Pisces Aphrodite

Infobox animanga character
name = Pisces Aphrodite
series = Saint Seiya


caption = Pisces Aphrodite, in a screenshot from the anime
first =
creator = Masami Kurumada
voiced by = Keiichi Nanba (難波 圭一)
age = 22
gender = Male
born = March 10
nationality = Sweden
class = Saint
paux1 = Athena
Gemini Saga
paux1 name = Loyalty
paux2 = Pisces
paux2 name = Cloth
paux3 = Gold
paux3 name = Rank
paux4 = Greenland
paux4 name = Training
paux5 = 1.83 m
paux5 name = Height
aux1 = 72 kg
aux1 name = Weight
aux2 = O
aux2 name = Blood type
aux3 = Royal Demon Rose
Piranha Rose
Bloody Rose
aux3 name = Secret moves
aux4 =
manga: chapter 37, vol.11 (shadowed)
manga: chapter 40, vol.11(fully)
Anime: ep.68
aux4 name = First appearancenihongo|Pisces Aphrodite|魚座のアフロディーテ|Pisukesu no Afurodīte is a fictional character from the manga Saint Seiya, authored by long-time manga-ka Masami Kurumada, later adapted to anime.

Personality and background

Pisces Aphrodite is the last of the Gold Saints introduced by Kurumada in his manga, formally presented in vol.11. Aphrodite was a Saint famous not only because of his incredible, mesmerizing beauty, but also for his reputation as one of the strongest among the 88 Saints.

Gold Saint Gemini Saga once stated that Aphrodite's beauty was the greatest among Athena's the Saints. Kurumada named him after the greek Goddess of love and beauty as a reference to the Greek myth associated to the Pisces constellation. However, Aphrodite never claimed to be the most beautiful creature, unlike the Silver Saint, Lizard Misty who claimed that even the stars' splendor dimmed next to his glory.

It is notable that despite his incomparable beauty, Aphrodite is not narcissistic. He is often described as cruel as his fellow Gold Saint, Cancer Deathmask, but not as sadistic.

Aphrodite is depicted as a man who believes the power is the only way to keep the order and assure the justice. Suscribing to this theory, he believes the stronger is allowed to rule over the weak.

He is also ironic and sarcastic. According to Saga, despite his beauty, Aphrodite is the most feared of all the 88 Saints of Athena. His reputation echoed again in the still non-canonical Saint Seiya Episode G, when Aphrodite appeared in front of the Titan's soldiers who were awe-struck due to his beauty but also paralyzed by fear in his presence.

A recurring motif in the Pisces Saint is that he considers victory as the greatest beauty of all and, therefore, he believes what makes him really beautiful would not be his physique, but absolute power.

Some casual fans believe Aphrodite is a female because of his name. In the French, Spanish -first dubbing- and Chinese dubbing of the anime adaptation, he is voiced by a female actress.

Plot overview

The Sanctuary saga

As guardian of the final Temple of Sanctuary, Pisces Aphrodite faces the last two Bronze Saints remaining: Pegasus Seiya and Andromeda Shun. Shun stated that he would hold Aphrodite off, while Seiya manages to pass through the temple. Aphrodite laughs and tells Shun that even if Seiya passes through the temple, between it and the Pope's hall, lies the garden of Royal Demon Roses, and because Seiya has to traverse it, he would eventually lose his senses and die. As the two engaged in battle, Aphrodite stated that he was the Gold Saint who attacked Andromeda Island and killed Shun's master, Cepheus Daidalos. Having been told of this by his friend Chameleon Juné, the shy Andromeda Saint had vowed beforehand to defeat that man that killed his beloved master.

Using his "Rolling Defense", Shun managed to repel of all Aphrodite's "Royal Demon Rose" attacks. However, when Aphrodite used his "Piranha Rose" on Shun, his Nebula Chains and Bronze Cloth were shattered. Although he seemed to be defenseless, Shun remembered that his master, Cepheus Daidalos, mentioned that within him lied an extremely powerful Cosmo, normally restrained by the Andromeda Cloth. This power could only be awakened when not wearing the Cloth. Using the power of his hidden Cosmo, Shun performed a secret attack: "Nebula Storm", which he used to restrain Aphrodite. However, being merciful in nature, Shun gave Aphrodite a chance to repent, to embrace again the path of virtue, as a Saint should, specially one who possessed the honor of being a Gold Saint.

Aphrodite showed no intention to do so, and prepared his strongest attack, the "Bloody Rose". Shun was forced to counter with his final attack "Nebula Storm" and ended the battle by killing Aphrodite, but not without being struck in the center of his heart by the Bloody Rose, falling into near-death conditions. The Bloody Rose was true to its name as it was draining all the blood from Shun's heart. It was not until the start of the Poseidon arc (and in the anime-only Asgard arc) that he was nursed back to health.

The Hades

In the manga, and therefore in the anime adaptation, the deceased Gold Saints were revived as Specters by the power of Hades, and, led by the Specter of the former Pope, Aries Shion, they were sent to Sanctuary to assassinate Athena. In the first Temple, Shion was stopped by Aries Mu. Shion orders Cancer Deathmask and Pisces Aphrodite to defeat Mu so they could continue their mission. However, neither Gold Saint was able to break Mu's Crystal Wall until Shion does so himself. Deathmasks attacks Mu for a moment until Seiya arrives and interferes, but Mu tells Seiya that he is not needed for this battle, and banishes him with his "Starlight Extinction". Pleased with what Mu has done, Deathmask and Aphrodite attempts to pass the temple, but Mu tells them that he would kill any enemy who dares to cross the Aries Temple. Mu quickly banishes Deathmask and Aphrodite with his "Starlight Extinction".

Back in Hades' castle, Wyvern Rhadamanthys, one of the 3 Judges of Hell, punishes the two for failing their mission and casts them back into the abyss that leads to the underworld.

Later on, it was revealed that Deathmask and Aphrodite were secretly on Athena's side, along with the rest of the deceased Gold Saints, and were asked by Shion to pretend to follow Hades' order (in the Anime adaptation the same scene is shown with some more detail, after Shion asked all the dead Gold and Silver Saints to pretend to follow Hades' order, Aphrodite smiled and Deathmask grinned widely. Shion then thanked all of them for carrying the burden of the traitor's branding in pretending to betray Athena).

In the final gathering of the 12 Gold Saints at the Wailing Wall, Aphrodite's spirit and the Gold Cloth of Pisces appeared to help open the gateway to Elysion, where Hades' true body lies. After this, his spirit and Cosmo disappeared, and all that was evident of him was the Pisces Gold Cloth which remained.

Episode G

The non-canonical sidestory Saint Seiya Episode G, shows us Aphrodite seven years before the events in Kurumada's original manga. Already a Gold Saint, Aphrodite is depicted as a centered and merciless person able to kill his opponents even if they are humans. Aphrodite is also depicted as thinking about beauty in fights and calling victory the greatest beauty that crowns the strongest warrior. His participation, so far has been short. After the Titans gate being discovered on , he was sent by the Pope of the Sanctuary to cover the entry of the Chronos' Labyrinth with his deadly roses.

Since Leo Aiolia rushed into the Titans' world before, the Pope's plans were ruined. Even so, Aphrodite saved a defenseless Aiolia from the attacks of the Titans' followers. After some argument between the two Gold Saints (since Aiolia was against Aphrodite bloodlust), the Gigas Anthrakma Zugilos appeared. Aphrodite saved himself and Aiolia from Zugilos' deadly mace (that could destroy anything alive with its vibrations) and then killed the Gigas. After that, he traveled back to the Sanctuary and left behind a carpet of vines and white roses protecting the exit of that world (to avoid an invasion against the Sanctuary).

In Episode G, Aphrodite is depicted as a narcissistic person, due to a younger personality that had yet to mature.

Power and abilities

Having mastered the 7th sense, Aphrodite is fully capable of using the plenty of his Cosmo energy. This allows him to move and attack at the speed of light. As every Saint, he also possess some degree of psychic power that allows him to use abilities like telekinesis and telepathy (both implied, since he was never showed using any of those). At the end of the Hades' arc, it is hinted that Aphrodite was able to use the 8th sense as well, allowing his soul to move freely on the underworld without being subject to its laws.

In the non-canonical sidestory Saint Seiya Lost Canvas, it is revealed that the Pisces Saint is immune to poisons due to the fact they live close to the garden of royal demon roses after the Pisces Temple. It is also revealed that the immense beauty of the Pisces Saints have an important function: it mesmerizes the enemies during battle.
Even so, Aphrodite's main power remains on his ability to manipulate his Cosmo energy in order to create different kinds of roses that he can freely brandish. Using this ability, he can perform the following techniques:

*nihongo|Royal Demon Rose|ロイヤルデモンローズ|roiyaru demon rōzu: Aphrodite uses red roses as a projectile. When struck by the thorns on the roses or smelling their fragrance, the target would be poisoned until they slowly lost their 5 senses and fell into a sweet aroma of death. The red roses can also create a dense red mist to cover the entire place and hide his position.

*nihongo|Piranian Rose|ピラニアンローズ|piranian rōzu: Aphrodite uses black roses as a projectile. Upon impact, they can break anything within their reach. The power of this technique is high enough to reduce to dust a Bronze Cloth recently strengthened by Aries Mu.

*nihongo|Bloody Rose|ブラッディローズ |buraddi rōzu: Aphrodite uses one or more white roses as a projectile. It strikes at the opponent's chest, and drains all blood from their heart. As the white rose draws blood, it eventually becomes red. This is Aphrodite's strongest attack. A single rose is enough to kill a giant of many feet of height in few seconds. Apparently, the rose seeks the heart of the enemy, so is not possible to avoid it. The only way to escape from this attack is to destroy the rose itself or try to shield oneself from it, albeit the rose showed enough penetrating power to break even a Gold Cloth.In Saint Seiya Episode G, Aphrodite is able to create and manipulate large rose's vines. So far, he used them to refrain and strangle his targets, create massive vine blades and to create defensive cocoons to protect and heal his or another person's body (through his Cosmo energy).

Cloth, constellation and Temple

Aphrodite's guardian constellation is Pisces, and his Gold Cloth represents it and its associated myth : The goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros when they transformed into fish to escape the murderous Typhon.

The temple he guarded was known both in manga and the anime adaptation as SouGyoKyuu, the "Temple of the Twin Fish".

Previous Incarnations

In the 18th century, the Pisces Saint was known as .

His personality and physique is identical to Aphrodite. Although Albafica wasn't corrupted by evil and remained a true Saint.

Albafica appears only in the sidestory Saint Seiya Lost Canvas. The status of this side-story as canon is unknown.

Notes

*As Masami Kurumada uses the revered Osamu Tezuka's Star System technique, (A stable cast of characters which play a a different or similar role in the author's various works, sometimes with the same personality and sometimes with an entirely new one), he designed Aphrodite's appearance very similar to Napoleon Baroa, a character in the successful Ring ni Kakero, a manga that Kurumada wrote and drew years before Saint Seiya, and that he considers his favorite creation.

*Kurumada gave Aphrodite blonde hair in his manga. In the anime adaptation, due to a relative excess of yellow tones in Kurumada's design, it is light blue, to generate a better color balance and contrast. Interestingly enough, although Aphrodite's original hair color was modified in the anime adaptation, Napoleon's blonde hair remained so in the anime adaptation of Ring ni Kakero.

*As revealed by Masami Kurumada in vol.12 of his manga, Aphrodite became a Gold Saint at an early age. He had already been granted the Gold Saint status and the Pisces Gold Cloth by the time he was 9 years old.