHeroes will come along]] or [[DwindlingParty stay behind]] to fight the guardian instead, letting the original Saint (mostly Seiya) continue on the mission. Sometimes with these exact words. |
| 388 | * IKnowWhatYouFear: Phoenix Ikki was initially introduced as a bad guy with the ability to Invoke Fear. What makes his case pretty interesting is that he eventually undergoes a HeelFaceTurn, yet keeps his "Phoenix Illusion Demon Fist", as a form of CoolAndUnusualPunishment, making it sort of a Subversion of BadPowersBadPeople. The technique digs up what will inflict the most damage to your mind, and if you lack willpower, it WILL OneHitKill you. And even if you DO have the willpower to not die from the mental blow, odds are you will end up extremely weakened from the shock and be easy prey. Or it can just outright screw with control during a fight or a very dangerous technique, especially ones with dangerous projectiles (such as saucers or boomerangs), ending up more than once with self-inflicted wounds. Well, there is ONE instance of an opponent that was able to NOT ONLY shake it off like nothing, but actually inflict it back on him, but we're talking about the one Gold Saint specializing in meditation, peace of mind and [[BadassBoast closest to the Gods]]. Interestingly, this technique even gets EpiphanyTherapy uses in the Asgard arc on two enemies. |
| 389 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: How Saori aka Athena finally defeated Hades.]] |
| 390 | * InstrumentOfMurder: The RazorFloss producing harps/lyras of Benetnasch Eta Mime in the Asgard Arc, and the two Lyra Orpheus (1st movie and Hades chapter, respectively). |
| 391 | * InconsistentDub: The Latin American dub, while pretty faithful to the original script, sometimes mistook terms. The most clear example is calling "Athena" either "Atena" or "Atenea", both of which are considered correct Spanish translations of the Greek goddess's name, but are used inconsistently throughout the dub. Similarly, terminology from other mythological sources, when translated into Japanese, was rendered too obscure for the Latin American translators to understand correctly ''or'' consistently, especially in the Asgard Arc. For instance, Valhalla and Thor, which in Japanese are adapted as "Waruhara" and "Tooru", confused the translators enough to render alternately as "Warukaya" and "Valuhara", and "Toll" and "Toru". |
| 392 | * InjuredSelfDrag: |
| 393 | ** The biggest benefit of cosmic energy (often called the "seventh sense") is that, even after a saint is gravely injured and/or the other six senses have been disabled, it grants them the physical and psychological capacity to move forward or even fight. This is the reason why Hyoga is spared by Scorpio Milo in their fight in the 8th Zodiac house: The latter is aiming to win by killing him at first, but he's impressed by Hyoga's determination to keep going even after he's very crippled (he had received all 15 of Scorpio's stinging punches, including Antares which is normally the deadliest), so he lets him continue his way upward (still crippled and badly injured) to the house of Pope Ares. |
| 394 | ** In the non-canon film ''Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth'', set after the original "12 Houses" Arc, Athena's divine brother, Phoebus Abel, comes to inform her that the gods decided to destroy mankind, and he is to take her to his own personal temple, while his subordinates, the three Solar Corona Saints and the resurrected Gold Saints (Gemini Saga, Cancer Deathmask, Capricorn Shura, Aquarius Camus, and Pisces Aphrodite), deal with Athena's Bronze Saints. The larger part of the film is the Bronze Saints fighting against Abel's lackeys, then Corona Atlas doing a surprise attack on them. At the climax of the movie, each of them drags themselves from whatever place of their previous battles and limp toward Abel's temple. |
| 395 | * InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: Usually, Seiya's closest allies spend themselves unto death opening the path for him to reach the final baddie. At best, they [[TakeUpMySword send their combined Cosmo to him]] to provide a much-needed power boost when ''he'' almost croaks against the enemy, but by then they're already too battered and beaten to physically join the fight, and Seiya must deal with it alone. An exception happens in the Poseidon Arc, where Shiryu and Hyoga are still strong enough to physically toss Seiya into the Main Breadwinner and end Poseidon's plot, so the climactic event was an honest team effort. Dealing with the god himself, though, was still Athena's duty all on her lonesome. |
| 396 | * IntimateHealing: After Hyoga is released from an ice coffin but is nearly dead from the cold, so Shun burns his [[LifeEnergy cosmo]] while lying with Hyouga in his arms in order to revive him. Cue to LOTS of HoYay-tinted squealing coming from the EstrogenBrigade (can't fully blame them, though). This level of intimacy happens only in the anime (where the animators made sure to slide in an AlmostKiss as [[http://eltigris.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/shun-hyoga.jpg Shun lays down in the floor with Hyoga]]). In the manga, Shun just kneels beside Hyoga and [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6wok7KHlf1r8rwe9o1_250.jpg lifts him up]]. |
| 397 | * ItOnlyWorksOnce: Supposedly, an attack won't work again on a saint (and on a god warrior, a mariner, a specter and...) by a second time. It's less a fact and more like a saint and variants getting used to the opponent's power. Hypothetically, each saint can adapt to any other saint's attack and defend against it. ''However;'' quite a few {{pride}}ful antagonists would show off their entire repertoire at [[IAmNotLeftHanded low power]] and act shocked, ''shocked!'' that the bronzies had found a way to defend against or exploit it. Most villains paired it with an AdaptiveAbility. It's worth noting that in later arcs some attacks had little or no defense, and enemies could use them repeatedly against each other. |
| 398 | * {{Irony}}: Saori Kido, only living relative of the late Mitsumasa Kido, carrier of his legacy as head of the Kido Foundation, is ''not'' related to him in any way whatsoever. As a matter of fact, all the orphaned dudes in armor that follow her around are more related to him than she is (as they're all his illegitimate sons), and ''they don't even have the guy's last name or any last name to begin with''. If one were to go by strict familial relations, the Saints of Athena are her step-uncles. |
| 399 | * ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: LITERALLY. The Sanctuary and Asgard Arcs both involve reaching a temple high up a mountain and fighting the local guardians at designated stations along the staircase. Though, for the Hades Arc, they go ''downstairs'' as well... |
| 400 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Seiya and Hyoga start as this, but soon are somewhat nicer (though Hyoga also has a SugarAndIcePersonality). Ikki is more of a straight example. |
| 401 | * JerkassHasAPoint: Though this was intentional and within Saori's plans, the Sanctuary did have a point in hunting down the Bronze Saints, as participating in the Galaxian Wars tournament directly implied that they were using their powers for sport and profit, which is a huge no-no for Athena's Saints. |
| 402 | * KickTheDog: [[spoiler: Kaza uses his shapeshifting abilities to lure Seiya (transforming into Marin) and Hyoga (transforming into Camus) in and then hurt them. Camus sinks the boat where Natasha's body is placed to force her son Hyoga to fight him. In the final arc, Thanatos does his damndest to kill Seiya's helpless older sister Seika just to punish him. Similarly, in a small anime filler two Silver Saints kill an old man and throw his granddaughter inside a volcano to lure Ikki out of his refuge inside said volcano.]] |
| 403 | * KidHero: To look at them you'd probably think the Bronze Saints would be in their mid-to-late teens. Their official ages place them as being 13-14. |
| 404 | * KnightTemplarBigBrother: Hurt Shun in any way and you'll have Ikki screaming MindRape on you. Try to kill Shunrei and her adoptive brother Shiryu will throw you into the pits of Hell. |
| 405 | * LaResistance: The Bronze Saints against the corrupt Sanctuary. Once Seiya is officially branded a traitor, Marin also goes on the run so she can assist him from the shadows and seek out intel on the Pope's uncharacteristic turn to evil. |
| 406 | * LadyAndKnight: |
| 407 | ** Saori with the five Saints. However, Seiya was the most vehement in his devotion to her and had the most BodyguardCrush ovetones as well, while the others's bonds to her [[PlatonicLifePartners were more platonic/brotherly than anything.]] The saints were actually named "knights" in a lot of Westerner dubbing. In the anime, Jabu wants to be Athena's personal "Knight" ''badly'' due to having a BodyguardCrush on her ever since they were kids. Sadly, this isn't touched upon later. |
| 408 | ** Subverted twice in the Asgard saga. Normally Siegfried and Hilda would be this, and the flashbacks show them as such... but since Hilda was BrainwashedAndCrazy she and Sieg were more of a Black Knight/Dark Lady duet. At the same time Hagen wanted to be the White Knight to Freya's Bright Lady, but when Freya became a DefectorFromDecadence and had these dynamics [[LoveTriangle more or less straight with Hyoga]], he went the Black Knight way. [[TearJerker Both cases ended up in death and tears.]] |
| 409 | ** Also {{gender flip}}ped, with Tethys and Julian Solo [[spoiler: aka the SoulJar of Poseidon]] in the Poseidon saga. |
| 410 | * LadyOfWar: Aquila Marin. [[spoiler: Saori, after she finally activates her own Cloth in the manga]] Arguably, [[spoiler: Eris, Pandora and Artemis]]. Ophiucus Shaina is too AxCrazy at the beginning to count, but she becomes one [[CharacterDevelopment later on]]. |
| 411 | * LargeHam: Phoenix Ikki. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvodmaZr-k4&feature=related This]] is him being discreet. |
| 412 | ** Almost anyone in the main cast in the Italian dub. They often quote RealLife poems and famous works. |
| 413 | ** Ophiuchus Shaina, at least in the Brazilian dub. |
| 414 | * LastBreathBullet: Aldebaran pulls this one to Deep Nyobe in the Hades Saga. |
| 415 | * LawOfChromaticSuperiority: The Gold Saints are the strongest warriors of all, because they wear the shiniest Cloths of all (Gold). This does get turned on its head a little as the series goes on, since the main characters technically remain low-level Bronze Saints, [[spoiler: though their Cloths develop a habit of subverting the hierarchy altogether.]] |
| 416 | ** This is also sometimes subverted with certain Silver Saints such as Albiore being more than capable [[spoiler: of defending himself against Milo]] or Lyra Orphee being stated to be stronger than the Gold Saints. |
| 417 | * LetsSplitUpGang: The Bronze Saints seem to do this quite a bit. |
| 418 | * LegacyCharacter: Most Saints earn the cloths of Saints who fought on previous Holy Wars: |
| 419 | ** Across most of the ''Saint Seiya'' media, the Pegasus Saint is treated mostly as Athena's personal protector and right hand, to the point that it's a given that there's simply no Athena without her dear Pegasus at her side. |
| 420 | ** The Virgo Saint is usually the man who is closest to God, being a deeply spiritual individual; possessing powers related to Buddhism. |
| 421 | ** An exception to the rule would be Phoenix Ikki, who is the first ever Phoenix Saint; in ''The Lost Canvas'', however, it's shown that [[spoiler:Ikki may have been the reincarnation of the Celestial Specter Bennu Kagaho, whose dying cosmo burned bright into the shape of a phoenix.]] |
| 422 | * LevitatingLotusPosition: Virgo Shaka awaits for the intruders to the House of Virgo in this position. No surprise here for someone thinking he's the reincarnation of Buddha. Bonus points for keeping the pose while wearing the Gold Cloth armor of the Gold Saints. |
| 423 | * LifeEnergy: The key to the Saints' power is their cosmos. Whoever can burn his cosmo to the higher level wins, no matter how injured or weakened they are. |
| 424 | * LighterAndSofter: Both, manga and anime, can be this to each other depending on the situation yet the anime gets progressively less bloodier towards the later arcs. |
| 425 | * LightIsNotGood: |
| 426 | ** The Angels in the Tenkai Hen Overture Movie. |
| 427 | ** Pre-HeelFaceTurn Gold Saints. |
| 428 | * LimitedWardrobe: |
| 429 | ** The Bronze Saints have three base outfits - civvies, civvies minus shirt, and civvies plus Bronze Cloth. Saori spends most of her time in the same dress. |
| 430 | ** In the manga, while it's almost never clearly shown, ''every'' male Saint seems to wear the same white clothing under his armor: a sleeveless shirt and a weird pants-shoes combination (in the Poseidon arc, the heroes also add wraps to their hands-forearms and biceps). In very rare occasions, some characters fight with different clothing under their armor, most notably Seiya with his pseudo-greek clothing in the earliest chapters of the manga, or Shiryu with chinese civilian clothes in his first fight against Deathmask. |
| 431 | * LoadBearingBoss: In the non-canon movie ''Warriors of the Final Holy War'', Seiya shoots an arrow at Lucifer, killing him and sending him back to Hell. On doing this, the fallen angel's Pandemonium palace crumbles. |
| 432 | * LoadBearingHero: Shiryu did this with a "crushing ceiling" trap in the cavern maze beneath the Sagittarius House. |
| 433 | * LonelyRichKid: |
| 434 | ** When she grew up, Saori became one of these before she turned out to be a MessianicArchetype. Also, Julian Solo [[spoiler: until Poseidon took over him.]] |
| 435 | ** Julian's surname is literally ''alone'' in spanish. That's quite the MeaningfulName you've got there. |
| 436 | * LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Shiryu and his Dragon Shield. Also, the Libra Cloth has two huge shields that can be used defensively ''and'' offensively, since they had [[VariableLengthChain retractable chains]] and it allowed the user to [[EpicFlail flail them around]] like giant yo-yos if needed. Also, Lacerta Misty and the Sea Horse's preferred method of defense has them set up barriers a fraction of a second before Seiya's unending unslaught had a chance to land, then stand smugly [[NoSell while his Meteors whiffed against the barrier]] (until he figured it out, at least.) |
| 437 | * LukeIAmYourFather: |
| 438 | ** Subverted: [[spoiler: No, Seiya, Marin is NOT your long-lost older sister. Her brother Touma is one of your enemies and your true sister grew up into a WaifProphet.]] |
| 439 | ** Also played straight (in the manga at least): [[spoiler: Mitsumasa Kido was actually the birth father of all the orphans he sent around the world to be trained as Saints]]. Busy guy, specially in how all of the children he sent... all of them have a VERY close age range. |
| 440 | [[/folder]] |
| 441 | |
| 442 | [[folder:M-P]] |
| 443 | * MagicByAnyOtherName: Cosmo is a space-themed LifeEnergy that allows Saints and their counterparts to perform unique SupernaturalMartialArts. Higher Cosmo levels let the user use seventh and even eigth sense, [[MasterOfIllusion create illusions]], [[SpaceMaster bend space]], [[DraggedOffToHell send people to hell]] and [[PlanetaryRelocation move planets]]. |
| 444 | * ManlyTears: This series could very well be described as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFiOqOFNBqk Manly Tears and Greek Gods]]". |
| 445 | * ManBehindTheMan: |
| 446 | ** [[spoiler:Poseidon to Hilda (anime only).]] |
| 447 | ** [[spoiler: Kanon to Poseidon.]] |
| 448 | ** [[spoiler:Thanatos and Hypnos to Pandora in order to release Hades.]] |
| 449 | * MarionetteMotion: This is Gryphon Minos' power, "Cosmic Marionation". |
| 450 | * MartyrWithoutACause: The five Bronzes. |
| 451 | * MeaningfulName: Almost all characters have meaningful names. Most characters are named after stars of their respective constellations, especially the Silver saints, or other words that reflect their personality or relationships. |
| 452 | ** Seiya, or "Star Arrow", directly references his zodiacal sign of Sagittarius. |
| 453 | ** Shiryu would mean "Purple Dragon". |
| 454 | * TheMedic: Saori, at the end of the Twelve Houses chapter (anime-only). |
| 455 | ** Aiolia is given Healing Hands in the anime, which he uses twice to heal [[spoiler:Shaina and Seiya]]. In the manga, he merely tied Seiya's broken leg to hold the bone together. |
| 456 | * MeditationPowerup: Shaka. |
| 457 | * MediumBlending: For some odd reason, in the Hades Sanctuary OVA, Seiya's transformation sequence was done completely in a very generic 3D. Shun's transformation sequence used traditional animation for his character and 3D in the back and it looks awesome. |
| 458 | ** Toei was poking around and trying new stuff for the Hades [=OVAs=] in 2002, which was the first [=StS=] related production in years. The 3D transformation sequence got such violent backlash from the fans, they decided to go back to traditional animation for Shun's transformation in OVA 3. |
| 459 | * {{Melodrama}}: The heroes have been through so much {{Wangst}}, it looks like they're ''fueled'' by it. |
| 460 | * MenAreTheExpendableGender: Despite the high death count, all the female Saints, Marin, Shaina and June, manage to survive while all but the five main bronze boys die. By contrast, [[spoiler:Pandora and the anime-only Eris are killed]]. |
| 461 | * MelancholyMoon: In the manga, Shun would spend alot of time admiring a picture of the moon with his brother Ikki on how there were no borders or war there as well as when he was on Andromeda Island thinking about how awful the landscape was of the Island but thankful that he was with caring people. Most of this was left out of the anime but brought back in the Pachinko game. |
| 462 | * MerchandiseDriven: The Steel Saints were inserted in the anime at the request of Bandai to sell action figures about them. The redesign of the first version of the Bronze Saints Cloths (compared to those found in the manga) are also due to Bandai's request, one could argue it was for the better because the early Cloths in the manga were surprisingly bulky, standardized and squareish, which the anime made more unique and streamlined. |
| 463 | * MiddleChildSyndrome: |
| 464 | ** The Silvers. Even in ''Manga/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas'' they do nothing and are only there to get killed by the Bronze Saints or the Specters. |
| 465 | ** The Mariners qualify as well. Their arc is greatly overshadowed and again, in ''The Lost Canvas'', Poseidon's threat is pretty much glanced at. |
| 466 | * MindRape: Ikki's Phoenix Genma Ken. Virgo Shaka's main techniques, Rikudō Rinne and Tenbu Hōrin. Any Gemini Saints and their Genma Ken to some degree as well. [[spoiler: In the anime, this includes what happened to Hilda's good side when she was brainwashed by the Ring of the Nibelung and her SuperpoweredEvilSide took over; she was forced to see how her Asgard God Warriors died one by one.]] |
| 467 | * MrFanservice: All male cast excluding cannon fodder troops. Who possessed a very muscled body ''and'' had at least two very fanservicy bath and shower scenes. Obvious bait for the EstrogenBrigade watching the show. |
| 468 | * MultinationalTeam: There are many nationalities among the Saints, the Mariners and the Specters. |
| 469 | * TheMusical: A musical was performed back in the early nineties featuring popular JPOP group SMAP playing the lead roles and another JPOP group Tokio playing some of the other characters. |
| 470 | * MusicalAssassin: Mime (harp), the two Orpheus (lyre), Sorrento (flute) and Sphynx Pharao (harp). |
| 471 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Hilariously inverted in episode 27. Shaina and two Silver Saints ambush the heroes. |
| 472 | -->'''Shaina''': I'll deal with Seiya. You can look after... the others.\ |
| 473 | '''Shiryu and Shun''' (indignantly and at unison): Who are you calling ''the others''? |
| 474 | * MyNameIsInigoMontoya: You sometimes ''want'' the Saints to just stay down so they don't take more damage and then they get up and ARGH... ''Hello'', Seiya and Shiryu. |
| 475 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: In the Asgard saga, Seiya has a ''huge'' FreakOut when he thinks he's killed Hilda instead of de-brainwash her.]] And before that, [[spoiler: Ikki's RedemptionEqualsDeath and Saga's suicide are triggered by this.]] |
| 476 | ** About the first example: [[spoiler: Of course, his chosen method of de-brainwashing was apparently bonking her on the head with a legendary sword... It would have made more sense to try to strike the Ring of the Nibelung, or cut off the finger/hand Hilda wore it on, but no, Seiya had to go for swordblade to the head. Good thing it worked, though.]] |
| 477 | *** Then again, [[spoiler: Seiya ''did'' hesitate heavily before he struck Hilda down, unable to bring himself to harm her since he knew she was BrainwashedAndCrazy. He only did so when ''Odin'' himself told him "STFU and use my sword, kiddo!" He can't be fully blamed for what happened.]] |
| 478 | ** One of the most symbolic examples of this happened in the anime, when [[spoiler:Capricorn Shura realized the baby he tried to kill 13 years ago was in fact Athena. This epiphany was all the more powerful considering he took most of his pride in believing to be her most faithful servant.]] |
| 479 | ** Also spoken verbatim by Shiryu after winning a duel in the Asgard movie [[spoiler:against a Brainwashed and Crazy Hyoga. Arguably one of the best, most fast-paced and intense fights of the series, too.]] |
| 480 | * Mystical108: Virgo Shaka keeps a Buddhist rosary with 108 beads. During the Hades arc, every time one of Hades' (108) Specters is killed, one of the beads goes dark. He terrifies the battalion of Specters invading the House of Virgo by [[YouAreAlreadyDead showing them their beads have already gone dark]]. |
| 481 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Cancer Deathmask, definitely. |
| 482 | * {{Narrator}}: Creator/HideyukiTanaka provides the narration for the anime series. |
| 483 | * NextTierPowerUp: |
| 484 | ** The Sacred Cloths of Athena change into sleeker, more impressive new forms whenever they're destroyed and have to be rebuilt (especially the Bronze Cloths, which are broken at least once per season.) Works as a non-sexual form of {{Fanservice}} as the Constellation form of the Cloths [[CostumePorn becomes more and more intricately detailed with each iteration]] -- the original Pegasus and Cygnus Cloths required a LOT of imagination to resemble a winged horse or a swan, but by the time they became [[spoiler:Divine Cloths through Athena's blood]] they were near-perfect reproductions -- and they cover more and more of their bearer's body at the same time. |
| 485 | ** In regards to the Saints themselves, their goal in the Sanctuary Arc was to awaken to the mystical [[EleventhHourSuperpower Seventh Sense]], which would allow them to reach the Cosmo power level of, and perceive the movements of faster-than-light Gold Saints and counterattack. In the Hades Arc, the objective was the ''[[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands Eighth]] Sense'', which grants them entrance into [[{{Hell}} the Hades]] while still being alive and avoiding Hades' domination. Then, when facing Hades' [[TheDragon lieutenants, Thanatos and Hypnos]], the overwhelming force of the Bronze Saints' Cosmo upgrades them (and their Cloths) [[PhysicalGod to godly levels]]. |
| 486 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: When Seiya and Shun arrive to Poseidon's kingdom, they're clueless about how to save Saori, but then, they're attacked by Mermaid Thetys and the Sea Dragon. Seeing how they're no match for him, Sea Dragon asks Thetys to reveal to the Bronze Saints how they can save Saori and avert a worldwide flood: By defeating all of the Mariners and destroying the seven pillars (Eight when including Poseidon's main pillar) that support the oceans of the world. Had Sea Dragon kept silent, the Bronze Saints would have inevitably lost. |
| 487 | * NoEndorHolocaust: When Hilda of Asgard or Poseidon flood the Earth by melting the ice caps, the series goes out of its way to show the devastation from tidal waves and superstorms even in spite of [[BarrierMaiden Athena's]] attempts to hold the waters back. When the villain du jour is defeated, though, it's considered a victory for mankind, and no mention is made of the millions of lives lost while the Saints battled. Likewise, the initial Gold Cloth Saga at the beginning of the series actually showed a very violent war breaking out, but it never reached the heroes and was never brought up before or after the BigBad's defeat. |
| 488 | ** The manga ending of the Poseidon chapter actually goes out of its way to point out the incredibly high number of victims, and that Julian Solo will now use his wealth for the good of the world. |
| 489 | * NoEyeInMagic: Perseus Algol exhibits a similar petrification power to the mythical Medusa-- not through his own eyes, but through the image of Medusa in his shield. This power could affect his victims through cloth or blindfolds, because it acted directly on the retina. The target could protect themselves with the Dragon Cloth's shield, however, and it doesn't work on the blind either. |
| 490 | * NoIndoorVoice: Happens sometimes during fights. A non-fight instance is in the Hades/Inferno Arc, when Seiya and Shun arrive at the first prison, a courthouse presided by Balrog Lune. When Lune asks Seiya to state his business again aloud, Seiya complies... by shouting who he is and what he is doing in Hell from the top of his lungs. It's so bad (Shun even covered his ears throughout this "rant"), he even staggers from losing his breath after he finishes. |
| 491 | * NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Hyoga in the ''Knights of the Zodiac'' dub. |
| 492 | * NowDoItAgainBackwards: Shiryu's heart stops when Seiya hits his AchillesHeel. The only way to make it beat again is to hit him from the oposite side. |
| 493 | * NowLetMeCarryYou: In one episode, Saori protects an unconscious and badly injured Seiya from Shaina and Jamian. |
| 494 | * ObfuscatingDisability: ''Saint Seiya'' portrays at least two examples of this trope: |
| 495 | ** Libra Dohko: an old man of more than 250 years old that walks using a stick (and that's actually an {{expy}} of [[Franchise/StarWars Yoda]]), can be even more badass than any of the younger Saints. Not to mention that [[spoiler:he actually hides his young shape intact, shelled inside his old body, ready to use if it becomes necessary. That GodzillaThreshold is reached in the Hades chapter.]] |
| 496 | * ObiWanMoment: In Hades arc, Virgo Shaka elaborates on the ephemeral nature of life, and how death is only another step, as he [[spoiler:is assassinated by three gold saints]]. Extra points for him staying in lotus position all the way through it, very much in a Buddha-like manner. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:accepting death as a step and not a conclusion was needed for one to freely wander in the realm of Hades.]] |
| 497 | * TheOjou: Saori Kido, an insanely rich heiress and ex Libby turned into a [[SilkHidingSteel serene, gentle strategist]] and genius businesswoman. She's even referred as ''ojou-sama'' (milady) in ''canon''. |
| 498 | * OncePerEpisode: Or once per ''movie''. In the original manga and anime, Seiya dons the Sagittarius Cloth ''only once'', in Poseidon Saga, to shoot an arrow at the sea god (although he does wear it near the very end of the Hades Saga, he does not repeat the deed against Hades). Now, in the non-canon movies, Seiya defeats the BigBad of the day ''every time'' by wearing Aioros's cloth and shooting an arrow. In. every. single. movie. |
| 499 | * OneDegreeOfSeparation: Saori is technically something like the Bronze Saints' "sister" (technically a "niece"), as she's legally Mitsumasa Kido's "granddaughter", while the Bronze Saints are his sons by multiple women, so they're not actually related to her. It's implied that this strange familial relationship doesn't quite matter to any of them, as their actual liaison is effectively a sacred matter, and more of a princess-and-her-knights kind of deal. |
| 500 | * OneTwinMustDie: In the ''Asgard Saga'', there's Syd and Bud, twins SeparatedAtBirth, since in Asgard having twins was a bad omen. Syd was the lucky twin, being raised by his parents and having a good life, and Bud was the unlucky one, being a StreetUrchin. When Polaris Hilda reunited their God Warriors, Syd and Bud finally get together, but Syd was the "official one" (God Warrior Mizar Zeta) and Bud was the "shadow one" (God Warrior Alcor Zeta). Ironically, Syd's God Warrior Cloth was jet black (midnight blue in the anime) while Bud's was pure white. Always jealous of his twin's luck, Bud became the EvilTwin, forced to support his brother but never receiving any recognition for it, but later he changed his ways after Syd sacrified his life to save Bud's. |
| 501 | * OneWayVisor: Female Saints of Athena. They apparently use Cosmo sense instead of their eyes. |
| 502 | * OneWomanWail: Two of them. And both are beautiful yet ''[[TearJerker so damn sad]]'' |
| 503 | * OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: |
| 504 | ** Crystal Saint, the master of Hyoga and Isaac in the anime. |
| 505 | ** Flame Saint (in the original, ''Ennetsu Seinto'', "Saint of the Sweltering Heat"), the anime-only [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fire-powered saint]] from the Sanctuary that fights Shun [[spoiler:and is killed by Ikki]]. |
| 506 | ** Cancer Deathmask, called that due to a habit of adorning the walls of his temple with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_mask death masks]] of his victims.[[note]]In the first English dub, the card game, and the English Manga, the American censorship ended up giving him a proper name (Mephisto).[[/note]] |
| 507 | * OnlyThePureOfHeart: |
| 508 | ** While all Cloths are implied to be somewhat alive, only the Gold Cloths of Athena's most powerful saints are said to have just enough sentience to tell whether their owner truly fights for justice or not. This eventually leads to [[spoiler:the Cancer cloth abandoning Deathmask mid-fight for being a murderous psychopath, though it of course waits until an appropriately dramatic moment to do so]]. However, even those who desire peace and justice can be lead astray, and the entire conflict of the Twelve Houses ordeal comes straight from the Goldies failing to recognize the evil in their current Pope until it's too late. |
| 509 | ** On the flip side, every time a Holy War crops up, the person with the purest heart on Earth is ultimately destined to [[spoiler:become the human vessel of Hades, through which he intends to destroy the world. This happens even if said soul is already on the other side of the conflict.]] |
| 510 | * OrderedApology: When Shun demanded that Aphrodite apologizes to his dead Master or else he will kill him. |
| 511 | * OrphanageOfFear: All the future Saints had to deal with this at the Kido Fundation. They're taken away from normal orphanages by force (the one where Seiya was pretty much kidnapped from is a downright OrphanageOfLove, for example), forced to train all day long, are beaten by Tatsumi if they step out of line, seen as mere objects and playthings for Saori (who was a SpoiledBrat at time) and the place has electric fences, dogs and security guards. To top it all off, this painful experience only ended when it was time for a lottery which decided which deadly training ground they would be sent to, where 90% of them died without even seeing the Cloth enshrined therein. |
| 512 | * OurHippocampsAreDifferent: Sea Horse Baian of Poseidon's Mariners has hippocamp armor. Contrary to the usual half-horse and half-fish look of the hippocamp, this one is a regular horse with only the tail replaced by a fish's. Additional fins are added here and there. |
| 513 | * OutOfTheInferno: |
| 514 | ** Ikki, ''literally'' has his resurrection scene with the fire that was burning a forest and his brother, he appears out of the fire carrying his brother and extinguishes all the fire with his Cosmo. Not surprising given his control over fire, and him generally being a badass. |
| 515 | ** He also pulls this against Jango in the manga and in the anime, after taking a Death Queen Inferno to the face, only to NoSell it, giving his opponent the mother of PunchPunchPunchUhOh moments. |
| 516 | ** Against Shaka, he does it again: first Shaka destroys his cloth and proceeds to disintegrate Ikki... For him to reappear in a blaze of flames, cloth and all. |
| 517 | * OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: |
| 518 | ** Though everyone bleeds a lot, Shiryu is notable for regularly [[HighPressureBlood geysering]] more blood than everyone else in his team ''has'' at least once per arc. The only time it's played fairly realistic is when he tears his own wrists open so Mu can fix up his and Seiya's suits. Shiryu went into a coma, and it's stated that he teetered on the edge of death, but he miraculously came back and was ready to fight again right then and there. |
| 519 | ** It's actually ridiculous in the [[spoiler: Scorpio Milo vs. Cygnus Hyoga]] battle, during which the latter gushes out more blood than his entire body could possibly contain. And not only does he live through it [[spoiler: once Milo has realized the truth and stopped the blood loss via pressure points]] but he's back on his feet and fighting at full strength not even five minutes later. |
| 520 | * ParrotExposition: Saint Seiya did this a lot. One particular example the fandom absolutely adores: |
| 521 | -->'''Saga''': I've received a report saying that the Silver Saints have been shamefully defeated by five Bronze Saints.\ |
| 522 | '''Milo:''' What!? The Silver Saints have been defeated by only five Bronze Saints!?\ |
| 523 | '''Saga:''' Yes. Only five Bronze Saints.\ |
| 524 | '''Milo:''' There must be a mistake here. I never heard about a Silver Saint being defeated by a Bronze Saint. |
| 525 | * PeoplePuppets: Griffon Minos uses this on others. |
| 526 | * PetalPower: The Gold Saint Pisces Aphrodite filled the stairs behind his temple with poisonous roses so, even if he lost, Seiya and Co. wouldn't reach their goals. Too bad Marin derails his plans, though to be fair, he didn't have any way to know she'd show up there. |
| 527 | * NoWarpingZone: Sanctuary. Nobody, not even the Gold Saints who can travel at the speed of light are allowed to bypass the Twelve Houses unless [[TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot the plot needs someone like Marin to use a secret shortcut]]. |
| 528 | ** It should also be noted, once a Gold Saint has been defeated or granted passage, then it seems fast travel up to that point is not a problem. Cases in point? Cassios, Ikki. |
| 529 | * PluckyGirl: Saori. If you can withstand 12 hours with a golden arrow stuck in your chest without complaining a single time and even ''sending your'' ''[[LifeEnergy own cosmo]]'' ''to your warriors when they're in trouble'', you've got to be one ''really'' resilient girl. Lampshaded few after she gets the arrow, when Saori weakly but calmly tells a panicking Seiya to just go and fight out there in the Sanctuary whereas she'll endure the pain and be patient. |
| 530 | ** Honorary mention goes to a NaiveEverygirl named Helen, who [[spoiler: saw her grandpa being murdered by two Silver Saints looking for Ikki and was tossed in a volcano by them, but managed to grab and hold onto its inner walls and climb her way back up in time to give Ikki the HeroicResolve he needed to punish her attackers]] |
| 531 | * PowerGivesYouWings: The Sagittarius Cloth, prone to arriving on its own [[BigDamnHeroes in the nick of time]] to assist Seiya, has vast golden wings on its back. Furthermore, the Surplices of quite a few of Hades' Specters (on par with the strongest Gold Saints) have [[GoodWingsEvilWings demonic or sinister-looking wings]]. The best examples, however, are Divine Cloths --Athena and Hades' have wings naturally (the latter has [[{{Satan}} six major wings]] and a multitude of smaller ones over its joints,) and the Bronze Cloths all grow immense wings when they ''[[PhysicalGod become]]'' [[PhysicalGod Divine Cloths]]. |
| 532 | * PowerGlows: The Gold Cloths tend to due this alot as well as when [[spoiler: Shion upgrades the Bronze Saint Cloths from Athena's blood]]. Aioria is the image source for the trope. |
| 533 | * PowerLevels: The intensity and strength of each characters' Cosmo functions as a rough gauge for power, health, and even mood. |
| 534 | * PowerMakesYourHairGrow: While it has more to do with bad art, both Shun and Ikki have this problem when they go from their normal street clothes to their V1 Cloths, which sport full-head helms. Shun's normally shoulder length green hair in civvies reaches down to his waist when armored, while Ikki's regular-looking mullet poofs out like it's a whole other separate living being when he puts on his helmet. V2 Cloths (and onwards,) which traded the full-head helms for tiaras, eliminated this issue. |
| 535 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: One of the major themes of the series. |
| 536 | * PowerTattoo: Dragon Shiryu has a Chinese ''long'' dragon tattooed on his back. The intensity with which it's visible indicates the strength of his Cosmo. [[ExactTimeToFailure If it's completely gone, he's as good as dead]]. |
| 537 | * TheProblemWithFightingDeath: Aside from the practical concerns of fighting a god, he can also resurrect all his fallen minions. |
| 538 | * ProductDeliveryOrdeal: During the Poseidon arc, Kiki travels all over the dominion of Poseidon while carring the heavy golden Pandora's Box on his back to deliver the parts of Libra's armor to the Bronze Saints, because these parts can be used as weapons to destroy the seven pillars. The delivery is not only very taxing for him (who is only 8 years old), but also makes him a vulnerable target for Poseidon's Generals, [[WouldHurtAChild including Kraken Isaac]]. |
| 539 | * PsychoForHire: Cancer Deathmask. With [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast a name like that]], what else can you be? |
| 540 | * PsychoRangers: The Black Saints. |
| 541 | * PsychoStrings: Used a few times in the Hades Saga, when Shun gets flashes (premonitions? memories?) of young Pandora. |
| 542 | * PunchClockVillain: |
| 543 | ** While some are evil or have personal reasons, most of the Saints sent by the Sanctuary to kill Saori and her group are only aware that they revealed the existence of the Sanctuary to the world and her Saints broke the Sanctuary's law when they wielded their Cloths for personal reasons in the Galaxian Wars. Notably, in the manga the first assassin was ''Hyoga'', who had been sent before Saga found out what he was really dealing with. |
| 544 | ** The Asgardian God Warriors ([[TheStarscream except one]]) are all noble, devoted guardians to their princess, Hilda, and to the shrine of Odin. They may [[BloodKnight turn arrogant]] and taunt Athena's Saints when they have the upper hand (a sin that heroic Golds ''and'' Bronzes are also guilty of, even if they don't get as many chances), but ultimately they're simply defending their charge from what appears to them to be an invading foreign force trying to supplant her. Those that remain close to her even question why Hilda, who used to be kind and gentle, is now so bloodthirsty for victory over Athena. It tends to make their deaths considerably more tragic and poignant than even those of Athena's own Silver Saints or villainous Gold Saints. |
| 545 | [[/folder]] |
| 546 | |
| 547 | [[folder:R-V]] |
| 548 | * RaceAgainstTheClock: Once the existence of the Gold Saints is revealed, and all the characters have finally been introduced, every single arc follows this formula--whether it is the completion of the 12 Temples within 12 hours to save Athena, freeing Hilda from the Nibelungen ring before the glaciers completely melt and to save Athena, breaking Poseidon's pillars to prevent an ongoing worldwide flood and to save Athena, stopping Hades before the alignment of the Planets/Total eclipse and to save Athena... Can you guess what is the common factor in all of these? |
| 549 | * RapidFireFisticuffs: |
| 550 | ** Seiya's Pegasus Meteor Fist is this, despite looking like a flurry of energy balls. |
| 551 | ** Peacock Shiva's Senju Kami Onken. |
| 552 | * RazorFloss: |
| 553 | ** The Asgardian God Warrior Benetnasch Eta Mime, wears a Cloth reminiscent of a harp. As such, he is prone to laying down Razor Floss around the environment as traps, as well as send them flying towards his opponents to entangle them. Note that his harp's strings are strong, and sharp enough, to crack and cut through solid rock, as well as Bronze Cloths and the very human skin of the Saints wearing them. |
| 554 | ** In the Hades Saga, the Silver Saint Lyra Orphee has a similar weapon (justified; the character is indeed based on Orpheus from the Greek mythology). He battles another Musical Assassin, the spectre Sphinx Pharaoh. |
| 555 | ** Two minor movie villain: Lyra Orpheus, the Ghost Saint appearing in the first Saint Seiya movie (Lyra Orphee was inspired by him) and one of Abel's Corona Saints, Berenice, from thid movie, that has the ability to launch several strands of hair. The hairs Berenice throws are able to trap and disrupt the enemy. |
| 556 | * RealMenWearPink: Shun and Misty. |
| 557 | * RedIsHeroic: Seiya always wears a red shirt. Also, when he wears his armor, the clothes under it are red. |
| 558 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: Just *too* often. [[spoiler:Black Dragon in the first arc is one example, but Cassius is one of the most tragic cases; even ''Seiya'' bawls when he dies through HeroicSacrifice to de-brainwash Aioria. Other cases involve Saga, Siegfried, Ikki's first death...]] |
| 559 | * RedOniBlueOni: Well, more like ''green'' in this case, but Marin and Shaina are basically mirror images of each other, with extremely similar appearances but opposite temperaments and ambitions. |
| 560 | * ReluctantWarrior: Andromeda Shun that, after four seasons and at least three movies, refuses to give up on the idea of non-violently settling problems, and talking to his enemies in the hopes of reasoning with them. He has the unfortunate tendency to combine this noble character with MartyrWithoutACause and almost ''giving away his life'' on a few occasions... but when push comes to shove and the enemy proves they are a monster, he ''will'' fight and kill them if need be. To his credit, he's caused at least one HeelFaceTurn among his opponents, and [[spoiler: held back and ''throttled'' a [[DemonicPossession body stealing god]] through sheer love of peace]].. |
| 561 | * RightMakesMight: Several times, often went hand in hand with DefeatMeansFriendship. It's also subverted: when Cancer Deathmask tries to pull that one on [[spoiler: Libra Dohko]] to make , the other just shrugs Deathmask's words away and [[ShutUpHannibal calls him a fool]]. |
| 562 | * RuleOfThree: [[http://www.deviantart.com/art/Number-Three-159828321 Oh so much...]] |
| 563 | * SaveThePrincess: In this case, "Save the Goddess". |
| 564 | * SayMyName: "ATHEEEEENAAAAAAA!" "SAORI-SAAAAAAAAN!" "MARIIIIIIIN!" "MAAAAASTEEEEEEER!" "SEEEEEEIYAAAAAAA!" "SHIIIIIRYUUUUUU!" "BROOOOTHEEEEER!" |
| 565 | ** The Brazilian dub replaced the latter with "IKKIIIIIIIII!", which still fits. |
| 566 | * ScaryImpracticalArmor: By Hades Saga, we see a lot of stuff like [[http://saintseiyaperfil.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/esquema_hypnos.jpg this.]] Although certain Cloths are far too bulky to walk in, let alone ''fight'' in, they're justified as being more status symbols than anything, and the more intricate the design, the less likely the enemy is to lower himself to ''throwing punches'', what with being a powerful demigod who only needs to raise a finger to send everyone flying. |
| 567 | * SchematizedProp: Each volume of the manga illustrates how each Cloth transforms to and from a statue representing the Saint's respective constellation, which can then be put in a ceremonial box and carried around on the Saint's back. Many of these are implausible, mind you (parts have a habit of being ''way'' out of scale), but seeing how most of these designs are for one-shot villains, it's a surprising amount of detail. |
| 568 | * ScrewThisImOutOfHere: After the main Bronzes retrieve the Sagittarius cloth, they all decide they're done with the Kurumada drama and tell Saori as much. However, just as they're about to quit, she gets kidnapped and they're off to battle again. |
| 569 | * SealedEvilInACan: Twice: During the Age of Myth, Athena imprisoned Poseidon's soul within a jar sealed with a talisman bearing her name. Similarly, Hades' [[TheDragon lieutenants]], Thanatos and Hypnos, were sealed in a chest which came to the possession of [[MeaningfulName Pandora's]] family. |
| 570 | * SelfSacrificeScheme: Shun came up with this twice. The first was when he knocked out Shiryu in order to offer himself to Ikki to stop his rampage and the second was in the Hades Saga when [[spoiler:Shun allowed Hades to possess him so that his brother could kill him again]]. Both plans were foiled. |
| 571 | * {{Sentai}}: A fantasy anime example. |
| 572 | * SexyMentor: Seiya's trainer Aquila Marin is one ''really'' hot young woman. So is Cassius's trainer Shaina. |
| 573 | ** And about Shaina's sexiness, is worthy of mention the famous/infamous hospital episode, in which she removes her mask revealing her face (it already happened before) but this time by coincidences or destiny she looks ''especially'' sexy, so much her face looks like a perfect blend of TheWoobie and PuppyDogEyes tropes, generating lots (and I mean ''lots'') of fanart about her and that situation only due to this only scene. |
| 574 | * ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: Done by [[MasterOfDisguise Lymnades Kaza]], as his standard way of dealing with a target who will rightfully doubt they're seeing a long lost or departed loved one. |
| 575 | * ShirtlessScene: Dragon Shiryu seems to ''enjoy'' doffing the upper half of his Cloth, helm and armguards included, at the drop of a hat. |
| 576 | ** He likely inherited that habit from Dohko, it is implied the young Libra Saint liked doing this even when he was young. |
| 577 | ** The opening in Saint Seiya Hades: Sanctuary first shows [[{{Squee}} all five bronze boys like this]]. |
| 578 | ** Pegasus Seiya, while not as reccuring as Shiryu in taking off his clothes to fight, has his moments. |
| 579 | *** During the Galaxian Wars Tournament of the anime adaptation (ep.4,ep.5), Seiya takes off his cloth and fights Shiryu on equal grounds without a shirt, giving the fight more of a proper boxing feel. In the manga, he had his shirt on. |
| 580 | *** In the manga, after being poisoned by Black Pegasus, Seiya removes his shirt and upper armor (including his boxing-like headgear, which would be never seen again). The shirtless look lasts until he's hospitalized by the beginning of the Gold Saints arc, which means that he stays shirtless for most of the Black-Silver Saints arcs. |
| 581 | *** In episode 37, the Gold Saint Aioria appears both to retrieve the Sagitarius Gold Cloth and to execute a heavily wounded Seiya in the hospital. Seiya, not going down with a fight, decides to take off his upper clothes to fight the Gold Saint. |
| 582 | ** In a minor manga-exclusive variation of the trope, Kurumada seemingly experimented with making the characters wear their armors shirtless during the Silver Saints arc, as seen with Seiya, Shiryu, Misty (after his bath) and Moses. The change is somewhat justified, since, as mentioned above, by the end of the Black Saints arc Seiya and Shiryu ''were'' shirtless. The look is rarely ever seen again, with minor exceptions like Tōma in Next Dimension. |
| 583 | * ShouldersOfDoom: Most villainous characters wear Cloths, Scales, or Surplices with these. |
| 584 | * ShoutOut: |
| 585 | ** In an interview in the Japanese magazine "June", Kurumada promised to create a character with the name of the magazine. Soon after, Chameleon June made her appearance. |
| 586 | ** Ikki's scar and the mask he wears in his first appearance remind a reader immediately of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Char Aznable]]. |
| 587 | ** Aquarius Camus' name is a homage to Creator/AlbertCamus. Fittingly, he was also born in France and his name is written in Japanese as ''Kamyu'', which sounds similar to the French pronunciation of "Camus" ("come-E"). |
| 588 | ** The depiction of Hell in the ''Hades'' arc draws lots of inspiration from Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. |
| 589 | * ShutUpHannibal!: [[NietzscheWannabe Deathmask]] attempts to justify endorsing the Sanctuary's corruption by claiming that [[WhatIsEvil good and evil are concepts decided by the victors and that all morality is relative]]. [[OldMaster Dohko Libra's]] response can be summed up as "Oh, shut up". |
| 590 | * ShowerScene: We got our first one with ''freaking'' Shun. You may [[{{Squee}} scream]] now, girls. The bad guy Lizard Misty gets a similarly-framed "bathing in the ocean" scene. And Pisces Aphrodite takes a bath (is an illusion) in one of the movies. Saga gets at least 5 of them also. |
| 591 | * SiblingYinYang: |
| 592 | ** Ikki (rough, aloof, JerkWithAHeartOfGold) and Shun (gentle, MartialPacifist, selfless) |
| 593 | ** Also Saga (thoughtful, wise, just [[spoiler: until his SuperpoweredEvilSide kicks in]]) and Kanon (selfish, scheming, arrogant [[spoiler: until he has a HeelFaceTurn]]) |
| 594 | * SilkHidingSteel: |
| 595 | ** Princess Freya from the Asgard arc is a more stubborn, outspoken version of the trope. |
| 596 | ** A possible male example would be Andromeda Shun, who is very gentle and borderline passive but is ''not'' to be trifled with when his friends are in danger. |
| 597 | * SingleStrokeBattle: What the Phoenix Genma Ken and the final blow of a successful Pegasus Ryusei Ken look like. |
| 598 | * SirensAreMermaids: Averted, subverted, and played straight (!). Siren Sorento has a Scale that depicts a true woman-bird siren from the Greek mythology, but it's Mermaid Thetis who has a siren's CompellingVoice among her powers -- although it's the sound of Sorento's flute that actually has a mental effect (a MindRape one), with Thetis' voice attracting others by curiosity instead of mind control. |
| 599 | * SleepModeSize: [[spoiler: Dohko. He ''looks'' like a small old man a la Yoda, but if he ''does'' need to fight, he'll shred his disguise and show that ''he has not aged at all'', thanks to a special power given to him by one of Athena's past incarnations]] |
| 600 | ** To specify, [[spoiler:while a regular human's heart beats 100,000 times a day, Athena has blessed Dohko with the Misopetha-Menos technique, which makes his heart beat 100,000 times A YEAR. So while 243 years have passed since he was given the technique, he's only aged 243 ''days''.]] |
| 601 | * SmugSuper: Most of the Silver Saints and the Spectres. |
| 602 | * SpaceIsNoisy: Another Dimension. Sorry Shun. No matter how much you call for Hyoga, he technically can't hear you due to the fact that sound cannot travel in a vacuum. |
| 603 | * SpeedBlitz: All Gold Saints and the five Main Bronze Saints are capable of moving at the speed of light, and no, this is not hyperbole. |
| 604 | ** Episode 60 provides the best example as you see Milo nail Seiya, go all the way behind him BEFORE the impact registers and propels him into the closest pillar. Shiryu even comments on the incredible speed. |
| 605 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Sanctuary only has three female Saints that we know of (Shaina, Marin, June; maybe Geist could be included but she is a filler character), the Mariners have Thetis, and Hades only has Pandora. |
| 606 | * SociallyUnacceptableCollection: Cancer Deathmask has the walls and the floor of his temple full with the heads of the people he killed, including children. Shiryu decides to put an end on that when Seiya describes the place for him. |
| 607 | * SpikesOfVillainy: The Sanctuary's Pope, full stop. During his more benign days, he tends to wear a golden (but not Gold) helm with extremely wide shoulderguards. When he goes evil, these shoulderguards come with gigantic spikes that make him almost as wide as he is tall. |
| 608 | * SpinToDeflectStuff: The stated power of the Andromeda Chain: while the arrow-headed one is used for offense, the ring-headed chain becomes an impregnable wall when Shun spins it around himself. Note that, for all [[InformedAbility its supposed defensive power]], it is very susceptible to TheWorfBarrage against anything stronger than a Silver Saint. |
| 609 | ** He did have one rather awesome use of it in the Poseidon arc though. When facing Scylla Io, the Mariner General used an attack that was actually six in one on a "low" setting to taunt him. However, since ItOnlyWorksOnce and Shun's chains are stated as early as the first tournament arc as being ''hyper adaptive'' to enemy attacks, Shun proceeds to counter each of his attacks, destroy his armor, and bind him in chains. |
| 610 | * SoulJar: [[spoiler: Julian, for Poseidon. Who later is trapped into a ''real'' jar. Also Shun, for Hades.]] |
| 611 | * SpoiledBrat: Saori, when she was a kid, was rather mean (and sometimes kinda cruel) to the Bronze Saints and treated them like slaves. Then her grandfather gather her a stern lecture about not abusing her authority, and she grew out of it. |
| 612 | * SpoilerOpening: |
| 613 | ** During the Asgard Saga opening, you can see who gets to wear the Odin Robe. |
| 614 | ** Hades Inferno where they show Shun [[spoiler: as Hades.]] |
| 615 | * StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Next Dimension seems to be heading this way with Saori being sent to the past as a baby arriving at the feet of the statue of Athena 200 years ago or so. [[EpilepticTree The most likely outcome will be that when she'll come back to the present time, it will be as a baby as well to create the events that started the original series]]]] |
| 616 | * StarPower: It's built on this early on, with both heroes and villains taking their powers from a constellation (From Pegasus Seiya to Gemini Saga). Later enemies have other sources for their powers, though, but still keep some kind of star motif (Hades' Specters take their titles from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_Heroes 108 Stars of Destiny]] + some kind of monster). |
| 617 | * StartOfDarkness: It seems Gemini Saints have these curse. Gemini Saga fell pray to the taunts of [[spoiler: his own brother Kanon. Who would, ironically, become his successor after his HeelFaceTurn.]]. |
| 618 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: While the Silver and Bronze Cloths don't cover as much as practical armor should, the few female Cloths have [[BreastPlate Breast Plates]], cover less, are designed to be sexier and curvier, and often sport stiletto heels. This is also true for the Mermaid Scale, though the trend is very much averted by the anime-only character Ghost Saint Geist. |
| 619 | * StylishProtectionGear: Shun's shoulder guards are just as huge, but are set diagonally instead of horizontally --without the magic of animation, he shouldn't be able to raise his arms at all. |
| 620 | * SugarAndIcePersonality: Camus. Dear God, Camus. |
| 621 | ** It also rubs off on Hyoga. |
| 622 | * SuicidalGotcha: Seiya and Saori Kido use one to escape from Shaina and Silver Saint Jamian, jumping off a cliff together rather than either fighting when in huge disadvantage or giving Saori to them. While Seiya gets badly injured, they both live, and a while later their companions come to help them. |
| 623 | * SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Volker from the Asgard saga taunts his adoptive son Mime into killing him to atone for ''all'' of his crimes... including the deaths of Mime's biological parents. Mime doesn't realize this until it's too late, and when Ikki shows him the truth, [[UnstoppableRage he freaks out]].]] |
| 624 | * SympathyForTheDevil:[[spoiler: Cassios, in the anime]]. Also several of the Asgard warriors, specially [[spoiler: Fenrir, Hagen and Syd]] |
| 625 | ** A few of the Marinas, most notably [[spoiler: Scylla Io and Kraken Isaac]]. |
| 626 | * SuperpoweredEvilSide: Saga's split personalities. [[spoiler: And Shun, being Hades' vessel]]. |
| 627 | * TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: Seiya takes a SuicidalGotcha and jumps off a cliff with Saori in his arms, rather than fighting Shaina to death or handing Saori to her and Silver Saint Jamian.]] |
| 628 | * TakeOverTheWorld: Lucifer, in his non-canon movie, says he wants to rule not only Earth, but the entire universe. |
| 629 | * TakenForGranite: Algol Perseus's main ability. |
| 630 | * TakingTheBullet: |
| 631 | ** Pegasus Seiya will do this for Saori every chance he gets. Most notable of all: stopping Aiolia's special technique with his hands when Saori actually demands for Aiolia to gang up on her so she can block his attack and gain his favor; taking Poseidon's Trident to the chest for her (he waved it off by claiming it was the will of the Sagittarius Cloth he was wearing, but no one was fooled); and then taking Hades' Sword in the heart. It didn't kill him, but it destroyed his Cosmo and left him as little more than a vegetable for more than a while. |
| 632 | ** Sometimes, Seiya's best friend and partner Dragon Shiryu will do this for his friends, but he has the advantage of wielding the Dragon Shield (said to be one of the strongest shields ever) on his forearm, making it a much more reasonable act. |
| 633 | * TeamMom: Saori aka Athena, sometimes Marin as well. |
| 634 | * ThemeTwinNaming: [[{{Plot}} Saga]] and [[{{Canon}} Kanon]]. |
| 635 | * ThisCannotBe: EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. |
| 636 | * TimeDelayedDeath: The MindRape-inducing Phoenix Genma Ken, which strikes the opponent's brain usually has this effect, once the madness has subsided. Also, [[spoiler: Specter Deep Niobe]] suffered this from [[spoiler:Aldebaran's Grand Horn]]. |
| 637 | * ToThePain: Scorpio Milo calmly explains the effect of his Scarlet Needles to Hyoga ''as the other bleeds to death''. Shaka describes the Seven Stages of Hell as he ''mind-rapes'' Ikki. And that's just him ''warming up''. |
| 638 | * TournamentArc: The Galaxian Wars in the beginning of the series. |
| 639 | * TrainingFromHell: Every single Saint endured hellish training to earn his or her Sacred Cloth -- doing finger-stands (as in, standing on the tip of your index finger) during rain and snow, punching glaciers or mountains thousands of years old and not giving up until they crumbled, doing upside-down pullups while hanging from your feet above a chasm, being chained between two rocks and being forced to push back the ocean tide with your BattleAura before you drown, that sort of thing. And even then, the characters that endured these trials gasp in horror at the one who came back from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Death Queen Island]], considered the worst ordeal of them all... At least until it's revealed that Andromeda Island is ''worse'' (after all, Death Queen Island may have an active volcano and a population of psychos, but you can ''grow food'' there). |
| 640 | ** Whoever trains in Sicily may well have it the worst: the island is luscious and civilized, but once again the training happens near an active volcano (Mount Etna), the trainer is [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Cancer]] [[CardCarryingVillain Death]] [[TheSocialDarwinist Mask]], and if one survives the final task is to ''walk right into the volcano and retrieve the Coma Berenices Cloth''. And to make things worse you ''need'' Death Mask to be there and supervise the final task, as [[spoiler:the Coma Berenices Cloth [[SealedEvilInACan keeps Typhon's soul sealed]] and Death Mask is one of the few with the power set to keep him from escape and [[DemonicPossession take over the Saint candidate the moment they grab the Cloth]]]]. |
| 641 | ** The final task for the Pegasus Cloth was to fight the Nine Giants of Ebdera. A thousand went in, ''two'' succeeded... And then had to fight each other. |
| 642 | ** All of the above is for the Bronze Cloths, the ''lowest tier''. Presumably, training for Silver and Gold Cloth is even worse. |
| 643 | * TranquilFury: Virgo Shaka. Do NOT piss this polite and cold psychic off enough to open his perpetually closed eyes. |
| 644 | ** Even Ikki was compelled to run away from him, which doesn't work too well as he can't get too far, since any long distance to Shaka is like his enemy is running in the palm of Buddha, much like what happened to [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest Sun Wukong]]. |
| 645 | ** To the point it took [[spoiler:Gemini Saga, Aquarius Camus AND Capricorn Shura to take him down! [[ICannotSelfTerminate And]] [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning even]] [[BatmanGambit then]]...]] |
| 646 | * TransformingMecha: Sort of. Each manga volume has several extra pages detailing exactly how the pieces of a sculpture representing a constellation turn into the elements of a suit of armour. The anime takes this further as the Steel Saints' mechanical Cloths actually do become fully-functional, albeit small, animal-shaped vehicles. |
| 647 | ** Most fans ''actually'' thought the first Steel saints arrival "to the rescue" was more a Transformers/Saint Seiya crossover. |
| 648 | * TrashTalk: Even the good guys will get overconfident on the strength of their attacks. |
| 649 | * TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: In the Sanctuary arc, the Bronze Saints' twelve-hour timer goes down one hour with each temple they pass through, even when there isn't a Gold Saint present to fight. Seiya starts running past the Gold Saints entirely between Sagittarius and the Pope's Chamber, and it still takes him two hours and change to reach the latter. Meanwhile, it takes Ikki a matter of minutes to reach the Pope's Chamber from Virgo during the last hour, and by the end, Saori crosses the entire gauntlet in what seems to be less than an hour. |
| 650 | * TrueCompanions: The Bronze Saints, one of anime's closest-knit groups. The Gold Saints to an extent too. |
| 651 | * TwangHello: Ikki loves to introduce himself by using the Phoenix cloth's metal feathers right before jumping into action. |
| 652 | * UltimateFinalExam: The Saints' TrainingFromHell is concluded with an immensely difficult final task in which they earn their Sacred Cloth; to put things in perspective, one of the failed examinees was asked to walk inside an active volcano and retrieve the Cloth from it. |
| 653 | * VariableLengthChain: Shun, Spica, Leda, and Albiore's chains. Silver Saint Cerberus Dante makes use of variable length chains attached to spiked balls. |
| 654 | * VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Happens to Gemini Saga. And it's EPIC.]] |
| 655 | * VillainousValor: It's easier to find a villainous character who ''isn't'' valorous. Best shown by Deathmask, one of the most evil characters in the series, who still fought to his death even after his Cloth abandoned him, leaving him at a distinctive disadvantage until Shiryu took off his, and still [[{{Determinator}} had an arm and a leg broken]]. |
| 656 | * VillainsOutShopping: During any given saga, the BigBad FinalBoss (and some other enemies) will usually be shown waiting for the heroes doing things like taking a bath, feeding birds, sunbathing, or just walking about. [[spoiler: Saga]]'s bathing and shower scenes were infamous for this. |
| 657 | [[/folder]] |
| 658 | |
| 659 | [[folder:W-Z]] |
| 660 | * WackyWaysideTribe: The Asgardians during the Asgard Arc. |
| 661 | * WaifProphet: [[spoiler: The missing Seika grew up to be one of those.]] |
| 662 | * TheWorfEffect: Taurus Aldebaran was often the recipient of such attacks after the Sanctuary arc. From the Asgardians, Poseidon's Generals, ''and'' Hades' Spectres. Killing him off screen might've been a MercyKill for him. |
| 663 | * WorldOfTechnicolorHair: Played completely straight in most anime adaptations and spin-offs. Mostly averted, however, in the original manga (as well as its spin-off ''Manga/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas''[[note]]''LC'' Athena is a notorious exception[[/note]]), since Kurumada prefers to use a fairly limited palette of realistic hair colors. A notorious manga exception are Poseidon's Scales, which seem to have never been colored before the anime arc release: according to supplementary media, all the Scales except Baian (brunet) and Kanon (blond) mantain their anime hair colors... However, by ''Manga/SaintSeiyaNextDimension'', Kurumada seems to take a few outlandish hair colors from the 1986 anime -- for example, the older Aquarius Gold Saint has blue hair much like its anime counterpart[[note]]Aquarius Camus was a redhead in the manga[[/note]], and Shaina's new palette is taken from the anime[[note]]Manga Shaina was very probably meant to be clad in black clothing + black hair and ''Silver'' Saint armor[[/note]]. |
| 664 | * WhatBeautifulEyes: Even though almost all character in Saint Seiya have beautiful eyes, the only one who got lampshaded is [[spoiler:Hades himself! It didn't help the one who lampshade it was Seiya who said ''"What are those beautiful eyes! I can't believe these eyes belong to feared Hades, the King of Underworld. They have the depth of a very deep lake."'' Oh boy... And as you all know Kurumada seems so fond of putting HomoeroticSubtext in this series. And in Hades and Seiya's case... FoeRomancSubtext.]] And also to add more seasoning to the FoeRomanceSubtext. [[spoiler: Stoic Hades snapped when he just realized he knew Seiya since LOOOOOOOONG time ago, and enraged because Seiya dared to reincarnate himself again and again. The irony is... Hades seems to believe Seiya did this not to protect Athena and the human race but to come and ''wound'' him. He made it sounds like Seiya or Pegasus Saint was obsessed with him after being wounded once in the age of myth by his spiritual ancestor.]] |
| 665 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Several examples. |
| 666 | ** The Poseidon arc goes out of its way to depict devastation brought upon Earth by global flooding. No mention is ever made again about how humanity recovered from these disasters. A similar situation happened with the Sanctuary arc in the anime, showing off scenes of war amidst the world which are never mentioned or brought up again. |
| 667 | *** The manga actually mentions the death toll and Julian Solo deciding to use his wealth to help the world recover. |
| 668 | ** Phaeton/Bhaton who disappeared after the Sanctuary Arc. |
| 669 | ** Once the (Sagittarius) Gold Cloth, grand prize of the Galaxian Wars, is recovered, no attempt is made to continue the tournament. Especially noticeable when several other fights with Silver Saints and the Sanctuary's henchmen take place at the tournament coliseum! The ticket-buying public likely forgot all about it during the aforementioned, offscreen global wars. |
| 670 | *** Actually, the coliseum gets destroyed by the Docraftes fight, then by rioters in the anime, leaving it in ruins for the Hyoga vs Babel fight. In the manga, it gets destroyed by the Silver Saints, and Saori admits the whole thing was a plot to force evil out in the open and select a worthy Gold Saint candidate. |
| 671 | ** And the Steel saints? Oh yeah, '''nobody''' remembers them. At least Fanon humor gives an explanation telling us they were dumped from the airplane in ''mid-flight'' when the party traveled to the Sanctuary in Greece (since the last time we saw them in the anime, the Bronzes were boarding the ship, and we didn´t hear about them again ''ever''...) at the rhythm of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness "your services are no longer required"]] (since they were created as anime-only characters for selling more toys). Way to go Bandai! |
| 672 | *** To be fair, there IS a scene akin to them sending off the Bronzes with undertones that they will sit this one out because they can't handle it. ''Saint Seiya Omega'' actually caught that plot thread. |
| 673 | * WillTheyOrWontThey: Seiya and Saori especially during the fight with Jamian. Further invoked with the Abel Movie ending song. |
| 674 | * WithOurSwordsScene: The fight between Seiya and Ikki. After his friends are knocked out, Seiya is forced to fight alone and is systematically helped by Shiryu's Dragon Shield and Shun's Andromeda Chain. An interesting variation happens at the climax of the battle when Seiya finds out he has received Hyoga's "Diamond Dust" and uses it together with his "Ryu Sei Ken" for increased power. |
| 675 | * AWizardDidIt: The only logical explanation for the Sagittarius Cloth suddenly escaping both the Sanctuary and the Kido manor, to isolate in a lake and changing appearances before bailing Seiya out, though Cloths are [[AnimatedArmor alive]] and have a certain degree of free will. In the manga, [[spoiler: Mitsumasa Kido did it]]. |
| 676 | ** The anime drops a mention about Mu, the cloth smith, having been gone for a while around that time (maybe on an unspecified mission, but even the Pope doesn't know where he is!), suggesting he was responsible. Still, did he work on it underwater in between scene cuts? |
| 677 | * WolverineClaws: Ophiuchus Shaina's primary weapon, and she just ''loves'' to use them. |
| 678 | ** Hydra Ichi, especially, has claws that look exactly the same as Wolverine's. |
| 679 | ** Alioth Epsilon Fenrir has a pair of claws from his armor that protrude from his indexes and little fingers. His overall appearance and posture are reminiscent of Wolverine. |
| 680 | * WomanScorned: Ophiuchus Shaina. |
| 681 | * '''''WorldOfHam:''''' Oh God, so much. Even more in the Italian dub [[{{Woolseyism}} due to the attempt to convey the epicness of the original material to people who grew up with classical mythology]]. |
| 682 | * WorldPillars: The "Poseidon Saga" in which the eponymous Greek God (reincarnated in the billionaire playboy Julian Solo) kidnapps Saori Kiddo/Goddess Athena into the underwater world. To free her (being imprisoned in the Master Pillar that works as a DrowningPit), Bronze Saints have to break every of the World Pillars, seven of them that represent every of the oceans (five in fact, having two for Pacific and Atlantic oceans) and guarded by the seven Generals that protect every pillar. |
| 683 | * WouldntHitAGirl: Seiya uses this excuse to refuse fighting Shaina. BAD idea. |
| 684 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Deathmask claims that "Power is justice" and "Winners write the history books" so he follows the "most powerful man" - the corrupt Pope. |
| 685 | ** Then he gets raised from the dead in the NonSerialMovie, and flocks to Abel for the same reason. |
| 686 | ** Then, he appears to do that again in the Hades arc, but it turns out it was all part of a ruse to get former Pope Sion to teach Athena about her Cloth. |
| 687 | * YamatoNadeshiko: Shunrei is ethnically a ChineseGirl, but otherwise she's a perfect example of the trope. |
| 688 | * YouAreAlreadyDead: ''Very'' common, to the point where someone can give an entire speech in the time between receiving an attack and it taking effect. |
| 689 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: When you think that the Silver Saints are in their teens while looking like 30-somethings, it starts to get weird. |
| 690 | ** Aioros died when he was 14 years old and he was already ''taller'' than a 20-year-old Aioria. And let's not start with that flashback of Shura in the anime. To clarify, Shura was ELEVEN. |
| 691 | * ZodiacMotifs: The Twelve Gold Saints are themed around the Western Zodiac, each one named after and having powers based around their zodiac sign, such as Cancer Deathmask and Leo Aiolia. The series was renamed "Knights/Warriors of the Zodiac" (or the national language equivalent) in several countries. |
| 692 | [[/folder]] |
| 693 | |
| 694 | ---- |
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