Saint Seiya's History Main Idea,I want to persuade my professor and my classmates on why saint seiya is the best Japanese cartoon ever. There has been many great Japanese cartoons, the most recent ones to have international success have been dbz, pokemon, yugioo, and some other, but the cartoon that started it all was saint seiya. Saint Seiya is the first Japanese cartoon to have an enormous international success. Masami Kurumada created Saint Seiya he was born on December 6th 1953 in Tokyo, Japan. Saint Seiya was first created in the “Manga” format. A manga is the way that most of Japanese cartoons begin. A manga is like a comic. Masami kurumada is considered one of the greatest Japanese writer’s and all of his success is due to saint seiya. Saint Seiya was released in japan in the manga format in 1985, there are 28 mangas each manga consists of 182 pages and tells the entire story. Saint Seiya has been first shown on TV in Japan the 11th of September 1986. At that time Saint Seiya was an animation with excellent drawing and quality that is even today still very impressive. The last episode was on the air the 1st of April in 1989. The show aired on Japan from Monday to Friday, all the 144 episodes ended on 1989. Since then there has been reruns that were being aired in Japan. The last time that saint seiya was aired in regular TV in Japan was on 1994. About The Show,Now let me tell you something about the show. Saint Seiya deals with Greek, European and Asian mythology, it teaches the viewer about friendship and the ability to achieve any goal that may seem unreachable. Saint Seiya is a story about warriors called 'Saints', whose task is to protect Athena, the Goddess of peace, and to fight against evil forces. There are also evil Saints in the story Saint Seiya brings the subject "friendship" and "holding together" in an amazing way to you. The show also demonstrates that the "bad guys" can have their good sides and that they don’t need to be only mad, dump and ugly. The enemies are fighting for an ideal they believe in, they have a reason to be which also makes them interesting. Main Characters,Now let me tell you about the main characters of saint Seiya Each warrior under Athena’s power is classified as a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Saint. The story has five main characters Seiya the Pegasus Saint, Shiryu the Dragon Saint, Shun the Andromeda Saint, Hyoga the Cygnus Saint and Ikki the Phoenix Saint. The task of those Saints is to protect Athena and to fight against the evil forces and defeat them. The Saints are wearing a cloth, which they have won after some years of hard training. Their cloth protects them from external impacts and gives them special abilities. The cloth represents a star constellation, from which a Saint also gains his power, that is called 'cosmos'. The cosmos of a Saint is like an aura. According to the story, everybody has got a cosmos, which he is able to discover. The Saga’s of saint Seiya The story consists of 114 episodes that were aired on regular TV and can be basically divided in 5 main parts The galactic tournament that are the first 22 episodes Battle vs. the silver Saints that are the 23 till the 40 The Sanctuary chapter episodes 41 to 73 were the bronze saints go trough the 12 temples of the sanctuary and rescue athena, each temeple is guarded by a gold saint that represents a sign of the zodiac. The Asgard chapter that are the episodes 74-99 in that saga Athena and her Bronze Saints battle Polaris Hilda and her God Warriors of Asgard who threaten to take over Sanctuary and destroy the Earth by destroying the polar ice caps and triggering a catastrophic flood. The Bronze Saints defeat all 7 God Warriors and defend princess Hilda. The Poseidon's saga are the episodes 100-114 were Athena has been lured into Poseidon's trap and forced to watch helplessly as the Earth begins to flood. In a heroic rescue attempt, Seiya and his friends infiltrate Poseidon's underwater sanctuary to save Athena and destroy the pillars that sustain the seven seas. Seiya and his team defeat Poseidon’s warriors and rescue Athena and save the world. Body: The movies/episodes/side stories of saint seiya. The 114 episodes were aired around the world, translated into French, Spanish, Italian, English, and some other languages. The were 4 movies created between 1986 & 1988 There were 4 side stories that help explain some things of the previous sagas. Saint Seiya recently launched 13 new episodes that are part of the Hades chapter that wasn’t animated. Two episodes per month were being aired, On “SkyperfecTV” a pay-per-view channel that only airs on Japan. The only way to get the “Hades Chapter” is by buying they’re “Ova’s” (only video available) 2 ovas per Dvd. Due to there tremendous success 45 more episodes are being created and they will be launching next year and they will conclude the Hades saga. There’s also another movie that is being created about the “Zeus saga” and it will be launch next month. The “Gold” chapter is also being animated and it will be aired on September of 2004. The Gold chapter tells the story of the gold saint’s. Saint Seiya’s merchandise separates them from other series. The action figures of Saint Seiya reach incredible prices and have become only collectors item, because they’re extremely hard to find in these days. When they came out in 1986 the action figures cost around $28 Americans dollars. One of the hardest action figures to find is the “500 Golden arrow” which easily reaches $4000 in auctions due to its rarity. 500 sets were made. Other saint Seiya action figures in good condition go in auction for around 200 to 500 dollars. Bandai is still making new sets and they costs around $60 each. Ban Dai made the Saint Seiya toys and the toys of that brand are the ones that reach the high prices. Bandai has a rich 17-year history with Saint Seiya, selling more than five million action figures in Japan, and more than 45 million globally. Saint Seiya international. Saint Seiya - Masami Kurumada's masterpiece has thrilled audiences worldwide for nearly two decades. Saint Seiya has been aired in many countries, and everywhere it was on the air, it became a big success. Today, more than 17 years after the first time it was on the air, it is still being broadcasted in some nations. Saint Seiya has been shown in Asia, Europe, South & Central America. Here are some of the countries were it had most of it’s success in Asia. Japan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, In Europe, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, Russia,England. In Central America, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador. In South America, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia. Saint Seiya is still being broadcast in most of these countries. The 4 countries were Saint Seiya had most of its success are France, Italy, Spain & Mexico, the series was shown for more than 16 times in those countries. Conclusion: S.S has endure time and is still consider as the best anime ever Saint Seiya is a complete anime, which teaches you about mythology and gives you a better meaning of friendship and the sacrifices of life. Its remarkable that after 15 years new episodes are still being made. There’s no cartoon that has match saint seiya durability and fan base. Saint Seiya endurance gives them a fan base that is unlimited; you could find a 9 year old fans, as well as a 25 year old fans. Basically we can say it's on one hand side the combination of the mythologies and the sagas that gives a special touch to Saint Seiya. The whole stuff combined with an exceptional mentality and with a complex philosophy makes Saint Seiya simply unique and the greatest Japanese animation ever