One of the main characters in the series, Hyoga appears calm, collected, and unemotional. Beneath the surface, however, he is passionate and devoted to his ideals. As a Saint born under the Cygnus constellation, Hyoga is able to control and manipulate ice and snow as he pleases, as he mastered the basis of the technique of the Saints of ice, stop the atoms of matter by the power of their Cosmo.
Role in the series
In the manga, Hyoga originally did not choose to participate in the Graude Foundation's Galaxian Wars until he received an order from Sanctuary to assassinate the other bronze saints. He originally accepted this due to his hatred for the Graude Foundation, being aware that Mitsumasa Kido was his father. As he became more familiar with his subjects, however, Hyoga grew indecisive about his mission. Once Silver saints began to target him along with the other bronze saints, however, he dropped his allegiance to Sanctuary. His rage towards Sanctuary boiled after his master Camus made an unexpected visit to Siberia to sent his mother's ship deep into the ocean's abyss. Hyoga competes with the same motivation as the other bronze saints—to win the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius. During the battle with Phoenix Ikki, his tender side was revealed, and he slowly began to display his true personality. In the Sanctuary arc, Hyoga became extremely close to Andromeda Shun after his comrade displayed an act of selflessness in attempt to revive his cosmos from death, constantly referring to how he owed Shun his life. In the Hades arc, Hyoga paired with Dragon Shiryu as the saints of Athena waged war againstthe Underworld. Hyoga protects Seiya and Shun from the judge Minos during the story and later faces the gods Thanatos and Hypnos in the Elysium. Across this battles, the Cygnus Cloth becomes a stronger God Cloth and lends his Cosmos to Athena to kill Hades. A sidestory is contained in vol.13 and it is titled Koori no Kuni no Natassia Hen where Hyoga meets soldiers known as Blue Soldiers and saves a woman frozen.
Reception
Critical reception to Hyoga has been mixed. Kenshō Ono describes the character as "collected and unemotional". Jason Thompson of Anime News Network found Hyoga's fight against the Black Cygnus too violent for the demographic's standards, especially when the Black Saint removes on of his own eyes DVDTalk noted that while fans might look forward Hyoga and Shiryu's screentime in the anime, he felt the series was poorly written to the point he felt Bronze Saints' personalities change too often in the same ways as the villains. DVDVisionJapan similarly found Hyoga's first fight brutal due to how Hydra Saint punches multiple times in the face to point Hyoga's blood falls outside the arena and reaches Seiya's face. Chris Beveridge from AnimeOnDVD joked how one of the anime's episode titles, "Farewell Hyoga – Rest In Peace", spoils Hyoga's possible death in the Sanctuary arc. His fight against Camus was noted to be most interesting from the DVD reviewed as Hyoga has to clash with his two masters. Nevertheless, he found Hyoga's episodes fun to watch. Hyoga's "Diamond Dust" technique was criticized by the FandomPost for being overused in battles to the point it appears the writer suffered writer's block. Despite this in "Blood, Biceps, and Beautiful Eyes: Cultural Representations of Masculinity in Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya", author Lorna Piatti-Farnell notes that the masculinity Seiya, Shun, Hyoga and Shiryu bow to involves accomplishments of their goals of justice might not come as a surprise as the magazine Shonen Jump often has manga that involves this predicaments. IGN praised him as one of the most charismatic main characters of the series, stating that despite his calm demeanor Hyoga carries an Oedipus complex as a result of losing his mother when he was a child. Hyoga's role in other films and series have been the subject of discussion. In regards to the Netflix series, HobbyConsolas felt Hyoga's backstory was well written despite some issues with the narrative. While liking Legend of the Sanctuarys themes, the same site was surprised by the handling of Hyoga who appears driving a bike. In a review of Legend of Sanctuary, Screen praised the homage to Hyoga's techniques and noted the older fans glorified his battle with Camus. In Japan Hyoga is a popular character ranking at 2nd in the main character polls of the bronze saints.
