Saint Seiya

Saint Seiya (聖闘士星矢, Seinto Seiya), also known as Knights of the Zodiac, is a manga series authored by Masami Kurumada, and later adapted to anime. The story follows five mystical warriors called the "Saints" (or "Knights"; the kanji is properly read as sei-tōshi "holy fighter" but the furigana has it pronounced "saint") who have adopted various constellations as their guardian symbols. The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1987, but was cancelled in 1989 due to low ratings of the anime.^{[citation needed]} In 2002, Toei produced Saint Seiya: Hades, which continued adapting the manga story arcs to animation that remained pending when the anime was canceled in 1989.

Six years before the events at the focus of the series, one hundred orphans from Japan are sent to different parts of the world to become legendary warriors known as "Saints", who are the soldiers under the command of Greek goddess Athena. These warriors are under the protection of a celestial constellation.

The power of the Saints originates from the understanding of the "Cosmo". The concept of the "Cosmo" advocates that each atom within a human body resembles a small solar system, and since the human body consists of billions of atoms, the totality forms a "small Cosmo" or a "small Universe". Each person's Cosmo has its own unique signature. The Saints take the knowledge of the Cosmo to the next level: since humans are composed of atoms, humans should be able to use the mysterious forces behind the atoms to achieve super human feats.

The story focuses on one of these orphans named Seiya. He is sent to the Sanctuary in Greece to become the Pegasus Saint. After seven years, Seiya becomes the Pegasus Saint and returns to Japan to find his older sister. Because his sister disappeared the same day Seiya went to the Sanctuary, Saori Kido, the granddaughter of the person who sent all the orphans to train, makes a deal with him to go to fight in a tournament called the Galaxian Wars, where the orphans who survived and became Bronze Saints must fight to win the most powerful cloth: The Sagittarius Gold Cloth. If Seiya goes to compete there, Saori would start a search to find Seiya's sister.

During the series, Seiya becomes the partner and friend of other Bronze Saints: Shun, Shiryu, Ikki, and Hyoga. As the myth of the saints, they must fight together to protect the reincarnation of the goddess Athena from any danger.

When Masami Kurumada was in the process of creating Saint Seiya, he gave Seiya the name Rin at first, since Kurumada was going to title his manga "Ginga no Rin" (Rin of the Galaxy). However, as Kurumada continued developing his manga, he decided to change the name to Seiya, which was more fitting. First he spelled the name with the kanji that meant "Holy Arrow", to relate it to Seiya's condition as a Saint, but later decided to use the kanji that meant "Star Arrow", to emphasize the constellation and mythological motif. Finally, he changed his manga title as well, to Saint Seiya, once he fully developed the concept of the Saints. Also, Kurumada stated that one of the first ideas he conceived for Saint Seiya was the Pegasus Meteor Fist. Since his manga was going to use the constellations as a very important and ever-present theme, he wanted his protagonist to have a special move that would be like a shower of meteors.^[1]

When Kurumada designed Seiya's likeness, he was inspired by Takane Ryuji, 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 Ryuji, 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.^[1]

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Seiya