Saint Seiya

This is one of my fav. anime 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. 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.

Plot

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 each 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.

Anime

The anime is based on the manga series of the same title (above). The animation series by Toei Animation first premiered on Japan’s TV Asahi on October 11, 1986. Masami Kurumada has said that he does not like the anime, but he agreed to transfer the manga to anime because of a tradition of making an anime from every manga.

The first anime series was produced by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989. It was directed first by Kōzō Morishita (episodes 1 to 73) and then by Kazuhito Kikuchi (episodes 74 to 114). The character designers were Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno, and Seiji Yokoyama composed the soundtracks. The chief scriptwriters were Takao Koyama and Yoshiyuki Suga.The series has three main parts: Sanctuary (episodes 1 to 73), Asgard (74 to 99), and Poseidon (100 to 114). The Asgard arc does not exist in the manga and was made directly for the anime.

Other

In the mid-1980s a line of Saint Seiya action figures were produced by Bandai, featuring most of the series characters. The toy line was a huge success inside of Japan, but also in other countries such as Hong-Kong, France, Spain, Brazil and Mexico. The figures have now acquired collector status and the Japanese originals are highly sought after. Some, like Odin’s God Cloth or Kraken Isaac, have a very high value.

In 2003, Bandai created a new line of figures called Cloth Myth. Originally, only the 5 V2 main bronze Saints would be made, in commemoration of the Hades Saga being animated, but sold so well that they decided to continue the line and it continues to sell very well internationally.As of August 2008, there are over 60 figures available, and Bandai continues to release new figures regularly. The line seems to be nowhere near it’s end.

Bleach

Bleach (ブリーチ, Burīchi, romanized as BLEACH in Japan) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. Bleach has been continuously serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 2001, and in its American counterpart Shonen Jump since November 2007. The series received the Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen demographic in 2005, and is among the best-selling manga properties in both Japan and America.

Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he accidentally steals the power of a shinigami, a Japanese death personification similar to the Grim Reaper. Gaining these abilities forces him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife. The early parts of the story focus on Ichigo and his friends in a high school setting, while later portions feature journeys to other planes of existence, expand the cast to include numerous powerful beings from the afterlife, and are more action-based.

Since its publication, Bleach has spawned a substantial media franchise. The manga has been adapted into an animated television series, two OVAs, three animated feature films, seven rock musicals, and numerous video games, as well as prompted the issue of many types of Bleach-related merchandise. Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 50 million copies in Japan and reached the top of manga sales charts in the United States. The anime adaptation has been similarly received, rating as the 7th most popular tv anime in Japan in 2006, and in the top ten anime for America from 2006 to 2008.

Synopsis
The story opens with the sudden appearance of Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki in Ichigo Kurosaki’s bedroom. She is surprised at his ability to see her, but their resulting conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a “hollow”, an evil spirit. After Rukia is severely wounded while trying to protect Ichigo, she attempts to transfer half her powers to Ichigo in order to let him face the hollow on equal footing. Ichigo instead unintentionally absorbs almost all her energy, allowing him to defeat the hollow with ease. The next day Rukia appears in Ichigo’s classroom as a seemingly normal human, and informs Ichigo that his absorption of her powers has left her stranded in the human world until she recovers her strength. In the meantime Ichigo shelters Rukia in his home and takes over her job as a Soul Reaper, battling hollows and guiding lost souls to Soul Society.

After a few months of this arrangement, in the sixth volume of the series, Rukia’s Soul Reaper superiors interpret her disappearance as desertion, send a detachment to arrest her, and sentence her to death. Ichigo is unable to stop Rukia’s capture, but with the help of several of his classmates who also possess spiritual abilities and ex-Soul Reaper Urahara Kisuke, he sets off for the Soul Reaper base, located in the afterlife realm known as Soul Society. Once there, Ichigo and company battle against the elites of the Soul Reaper military, and are ultimately successful in halting Rukia’s execution.

It is then revealed that Rukia’s execution and Ichigo’s rescue attempt were both manipulated by Sōsuke Aizen, a high ranking Soul Reaper previously believed to be murdered, as part of a far-reaching plot to take control of Soul Society. Aizen betrays his fellow Soul Reapers and allies himself with the hollows, becoming the primary antagonist of the series, and Ichigo teams up with his former enemies in Soul Society after learning that the next step in Aizen’s plan involves the destruction of his hometown. After this point, Bleach chronicles the war between Aizen and Soul Society, a plotline which has not yet been resolved. According to Tite Kubo, the ending of the series is not yet planned out or written.