Saint Seiya Time Odyssey is a French comics series by Jérome Alquié and Arnaud Dollen, adapted from Masami Kurumada's original manga. It uses the anime's design for the characters but the Clothes are from the manga. The story is Canon to the manga and was approved by the author.
Chronos, the God of Time, wants to become the 13th Primordial God of Olympus, just like Hades, Poseidon, Athena and the others. To do this, he needs to build the Apocalypse Clock which will allow him to change the past, present and future as he wishes.
Cautious, the God of Time hides his tracks: he intervenes at different times in the saga (from before the Sanctuary to after Hades) so as not to attract the attention of the other gods. He is surrounded by an army of Leptas (Minor Saints) led by his powerful generals, the Saints of the Twelve Hours.
Thanks to these faithful and fierce warriors, Chronos is convinced to carry out his plan, but he did not count on the Saints of Athena!
- Volume 1 is about Ikki.
- Volume 2 is about Shun.
- Volume 3 will be about Hyoga.
- Volume 4 will be about Shiryu
- and Volume 5 will conclude the story with Seiya.
The authors stated that each Bronze Saint will have his Day in the Limelight in the story.
Volume 1 was first published in two parts in booklets respectively accompanying the 2022 September and November issues of Monthly Champion Red before Kana officially released the regular edition and the collector's edition of it on September 30, 2022.
Volume 2 was released 22 October 2023 by Kana and in booklets respectively accompanying the 2023 September and November issues of Monthly Champion Red.
Saint Seiya Time Odyssey provides examples of:
- Adaptive Ability: The Phoenix Cloth, unsurprisingly, can regenerate in places it shouldn't even exist and adapt to harsh environments. Can absorb parts of the environment to adapt.
- Artifact of Doom: Chrono's Apocalypse Clock.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The comic does this to GUILTY, of all people. He used to be Jorge, the warden of Death Queen Island. He was brainwashed by Saga and Deathmask. Saga used his Genrou Maou Ken to turn him into a sadistic monster.
- Always Someone Better: Easter to Aphrodite. In an interesting turn of events, the fact that Aphrodite was male was a deciding factor in him becoming the Pisces Gold Saint. But Easter was stronger, something Aiolos noticed when he came to take him to the Sanctuary.
- Big Bad: Chronos, the god of time.
- Cain and Abel: Aphrodite and Easter.
- Calling Your Attacks: A staple of the series. Even the newly introduced adversaries do this.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Nebula Chain. The chain is linked to Shun's blood and regenerate with his blood like the Clothes can be repared from blood. And Shun's new Crimson Chains.
- Cosmic Chess Game: What Ikki's life turned out to be.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Drachme firsts send his Stigmas to deal with Seiya. The first one is destroyed in seconds by Seiya's meteors. Ikki does this to the sisters of fate once the Phoenix Cloth renegerates in Erebos. In much the same way, Mu deals easily with the Chronos soldiers who came to retreive the Andromeda Cloth.
- Everyone Is Related: Aphrodite's family is related to Pisces Cardinale.
- Interquel:
- Ikki's volume happens after his Heel–Face Turn, but before Saori and the Bronze Saints go to the Sanctuary.
- Shun's volume is set just after the Sanctuary arc of the original manga, but before the Bronze Saints wake up from their coma to enter Poseidon's domains to rescue Athena (at the start of the Poseidon Saga).
- It's All About Me: Chronos, unsurprisingly too.
- Jerkass God: Zeus, unsurprisingly. He tricked Chronos into rewriting the future, so that Shun, and not Ikki, is Hades's vessel, in exchange for gaining a seat on Olympus as its thirteenth god. Zeus thanks Chronos for his deed, but denies having promised anything of the sort to the deity.
- Lady of War: The three sisters of fate. Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.
- Living MacGuffin: Prometheus. Chronos needs him & Hephaistos to complete his Apocalypse Clock.
- MacGuffin: Shun's Andromeda Chains. They're the same keeping Prometheus chained. Since Chronos failed to destroy them, he needs to know their weakness and as such seeks the Andromeda Cloth. Also Shun's blood.
- Master of Threads: The three sisters of fate.
- Mighty Glacier: Ophialtes Thatanka.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Following the original manga, some of the adversaries are given names with a mythological background:
- In Shun's volume, Shun faces Walkyrie Eastre, the guardian of the Second Hour, the hour of the dazzling dawn. She is named after Eastre/Ostara, an Anglo-Saxon dawn goddess mentioned by Venerable Bede.
- Retcon:
- Ikki's volume reveals the Moirai rewrote Ikki's fate so that Shun is Hades's reincarnation, not him (which is represented by the Ever Yours necklace).
- Shun's volume reveals Chronos uses his powers to extend the last flame of the Sanctuary Fire Clock, so that Seiya had time to defeat Saga and save Saori/Athena.
- The Reveal: Many:
- In Ikki's volume, it's revealed that his master Guilty was Jorge, the Silver Saint representing the Fornax constellation.
- In Shun's volume, more backstory is given to Pisces Aphrodite: about his childhood in Sweden, his being a descendant of Pisces Cardinale from Saint Seiya: Next Dimension, his elder sister Easter/Eastre, and their training together as candidates to the Pisces Gold Cloth.
- Sadistic Choice: The sisters of fate give Ikki one, they can revive Esmeralda if Ikki accepts to die. Ikki refuses of course, saying Esmeralda would never agree to Ikki dying to revive her.
- Screw Destiny: This time, it's the villains' goal. Since Chronos saw Ikki as Hades' body in the future, the villains are doing everything they can to prevent this. Chronos fears Hades having such a strong body means the end of everything.
- Sexy Scandinavian: Walkyrie Eastre hails from Sweden, since she is Aphrodite's elder sister and, like her younger brother, is no slouch in the looks department.
- Smug Snake: Drachme. Not so much once Seiya pummels him with his meteors.
- Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy: The armies of Chronos are divided into lesser soldiers Stigmas, middle ranking Leptas (representing the minutes), and lastly the high-ranking Twelve Hours.
- Threads of Fate: In Ikki's volume, the Moirai appear as minor antagonists against Ikki, but a major reason for the events of the original manga: using their powers of fate manipulation by weaving, measuring and cutting threads, they shaped Ikki's life and were the reason for his coming to the Death Queen Island. The Moirai also use the Orichalcos Thread to alter Ikki's destined fate as Hades's reincarnation, by having Shun replace him.
- Time Travel: In Shun's volume, Chronos uses the Apocalypse Clock to time travel to the moment of Athena's victory over Saga, and plucks some petals dripping Shun's blood from the Pisces Temple.
- You Are Number 6: The Hours are Chronos's high-ranking enforcers, and number twelve. Among its ranks are the Moirai, each having a Roman numeral on their foreheads, indicating their respective hour: Clotho has I, Lachesis has IV and Atropos XI.
- You Have Failed Me: Chronos is not happy his warriors attacked the Bronze Saints with Athena present. Now she can track their actions back to him and he's trying to get on Zeus' good side.
