Saint Seiya is a copyright of Toei Animation, Inc.
Like last week's Classic Anime of the Week Vampire Hunter D, Saint Seiya stylistically represents a transitional anime; it retains several aesthetic elements characteristic of early Japanese anime/manga, while also predicting the changes that lay ahead. Saint Seiya is remarkable for the appearance of multiple androgynous male characters and almost looks like Sailor Moon, if Sailor Moon had an-all male cast and had sprung from the mind of Liberace. Like many experiments in anime/manga, Saint Seiya borrows heavily from multiple historic and mythological traditions in the West and combines them to create something essentially unrecognizable from the source material. The anime tells the story of children from Japan that are trained to become legendary warriors called "saints". These saints compete in battles to win a powerful armor. The primary knight around which the tale unfolds is called Seiya and he hopes that he may one day be able to find his sister from whom he was separated as a child. Although the saints are under the command of the goddess Athena, there are also appearances from Norse gods like Odin and references to a place called Asgard (again: Japanese mythological syncretism, especially since the "gods" appear to a Westerner to be more similar to Japanese Shinto "kami"). In any event, Saint Seiya fascinates if only because of its stunning visuals and is recommended to the anime enthusiast!
Saint Seiya and Saint Shun of Andromeda
