Dragon Shiryu, also known as Shiryu is a bronze saint of Dragon. He is considered the most mature of the five heroes, and thus the wisest. As the Bronze Saint of the Dragon constellation, Shiryu dons the emerald Dragon Bronze Cloth, a jewel among the Clothes due to its legendary defense properties.

As Masami Kurumada uses the revered Osamu Tezuka’s Star System technique, (a stable cast of characters which play a different or similar role in the author’s various works, sometimes with the same personality and sometimes with an entirely new one), he designed Shiryu’s appearance very similarly to that of Shadow Jun, a character in the successful Ring ni Kakero, a manga that Kurumada wrote and drew years before Saint Seiya, and that he considers his favorite creation. Also, Shiryu’s appearance is almost identical to Azusa Ranmaru, from the work Kurumada authored before Saint Seiya, Otoko Zaka.