popular of the Saint Seiya protagonists, ranking first in the main characters poll of the five Bronze Saints. The Journal of Popular Culture noted the use of Shiryu's techniques where a dragon is seen alongside his fists as one of Kurumada's most striking illustrations in the Saint Seiya manga due to the style the impact has. Additionally, when Shiryu faces Cancer Deathmask, the writer addressed that Kurumada's message as seen through this fight scene is that people should still embrace violence based on what the aggressor has done, with Deathmask having attacked the innocent Shunrei. Kenji Akabane considers the character both "cool" and "serious". DVDVisionJapan praised Hirotaka Suzuoki's work for making Shiryu sound like a "wise fighter". His fight against Seiya was also found enjoyable by the reviewer for the amount of violence that might be seen as fanservice and the dramatic considerations when the cast believe one of the two would die. Chris Beveridge from AnimeOnDVD liked the fight between Shiryu and Death Mask, calling it one of the most interesting showdowns from the DVD reviewed also finding a level of risk enjoyable due to Shiryu nearly falling to the Underworld. Mark Thomas of the Fandom Post criticized Shiryu's overuse of his Rising Dragon as he tends to repeat in all of his fights even when his enemies manage to block it. Similarly, in a review of the series, writer Jason Thompson notes Kurumada tend to make overuse of Shiryu's training so that in a latter fight, he remembers to use a more powerful technique in order to defeat his enemies. Thompson also felt that Shiryu healing Seiya through removing his blood too gruesome in that a similar action is repeated when Shiryu blinds himself to defeat a Silver Saint. IGN noted that Shiryu stands out for being able fight despite being disabled and is one of Seiya's closest friends despite initially clashing as enemies in the series' beginning. In regards to the Netflix series, HobbyConsolas warned long time fans not to expect the original violent battle between Shiryu and Seiya from the original series as a result of the demographic intended. References Anime and manga characters who can move at superhuman speeds Anime and manga characters with superhuman strength Child characters in anime and manga Comics characters introduced in 1986 Dragons in popular culture Fictional blind characters Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities