Nanatsu no Taizai

Title:Nanatsu no Taizai
The Seven Deadly Sins
七つの大罪 (Japanese)
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: AMAMIYA Sora
KAJI Yuuki
KUNO Misaki
In a world where humans and non-humans have not yet been separated, the kingdom of Leones is protected by the Holy Knights, powerful magic users both revered and feared by the people. Supposedly the strongest, most fearsome of these knights, the Seven Deadly Sins, betrayed the kingdom and made enemies of all the other knights. Queen Elizabeth doesn't believe this story, and sets out to find the Sins - but when she meets the first Sin at a tavern, his name is Melodias, and he's nothing but a boy in charge of the pigs.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

24 episodes.
Also see series sequels, Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu and Nanatsu no Taizai: Kamigami no Gekirin.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 7 6 7 8 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:2981#1552]
Seven Deadly Sins may look like yet another typical shounen action title in its focus on Meliodas and the titular gang of criminal outlaws. But the series does quite a bit to buck many of the typical cliches of many shounen action titles as the series focuses on Meliodas trying to find the old members of his group while protecting the princess of Leones, Elizabeth, from the corrupt Holy Knights.

The major thing that sticks out with Seven Deadly Sins is the careful balance it delivers with storytelling and action. Many shounen action titles get in the bad habit of focusing too much on their action at the expense of exploring whatever fantastical worlds they offer up. Here in Seven Deadly Sins though, the series offers a good deal of exploration on its fantasy-medieval style world with several fantasy-based beings like fairies, giants, and demons making their presence felt in the series. It also devotes time to fleshing out a good deal of elements to its plot that revolve around character connections, story elements that become relevant in later episodes, and provide hints with the true motives and/or capabilities of certain characters. Many characters get a good deal of fleshing out or dimension that allow many to be more than whatever typical character type of the shounen genre they would be tacked on with, from those involved with the Seven Deadly Sins to some of the villains they confront among the Holy Knights.

This isn't to say that everything is perfect with Seven Deadly Sins. As a lead character, Meliodas can seem a bit too carefree and well-adjusted at many points with his response to serious situations and his frequent sexual harassment of Elizabeth is out of place and irked me with his character at points. It does take the series several episodes to start picking up steam with its storytelling as it otherwise sports the typical feel of a shounen action anime at that point, something that could turn away first-time viewers of the series as I went through. Biggest of all though, the series has several big plot threads it leaves unresolved in spite of resolving its major plot arc with the threat of the Holy Knights. Details such as the origins of Meliodas, Elizabeth's role in the bigger scheme of things, and the location of the seventh member of the Deadly Sins are left unresolved for later anime in the series to focus on.

In regards to presentation, Seven Deadly Sins is a mixed bag. The show appears to attempt trying to mix a cartoonish style for a number of its character designs a la One Piece, particularly with some of the armor designs for those among the Holy Knights. While unique, a number of them look ridiculous and clash badly with the anime's more serious scenes. Otherwise, other character designs are a bit on the plain side with nothing remarkable or unique and scenery designs are inspired from European medieval settings as typical of medieval fantasy based anime. While the show's animation is also nothing too impressive, battle choreography is mostly solid with a number of the unique physical and magical abilities that characters show off.

The show's soundtrack makes for the more better piece of its presentation, sporting a nice symphonic score for insert tracks that becomes more moody and dramatic for later episodes, which is quite fitting for the second half's more serious developments. The energetic openers and mild-sounding closer songs are solid as well.

Still in spite of its faults, Seven Deadly Sins is mostly a solid entry in the shounen action genre that offers a nice balance of storytelling and action that is effective enough to have viewers care for its characters and avoid many of the typical pitfalls that titles of the genre can fall into. If you can get pass its first several unimpressive episodes, you will find a surprisingly engaging story that could keep you hooked to the anime's very end.

Last updated Saturday, November 04 2017. Created Saturday, November 04 2017.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2981#628]
(One episode watched):

Taizai seemed more comedy than action to me, but not terribly funny. A smile-but-not-laugh-much show is the way I'd put it. That being so, an interesting plot is needed to make watching worthwhile. Again, the plot was modestly interesting but hardly intriguing. It turns out that the public has it backwards in regard to who are the good and the bad guys in the conflict between the seven dreaded warriors and the government. But this isn't exactly the first time such a twist has happened in a sword & sorcery anime. And once it does, the characters are tediously black and white--either the greedy and evil government Knights or the good but misunderstood Seven Deadly Sins (having that title, shouldn't each of them have a name like 'sloth' or 'envy'? Some good jokes might have come about if that had been the case). So, in the end I could see that while this show was making an honest effort, it didn't seem to be delivering the entertainment value that would make the investment of my scarce and precious free time worthwhile. That's sort of sad, because it seemed to contain the bare bones--like likeable characters--of a good show, but didn't seem to have the stuff to flesh them out. Where have I seen this distinctive style of character design before?

Last updated Thursday, April 28 2016. Created Friday, October 17 2014.

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