Saint Seiya: Next Dimension - Plot

Plot

Saint Seiya Next Dimension was conceived by Masami 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 vol. 28. 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, Kurumada's Next Dimension stayed as the canonical telling of these events, and Lost Canvas as a separate alternate retelling.

In the mentioned flashback, the god Hades is reminded of his past incarnations and starts reminiscing about the events that occurred in the last war between Athena and himself 243 years earlier. During this period a boy named Tenma is one of Athena's warriors, the Saints. He is also the previous incarnation of the main character, Pegasus Seiya. He is best friends with a boy named Alone who is Hades' chosen vessel to inhabit of that era. As Alone becomes possessed by Hades, Tenma ventures to Athena's Sanctuary to train so that he can save his friend. In the present time, Pegasus Seiya is under a curse from Hades that will kill him in three days. Athena and the Saint Andromeda Shun travels back in time with the aid of Chronos, but he sends them further back than intended so that they end up during the previous holy war. Athena is turned into a baby, but is saved from harm by a Saint of that time as it turns out the leader of the Sanctuary is in league with Hades. Tenma and Shun now races to rescue Athena.