SAINT SEIYA: DARK WING, Vol. 1
Creator: Kurumada Masami
Writer: Kenji Saito
Artist: Shinshu Ueda
Publisher: Titan Manga (print)
Translation: Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clements
Letterer: Youssef Mohamed
Publication Date: Sep 16, 2025
Rating: 15+
Genre: Fantasy
Saint Seiya: Dark Wing is the latest spin-off the fantasy constellation manga series with Kenji Saito and Shinshu Ueda teaming up for this installment. Dark Wing is a unique take on the series as it turns the spotlight on high schoolers who discover they’re the reincarnations of the Gold Saints and the Judges of the Underworld.
I didn’t like how we changed protagonists halfway through the story. We switch from Shoichiro to his twin brother Sojiro. It would’ve been much stronger and more grounded had we stayed in Shoichiro’s perspective for the first volume and then perhaps, have one chapter or a volume in Sojiro’s perspective later down the road. We already have so many spin-offs about the Saints’ side of the story that it’s a shame that Dark Wing still has to share POVs with them when it should’ve been about the Specters.
If it hadn’t been for the constant reminders of how these characters were supposed to be the Specters of Hades, I wouldn’t have ever guessed. Shoichiro and the other Specters were way too nice and chirpy and yes, they’re high schoolers, yes, it’s early in the story so their naivety is understandable, but they’re not exactly interesting to read about. Shoichiro doesn’t know what’s happening and doesn’t bother questioning it.
The pacing was also extremely odd. The first half of the story from Shoichiro’s perspective drags, choosing to focus on things that are frankly not that interesting and don’t seem that relevant to the story as a whole. It’s meant to build the relationship between Shoichiro, Hime, and Chunfeng, but it could’ve been cut down.
On the other hand, the pacing for the second half from Sojiro’s perspective is slightly better but not by much. We get faster pacing and unfortunately chaotic narrative storytelling. It was hard to tell what was going on because we were jumping from one big thing to the next. I was worried that we weren’t going to get to the main crux of the story, but eventually, we did.
When it comes to Saint Seiya, it’ll always be the battle between the Saints/Athena and Specters/Hades, and that hasn’t changed in Dark Wing, but it does have an intriguing spin on this age-old conflict when it’s revealed that someone is manipulating the conflict from within. Still, despite the Dark in the title and the first half of the volume about the Scepter of Hades, it didn’t have the dark fantasy elements I was expecting and hoping for from this franchise.
Dark Wing has potential, and seeing as it’s the first volume, I imagine this is more to set up the characters and introduce the conflict before diving straight into the action. Fans of the series should give Dark Wing a try. While it does reference the original series a little, I think it’s a decent entryway into the series for new readers so long as they take a quick crash course into the Saint Seiya world first.
English (US) · 