Spotlight: Saint Seiya - Next Dimension

It's Time!

Gather one. Gather all. Saint Seiya months continues.

Today, we see Saint Seiya: Next Dimension.

It’s Canon Time!

Yep, no more spin-offs. Time for a true blue sequel… prequel… pre-sequel?

Background

Once upon a time, there were Saints. Once upon a time, there were jerkass gods. Stuff happened.

Serious stuff.

After more than a decade, it’s time to move on the story. New challenges. New characters. New Gods!

But first a trip to the past.

The Story

Plot Twist!... Not really....

Here’s the thing. Next Dimension starts right after the original manga ended and as such it has to deal with one big problem I am not going to tell you about it because spoilers. I may by okay spoiling small unimportant stuff, but this one is a bit big.

Naturally, the cast has to deal with the leftover problem, so of course a new quest is necessary.

To the past.

Yep, the story deals with the present time Saints travelling more than 200 years into the past, all the way back to the previous Holy War.

That’s right. This is an all new, all old story!

How It Manages

A True Hero can do no less!

Pretty good. The story follows the traditional Saint Seiya formula, and some may even say it’s a repeat but I disagree there. The author is using familiar patterns, no denying that, but the time travel element adds an interesting twist to the formula and some new paths are explored this time around. The story has some unique twists not seen in other incarnations of the franchise.

Likewise, the Gold Saints presented in this story have some similarities to the originals, but the differences become increasingly prominent as the story goes on. And another thing, this manga does a good job at recapturing the diversity of the Gold Saints.

Lost Canvas Gold Saints are all this noble, righteous warriors. Next Dimension brings back a morally diverse cast.

The art isn't spectacular. If anything I’d say it is worse than the old Saint Seiya’s art. Still, nothing that will make me put the book down (For an example of horrible art, Google Liefeld).

The Burn My Cosmo factor is not great to be honest. Some moments jump out but not much. To be fair, the manga hasn't quite gotten to the meat of the story just yet. What it has showed this far promises a lot in terms of Burn My Cosmo.

I would definitely recommend this manga.

Fair warning, It does take a really long time to put chapters out.