How did Saint Seiya never became as big as DBZ?

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

Y'know...4Kids later admitted that they got One Piece without watching it, and discovered pretty early on that it was horrible match for them, deciding to do the best they could with it until they could legally get rid of it. I wonder if it was the same deal with DiC and Saint Seiya.

To expand upon this, they actually got the license to OP in a package deal with one or two other anime from Toei, which judging by the anime Toei were licensing out around that time, were probably Kinnikuman Nisei / Ultimate Muscle and Magical DoReMi. They weren't actually going to do anything with it and were simply going to let the license expire but some sort of incident happened around that time (IIRC it had to do with losing the Pokemon license) and they needed to find something new to fill in. The rest is pretty much what you described until they ceased dubbing due to middling ratings during the Rainbow Mist filler arc. Toei takes back license, Funi buys it up and here we are today.

Funnily enough, there was a thread here from back in 2007 discussing the very same thing

They got it with DoReMi because they wanted DoReMi and Toei shoehorned in OP and 4Kids agreed to it without knowing anything about OP aside from the revenue it makes in Japan. They always intended on doing what they could with it until they could drop the license or until Toei could take it away which is what happened in 2007 after 4Kids canceled production of the dub and most of the other anime due to financial losses because of mainly anime in 2006. They didn't lose Pokemon til 2006.

[shinmaru]

I think because Dragon Ball was airing. And to be honest almost nothing survived like DB from that era because it doesn't have the magic that DB has.

[Mewzard]

I think because Dragon Ball was airing. And to be honest almost nothing survived like DB from that era because it doesn't have the magic that DB has.

Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya ran alongside one another in WSJ during the late 80s and early 90s, and for most of its life, it was able to stick relatively close to Dragon Ball in popularity. The death of the anime (thanks to a massive budget drop, getting rid of the head writer/director, and giving us a massive filler arc) tanked what was up til then a popular anime, and the manga's popularity started to drop as well after the anime died.

It's a damn shame, as I love Saint Seiya as much as I do Dragon Ball (an odd notion for an American fan, I know). Those two, Fist of the North Star, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure are why mid to late 80s Shonen Jump was my favorite. I completely disagree with the notion of it lacking "The magic" of Dragon Ball.

Saint Seiya certainly got to do some ideas before Dragon Ball had a shot. Saint Seiya beat Dragon Ball to a Golden Transformation by several months, and beat Dragon Ball to a god form by well more than 20 years.

Still, despite being forced to wrap up early, the manga continued on since 2006 in Full Color (which first made me want to see Dragon Ball in Full Color), and has had several spin-off manga, and multiple new anime, so I'd say while not quite the powerhouse standing next to Dragon Ball in WSJ like it once was, it's certainly finding a place to thrive and grow.

It's certainly one of the most Battle Shonen-iest Battle Shonens ever. Dragon Ball might as well be a slice of life manga by comparison. But that's fine, different manga do different things well.

[shinmaru]

I used to watch 3X3 eyes, YuYu Hakusho, Ranma, Slam Dunk and more anime that was airing at the same era as DB and from my experience DB was the most addicted anime ever and overshadowed the other animes by far. Look at it this way, which old school anime is still going strong worldwide like DB?

[Protege]

I think most people in the west just never heard of Saint Seiya. Which could be all blamed on studios that where responsible for importing anime back in a day it over. I mean it had several dubs that both completely failed and werent even finished. then they did the hades arc in 2005 which in terms of animations and graphics looked like crap. And Then their third chance to revive Saint Seiya in 2009 was by giving us The Lost Canvas with better style and plot instead of that old 70s crap. But even then the TMS studio responsible for it, lacked the budget and fan support to actually finish it atleast half way. Which even then lacked the English home dub release for anime and manga. Omega was a completely downgraded interms of its art and Soul of Gold which recycled story and terrible voice acting. Only good thing about it were the new gold god cloths action figures.

[TenshinFan]

Saint Seiya was actually earth-shakingly HUGE in Italy in the 90's. It was every bit as DBZ I would say. Also in Brazil and other parts of Europe and Latin America. I adore this series, and I think a big reason it never took off stateside is the name change to Knights of the Zodiac. It sounds so hokey.

[TheDBZmaster100]

Because every other canon arc after the Sanctuary saga became awful that simply regurgitated the same concepts we've seen in the earlier arcs? (Run to the temples, die, revive via the power of friendship, defeat mini boss, run to the next temple, rinse and repeat).

It's still popular till this day.

Also Asgard > every Seiya arc.

[SaintEvolution]

Fun trivia:
-They even got the lead singer of a legit metal band to dub the songs for the Brazilian Portuguese dub!
-France was--I believe--the first to get a dub of Saint Seiya, in the late 80's, and the voice actors for Seiya and Saori (the two main characters) still play the characters to this day. Eric Legrand, the French voice of Seiya, also happens to be the French voice for Vegeta, interestingly enough.

Brazil and France are probably the two biggest western market places for Saint Seiya.

Also, in the brazilian dub, as the french dub, many actors that have roles in Saint Seiya dubbed Dragon Ball too.
Hyoga = Kaioshin; both played by Francisco Bretas.
Shiryu = Pilaf; both played by Élcio Sodré.
Saint Seiya Narrator = Shenron; both played by Jonas Mello.
Aioria = Piccolo; both played by Luiz Antônio Lobue.
Hades = Korin, Nail, Pikkon and Beerus; all played by Marcelo Pissardini.
Saga = Dodoria; both played by Gilberto Baroli.
Mu, Jabu and Misty = Trunks; all played by Marcelo Campos.
Athena/Saori = Mai; both played by Letícia Quinto.
Poseidon/Julian Solo = Vegeta; both played by Alfredo Rollo.

Also, when Dragon Ball came to Brazil in 1996, Hermes Baroli(the brazilian Seiya) was cogitated to dub adult Goku. However, that didn't happened.


Also, Saint Seiya got two dubs in Brazil, one in 1994 broadcasted in the old Rede Manchete, and a remastered version in 2003 for the brazilian Cartoon Network broadcasting and DVD releases. But the 2 dubs have almost the same cast(something like 95% of the cast shared between them). The biggest differences between the 2 versions are some translation corrections and minor details. The original series selled something like 300000 copies in brazilian DVD market, what is a great number. Omega and Soul of Gold, the two newer spinoffs will be released in Bluray(Omega started to be selled in blurays, and Soul of Gold will be in the next months), and they have plans to release the classic series in Bluray too.
In the comic format(manga) Saint Seiya has some great rating in Brazil too - with exception of Gigantomachia, all Saint Seiya manga were published in Brazil.
All of that shows how this franchise is successful in brazilian markets.

YuYu Hakusho had two brazilian dubs too, and in very similar conditions(the old one did in 1997 for Rede Manchete, and a remastered version did in 2003/2004 for Cartoon Network broadcast and DVD releases, with almost the entire cast returning in the remastered one). Yu Yu Hakusho was successful in Brazil too, not as Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya, but was.