Sep 20, 2021
This prequel to the Saint Seiya manga and origin story to the Gemini Saints Saga and Kanon is a mixed bag centering around its central plot twist that reshapes all perceptions of Saga's character arc in the original Saint Seiya manga (shouldn't have to give a spoiler warning for those familiar with the series who'd be the only ones going into it, but here it is for moderation reasons).
The main reveal within this spinoff is that the evil personality of Saga that was the source behind the entire conflict of the Sanctuary Arc was an evil spirit that possessed Saga's body shortly after his birth
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rather than a true alternate personality and was brought in by the new character Ker. There's a lot of good and bad to this. For the good, it makes sense in how often Saga's evil self is compared to a demon, the conflict and differences between he and his brother Kanon making this twin nature something that needn't be Saga's defining trait as a Gemini and it fitting well into the mythological lore, as well as it being more understandable why it was erased by the light of Athena's shield and works with the previous Gemini Saint Cain/Abel being shown to be an anomaly rather than his alternate personality being tied to his destiny. On the other hand,retconning Saga's evil self as not being a natural part of him damages the thematic elements with how he represented the duality of man when brought to bipolar extremes and his evil self's desire to use his might to defend the Earth from the wrath of the gods could have been easily read as this personality being his good intentions being brought about through insidious methods without the context of this spinoff and, as a result, makes Saga slightly less of a complex character. Overall, logical consistency is far more important than decent themes which makes this change more good than bad, but it's still polarising enough for this spinoff to be more than average, particularly when what role Kurumada has for Ker's existence beyond retconning past events has yet to be shown.
For characters and art, there's little to say. Nothing new is revealed character-wise beyond the mentioned twist and Ker brings little to the table as her own character beyond trolling Athena's Saints. The art is typical of modern Kurumada, more distinct and worthwhile than most works of the 2010s, but less refined than it was in the 80s and 90s and nowhere near that of Shingo Araki's work on the original anime.
Overall, Origin introduces some interesting aspects to the lore of the Saint Seiya manga, though you can ignore it entirely and still find much appreciation for the characters of the classic manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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