Television series

Saint Seiya

Name: Saint Seiya
Genre: Action, Adventure, Anime, Science Fiction
Released: 1986
Cast: Tōru Furuya, Masakazu Morita, Fumiko Orikasa, Hiroaki Miura, Takahiro Sakurai

A 1986 Japanese anime about young warriors called Saints who channel cosmic energy through mystical armor to serve the goddess Athena. It's relentlessly earnest, gloriously weird, and built entirely on the principle that friendship and determination can overcome any odds. For anyone who loves shonen anime's DNA or wants to see where modern battle-shounen templates came from.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you relish sprawling shonen sagas where loyalty, friendship and gleaming armour-clad duels build slowly, and you don't mind a story that takes its time getting to the point.

Skip it if you want tight, grounded drama or fast payoffs; battles repeat their rhythms and 171 episodes of stretched pacing can wear thin.

What it asks of you: Expect a long commitment: 171 episodes of roughly twenty-five minutes each, with slow setups, earnest intensity and a sincerity that never winks at itself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Dragon Ball Z1989

The direct spiritual ancestor of shonen anime. Similar escalating power scales, tournament arcs, and found-family dynamics, but with a looser tone and more comedy woven through the action sequences.

But The pacing is legendarily slow—fights stretch across multiple episodes with lots of standing around and powering up. Filler episodes can test your patience.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood2009

Takes the shonen template Saint Seiya helped establish and refines it into something tighter. Same deep commitment to emotional stakes, ensemble cast growth, and the price of power, but with a more intricate plot.

But Starts slow and assumes you'll stick with it for payoffs that come much later. If you need instant gratification, the early episodes might feel talky.

My Hero Academia2016

The spiritual great-grandchild of Saint Seiya's core idea: earnest kids earning power through effort and mentorship, fighting for something bigger than themselves. Same warmth, updated animation and pacing.

But It's aimed at a slightly younger audience than Saint Seiya, so the tone is sometimes airbrushed. Some story arcs overstay their welcome.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Saint Seiya

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman1972

Direct ancestor. Saint Seiya takes Gatchaman's template of costumed warriors with elemental/cosmic powers working as a tight team and transplants it into anime with bigger budgets and longer arcs.

The actual prototype: a decade before Saint Seiya, this live-action/animation hybrid about five warriors with cosmic powers and matching suits was already working. Seeing the DNA in its pure form is a revelation—Saint Seiya didn't invent the formula, it perfected it.

But The animation is extremely dated and the special effects are primitive. It moves at a '70s pace that modern viewers often find glacial, and the live-action sequences have not aged well.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure2012

Shares Saint Seiya's combination of utterly sincere emotion with genuinely bizarre aesthetic choices. Generational saga, found family, spirit-channeling powers, and an anarchic sense of humor that keeps it from feeling overwrought.

But The early parts are intentionally clunky as homage to '80s manga, and the tone shifts wildly between seasons. Some viewers find the poses and fashion choices distracting rather than charming.

Demon Slayer2019

Modern polish applied to Saint Seiya's DNA: a protagonist earning his power through mentorship and determination, a tightly bonded team, and animation that turns every fight into something worth watching twice. Excellent pacing.

But The story is simpler and more straightforward than Saint Seiya, which some find less interesting. Heavy reliance on the anime's visual style means the plot alone isn't always gripping.

Bleach2004

Another shonen that owes everything to Saint Seiya's template: teenager gains cosmic power, gathers an ensemble cast, fights increasingly cosmic threats. Great character design and a soundtrack that slaps.

But The middle section sags badly—filler arcs that the original series didn't have. It's much longer than it needs to be, and the ending feels rushed.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon1992

Released around the same time as later Saint Seiya episodes, it applies the exact same cosmic warrior template to a different genre entirely. If you love Saint Seiya's earnestness, this has it in spades with more comedy and heart.

But The early animation is rough, and the dubbed version (if that's your entry point) is cheesy in ways the original isn't. The monster-of-the-week format early on feels repetitive.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan1996

A more grounded take on the ensemble-warrior formula, with Saint Seiya's found-family warmth but a samurai setting and deeper character backstories. The sword work is gorgeous and the emotional beats land hard.

But The pacing is uneven and some arcs are better than others. The later seasons diverge wildly from what made the show work in the first place.

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan poster

Rekka no Honoo1997

A lesser-known shonen that borrowed heavily from Saint Seiya's playbook: teen with latent powers, loyal friends with complementary abilities, tournament arcs, and a tone that never wavers from sincere. Criminally underrated.

But It's obscure for a reason—the animation is uneven and the plot doesn't always hold together. By modern standards it feels thin, though that's part of its charm if you're in the mood for it.

The Midnight Gospel2020

Both treat the cosmos as a space where human relationships matter most. Both use visual spectacle in service of emotional truth rather than spectacle for its own sake.

A trippy, gorgeous adult anime miniseries about grief, meaning, and connection between two people in a relationship. It shares Saint Seiya's ability to make cosmic stakes feel emotionally intimate, but approaches it through existential dread instead of action heroics.

But It's meditative and occasionally abstract in ways that will feel glacially slow if you're watching for plot. The final episode deals directly with cancer and death—not light viewing.

Promare2019

Both understand that shonen is fundamentally about the beauty of exertion and the sacredness of friendship. Both ask you to care deeply about people protecting the world through force and will.

A feature-length anime about a firefighter protecting humanity from flame-wielding mutants. It has Saint Seiya's earnest belief that your team is everything, its commitment to the aesthetics of power, and some of the most inventive hand-drawn action animation in recent memory.

But The plot is deliberately thin—it's there to hang action and visual joy on. If you need narrative complexity, you'll be disappointed. Some find the style overwhelming rather than beautiful.