Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas - Meiou Shinwa

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That thing you are reading right now? Drop it and read this instead.
I'm joking...or maybe I'm not.

I was always familiar with the Saint Seiya, but I was not aware of The Lost Canvas (or any Saint Seiya spin-offs). Honestly, I have no idea how I discover this manga, or what made me want to read it, but looking back, I'm so glad I did it.
Side note: No you don't have to read the original before reading this, but at the same time, if you read it, you gonna appreciate The Lost Canvas way more.


STORY/PLOT: 9/10
The plot is simple, almost cliche. I mean, it's ... your typical Saint Seiya plot where some pretty kid gets possessed by God, so nothing new. But unlike any other Saint Seiya works, this is by far more well written, more deep and philosophical. Also, the fights were so amazing, making this story even more epic.


ART: 10/10
The art, oh God, it's so gorgeous. Probably the best art style I have ever seen. Seriously, I wish more shonen had shojo art style, the world would be much better place, that's for sure. The art even gets better in the latest chapters.


CHARACTERS: 10/10
The characters are the best part about this. They are all lovely, especially the gold saints. The gold saints are obviously based on the original golden saints, but here they are way better and have more depth (keep in the mind, this is more of gold saint wank, so it's more focused on them than the main characters). Same goes for the bad guys, the specters.
Main character Tenma is not bad. He is your typical shonen protagonist, but hey, at least he doesn't take all glory like most shonen protagonists do. Alone as villain is great, he is my favorite character in this story. As for Sasha, she is the best Athena in the Saint Seiya universe.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
The Lost Canvas is just so charming, but also tragic and overwhelming. My heart was always burning with the desire the more I read. It always left me wondering what would happen next. The more you read it, the better it gets.
I did not expect this beautiful story to affect me so emotionally. It was a nice journey while reading this.

OVERALL:
I know some Saint Seiya fans gonna kill me, but in my opinion, this is far superior than any Saint Seiya work (yes, even including original).
Obviously it's not perfect, and is far from masterpiece. There were some moments I wasn't really fond of, that I would personally change. But even then, it's still the great manga and I had great time reading it.
So, what did I learn from this? That the fate can be cruel. It shows that sometimes life is doomed to be a tragedy, but with the opportunity for grand and noble heroism along the way. But even in the death, all is not lost.

But what if this is no that deep and it's all in my head? Oh well, I'm sorry for fooling you into reading this.
So yeah, that's it. This manga is hidden gem and I wish more people would read it. I could talk about it all day, but I will stop here. Hope you enjoyed my review!


Tfw still crying over anime getting cancelled

WARNING:This review will contain spoilers

Story (5):
''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' is basically about the fight against Hades that took place in the 18th century.Its basically centered around the three main characters(who grow up as friends in an orphanage):Tenma who becomes the one of the Saints that serves Athena,Sasha who's the reincarnation of Athena and Alone who turns out to be the reincarnation of Hades.And thus by a cruel twist of fate Alone turns into Tenma's and Sasha's enemy.
The story isn't bad however considering that its 223 chapters long even though it focuses on one war makes it rather superfluous in a lot of parts(especially the ... ''Bluegrad''arc,the ''Ship of Hope'' arc and the whole reveal about the secondary god Kairos) especially considering that the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga manged to cover one civil war against the Pope,a war against Poseidon and a war against Hades in no more than 110 chapters.Speaking of being superfluous,I couldn't help but find that whole philosophy against death between Pope Sage and Cancer Manigoldo to be pretentious as hell.Its like ''Dude,death happens to everyone even without war so get the fuck over it''.The whole angst arc with Sagittarius Sisyphus was also annoying because he was basically feeling himself guilty and falling into darkness for something that wasn't even his damn fault and was is something stupid to feel guilty about to begin with (He basically felt himself guilty for doing his damn duty as a Saint to get Athena from an orphanage and bring her to Sanctuary and someone he thinks that this has something to do with the fact that she got forced to battle her friend Alone who got turned into Hades.Sorry but this is stupid as fuck because a Saint who should think about what benefits the safety of humanity over the feelings of some kids who's friendship got ruined by Fate).
Besides how superfluous it feels in a lot parts,I also can't help but be annoyed at how many scenes it has that are copied from the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga.Sure,you could say that it was the mangaka's way of paying tribute to the original however there are only so much tribute scenes that you can add without making it look like you are adding them only when you can't come up with more original ideas.Examples include:

-The entirety of ''Bluegrad'' arc feels like a mashup between the ''Poseidon'' arc and the anime-only filler ''Asgard'' arc from the original ''Saint Seiya'' manga and anime.Thats mostly because just like in the ''Asgard'' arc we have an antagonist(Unity) who's from a cold wasteland that he wants to transform his country into something better and just like in the ''Poseidon'' arc he happens to take the identity of the Sea Dragon Marine General and wants to use Poseidon's power for his own ambitions.Not to mention that the former friendship turned rivalry between Aquarius Degel and Sea Dragon Unity feels just like Hyoga's and Isaac's relationship from the original.

-Sagittarius Sisyphus sacrifices his eyesight in order to defeat Garuda Aiacos just like Dragon Shiryu did during his fight against Perseus Algol.

-The Gemini Saint is once again a traitor who's now on Hades' side. Also I might add that just like in the original ''Saint Seiya'',there is the background story that reveals that the Gemini Saint was a power hungry man who wanted to rule the world instead of Athena.However in this one his plan fails because his true intentions get discovered by the other and he gets killed before being able to kill the Pope in order to take his place.

-The Gemini Twins are once again in a rivalry with each other just like in the original.

-Libra Dohko's battle against Bennu Kagaho felt just like the battle between Dragon Shiryu and Capricorn Shura from the original

-You have the souls of the dead Gold saint coming back to life for a group attack.

Also despite what the ''Lost Canvas'' fans claim,the truth is that the story does have annoying plot holes.For examples:

-It turns out that Gemini Defteros had a bottle with Athena's blood in it which he gives to Libra Dohko and tells him to put it on Athena's statue because it will be vital for the battle against Hades (obviously referring to the fact that when that Athena's Cloth gets formed when her blood touches her statue).The question is; why does Defteros have a bottle with Athena's blood?It never gets explained.Also Defteros told Dohko that only the Pope knew what would happen when Athena's statue would come in contact with her blood.Since the Pope knew about how to get Athena's Cloth all along then why didn't he tell this to Sasha/Athena when the war against Hades started?This creates a huge plot hole because there's no way that the Pope would forget about something as important as this.

-Why does Athena's Cloth get revived with Libra Dohko's blood touching the statue?Sure he had Athena's blood infused in his body after Defteros used it in order to heal him but wouldn't the impurity of Athena's blood(the one of a Goddess) being mixed with his blood(the one of a mortal) make the blood unsuitable for the creation of Athena's Cloth?

-During Pegasus Tenma's battle against Morpheus,Tenma's Cloth suddenly turns into a God Cloth without any explanation even though in the original it was made clear that a normal Cloth could only be turned into a God Cloth if it received the blood of a God/Goddess.

-Why the hell did Athena's reincarnation descend in Italy instead of Athena's Sanctuary in Greece?

Art (8):
I'm one of the few people who doesn't really like the artstyle but I still have to admit that overall the art was really good.

Characters (3):
Pegasus Tenma - Tenma is basically the typical cliched battle shounen protagonist who fights to protect his friends and bla bla.And to make him even more cliched,it gets later revealed that Tenma is..SURPRISE,he's actually the son of the God Kairos and Partita who turns out to have been a messenger of Athena because we just can't have a normal mortal as a lead character.
The fact that he is so cliched could be forgiven if he wasn't damn useless during the majority of his fights.Since the begin of the series we are told how strong he is and how he is the one destined to defeat Hades however during the majority of the time he gets his ass kicked by his enemies and has to be saved by a Gold Saint.

Sasha/Athena - She is exactly a bad character however she's fairly bland because she's the typical female character that has the heart of an angel.The majority of ''Saint Seiya'' fans claim that she is better than Saori/Athena from the original because she is much more active but the truth is that they're just lying to themselves because she isn't anymore active than Athena.I mean sure she helped Sisyphus getting out of the Dream World during that stupid angst arc and is kind and grateful to all of her Saints but when it comes to fighting thats not much that can be said about her.For example lets just take a look at her ''accomplishments'' :

-In the first time when she appears as Athena she is shown getting attacked by a Specter and Tenma has to protect her(which he miserably fails at and Aries Shion has to save them)

-She uses her powers to built a protective barrier against Sanctuary which Hades easily manages to destroy (lol)

-When our heroes are about enter the Lost Canvas in order to fight Hades,our ''active'' Athena gets attacked by Pandora and Tenma has to protect(something that he again fails at and Hades has to tell Pandora to stop)
-Once our heroes enter the Lost Canvas,Hades finds a trick to get Athena's hair to block her cosmo with it.
-Even when she gets her cosmo back,she still isn't given an active role until the end when she fights against Hades.

Alone/Hades - Without a doubt the only one from the main trio who's actually interesting.The fact that he was able to block Hades from getting fully revived and the big reveal at the end about why he created the Lost Canvas in order to bring Salvation through death to humanity were especially interesting.

Unicorn Yato and Crane Yuzuriha - Both started as part of the main team with Tenma and were given background stories that showed their motives for becoming Saints however as the story goes on they get quickly pushed aside more and more to the point that they became nothing more than third rate characters.
The Gold Saints - They certainly aren't bad characters and they have interesting background stories that explain their motives for becoming Saint very well however the fact how overpowered they are is rather annoying .Also I have to say that it came become annoying that the introduction arcs of Gold Saints like Pisces Albafica,Virgo Asmita,Taurus Rasgado,Capricorn El Cid,Cancer Manigoldo,Scorpio Kardia,Aquarius Degel basically follow the same formula:
-Gold Saint gets introduced
-Gold Saint shows how strong he is by fighting against an enemy
-His background story gets revealed
-Gold Saint sacrifices his life in an epic way to defeat the enemy

This formula became tiring because of how predictable it was.Thankfully,the other heroic Gold Saints like Leo Regulus(who's so overpowered that it gets annoying) and Sagittarius Sisyphus to fight longer before they died in war and as we know Libra Dohko and Aries Shion are the only survivors in the end.
The traitor Gemini Aspros felt like nothing more than a freaking Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain and his rivalry with his twin brother(who btw,he manipulated with his Genro Mao Ken technique in order to make him kill the Pope,a plan which like I mentioned before ended up failing) doesn't help much either.Later on we get a convenient subplot that reveals that he actually isn't evil but that Kairos was apparently the one who planted an evil seed of him(talk about a lame excuse to justify someone evil behavior)
And despite all the shit that he did,the Gemini Cloth still comes back to him after he becomes ''good'' again which is too stupid.
When it comes to his twin brother Gemini Defteros he was certainly a good character but his love and sacrifice for his brother despite the fact what he did to him made him a dumbass character in the end.

Pandora - she was anything different from her counterpart from the original expect that she gets more screentime and wear much more revealing clothes

Thanatos and Hypnos - Are often praised for being better than their original counterparts but they honestly aren't.In the original it took the Bronze Saint to get the God Clothes to beat them but in ''Lost Canvas'' they got sealed by Pope Sage and his brother Hakurei (who's an ex-Silver Saint for crying out loud).Also the fact that Manigoldo could stand Thanatos' attacks at the begin(and well up until he was killed) was bullshit considering that in the original Thanatos managed to shatter 5 Gold Cloths at once.Came to think of it why the hell didn't he just use his Terrible Providence attack to kill Manigoldo in the first place?And then use it to kill Sage as well? That just goes to show that he suffers degradation for the sake of making the plot long and more exciting just like he did in the original.Also when it comes to Hypnos he has the powers to make people fall asleep with his Eternal Drowsiness attack so why the hell didn't he use that attack on Hakurei?At least in the original he used Eternal Drowsiness on Andromeda Shun and proceeded to kill him before being stopped by Cygnus Hyoga and Dragon Shiryu.

Mesophisto Yoma/Kairos -Certainly the most annoying character that randomly comes out of nowhere to reveal he is Tenma's father and that he had a ''big role'' in the story by taking Hades' vessel away from Pandora and bringing him to where Tenma and Sasha were staying so that the Tenma and Hades' vessel would grow up as friends in order to make their fated rivalry more interesting or some shit like that.He also plans to use Tenma's powers to create a war between the gods so that he can rule in the end or some shit like.Honestly though,who the hell freaking cares?This was just some dumbass character that was added to make an superfluous plot even superfluous because fuck the story,what we need is even more bland overpowered characters for the fanboys to root for.

When it comes to the other villains there are so many of them to the point that it becomes annoying however the only ones really worth mentioning are Bennu Kagaho and Violate Behemoth.

The Lost Canvas is usually heralded as being vastly superior in all ways to the original, an opinion I can't understand when the exact opposite is true.

[Note: May contain minor spoilers for Saint Seiya and The Lost Canvas]

First, looking at the story, there isn't really much to say. It's mainly just an expansion of the Hades Arc from the original except far less interesting due to prequel syndrome already making it apparent who will live and survive. Even in this area, it does a poor job as we're told in the original manga that Dohko and Shion were the only survivors of the war, yet ... there are far more in TLC, thus making it not only a retread of the original, but an inconsistent one.

The main aspect that tends to draw in others is the superficial element of the art, being better than the original, to which I have to disagree. Kurumada's art style had a very distinct appearance of melding bishonen elements with highly masculine traits and having incredible detail within the armour of each character. Teshirogi's art style, however, contains no signature traits to allow her craft to stand out as an individual with the characters now having pretty generic faces and the detail in some of the cloths is nowhere near as great.

The only thing allowing the series to stand out is the characters, but not in a good way. Tenma, Athena and Hades are the only ones who really matter and are given nothing to make them any more, or even as, interesting as their classic counterparts. The initial support cast of Yato and Yuzuriha are also thrown aside into irrelevancy very early on, unlike Shaina and Marin from the original who play a constant supporting role throughout the entirety of the classic. The only characters people tend to remember are the Gold Saints, who are all pale imitations of their 20th Century counterparts. The only exceptions are Albafica's toxic blood being interesting and Manigoldo being very honourable unlike his classic counterpart Deathmask, but that in itself causes them to be incredibly bland as the ensemble of Gold Saints lacks a chaotic element to make some members distinct. Moreover, Regulus is perhaps the biggest Gary Stu in the entire franchise. Some may complain about the Bronze Saints' power ups in the original, but all of them are fairly excusable compared to a below average Gold Saint swiftly becoming God tier just because he becomes naturally attuned to his opponent.
On the subject of Gary Stus and overpowered characters, let's get back to Tenma. Throughout the series, we're constantly pushed forward the idea that he's destined to fend off Hades and the only character who could do so. Not only is this somewhat contradictive of the original series, where the use of things such as God Cloths or a Pegasus Saint fighting Hades seemed to be the stuff of antiquity, but we're never given reason to believe Tenma is so capable until towards the end of the manga through several rushed power ups after the reveal that his parents are both of highly special lineages as with all generic protagonists. Compare this to Seiya, who's parents were nobody too special and constantly proved himself by pushing his body to the breaking point against Gold Saints and Gods alike numerous times, and it's easy to see which of the two is a far better handled protagonist and representation of the series.
It does attempt to make the villains more sympathetic and fleshed out than their original counterparts at least, but it is never to the extent the audience can truly connect to them, plus Garuda Suikyo in the canon version of this, Next Dimension, pulls such off far better.

Overall, The Lost Canvas is a completely overrated work that falls flat compared to the original series in almost every aspect. It is something I cannot recommend and would advise people instead read the original Saint Seiya manga or if looking for a continuation of it, read the canon version Saint Seiya: Next Dimension.

Story - 3/10
Art - 5/10
Characters - 3/10
Enjoyment - 3/10

Overall - 3.5/10