Neha Patil (Editor)

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension

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Written by
  
Demographic
  
Published by
  
Akita Shoten

Volumes
  
10

Publisher
  
Akita Shoten

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension httpssmediacacheak0pinimgcom564xf9dcdb

Original run
  
April 27, 2006 – present

Genres
  
Martial Arts Film, Mythic fiction, Drama

Similar
  
Saint Seiya: The Lost Can, Saint Seiya EpisodeG, Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō, Saint Seiya: Knights of, Galaxy Express 999

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - The Myth of Hades (聖闘士星矢 NEXT DIMENSION 冥王神話, Seinto Seiya: Nekusuto Dimenshon - Meiō Shinwa), also known as simply Next Dimension, is an ongoing manga written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It is a prequel and continuation to his manga series Saint Seiya; placed during the previous "Holy War" between the deities Hades and Athena and their respective minions, the Specters and the Saints, during the 18th century in the franchise's fictional chronology. It is published by Akita Shoten in the weekly magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion at irregular dates. It is also known by its alternate subtitle Galaxy Myth (銀河神話, Ginga Shinwa), which is used during publication to refer to the segments of the storyline set in the 20th century, as opposed to the Myth of Hades subtitle, which refers to the segments set in the 18th century.

Contents

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint SeiyaNext Dimension Wall by henriqueuzumaki on DeviantArt

Plot

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint Seiya Next Dimension Artemis by LeoYagami on DeviantArt

The story in "Next Dimension" starts shortly before the end of Saint Seiya where the main characters are fighting against the god Hades. The god is reminded of his past incarnations and starts reminiscing about the events that occurred in the last war between Athena and himself 243 years earlier. During this period a boy named Tenma was one of Athena's warriors, the Saints. He was also the previous incarnation of the main character, Pegasus Seiya. He was best friends with a boy named Alone who was Hades' chosen vessel to inhabit of that era. As Alone became possessed by Hades, Tenma ventures to Athena's Sanctuary to train in order to be able to save his friend. In the present time, Pegasus Seiya is under a curse from Hades that will kill him in three days. Athena decides to save Seiya and is accompanied by the Saint, Andromeda Shun. They travel back in time with the aid of Chronos, but are sent further back than intended so that they end up during the previous holy war. They are separated and Athena is turned into a baby, but she is saved from harm by a Saint as it turns out the leader of the Sanctuary is in league with Hades. Tenma meet Shun and is convinced of the situation and they race to rescue Athena. On their way through the twelve houses of the zodiac the meet and fight against several of the powerful Gold Saints and also Specters, warriors of Hades. They are also joined by Shun's comrades, Ikki, Shiryu and Hyoga. Another looming threat is revealed to be coming in the form of the 13th Gold Saint of Ophiuchus.

Characters

Main article: List of Saint Seiya characters

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint Seiya Next Dimension comes back this Fall

The following are some of the characters that have a prominent role in the chapters released to date. As the story progresses, some more characters have been introduced, and are expected to be developed further in future chapters.

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint Seiya Next Dimension by CesarinCool on DeviantArt

  • Pegasus Tenma: The 18th century incarnation of Pegasus Seiya and the main character of the story.
  • Alone: The purest soul in the 18th century and the previous human vessel for Hades, god of the Underworld. A young painter apprentice who is an orphan and a close friend to Tenma.
  • Aries Shion: A former Bronze Saint promoted to Gold Saint of Aries, future Pope of Sanctuary.
  • Libra Dohko: A former Bronze Saint promoted to Gold Saint of Libra, future master of Dragon Shiryū.
  • Crateris Suikyō: Formerly the Crateris Silver Saint, master of Tenma and a well-respected soldier of Athena's army. Unknown events have led him to switch his loyalty to Hades, forsaking his destiny as a Saint and embracing a new one as the Garuda Specter in Hades' army. He also trained with Shion and Dohko during their childhood.
  • Andromeda Shun: One of the main characters, he travels back to the past with Saori and is later separated from her in the 18th century. In the same way as Alone was in the 18th century, Shun is the human with the purest soul in the present.
  • Phoenix Ikki: Another of the protagonists and brother of Shun, he reappears fighting off LaScomoune before leaving and travelling to the past.
  • Dragon Shiryū: Another of the protagonists, Shiryu goes back in time, to the time of the previous Holy War against Hades in the eighteenth century, to help Saori / Athena to save the life of Seiya.
  • Cygnus Hyōga: Another of the protagonists, who back in time with Shiryu, at the time of the holy war against Hades in the eighteenth century, to help Saori / Athena.
  • Saori Kido: She is the current incarnation of Athena, the goddess of justice and heroic endeavor. She, along with Shun, travels back to the holy war against Hades in the 18th century to save Seiya, but was turned into an infant by Chronos, the god of time.
  • Pegasus Seiya: The main character of the story. After the battle against Hades, he remains between life and death from the god's cursed sword. For that reason, Athena and his Saint friends embark on a journey back in time to save him.
  • Production

    Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint Seiya Next Dimension Wikipedia

    Masami Kurumada first announced the start of the follow-up to his famous Saint Seiya series in 2006. On April 21 he posted an image of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, on his blog. Short chapters came to be published once or even trice per month due to its sporadic release until January 4, 2007 when the next chapter did not get released until August 2, 2007. The series have kept up sporadic releases, with brief intervals of week-to-week publication, but Masami Kurumada updates his blog after a longer interval to show the next upcoming chapters. In Volume 2, in his personal message, Masami Kurumada apologies for the delay of the second volume; revealing that he was sick for a long time in the spring of 2009.

    Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Saint Seiya Next Dimension es oro The Lost Canvas es mierda YouTube

    Saint Seiya Next Dimension was conceived by Masami Kurumada as a prequel to his Saint Seiya manga, parting from elements revealed in it but never further developed and explored then, hence, he started writing and drawing Next Dimension by opening the storyline in a prologue, with a flashback to the last battle of his original manga, contained in vol. 28. Additionally, the original concept of the prequel was to work simultaneously with Shiori Teshirogi's Saint Seiya : The Lost Canvas as a multi-angle interpretation of the storyline, but this approach was quickly abandoned, as both works greatly diverged. At the release of the first collected volume (tankōbon) of the series, Next Dimension was confirmed to be canonical within the universe and chronology conceived by Kurumada for Saint Seiya.

    Following Masami Kurumada's traditional writing and drawing style, the storyline unfolds in typical shōnen manga narrative. In addition each chapter is presented in full colour. The first chapter was initially called Prologue ①, however, the "①" was removed in the collected first volume. During the first 14 chapters, the borderline of the pages was coloured to look like a starlit night sky, this was changed to standard white in part 14 and further chapters as well as a standard in compiled volumes. Parts 15 and 16 were published in a black & white format complemented by one colour image each. The following parts have continued being released in black & white accompanied by various colored pages. The parts published in black and white will be available in full colour in their respective volume compilation. Certain objects and pieces of information that was previously published in the Saint Seiya Encyclopedia are used in the story such as one of Athena's 88 armours, the Crateris Silver Cloth, albeith with a new design. The characters Artemis and Tōma were created by Masami Kurumada and first introduced in the fifth Saint Seiya movie which would have served as a continuation for the storyline. But the film did not receive the planned sequels, thus Kurumada incorporated the characters into Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, hence becoming the canonical incarnation of said characters.

    Media

    A prologue, 81 chapters and two special chapters have been released to date since 2006, and are being collectively published in tankōbon form. The most recent compilation, 10, was released on June 6, 2016. The first special episode for Next Dimension was published on June 19, 2014 to commemorate the release of the animated film Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary. The second special chapter was released the year after on July 16, 2015. Both special chapters were compiled in the tenth volume. The eleventh compilation has been scheduled for a midsummer 2017 release.

    Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

  • Part 75: Shiryū's vain dream (紫龍邯鄲の夢, Shiryū kantan no yume), published on December 8, 2016
  • Part 76: Écarlate of the Heavenly Scorpion Temple (天蠍宮のエカルラート, Tenkatsukyū no Ekarurāto), published on December 15, 2016
  • Part 77: Golden blood (黄金血, Gōruden Buraddo), published on December 21, 2016
  • Part 78: The dragon's chosen one (龍に選ばれし者, Ryū ni erabareshi mono), published on January 12, 2017
  • Part 79: The arrow of Sagittarius (人馬宮の矢, Jinbakyū no ya), published on January 19, 2017
  • Part 80: Legend of the centaur (人馬伝説, Jinba densetsu): published on January 26, 2017
  • Part 81: The arrow of the goddess (女神の矢, Megami no ya): published on February 2, 2017
  • Part 82: ???: Next serialization scheduled to start on midsummer, 2017.
  • Reception

    During its first week, the first volume of the manga sold 30,618 copies in Japan and stood on the 22nd place of most sold in February 2009. The following week it had sold 57,426 copies, but had gone down to 27th place of most sold that month. After its first week the second volume lay on 9th place of most bought manga volume of march in Japan. During its first week, the third volume of the manga sold 44,200 copies in Japan and stood on the 17th place of most sold in December 2010 During its first week, the fourth volume of the manga ranked at the 8th place of the 30 most sold titles in December 2011, according to Comiclist.jp. Also, according to the same source, the fourth volume of Next Dimension ranked 6th in the 10 most sold shōnen manga in December 2011. Oricon.jp ranked the fifth volume of Next Dimension in the 23rd place out of the 30 most sold titles, in its first week of sales. During its first week, the sixth volume of the manga sold 61,525 copies in Japan and stood on the 30th place of most sold manga in December 2012. During its first week, the eight volume of the manga sold 62,500 copies in Japan and stood on the 28th place of most sold manga in December 2013 During its first 3 days, the ninth volume sold approximately 40,000 copies, coming in 7th place among the top selling Shōnen manga in Japan; 67.215 copies sold in the first 12 days. In Japan, the tenth volume of Saint Seiya Next Dimension has sold 46,000 copies in its first week, reaching the 19th position of the best-selling manga of the week.

    Merchandise

    As of June 2014, no merchandise related to Saint Seiya: Next Dimension has been released. Aside from the tankobōbon compilations, only a few promotional cards have been published, included in the Champion magazine issues. The cards feature selected characters from the Saint Seiya universe illustrated by the author Kurumada and occasionally a message from him and his signature. In addition, numerous promotional posters with illustrations from the series have been released together with several of the publications. A skin for the interchangeable protective cover of the Iphone 5 was released in June 2014 with an image of Athena and Seiya.

    References

    Saint Seiya: Next Dimension Wikipedia