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Answerman - Why Did Saint Seiya Bomb In North America?

I think with Sailor Moon, it was a "right place at the right time" situation, since at least a lot of kids back then (IIRC) werent too used to a show where the team were all females that could kick monster butt without (much) help from a guy. Instead of the whole "team action show with the token female character" thing. I know that was why I first started watching it back then as a kid. The transformation sequences helped as well. The dub was fun to watch, even if it can be quite...cringey dialogue-wise upon rewatching it nowadays.

CardCaptors, as far as least partially why it became semi-popular, in the US, came over during the "lets have a (monster/creature) show that can compete with Pokemon" era, and of course that dub tried to give Li more screentime and importance that he originally had in the show (not that he wasnt an important character or anything; they just tried to make him a main character). Despite it's issues, it didn't look old animation-wise and the Clow Cards actually looked cool/neat when in action.
...that said, I still remember how a lot of my guy friends were too scared to buy the CardCaptors merchandise because they were all in the girls aisle. So for them to try to market it as a show for boys and girls, they kinda screwed up on that part.

I personally feel that that alone is not enough to sink a show, as Sailor Moon, and to a lesser extent Cardcaptors Sakura, had similar treatments done by DiC but they were more popular than Saint Seiya.

Yes, for the most part, Saint Seiya being brought in way past its prime was what led to its downfall, with the censoring and radical changes to the characters' personalities being additional partially-contributing factors, according to some that watched the show. It also didn't help that Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) wasn't advertised well, since I had no idea that it ran at the time it was on TV years ago.

It largely takes place in a far flung fantasy world

^That's the point. The term Latin America encompasses everything south of the US, includding the Caribbean islands. Just saying "Latin America" would've been sufficient. Saying Latin and South America is, once again like saying "The United States and the West Coast". One is already part of the other, it's redundant to mention them both

I'm going to chalk the whole failure up to the fact that DiC used a Bowling For Soup song for the opening sequence.

I'm going to chalk the whole failure up to the fact that DiC used a Bowling For Soup song for the opening sequence.

That's an interesting thought about Sailor Moon. Jem and the Holograms achieved some level of success several years prior for being exactly that too. Never thought about the idea of action shows for girls being a neglected market. That being said, had I not known a classmate who was a huge fan of Sailor Moon before it was dubbed (she literally cried all day when she found out that Uranus and Neptune were adapted to be cousins instead of lovers), I would not have known about the huge changes when adapted over.

I would guess, then, that to continue filling that void, we had The Powerpuff Girls, though Craig McCracken had originally written it as a parody of Sailor Moon because he got sick of Cartoon Network showing it all the time. The Powerpuff Girls ran into the same merchandising problem as what you said about Cardcaptor Sakura though. They're all in the girl toys aisle.

As for Cardcaptor Sakura, I forgot it was shown during the kids' monster-collection craze, considering it was also shown at about the same time as Pokémon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Medabots, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and MonColle Knights (which even has "monster collection" in its name). I guess it's also because it was shown on broadcast television rather than cable, allowing it to reach a much wider and more general audience.

Cardcaptors was Nelvana, not DiC. And from what I've heard, I'd say Cardcaptors got a worse treatment. DiC cut some episodes from Sailor Moon, but didn't significantly re-order them or try to make Darien/Tuxedo Mask into a main character coequal to Serena.

I looked at the reasons a number of people gave for "Saint Seiya" failing in North America. Older look,bad timing,etc. In my opinion,the main reason for "Saint Seiya" not doing well here is that it just wasn't handled well. For me,the older look isn't the problem. Both "Sailor Moon" and "Dragon Ball Z" was well handled.

4. We haven't had a proper release of the series, at all. ADV dubbed what, 60 episodes before going bankrupt? DiC did 32? Some company recently subbed the Sanctuary arc and released it on overpriced DVDs. The subs were worse than Chinese fansubs are. The video quality was awful, same with the audio.

5. Even the manga isn't that great. I think Viz finally released digital versions of all the volumes recently, and they haven't sold well. The original physical books didn't sell great either. The actual translations were fairly poor and they used the dub names of all the characters and techniques.

The series has been mishandled in the US from day one. I'm still shocked Discotek invested the time and money to release Lost Canvas, but they are pretty known for quick and inexpensive releases of obscure(to Americans) anime titles.

Yes, for the most part, Saint Seiya being brought in way past its prime was what led to its downfall, with the censoring and radical changes to the characters' personalities being additional partially-contributing factors, according to some that watched the show. It also didn't help that Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) wasn't advertised well, since I had no idea that it ran at the time it was on TV years ago.

I think Saint Seiya might have a fair chance at being in the U.S. spotlight if it had a new show with new characters and a more compelling story.[/list]