It Came From Japan!: Saint Seiya

So one of the things I want to do especially when the show tangent as much as the last episode did is for some of our segments to have a blog to back them up. The first one will be It Came From Japan! So on this weeks show we talked about Saint Seiya.



So where do I start with Saint Seiya a manga/anime series that has become a worldwide phenomena. Maybe I should start in the beginning. In 1986 (I was born this year not this is not important though ) manga artist and writer Masami Kurumada created  a modern mythic fantasy  that would be published in Weekly Shōnen  Jump called... (go on and guess I'll wait)... That's right Saint Seiya. The manga ran from 1986 to 1991. The manga  also received an anime series the same year that lasted till 1990.  Both followed the titular hero Seiya, the Pegasus saint of Athena, and his friends as they use their mythic armors called Cloths and the power Cosmo to protect the earth. The  series became a hit and had a huge following in Japan, China, Spain, and France, In France the show would be know by a different name Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque. This name would be translated and used for the 1st english anime and the US publication of the manga.

The name translates to Knights of the Zodiac and the 1st dub would be by DiC and while it was very censored it wasn't that bad. It's release in the US however didn't come until 2003 in a time I like to call the great anime explosion   of the early 2000s. DiC's version was ok  and had an awesome theme song I Ran by Flock of Seagulls (surprisingly it fit).  The shows licence would then transfer to ADV (RIP) and they would produce an Uncut dub (good luck i'm still looking for a copy of this). Fret not the shows 1st story arc can be viewed on crunchyroll as well as two of the spin off animes (more on this later).

The Manga didn't suffer from that problem though it began publication in 2003 by Viz Media around the same time that SHONEN JUMP started in the US. By 2010 all 28 volumes  where published however in never saw a run in the magazine and the other manga's would not follow it over to the US.

While the series saw huge popularity across the world it did not see any here the US with an anime that is almost impossible to to find in English and only one of the many Manga titles being printed officially.  Saint Seiya is on my list of series that I wish would see complete release in the US Along with Kinnikuman and Shaman King Kang Zeng Bang.