Miho-chan is probably one of the most likable female-love-interest-of-main-character personages I have ever encountered.  Most female love interests are much more well-endowed, more annoying and airheaded, and definitely less spunky.  They are sometimes very self-consumed and often rather stupid.  Miho is quite the opposite. 

 

Miho grew up in the same orphanage as Seiya, in a small, church-run facility in Tokyo.  When Miho was about six or seven, she, of her own initiative, rode inside a trash can on a garbage truck into Kiddo manor to find Seiya before he left for Greece.  When she grew older, she decided to stay and teach at the orphanage, where she takes care of a large herd of small children.  Before you scoff at her plainness and simplicity, YOU try to take care of a large herd of small children on a daily basis.  Seriously.  It's not an easy thing.  Anyway, when Seiya returns, Miho watches him fight through a tournament, and then takes care of him when he gets hurt later on.  In fact, to prevent him from running off, she ties him up with rope. 

 

Miho's quiet strength is a source of both amazement and amusement for me.  Some of the actions given to her require so much strength of will and imagination.  Miho never complains, never whines.  She is very much in love with Seiya, but she never forces her feelings on him, and never tries to make people pity her.  She is incredibly mature for a girl of thirteen, and astonishingly optimistic for an orphan whose crush is in constant danger of death. 

 

Although I have heard complaints about Miho's voice, I think those comments were made in reference to the dubs.  Miho's Japanese voice is perfectly fine, and a typical girl's voice.  I have also heard people say that Miho is too weak and helpless.  On the one hand, she is not a Saint.  For an everyday girl, she has some awesome inner strength.  And even Shaina, being a Silver Saint, is rather weak physically compared to most of the Bronze Saints.  Miho is not completely helpless either...recall the tying of Seiya. 

 

I have heard some rather convincing arguments in favor of Shaina or Saori being Seiya's ultimate choice of love interest.  However, I am still cheering for Miho.  Because Miho is a girl like me or you, a girl who wants more than anything for the man she loves to be happy, regardless of what that may cost.  Because Miho is a sweet, optimistic girl, who would make a good friend for anyone, and who would try her best for Seiya.  Because Miho seems to understand Seiya better than any of the other two.  Shaina does have it for Seiya, but half the time she is trying to kill Seiya, and something about her carriage makes me think that she is not quite as compatible with Seiya as Miho is.  The main reason everyone pairs Saori and Seiya is due to the cliff scene, and the incessant mental concerns of Saori about Seiya.  The cliff scene, I will admit, is rather indicative that Saori seems to like Seiya a little too much.  But I get the impression that Saori is merely momentarily attracted.  That's only my opinion, however.  With the name-calling, however, I think Saori merely thinks of Seiya first every time because he's the main character, and sometimes he's the only one still alive.  In fact, there is a scene in which Saori tells Seiya to stay behind at the orphanage and eat dinner there.  It seems as if she is helping Hyoga push Seiya into spending some extra time with Miho. 

 

Beyond all of that, however, I mostly think that Miho fits Seiya better.  Miho is a girl with a lot of strength and patience, and Seiya sometimes needs a cool-headed person to smack him (or tie him up, as the case may be) when he's acting stupid.  He needs someone who can make him remember what is beautiful about the world, to make him remember what life is like beyond fighting. 

 

Miho is a girl-next-door who can love a Saint and not despair.  How can one not admire her?

Almost done with finals for winter quarter, yay.  I should actually be memorizing for Chem right now, but have decided that Ikki has my attention more than chemistry does. 

 

Ikki is Ikki is Ikki.  He's such a character.  Ikki is one of the things that makes Saint Seiya so awesome.  First of all, you should know that Ikki starts out as an enemy.  I mean, ok, they all start out as enemies, which is interesting enough.  But Ikki starts out evil.  He and his little followers basically crash the Galactic Tournament and steal the prize.  Yeah.  He starts out evil.  He even tries to kill Shun.

 

After much development, Ikki eventually makes it to be a part of the group.  But he still hangs out on his own, and only shows up when he's needed.  He chills when everyone else is freaking, and he can sometimes be such a jerk.  As Saori tells Seiya at one point, however, Ikki is merely bad at expressing himself, and he actually cares deeply about his friends.  He just doesn't know how to show his sympathy. 

 

Ikki is one of the most developed characters in the show.  Like Hyoga and Shun, he's been through a lot of troubling things.  His master, for one, fought life-and-death battles with him every day.  His master also wore an oni mask.  He fell in love with his master's daughter, who was then killed by his master while his master was actually trying to kill him.  And...he's just one twisted soul.  Even after he defaults to the "good" side, he's still rather sadistic at times.  He doesn't always tell the others what he's thinking, and sometimes he makes it seem like he's abandoning their cause. 

 

But inside, Ikki is one big softie.  You can tell by some of the sweet things that occasionally pop out of his mouth, by the way his smile softens when he looks at Shun, and by the way he completely melts when anything involving Esmeralda happens.  Actually, I think Ikki's deathwish comes almost completely from Esmeralda.  I mean, sure, he cares about Shun more than anything, almost, and he does care a lot about Athena.  But look at him in Poseidon. 

 

 

People tend to forget the huge influence that Esmeralda has on Ikki, probably in great part due to the fact that she's dead and rarely appears in the show.  But I really like Esmeralda's character.  For a dead girl, she's got spunk.  She can force Ikki to stop being dumb and go back to living.  And Ikki will listen.  Ikki, who never listens to anyone, will obey Esmeralda. 

 

Ikki has some interesting relationships with the other characters.  He and Seiya have interesting interactions, as they are friends deep down, but Ikki is infuriating and Seiya is impulsive, making the two of them occasionally volatile.  He and Shiryuu interact less, but Shiryuu, being wise, seems to understand Ikki's thoughts a little better.  He and Hyoga are a silent pair of damaged bishies, and I get the vague impression that they understand each other very well, even with minimal communication.  And with Shun, Ikki is seriously overprotective and sometimes you can see through his facade of emotionless stoicism.  Take Hades Inferno for example.  Ikki starts to cry when he realizes he hasn't been able to protect Shun from being possessed by Hades. 

 

Beneath that cool, smooth, sadistic, self-assured surface, beneath the arrogant, sarcastic smile and the renegade habits, Ikki is actually just a scared little boy.  He's 15, don't forget.  However much more mature any of them may sometimes seem, in reality, they are all but high school aged children, learning how to live.  Ikki has spent his entire life unable to completely protect those he loves, and that has made a huge impact on him.  He's also spent most of his life devoid of most social interaction, thus allowing him very little social skill. 

 

His speech and manner can be incredibly unkind and harsh, but sometimes his true personality is revealed, and we see his sweet, innocent side as well.  Ikki may seem anything but innocent, but anyone fighting for Athena has to maintain at least a little innocence--enough to keep believing that their battles will benefit the world, that there might be peace and happiness one day.  And perhaps Ikki's ability to be both a sarcastic jerk and a hopeful little boy--perhaps that is what intrigued Shaka about him.  Perhaps that is what intrigued all of us Ikki fans as well. 

How do I describe Shun...let me count the ways.  Well, I wouldn't call him feminine, weak, or naive.  I WOULD call him sweet, adorable, and loving. 

 

People seem to think that Shun being nice automatically makes him a naive weak little waif.  But it doesn't.  He cares deeply for his friends and his fellow human beings, but that does not stop him from being a strong, mature person.  Shun has been through a decent amount of suffering in his day.  He grew up with his brother, who was taken away from him so they could both become Bronze Saints.  Then Shun lived through several years of harsh training on Andromeda Island, which, contrary to what we are led to believe, is not really a nice place.  It usually feels, since Ikki changed places with Shun to go to Death Queen instead of Andromeda, that Death Queen is living hell and Andromeda Island is a nice pretty tropical island with lots of birds and trees.  On the contrary.  There is an episode of the show in which we briefly see Shun's flashbacks of Andromeda, which is actually a desert island--burning hot during the day, below zero at night.  To be able to adjust to that is no small feat.  And yet we see Shun walk out of his hut in the middle of the night and not even react to the change in temperature.  Finally, after being beat up often, Shun gains his armor by nearly drowning, then goes back to Japan to find out his brother has gone insane and hates him.  Ikki finally reforms, then dies.  Then Shun's master is killed, and Shun's classmates nearly kill Shun.  Finally, we find out he has Hades's soul in his body. 

 

After all that, there is no possible way for Shun to be naive.  He's really not.  He can be a little innocent at times, but definitely not naive.  He just believes very strongly in hope, perhaps mostly due to Ikki.  Ikki has tried to give Shun the impression that somehow, as long as they are still brothers, everything will be all right.  Maybe not beautiful and blissful, but all right.  But still...Shun does know there is a lot of pain and death involved in life, and he does not fear these. 

 

Shun is actually very mature about things.  After Ikki dies the first time, Shun returns to near the place of Ikki's death to hide Athena, and she apologizes for making him come back.  Shun responds that he has to learn to deal with it, and he can't focus his life on that one sad event.  Even early in the series, Shun is mature enough to say something like that. 

 

And Shun is NOT effeminate.  He does look a bit girlish, but then, look at Misty.  Shun just happens to be a delicately-featured boy.  I mean, give him a break, he's what, 13?  How many 13-year-olds look like muscular macho men anyway?  Regardless, Shun kicks ass.  At first, he seems kind of weak compared to the others, but eventually we see that he's just hiding his power.  He mastered his Cosmo way before anyone else, and just hid it because he doesn't want to kill people.  However, when he's forced to the edge, Shun does do some awesome stuff.  Nebula Storm is one heck of a powerful attack...not to mention the fact that he manages to overpower Hades's soul temporarily.  Also...Shun is the only one the Bronzies who is not having love life difficulties.  Shiryuu doesn't tell Shunrei he likes her, Seiya has three different girls with crushes on him and doesn't ever make up his mind, Hyoga doesn't even have a girlfriend, and Ikki is obsessed with a dead girl.  And then we have Shun.  June comes to stop him from going to Sanctuary, and we can tell she has it for him.  In the middle of the episode, her mask falls off and Shun sees her face.  Now, we've already been introduced to the love/death thing with the masks (Cake or Death?) and I personally was fully expecting at least one of them to react.  But no.  Shun just looks at her for a second and seems to understand everything.  And June doesn't freak or try to kill Shun either.  They already know what they want to say. 

 

Finally, I admire Shun.  He can be so gentle and loving even through such chaos.  He can also be strong enough to hold his friends up or kill the god who has taken over his body.  Shun is a very deep, strong character, even though many people write him off as a weakling.  And he rocks the pink armor.  Anyone else in pink armor would probably look strange and more than a little discomforting.  But Shun just looks natural in it.  It doesn't bother him or annoy him or anything. 

 

How many thirteen year old boys can you think of who would fit that description?