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 Sagas 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 oneshot manga Saint Seiya: Destiny.
54 /100
2 out of 4 users liked this review