Talk:Saint Seiya Heaven Chapter: Overture

Apollo
I thought i'd put the info on Apollo here for now.

The Greek god Apollo (アポロン) is one of the antagonist deities featured in the universe of the Manga Saint Seiya, authored by Masami Kurumada, that was later adapted to Anime. He was created by Kurumada based on the mythologic persona of the same name.

It is implied that, as in Greek mythology, he is the god of the sun, archery, healing, truth, light and bringer of plague, and brother of Artemis, goddess of the moon. In Kurumada's mythos, he is also brother to the goddess of Earth Athena.

To date, he has only appeared in the only one out of the five Saint Seiya teathrical releases that holds a canonical status: Saint Seiya Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture, as it follows the author Masami Kurumada's true chronology and manga plot. Not much has been revealed about Apollo, and even though he is a canonical character, he never appeared in Kurumada's original manga. He was recently mentioned in Kurumada's current work Saint Seiya Next Dimension, and shares some traits from the character depicted in Overture.

In early interviews about the eventual Heaven chapter of his manga, Kurumada stated that he wanted the Olympic Pantheon from Greek mythology to make an appearance, once he had finished the Hades arc. He wanted to introduce 12 divinities, to use both as antagonist or allies to Athena's Saints. Apollo was one of the gods he wanted to use, as well as Zeus, king of the Greek gods, whom he drew in an early conceptual sketch published in the Saint Seiya Encyclopedia.

At first, Kurumada wanted to publish the Heaven Chapter in manga form, written and drawn by him, as the fourth act of his popular comic Saint Seiya, but later, he decided to present the project in OVA format, beginning with a movie that would serve as opening for the Chapter(hence the name Overture), and continue the story with the progressive release of OVAs. He authored the script that was used for the fifth Saint Seiya movie, Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture, that would be the start of the Heaven Chapter, thus, it became the only one of the theatrical releases of the series to be granted a canonical status. In Overture, Apollo plays an important role, although he appears only at the final moments of the movie.

Unfortunately, Kurumada and Toei Animation (producer company of the anime adaptation and the movies of Saint Seiya) had discrepancies regarding the script, because the Heaven Chapter started right after the death of Hades, and those critical points of Kurumada's manga (the Hades arc of the manga was still unfinished in the anime, the finding of Seiya's sister Seika, the death of Hades, to name a few) had yet to be reached by the anime adaptation, and thus Toei thought changes to the script were needed to be made, to make the movie understandable to audiences familiarized more with the anime adaptation than Kurumada's published manga. Kurumada was unhappy with the results and the Heaven Chapter project fell apart, so Apollo's participation in the Saint Seiya universe was cut short, until Kurumada decides to retake the project of publishing his Heaven Chapter, this time, in manga form, as he afterward realized it to be the best choice.

The mighty brother of Athena


Apollo is a character created by Masami Kurumada, and as such, holds a canonical status, despite the obstacles the publishing of the Heaven Chapter encountered. He was the seventh Greek deity introduced by Kurumada in the universe of his manga Saint Seiya, and so far one of the most powerful, as stated by Athena herself. As his Greek mythology counterpart, Apollo is a tall, extremely beautiful young man, whose hair represents the flames of the sun, who seems serene as well as intimidating, and speaks with a deep voice.

Apollo appears in the final moments of the Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture movie, as Pegasus Saint Seiya desperately tries to save Athena from her sister Artemis, who wanted to seize the domain of Earth, and kill her younger sister, considering her weak and unworthy of being a deity for her deeds favoring the humans, who had gone as far as challenging and defeating the gods.

Apollo appears as Seiya launches his attack on Artemis. His arrival at the scene is received with horror by Athena, who immediately warns Seiya to refrain from attacking him, since his human abilities, and even hers, were dwarfed next to Apollo's; the only result of daring to attack him would be certain death.

Apollo approaches Athena, and considering the fact she and her Saints have opposed fellow Olympian deities in the past, and defeated them, namely Poseidon and Hades, decides, in the same way as his sister Artemis, that Athena is no longer worthy of being a deity, and passes judgment on her and her Saints, sentencing them to death for the unspeakable crime of raising their hands against the gods.



In the moment Apollo is about to consummate his sentence, he is stopped by Seiya. Apollo then states that humans have no right to existence, because of their rebellion against the gods, and have to be eradicated. Never hesitating to risk his life for the goddess he so devotedly serves, the Pegasus Saint states that maybe humans have done wrong, but there is still hope for them, gods have to tolerate them with tenderness, and give them guidance, for that is the reason why gods were granted immeasurable power. Noticing that Apollo disagrees, and is determined to begin human eradication with his death and Saori's, Seiya makes his cosmo blaze up to the limit, and stops Apollo's energy blast. With his full power, Seiya then launches a powerful attack on the seemingly invincible deity.

Afterward, in a rather confusing twist of the movie plot, Seiya and Saori are returned to the starting point of the movie, with seemingly no memories of the events occurred, and apparently having never known each other. Kurumada explained that Seiya and Saori lost their memories because of Apollo's doing, who, although at first he seemed like a cruel antagonist, the deity was, in truth, a benevolent and caring superior being, who moved by Athena's love for mankind, and Seiya's words and courage, and decided that it would be best for him to forget everything related to his life as a Saint, and free him of his loyalty to Athena; this, after all the battles he has fought during millennia in his subsequent incarnations, would allow him to live a normal life at long last. Kurumada also stated these events would have been explained in detail in the following OVAs had the project been successful, though it is unclear if Seiya's memory loss was contained in Kurumada's original script, or it was one of the changes Toei Animation made.

Because of the cancellation of the Heaven Chapter animated project, the aftermath of Seiya's and Apollo's encounter, and the events taking place after it, have yet to be revealed by Masami Kurumada.