Saint Seiya, also known as Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac, is a 1986 Japanese fantasy and martial arts action manga series created, written and illustrated by Kurumada Masami.
It was serialized first in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1986 to 1990, with the chapters collected into 28 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.
The story follows five mystical warriors called the "Saints" (or "Knights" in some adaptations) who fight wearing sacred armors named "Cloths", the designs of which derive from the various constellations the characters have adopted as their destined guardian symbols, and empowered by a mystical energy called "Cosmo". The Saints have sworn to defend the reincarnation of the benevolent Greek goddess Athena in her battle against other evil Olympian and Norse mythology gods who want to dominate Earth.
The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Toei Animation with character designs and art by Araki Shingo that ran from 1986 to 1989, before being continued in the form of three original video animation series between 2002 and 2008.
Four animated feature films were shown in Japanese theaters from 1987 to 1989, with a fifth in 2004 and a sixth in 2014.
Since 2006, creator Kurumada has been publishing a sequel manga titled Saint Seiya: Next Dimension. Several spin-off manga by different authors have also been created, as well as a standalone anime and original net animation.
Saint Seiya has been very successful, with over 34 million copies sold in Japan alone. The series began to be known in the west after it became popular in France]in 1988, where it was given the French name of Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque; this was also the first foreign release of the series. Since the early 90s the series also became very popular in Spanish-speaking countries after it was released in Spain as "Los Caballeros del Zodiaco".
Because of its popularity many RPG, action and fighting video games based on the series have been released in the last decades.
