On July 4, fans of Saint Seiya ushered in their darkest hour.
This day is the official release date of the 31st issue of Weekly Shonen Champion in 2024. This issue of the magazine also has a special significance, as it brings the final episode of Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades, and is also regarded as the true finale of the Saint Seiya series.
However, this ending is not rosy.
In the previous plot, Seiya's sword of Hades fell into a deep sleep, and the goddess Athena traveled through time and space with four other saints to save Seiya and hit the sun god Apollo. In the last few episodes, Seiya finally woke up and ran all the way to Athena's side, and the final battle seemed to be imminent.
Masami Sada spent 100 chapters portraying the cruelty and sacredness of this war, but to the surprise of fans, Seiya, who entered the battlefield, knelt down to Apollo and asked for forgiveness without even throwing a punch, and his humble posture caused a huge shock to everyone who saw this scene.
Including readers and teammates
In the end, the protagonist group gave up resistance, Athena was demoted to a mortal by Apollo, and the Saint Seiya lost all his memory. On the last page of the manga, Saori and Seiya meet in front of the ruins of the Sanctuary, and the two who don't know each other pass by, and the story ends.
This ending has not been able to recover the foreshadowing laid by the previous multi-line narrative, and the collective amnesia of the protagonist group has also made it difficult for fans to accept, and even the tone of the comic, the "Xiaoqiang" spirit that never admits defeat, has completely collapsed at the last moment. In terms of the degree of unfinishedness, it may even be dwarfed by the much-criticized "Attack on Titan".
Such an outrageous and casual development certainly annoyed many fans, most of whom felt that their childhood was ruined and "the filter was shattered"; The more radical left a message directly under the official Twitter of "Weekly Shonen Champion", asking Masami Mada to delete this ending.
But the strange thing is that whether it is the end of the work or the fan protest, the whole thing has never been spread widely, not only did it not cause the whole people to sigh like "Naruto", but it did not even end up with a notorious "everyone shouting and fighting" like "Attack on Titan".
On the contrary, when most people see the news of the end of "Saint Seiya", their first reaction is: "No, is this manga still serialized?" Isn't it already over? ”
1
It stands to reason that the work "Saint Seiya" should be as popular as "Dragon Ball" and "Slam Dunk" at least in China.
"Saint Seiya" entered Chinese mainland in 1990, premiered on Shenyang TV, and two years later was broadcast on CCTV and Beijing TV, causing more than 200 local TV stations across the country to broadcast it. When "Saint Seiya" sparked a nationwide viewing craze in China, "Slam Dunk" had just begun to be serialized, and "Dragon Ball" was not officially introduced until 8 years later.
In other words, "Saint Seiya" is the first Japan animation work watched by many post-80s and post-90s, which constitutes their important childhood memories.
Probably many people will automatically hear a strong electric guitar sound in their minds when they see this picture
Although the ratings of that year are no longer verifiable, we can still get a glimpse of the influence of "Saint Seiya" in many ways to this day.
For example, there are many domestic literary and artistic works with the figure of "Saint Seiya": in "Love Apartment", Guan Gu magically transformed into "Saint Seiya" more than once; Han Han's movie "Flying Life" compares the moment when the driver touches the chariot of the past to the moment when the Saint Seiya opens the holy suitcase; Even when "Pacific Rim" was introduced to China, it translated "Dangerous Wanderer's Punch" into "Pegasus Meteor Fist".
Even the proper nouns such as "small universe explosion", which described the self-consciousness of the Saint Seiya and caused the energy explosion in the original work, have long been completely integrated into the Chinese context, and even if they appear in national TV media such as CCTV, there is almost no violation.
However, compared to the reputation of the IP of "Saint Seiya", the work itself has long been forgotten in the corner.
Some time ago, "Weekly Bunchun" broke out that the well-known voice actor Toru Furutani "collapsed", fans of "Detective Conan" fiercely criticized him, and fans of "Mobile Suit Gundam" made a lot of memes. Although the reactions were different, everyone completed an Internet "team building" together, and in the end, Toru Furutani was replaced by many works.
Works such as "Detective Conan", "One Piece", and "Metaphorical Fantasy" have all changed voice actors
It's just that in this hilarious carnival, no one seems to remember that Toru Furutani is also the voice actor of Seiya, the protagonist of "Saint Seiya", and no one cares about the fact that he is still dubbing the latest anime and movies.
On the eve of the end of "Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades", the official news of the final reply was pinned as early as July 3, and no effort was spared to promote the calendar, folder and other special souvenirs that came with the book.
But so far, the tweet has received more than 20 comments and less than 1,000 likes, no "tap water" and "small essays", no industry insiders have publicly posted closing greetings and congratulatory pictures, and even Bandai and Toei Animation, which are related stakeholders, have not expressed anything.
It's not even as good as the data of a random product tweet from Weekly Shonen Champion
In this way, the former pillar of "Weekly Shonen Jump", a generation of hot-blooded shonen comics that have attracted countless amounts of money for decades, has come to an end in a corner that no one cares about.
2
The fate of "Saint Seiya" today was not formed overnight.
At least for most domestic viewers, there is never a definite answer in their minds to "whether Saint Seiya is over".
The reason is that in 1990, when the manga was serialized to the "Hades chapter", its popularity declined, and it was cut in half by "Weekly Shonen Jump", and the last scene was frozen at the moment when Seiya threw his fist at Hades, although it was still written on the screen that "The fierce battle with Hades is not over", the story came to an abrupt end.
Although Masami Mada later published another ending in the supplement "V Jump", it was still difficult for fans to accept
At the same time, the anime's ratings also began to decline, and by the time of the broadcast of "Sea Emperor", the ratings in Japan fell from a peak of 13.2% to 5.4%. After the end of the "Sea Emperor Chapter", the animation project was stopped, the "Hades Chapter" lost the opportunity to be animated, and "Saint Seiya" also fell into a state of complete suspension.
Therefore, defeating the Sea Emperor Poseidon became the last memory of the domestic audience for "Saint Seiya" at that time.
Most of the memories of domestic audiences are stuck here
It's just that for Masami Cheda, the broad stage in his heart that spans the four worlds of Tianhai and the underworld is far from being built.
"Saint Seiya" returned to the public eye again at the turn of the century, when several France netizens used the recordings of the official radio drama to produce a ten-minute animated short film on their own, which caused heated discussions in France and then reached the ears of Toei's top management several times. Toei was surprised that this IP was still so popular after ten years of silence, so in 2002 it restarted the animation production of "Hades Chapter" in the form of an OVA.
And the original launch of the "Hades" chapter has brought subversive changes to this work, not only the production is luxurious, but also the original work has been greatly deleted, the plot is compact and exciting, and it can be said to be the most exciting of all "Saint Seiya" anime.
DVD sales also hit the top 10 of the best-selling list every volume
It's a pity that "Hades" has never appeared on the TV set of domestic audiences, but at that time, China Education Television (CETV) had a column called "Animation Station", which had made a full commentary on this OVA, and it is still missed by the audience.
Although it didn't make it back to China, the success of Hades made the IP popular again in the new century, but it was from then on that Saint Seiya began to go further and further down the road of separating fame from the content of the work.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Saint Seiya only launched two titles on Nintendo FC and GB, completely absent from 16-bit and 32-bit consoles. Since 2002, related spin-off games have sprung up on various consoles and PC platforms.
At the same time, the first authorized genatile manga "Saint Seiya" "Saint Seiya EPISODE.G" began to be serialized. Soon after, Bandai also launched a series of best-selling alloy toys "The Myth of the Holy Clothes".
In 2004, Masami Sada also took advantage of the situation and collaborated with Toei on a new theatrical version of the anime "Saint Seiya: Celestial Chapter Overture".
Looking back at the current point in time, this is perhaps the most dramatic place: in the finale of this theatrical version, Athena and Seiya both lose their memories. And this ending not only met with bad comments from the audience, but it seems that even Masami Sada herself is not very satisfied. For a long time after that, he did not cooperate with Shueisha and Toei again.
In 2006, Masami Cheda left "Weekly Shonen Jump" and chose to publish "Saint Seiya Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades" in "Weekly Shonen Champion", and incorporated many theatrical designs into this work to make up for the regrets at the time.
And now this work was born to "make up for regrets", but it has repeated the mistakes of the past, and what is even more embarrassing is that "Saint Seiya: Celestial Chapter Prelude - Overture" can at least cause public outrage, but now "Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION Hades Mythology" is unfinished but few people care.
3
Manga readers often say that "good work and good magazines make each other work", but "Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades" and "Weekly Shonen Champion" can be said to be the opposite of this sentence.
In the 70s of the last century, "Weekly Shonen Champion" serialized "Strange Doctor Black Jack" as the pinnacle of Japan manga history, and sales also crushed "Weekly Shonen Jump" to dominate for a while. But today, when it comes to Japan's "Big Three" weekly shonen manga, I am afraid that no reader remembers its name.
In 2006, when Masami Hayada began serializing "Saint Seiya Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades", the annual sales of "Weekly Shonen Champion" were only 320,000 units, and it has not exceeded 300,000 units since 2008, and in recent years, even 200,000 units per year have been considered extravagant.
"Weekly Shonen Champion" can hardly hide its decline, which naturally becomes the reason why many former readers do not know that "Saint Seiya" is still being serialized.
But on the other hand, the transfer to the relatively free creative atmosphere of "Weekly Shonen Champion", "Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION Hades Mythology" has not been able to do any new work, it is still the same Showa blood for thousands of years, the turn-based fighting from beginning to end, and even the lack of plot logic as always, from the current point of view, it is really a bit of a poor donkey.
Perhaps even Masami Cheda herself lost her patience and forcibly made Seiya kneel to end the whole work
In addition, Masami Cheda also authorized a number of derivative comics such as "Saint Seiya THE LOST CANVAS Hades Myth" and "Saint Seiya Saint Girl Sho", and after reconciling with Toei in 2012, original animations such as "Saint Seiya Ω" and "peripheral advertisements" such as "Saint Seiya: Golden Soul" began to emerge in an endless stream.
Although "Saint Seiya NEXT DIMENSION: The Myth of Hades" is personally designed by Masami Sada himself and is considered to be a truly orthodox and original sequel, in fact, this manga that has always stood still and cannot create a new paradigm is no different from other works parasitic on the Saint Seiya IP.
In recent years, Netflix's 3D animation and Japan-US co-production live-action movies have further squeezed the value of the original work, relying on messy magic plots and unsightly cheap pictures to consume all the patience of the audience. It seems that now, everyone no longer expects "Saint Seiya" to make a high-quality product.
Douban only has a score of 3.4
It's just that no matter how these works pull their hips, or even have no sincerity, the ability of the "Saint Seiya" IP to attract money has never been affected.
The sales of "The Myth of the Holy Clothes" have maintained the top position on the model game website ACTOYS for many years; In Toei's financial report, the overseas image and overseas copyright income of "Saint Seiya" have never fallen out of the top ten; Even "Honor of Kings" has recently launched a new Saint Seiya linkage skin after many years, and the influence of IP can be seen.
On July 11th, a few days after the end of "Saint Seiya", Bandai announced the launch of the new product "Heir to the Golden Sacred Clothes EX" of "Holy Clothes Mythical EX", and on the 12th, it opened reservations.
Under normal circumstances, the plot of comic works takes a sharp turn, and related peripheral goods are often boycotted by readers, and even sold off in large quantities, resulting in a price crash. However, the unfinished work of "Saint Seiya" does not seem to affect the sale of new goods at all. As always, everyone discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the model, paid the deposit as always, and looked forward to receiving the goods as always, quite a kind of "you rot yours, I'll buy mine" posture, and the excitement is even greater than when the comic ends.
And this state will probably continue in the future, "Saint Seiya" is still strong in attracting gold, still beautiful, and it seems that nothing has changed.
But those who are still buying "Sacred Clothes Mythology" today may not have the time and energy to pick up "Saint Seiya" anymore, and even the motto is "Creation is always uncompromising, exhaust your brains until the last moment, and continue to move forward even if you fall!" Masami Cheda also drew a plot that made Seiya kneel. At the end of the day, after 39 years of serialization, there are still some things that have changed unconsciously.