Saint Seiya: Next Dimension – Myth of Hades (NEXT DIMENSION 冥王神話) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada. It is a direct sequel to Kurumada's manga series Saint Seiya, while also serving as a prequel to the events presented in it. It was irregularly serialized for eighteen years in Akita Shoten's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion from April 2006 to July 2024; its chapters were collected in 16 volumes. The main plot is set in the 18th century during the previous "Holy War" between the goddess Athena and the god Hades, and centers on the battles between each deity's warriors who are known as the Saints and the Specters, respectively, during that era. Unlike the original work, Next Dimension is published in full color in its volume compilations, with the printed chapters in Weekly Shōnen Champion originally published in the standard black and white format of Japanese comics media, with occasional color pages.

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 meets Shun and is convinced of the situation and they race to rescue Athena. On their way through the twelve houses of the Zodiac they encounter 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: the cursed Saint from the ages of myth, the Ophiuchus Gold Saint.

Characters

Production

Masami Kurumada first announced the start of the follow-up to 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 of that same year. The series had sporadic releases, with brief intervals of week-to-week publication, but Kurumada updated his blog after a longer interval to show the next upcoming chapters. In the second volume, in his personal message, Kurumada apologied for the delay of the volume, revealing that he was sick for a long time in the spring of 2009. Saint Seiya: Next Dimension was conceived by 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 the 28th volume. 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. In the first volume, Next Dimension was confirmed to be canonical within the universe and chronology conceived by Kurumada for Saint Seiya. 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 fourteen chapters, the borderline of the pages was coloured to look like a starlit night sky; this was changed to standard white from chapter 14 onwards and in the compiled volumes.

Publication

Written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada, Saint Seiya: Next Dimension first debuted with a prologue chapter in Akita Shoten's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion on April 27, 2006, and the serialization started on August 3 of that same year. The manga went on hiatus in several instances during its publication. A special chapter was published on June 19, 2014, and a second one on July 16, 2015. The series finished after eighteen years of publication on July 4, 2024. Akita Shoten collected its chapters in sixteen volumes, released from February 6, 2009, to November 8, 2024. An eight-page, full color epilogue, titled Saint Seiya Then: Haikyo no Hana (聖闘士星矢 THEN 廃墟の花), was published in the same magazine on November 14, 2024.

Volumes

Reception

The individual volumes of Saint Seiya: Next Dimension have ranked as the best-selling manga volumes on Japan's Oricon weekly chart.