Saint Seiya: Origin

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Japanese: 聖闘士星矢ORIGIN

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: 2

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 19, 2018 to Jan 19, 2019

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Champion RED

Authors: Kurumada, Masami (Story & Art)

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Score: 6.37¹ (scored by 199 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #17710²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #24829

Members: 472

Favorites: 5

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Sep 20, 2021

ChouEritto

Mixed Feelings

This prequel to the Saint Seiya manga and origin story to the Gemini Saints Saga and Kanon is a mixed bag centering around its central plot twist that reshapes all perceptions of Saga's character arc in the original Saint Seiya manga (shouldn't have to give a spoiler warning for those familiar with the series who'd be the only ones going into it, but here it is for moderation reasons).

The main reveal within this spinoff is that the evil personality of Saga that was the source behind the entire conflict of the Sanctuary Arc was an evil spirit that possessed Saga's body shortly after his birth ... rather than a true alternate personality and was brought in by the new character Ker. There's a lot of good and bad to this. For the good, it makes sense in how often Saga's evil self is compared to a demon, the conflict and differences between he and his brother Kanon making this twin nature something that needn't be Saga's defining trait as a Gemini and it fitting well into the mythological lore, as well as it being more understandable why it was erased by the light of Athena's shield and works with the previous Gemini Saint Cain/Abel being shown to be an anomaly rather than his alternate personality being tied to his destiny. On the other hand,retconning Saga's evil self as not being a natural part of him damages the thematic elements with how he represented the duality of man when brought to bipolar extremes and his evil self's desire to use his might to defend the Earth from the wrath of the gods could have been easily read as this personality being his good intentions being brought about through insidious methods without the context of this spinoff and, as a result, makes Saga slightly less of a complex character. Overall, logical consistency is far more important than decent themes which makes this change more good than bad, but it's still polarising enough for this spinoff to be more than average, particularly when what role Kurumada has for Ker's existence beyond retconning past events has yet to be shown.

For characters and art, there's little to say. Nothing new is revealed character-wise beyond the mentioned twist and Ker brings little to the table as her own character beyond trolling Athena's Saints. The art is typical of modern Kurumada, more distinct and worthwhile than most works of the 2010s, but less refined than it was in the 80s and 90s and nowhere near that of Shingo Araki's work on the original anime.

Overall, Origin introduces some interesting aspects to the lore of the Saint Seiya manga, though you can ignore it entirely and still find much appreciation for the characters of the classic manga.

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Mar 23, 2024

WhatAGoodShow

Recommended

Saint Seiya: Origin is a two chapter short story which, as the name implies, is a story that takes place before the events of the Saint Seiya manga. To understand the context of this story or be invested in what it has to tell, one has to watch or read Saint Seiya to begin with. As this is a story for the manga, specifically fits only the manga and would make less sense when reading it after watching the anime.

The story focuses on the origin story of two antagonist of the story, the Gemini Gold Saints Saga and Kanon, as both are twins and thus ... born at the same day. It answers what the things are that changed Saga to become the villain he is and the mindset of Kanon.

In just two chapters, this story tells a few things of interest and is a decent read. It briefly catches up the reader with the aftermath of the previous war against the God Hades and informs the reader of the Gold Saints of the time, which may disappoint Saint Seiya Lost Canvas readers, as these Gold Saints are not canon to this story. As well as some scenes, between the surviving Saints and the training of the new generation of Saints that can appear as mentors for the main characters of Saint Seiya. It also answers how Doko can tell whether the Specters of Hades army are back or not, and somewhat how it functions.

The story of the main characters of this story starts immediately from their birth, but there will be a lot of jumps and time skips throughout the story.
Depending on your feeling on the story of Saint Seiya and the concept of faith, one would be disappointed on the reason why Saga acts how he acts. As the reasons Evil Saga commits evil can be seen as just, while on the other hand seeing such a dramatic shift in transformation to his character can be seen as a type of curse. The later which seems less excusable since there are other Gemini Saints in side stories or sequel stories that have similar treatment as Saga. Thus it can ruin the interpretation for certain readers on Saga's personality.
Kanon does get about half of the amount of focus of Saga. However, not much about his character gets explored, but certain events that were not shown in the manga were added. Tho they are very minimal and barely noteworthy.

The art itself is on par with the quality of the Hades Saga of the manga.

Generally, the biggest issue is that this origin story leaves a lot to be desired. As the things shown are interesting and do answer what is necessary for the story, it leaves still a lot to be desired. And it seems the author, Kurumada Masami, felt the same way, as in order to get a full experience one should also read the one-shot manga Saint Seiya: Destiny.

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