Legends tell of young men who wear armor known as Cloths and fight using energy known as Cosmos, in service of the goddess Athena. They are known as Saints. In Japan, two Saints fight in a colosseum for an audience, with the host, Saori Kido, waiting for the Pegasus Saint. In Athens, Greece, a Japanese young man known as Seiya fights his rival Cassios, cuts off his ear and defeats him with his Meteor of Pegasus to earn the Pegasus Bronze Cloth. Later that night, before Seiya can return home, Cassios' master Shaina tries to kill him for revenge. Seiya wears the Pegasus Cloth and actually injures Shaina, but for a moment, he is unable to master the Cloth and his Cosmos. Shaina's men arrive to finish Seiya off, but thanks to his teacher Marin's advice, he turns the table and defeats her men with his Meteor of Pegasus technique. He also is able to break Shaina's mask to reveal her face. The next day, Seiya heads back to Japan.

The Bronze Saints in the colosseum, Lionet Ban and Unicorn Jabu, continue their tournament match, with Jabu emerging as the victor. Seiya returns and demands to see his long-lost sister Seika after training for six years in Greece. Saori's grandfather promised him that he would see her if he retrieved the Cloth. Saori Kido, granddaughter of the late Mitsumasa Kido, leader of the Graude Foundation, and host of the Galaxian Wars tournament, offers Seiya a deal: if he wins the tournament, the Foundation will find his sister. With words of encouragement from his childhood friend Miho, Seiya decides to participate in the tournament, since it is broadcast worldwide and his sister might be able to see him on television. Seiya's first opponent is Bear Geki, and because of his arms, Seiya seemed like he would die from strangulation. But thanks to his master Marin's teachings of defeating an opponent by crushing their greatest weapon, Seiya breaks Geki's arms, the source of his strength, launches hundreds of kicks and comes out victorious.

In Siberia, a young man named Hyoga is visiting his deceased mother in a sunken ship at the bottom of a frozen sea. Then, after destroying an eternal ice wall, he earns the Bronze Cygnus Cloth. Hyoga heads to Japan to participate in the tournament, with the grand prize: the Gold Cloth for the winner. After Saori gives a presentation about the significance of the tournament, Cygnus Hyoga finally arrives. Hyoga's opponent, Hydra Ichi, seems to have an advantage with his poisonous horns, coming from his fists and even knees, which keep regenerating like the Hydra's heads, but they are useless. Thanks to Hyoga's Cloth, the poison never penetrated his body. Ichi is defeated by Hyoga's Diamond Dust. Who will be Hyoga's next opponent, Pegasus Seiya or Dragon Shiryu?

The match between Pegasus Seiya and Dragon Shiryu begins. Shunrei, a close friend of Shiryu's, arrives and tells him that his master, Roshi, is dying and needs to come back to the Five Ancient Peaks of Lushan. Shiryu's Rozan Rising Dragon and his diamond hard shield make him unstoppable, and it seems he is on his way to victory after knocking Seiya down multiple times. But Seiya isn't willing to give up and risks his life to have Shiryu destroy both his fist and shield. With his weapons destroyed, and having been witness to Seiya's determination. Shiryu removes his Cloth and is eager to finish the match. Seiya removes his Cloth as well to have a fair fight, both ready to risk their lives to fight for what they believe in and the people they love.

Seiya and Shiryu's match continues. Even though Shiryu is able to block most of Seiya's Meteors, Seiya is not only able to land a few blows, but also discovers Shiryu's weak point, the right fist of the dragon on his back, which is the spot where his heart is located. If the Rising Dragon is unleashed and Shiryu, who unconsciously lowers his left hand and exposes his weak point, is attacked in that spot, he will die. Both strike each other, with Seiya hitting the weak spot, and winning the match. However, Shiryu's heart has stopped beating. With only four minutes before he succumbs, Seiya, with encouragement from his friends and the audience, attacks Shiryu in the same spot from the back, and restarts his heart, saving him. Meanwhile, Andromeda Shun's chain senses an enemy in the colosseum.

Andromeda battles against Unicorn Andromeda uses his chains to form a nebula chain (Andromeda Galaxy). Unicorn runs directly to Andromeda but his chains attacks Unicorn, thus impoosible for Unicorn to attack. He tried to attack Andromeda from the air but the chains still attack him in the air. Suddenly, the chains set a reaction and form a code for Andromeda. He wonders what is could be until at the end, his brother appears.

Phoenix Ikki attacks his brother, Andromeda, without mercy. He's full of hate against all Saints and Saori Kido, whose grandfather had sent him to Death Queen Island. Jabu tries to stop Ikki but he's defeated with one single punch. Then, the official battle begins, between Ikki and Nachi, Bronze Saint of Wolf, who has his mind completely destroyed by Phoenix's attack. Then, Ikki bids farewell to all and, along with his henchmen, the Black Saints, steals the Gold Cloth.

Seiya, Hyoga, Shiryu and Shun chases Ikki and his Black Saints through the city as they run away with the Gold Cloth. Kido's Foundation sends an helicopter after the enemies, but Ikki destroys it with a single strike. They hide in the harbor and Ikki finally wears the Gold Cloth, but Seiya finds and hits him, making the Gold Cloth fly away from Ikki's body and split up. The black saints get the cloth's parts and runs again. One by one, they're defeated by the Bronze Saints, but they only manage to recover both arms and both legs of the cloth. One of the defeated Black Saints reveals that they follow Ikki because four stronger Black Saints support Ikki, and that Ikki's real intent is to take over the world. The next morning, Shiryu returns to the Five Peaks of Rozan, taking the destroyed cloths of Pegasus and Dragon with him, in order to repair them. But a black shadow watches them carefully...

Seiya is searching for Ikki with the aid of a police dog. Shun is in the forest remembering of the past and wondering what had made his brother change, when a new enemy arrives: one of the black saints, Black Swan. He attacks Shun, but Hyoga arrives and challenges him to a freezing duel: Swan vs. Black Swan. The other three black saints (Black Pegasus, Black Dragon and Black Andromeda) eventually show up too.

Shiryu goes to Jamil's Mountains in order to find Mu, the only one who can repair the clothes of Pegasus and Dragon. However, getting there will not be easy as he thinks. The Cloth Graveyard lies on his way, where many undead saints are waiting for him. When he finally arrives at Mu's Tower, Mu gives him some bad news about the clothes.

The battle of the Bronze Saints against Ikki and his Black Saints begins. Seiya, already wearing his Pegasus cloth (brought by Kiki), faces the Black Pegasus, whose meteors hide a terrible curse and might lead Seiya to an horrible death. Hyoga has no difficulties in defeating Black Swan, who alerts Ikki about Hyoga's attacks before dying. Finally, Hyoga finds the Phoenix Saint and challenges him to a duel. The battle is starting to heat up!

Seiya is suffering from Black Death's curse and is on the verge of death, while Hyoga tries (in vain) to defeat Ikki. Shun finds Seiya and tries to help him, but Black Andromeda and Black Dragon show up and Seiya makes a last sacrifice so Shun won't get killed. Shun manages to kill his black shadow and Shiryu appears and challenges Black Dragon. The combat between the Dragons is about to begin!

In this episode, Shiryu challenges the Black Dragon, while Shun tries to save Seiya, who is slowly dying because of Black Pegasus' Black Death Horror. Shiryu, still weak because of his blood loss, almost sacrifices his life for friendship (which Black Dragon can't understand why, since he doesn't believe in such thing as friendship).

The four Saints prepare to face Ikki (Hyoga wasn't dead after all), but they are no match for the mighty cosmo of Ikki. He knocks them out with one single strike, except for Seiya, who was protected by the Gold Cloth. Aided by the cosmo of his friends, Seiya finally manages to defeat Ikki after a deadly battle.

Ikki reveals what happened to him in the Death Queen Island. Since the beginning of his training, his master (Guilty) has taught him to hate everyone, as a way to gain strength and kill his enemies. The only person in the whole island who cared about Ikki was Esmeralda, Guilty's daughter. She used to take care of Ikki's wounds and both of them were real friends. Ikki's last day on Death Queen Island has come. Unless he killed his master, he wouldn't get the Phoenix Bronze Cloth. In the middle of the battle, Guilty killed his own daughter, Esmeralda. That transformed Ikki in a demon of rage, and he murdered his master with all his power, becoming the demoniac Bronze Saint of Phoenix. Back to the present, Ikki tells Seiya and the others the battle wasn't over because he was defeated. Suddenly, the black saints show up and steal the Gold Cloth. A new enemy has come: Docrates, the most powerful man in the Sanctuary. He shows his tremendous power (Hercules' Tornado Punch)

At many places round the world, tragedies are happening because of the Sanctuary's agents. In Greece, the Sanctuary's Pope is furious because Docrates hasn't returned yet with the Gold Cloth. Marin is about to be killed by Shina, but Aiolia stops her, saving Marin. According to Marin, the former Pope of the Sanctuary has suddenly died and his younger brother, Ares, is the new Pope, bringing a dark time for the Sanctuary. Back to Japan, Saori is in the planetarium dome when her grandfather, Mitsumasa Kido, appears to her. He tells her that the Gold Cloth always shows up when a new crisis is about to happen in the world and that she must be like Athena and guide the Bronze Saints to the victory. Meanwhile, Docrates's henchmen search for their boss under the rocks, when he shows up and they march for the Kido Mansion. Next morning, Docrates attacks the mansion. Shiryu, Hyoga and Shun defeats his henchmen but can do nothing against the mighty power of Docrates's Hercules Tornado Punch.

Docrates is in the Colosseum and will free Saori and Tatsumi if Seiya gives him the Gold Cloth's helm. Seiya and Shun goes to the Colosseum while Shiryu and Kiki (who saw telephatically where the other missing pieces of the Gold Cloth were hidden) goes to the island where Ikki's challenge took place. Docrates' henchmen deceived the Bronze Saints and stole the helm without setting Saori free. His henchmen leave the Colosseum but Hyoga was waiting for them and he recovers the Helm. Seiya learns that Docrates is the older brother of Cassios, who was defeated by Seiya in Greece, and seeks revenge. Seiya and Shun are no match to Docrates's ""Hercules Tornado Punch"", but Hyoga arrives and, with a dangerous technique that he learned from his master, the Crystal Saint, freezes Docrates' legs, paralyzing the giant enemy. Then, Seiya and Shun attack and finally kill Docrates. Meanwhile, Shiryu and Kiki arrive at the place, but the Sanctuary's soldiers had already flown away with the Gold Cloth.

The Pope is furious with Docrates' failure, and Shina advises Gigars to send the amazon Jeist (Shina's disciple, who was banned from the Sanctuary by the former Pope) to recover the Gold helmet. In an castle on an island at the Carribean Sea, Jeist receives a letter from the Sanctuary and summons her disciples, the Ghost Saints: Serpent, Dolphin and Medusa. They take over a big nuclear energy-powered oil ship that belongs to Kido Foundation and threaten to destroy it unless the Bronze Saints give the helm to them. Seiya and the others go to the ship and Seiya is forced to fight alone against the Serpent and the Dolphin. Otherwise, Medusa will destroy the ship. However, Shun immobilizes Medusa with his chains and the Bronze Saints go to help Seiya but, all of a sudden, the ocean is filled by ghost pirate ships, and thousands of ghost pirates invade the oil ship and distract the saints. The Ghost Saints seize the opportunity, steal the helm and jump to the ocean.

The four bronze saints embark on a dangerous mission to retrieve the gold cloths mask from the ghost saints of the Caribbean...

The saints split up in the hopes of avoiding ambushes and gathering information. Seiya returns to Sanctuary to see Marin while Hyoga goes to Siberia...

Hyoga must fights with your master, Crystal.

Crystal is dead. Shriyu stay in Rozan. The knight of Fire attacks the Kido Mansion. Alone, Shun suffer to protect Saori, but is helped by a powerful knight ressurrected of flames.

The Master of Sanctuary sends Marin and the Silver Saint Misty to Japan to kill Seya and the others.

The other silver saints have revenge in their hearts. Marin is used as bait and her secret is revealed. Just who is she?

After finding out Marin is indeed his long lost sister. Seiya must fight off yet another Silver saint in Asterion to save Marin. Will Seiya be able to both defeat Asterion and save Marin in time?