What is the Saint Seiya Final Edition?
The fifth set of clothes for the same 110 chapters, and the first one Kurumada could annotate.
The Final Edition is the current Japanese edition of Saint Seiya: a shinsōban (new-format) reissue published not by Shueisha, the original house, but by Akita Shoten, the publisher of all modern Saint Seiya manga. It began on June 8, 2021, and had reached thirteen volumes by September 2024, still in progress.
Its signature addition sits in volume 1: the three chapters of Episode Zero, Kurumada’s 2017–18 prequel short, folded into the main series in book form for the first time.
FIVE LIVES IN PRINT
How the editions stack upTankobon · 1986–91
The original: 28 Jump Comics volumes from Shueisha, September 10, 1986 to April 10, 1991. The covers in this archive’s gallery are this edition.
Aizoban · 1995–97
The first re-dress: 15 deluxe hardcover-format volumes (aizoban), November 20, 1995 to January 20, 1997. Fewer, larger, heavier books.
Bunkoban · 2001
The pocket paperback life: 15 bunko volumes, January to August 2001, the commuter format, cheapest way the series was ever sold new.
Kanzenban · 2005–06
The “complete edition”: 22 large-format volumes, December 2, 2005 to October 4, 2006, restoring colour pages and presenting the art at size. For most collectors this is the prestige Japanese set.
Final Edition · 2021–
Akita Shoten’s shinsoban: new covers, the Episode Zero chapters included, issued alongside Kurumada’s modern sequels at the series’ new home. Thirteen volumes by September 2024 and counting.
The English line
One English edition exists: Viz Media’s 28 volumes, January 2004 to February 2010, as Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac. No English kanzenban or Final Edition has been published.
WHY A NEW HOUSE?
Shueisha to Akita ShotenThe migration
Every Saint Seiya manga since 2002, sequels and spin-offs alike, has run at Akita Shoten, in Champion Red and Weekly Shonen Champion. The Final Edition simply brings the original series home to the same shelf.
Which to collect?
First-printing hunters want the 1986–91 tankobon. Readers who want the art large want the kanzenban. The Final Edition is the living set: still being published, and the only one that includes Episode Zero in sequence.