List of Saint Seiya media

The anime is based on the manga series of the same title (above). The animation series by Toei Animation first premiered on Japan's TV Asahi on October 11, 1986. Masami Kurumada has said that he does not like the anime, but agreed to transfer the manga to anime because of a tradition of making an anime from every manga.

The first anime series was produced by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989. It was directed first by Kōzō Morishita (episodes 1 to 73) and then by Kazuhito Kikuchi (episodes 74 to 114). The character designers were Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, and Seiji Yokoyama composed the soundtracks. The chief scriptwriters were Takao Koyama and Yoshiyuki Suga.

The anime is divided very similarly to Kurumada's original manga. The series has three main parts: Sanctuary (episodes 1 to 73), Asgard (74 to 99), and Poseidon (100 to 114). The Asgard arc does not exist in the manga and was made directly for the anime.

The Hades arc from Kurumada's manga was not adapted to animation in the original series, but it was adapted starting in 2003 and released in OVA format. The project ended in 2008, finally fully adapting Kurumada's manga to animation.

There have also been five theatrical releases (three short movies and two full-length ones), which do not belong to the regular chronology, as they contain several storyline contradictions. The movies are Saint Seiya (Saint Seiya Gekijōban), The Heated Battle of the Gods (Kamigami no Atsuki Tatakai), The Legend of the Crimson Youth (Shinku no Shōnen Densetsu), Warriors of the Last Holy War (Saishū Seisen no Senshi-tachi) and Heaven Chapter ~Overture (Tenkai-hen Josō~Overture).

In the US, Saint Seiya was licensed to DIC Entertainment, and the home video rights were licensed to ADV Films. Two English dubs were produced. One, an edited dub produced in Toronto, Canada by DIC, was renamed Knights of the Zodiac, and was broadcast on Cartoon Network in 2003. This dub lasted 32 episodes, and was released to VHS and DVD by ADV Kids. The other dub, produced by ADV Films in Houston, Texas, was fully uncut, and lasted 52 episodes, and retained the original Saint Seiya name. It was released to bilingual DVD from ADV Films, but production ceased when Knights of the Zodiac was canceled on Cartoon Network. However in 2009, ADV's interest in Saint Seiya was raised (combining with ADV possibly licensing the overall rights to the series as opposed to just the Home Video rights), and re-released their uncut episodes to DVD in boxset format planning to release more, but production was once again ceased due to ADV's financial troubles. Saint Seiya's license status in North America is currently unknown or if more episodes will be released to DVD.

The anime series Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) consists of the following episodes.

Releases
The first 13 episodes of an OVA series corresponding to the Hades saga of the manga were broadcasted on Animax (a Japanese pay-per-view channel) from November 2002 to April 2003, and then released on DVD during the year 2003. Before that, the Hades saga could only be seen in the manga. These 13 episodes were named Hades - Chapter Sanctuary (Meiō Hades Jūni-Kyū Hen).

This OVA series was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, still with character designs by Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, while the scripts were adapted from the manga this time by Michiko Yokote, and the soundtrack was entirely taken from Yokoyama's work on the previous TV series.

Two years after the first part of the Hades saga, Chapter Sanctuary, a second part was produced in 2005, to continue the adaptation of the Hades arc into anime. This second chapter was named Hades - Chapter Inferno Part 1 (Meiō Hades Meikai Hen Zenshō) and consists of six episodes. However, most of the original seiyū did not reprise their roles. For example, Masakazu Morita replaced Toru Furuya as the voice of Pegasus Seiya, Yūta Kasuya replaced Ryo Horikawa as the voice of Andromeda Shun, Hiroaki Miura replaced Koichi Hashimoto as the voice of Cygnus Hyoga, Katsuyuki Konishi replaced Hideyuki Hori as Phoenix Ikki, Takahiro Sakurai replaced Hirotaka Suzuoki as the voice of Dragon Shiryu and Fumiko Orikasa replaced Keiko Han as the voice of Saori Kido/Athena. Hideyuki Tanaka, however, reprises his role as the narrator. Hirotaka Suzuoki, the original voice actor of Dragon Shiryu, died on August 6, 2006 due to lung cancer.

On the same Animax channel, Toei Animation released the first two OVAs on December 17, 2005, followed by the next two on January 21, 2006. The last pair were released on February 18, 2006. Shortly after their TV broadcasting, which lasted for 2 months, the episodes were released on DVD in 2006.

This short OVA series was directed by Tomoharu Katsumata, again with character designs by Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno. The scripts were done by Yosuke Kuroda, and the soundtrack was still taken from Yokoyama's previous work on the TV series of 1986, but Yokoyama composed 2 new tracks for this OVA.

Saint Seiya Hades Inferno Part 2 (Kōshō)

On July 4, 2006, the newly-released Saint Seiya Vol. 15 manga (Japan Complete Version) brought the news: Hades - Chapter Inferno Part 2 (Meiō Hades Meikai Hen Kōshō) anime was started in July. Toei Animation officially announced the news on its website on July 18, 2006. Hades - Chapter Inferno Part 2, which contains 6 episodes in total, will be released from December, just like the first Meikai OVA series. The first two episodes of Inferno Part 2 will be released on Japan's Sky Perfect TV from December 15, 2006 to January 4, 2007, with the next two episodes on Sky Perfect from January 19, 2007 to February 1, 2007, and the last two from February 16, 2007 to March 1, 2007.

Theme songs

 * TV-series ~ Sanctuary chapter (1 - 73)
 * Opening: "Pegasus Fantasy" (ペガサス幻想(ファンタジー)) by MAKE-UP
 * When running in Canada and the United States as "Knights of the Zodiac", the theme song was Bowling for Soup's "I Ran (So Far Away)" - A cover of the hit 80's song by A Flock of Seagulls


 * Ending: "Blue Forever" (永遠ブルー) by MAKE-UP
 * TV-series ~ Asgard and Poseidon chapters (74 - 114)
 * Opening: "Soldier Dream" (聖闘士神話(ソルジャードリーム)) by Hironobu Kageyama & Broadway
 * Ending: "Blue Dream" (夢旅人) by Hironobu Kageyama & Broadway
 * OVA Hades ~ Sanctuary chapter : (1 - 13)
 * Opening: "The Earth" (地球ぎ) by Yumi Matsuzawa
 * Ending: "You and the Same Blue Sky" (君と同じ青空) by Yumi Matsuzawa
 * OVA Hades ~ Inferno chapter : (1 - 12)
 * Opening: "Warriors of the Goddess ~Pegasus Forever~" (女神の戦士 〜Pegasus Forever〜) (Marina Del Ray)
 * Ending: "Entrust to You ~My Dear~" (託す者へ 〜My Dear〜) by Yumi Matsuzawa
 * OVA Hades ~ Elysion chapter : (1 - 6)
 * Opening: "Warriors of the Goddess ~Pegasus Forever~" (女神の戦士 〜Pegasus Forever〜) (Marina Del Ray); Composers: Masami Kurumada and Kacky. This version will include new images different from that of the Inferno Chapter.
 * Ending: "The Garden of the god ~Del Regno~" (「神の園〜デル·レグノ〜」) sang by Ishibaki Yuuko composed by Masami Kurumada and Kacky.