Soundtrack Review - Saint Seiya

© 1999 by Stayka deyAvemta

Translation from German by Shinomizu, some corrections to it made by Stayka

This page was last modified: 2000/04/07

Back to Saint Seiya Info | Site Index | Saint Seiya Index

An anime doesn't live on beautiful images and an interesting plot alone. The music yields a basic contribution to keep the audience glued to the screen.

In my former article about Saint Seiya (Funime Nr.7), I mentioned that it is the beautiful music by Yokoyama Seiji that gives the series its unique atmosphere. In this article, I would like to introduce the series' soundtrack a bit more detailedly.

When you listen to the music, you will certainly notice the impressive variety of different styles - the spectrum runs from Heavy Metal sounds over solemn orchestral harps' and fiddles' tracks, to organ music - listening to the CDs is an experience each an every time, and the wide variety prevents one to get tired by it too soon.

Where the vocal pieces are concerned, male voices dominate in songs that remind of the Heavy Metal of the 80s, but we also encounter slow ballads interpreted by female singers.

Let's finish the introduction and move directly to the numerous existing albums. I left out the singles here, since I have no first-hand information about them, and moreover, the albums are a) easier to obtain and b) more interesting anyway due to their length.

Saint Seiya Hits I (Make-Up)
Printed 1986/12/21 as 30CC-1349, reprint: 1997/03/20 as COCC-14056
10 tracks, 43:36 min
This CD containes ten songs that are based on the Saint Seiya anime. Half of them were actually employed in the series. As for the style - the pieces here are rock songs, and if you like Heavy Metal of the 80s, you won't be disappointed.

Saint Seiya OST I
Printed 1987/01/21 as 32CC-1368
10 tracks, 44:40 min
This soundtrack CD completely consists of background music of the first season. Among others you'll find the "Galaxian Wars" and "Pegasus Ryu Sei Ken" themes here, and you definitely should not miss this album.

Saint Seiya Hits II - Under Any Kind of Star (Make-Up Project)
Printed 1987/07/01 as 30CC-1682
10 tracks, 40:15 min
Here, too, you'll find rock songs from the series, this time interpreted by Make-Up Project. Each of the main characters is portrayed with an image song, and "Overture" and "Ending Theme" are the only instrumental pieces.

Saint Seiya OST II
Printed 1987/08/01 as 32CC-1689
20 tracks, 57:26 min
This CD, featuring background music from the first season and the first OAV movie, contains some of the most beautiful pieces, among them "Aria of the Three", a sad instrumental ballad, that was played during the death scenes of Camus and some other characters *sniff*.

Saint Seiya Galaxian Wars
Printed 1987/11/01 as 30CC-1880
Unfortunately, this CD is still missing in my collection. With a bit of luck, however, I was able to listen into it when I visited Ben in Paris and I discovered that it consists of several drama tracks.

Saint Seiya OST III
Printed 1987/12/21 as 33CC-2074
17 tracks, 46:33 min
This is the third CD containing background music from the first season. Here the series' opening and ending songs can be found, together with an instrumental version of the ending theme and "Remember Sadness", another of my favourite pieces.

Saint Seiya OST IV - The Heated Battle of the Gods
Printed 1988/04/01 as 32CC-2224
15 tracks, 46:23 min
This CD is an absolute 'must-buy' for fans of bombastic orchestral music. The soundtrack of the second OAV movie has almost Wagnerian qualities, after all, the OAV movie dealt with Odin and the Gods of Asgard. Very unusual is the use of the accordion as leading instrument of some of the pieces. Moreover, four bonus-tracks were put onto this CD, among them the wonderful harp-piece from the first OAV. (This CD is my Nr.1 among the OSTs :)

Saint Seiya Hits III - Boys Be (Boys Be)
Printed 1988/08/01 as 30CC-2534, reprint: 1997/03/20 as COCC-14057
10 tracks, 42:47 min
The third of the vocal CDs contains more Saint Seiya related rock songs by the music group Boys Be. 'Soldier Dream' is my absolute favourite song here, but 'Blue Dream' is a very close second.

Saint Seiya OST V - Legend of Crimson Youth
Printed 1988/08/21 as 32CC-2572
15 tracks, 43:18 min
The soundtrack of the third OAV contains "Abel's Theme", one of the series' most beautiful harp-pieces, and moreover you can listen to the wonderful vocal piece "You Are My Reason To Be", the ending theme of the third OAV.

Saint Seiya OST VI - Golden Ring Chapter
Printed 1988/10/01 as 32CC-2656
11 tracks, 44:44 min
This soundtrack accompanied the second season of Saint Seiya and also shows bombastic orchestral music and strong northern influences like the OST 4. Some tracks employ modern instruments like E-guitars together with classic instruments like fiddles which results in a very deep impression.

Saint Seiya OST VII - Poseidon Chapter
Printed 1988/12/21 as 32CC-2999
11 tracks, 40:15 min
The soundtrack of the third season of the Saint Seiya TV series has an almost Mediterranean touch. Especially impressive are the flute's solo and the "Mermaid's Song", which are definitely unique in their genre.

Piano Fantasia
Printed 1989/02/21 as 32CC-3217
12 tracks, 46:44 min
In this CD some of the background music themes are rearranged with the piano. If you like piano music, you will enjoy this CD, otherwise it's pretty boring and only good to complete the collection.

Saint Seiya OST VIII - Warriors of the Last Holy War
Printed 1989/04/08 as CC-3295
14 tracks, 46:04 min
The soundtrack of the fourth OAV offers several very bombastic organ and orchestral musicm pieces. If you feel like in a Christian mass, you're not completely wrong, since this soundtrack accompanies the Saints' epic battle against Lucifer and his people. (My Nr.2 among the OSTs)

Hades Image-Album
Printed 1990/12/21 as COCC-7089
14 tracks, 52:07 min
This CD is something very special, as it is the soundtrack meant for the Hades Chapter, the fourth of the Saint Seiya storylines, and the one that deplorably has never been turned into anime. Additionally this CD contains five drama tracks of key passages from the Hades manga (I guess I don't have to mention that all of it is spoken in Japanese...).

Saint Seiya Memorial Box
Printed 1991/03/21 as COCC-7321-7325
- disk 1: 15 tracks, 49:32 min
- disk 2: 14 tracks, 46:55 min
- disk 3: 12 tracks, 50:46 min
- disk 4: 13 tracks, 48:54 min
- disk 5: 11 tracks, 59:53 min
The first two CDs of the Memorial Box consist of a compilation of the background music from the previously discussed OSTs. The third CD contains 12 songs by Make-Up and Boys Be. CD 4 is a drama CD featuring the key dialogues from the TV series' first season. If you want to listen to the characters speaking in their original Japanese, this is the right place. On the fifth CD you'll find more dialogues from the two following seasons, a collection of sound-effects plus the karaoke versions of four of the songs.

1996 Song Collection (Make-Up)
Printed 1996/03/20 as COCC-13258
10 tracks, 49:41 min
The music group Make-Up make a great impression on this CD. Ten of the series' best songs are newly recorded especially for this album, and the result is overwhelming. If you want to listen to one of the vocal CDs, the 1996 Song Collection is the best choice.

Saint Seiya Shonenki CD
Printed 1997/01/21 as COCC-13980
6 tracks, 50:25 min
This CD is a further jewel for true Saint Seiya fans. Among five songs (two of which are presented in an English version), you will find a drama piece of 27 minutes length that takes place after the Hades Chapter which actually was thought to finish the Saint Seiya saga.

Saint Seiya Gold Collection
Printed 1997/12/20 as COCC-14747-51
- disk 1: 14 tracks, 58:12 min
- disk 2: 14 tracks, 66:18 min
- disk 3: 5 tracks, 61:54 min
- disk 4: 5 tracks, 62:43 min
- disk 5: 11 tracks, 61:08 min
For everyone who wants to listen to the music of Saint Seiya, but are not desperate enough to start hunting all of the OSTs and Hits CDs, the Gold Collection is the perfect alternative. The first two CDs consist of 28 songs of the series, while CDs 3 and 4 offer the most beautiful pieces of background music arranged in orchestral suites. The fifth CD is a mixture of four of the tracks from the Piano Fantasia, the five drama tracks from the Hades Image Album, the Shonenki CD radiodrama and a suite of the most beautiful music pieces taken from the Hades CD. Furthermore, the Gold Collection contains a thick booklet and five postcards.

Back to Saint Seiya Info | Site Index | Saint Seiya Index

Disclaimer: Saint Seiya is the property of Kurumada Masami, Shueisha and Toei Animation.

This page belongs to Saint Seiya Archive at http://www.saint-seiya.de