A story about Masami Kurumada, creator of Saint Seiya, has gone viral on 5ch: in one year, his tax payment reportedly reached ¥313.97 million. This dates back to the era of Japan’s “high-income taxpayer disclosure system,” when the National Tax Agency published the names and amounts of top taxpayers — popularly nicknamed the “millionaires’ rankings.” According to a former editor, Kurumada turned down an offer from Shueisha to set up a company for tax-saving purposes, and was reportedly delighted to see his own name near the top of the rankings. The topic appears to have been sparked by recent news that a former editor on his titles had embezzled funds, which came to light during a tax investigation. The thread also lit up with discussion comparing Saint Seiya’s commercial scale to other titles from Weekly Shonen Jump’s golden age.
Apparently Kurumada was obsessed with being #1 at everything — even reader popularity polls — so when Shueisha suggested he set up a company to save on taxes, he turned it down, and was thrilled to see his own name at the top of the tax rankings, according to a former editor.
Maybe that kind of flashy wealth is what led to the whole 'gold = strong' aesthetic in the series.
Oh, easily.
cranked out spin-offs like
Gundam Cross,
Bikkuri Cross,
Deforme Cross,
and more.
In anime too, shows like Ronin Warriors and Shurato were made to follow Seiya's lead,
and that trend of hero protagonists fighting in powered-armor-like suits continued into the mid-90s.
Wasn't Seiya after Dragon Ball?
Some even retire once they hit the tens-of-billions-of-yen mark.
Normally you end up like Togashi (barely working anymore).
The Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan authors probably won't do much else either.
What he really wanted to draw was Otokozaka.
I think that's why he kept drawing manga for so long afterward, as a kind of reaction.
Otokozaka got finished, you know.
Apparently it was a contract employee who served as the editor in charge at Shueisha.
If you can personally blow through hundreds of millions in after-tax profit every year, that's impressive in itself.
He probably had money before that too.
This time it came to light because the tax authorities came asking questions.
Japan's original was probably Henshin Cyborg back in the '70s.
Use the actual year, dude.
For a second I thought you meant 1963.
It's been all over the news since yesterday — brings back memories (net slang: 'natsukaC' = nostalgic).
Oda, who's only ever had One Piece, is a different story.
'Decent'???
In today's Jump, only Oda and Togashi have ever beaten Ring ni Kakero in popularity.
I used to read my friend's older brother's copies at their house and imitate the moves with tree branches.
Which came first, that or Saint Seiya?
I think the order was
Ring ni Kakero,
Fuma no Kojiro,
Seiya.
Kojiro didn't quite catch on, and people were wondering 'is this a flop?'
but then he hit it big with Seiya.
In the gap after Hokuto no Ken ended and before Dragon Ball had really taken off,
I remember Seiya briefly ruling supreme.
But as Dragon Ball's popularity rose,
Seiya seemed to fade away in inverse proportion.
That's way too sloppy an attribution.
For that stuff, isn't Judo Icchokusen the real origin (though that one's more of a drama)?
Team battles are from Koga Ninpocho.
In merch sales, Saint Seiya probably crushes it.
For Hokuto, it'd be more about how much it's raked in through pachinko.
Saint Seiya sold because the toys sold. Did Hokuto no Ken have anything moneymaking besides the manga itself?
Hokuto isn't much as merch, is it?
Though if you count pachinko and pachislot, that's probably huge.
He came off as a hot-blooded, good-natured guy.
I think it was in a Fuma no Kojiro tankobon afterword where he wrote something like:
'I saw a kid at a used bookstore scraping together loose change to buy my manga.
Hey, that's fine by me — if a kid can read manga with the little money they've got, I'm all for it!'
That stuck with me, but I wonder how he'd feel about it in today's climate.
It's less that he had a bad personality and more that he was the craftsman type — the embezzler in this case lied, claiming 'you can't discuss work with him properly without going through me,' and used that line to embezzle over and over.
That 'bad personality' image was probably just a byproduct of the perpetrator pulling that stunt repeatedly.
Like, what's a 'legendary wooden sword' supposed to be?
Apparently kids at the time got into it precisely because a 'legendary weapon' being an easy-to-get wooden sword souvenir made it feel attainable.
Fuma no Kojiro's real focus was the Holy Sword War arc anyway.
Background and Talking Points
Japan had a “high-income taxpayer disclosure system” for tax filings up through the 2005 tax year, under which the names and tax amounts of individuals who paid income tax above a certain threshold were published in newspapers and elsewhere. Popularly nicknamed the “millionaires’ rankings,” this system was still in effect during Saint Seiya’s original run (1986–1990). In the thread, discussion centered on the anecdote that Masami Kurumada was delighted to appear on this list, branching out into debate over how big an impact Saint Seiya’s success had on the toy and anime markets, and how it stacked up in popularity against other titles from Weekly Shonen Jump’s golden age. Note that details of the embezzlement case that appears to have sparked the discussion (who embezzled, when, and how much) were only mentioned in fragments within the thread, and as of this writing no official follow-up report has been confirmed.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nanjde Jikkyo G) thread “Apparently there was a year Saint Seiya’s creator paid ¥313.97 million in taxes.”
