After completing the Lost Canvas manga and other material, i decided to sit down and digest what i just read. So here i go, my review on the coveted Lost Canvas.

Better then the original?: Honestly? It depends on your preferences. The original is a martial arts manga with fantasy elements in it. While LC is a fantasy manga with martial arts elements in it. Which you are interested in depends on you but it does change the vibe of the story. In the OG, characters mostly persevere and then burn their cosmo to win fights. In LC most characters win fights by abilities or powers.

I must admit both mangas complement each other like yin and yang. You would need to read both to get the best experience. Minor details will go missed if you didn’t read both. For example pandora and her relationships with mythological winged beasts. Iykyk.

Next the Gaiden chapters are backstories to the gold saints. There a book long for each gold saint, so way too long to put into the current story. Shiori released these after LC finished. Some stories explore characters (Albafica), some set up/foreshadow plot points (Degel), and some are just extra material (El Cid). It varies on each character, but some interesting things are Asmita actually meets and fights Kagaho in his book, also (its super short but) we see Kagaho meet Alone for the first time.

On the bright side the series (and gaiden chapters) explores some unique things not seen in the original and adds a nice modernization to it. Some noteworthy things include the awesome Albafica, the Manigoldo vs Thanatos fight, characters potentially being on the LGBT spectrum (there’s 2 that have some interesting internal dialogues).

Pros: Interesting gold saints, where kurumada lacks in developing some, Shiori takes those and pushes them to 💯. We get an actual feeling of war. Loved both series hades saga, but this one fully explores it. Awesome anime. Pandora, Manigoldo, Asporos, and Albafica are all the better parts of the manga. Also the Gaiden chapters!

Cons: I listed the noteworthy ones out. The story suffers from out of sequence events. The first chapter it’s revealed who hades is and then the series goes on to explain how it happened. When those events should be switched, it ruined the motivation and build up for me going forward. Also Sasha/Athena gets retconed into the story (apparently she was there as a kid but isn’t seen in any of the flashbacks, despite being inseparable, however the bracelets magically appear when Sasha comes into the story iirc) she just runs into Tenma at the Sanctuary and he “remembers her”. Btw in that scene where she remeets him, in the manga she is actually shown forgetting Tenma. This is a bit awkward since this is a manga about childhood bonds and promises. The anime fixes this btw by making them all be together originally.

The panels/pacing. Shiori can’t draw action that well. Its hard to figure out what’s going on with her panels and ambiguous art. Not to mention the stories pacing left me bored and uninterested. I had to force myself through the early parts of the story due to the breakneck pacing. I love action mangas but going from one fight to the next without a proper rest period will make anyone bored. The constant fighting loses its meaning and becomes uninteresting.

Since the manga is so focused on the war, it forgoes the calmer moments in the story where characters can get to relax and bond with one another. Besides Tenma being Japanese, getting into fights often and growing up in an orphanage, we don’t know anything else about him. Also these calmer moments can be used to properly foreshadow/set up future events.

The Formulaic structure. Its very frustrating and obvious when Shiori introduces a new gold saint because you know they’re going to die. Basically the story focuses on Tenma (the protagonist), who she then shelfs him to the side to now introduce a new gold saint (who becomes the new protagonist) who fights an enemy to then die and turn the story over back to Tenma being the protagonist. 🙄 Why do that? It discourages me from forming any connection with newer saints because i know their going to die.

In addition because Shiori is killing off charters so frequently there’s no time for her to properly develop them. For example the Posiden storyline. Kardia and Degel got little to no development. All the Blugrad reveals fell flat simply because we never met Unity or Seraphina before so we have no reason to care for them. Also Reguls and Rhadamanthes, when they meet each other its revealed that wyvern killed Regulus dad when this event had no foreshadowing or build up.

However, when we get thought out characters they become the better parts of the manga. For example we get introduced to characters, have them interact with others and we see their backstory (which makes sense as to influencing their current behavior) and get a reasonable conclusion to their story, they shine. Pandora, Albafica, and Asporos are obvious ones.

Moving on to the characters, it also sucks that a manga written by a woman would somehow feature a small amount of strong female characters. Sasha and Yuzuriha failed to deliver, imo both were under utilized. (What ever happened with Tokusa?) Violate and Pandora are the better examples. Tenma might be tied with worst SS protagonist with Seiya (actually Tenma might take the medal). Also don’t get me started on the Yoma thing. Yato is just there to complain. Alone is just a physical manifestation of a train wreck. He’s the epitome of kill them with kindness. Wyvern does not die, idk whats up with that. Lastly Sisyphus likes to collect kids Iykyk.

So my final take? 6.9/10. LC is a good manga, not a great or perfect one. Shiori does improve as she continues writing the manga. There are moments where her writing shines. A to Pandora’s backstory, I would go crazy to if i experienced what she did. Loved the Shion trying to touch Albafica moment (also any scene with Albafica). Loved the reunion scene when Tenma meets Sasha again. That moment shows a inexperienced Tenma trying to protect her from a lower joke villain only to be rescued by the gold saints and shows a brief glimpse of Sasha’s power. A perfect moment that does so much to elevate everything.

I’m sure the anime will fix numerous things if we ever get the rest of it. Make sure to read the Gaiden chapters to get the much needed gold saints backstories. Also the preferred reading order imo would be original SS, LC, then ND. Wyvern drops a nice reference to Aiacos that shifts the story towards ND territory when your almost done with LC. Not to mention Yoma’s true plan reveal mentions diverging timelines. You can also do LC, SS, ND, but you will miss some of the references between LC and SS. There you go guys, thanks for reading and enjoy.