The dead don't stay dead in Saint Seiya, they just get angrier. Hades Chapter strips away the tournament structure that made the series fun and replaces it with something heavier: watching exhausted Saints fight through literal hell because turning back means everyone they died protecting dies anyway. The armor breaks in ways it never did before. Character deaths land different when you've already watched them lose everything once. This is what it costs to win a holy war.

Seiya and his fellow Bronze Saints, joined by the Gold Saints who came through the fight at the Sanctuary alive, cross into the land of the dead. Their goal is to battle their way to Hades and bring him down, while also reaching Athena to hand her Athena's Cloth before the coming showdown with the god. The twelve-episode OVA mixes action, adventure and fantasy with science fiction touches.