Knights of the Zodiac, Vol. 8: The Twelve Palaces

聖闘士星矢 Saint Seiya #8

by Masami Kurumada

Blinded in his devastating battle against Argol,Bronze Knight Shiryû has retired from fighting to live in peaceful obscurity. But his brief taste of the simple life is snatched away when the vicious Gold Knight Mephisto attacks, forcing Shiryû to once again don the Dragon Cloth. In Siberia, Bronze Knight Hyôga is also trying to forget his life as a Knight--until a mysterious message in the ice forces him out of retirement. The Bronze Knights have been summoned to a war more terrible than anything they have yet encountered: a war against Knighthood itself!

Seiya, too, is called to action. Now he and his fellow Bronze Knights must decide, once and for all, whether to join Princess Sienna in her rebellion against Sanctuary, the headquarters of Knighthood. But the Master of Sanctuary is waiting for them. If Seiya and his friends ever want to find peace again, they must pass through the 12 palaces of the legendary Gold Knights...and defeat them all!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Mythology, Adventure, Comics, Comics Manga, Graphic Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Masami Kurumada ( 車田正美, Kurumada Masami, born December 6, 1953) is a Japanese and writer, known for specializing in fighting manga featuring bishōnen and/or mahō shōnen. He is famous as the creator/author of popular manga, such as Ring ni Kakero, Fūma no Kojirō, Saint Seiya and B't X. His male protagonists are a reflection of the classical and modern society's archetype of the true men. The male characters in his works often display very masculine qualities and traits, and pursue to achieve courage and manhood perfection through sacrifice, selflessness and true heroism. He has won the best success award with Saint Seiya and the best inspiration award with Ring ni Kakero.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmm... Kinda sus how the manga cuts between the Gemini temple and The Master... Almost as if... No, it can't be! 🤔😏😉

Anyway, the manga continues going pretty quickly with the start of the Gold Saints Arc here. This arc is basically like a "boss rush," and is a significant example for those sort of archetypical shōnen manga arcs. Any manga that introduced a bunch of villains to have the heroes run through them is likely modeled after Saint Seiya, at least for Jump manga in particular; and if not modeled after the Gold Saints, then at least after its descendants. The Arrancar Arc in Bleach. The various Upper Moons in Kimetsu no Yaiba. Actually, the Soul Society captains and Demon Slayer Corps Hashira in the respective series as well.

I think people like to criticize Dragon Ball for "power levels," but such amateur critics are showing their unfamiliarity with manga by calling attention to something always subverted in its own source material. Rather, it's a failure of the United States for mishandling Saint Seiya; quite frankly, a lot of the battles here are resolved by "just increase your Cosmo, bro!" Seiya is a Bronze Saint, but he can defeat Aldebaran by strengthening his Cosmo, simple as. We don't see another actual Gold Saint battle in this volume yet, so it's hard to say exactly what the future holds but... Well, I can take a guess.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it goes without saying that each and every volume of this series really just goes hard at constantly escalating the plot without much chance for slowing down and allowing the characters and reader to breathe. That being said, I do feel as though the beginning of this particular volume allows for more of that. We shifted perspectives in the final pages of the previous volume and we're picking up from that, seeing what's occurring at Sanctuary, before we actually catch up on what's happening with the individual main four bronze knights. And it's just a relief to have these breathing moments before the plot continues to escalate and get even more ridiculously wild.

I will say that this volume is genuinely exciting on the level of, we do start meeting more of the twelve central Zodiac knights. We did see the Virgo knight appear at the end of volume 7, but we get to see a few more of the gold knights in this volume, as our bronze four are going to have to face the challenges of the twelve palaces now that they're in Sanctuary. I will say that there are some hints at "The Master" of Sanctuary's identity in this volume and frankly, based on some of the implications, I'm ever so slightly disappointed, because I feel like it plays up certain stereotypes of a certain [Western] Zodiac sign that can be harmful and I've been done with that noise for years.

Given the way that this particular volume ends, I honestly want to get to the next volume as soon as possible and see what happens. Somehow, I have gotten hooked on this series in spite of myself.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Por algún motivo fui medio tibio al puntuar estos tomos, pero sé que a nivel técnico envejecieron muy mal en cuanto a esta edición. Igual tendría que revisar el contenido por más que las futuras relecturas seguro las haga de la kanzenban y no en esta vieja tankoubon antediluviana.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primera edición argentina y única hasta que se publique la kanzenban. Parte de la saga del Santuario.