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Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Did Saint Seiya Bomb In North America?
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xchampion
 Posts: 370 Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho |
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Its too bad because its quite a good show once you look past the dated look of the show. I agree its late past gone for it to be successful in the United States. Even if they tried to introduce the new versions like Justin said. Its quite sad really.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5428 Location: Iscandar |
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I grew up in Mexico and during my middle school days (1992-1995-ish) Saint Seiya was an obsession for me, my brother and cousins; I even bought one of the action figures. I used to wonder why it was never a hit in the U.S., but I eventually stopped caring.
I will disagree a bit because the Lost Canvas OVA is a sort of prequel to the original series, and this makes it fairly approachable to new fans. It is a shame that more of the manga was not animated because its story and characters are compelling in my opinion. |
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falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
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In Chile this anime is popular, shame that the states got bowderlized and or censored, it even got a song from Bowling for Soup, whose Vocalist collaborated in games such as Sonic Unleashed (or World Adventure for JP).
I even think one half or even more of the Soul of Gold views was Latin America. |
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Sergorn
Posts: 81 |
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I mostly agree except for this :
Both The Lost Canvas and Omega were defintily approachable by new fans though. The Lost Canvas is mostly unrelated to the original series and stand on its own and while Omega had its share a reference it focused on a new cast and new characters and was specifilcally made for a new audience. Ditto for the CG film Legend of Sanctuary released last year. In the modern production I would argue only the recent Soul of Gold was made for old fans in mind, so I feel there was ample opportunity to try to bring the shows to the US with these other latest series (even if the lack of ending of the Lost Canvas anime is an issue per se) -Sergorn |
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 863 |
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I always find interesting how some shows just blow up with a certain audience like with Saint Seiya. The show was just simply too old by the time it got released here to get an audience.It probably would've found an audience if got released during the 90's.
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13566 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Though uncommon, there are cases where TV series with cult followings renew interest and help continue the show's fan-base here. However, this is very unlucky.
Let's say the total number of strong "St. Seiya" fans in the USA was 1000. If they each bought the out-of-print uncut ADV boxset and the collective amount spent was 7-figures. That's the case where licensors might decide to re-look at doing more dubs. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1425 |
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I'd chalk it all up to timing. Had this show arrived in the US around the same time as Ronin Warriors did, it would have had a better shot at becoming a hit.
And although the character's colorful skintight costumes may make some people think of the Super Sentai genre, most of Saint Seiya's fights are one-on-one just like most Shonen Jump battle-oriented series. |
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mrsatan
 Posts: 911 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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I agree with most of this. They just waited too long to bring it over. If they had brought it over in the '80s, I'm sure it would have been huge.
But another problem is that so many newer shonen manga/anime have copied and improved upon Saint Seiya's formula that new viewers might find it rather generic. |
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Mewzard
Posts: 186 |
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Really, what Saint Seiya needs is a FMA: Brotherhood style release. A modern animation release more accurate to the manga, but with the added benefit of modern animation that FMA didn't need so much.
Of course, since Toei has a death grip on the franchise, that's unlikely (well, I mean, all of that could happen, but Toei will make it with cheap animation). In the hands of the right animation studio, I feel it could find new life here. Damn shame that most likely won't happen, as I love the series (at least Viz digitally re-released the manga...now here's hoping they might one day translate the spin-offs and sequel, even if it's digital only or something). |
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mangaka-chan
 Posts: 283 |
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Saint Seiya was my first anime as a 7 year old, and this has perplexed me as well, since it seems to be quite popular in Asia as well as Latin America and Europe. However, I would disagree that it has a strong team theme. Yes, they're all working towards the same goal, and fight together for the final boss fight, but the majority of the fights are mono-a-mono. I think, besides the dated designs, is that the first dub available in the US was terrible (I don't remember which one it was, but it was the one shown on Cartoon Network). They changed some of the characters personalities (I still shudder at the fact that they made Hyoga sound like a surfer dude), and IMO made them even less appealing.
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FordXanakov
Posts: 15 |
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Two years ago I bought one of those 20 DVDs for $20 mystery boxes from Crunchyroll and the first volume of ADV's Saint Seiya was in there. That should probably give you a good idea about how poorly it sold.
So I popped it in and checked it out, and I thought it was a campy fun time. It's the kind of show I would have fallen in love with if I had seen it when I was 6 or 7. Of course that would have meant seeing it in the late 80s. I had a good time checking out volume 1, but there was no way in hell I would have bought full price singles in the mid 2000s. IMO, Justin really hit the nail on the head with this one. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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I hate to be the nitpicker but
South America is part of Latin America, naming them both is redundant. That's like saying "North America and Canada". While the show has certainly not aged very gracefully, I don't really see how that was an impediment for it being well received in the US. Sure for established anime fans it would be hard to get past that look, but if it was aired on TV it should've reached a larger audience. I first watched Saint Seiya when I was in junior high school, some time in 2003-2004 when it re-aired on TV and fell in love with it. And like others have mentioned, Lost Canvas and Omega could both appeal to newer audiences. It's just that Americans have shit taste*
I'm gonna assume you mean mano-a-mano, unless you're somehow trying to say these were monkey fights 
*I'm obviously kidding Last edited by CrowLia on Mon Feb 15, 2016 1:47 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mewzard
Posts: 186 |
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I think they're also trying to refer to Mexico and Central America, in addition to South America (though I understand your point). |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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^That's the point. The term Latin America encompasses everything south of the US, includding the Caribbean islands. Just saying "Latin America" would've been sufficient. Saying Latin and South America is, once again like saying "The United States and the West Coast". One is already part of the other, it's redundant to mention them both
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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Timing seems like the most appropriate answer. As for the comment about team-based Sentai shows I think the obsession America has with GoLion aka Voltron shows they are open to it. In Voltron's case it came out at the right time and was first. Even to this day I see Americans say Power Rangers ripped off Voltron or any kind of sentai team gets compared to Voltron. It was the first so therefore it is the de facto. Saint Seiya airing 20 years after its prime is just too much.
-Stuart Smith |
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