All right, it's time for...Hyoga!  How to describe Hyoga?  That is one of the mysteries of life...

 

Hyoga is an emotionless anti-social super-depressive mother-obsessed boy.  He is also one of the favorite bishies of all Seiyadom.  But more than that, Hyoga is one very interesting glacier.  Hyoga's name does actually mean glacier...not an auspicious label. 

 

When Hyoga was little (we're talking four or five, when normal people like you and I were fighting over rocking horses and plastic frying pans), he watched his mother throw him to safety from a ship to a lifeboat.  And then the ship sank with his mother on it.  So we have this traumatized little boy, who is now an orphan, and he is sent to the Seiko Orphanage in Tokyo, where he meets his now-friends.  Back then, however, he was teased for being half-Russian.  (The blond hair and blue eyes kind of give him away.)  At the age of seven, he was sent back to Siberia to train with (version dependant) Camus or Crystal Saint.  Now, Crystal Saint's training was harsh, but at least Crystal was a gentle, loving person, even being Camus's student.  Camus, on the other hand, is the very definition of a human ice cube.  Oh, we know he loves Hyoga as if Hyoga were his son.  But Camus manages to keep his every emotion guarded from others.  So Hyoga was either harshly trained by a man who was never outrightly kind to him, or by a man who was sometimes outrightly kind to him.  Not like Seiya, who trained with sweet, adoring Marin.  So now, Hyoga tries to go see his mama's body, which has been preserved in the arctic sea...this results in the loss of his training partner/best friend Isaac, who sacrifices himself to save Hyoga.  Then Hyoga goes to get his Bronze Cloth, and (in both versions) his master isn't even around to watch.  I believe he is the only one who gets his Cloth alone...well, in the company of little Yakoff.  Our screwed-up little swan then goes on to kill Crystal, kill Camus (fight Camus twice in the manga), kill Isaac for real, and nearly get baked to death in a volcano.  And watch Camus die again.  Twice.  So Hyoga has now either killed or watched the death of everyone that meant anything to him (outside of his current friends) and is well on his way to super-emo.  He has also had his mama's ship sunk to the depths of the ocean by Camus, and to honor Camus, he refuses to try to see her again.  While we're on the subject of what Hyoga has suffered through, it has always made me wonder why it HAD to be Hyoga who fought in the volcano.  I mean, Ikki LIVES in a volcano.  He would have dominated against Hagen.  But no.  It had to be the poor lil' Siberian duckling who is the least suited for battles in extreme heat. 

 

Did I mention that Hyoga has no love interest?  Can you see why Hyoga is such an interesting depressed character? 

 

Hyoga, though, manages to grow into a lovable character.  For the first episode we see him, Hyoga's every line starts with "Mama!"  It's kind of annoying, and we think he's a little dumb.  But as time passes, his mother-complex slowly grows less intense.  Camus definitely "helps" him out of it.  But by Hades, after so much trauma and pain and fighting, Hyoga becomes an incredibly cool person.  Oh yeah, he's cool from the beginning, but back then, his constant "mama"-ing kind of detracted from the image.  Sure, he's still a mama's boy even in the OVAs, but at least he's mature now.  He still loves his mama a whole lot, but he no longer makes her the focus of his life.  Also, after killing so many people he loves, you'd expect him to be a complete wreck.  But he isn't.  He's managed to overcome that, and now has incredible self-composure.  One of Hyoga's themes is that he must learn to triumph over his heart--in other words, if he has to kill someone he loves for the sake of saving Athena, then he needs to do it without hesitation, because he is a Saint, and Athena is more important than anything else.  I think at the Hades OVAs, Hyoga has finally gotten to that point.  I love the short sections of him travelling with Shiryuu.  Just two cool guys making their way through hell (sometimes with cool guy #3, Kanon). 

 

Hyoga is, indeed, very hot, I know.  But there is something deeper about him...in the way he angsts, has a screwed up life, and then manages to become a cool person in spite of it.  He gets annoyingly angsty at some point, but then he deals with it and stops.  And that's what's amazing about our (still) screwed-up swan. 

I do know that I am prone to being prejudiced.  For example, Shiryuu is one of my personal favorite characters, and I am bound to say good things about him.  I like guys who are sticks (e.g. Kilik from Soul Calibur, Jin Uzuki from Xenosaga etc) because they make me smile.  On the other hand, I can't stand cocky Delta Megrez Alberich...but that won't appear until later. 

 

Shiryuu is a beautifully drawn character.  A lot of people ask how drawn people can be hot, but my response to that is that in times before cameras, airplanes, and family planning, many marriages were arranged by picture exchange.  And these were all drawn by artists.  So basically, the family of one side would look at the picture, think, "He's hot, got some credentials, got some money.  He can marry our daughter."  That was a drawn picture. 

 

Anyway, back to Shiryuu.  Shiryuu is the only one of the main characters to have extremely long (black) hair, and in all seriousness, his hair is every girl's dream to play with.  He also has very pretty colored grey eyes, though he's blind half the time, so we don't see them.  Shiryuu is also known for never having a shirt.  For some reason, when he (and no one else) takes off his Cloth, his shirt immediately self-destructs.  He's got awesome muscles, though, so I don't mind.  ^^ 

 

Shiryuu is...also a very well-developed character.  He starts out kind of cocky when he fights Seiya, but that quickly disappears.  At first, he and the others do not get along well, but Shiryuu is not afraid to change his beliefs if he finds out he is wrong.  In fact, once Seiya saves him, Shiryuu becomes a fiercely loyal friend, risking his life time and again to help Seiya.  Shiryuu is also very righteous, proved by the flashbacks of Ohko attempting (and failing miserably) to drag Shiryuu into disobeying Roshi.  Shiryuu is increidbly determined as well, and if he wants to do something, not even death can stop him.  I know that sounds cliche, but I mean it quite literally.  He nearly dies several times, and bleeds more than humanly possible, but he does what he needs to get done. 

 

Shiryuu at times seems a bit masochistic, since he has blatant disregard for his own safety and well-being when it comes to saving his friends and his goddess.  I actually admire that in him, because he is strong enough not to care, and to do miraculous things at the same time.  This same quality makes him incredibly adorable, at least in my eyes, since he tries so seriously hard to be a righteous, loyal person. 

 

Shiryuu also matures into a very responsible big-brother figure for the group.  He is very wise (after all, he was raised by Roshi) and calm, and reflects through his choices before acting.  He also strategizes when he fights, and then he tries to help the others strategize as well.  One of the things I admire most about him is his ability to understand.  After he goes blind the first time, he gets incredibly angsty, but only for two episodes.  Then he suddenly realizes he's being immature and whiny, and that there are far more important things in his life.  And he stops angsting. 

 

Shiryuu's relationship with the others is fun to observe.  With Seiya, he has a bond of undying friendship.  He and Hyoga have a quiet friendship, in which the two of them understand without speaking.  And Shun is just little brother material.  Shiryuu understands Ikki, surprisingly, and understands Ikki rather well.  He seems to know Ikki's true feelings in Hades Sanctuary. 

 

The only thing that bothers me about Shiryuu is that he never tells Shunrei how much she means to him.  I mean, yeah, sure, she seems to understand in words unspoken and all that crap, but I wish he would just say it out loud.  If anything were to happen to Shunrei, Shiryuu would not know what to do with himself. 

 

But those things are what make him such a fun character.  He is developed so well that one can find things to like and dislike about him.  Sure, he's got some cheesy inspirational speeches, but he WOULD say them, since he's such a stick.  And sure, he's got some angsty moments, but then he grows out of them.  That's why I like Shiryuu so much--his ability to change. 

From this point forward, I am going to undertake a huge endeavor...writing my thoughts on all the important characters of Saint Seiya.  Of course, I guess I should start with the title character, since he is the center of the story. 

 

To tell the truth, Seiya is not my favorite character.  In fact, he is not most people's favorite character.  However, I've only rarely ever seen people truly HATE Seiya.  He's not a terribly hate-able person.  Seiya is, indeed, a typical shounen hero.  He is rash, impulsive, hot-headed, cocky, and determined.  He is loyal to his cause and his friends, and he will always miraculously charge through and save the day.  But the difference between any other shounen hero and Seiya is that Seiya has a charisma that allows us to forgive his cliches.  He is a truly kind person inside of the boyish, childish body, and even more importantly, he is not arrogant or naive to the point of annoyance.  Seiya tries very hard, and although one does tend to be annoyed by "Pegasus Ryuu Sei Ken" eight times in the same episode, you still can't hate poor Seiya for it.  Seriously, it's not his fault that his attack selection is limited. 

 

You can tell Seiya's charm through his interactions with other characters.  With Shiryuu, who is fiercely loyal to him, and who would brave blindness and (several times) death to save Seiya's butt.  With Hyoga, who jokes with him in funny moments and fights with him in serious moments.  With Shun, who sacrifices to let Seiya continue.  Even with Ikki, who spends a large part of season one at odds with Seiya, but still Ikki does not truly hate Seiya.  With Aiolia, Marin, Aldebaran, Mu, Kiki, and everyone else he comes in contact with, Seiya maintains his charisma and charm, so that people like to be around him. 

 

This can also be proved by the numerous relationships that people like to imagine for Seiya.  It is obvious that Miho is in love with him, and Shaina has confessed as much about herself.  Saori, although her feelings are questionable, seems to also have some sort of attachment to Seiya that goes beyond friendship.  Seiya is a very open person, and people find it easy to talk to him.  Although some villains find him innocent and a little idiotic, people who get to know him seem to like him more often than hate him. 

 

Seiya is a kind person, who wants to do well from the bottom of his heart.  While he can be annoying and immature at times, no one can really abhor him because he does not INTEND to be annoying and immature.  He feels bad for not being a good person, and apologizes for this.  Seiya also tries very hard to be kind to people, and if someone were to seriously need his help, he would give it.  This can be proved by his journey to the mountain in Tibet just to try to heal Shiryuu's eyes.  Seiya cares deeply about people, and would do anything to help his friends and his goddess.  He can be foolhardy, but it is simply because he does not stop to consider the danger to himself when his friends are in trouble. 

 

In many ways, Seiya is very much a child.  He is still a little boy, who says what he thinks and whose emotions overcome him, and who likes to laugh and joke and play soccer in his spare time.  Seiya may seem rather shallow to many people, but I believe he is actually very well developed and meaningful for a shounen hero.  And surprisingly, he is not annoying like most heroes, simply because he is not arrogant.  Seiya is a charming person who manages to make the viewer smile, and who attracts many friends to his side.  These qualities show that he is indeed a hero worth watching. 

I would write a "what is Saint Seiya?" article first, but decided this would suffice to introduce the series.  And anyway, more people who are reading this should already be Seiya fans, or you would not have found a way to get here. 

 

Why do I like Saint Seiya?

 

For many reasons.  Yeah, I get a lot of "it's a typical shounen anime" and "there's no plot" and "it's so old and rough-looking."  So it is.  But Saint Seiya is a very special show.  It's one of those shows that has something for everyone.  It manages to combine a myriad of genres into one amazing show.  Why else would it be so popular in so many nations across the world?

 

I guess we can start with the plot.  The plot is, indeed, kind of cliche at the beginning.  We have hero and friends who must find a way to save the world.  They run up lots of stairs and fight lots of enemies and finally defeat evil overlord.  The end.  Mediocre, says you.  Keep watching, says I.  We get to the Poseidon arc, where plot twists begin to happen.  We meet people we don't expect, and reasons we don't expect.  And then, we get to the Hades OVAs.  Why they're OVAs I will never know, since the entire thing will be 30-some episodes.  Anyway, at Hades Sanctuary we begin to have mysterious things happening.  Everyone is unsure of characters' motives, and everybody angsts severely.  It keeps you on your toes, and ultimately throws enough curveballs to make suspense and plot meld into a giant mesh of awesomeness. 

 

Moving on, we have the incredibly powerful argument of characters.  There are, admittedly, quite a few filler characters who get no development.  But as time passes, the viewer meets so many who do.  The Bronze Saints, the Gold Saints, a few Silvers...as well as many of the later villains.  In fact, Asgard is a completely character-developmental arc.  People who watch Saint Seiya may have varied responses to who they like and who they don't, but each person likes someone.  The characters are lifelike and vivid, and unbelievably deep, partly why there is so much fan work.  Everyone knows exactly what Hyoga would say to a specific situation, or Shun, or Ikki.  And we learn to love them, to care for their well-beings or to continuously wish so-and-so would just die.  They manage to show in their sometimes little screentime that they are very human; they worry and get angry and throw things and act just like real people.  They begin to leave the screen or the page and become part of our lives.  The characters more than make up for where the plot is thin, because even if there is little story to draw you in, the characters manage to do so. 

 

Saint Seiya has beautiful music.  Although the earlier vocal pieces are very 80s-esque, the songs are still fun songs.  And the background music is extremely well-written, thus explaining the presence of eight (I believe) OSTs.  The Hades Sanctuary OP theme, Chikyuugi, is one of the most popular miscellaneous musical pieces in China, as well as several other countries.  And each theme has its own flair, each musical piece is very fitting.  Maybe that's why there are people transcribing sheet music for it. 

 

The art is also very nice.  Yes, I am aware that the original series has very rough art, but keep in mind, it was made in 1986.  They drew everything by hand, which was bound to result in some continuity errors, in which people's faces shift slightly etc.  And the neat thing is, the artists never stopped improving.  By the middle of the first season, the Sagittarius Cloth was redesigned simply because the original looked bad.  The main characters have their Cloths redesigned habitually (explained by having the Cloths regenerated), to improve the look and build of the armors.  By Poseidon, the really odd artistic glitches had all but disappeared.  By Hades (which was first begun in 2003), the art was fairly advanced, and had reached the level of the modern anime we all know and love.  In fact, at one point in Hades Sanctuary, one character gets annoyed and his eye tics.  It tics.  That is most definitely artistic advancement. 

 

And I guess, beyond those specific reasons, there is just something about the show.  It's fun and angsty and cool and sweet all at once.  Like I've said, it has something for everyone.  Sure, it's mostly shounen "fantasy action" fighting, but there are lots of other elements.  There is some shoujo-ish romance sprinkled in there, a little deep psychological analysis, and plenty of drama.  There is mythology from around the world, a few cute little kids, and humor as well.  There are even a few well-figured girls for all you guys out there ^^.  And even though the show is shounen, all the characters are surprisingly bishie.  The bishies certainly manage to attract many girls.  For a shounen show, it has a suprisingly small amount of fanservice for guys.  In fact, while the few girls almost never reveal anything, there are several bath/shower scenes of guys...

 

So you see why I like this show yet?  If you look at it with some subjectivity, the original show was pretty good for the 80s.  It managed to win over fans all over the world (and it won me over after four volumes of the middle of the series) and it encompassed many many genres at once.  And it was not afraid to improve as time passed, so that the art and the plot and the designs became better for each arc.  Even at times when plot was mediocre, it managed to intrigue viewers, and make them want to continue watching. 

 

Saint Seiya, to be absolutely fair, is an incredible show at its core.  There are facets of it that are not so awesome, but the fact that it has managed to attract so many fans (who are crazy enough to create armors for cosplay) should probably tell you something about its ability to fascinate its viewers. 

 

So maybe give it a try sometime if you haven't already. 

 

Have you ever felt your Cosmo?