The Saint Seiya Manga Gallery
Twenty-eight volumes, five years, one unbroken wall of painted armour.
This is the paper shelf: every Japanese tankobon cover of Saint Seiya, Masami Kurumada’s constellation epic, published by Shueisha under the Jump Comics label from September 1986 to April 1991. One hundred and ten chapters, three great arcs, and a cover program that moves from a shouting boy in green to walls of gold.
Every cover below was verified against the volume’s own ISBN record before it was shelved here. Dates are the Japanese release dates.
THE FIRST VOLUME, TWICE
Saint Seiya, 1986 and 2004Volume 1, on two sides of the Pacific
Same manga · different painting · different flag
America met this book eighteen years after Japan did, and met it in different clothes: Viz Media’s edition keeps Kurumada’s interior art but replaces the covers wholesale. The Japanese shelf below is the original program, complete.
VOLUMES 1 TO 13 · SANCTUARY
The Twelve Palaces
Volume 1
Shueisha · 10 September 1986. The debut: Athena’s Saints, Seiya in green and gold under the first Jump Comics banner.
Volume 2
Shueisha · 9 January 1987.
Volume 3
Shueisha · 10 March 1987.
Volume 4
Shueisha · 8 May 1987.
Volume 5
Shueisha · 10 July 1987.
Volume 6
Shueisha · 10 September 1987.
Volume 7
Shueisha · 10 November 1987.
Volume 8
Shueisha · 8 January 1988.
Volume 9
Shueisha · 10 March 1988.
Volume 10
Shueisha · 10 May 1988.
Volume 11
Shueisha · 8 July 1988.
Volume 12
Shueisha · 9 September 1988.
Volume 13
Shueisha · 10 November 1988. Sanctuary closes, and the Nastassja of the Land of Ice short story rides along.
VOLUMES 14 TO 18 · POSEIDON
The undersea temple
Volume 14
Shueisha · 10 January 1989.
Volume 15
Shueisha · 10 March 1989.
Volume 16
Shueisha · 10 May 1989.
Volume 17
Shueisha · 10 July 1989.
Volume 18
Shueisha · 8 September 1989. The Poseidon arc ends: Beyond the Blue Waves.
VOLUMES 19 TO 28 · HADES
The underworld, and Elysion
Volume 19
Shueisha · 10 November 1989.
Volume 20
Shueisha · 10 January 1990.
Volume 21
Shueisha · 9 March 1990.
Volume 22
Shueisha · 10 May 1990.
Volume 23
Shueisha · 10 July 1990.
Volume 24
Shueisha · 10 September 1990.
Volume 25
Shueisha · 9 November 1990. Greatest Eclipse: the Hades endgame begins in earnest.
Volume 26
Shueisha · 10 January 1991.
Volume 27
Shueisha · 8 March 1991.
Volume 28
Shueisha · 10 April 1991. The last volume: To a World Brimming Over with Light.
READING THE COVERS
What the run showsThe colour story
The early covers are single figures on flat, hot colour. By the Hades volumes the covers are crowds: gold, bronze, gods and the dead, packed edge to edge. The escalation of the story is visible from across the room.
The editions beyond
These 28 are the first editions’ art, but the series has been re-dressed many times since: deluxe, paperback, complete and Final editions all carry different cover programs, documented on the editions pages of this archive.
Why covers are the record
Saint Seiya ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from December 1985 to 1990 and sold in the tens of millions. For a series this visual, the tankobon covers are its public face, and the only part of the Jump run most collectors will ever hold.