Death Analysis: Dragon Shiryu

 

The Dragon Saint, Future Libra Saint of Athena, Pupil of Dohko, a Knight of Justice, The Warrior of Rozan, Medusa Shield-Slaying, Waterfall-Reversing, Suplexing into Space, Indestructible Shielded Warrior, the Legendary Bronze Saint Shiryu!

Obligatory

They were the epitome of true courage and power. They didn't use weapons to fight, for their own bodies were weapons. Their fists were known to rend the Heavens and their kicks to crack the earth. The ages tell that wicked times would inevitably come again, and that the saints would be the warriors of hope. They are the Saints of Athena, armored holy warriors protecting the Earth in the service of the goddess Athena. To protect the latest incarnation of the Goddess, Mitsumasa Kido adopted 100 orphan children and began to train them to potentially take up the mantle of one of Athena's 88 saints. 

One of these children was the young Shiryu. After a few years of training as young children, the children drew a raffle to decide where they would train. Young Shiryu in the raffle was sent to the Five Lushan Peaks in China to train under the Old Master Dohko, the Libra Gold Saint, in order to attain a Dragon Cloth, the armor of the Dragon Constellation, said to be a dragon incarnate. These were also the days in which he met his love and inspiration the young girl, a fellow orphan, named Shunrei

Dohko gave Shiryu a task simple but impossible; reverse the flow of a waterfall. It was a task Shiryu thought impossible but Dohko trained him and taught him about the universe for six years straight, telling him how the mighty Yangtze river flows in the opposite direction it "should", that the laws of nature humans look for are only their way of understanding the incomprehensible

Shiryu punched and punched at the waterfall with all his might. It should be fruitless, to fight against the laws of nature so. But what are the laws of nature but man's attempt to force nature to be understood? Shiryu fought the water, gravity, inevitability itself until the day where with a mighty blow...

he made the waterfall itself flow upwards in the shape of a dragon, earning him the right to use the Dragon Cloth. Dohko also found, to his approval, that unlike most of the Saints who fought for personal reasons, Shiryu was truly a saint who fought for justice itself. For this Dohko gave to his pupil the dragon tattoo, a marker for the Saint who will become the Libra Gold Saint, a Saint who will be a judge of good and evil for the Saints of Athena

Shiryu returned to Japan to test the power Dohko have given him in the Galaxian Wars, a tournament of the newly appointed Saints beginning a sequence of events where Shiryu and several other Bronze Saints would realize that the Sanctuary, the place that was meant to serve Athena's interest, had been corrupted from within which was the reason the newly manifested baby Athena was given to their adopted father in the first place. Shiryu along with his friends would be drawn into a massive political and physical war between the Gold Saints and the Gods themselves, though were able to protect Athena and the Earth.

This blog will be covering Shiryu from the manga continuity. There are two Dragon Shiryus, the one from the original manga, and the one from the anime adaptation. While the anime adaptation is relatively similar to the original manga, the manga continues with the manga sequel "Next Dimension" while the anime continues with the anime sequel "Omega." Similarly, this is not using the Shiryu from Episode G: Assassins, as that is a possible future timeline which has not yet come about and as such is unclear whether it will come to pass or not.

Cosmo:

Almost all fighters in the Saint Seiya universe use a power source known as "Cosmo." All things in the universe are made from atoms, that were once one in a singular mass that expanded outwards in the Big Bang. Persons are comprised of those same atoms that were once at one with all things. Internally each person contains a micro-universe that they can utilize as a form of energy source. To have even a basic awareness of cosmo is to feel the universe within oneself. The Saints with their battles make the universe within themselves "explode" or expand growing their energy to affect the atoms of the physical universe.

Atomic Manipulation:

The most famous trait of cosmo is the ability to destroy on the atomic scale. It's one of the most reiterated statements in the entire series. While it's the most common use of the power, it can be used for a far vaster array of abilities. When one uses cosmo, it causes the body to erupt in a burning aura of energy that can both passively burn away enemies as well as protect the user from numerous types of abilities. A saint's aura reflects their true nature, and Shiryu's is a dragon. Just as atoms can be accelerated to make heat, they can also be slowed down to freeze though Shiryu has not done this in particular. Shiryu has also used his cosmo to manipulate water, sometimes using it to travel around on. Via the manipulation of atoms hypothetically anything should be possible, though the primary usage of cosmo is to imbue oneself with a supernatural energy and superhuman physical capabilities.

Superhuman Physical Strength and Durability:

The most obvious facet of Shiryu's cosmo is his superhuman strength and durability, which continually grows throughout the series. His normal level is variable as cosmo and the level of one's cosmo can change based on the emotional state of a person. Becoming angrier or growing in determination can cause one's cosmo to rise during a battle. As of Next Dimension, Shiryu has grown in strength to the point of being equal with his master the Gold Saint Libra Dohko, who is claimed to have the greatest strength of the Gold Saints, though this kind of a claim is far from unique for the Gold Saints and was evenly matched with Aries Shion, who could destroy and recreate the entire universe into something else. While this was a younger Dohko, Dohko has only aged 243 days since that time due to the divine power of Misapethamenos. Shiryu has other Gold Saint tier feats as well in his base form, casually blocking a strike from the Angel Tenma without looking, catching Capricorn Shura's strike with his bare hands, kicking Shura away with Shura directly calling Shiryu stronger than him, and along with the other bronze saints was even durable enough to withstand an attack from the God Thanatos who was trying to kill them. Thanatos is an even stronger entity making three of Gold Saint-tier Generals of Hades look like infants in comparison and killing Pandora with a thought yet Shiryu and the other main character Bronze Saints withstood his attack.

These feats are impressive as Taurus Aldebaran, a lower-tier Gold Saint was able to stop the attack of Pegasus Seiya, Shiryu's ally after first unlocking the Seventh Sense comparable to the Big Bang. This same Taurus Aldebaran as a younger Saint was able to shatter the Sin Scale, a dimension comprised of human souls weighing more than the stars with his special attack that Seiya was able to overcome and reverse it back at him as well as break the maintain stay pillar of Poseidon which would withstand even the end of the universe. Other Gold Saints have universal feats as well such as Aries Mu erasing the sealed Titan Iapetos' dimension before creating his own bigger universe, Leo Aiolia's attack "Photon" Burst being compared to the Big Bang, Virgo Shaka and Virgo Shijima engaging in a mental battle of Ungyo the sound representing the end of the universe and Agyo the light representing the birth of the universe in which countless universes were made, Sagittarius Aiolos killing the Sun Goddess Apophis who as a goddess would have unlocked the Ninth Sense which granted Anti-Pope Aiolos enough power to rival the Big Bang, Gemini Kanon being able to match the power of Anti-Pope Aiolos, Aquarius Camus and Cygnus Hyoga's clash in Episode G Assassins disrupting the boundary between the worlds of the living and the world of the dead, and a general untranslated statement saying Gold Saints have the power to destroy the universe. Shiryu would easily scale to these feats given his scaling to Thanatos. 

Superhuman Endurance:

Shiryu is pretty infamous for beating his opponents via sheer endurance and willpower, often brutally injured to win a fight. He easily fought through being stabbed through with a lance, withstood his own attack reflected at him, withstood a beating from Angel Tenma without his cloth, took Scorpio Escarlte's scorpion stingers which inject people with poison and pain to the point of driving them insane until they die affecting his entire nervous system to the point it should paralyze gushing blood until he lost all his senses and continued to stand and fight, survived being between the gates of life and death for seven days, gave most of his blood to repair two of the Bronze Clothes which weakened him and made him less durable yet still withstood blows from Black Dragon his dark equivalent, was stabbed through the heart by Shura and only got stronger from his determination, and most famously of all gouged his own eyes to fight the petrifying gaze of Perseus Algol's shield. It is one of Shiryu's most famous traits, to be brutally injured, and to persist regardless through sheer willpower. It was for this indomitable spirit that the Dragon God Ryujin recognized Shiryu's worthiness and granted him a stronger cosmo. 

Superhuman Speed:

Like with his power, Shiryu's speed can rise during a battle. He and the his allies Seiya, Hyoga, Shun, and Ikki, have a famous over-the-top speed feat, flying from the Underworld to Elysium, the Greek Heaven, through the hyperdimension in minutes. The narration describes this as flying past billions of galaxies, though it's unclear if it means through a space that would contain billions of galaxies like a universe which would require speeds quadrillions of times the speed of light, or through literally billions of galaxies lined up in a row, requiring a speed quintillions to sextillions of times the speed of light depending on one's assumptions. 

There are numerous other speed feats for Seventh Sense tier entities in the range of quadrillions to quintillions of times the speed of light. This level of speed is fairly consistent with Thanatos sending attacks across universal distances nearly instantly. Even in the Sanctuary arc Ikki believed he could flee to the edge of the universe in his fight with Virgo Shaka and Shun was able to send his chains through the dimension of Saga to hit him. Anti-Pope Aiolos was able to launch an attack quickly between universes, likely quadrillions of times the speed of light but Gemini Saga and Capricorn Shura reacted to it and blocked it. Shiryu can likely push himself even further however, as he was able to as mentioned earlier, catch the blow of the Gold Saint Capricorn Shura, who performed the fastest finite speed feat in Saint Seiya, overcoming the speed of the initial expansion of the universe with his Excalibur Technique. At the very beginning of the universe, it expanded from the size of a proton to the size of a grapefruit in an unfathomably small period of time between 10^-45 seconds from the beginning to 10^-35 seconds, a rate of expansion calced at 30 septillion times the speed of light. It should be noted that this is technically a mid-end. Estimates of the final size of the universe after the initial expansion can vary from as small as a grain of sand to a grapefruit, with resulting speeds ranging from quintillions to septillions, however, various depictions of Big Bangs in Saint Seiya, depict them as reaching the size of grapefruit or larger, often the size of people or greater after the expansion, which would increase the value even more by several factors. As such Shiryu likely reaches septillions of times the speed of light with his Bronze Cloth.

Bodily Manipulation:

Shiryu demonstrated the ability to use his own cosmo to heal himself, even healing injuries that would normally take six months to heal in one day. He was also able to force his own blood to circulate through his body via his cosmo to fight off paralysis. Also while Saints are not immortal and will die from aging eventually or from sickness, cosmo can extend their lifespan dramatically such that they can live centuries.

Potential Attack Reflection:

Numerous cosmo users in the series have independently shown the ability to reflect attacks without any special techniques, something Shiryu due to his skill with cosmo should be able to do as well. However, it's unknown if this can be done to attacks not comprised of cosmo. Given how the reflection is depicted, it seems likely that it can. 

Non-Physical Interaction/Conceptual Destruction:

Any cosmo user in Saint Seiya can destroy ghosts and evil spirits, something Shiryu himself demonstrates. Cosmo can even be used to hit conceptual things like curses, the Dryads which mankind's evil given human form, and even the Gods who are conceptual entities. 

Saints have regularly shown that not only can they interact with non-physical entities as though they were physical, they can also destroy the incorporeal parts of a person without even destroying their physical bodies. Ikki even during the Galaxian Wars showed the ability to destroy a bronze saint's soul with his strikes rather than his body, an ability clearly not exclusive to him as Pegasus Tenma was said to be able to destroy someone body and soul. Gold Saints have numerous times shown the ability to destroy 20,000,000,000 souls at once, which Shiryu should scale too. Likewise given they can strike conceptual entities, they should be able to essentially destroy someone on any plane up to the conceptual. 

Attack Techniques:

As mentioned, Shiryu's cosmo has its own unique form like any other Saint, which he can form into various combat techniques. The most well-known is "Rozan Sho Ryu Ha" (Rising Dragon Punch), a technique in which Shiryu uppercuts an opponent his cosmo taking the form of a Chinese dragon. He also has a variant "Rozan Ryu Hi Sho" (Soaring Mountain Punch) where he dashes forward striking forward instead of upward. His master Dohko taught him two more strenuous techniques later of greater power. The first of these was "Rozan Hyakki Ryu Ha" (One Hundred Dragons Blow) where his cosmo takes the form of 100 striking dragons that attack Shiryu's foes. The other, "Rozan Ko Ryu Ha" (Ascendant Dragon Blow), is a last resort move where Shiryu grapples his opponents and rises into the heavens with them, the two being disintegrated from the sheer force. Dohko describes the move as a technique that could kill any human, himself included at the cost of the user's life.

From the Gold Saint Capricorn Shura, Shiryu learned the additional technique of "Excalibur." Shiryu is not as skilled as Shura with this technique, and can only use it with his right, arm, as opponent to any limb, but Shiryu can encase his arm in cosmo sharped to the point of being able to cut anything, even the unbreakable gold spear of Chrysaor Krishna. Excalibur has shown the ability to truly "cut anything" as it is warranted, including the fabric of space itself. It cut through the infinite light of Brontes Kido and cut off the arm of Zeus's astral body, Zeus being the multiversal top tier of the verse. It is likely that Excalibur completely ignores the durability or size of the target. Excalibur, as a divine weapon, also has the property of negating regeneration as Shiryu used it to kill the dragon faceless, a spiritual entity that regenerates when harmed. This happened in Episode G-Asasssin but should apply as a general property of Excalibur. 

Higher Senses:

While cosmo is the sheer energy of the internal universe within a person, the Saints and others come to skillfully utilize this cosmo through the development of the senses. 

Much as the perception of a sense can become more intense when the other senses are cut off, so too does a Saint's higher senses grow stronger as their senses are restricted. Phoenix Ikki took advantage of this by allowing Virgo Shaka to restrict his six senses to aid his awakening of the seventh sense. Both that fight and Shiryu himself demonstrate that restricting the senses also causes cosmo to strengthen further. Virgo Gold Saints are famous for using this to their advantage whether it be  Virgo Shaka keeping his eyes closed to control his cosmo or Virgo Shijima refusing to speak so that words would become imbued with his cosmo.

Sixth Sense:

The sixth sense refers to mind, and development of this sense can grant psychic powers. The sixth sense is suggested to be made of "premonition, signs, suggestion, intuition, perception, foreboding, and inference." Usage of the sixth sense can allow the user to fight even without the other senses, essentially replacing them and it gives them access to telekinesis which Shiryu demonstrates by shattering a boulder with a gesture and a command. 

The primary ability granted by the sixth sense however is telepathic sensing. Saints can sense cosmo, and the unique nature of various cosmo or the aura around things to understand their nature, and are able to sense cosmo at such a distance that Cancer Deathmask could sense Shiryu's cosmo while he was at his temple on Earth and Shiryu was in the Underworld, another dimensional realm. Deathmask was also able to feel Shunrei's prayers for Deathmask, hearing even the words within it while they were in the Underworld and she was in China. Shiryu was able to sense these prayers immediately, showing a telepathic power greater than Deathmask, a skilled enough psychic to attack Shunrei from another dimension. Those with awoken sixth sense can sense disturbances or things that are amiss acting as a rudimentary danger sense.

Seventh Sense:

Stronger than the first six senses, and the source of them all as well as a person's cosmo is the seventh sense. The seventh sense was a sense all people had in the time of myth and was the source of heroism. The seventh sense can completely heal any of the prior senses if lost, as it did to Shiryu's sight, and can compensate if any are lost, allowing the Saints to fight even while unconscious. At this level a Saint's manipulation of their own atoms that Leo Aioria was able to regenerate his arm and heart's molecules from will. Due to the manipulation of their atoms, a Saint at this level can only be defeated if they can no longer will their bodies to regenerate, a difficult feat given the seventh sense will compensate for lack of consciousness. 

The Seventh Sense, when extended to the maximum, the supreme seventh sense is also linked to the capability to use a unique power called "miracles," which will be explained later.

Eighth Sense:

Beyond the Seventh Sense is the Eighth Sense, Arayashiki, or "Enlightenment." It is referred to as the essence, the source of one's karma. Shiryu has unlocked the usage of the Eighth Sense. The Eighth Sense allows the user to "overcome death" and gives one control of one's own soul, allowing one to stay in the land of the living even after death and reconstitute bodies for oneself, a form of low-godly regen. Hypothetically this would have been possible with the seventh sense given the ability to reconstitute the atoms of matter, but upon death, the soul would have left for the underworld normally. It also allows one to enter and exit the underworld alive, where normally the underworld robs one of all their senses.

Sainthood:

Dragon Shiryu is a Saint of Athena, a human serving the goddess Athena's holy will, with special skills and ways of way developed for the Goddess' protectors separate even from the powers granted to other users of cosmo in the verse.

Reactive Evolution:

Perhaps the most famous ability of the Saints is their ability to adapt and grow in combat. It's one of the most quoted statements about a Saint, that the same technique never works twice on them, due to them developing resistance from experiencing or seeing an attack technique being used. The Saints also grow stronger from battle, growing stronger every time they're knocked down. Shiryu himself has gone from half-dead and being stomped by Cancer Deathmask to powerful enough that his aura burned Deathmask in moments. 

Divine Protection/Resistances:

All Saints have the protection and grace of their guardian constellation. Combined with Shiryu's immense cosmo and the divine blood (ichor) of Athena that has fallen upon his cloth, Shiryu has developed numerous resistances. As mentioned above Saints can generally destroy not just the physical bodies of people but up to their conceptual bodies, yet Shiryu especially can resist the attacks from other Saints trying to destroy him completely, with even the Primordial Deity Uranus being unable to erase Shiryu, forced to seal him away in another dimension. This gives him a resistance to astral to conceptual destruction equivalent to his durability. Higher plane destruction resistance is not the same as actual manipulation of those things, however, in the same way that having physical durability is not the same thing as matter manipulation resistance. Shiryu does however have resistance to these forms of manipulation. In Episode G we see the battle between the Gold Saints and the sealed titans, the sealed titans creating their own universes with their own planets of people with their own cosmo, souls, and minds, and which they can control freely to do things like miniaturize the planet to use as a weapon. These dimensions are likely the size of full universes, containing countless stars. This would likely be universal reality-warping resistance, and at least planetary levels of soul, mind, and size manipulation resistance as well as multi-stellar or universal energy-matter manipulation resistance. Shiryu's mental resistance may be even higher, as the Gold Saint Virgo Shaka, who is not even the most accomplished psychic of the Gold Saints, is known for mental trap referencing the story of Sun Wukong and Buddha where he traps an enemy within a mental reality large enough to contain at least multiple galaxies shown several times as well as being able to have his mental battle with Virgo Shijima containing the birth and death of countless universes. However, while it's very likely Shiryu would be able to resist this, as it's extremely unlikely he'd be able to just do this to someone like Hades who God Cloth Shiryu had grown somewhat notable in power to, it's not technically confirmed.

Saints also have other resistances as well. Saints have shown on numerous instances a resistance to fate or destiny manipulation. After awakening the Eighth Sense, Saints have a resistance to death manipulation as the Underworld instantly kill anyone who enters yet doesn't kill Saints who have awoken the Eighth Sense and can survive the presence of the god Hades, who even as an incarnated baby killed everyone in a castle around him with his presence. In Saint Seiya Omega it is also stated people with enough cosmo can move even in stopped time. While Omega is part of the anime timeline, the two series are both universes in the same multiverse, and so the basic properties of cosmo should be the same. Shiryu also possibly has a limited resistance to petrification. While Perseus Algol immediately turned the others to stone with the Medusa Shield, Shiryu only had one-half of his body turned to stone instantly, and was able to still fight after looking into it. This was possibly because of the bandages covering his eyes but Algol says the Medusa Shield can penetrate past it.

Miracles:

Probably the ultimate tool of the Saints, the weapon that can surpass even the Gods is "Miracles," a representation of humans being able to improve infinitely while the gods, great as they are, will always be the eternal concepts they embody. Miracles are a uniquely human power and are considered an extension of the seventh sense, created by combusting the cosmos within oneself. Miracles have infinite potential and can generate unlimited power. It is the power of miracles, of raising one's cosmo infinitely that brings about the ultimate upgrade of the Saint's Cloth, the God Cloth. While miracles are broadly used to raise one's power greatly above where it normally is temporarily, it can also be used to manipulate possibility itself to turn an impossibility into a possibility, defying what can and cannot be done.

Miracles are stated to be raise one's strength "infinitely." Aristotle the Greek philosopher divided infinite into "actual infinity", a completed infinity, a set with infinite elements, and "potential infinity", a quantity that is never completed, which grows and continues with no last element but always with finite elements. Thematically the infinity referred to here is "potential infinity", just as humans have a cosmos in them that expands from their big bang with no limit, so too does human power grow without limits. This means that a Saint can grow stronger and faster towards infinity without limitations, which unlike actual infinity does not cause contradictions here. 

Dragon Cloth:

Like all Saints, Shiryu wears a distinctive armor, his being the Dragon Cloth which he can summon to him at any time. Clothes are partially sentient and can act to protect others and can abandon a Saint who is evil enough that they no longer wish to protect them. Even when a Saint is dead their spirit can move their armor, the way Sagittarius Aiolos moved his Cloth to cover Seiya and aid him. Contrary to popular belief, clothes do not empower a Saint, their power comes from their cosmo. The armor just protects them and without it their bodies are extremely vulnerable against each other. The Dragon Cloth is a dragon incarnate, hammered by the water of the Milky Way for eons, making it the toughest of the Bronze Clothes. The shield and gauntlet of the Dragon Cloth are considered invincible, and while that's not technically true, Shiryu is noticeably more durable than the other Legendary Bronze Saints due to his cloth. The Bronze Cloths normally freeze at -240 Degrees Fahrenheit/-151 Degrees Celcius though due to Shiryu's burning cosmo imbued in his Cloth, this amount drops to an even lower temperature.

 

Also with its final evolution, the Dragon Cloth grew wings and gave Shiryu the ability to fly.

Dragon God Cloth:

An ultimate form of the Dragon Cloth brought about by the power of miracles and Shiryu raising his cosmo to the infinite. With the power of his God Cloth, Shiryu was able to one-shot the God Hypnos alongside God Cloth Hyoga, a god equal or stronger than Thanatos who could one-shot all the Legendary Bronze wearing Gold Clothes earlier. Hypnos also tanked an attack from an entire generation of Saints together, including the Pope and all 12 Gold Saints, which is even more impressive given that any 3 Gold Saints together can recreate the power of the Big Bang. Shiryu, along with Hyoga, Shun, and Ikki were able to push back the God Hades with their God Cloths. Hades for comparison created Hell, Elysium, and the Hyperdimension, maintaining them with his will. The Hyperdimension alone using the higher end of the speed calc mentioned above would have a diameter of over 2.5e33 meters, a diameter of about 2,841,000 times the observable universe's, and with a three-dimensional volume 23 quintillion times the observable universe's. While much larger than the observable universe's size, this is much smaller than the real universe's lower bound size estimate for the full universe, so what you make of this is your prerogative. Technically both Elysium and Hell are referred to as infinite as well, however because the God Cloth Saints are finitely weaker than Hades, this would cause a paradox as it's logically contradictory for something to be finitely greater or smaller than an infinite quantity. As such I wouldn't use this.

The God Cloth would also easily have speed superior to that of Capricorn Shura's by an unknown amount but likely a large amount, and has a freezing point hundreds of times below Absolute Zero. In the process of anointing a God Cloth, Athena gave the Dragon Cloth some of her blood, divine ichor, which grants an eternal statue to its wearer, making them resistant to history and causality manipulation attacks, it's stated to give protection against "everything" and healing. Ichor also gives a more obscure resistance to information/paradox manipulation as they can resist the "black hole paradox problem", a paradox trying to erase Saints that exist in multiple places at one due to diverging timelines which usually forces there to only be one version of a character in a timeline.

The God Saints were able to fight alongside Athena against Hades, though they were significantly weaker. Seiya was able to actually catch a blow from Hades and surprise him with his strike. As mentioned above Hades' power created and maintained the underworld which is stated to have limitless space, which means his power would be infinite, which in turn means Shiryu with his God Cloth might have infinite attack/reaction speed. This is potentially supported by Hades in Episode G is considered relative to Cronos, preventing the underworld from being destroyed by his power, indicating he was able to react to Cronos' power. Cronos' power was able to wipe out all time from the multiverse in finite time, the Saint Seiya Multiverse being infinite in size with Athena traveling across an unknown portion of it to aid Shura in Episode G.

Skill/Intelligence: 

All the Saints are master hand to hand fighters, but Shiryu is especially gifted in this regard, being considered the best of the Legendary Bronze Saints at actual martial arts. He was one of the first of them to awaken to the Seventh Sense and defeated the strongest of the Marine Generals save Kanon primarily through skill and recognition that Krishna's "chakras" were his equivalent of the Saints' Star Points. He was able to disappear into darkness, has knowledge of pressure points, and while blind and paralyzed restarted Seiya's heart with a punch. His martial skill is superhuman and he and the other Legendary Bronze Saints were able to aid Athena in her battle with Hades, overpowered but not outskilled by Hades, Hades and Athena being likely billions of years old and Athena being the goddess of war.

Shiryu is also a skilled tactician, intentionally exposing his weak point to manipulate Shura into attacking how he wanted him too. He was clever enough to figure out that there was a second hidden Black Dragon Saint and like all Saints is well-versed in mythological history, knowing how the mythological hero Perseus defeated the mythological Medusa. Shiryu has a reputation of being the most level-headed and wise of the Legendary Bronze Saints, befitting the impartiality called for by the Libra Gold Cloth.

Weaknesses:

Shiryu originally had the weakness that when he struck, he left himself vulnerable for 1/1000th of a second which any blow would kill him. With the recent upgrade from the Dragon God Ryujin, it's not clear if this upgrade is still there. Shiryu has the same weakness as the other Saints, that he's vastly more vulnerable without his cloth and even if a Saint can resurrect themselves, they can't necessarily resurrect their Cloth.

Shiryu's biggest weakness though is his absolute nobility and sense of justice and fair play. When he was battling the evil Gold Saint Cancer Deathmask, Deathmask proved so evil that his own cloth abandoned him but refusing to take advantage of his opponent's vulnerability, Shiryu removed his own cloth so it would still be a fair fight. Due to his durability, willpower, and temperament, Shiryu sometimes takes blows for others, especially his friends. Like Superman or Captain America, he's the shield of his team. 

Also in non-canon anime filler, he struggles against some normal wolves.

Personality:

During the 2004 popularity poll of Saint Seiya characters, Dragon Shiryu came first before immensely popular characters like Phoenix Ikki or Gemini Saga and before the protagonist Pegasus Seiya. I believe this is partialy because while every other character in Saint Seiya fights for personal reasons, whether good or ill, Shiryu is one who truly lives for justice, to protect the weak and innocent. In a classic 80s battle shonen filled with hot-blooded characters, Shiryu is the most mature, wise, and level-headed, the one who truly embodies the idea of a Saint, one who fights purely for justice's sake rather than any personal vendetta. The reason he is often blinded in his fights is a reference to the notion that justice is blind, it is wise and without prejudices based on appearances reflected by Shiryu's ability to "see" without seeing, immune to illusions and false appearances. 

In their own ways, each of the four Bronze Clothes that Seiya befriends models a trait he would need as a Saint; devotion for Hyoga, compassion for Shun, and power for Ikki. However, what Shiryu demonstrates is arguably the defining trait for the entire series; willpower in the pursuit of justice. Befitting one chosen of the Libra constellation, Shiryu is able to calmly and maturely take in information, without compromising his ideals and faithfulness to the cause of justice. In the Hades Arc when Shiryu returns to Sanctuary to fight the Sanctuary Dohko reprimands him, asking if he doesn't understand love, that Athena knows she and the Gold Saints are likely to perish in this battle and Athena in her love was trying to spare the Bronze Saints that battle, asking if he can't just accept a quiet life with Shunrei's love. However Shiryu refuses and continues to try to fight Aries Shion along his master, even as he is beaten down. Shiryu explains to Dohko that a Saint is what he is, that telling him to not fight for justice is the same as telling him to kill himself because he can't turn his back on his comrades and continue to live. Dohko relents and agrees to fight with Shiryu, saying he will personally beg Athena's forgiveness on Shiryu's behalf. This is perhaps the only time in the entire series that the wise old master Dohko is wrong, and it's because even he could not see how deep the quest for justice goes down to Shiryu's soul, that he can't just live peacefully because to abandon his quest is the same as to spiritually die. 

For most heroes in Saint Seiya, and indeed it seems most series, nobility and ideals are virtues to aspire to, but not the character's natural orientation. For Shiryu, however, they are the stuff of life, that which he persists on. They are the animating components of his soul, lived in his actions. It is the source of their many crippling tragedies Shiryu has faced as he sacrifices himself for others; it is why he gave of his own blood to restore the Pegasus and Dragon Cloths, why he blinded himself to fight Algol, why he refused to abandon the fight against Deathmask when he had the chance, why he tried to sacrifice himself against Shura. Yet just as the spiritual transcends over the physical, giving it meaning, no matter how much damage Shiryu takes, he remains standing. It was his willingness to sacrifice himself that finally convinced Shura that the Bronze Saints were really serving the true Athena and his true strength of character that allowed him to overcome Cancer Deathmask. Shiryu is a representation of the true meaning of a Saint, someone whose ideals are not just a detached virtue to reach, but are shown in their every action, where goodness and justice are truly not things they do but something they live.

Summary: 

+Universal Attack Potency, Durability, Metaphysical Destruction and Metaphysical Destruction Resistance. Macrocosmic with God Cloth. Can rise higher infinitely via miracles.

+MFTL (Quintillions normally, can reach as high as Septillions), Higher with God Cloth. Can rise higher infinitely via miracles. Potentially infinite attack/reaction speed. 

+Energy Manipulation/Aura

+Various Attack Techniques he can channel his cosmo into

+Matter Manipulation (Atomic)

+Regeneration (Low-Godly)

+Superhuman Endurance/Bodily Manipulation

+Potential Attack Reflection

+Can ignore durability and negate regeneration with Excalibur

+Telekinesis, Telepathic Sensing (Inter-Universal), Precognition and Enhanced Mental Facilities with Sixth Sense

+Can fight while unconscious

+Power-Amping and Probability Manipulation with Miracles

+Control of his soul, can enter and exit the underworld at will

+Reactive Evolution

+Flight

+Holy Emanation

+A Tier Skill, Potentially High A Tier Skill (Comparable to Hades and Athena)

+Basic Stealth

+Possible Healing (With Ichor)

+Acausality

+Resistance to Multi-Stellar, likely Universal Reality-Warping, Spacetime, Existence Erasure and Matter-Energy Hax (The Primordial Uranus could not erase him, Uranus being a superior user of the Dunamis of Gods than the Titans who create dimensions called universes and with countless stars)

+Resistance to Planetary+ Soul, Mind, and Size Manipulation (The Sealed Titans can create and manipulate planets of people and change their size yet could not affect the Gold Saints, Shiryu withstood Cancer Deathmask's attack which could manipulate 20 billion souls), Possibly Higher (May be able to resist Virgo Shaka's psychic power)

+Resistance to Sensory Sealing, Freezing, Fate Manipulation, Paradox/Information Manipulation, Death Manipulation, Causality Manipulation, and Time Stop

+Some level of resistance against "everything."

+Possible Limited Resistance to Petrification

-Dragon Tattoo possibly turns into a weak point for 1/1000th of a second while he attacks

-Is completely fair-minded and refuses to take advantage of any vulnerabilities of his opponent

-Wolves?

Recommended Opponent:

Naofumi Iwatani (Rising of the Shield Hero): 

Two Heroes that are known for their shield above all else, entering the world's strongest turtling match. End of Web Novel Naofumi could be a real threat to Shiryu and it would be a fair matchup to think about vs wise where a lot of factors from both like Shiryu's resistance to Naofumi's causality manipulation, seemingly his biggest weapons, though Naofumi's poisons and curses, more modest would also plausibly work...though Shiryu's would be defenseless against their with the Eigth Sense, Bodily Control, and the ability to attack curses. The biggest interest is the thematic side. Naofumi is a hero driven by his hatred and want for vengeance after his false accusation and exile from civilized society and I think there could be a really cool theme about the difference between justice and vengeance. The two would be such opposing personalities, and were both popular for being different kinds of heroes for their time; Shiryu for being a morally noble, wise, and mature hero in a hot-blooded series and Naofumi for being a pragmatic, realistic, and cynical hero in a time of generic Isekai protagonists. An exchange of words between them would be as interesting as an exchange of fists, or shields as it were.

Next Time:

Thanks to my friend Thor for making this trailer that really captured the....eccentric nature of the two combatants I'm doing next time.