List of Saint Seiya characters

This article comprises a list of characters that play a role in Saint Seiya (also known as Knights of the Zodiac) and its canonical continuation, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, two manga series created, written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada.

The plot of Saint Seiya begins in 1989, spanning until 1990 (date retconned from 1986 by the author at the beginning of Next Dimension) and follows a group of five mystical warriors called Saints as they battle in the name of the goddess Athena against agents of evil who seek to rule the Earth. Their main enemy in the first arc of the story is the traitorous Gold Saint of Gemini, who has murdered the representative of Athena and taken his place as leader of the Saints. In the second arc, the Saints are confronted with the god of the Sea Poseidon, who, after kidnapping the mortal reincarnation of Athena, threatens to flood the world with incessant rain to cleanse it of the evils of mankind. Their final enemy, who appears in the third arc of the series, is the god of the Underworld, Hades, whom Athena has fought since the age of myth.

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension acts both as a prequel and a sequel to the first series. It details the aftermath of the war against Hades and starts with Athena seeking help from the gods of Olympus and from Chronos to save Pegasus Seiya from Hades' curse by travelling back to the 18th century. The two main antagonists are the troops of the goddess Artemis, in the 20th century storyline, and the incarnation of Hades in the 18th century.

Creation and conception

When Kurumada designed Seiya's likeness, he was inspired by Ryūji Takane, the main character of his hit manga Ring ni Kakero, which he created 9 years before Seiya. Most protagonists of Kurumada's works bear a resemblance to Ryūji, because Kurumada subscribes to the revered Osamu Tezuka's Star System (a stable cast of characters) technique. The same process is done with almost all the other characters from the series, as in all Kurumada's works.[1]

Protagonists

Saori Kido

Main article: Athena (Saint Seiya)

Pegasus Seiya

Main article: Pegasus Seiya

Dragon Shiryū

Main article: Dragon Shiryū

Cygnus Hyōga

Cygnus Hyōga (白鳥星座（キグナス）の氷河 Kigunasu no Hyōga)
Voice actors: Kōichi Hashimoto, Hiroaki Miura, Mamoru Miyano, Jason Douglas (US version)
Cygnus Hyōga, also known as Swan Hyōga in several international adaptations, is one of the main characters in Kurumada's manga. He is the Bronze Saint of the Cygnus constellation and was born in the fictional village of Kohoutek, in eastern Siberia, which, at the time when Kurumada wrote and drew his manga, was in the Soviet Union. His mastery over his Cosmo grants him superhuman talents, including the ability to create ice and snow at temperatures as low as absolute zero, by stopping subatomic particles. Hyōga is often portrayed wearing a cross and rosary of the Northern Cross, another name for the constellation Cygnus. Calm by nature, he displays a seemingly emotionless exterior, but a more tender side of his character emerges on occasion, such as his deep gratitude to Andromeda Shun for having saved his life and his undying devotion to his mentor Aquarius Camus. In Japan, Hyōga is a popular character, ranking second in the main character polls of the Bronze Saints.[2]

Andromeda Shun

Main article: Andromeda Shun

Phoenix Ikki

Main article: Phoenix Ikki

Pegasus Tenma

Pegasus Tenma (天馬星座（ペガサス）の天馬 Pegasasu no Tenma)
Trained to be the Pegasus Saint by Crateris Suikyō, Tenma is Seiya's incarnation in the 18th century and Alone's best friend. After he and Alone escape from Libra Dohko and Aries Shion, Tenma realizes that his friend has become Hades.[3] He vows to protect Alone, but, when he tries to make him remember who he is, Pandora and some Skeleton soldiers intervene and Tenma has to be saved by Dohko and Shion.[4] The trio is then beset by Griffon Vermeer[5] and Suikyō, who reveals himself as the Garuda Specter.[6] The Saints manage to escape after Pandora summons the Specters and drink water from the Crateris Cloth to revitalize themselves. There, Tenma sees his future: Seiya in a wheelchair.[7] Returning to Sanctuary with Dohko and Shion, Tenma later encounters Andromeda Shun and the two begin to climb the Twelve Temples, joining forces to protect the infant time-traveling Athena.
An alternate version of Tenma makes an appearance in the spin-off manga Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, where his name is spelled only in katakana.

Other Saints

Antagonists

Support characters

Cassios (カシオス Kashiosu)
Voice Actor: Banjo Ginga, Matt Culpepper (English)
Formerly a Saint apprentice under Ophiuchus Shaina. During the final fight for the Pegasus Cloth and the status of Saint, Seiya cut off one of his ears, and he hated Seiya for it ever since. Cassios had great respect and affection toward Shaina; however, he realizes that Shaina had affection toward Seiya. Motivated by this, he takes Seiya's place and dies during the fight with Leo Aiolia in order to wake the Leo Gold Saint from the control of Saga's Dellusional Demon's Emperor Fist. In the anime adaptation, he was also the younger brother of Docrates, an anime-only character.
Guilty (謎の聖闘士（セイント） ギルティー Nazo no Seinto Girutī)
Voice Actor: Hidekatsu Shibata
Master of Phoenix Ikki during his stance on Death Queen Island. Harsh and heartless, and concealing his features behind a fearsome mask, Guilty employed brutal methods in Ikki's training, to force him to become a being of pure hate, to be able to wield the power of the Phoenix Cloth. Guilty was responsible for Esmeralda's death, and died at the hands of Ikki, as his final trial to become a Saint, not before revealing to Ikki the secret of his birth. Also known as the mysterious Saint, Masami Kurumada never revealed Guilty's destined constellation.
Natasha (ナターシャ Natāsha)
Voice Actor: Akiko Tsuboi
One of Mitsumasa Kido's women and late mother of Cygnus Hyōga. After dying in a shipwreck, her remains were preserved intact by the gelid waters of the Siberian seas. She's also alternatively known, both in the manga and anime adaptation as Hyōga's Mama (氷河の母親 Hyōga no Māma). Kurumada later introduced a character of the same name in the short story arc dedicated to Hyōga in the thirteenth volume of the manga, sister to Alexer, leader of the Blue Warriors.
Esmeralda (エスメラルダ Esumeraruda)
Voice Actor: Chisato Nakajima
She was sold as a work slave to an abusive local farmer for only three bags of grain. When Ikki first encountered her, he mistook her for Shun, because she and Shun shared the same facial features with the only differences being hair color and gender. She was killed by Guilty, Ikki's master, in order to provoke Ikki into drawing power from hatred. In the anime adaptation her background is the same, with the addition of being Guilty's daughter.
Appendix Kiki (アッペンデックスの貴鬼 Appendekkusu no Kiki)
Voice Actor: Hiroko Emori, Karen Hatch (English)
Apprentice under Aries Mu. Also known as Appendix Kiki. Like his master and grandmaster, Kiki also bears the ornaments on his forehead and is the youngest of the people of the continent of Mu. He never fights, but can use powerful telekinesis against normal humans. In the Poseidon arc, he was given the duty of bringing the Libra Cloth to all the Bronze Saints, fulfilling it valiantly even at the risk of his life.
Yakov (ヤコフ Yakofu)
A young boy from Kohoutek village, in Eastern Siberia, neighbor and good friend of Cygnus Hyōga. He watches over Nastassja's eternal sleep when Hyōga is absent due to his responsibilities as a Saint. He helps Hyōga in various domestic tasks and also assisted the Saint in his escape from the Blue Warriors' imprisonment.
Miho (美穂)
Voice Actor: Naoko Watanabe, Sasha Paysinger (English)
Seiya's fellow orphan and childhood friend, she works at the orphanage where she and Seiya, along with his sister Seika lived before Seiya was taken away. Miho is in love with Seiya to some degree, and in a sense represents the point of view of the normal people who are mere witnesses to the struggles among the gods.
Mitsumasa Kido (城戸 光政 Kido Mitsumasa)
Voice Actor: Kōhei Miyauchi, Marty Fleck (English)
Foster-grandfather of Saori who adopted her and took her to Japan after finding a dying Sagittarius Aiolos in Sanctuary. In the manga, it was revealed that he was actually the birth father of all the orphans he sent around the world to be trained as Saints. In the anime, he merely took the children from various orphanages, and sent them for their training. Just before he died, he told Saori all the truth regarding the encounter with Aiolos in Sanctuary and her divine origins and purpose of her birth in this era.
Seika (星華)
Voice Actor: Yuriko Yamamoto, Satsuki Yukino OVA
Seiya's older sister, whom he lost contact with when he was sent to Greece to be trained as a Saint. After Seiya was taken away, she wandered the world looking for him. It was long implied that Marin, Seiya's mentor, could be Seika, and some characters, including Seiya, thought it was possibly true. Marin and Seika even shared the same physical characteristics: same age, same birthdate, same height, same birthplace. Also, Marin has a brother she lost and was looking for. Seika resurfaced as a separate character in the Hades chapter, completely amnesiac, after having followed Seiya all the way to Greece alone. It was Seika's voice that, more than any other, urged Seiya on in his fight against Thanatos. It is then revealed in the final arc of Kurumada's manga that Seika and Marin are not the same person.
Shunrei (春麗)
Voice Actor: Yumiko Shibata, Eriko Sato OVA, Ai Bandō Elysion OVA, Kimberly Prause (English)
Shunrei was an abandoned orphan found by Dohko in Rozan (China). She cares deeply for Shiryū, and her prayers for Shiryū's safety in battle often help him through his darkest hours, particularly against Cancer Deathmask, as well as against the Specter trio of Sylphid, Gordon and Queen.
Eurydice (ユリディース Yuridīsu)
Voice Actor: Yuko Nagashima
Lyra Orphée's lover, she enjoyed great happiness at the Saint's side on Earth, until the day of her untimely death because of a snake bite. Crushed by her demise, Orphée descended to the Underworld to bargain for her soul with Hades. Touched by the Saint's pleas and melody, she was allowed to return to Earth by the deity, only to be thwarted by Sphinx Pharaoh. She thus was condemned to remain bound to the Underworld half-turned into stone, and later helped Seiya and Shun to unearth Orphée's seemingly forgotten loyalty to Athena.
Tokumaru Tatsumi (辰巳 徳丸 Tatsumi Tokumaru)
Voice Actor: Yukitoshi Hori, Ron Howald (English)
Saori's butler, bodyguard and right-hand man. Trusted man of Mitsumasa Kido and a black belt, third dan in Kendō. He was in charge of overseeing the orphans who were to be sent out all over the world to train and become Bronze Saints, and due to his extreme severity and at times downright abusive behavior, most of them were resentful towards him. He always tried to be strong and protect Saori, but even the Sanctuary soldiers can defeat him. (Not without struggle, however, as he offered considerable resistance for an outnumbered man). He starts as a rather daunting and abusive retainer for the future Saints, but he is in truth a man who is honor-bound to protect Saori, and ultimately is the series' comic relief.
Hell's Watchdog Cerberus (地獄の番犬 ケルベロス Jigoku no Banken Keruberosu)
The enormous, three-headed demonic watchdog guarding the entrance to the Underworld. Savage, grotesque in appearance and emitting a foul stench, it relentlessly devoured souls that belonged to greedy people in life. Sphinx Pharaoh was in charge of taking care of the creature, and it was defeated temporarily by Pegasus Seiya and Andromeda Shun.
The Enlightened One (仏陀 Budda)
An enlightened being with whom Shaka conversed during his childhood, and taught him the true value of life. Although Kurumada hints at the true identity of this being as Siddharta Gautama, the Supreme Buddha, he doesn't confirm neither he is Buddha Gautama nor if he was who instructed Shaka in the ways of the Saints.
The Nymphs (妖精（ニンフ） Ninfu)
The minor divine spirits in Elysion, who delight Thanatos with their beautiful voice and music.
Alone (アローン Arōn)
Hades' chosen vessel in the 18th century, with the purest soul on earth. Prior to the Holy war, he was best friends with Pegasus Tenma since childhood. He first met Tenma during a snowstorm one night, in an abandoned shack where they both sought refuge. Tenma deceived Alone at first so that he could steal his belongings, but was stopped by Suikyō. As Suikyō was going to kill Tenma for theft, Alone lied and said he had given his bag to Tenma. Suikyō was eventually convinced and told Tenma he was now in debt to Alone and should therefore guard Alone for the rest of his life. At the start of the war, he could feel that darkness was headed his way, and that it came after him. He and Tenma escaped from Libra Dohko and Aries Shion, and ended up outside a small mausoleum. As Tenma went back to retrieve his Cloth, a voice called for Alone inside the mausoleum. As he entered, he found Hades' Sword stuck in the ground. It was then that Pandora showed herself and convinced Alone of grabbing the hilt of the sword. Alone started plunging into darkness and ignored Tenma as he strode towards Hades' Castle.[3][4][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Moon Witch Hecate (月の魔女ヘカーテ Tsuki no Majo Hekāte)
The elderly witch of the moon. Kurumada based her on the mythological persona Hecate. She tricks Athena into cutting off her hair by means of an illusion of multiple pathways to the temple of the moon. She makes a brew with Athena's hair which restores her youth, becoming a young girl again. She then guides Athena to Chronos who in turn punishes her, turning her body into dust. Later, she resurfaces unharmed, as she was able to survive Chronos' assault.[14] The young Hecate displays a childish and whimsical behavior, and has exhibited the ability to transform into a crow. Sometime after Athena's departure, she assists the Saints in reaching Athena's garland, which leads them to the era of the past Holy War. Hecate has an age of a thousand years.[15]
Pegasus (ペガサス Pegasasu)
Tenma's loyal horse and steed. He saved Shion's, Dohko and Tenma's lives, by protecting them from the Skeleton soldiers.
Suishō (水清)
Garuda Suikyō's younger brother. The Specter is forced to reminisce about him after suffering the effects of Phoenix Ikki's Demonic Illusion Attack. Suishō was afflicted by a terminal disease, thus Hades offered Suikyō to save his brother's life in exchange of loyalty to him. Suishō died shortly after the deity's offering. Suishō's background remains to be revealed in further detail by Kurumada.
The Pope of the 18th century (前聖戦の教皇 Zenseisen no Kyōkō)
The Pope ruling Sanctuary in the 18th century, a survivor of the Holy War against Hades in the 15th century. He grants Shion and Dohko the rank of Gold Saints and the right to don the Aries and Libra Gold Cloths. He also foresees Hades' return to Earth and prepares Sanctuary to face such event. A false Pope, who swore allegiance to Hades also plays a role in the storyline, whether he and the legitimate Pope are the same person, still remains to be revealed by Kurumada.
Shōryū (翔龍)
A new character introduced by Kurumada in Next Dimension, an orphaned baby, found in the Five Old Peaks fairylands of Lushan, by Shunrei. He is very fond of Shiryū.

Non-antagonic deities

God of Time Chronos (時の神・クロノス Toki no Kami Kuronosu)
The god who rules time. Said to be shapeless and hidden within the universe. Athena meets with him in the gate to time-space. Chronos helps Athena to return to the era of the previous Holy War in order to remove Hades' curse from Seiya, turning her into a baby.
Goddess of Victory Nike (勝利の女神・ニケ Shōri no Megami Nike)
The greek goddess of victory, who is always at Athena's side, manifested in the form of her golden staff, leading the Saints to triumph. Her true form is visible in the giant Athena Parthenos statue in Sanctuary.
Heavenly Emperor Zeus (天帝・ゼウス Tentei Zeusu)
Father of Athena and the supreme god of the Olympus. His participation is to date, reduced to only mentions by other characters and in background narrative.
Moon Goddess Artemis (月の女神・アルテミス Tsuki no Megami Arutemisu)
The beautiful goddess of the moon, and elder sister to Athena. The goddess is initially hostile to her sister due to her battles with Hades and Poseidon. Though she reveals to Athena that the only way to remove Hades' curse from Seiya's body is to travel back in time with the help of Chronos.[16]
Sun God Apollo (太陽の神・アポロン Taiyō no Kami Aporon)
He is mentioned in passing when Athena visits Artemis, and is said to merely watch over the time of the day. Older brother of Athena and Artemis.
Cronus and Rhea (クロノスとレア Kuronosu to Rea)
Briefly mentioned by Libra Dohko in vol.27 of Kurumada's manga, the mighty Titans, whose union gave birth to Hades, god of the Underworld, in the ages of myth.
Cupid (キューピッド Kyūpiddo)
Mentioned by Thanatos in vol. 27 of Kurumada's manga, attributing the nymphs' agitation caused by Pegasus Seiya, to his usual mischief.

Canonical characters outside the manga

The following characters are considered canonical within the universe of Saint Seiya, as they were all created by Masami Kurumada. They were not introduced in his manga, but instead in the first Saint Seiya film. Two elements related to them, specifically the Sagitta Cloth and the Lyra Cloth, however, hold indisputable canonical status as they were later integrated by Kurumada into his manga.

In the musical for theatre Saint Seiya: Super Musical they returned as antagonists, as the musical is based on the film they appeared in and they are mentioned collectively in the summary of the play available at its official website and the cast portraying them has been revealed.[17]

Southern Cross Khristós (南十字星座（サザンクロス）のクライスト Sazan Kurosu no Kuraisuto)
Voiced by: Ryūsei Nakao
The Silver Saint of the Southern Cross constellation, who battled the Saint who bears the opposite of his constellation, Cygnus Hyōga.
Sagitta Maya (矢座（サジッタ）の魔矢 Sajitta no Maya)
Voiced by: Michitaka Kobayashi
The Silver Saint of the Sagitta constellation, predecessor of Sagitta Ptolemy, known as the deadly hunter.
Scutum Jan (楯座（スキュータム）のヤン Sukyūtamu no Yan)
Voiced by: Keiichi Nanba
The Silver Saint of the Scutum constellation, whose shield in his Cloth is even stronger than the fabled Dragon Shield.
Lyra Orpheus (琴座（ライラ）のオルフェウス Raira no Orufeusu)
Voiced by: Yūji Mitsuya
The Silver Saint of Lyra, predecessor of Lyra Orphée.
Orion Jäger (オリオン星座のジャガー Orion Seiza no Jagā)
Voiced by: Yū Mizushima
The Silver Saint of the Orion constellation, from the ages of myth, regarded as one of the strongest Saints that ever lived.

Anime-only characters

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kappa Magazine, number 80 (in Japanese). 1999.
  2. ↑ Saint Seiya Volume 3, Argentinian Edition, Japanese characters poll
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shōnen Champion #49 2006
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Shōnen Champion #6 2007
  5. ↑ Shōnen Champion #36+37 2007
  6. ↑ Shōnen Champion #38 2007
  7. ↑ Shōnen Champion #8 2008
  8. ↑ Shōnen Champion #38 2006
  9. ↑ Shōnen Champion #43 2006
  10. ↑ Shōnen Champion #50 2006
  11. ↑ Shōnen Champion #51 2006
  12. ↑ Shōnen Champion #4+5 2007
  13. ↑ Shōnen Champion #1 2008
  14. ↑ Shōnen Champion #12, February 2009
  15. ↑ Saint Seiya Next Dimension vol.2
  16. ↑ Kurumada, Masami (2010). "Chapter 16". Saint Seiya Next Dimension, Volume 2. Shōnen Jump. ISBN 978-4-253-13272-5.
  17. ↑ http://www.musical-seiya.com The Ghost Saints will appear in the new Saint Seiya musical