Kara Dennison
September 22, 2021 
The Knights of the Zodiac live-action film adaptation has risen from its grave, and filming is now underway! The classic series, originally titled Saint Seiya, has won over fans around the world. So it’s no wonder this particular series has gotten its fair share of remakes, even before now.
From shoujo manga and anime to lots and lots of fighting games, here are just three that came before.
Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho
The heroes of Knights of the Zodiac are already absolutely gorgeous. But we can always go prettier. For example, what if Saint Seiya was a magical girl series? That’s the vibe of Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho, a spinoff by Chimaki Kuori. The the plot follows familiar story beats — but this time featuring “Saintia,” a new team of female Saints in Athena’s service.
Our central character this time is Sho, a girl from Okinawa. She, her sister Kyoko, and the rest of the Saintia are recruited to defend their reincarnated goddess. This time, their enemy is Eris. And she has her own army of soldiers — some of whom are Dryads, and some of whom are dead.
SAINT SEIYA: Knights of the Zodiac
For a modernized take on Knights of the Zodiac — in more ways than one — there’s the recent Netflix adaptation. Rendered in 3DCG and set in the present day, this take on the mythologically-inspired anime is two seasons strong on the streaming platform.
The series was penned by Eugene Son, who has also worked on Marvel properties like Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man. While fans didn’t go for every new spin the series spun (such as making Shun a girl), there’s still plenty of interest. In particular, Derbyshire-based based rock band The Struts performed a very cool cover of the theme song.
Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle
If your favorite part of Knights of the Zodiac was the fighting… well, one, you’ve got great taste. And two, there’s a pretty much neverending list of fighting games for you. Amongst them is Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle, which lets you take up the cloth as Seiya and defend the goddess Athena against hordes of enemies. And, as the title suggests, it covers the Sanctuary arc of the original series.
If you’ve still got some fight in you, check out Jump Force — where you can play as or against Seiya in a shonen manga brawl. You can also play as characters from Naruto, One Piece, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and… City Hunter? Yep, it’s a Jump title. So you can finally see how Seiya stacks up against his manga neighbors.
Keep an eye out for more news on the Knights of the Zodiac film!
Related Posts
