Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - The Myth of Hades

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 a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It is the canonical sequel to, while also serving as a prequel to the Saint Seiya manga by Kurumada. The main plot is set in the 18th century during the previous "Holy War" between the goddess Athena and the god Hades, and centres on the battles between each deity's warriors who are known as the Saints and the Specters respectively. 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.

Unlike the original work, Next Dimension is published in full color in its volume compilations, with the printed chapters in the Shōnen Champion magazine originally published in the standard black and white format of Japanese comics media; with occasional color pages. However, the digital version of the chapters is published in color, albeit in a simplified color scheme that is later improved and enhanced in the compilations. Thus, Next Dimension is notable as one of the few titles of the genre to be published in full color today.

Plot
Next Dimension resumes the story of Kurumada's original Saint Seiya manga by means of a flashback to the final battle of the Saints of Athena in the Hades arc. During the battle, Hades, the god of the Underworld recognizes Seiya as the feared enemy he faced millennia ago, in the ages of myth, reincarnated in this era. The god is reminded of past incarnations and then reminisces about the events that occurred in the last war between Athena and himself 243 years earlier. During that era, a boy named Tenma was one of Athena's legendary warriors, the Saints. He was also the incarnation of Pegasus Seiya in the 18th century. Tenma was best friends with a boy named Alone, Hades' chosen vessel to inhabit in that era. As Alone became possessed by Hades, Tenma ventures to rescue him, meeting Aries Shion and Libra Dohko and eventually suffering defeat at the hands of two of the Magnates from the Underworld. Surviving the encounter, the Saints return to Athena's Sanctuary to devise a strategy to prevent Hades from completing his machinations.

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
Click here for list of characters in Saint Seiya: Next Dimension

Production
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 twice 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 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, 95 chapters, and two additional special chapters have been released to date since 2006, and are being collectively published in tankōbon form. The tenth compilation 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 was released on September 7, 2017. The twelve compilation was released on May 8, 2018.

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

 * Part 89: Rehabilitation from darkness (闇からの蘇生), published on May 10, 2018.
 * Part 90: The beautiful one (美しい者), published on May 17, 2018.
 * Part 91: Lionheart (ライオン・ハート), published on May 24, 2018.
 * Part 92: The Corleone fruit (コルレオーネの実), published on May 31, 2018.
 * Part 93: The wand of Asclepios (アスクレピオスの杖), published on June 7, 2018.
 * Part 94: Silentness (無為), published on June 14, 2018.
 * Part 95: After a dream (夢のあと), published on June 21, 2018.

Reception

 * 1) 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.
 * 2) After its first week the second volume lay on 9th place of most bought manga volume of march in Japan.
 * 3) 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
 * 4) 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.
 * 5) 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.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) (No data)
 * 8) During its first week, the eighth volume of the manga sold 62,500 copies in Japan and stood on the 28th place of most sold manga in December 2013
 * 9) 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.
 * 10) 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.
 * 11) In Japan, the eleventh volume has sold 54,922 copies in the ten day period from its day of release to September 17, 2017, ranking #44 on the list of the 50 most sold titles of Oricon.jp
 * 12) The volume 12 of Saint Seiya Next Dimension in Japan reached the 10th position(ranking #10) of the best-selling manga in Japan in the first week with 46,649 copies sold.

Merchandise
As of September 2017, merchandise related to Saint Seiya: Next Dimension is still uncommon. 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.

In a message included in the issue of publication of chapter 84 of Next Dimension, Masami Kurumada teases the release of a collectible figure of Ophiuchus Odysseus in the near future.

On september 20th, 2017, it was revealed in the Tamashii Nations website, that the collectible figure mentioned by Kurumada is a special release and part of the Cloth Myth EX line, and it will be indeed a figure of the Ophiuchus Gold Saint, to be released in the Original Color Edition format, creator Kurumada was involved in the development of the figure as supervisor, although, the figure is not modeled in Odysseus' likeness, as it is meant to represent the image of the Ophiuchus Gold Saint from legend and not Odysseus or Asclepios specifically. Based in Kurumada's original design from his manga and not from an anime adaptation as is usual for the line; the figure is the first collectible figure ever released from Next Dimension and of the character as well.

Influence in related franchise media
As the canonical continuation of Kurumada's seminal work Saint Seiya, Next Dimension has exerted influence across the various spin-off works in the franchise. Worthy of mention is that several characters newly introduced in it by Kurumada, are used by the authors of said spin-off works, appearing as guest characters or with a connection to the past of the main characters or their backstory; such as Capricorn Izō and Cancer Deathtoll appearing in Megumu Okada's Saint Seiya Episode.G Assassin, Callisto and Artemis in Chimaki Kuori's Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō and Pegasus Tenma as the main character in Shiori Teshirogi's Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas as well as supporting characters Alone and Crateris Suikyō.

Additionally, another element from author Kurumada's canon, the Crateris Silver Cloth, which was first introduced in Next Dimension; is featured in the Netflix anime remake webseries Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya, in which the Crateris Cloth is presented as a plot device that is key to the storyline.

Also, the Gold Saints from the previous era, introduced by author Kurumada in Next Dimension appear in the short story Saint Seiya: Origin, in which their sacrifice for peace and justice over 200 years ago is remembered.

Parallel publications
In addition to writing and illustrating Next Dimension, Masami Kurumada has also authored chapters supplementary to the main body of his original Saint Seiya comic book; with their publication being parallel to that of Next Dimension, such as Saint Seiya: Episode Zero.

The mentioned work consists of a mini-series that revisits the crucial moment in which Sagittarius Aiolos protects Athena from Gemini Saga's attempt on her life in Kurumada's original manga, with further detail. The story consists of three chapters that were released during the routinary hiatus of the serializations of Next Dimension, with a second act that was released in December 2018.

Furthermore, author Kurumada published in December 2018 a new, 2 chapter story titled Saint Seiya: Origin. Set in 1961, the story details the moment of Gemini Saga and Gemini Kanon's birth and arrival to Sanctuary, an omen of the advent of the new generation of Saints over 200 years after Athena's last incarnation. The Gold Saints of the 18th century, all appear briefly as Aries Shion and Libra Dōhko reminisce about their fallen comrades who sacrificed their lives in 1747 to protect peace and justice on Earth.

Video game
In the Saint Seiya Awahkening mobile and smartphone video game from Trecent company, a song for Saint Seiya Next Dimension was created, titled "End or Next?" , this song is sung by Nobuo Yamada, the original singer of the famous Pegasus Fantasy. Ophiuchus' 13th Gold Saints is featured as a character in the mobile game which was the subject of a computer graphics video presentation voiced by Yuichi Nakamura.

Events
During the event for the 50th anniversary of the Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine, the golden armor of the thirteenth golden knight of Ophiuchus was recreated on a 1:1 scale and about two meters high; on display also several drawings taken from Saint Seiya Next Dimension and action figures of the thirteenth Gold Saint of Ophiuchus.