Therefore... "Let's Do the Time Warp Again"!
Despite Saint Seiya ending via cancellation in late 1990, with its proper final chapter even being used to entice people to buy the debut issue of V Jump, it never truly left public consciousness in Japan during the 90s. There was a Game Boy game in 1992 based on the trading card game from Bandai, the manga got re-released by Shueisha in aizouban format from 1995 to early 1997 (while Kurumada was making B't X for Kadokawa Shoten), and in 1996 the band Make-Up temporarily reunited to produce a new Seiya-themed album; not a lot, sure, but just enough to keep it in the memory of fans. Therefore, when Masami Kurumada returned to Shueisha for Ring ni Kakero 2 in 2000 it didn't take long for Saint Seiya to also come back, in some form. It all started with a two-part side-story novel written by Tatsuya Hamazaki & Toei finally starting its anime adaptation of the Hades Chapter in 2002, followed by a manga spin-off/prequel by Megumu Okada, and in 2004 it (kind of) culminated in Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen Jousou ~overture~, the fifth anime movie for the franchise. However, unlike the non-canonical movies from the 80s, this was literally meant to be the "overture" to the next part of the canonical Saint Seiya storyline: The Heaven Chapter. Unfortunately, the end result seemingly did not conform to the story that Kurumada himself had wanted to tell, so the plans for a TV anime that continued off of the fifth movie were scrapped (plus a bunch of other shake-ups regarding staff & cast that I've covered elsewhere) and Kurumada decided that he would instead continue the story of Saint Seiya on his own in manga form, eventually removing all canonicity of the Tenkai-hen movie.
The end result of that whole ordeal, then, was the debut of Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - Meiou Shinwa/Myth of Hades in Combined Issue #22 & 23 of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in 2006. Likely part of the reason for this shift in publisher, aside from the fact that Kurumada had already been working with Akita Shoten for said spin-off manga of Seiya, was because Kurumada had decided to make his Seiya sequel manga in full-color, due to advancements in computer coloring technology, though this did pretty much make it nigh-impossible for Kurumada to serialize it in any sort of consistent fashion for a weekly magazine. Not just that, but the initial chapters were given even more special treatment by being "sealed" together in each issue of Shonen Champion. For a variety of factors (including possibly complaints from other Champion mangaka, who might have felt jealousy over the preferential treatment) the "sealing" aspect was dropped after Chapter 8 in early 2007 (along with chapters from that point on being ~18 pages each, rather than the 7-8 they initially were), and starting with Chapter 15 in early 2009 the manga would be initially serialized in greyscale (with some exceptions, like certain opening pages or super special scenes), while the collected tankouban would continue to be in full-color. From that point on Next Dimension would continue to come out on a highly irregular basis, though once RnK2 was finished in 2008 it would be the only manga Kurumada was actively making until 2014, when he revived Otoko Zaka for his 40th Anniversary. After that Kurumada would alternate between making a new volume's-worth of ND (which he called "Seasons") & making other manga, whether it be more Otoko Zaka (which he wouldn't finish until late 2023) or a variety of short-run manga & one-shots... all with the hardcore Saint Seiya fans having their patience tested & letting their anger be known online; seriously, some people just need to chill out about comics.
Eventually, though, Kurumada got to the finish line, with the 118th & final chapter of Next Dimension appearing in Issue #31 of 2024 that July, and the 16th & final full-color tankouban coming out later that same year on November 8; in the end, ND averaged ~6.5 chapters, or ~0.89 volumes, per year. Therefore, to finish off this blog's year-long celebration of Masami Kurumada's 50th Anniversary, let's see if the 18-year serialization was truly worth it by reviewing Saint Seiya: Next Dimension... what, Kurumada himself didn't make Ai no Jidai for his 40th Anniversary until mid-2015!
[NOTE: Naturally, there will be spoilers regarding the original Saint Seiya manga. This is a sequel, after all.]
In the year 1990 the Bronze Saints of Athena, led by Pegasus Seiya, fought alongside their goddess in the Elysian Fields to defeat Hades, God of the Underworld, once & for all. They succeeded & even killed Hades himself, but in the process Seiya was stabbed in the heart with Hades' sword in order to protect Athena, a.k.a. Saori Kido. Though he survived the ordeal Seiya's been left comatose, the residual "curse" of Hades' sword still harming him; Saori estimates that Seiya only has three days left until the sword pierces his heart & kills him. Desperate, Saori & Andromeda Shun eventually rely on the power of Chronos, God of Time, to travel back to the prior Holy War 243 years ago, with the plan being to destroy Hades' sword, which would then change the timeline so that Seiya was never stabbed with it. Chronos doesn't play fair, however, making it so that while Shun is unharmed at the base of Sanctuary in the year 1747, Saori is transformed into a baby by altering her telomeres & left at the apex. Now Shun has to make his way through the 12 Temples of the Gold Saints once again to rescue Saori, only now facing off against a group of Gold Saints he (mostly) knows nothing about, though he's not alone. While his Bronze brethren (Dragon Shiryu, Cygnus Hyoga, & his older brother Phoenix Ikki) eventually find a way to the past themselves to help, Shun has the immediate assistance of Tenma, the Pegasus Saint of 1747 who wishes to become stronger so that he can take on his master, former Silver Saint Crateris Suikyo (who has since become Hades' Garuda Specter), & save his best friend Alone... the human vessel for Hades of that era. Meanwhile, this interruption of the timeline also leads to the revival of Ophiuchus Odysseus, a deceased Silver Saint that in actuality is the forgotten 13th Gold Saint, a force so powerful & godlike that the Greek pantheon themselves sealed it away long ago.
As you can tell from the synopsis, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension involves time travel, which in turn makes this manga simultaneously both the sequel AND prequel to the original Saint Seiya, as while the main focus is on the events taking place in 1747 there are some moments here & there during the story that take place in 1990, as well; in other words, Kurumada went with the idea of time travel where the past & present occur in parallel. However, Kurumada actually took his time in officially confirming that ND was in fact the sequel to Saint Seiya, as the entirety of Volume 1 is all about establishing Tenma & his relationships with Alone & Suikyo, detailing how Alone was pulled into the sway of Hades' forces. It also introduces Aries Shion & Libra Dohko from the OG series as newly-minted Gold Saints who impetuously try to deal with Hades before the Holy War can start, only to wind up inadvertently creating the scenario in which Alone gets fully possessed by Hades. It's not until the very end of Chapter 12, when Tenma, Shion, & Dohko gaze into the future-predicting healing water of the Crateris Cloth, that we actually get our first image of anything relating to the OG manga, namely a comatose Seiya in a wheelchair; there is the Chapter 0 "Prologue", but that just recaps a small part of the OG's climax with Hades. Beyond that, ND doesn't even really start focusing on the OG cast in any way until Chapter 15 in Volume 2, the first one serialized in greyscale, and this is notable mainly because of how irregular ND's serialization was from the very start. To be specific, Seiya's appearance at the end of Chapter 12 (which is when Kurumada officially confirmed ND to be the newly canon sequel/prequel to the OG manga) didn't happen until early 2008, & the OG cast didn't get involved in ND's story until early 2009; essentially, Kurumada waited until he finished RnK2 first. In other words, it took nearly three years for Saint Seiya: Next Dimension to actually star any of the original cast!!
Because of all of this setup, it's also worth noting that Next Dimension is unlike the OG Seiya manga by being all about a single story arc, similar to B't X. While Volume 1 is all about setting up new characters from the past, Volume 2 is mostly about setting up the post-Hades Chapter events in the present with Saori & Shun taking the lead (plus a cameo from Ikki, naturally), but after that... Volumes 3 to 16 are mostly about the trek through the 12 Temples in 1747, with only the occasional sidebar detailing other events. The big one is the protection of Seiya's comatose body in 1990 by Eagle Marin & Ophiucus Shaina, due to Athena inadvertently declaring war against the Greek pantheon by daring to side with the humans & fight back against both Poseidon & Hades, not to mention wanting to alter history itself in order to save a single human life (i.e. Seiya). However, it's time we bring up what's often cited as the biggest nagging issue with Next Dimension: It's, once again, yet another "Sanctuary run". Just as with the climax of the Sanctuary Chapter of the original Saint Seiya, & the first part of the Hades Chapter, Next Dimension's plot is primarily about Shun, Tenma, Ikki, Shiryu, & Hyoga making their way through the 12 Temples & encountering the Gold Saints guarding each one, with the (initial) goal being to get to the Grand Pope's Chamber at the very top in order to rescue Saori, who once again has been put into a scenario that could kill her. Sure, there are plenty of unique touches seen this time around, like the occasional bit taking place in the present, various interpersonal relationships between characters, & details that make ND's Gold Saints different from the OG Golds, but in the grand scheme of things fans had every reason to complain about ND feeling a bit repetitive.
This time around our primary "runners" are Tenma & Shun, similar to how Seiya & Shun were the ones who made it the furthest up the 12 Temples in the OG manga. In fact, Tenma is effectively just another Seiya, right down to being a bit hot-headed & ready to fight first, not to mention having a backstory regarding someone important to him being taken away from him, though Alone & Seika are admittedly not 1:1 the same scenario. Naturally, the order of the 12 Temples is exactly the same, so in 1747 we start with Aries Shion, followed by Taurus Ox (likely a reference to the Chinese constellation), the Gemini Saint (this time made up of twins Abel & Cain... real subtle there, Kurumada), Cancer Deathtoll, Leo Kaiser, Virgo Shijima, Scorpio Écarlate, Sagittarius Gestalt, Capricorn Izo, Aquarius Mystoria, & Pisces Cardinale (a reference to the one of the ranks just below that of the Pope), before the Pope's Chamber & Athena's statue at the very top. Some of the 1747 Gold Saints are admittedly not terribly different from their 1990 counterparts on a general level, like Ox being rather similar to Aldebaran, Shijima being another Virgo Saint who has godlike Buddhist strength like Shaka did (though now he tends to keep his mouth closed, in place of Shaka keeping his eyes closed), Cardinale being a bit of a pretty boy who attacks using roses like Aphrodite did, etc. This also applies to certain character traits & plot beats as well, like some of them being revealed to be outright villains who have seemingly sided with Hades (similar to how some of the Golds sided with Saga in the Sanctuary Chapter), Abel being able (ha!) to use the Phantom Demon Emperor Fist to mind control people (also much like Saga), & Suikyo seemingly being a turncoat traitor to Athena but deep down actually has his own reasons for his actions (a la Saga, Camus, & Shura in the Hades Chapter); Shijima even protects "Baby Athena" from harm, just like Sagittarius Aiolos did. It gets to a point where one has to wonder if Kurumada was simply relying on old ideas in ND because they were popular & iconic for the OG manga, & was going for a bit of a "here's the greatest hits" execution. There's also the idea that he was paying homage to the wheel of time, i.e. the belief that time is cyclical, but Kurumada never directly references that in this manga, outside of using the term "period" (which in the arts & science tends to refer to repetition, in some fashion), on the final page of the final chapter, instead of the usual "Fin" or "完" (Kan/Complete) that he tends to use when ending his manga.
However, Kurumada does outright go against expectations with some characters, which helps prevent things from feeling too repetitive. Probably the most notable would be with Deathtoll, who's really not much like his 1990 counterpart, Cancer Deathmask. In the OG manga Deathmask was an unabashedly evil & vile man who took glee in trapping the souls of the deceased who suffered his wrath (whether they were adult or even child) inside the Cancer Temple as proof of his sheer strength, with his attitude being so callous that it honestly wasn't until the spin-offs that Deathmask was able to go through some form of redemption to showcase that he does indeed believe in proper justice, even if it's a bit twisted. In comparison, Deathtoll is more of a neutral force who makes coffins for souls who can't find their way to the underworld on their own, one who admits that he's fine with either side winning the Holy War, as Athena winning would let him keep his job while Hades winning would simply guarantee employment for him, since he deals with the underworld anyway. Still, Deathtoll takes pride in his "other" job as guardian of the Cancer Temple by fighting off intruders, even tricking some Specters so that he can bring them to Kaiser to be killed. It really comes off as though Kurumada created Deathtoll as a sort of apology to Cancers who may have disliked Deathmask being so unrepentant in his actions, & it'd also explain the various modern redemption arcs for Deathmask; people who are Pisces, though, still get a beautifully sadistic jerk. That being said, Deathtoll is also very much the comedy relief character, as he has very effeminate traits (so much so that the question of his very gender identity gets brought up a few times, though the end lesson is about being whatever gender you feel comfortable with), can be extremely vain, & at one point is contorted into a ball shape by Griffon Vermeer... and winds up actually preferring being like that; yeah, Deathtoll is an odd duck, for sure. Other examples are a bit more subtle or minor in comparison, like Cain actually being the just Gemini Saint while Abel is the blatantly evil one (not to mention that their relationship is a bit more... complex than Saga & Kanon's), or Kaiser having a literal giant armored lion named Goldie fight alongside him. Also, Gestalt is actually alive in 1747 when encountered, unlike how Aiolos was dead before the OG manga began.
Then there are the moments when Next Dimension returns to the "present/future" (depending on your point of view), which is where we see some elements first seen in the Tenkai-hen movie appear. The biggest one of those would be Sleep Toma, one of the Angels that works for Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon who Saori & Shun initially tried going to for assistance before making that deal with Chronos. Aside from having a different title than in the movie (he's now the Sleep Angel, rather than the Icarus Angel), Toma in ND is very much the same character he was in Tenkai-hen, right down to immediately hinting at him being Eagle Marin's long lost brother. The only other major difference when it comes to Toma is that where in Tenkai-hen he was a standard loyal Angel, in ND he's actually first shown in Volume 4 as having been chained up in a prison on the Moon as a "One-Winged Fallen Angel", and his mission to assassinate Seiya is treated more as a deal for his freedom. In fact, outside of a small appearance by Hyoga in Volume 4, the OG Bronzes (minus Seiya, naturally) don't even all arrive into 1747 until the latter half of Volume 7, not too far off from the literal halfway point of the entire manga; also, just to note, this would be around late 2012/early 2013, i.e. over six years into ND's serialization. Even then, outside of Shiryu meeting Dohko in his original era & proving to him that he's Dohko's student from the future in Volume 8, Shiryu & Hyoga are still only rarely seen in ND until at least Volume 10. Seriously, compared to the often breakneck pace of the OG Saint Seiya manga, Next Dimension is notably slower & more subdued with its pacing, focusing primarily on character interaction, exposition, & dramatic moments than simply going from one fight scene to another. Obviously fighting is still seen throughout the manga, but here it's more to act as a crescendo when all other options have been exhausted, & for the most part they're more about battles between convictions than battles to the death, at least when it comes to the 1747 Gold Saints.
In fact, it's kind of best to look at Next Dimension as a tale of two (more or less) halves, as the first eight volumes kind of treat Suikyo as a sort of overarching "villain", before the first reveal of what Suikyo's true intentions are. In turn, the remaining eight volumes then slowly transition the focus for the overarching "villain" over to Ophiuchus Odysseus, the 13th Gold Saint, though he isn't actually seen in person until Volume 12. The inclusion of this character is Kurumada's way of acknowledging the idea of including Ophiuchus as the 13th sign of the sidereal & tropical zodiac, which looks to have been introduced in 1970, & achieved some popularity in 1990 over in Japan, but otherwise has never been taken seriously by most astrologists. The story behind the Ophiuchus Gold Saint is that back in the Age of Myth he was a Saint whose healing powers were so potent (possibly verging on being capable of outright resurrection) that the pantheon decided to seal him away & hide his temple in the mountain of Sanctuary itself. This is a reference to Asclepius, God of Medicine, who eventually became associated with the Ophiuchus constellation, and that's further enforced with Odysseus' weapon being the literal Rod of Asclepius itself. This is not to be confused with the caduceus, the rod that Hermes carried but has long since also been associated with medicine. Of course, the original Saint Seiya already had an Ophiucus Saint in the form of Shaina, so naturally Kurumada took advantage of that by having Shaina be put into a trance a little before the halfway point & uncover the Ophiuchus Temple in 1990, much to Marin's shock; to be fair, this doesn't play too much of a factor in ND, but it's neat to see acknowledged.
Fittingly, Odysseus himself was also originally a Silver Saint in the 1700s before his tragic death (the reason behind it playing a major factor in his resurrection), & the sheer power he has as a Gold Saint honestly makes him an interesting antagonist. In fact, despite not actually appearing until Volume 12, Kurumada does a great job establishing Odysseus' revival as a true major event by having it be an undercurrent from Volumes 9 to 11. A legion of snakes start to overtake Sanctuary (&, naturally, put Athena into a new of form danger that leaves her with a limited amount of time to save from), & the universe itself literally quakes from the sheer interruption of the Ophiuchus Temple's rise back up from beneath Sanctuary. Also, we see the truly godlike medicinal power that Odysseus has by way of Écarlate & Gestalt, who both owe some part of their very lives to him. This also allows the traditional "Sanctuary run" that I mentioned before to be turned on its head a bit, as now instead of the apex being the final location it's now the Ophiuchus Temple, which is between the Scorpio & Sagittarius Temples, so while most of the Bronzes make their way up, others actually make their way down the path. Odysseus himself is also an interesting change from the usual Saint Seiya character as he's essentially a strict pacifist, even more so than Shun, due to his status as a medical Saint. Therefore, instead of traditional attacks his means of "fighting" those who stand against him involve things like being able to put them to sleep (which, to clarify, is something associated with the caduceus, not the Rod of Asclepius), anesthetizing their bodies so that they can't move, allowing past injuries that he had previously healed to resurface (as he was so immensely involved with training the 1747 Gold Saints this makes them mostly helpless against him), and performing surgery-like maneuvers; Odysseus can also seemingly heal any injuries done to his own body, making him essentially immortal.
And yet... it really wouldn't be right to classify Odysseus as a "villain" as you continue to read the second half of Next Dimension, at least not entirely. Upon reviving in Volume 12, Odysseus makes his own trek up through the Temples, encountering each Gold Saint & dealing with them in his own fashion, but rather than "defeating" them it's more that he's testing them & their dedication to their cause; after all, there's still a Holy War with Hades that's on the verge of going full-scale. Now, sure, Odysseus isn't exactly cut-&-dry himself, as he does have a direct connection to the aforementioned Asclepius, but his own mission to kill Athena plays nicely into what's kind of the underlying theme of Saint Seiya: Next Dimension: Our heroes refuse to accept that Seiya sacrificed himself to protect Athena. It's not really mentioned directly, but the entire reason any of the events of this manga even happen in because Saori doesn't accept the fact that Seiya did exactly what his job was as a Saint, i.e. protect Athena at the risk of his own life, and instead is willing to change the course of history in order to save him; naturally, due to him being in a coma, we have no idea if Seiya even wants this to happen. In all prior story arcs of Saint Seiya, our heroes were responding to those who wanted to do things that would change the course of human history (Ikki stealing the Sagittarius Cloth for power, Saga's coup of Sanctuary so that he could wage war with the gods, Poseidon wanting to flood the Earth, & Hades summoning the Greatest Eclipse to plunge the Earth into eternal darkness) & prevent those events from happening; this is even true of non-canon stories told outside of the manga, like the Asgard Chapter & Gigantomachia.
However, this time around, it's Saori who's taking the initiative by looking for a way to save Seiya from his looming death, and is willing to outright alter time itself in order to do so. She's fine with all of the Gold Saints having sacrificed themselves in the Hades Chapter, but Seiya's possible death is apparently a line too far for her. For all intents & purposes, Athena herself is kind of the actual "villain" in Next Dimension, so when you see both Suikyo & Odysseus state that they must "kill Athena"... are they really the bad guys here? When Artemis berates her own sister for what she wishes to do in Volume 2... is she actually the one in the right? When I went over the Hades Chapter in the past I brought up how Kurumada actually showcased Seiya & his brothers-in-arms as kind of in the wrong during the first portion of that story arc, as they were told to stand down & stop fighting, as they had put themselves through so much already & should instead live normal lives, yet they insisted on continuing the fight. In fact, while Shun & Ikki both side with Athena quickly in ND, Hyoga & Shiryu initially don't get involved, with Shiryu even having become the adoptive father of Shoryu, an orphaned baby that he & Shunrei found; he had decided to leave the battles behind once & for all. They only get involved after Toma fights each of them, something that would have never happened had Saori simply accepted Seiya's fate. Had Saori accepted the loss of one of her bravest warriors then Toma wouldn't have been let loose by Artemis' second-in-command Callisto, Suikyo wouldn't have ever become a Specter, Odysseus probably wouldn't have been revived, the Ophiuchus Temple likely wouldn't have risen back up in 1747, Hecate wouldn't have been able to become young again by getting a strand of Saori's hair (OK, this one actually wasn't a problem, as Hecate was rather helpful to Saori & the Bronzes)... and the events of the last two chapters of ND wouldn't come to pass.
Which brings me to something that I can't really ignore: How Next Dimension directly compares to its (kind-of-sort-of) "first draft", the Tenkai-hen movie. While not involving time travel, the story of Tenkai-hen still sees Saori caring for Seiya's comatose body, only now she agrees to hand over her spot as Earth's protector to Artemis, & slowly sacrifice her blood, in return for Seiya being awoken, though his Cosmo usage is reduced & he suffers from stabbing chest pains from Hades' curse. The movie, in turn, focuses on Seiya as he tries to make sense of the aftermath, which includes his own allies (Shaina, Jabu, & Ichi) now working for Artemis & attacking him, while Seiya, Shun, Hyoga, Shiryu, & Ikki are all attacked by Artemis' three Angels, including (Icarus) Toma, who becomes a bit of a co-star in the second half. As you can immediately see, while there are certainly similarities between Tenkai-hen & Next Dimension, they are also very much wholly different tales overall, especially when you consider that Seiya remains the focal point in one while he's barely seen in the other. Still, after now reading all of ND & re-watching Tenkai-hen for the first time in over a decade I definitely noticed the elements in Tenkai-hen that Kurumada made sure were carried over to ND. Namely, the spirit of Hades' sword affecting Seiya, the hints of Toma's relation to Marin (though in the film it's eventually fully confirmed) and even an element of moving throughout Sanctuary to get to Athena, though Artemis' Sanctuary is radically different & honestly kind of nonsensical (why is there a literal desert in it?). Most notable, though, is the ending where Apollo, God of the Sun, arrives as a sort of (almost literal) Deus ex machina & erases the memories of both Saori & Seiya as the ultimate punishment for their actions against the gods, with the two crossing paths afterwards as complete strangers, now unaware of the history they once shared. ND adds on to this by having Apollo also erase the memories of Shun, Ikki, Hyoga, & Shiryu, though only Shun is seen after it happens.
However, while there has never been any confirmation as to what Masami Kurumada allegedly hated so much that he scrapped the entire plan to continue the story with a TV anime, I think I can point out two things that may have been likely culprits. First, Tenkai-hen is almost entirely a Seiya-exclusive movie, as while Shun, Ikki, Hyoga, & Shiryu are in it they play no real importance whatsoever, outside of their respective pairings fighting the Angels Theseus (whose name is literally never spoken in the film) & Odysseus (yeah, that's amusing in hindsight). Considering that Next Dimension is all about giving everyone but Seiya focus I do wonder if this was one factor, but I think another thing is a much stronger guess to make. Namely, Seiya being cursed by Hades' sword, which in ND is the entire impetus for the manga's plot, something that literally sees Saori & her Bronze Saints go back in time to cure Seiya of... is dealt with in Tenkai-hen simply by having Saori stab Seiya with her staff just before the climax, which magically cures him of the curse in its entirety! Yes, Akatsuki Yamatoya & Michiko Yokote, the two writers of this film, resolved a major plot point in a fashion that just makes the viewer think "So if it was that simple of a solution then why didn't Saori just do that from the very beginning?!". Needless to say, much like director Shigeyasu Yamauchi, neither Yamatoya nor Yokote would return for the rest of the Hades OVAs, though unlike Yamauchi those two would eventually return to write some episodes of Saint Seiya Omega, which had very minimal involvement from Kurumada.
I should also include in this review Saint Seiya Then: Haikyo no Hana/Flowers of the Ruins, an eight-page, full-color one-shot that Masami Kurumada published in Issue #49 of Shonen Champion at the end of 2024, as it essentially acts as an epilogue to Next Dimension. Without spoiling anything it directly continues where the final page of ND left off at & pays respect to the Gold Saints (of both 1990 & 1747) that fought to protect their goddess to the very end (as it's explained in the OG manga that Shion & Dohko were the literal sole survivors of the 1747 Holy War with Hades' forces), while introducing a plot point to help lead directly into whatever Kurumada has planned next for Saint Seiya. As an epilogue to ND it's decent enough, though said plot point it introduces feels way too sudden, considering that what it affects was done in the literal final pages of ND, thereby removing some of its original impact, I feel; at the same, though, it was the perfect thing to get fans clamoring for the next arc ASAP. Despite Saint Seiya Then appearing in Shonen Champion around the same time that the final volume of Next Dimension came out in Japan it actually isn't in Volume 16, though I guess that does make the final chapter's impact hit harder on its own. Regardless, anyone who reads Next Dimension really should read Then after finishing ND, as it does act as a proper epilogue & tease for whatever comes next.
 |
| Going with an original Japanese image here for proper effect. |
Finally, there's Masami Kurumada's artwork to go over... which honestly looks outstanding in its full-color glory. As expected it's Kurumada's "modern" art style, so it's not quite a 1:1 match for how Saint Seiya looked from 1986 to 1990 (though it's nowhere near as sharp a change as, say, going from Volume 3 of Otoko Zaka to Volume 4), and while the greyscale scans you can find online look solid it's naturally much improved when seen in the full digital coloring that Kurumada intended it to be read in. Color choices help make everything pop in excellent detail, and with his modern style usually emphasizing drawn environments more it results in places like outdoor Sanctuary, the various Gold Saint Temples, & even Yomotsu Hirasaka being given a lot of extra detail. Another really cool aspect of ND's artwork is how Kurumada sometimes implements the text as though they are a part of the background art itself when it comes to splash pages & the like. Now, to be fair, this element dates all the way back to Ring ni Kakero in the 70s via his iconic English-styled sound effects (i.e. SHWOK, ZZRAK, BRAASSH, BAKOOOOOON, etc.), but in ND he expands on this by making special attack names & even specific spoken lines blend into the artwork, to give those moments even more visual flair & impact, like in the image shown above.
The designs for the new characters introduced in ND are all rather good, with some of the 1747 Gold Saints having some similar designs to their 1990 counterparts (like Kaiser, Ox, Cain, Abel, & Mystoria), while others are utterly unique (Deathtoll, Écarlate, Gestalt), and Odysseus himself being instantly one-of-a-kind in his own right. Even the 1747 Specters see some neat differences from their 1990 counterparts, making it tough to instantly confuse (for example) the Three Judges of ND (Suikyo, Vermeer, & Chagall) with the OG Judges (Aiacos, Minos, & Rhadamanthys). Tenma's the only character to be blatantly similar visually to someone else, but that's to reinforce the idea that he & Seiya are seemingly the reincarnation of the warrior that always puts a stop to Hades' ambitions, as first indicated at the end of the OG manga. It's easy to see why Kurumada wanted Next Dimension to be produced in full-color, and it's because he fully took advantage of the tech to give this series a visual aesthetic that, in some ways, really does make it truly unique amongst his catalog of works.
Saint Seiya: Next Dimension is an... interesting sequel to the original Saint Seiya, that's for sure, but overall it is very damn good. However, as I indicated earlier, this really is a bit of a tale of two halves, with the first half really feeling at points like an old band that was once really big reuniting as a nostalgia act & mainly playing their big hits. Sure, there are definitely new twists & turns to be seen in the first eight volumes of ND, but once you get past the set up it's still very much (mostly) Shun, Tenma, & Suikyo making their way through the lower half of the 12 Temples & needing to deal with the Gold Saints that protect them. There were complaints during ND's earlier days of it simply feeling like a retread of the OG manga, and while it's not 100% true those complaints were certainly not without good reason. As for the second half of ND, especially once Odysseus' resurrection becomes the focal point, it still retains some elements of retreading old concepts but now they're more flipped on their heads & given new themes & meaning behind them. Again, as you continue reading ND you come to realize that, in essence, Saori herself is really more of an "antagonist" here than anyone else, despite her reasons being completely understandable & well-intentioned; however, like the old proverb says, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions". This is definitely a manga that gets better & better as you continue reading, that's for sure, & I really do like seeing how Kurumada's more modern storytelling aspects, namely his penchant for not just having fights for the sake of having fights, are handled in Saint Seiya, of all series. This isn't anywhere near as major of a change in status quo as seen in Otoko Zaka, but Next Dimension definitely isn't about always being turned "up to 11", like the OG manga tended to be; there are ebbs & flows this time around.
But, at the same time, you do kind of wish it was at least something more wholly unique than still copying what came before. Again, it being yet another "Sancutary run" (multiple ones, technically) is disappointing, despite the Gold Saints of 1747 being a very interesting lot that are (for the most part) unique enough from their 1990 counterparts to be memorable in their own rights. Not just that, but while it's cool to see stuff like Artemis & her warriors, the introduction of Toma, & the occasional look at how things are in 1990 after the Hades Chapter, they all kind of become forgotten about or simply ignored once the second half truly gets going, only returning for the last few chapters. Hell, even the Bronze Saints themselves sometimes come off like secondary characters at points, like during Odysseus' trek up the 12 Temples in the last few volumes, resulting in them (for the most part) not appearing at all for one or more volumes at a time in the latter half. There's also the utilization of Tenma's own backstory, as while Alone is introduced in Volume 1 he's only rarely seen throughout the entire manga, & mostly just in the final three volumes.
There's also Sasha, the 1747 reincarnation of Athena who fans of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas will be familiar with, but she's a completely different character here (she's not Alone's sister, unlike in LC) and is literally first introduced in Volume 14 (i.e. well after LC had ended in 2011), so she plays very little of a direct role in ND. Similar to Otoko Zaka's revival, you do have to wonder how much of ND was changed around from Kurumada's original plans for what would happen after the Hades Chapter. However, in this case it was seemingly due to not just the Tenkai-hen movie not working out as planned but also the creation of Lost Canvas, which debuted in Shonen Champion only two issues after ND did & told an alternate take on the Holy War of 1747, complete with its own original cast of characters for both the Saints & Specters, minus some shared characters. I imagine Alone & Sasha being absent for much of ND was due to Kurumada not wanting to bring about direct comparisons to LC while that was still fresh in readers' minds, even well after it had finished.
Finally, unlike his other major "modern" works since 2000, namely Ring ni Kakero 2 & the revival of Otoko Zaka, Kurumada doesn't really challenge the general themes of Saint Seiya with Next Dimension, outside of the idea that Athena herself is ultimately at fault for the events this time around, instead of solely some evil force (though one is still there as the final foe), & Seiya himself playing no real role in the story. RnK2 challenged the concept of rose-tinted nostalgia by giving all of the RnK1 cast rough futures, if not outright killing them off, and having the story be about the next generation needing to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Meanwhile, Otoko Zaka's revival flipped the script entirely from the initial three volumes than ran in Shonen Jump, turning a manga all about fighting to show supremacy into one that's all about unity & emphasizing peace, with our fighting-obsessed lead learning to only resort to fighting when there truly is no other option left, & that true "tough guys" aren't simply brawlers. In comparison, while Saint Seiya: Next Dimension definitely lessens the amount of fighting that is seen when put against the OG series it's still very much a direct sequel to that manga in most ways, and in fact it feels as though our heroes didn't really learn much from their time-travelling adventure, outside of the fact that they are indeed the true successors to specific Gold Saints, by way of getting the approvals of their 1747 counterparts. Without a doubt, ND ends with a decent number of unresolved plot points that it introduced, which Kurumada himself will naturally work off of for whatever next chapter of the story he has planned for it, whether that be the "true" Heaven Chapter or something else entirely. Again, there's a reason why Kurumada said that ND has reached its "period" on the final page, instead of stating that it had "finished" or was "complete".
In the end, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension is still definitely worth reading if you loved the OG manga, or even just experienced the story via the TV anime & Hades OVAs, though after now having read all of it I actually wonder how well it'd work as an anime. I mean, I think it'd adapt over just fine, especially with the way Kurumada drew it for full-color, but I'm talking about how it'd be received beyond simply the hardcore Seiya fanbase, as it does still go against expectations in some ways, namely when it comes to the fights. However, when compared to Masami Kurumada's best works, both from the past & even from his "modern" era, its faults keep it from being one of his absolute greatest. Personally, I'd put ND just below Ring ni Kakero 2 in my personal rank of Kurumada's manga, and if I was to add in spin-offs done by other artists I'd even put Saintia Sho above it. I am glad, though, that Kurumada was finally able to finish this manga, and as a sequel to Saint Seiya it certainly didn't disappoint.
Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - Meiou Shinwa © 2006-2024 Masami Kurumada
Saint Seiya Then: Haikyo no Hana © 2024 Masami Kurumada
Saint Seiya Tenkai-hen Jousou ~overture~ © Masami Kurumada/Shueisha・Toei Animation © Saint Seiya: Tenkai-hen Jousou ~overture~ Production Committee (Toei Animation, Shueisha, Toei, Bandai, Bandai Visual)
No comments:
Post a Comment