Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - Meiou Shinwa

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Saint Seiya is a well known classic, and one of the first anime/manga that anime lovers watch/read from their childhood..
Saint Seiya next dimension takes place mostly in the 18th century, the previous holy war between Athena and Hades, mixed up with the 20th century after Athena and her saints defeating Hades. But if u expect to see the same characters from lost canvas,, then your wrong.
Kurumada is the one in charge of everything here, so the characters including the gold saints are different from Lost canvas. there are a lot of betrayals among the saints, which we did not see so often in the ... other series of saint seiya, and the story is almost the same as the original sanctuary arc from the first saint seiya manga. like the pop trying to kill the baby Athena with the same knife, a gold saint saving her and being announced as a traitor...
but even though a lot of stuff look the same as the original, its a manga that any saint seiya fan would certainly enjoy.. the fights are amazing as always, a lot of new things are there, new god, witches, even Artemis and touma are present.
Even if you are new to saint seiya, you will still enjoy this manga. but don't read this expecting that the events from the previous holy war are the same as the ones from lost canvas.
i would just suggest you to stop reading reviews , go ahead and start reading it. you will not be disappointed. But i think you would understand this better if you read the original manga first.

Saint Seiya is an old school Shounen Jump manga that received a recent comeback in direct sequels, prequels and spin-offs. One of the most prominent of these recent works is Saint Seiya – Lost Canvas. Lost Canvas tells the story of the previous Holy War involving Athena's saints and the army of Hades, taking place in the 18th century. The story is told on the point of view of the former Pegasus saint Tenma.

Saint Seiya – Next Dimension is set in the same period and in the same context. Like in Lost Canvas, Pegasus Tenma, Libra Dohko and Aries Shion are also present. But ... Next Dimension represents a substantial change in the story told in Lost Canvas. Probably, it happens because Masami Kurumada has entire control of Next Dimension plot direction, unlike of Lost Canvas.

- some elucidations and minor spoilers ahead -

But, unfortunately, the first 13 chapters of Next Dimension are quite uninteresting. The manga tells briefly how Alone, Tenma's childhood friend, becomes Hades. Pegasus Tenma recklessly joins forces with Libra Dohko and Aries Shion to stop Alone's "transformation" into the malefic god. But in their foolish attempt, they are confronted by Garuda Suikyo, a strong former Athena saint that allied to Hades.

The story follows in this so-so approach until the chapter 14 starts right where the original manga have ended. So, at this point, it's strictly necessary that you have read Saint Seiya's first manga. If you have it, you can continue to read Next Dimension and this review too.

Starting on chapter 14, Pegasus Seiya is on a wheelchair, perishing by the curse from the sword of Hades. Saori Athena and Andromeda Shun decide to ask Chronos help to reverse the curse. Chronos send them back in time, so they can destroy the sword of Hades in the past and save Seiya (Understand? Neither do I lol).

But Chronos cheated Athena and turned her into a baby form, sending her to the same age where Pegasus Tenma is. Also arriving in the 18th century, Shun joins Tenma in order to protect Athena. They now have to cross the Twelve Temples to alert the not-so credulous Gold saints that Athena have reincarneted. Eventually, other known Bronze saints from 20th century also make their cameo.

Reading the chapter 14, things looked really promising and exciting. Every Saint Seiya fan was expecting the so dreamed "Heaven Chapter". Kurumada even presented Artemis, the same character that has make a cameo on Saint Seiya - Heaven Chapter Overture "filler" movie.

But Kurumada didn't delivered what fans were expecting. Once again, he repeats that overused Twelve Temple arc format. Once again, Pegasus and Andromeda have to cross the Twelve Temples. And once again the Gold saints have similar traits and roles to all their other incarnations, reinforcing the concept of fate and reincarnation presented on the series.

And, surprisingly enough, the same Bronze Saints that had fighted the 20th century Gold Saints, the Poseidon's Marina and the Hades' Specters shows an uncomfortable inexperience while battling in the 18th century.

Unfortunately, Saint Seiya should not live of reissues of old battles with some different elements and ideas here and there. It’s more of the same. And, in the slow rhythm Kurumada publishes his recent works, when the Bronze saints will finally cross all the Twelve Temples?

Nevertheless, Saint Seiya's old fans will enjoy this manga, just for the pleasure of seeing their beloved characters fighting once again. It is far from what we expected, but Next Dimension still has the same vibe and spirit of the original manga. Kurumada denies us the opportunity to read what we really wanted and needed, but he gives us the pleasure to feed our nostalgia with more of the same. And that's it.

I CANNOT UNDERSTATE HOW SHIT THIS ENTIRE FCKING SERIES IS, IF I COULD GIVE IT LESS THAN A 1 I WOULD.

18 years of serialisation, years of acting like a complete diva who boasts about how you're gonna do this awesome shit and cry when everyone else wants to do it, only to end the manga with lol JK im not gonna do the thing i promised to do and just END THE ENTIRE FCKING SERIES WITH NO WAY TO CONTINUE IT
absolute garbage author

So rewind the stage back to 1988
when saint seiya was going to release its 3rd anime movie, and they were set to use ... the character apollo who was athenas brother.
BUT kumada threw a fit and went nooooooo youre not allowed to use him, im gonna use him for my series D:< so they had to come up with some bullshit anime original character thats totally not just apollo trust.

cut to the end of seiya manga, where it gets cancelled due to low readership and so kumada could no longer do said apollo arc.

BUT, a miracle happened, when toei adapted the hades arc of the manga that was never adapted, it got enough viewership to make toei and kumada realise oh we can continue this
so they made a movie sequel in 2004 FINALLY about apollo and what the continuation would be.
OFC we cant have that now can we, so kumada had issues with the adaptation fsr and cut ties with toei,
saying he wont work with them anymore and so he made his own sequel for the manga
this one, next dimension

now u would THINK it would finally be about apollo right? after all this diva behavior haha no

he decided to REUSE THE SAME PLOT OF SAINT SEIYA, THE FCKING SANCUTRARY ARC for 18 years instead of doing anything meaninful with said time.
during this time, lost canvas was also released and despite being the better written series covering the same plot, its forced to be non canon so kumada can do this self fallating sancutary garbage plot for 18 years.

all this while he still continues to whine when the anime does shit like want to use a cahracter taht he planned to use in next dimension
while approving shitty spinoffs that he was completely ok with them stealing established villains


absolute clown of an author
burn all saint seiya books tbh

dude baited everyone for over 30 years and thsi is the result