Spotlight: Saint Seiya - The Lost Canvas

Many years later and 200 years ago

Once upon a time there was a manga. Then it ended, but like all truly great manga it lived on in the minds of the fans despite the years going by.

Then the mangaka asked another, “Want to do a prequel of my old manga?”

And the other mangaka replied, “Hell yes!”

Setting

If you have read the two previous posts, you should have a good idea of what world this is. The twist this time is that Lost Canvas is a prequel, a prequel that takes place a few hundred years before the original manga. Lost Canvas narrates the story of the previous Holy War against Hades and his servants.

That means an entirely new cast… which looks a lot like the old cast.

Reincarnation is funny that way… or is pre-incarnation… or just incarnation… whatever.

The Story

Seems Legit

Lost Canvas follows the story of the Pegasus Saint, Tenma, whose destiny has placed him in quite a difficult situation. On one hand, the reincarnation of Athena is his childhood friend.

Then again, so is the reincarnation of Hades, Alone.

Caught between his desire to save his friend and the obvious evil said friend is doing, Tenma struggles to make his way through the Holy War and come out of it victorious. Through this journey, Tenma meets allies, gains enemies and finds the secrets of his origin and the fate of the Pegasus Saint.

Yep, that’s our main character… kind of.

How It Manages

The Color of Justice is Gold!

See, the things is, Lost Canvas is a Gold Saints's show.

Oh, Tenma is there, but his journey is almost a background event at times. The guys who have the protagonism of the story and who do the bulk of the fighting are without a doubt the Gold Saints. Tenma does stuff. Tenma gets stronger. Tenma gets to fight the Big Bad, but the spotlight is going to be on the Gold Saints more often than not

Which is not to say the manga is bad, it’s not. It does something really interesting with the way its structure is set up. Every single Gold Saint gets some time in the spotlight as they help Tenma along in his journey. Also, anyone can die.

I cannot stress that enough, anyone can die here. It is a rather surprising but not unwelcome break from most Shounen.

That said, it is lacking the charm of the original. It lacks that “Burn my Cosmo!” factor the original had. It’s plot handles a little better because it knows right away what it wants to be, but… yeah the charm is missing.

Still a nice manga. Good if you have some time to waste or if you want to read some more Saint Seiya.

Final thing, no update tomorrow.