Pegasus Seiya

Seiya is the eponymous main character of the Saint Seiya series. He is one of the eighty-eight Saints of Athena and serves loyally at her side. Seiya draws his superhuman powers from the Cosmos, the energy of the Big Bang that lingers inside each being and which connects a Saint to his constellation and Cloth. At the start of the series, Seiya is thirteen years old.[6] His main objective is to find his older sister, Seika, who disappeared when he was sent to Greece to train to become a Saint under the supervision of the Silver Saint Eagle Marin. Due to her physical similarities to Seika, Seiya suspects that Marin may be his sister, but he later discovers he is wrong and finds his real sister.[7] As Seiya starts fighting alongside the other Bronze Saints, albeit reluctantly at first, his motivations shift to the protection of Athena. Seiya is a person of burning passion and spirit, sometimes acting in brash and impulsive ways. Despite this, he is still a brave, kind-hearted and selfless young man; who is always willing to sacrifice himself for justice, his friends and Athena. His most notable characteristic is his absolute determination and refusal to ever give up, even when faced with impossible odds. He also has a habit of making jokes and can be unconcerned about the consequences of his actions.[8]

As a Saint, Seiya has been trained to learn how to use the power of the Cosmos within his own body and use it for super strength, speed, agility and reflexes. The Pegasus Cloth he wears represents the Pegasus constellation, which is associated with Pegasus, the divine winged horse from Greek mythology; which protects his body with durability. Seiya trained for six years and defeated ten other trainees to obtain the Pegasus Cloth and the status of Saint of Athena.[9] The Pegasus Bronze Cloth is damaged various times throughout the series, with Aries Mu typically responsible for repairs.[10] In the manga, the Cloth changes appearance each time it is fixed, while it remains the same in the anime adaptation until the series' second arc. After the Gold Saints use their blood to revive the Bronze Cloths at the end of the Sanctuary arc, the Pegasus Cloth takes on a golden hue whenever Seiya charges his Cosmo to the maximum.[11] The version of the Cloth that Seiya uses in the Hades arc possesses wings that allow him to fly, both normally and through dimensions.[12] During Seiya's fight against Thanatos, it reaches its God Cloth state, which was last seen in the ages of myth and further increases Seiya's Cosmo and vitality.[13]

In desperate situations, Seiya occasionally wears the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius, a Cloth whose true owner, Aiolos, died thirteen years before the events of the series.[14] The Gold Cloth magnifies Seiya's Cosmo. Despite this, although Seiya uses the Sagittarius Gold Cloth many times throughout the series to save Athena, he is never officially granted ownership of the Cloth.[15]

Although Seiya begins his journey as a Bronze Saint, the lowest of the three ranks of Saints, his abilities gradually grow to rival those of the Gold Saints; the most powerful of Athena's soldiers. He achieves this by awakening his seventh sense, the essence and origin of the Cosmo.[16] Before descending into the realm of Hades, he also awakens his eighth sense, known as Arayashiki, which allows him to enter the Underworld without being subject to Hades's rule.[17]

Seiya is a young teenager who is trained by Marin in Greece to obtain the Pegasus Cloth and return to his home, Japan.[18][19] There he discovers that his sister Seika has been missing ever since Seiya was forced to train in Greece, being separated from her, his childhood friend Miho, and all the other orphans. Saori Kido negotiates with him to fight other people who became Saints to attract the media's attention and have her group search for Seika. Seiya's constant fights are interrupted by his former companion Phoenix Ikki who wants revenge for the training he went through. Although Seiya defeats Ikki with his friends' help, the Saints are attacked by higher ranked Silver Saints sent by the Sanctuary's Pope. Learning that Saori is the reincarnation of Athena, the Saints go to the Sanctuary to face the tyrant Pope and have to run through all its Twelve Temples when Saori suffers a mortal wound. Master the Cosmos known as Seventh Sense, Seiya and his friends manage to defeat the strongest Gold Saints including the Pope, who is revealed as Gemini Saga, and save Saori.

Following the battle against Saga, Seiya and his friends recover until Saori goes to confront Poseidon's reincarnation Julian Solo who wishes to flood the world and Saori tries to prevent it by giving her life in exchange. The Saints go to Poseidon's submarine temple where they fight Poseidon's Mariner Generals in order to free Saori. In the Hades arc, Seiya is sent out of the Sanctuary by an order from Athena meant to protect the Bronze Saints from the lord of the Underworld, Hades. However, after Saori's death, Seiya goes to the Underworld to deliver Athena's Cloth to her. Seiya eventually arrives in Elysion and, while fighting against the gods Hypnos and Thanatos he discovers his sister Seika is alive. After defeating Thanatos, Seiya encounters Hades. During the fight, Seiya is mortally wounded by the sword of Hades while protecting Athena and his Cosmo disappears shortly before the Saints achieve victory.[20]

Seiya's story continues in Kurumada's 2006 manga, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension (canonic sequel and prequel). Here, Seiya is shown sitting in a wheelchair. He has survived Hades's attack, but remains in an unresponsive state, suffering from Hades's curse. Seeking to save him from certain death, Athena Saori Kido, Shun Andromeda, Ikki Phoenix, Shiryu Dragon, Hyoga Cygnus travels to the past to find a way to remove Hades's sword before it can strike Seiya.[21] Seiya is proclaimed as the future Gold Saint of the Sagittarius successor to Sagittarius Aiolos.[22]

Tenma[23] is Seiya's incarnation in the 18th century. He appears in Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya: Next Dimension and Shiori Teshirogi's Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas manga. Both have in common that Tenma is a childhood friend of Alone, Hades' chosen body in that time. Tenma has the same appearance as Seiya and uses the same techniques.

While Seiya often wears the Sagittarius Cloth in the manga and anime, he does not become its official wielder until Saint Seiya Omega

In the last film takes place after the events of the Hades arc. Seiya is cursed by the sword of Hades instead of dying, while Athena and the other protagonist Bronze Saints are attacked by the gods of Olympus. In the end, Seiya manages to wound the god Apollo. The conclusion of the actual fight between the two is not depicted; instead, the climax of the movie cuts to a peaceful scene where Seiya apparently becomes reacquainted with Saori Kido. It was explained in the Japanese DVD audio commentary with director Shigeyasu Yamauchi that, since Seiya's and Saori's greatest strength was their love and trust for each other, Apollo erased their memories so that they would never again be able to find the will to rebel against the gods.[24] Seiya also appears in a scene from Episode.G which reenacts Seiya's fight against Aiolia.[25] In the sequel Episode.G Assassin an older Seiya appears in a parallel universe to protect Shiryu from an enemy named Sigurd. With Athena's help, Seiya reawakens his Pegasus God Cloth, giving him the power needed to defeat Sigurd.

In Saint Seiya Omega however the story branches out the Hades Chapter in a different way. Seiya is shown in several flashbacks as having recovered, and still serving Athena, as Saori Kido, as the Sagittarius Gold Saint this time, revered as a legend and a source of inspiration to whom the newest Pegasus, Kōga, looks at hoping to match his prowess and legendary deeds.[26] Near the end of season-1, Seiya returns to help the Bronze Saints to stop the God of Darkness Abzu from manipulating Koga. He later lends Koga his Sagittarius Cloth to defeat the God. Following Abzu's defeat, Seiya is assigned by Athena the mission of killing the Goddess Pallas but fails due to his hesitation. Seiya later goes to defend the Academy Palestra and joins the Bronze and Steel Saints in their fights against Pallas' soldiers. When reaching Pallas' territory, he is in charge of bodyguarding Athena alongside the other Gold Saints until she confronts Pallas. Following Athena's victory, Seiya defeats Pallas' bodyguard Titan while he dons the evolved Sagittarius Cloth. He later fights the God of Time, Saturn, but is defeated and lends his Cosmos to Koga so that he will succeed in battle.