Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas

Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas

Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas – The Myth of Hades (聖闘士星矢 THE LOST CANVAS 冥王神話, Seinto Seiya Za Rosuto Kyanbasu - Meiō Shinwa?), also known as simply The Lost Canvas, is a manga written and illustrated by Shiori Teshirogi. It is a spin-off based on the manga series Saint Seiya, which was created, written and illustrated by Japanese author Masami Kurumada. The Lost Canvas was published by Akita Shoten in the Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine since August 24, 2006, concluding after 223 chapters on April 6, 2011, with twenty-five tankōbon released. Originally envisioned as a comic book whose purpose was to work simultaneously with Kurumada's Saint Seiya Next Dimension as a multi-angle interpretation of the shared elements of its storyline, which stems from an event mentioned in Kurumada's original Saint Seiya manga; the 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. The story takes place in the 18th century, and focuses on how an orphan known as Tenma becomes one of Athena's 88 warriors known as Saints and finds himself in a war fighting against his best friend Alone who is revealed to be the reincarnation of Athena's biggest enemy, the God Hades.

In June 2009, TMS Entertainment started adapting the manga in original video animation format, producing 26 episodes, which followed the source material closely and occasionally expanded on it. Teshirogi also started releasing a spin-off series from Lost Canvas two months after the main serialization ended. Titled Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas – The Myth of Hades - Anecdotes (聖闘士星矢 THE LOST CANVAS 冥王神話 外伝, Seinto Seiya Za Rosuto Kyanbasu - Meiō Shinwa Gaiden?), the spin-off focuses on short stories related to several Saints before the events described in the main series.

As of April 23, 2012, it was announced in the Shōnen Champion magazine that The Lost Canvas will cease being published weekly and will become a monthly comic starting in June, and shifting publishing to the newly created magazine, Akita's Bessatsu Shōnen Champion, supplementary to Shōnen Champion, resuming publishing of the remaining Anecdotes chapters in that date.

It was confirmed in May 2013 via its Twitter official account, that TMS has currently no plans to produce a third season for The Lost Canvas anime adaptation.