Nanatsu no Taizai

In a world similar to the European Middle Ages, the feared yet revered Holy Knights of Britannia use immensely powerful magic to protect the region of Britannia and its kingdoms. However, a small subset of the Knights supposedly betrayed their homeland and turned their blades against their comrades in an attempt to overthrow the ruler of Liones. They were defeated by the Holy Knights, but rumors continued to persist that these legendary knights, called the "Seven Deadly Sins," were still alive. Ten years later, the Holy Knights themselves staged a coup d’état, and thus became the new, tyrannical rulers of the Kingdom of Liones.

Based on the best-selling manga series of the same name, Nanatsu no Taizai follows the adventures of Elizabeth, the third princess of the Kingdom of Liones, and her search for the Seven Deadly Sins. With their help, she endeavors to not only take back her kingdom from the Holy Knights, but to also seek justice in an unjust world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ban Main

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Meliodas Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

King Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Hawk Main

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Gowther Main

Takagi, Yuuhei Japanese

Diane Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Liones, Elizabeth Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Merlin Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Elaine Supporting

Koiwai, Kotori Japanese

Gilthunder Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Hashimoto, Ryuu Producer

Uryuu, Kyouko Producer

Tateishi, Kensuke Producer

Reviews

Mar 29, 2015

Stark700

Recommended

The funny thing about sins is that we all have it. As some part of us, there’s a sin in everyone. It’s simple really because they are natural human instincts. That’s hardly what Nanatsu no Taizai is about though. On the surface, the show seems to talk about the sins in their variety. But really, this series is more about a journey, one that has our heroes find those lost Sins. Like a classic adventure, Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins) crafts the extraordinary portrait of how a journey should be in such a fantasy world.

Let’s get something over with first. This series has ... the infamous studio known as A-1 Pictures in charge which spells out for some controversy. Known for their other adaptations such as Sword Art Online, Magi, Blue Exorcist, and other related works, they have created some controversy when adapting shounen titles. If you’re thinking adequacy, then you may be right. They are known for butchering up manga material with adaptations such as the latter half of Blue Exorcist and first season of Magi. For Nanatsu no Taizai, the series runs for over 100+ chapters and is still ongoing. The worry may be that the series will be butchered to an extent that will be unsalvageable. While it does suffer a bit of that, the show does shine in its own ways. It’s by no means an earth breaking adaptation yet still has its compelling ideas bought into light.

Taking on account of premise, the show should be fairly straightforward. We have a young girl named Elizabeth, who also happens to be the princess of a kingdom. From the first episode, she meets a young boy named Meliodas happily serving to customers at a tavern. It heads into an outlandish route once we learn his true identity as the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins. From here on and out, the duo remarks on a journey to find the remaining Sins. There’s also some explanations regarding the origins of the series in the beginning so all should be made clearly to the audience. Taking for granted, the show is generic from first glance. The world setting the series takes place in is decorated with fantasy gimmicks. Whether it’s one of those ancient fortresses, dungeons, enchanted forests, or even land of the dead, the series doesn’t try to pull anything new from its hat. However, it’s also important to take notice how much they have influence with the events of the series. The show puts on emphasis on some of the settings such as the enchanted forest and its significance. Even past events connected to some of the setting becomes significant in the overall story development. Similarly, most major characters in the series has holds some significance in their roles. The seven deadly sins are perhaps the most infamous examples as the Holy Knights hunts them in an almost cat-and-mouse like story on occasions.

But when it comes to performance, it’s hard to not take off eyes on our adventurers. Starting with Elizabeth, we can see how gentle she is as a princess yet also brave at heart. Her relationship with the other Sins develops gradually over the course of this show starting with Meliodas. While the two are hardly compatible, there is an innate connection between the two. It also makes us wonder more about them individually as characters. The show makes clever usage of flashbacks to give the Sins some character backgrounds such as with Meliodas, Ban, and King. Unfortunately, the show doesn’t capitalize on all of them and skips some material that are necessary. Still, the characterization is what’s important there and it adapts most of that in its right path except for perhaps Elizabeth. Her character hardly gets any character development and is frustrating to watch. That same also goes for Hawk; the pig who for some reason has the name of a bird despite being incapable of flight. During their journey, they do influence certain outcome of events but the focus on their characters on an individual level is moderate at best. There’s also a decent chemistry between certain characters including the Sins and Holy Knights. Nanatsu no Taizai is about a journey after all and events connecting with characters of the past can influence those in the present and even the future.

Relationships can also be something to keep an eye on. From strong friendship to romance, the series undertakes ways to flesh them out. However, do not expect top tier adaptation coming from A-1 Pictures. Certain parts are left out that could of made specific relationship seem more realistic. At the same time, we can also see how human some of the characters are. This is demonstrated by the emotions characters show ranging from sorrow, to anger, to regret. It extends to not only the Sins but also the Holy Knights. While not as clearly focused as the Sins, some of them do get character background with examples like Gilthunder. The show makes it clear that some of them are antagonists although there are also changes down the road. Despite all this, the show still has a trend for what shounen series does which usually leads up with predictable outcomes.

Standing on its feet, the show marks its spot for a fantasy series clearly evidenced by its colorful background. The artwork is well adapted from the manga to illustrate a diverse range of characteristics you would find in any shounen series. Mountain ranges, enchanted forests, and crude dungeons are all fantastically illustrated. The character designs also has variety to give each of them a unique look. Whether it’s Diane’s titanic figure, Ban’s delinquent face, or Gilthunder’s cold expressions, the show is able to create a concrete degree with the variety. I also give praise to the battle scenes as effort can be seen with most of the fights. A few parts will be expected to be left out while the pacing can feel oddball at times. Nonetheless, the show has a good way to balance out its action. Finally, you may be raising your eyebrows on occasions with the fan service. While the show isn’t in the ecchi territory, it does have parts when Meliodas plays with Elizabeth’s skirt like some kid at the candy store or when she is almost completely naked (for legitimate reasons) on more than one occasion.

Get ready to put on your headphones. Anyone familiar with Hiroyuki Sawano’s work will easily recognize his music style. While it seems generic at first, the soundtrack is clearly and impeccably crafted with strong precision. It coordinates with action scenes well that some of the battles feel like miniature movies. OST also has a decent balance when it comes to comedy and drama. However when it comes to voice adaptations, there are mixed thoughts. Characters such as Meliodas and Elizabeth sound dull and stereotypical. On the other hand, characters like Diane and Ban has a better fit to their personalities. When it comes to voice mannerisms, it’s important to see how their roles fit with the story. Some clearly has what it takes while others falls off short. Similarly, the OP and ED theme songs fits with the show’s gimmicks but is generic to the core when it comes to rhythm.

As a 2 cour show, it’s easy to say that adapting this series to perfection is an impossible mission. What this show did accomplish though is drawing out the shounen gimmicks to its core. The colorful cast of characters unites a variety of personalities in a classic adventurous journey. And during that journey, we see the challenges our adventurers endears and the obstacles they face. It’s not a complex show really when it comes to the story in the end. Also be aware that this season apparently leaves off some hints for adaptations in the future. With the artwork and soundtrack clearly made to the point and a reasonable premise, it’s all part of this said machine.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 22, 2016

redninja302

Mixed Feelings

A fairly immature anime centered around friendship and adventure. It has an almost "fairytail" like feel to it, where no one important actually dies and they make friends with their rivals/enemies but to an even worse degree. The action is fairly strong in this anime but i can't really ignore the numerous anime cliche's, character tropes and the fairly bad/fast pacing. Most of the cliche's and tropes are forgiven overtime through story progression and character development but you can still feel the traces of it lingering on. (elizabeth = princess trope, diane = the over obsessed #1 meliodas fan, king = the nosebleed shy boy, ... ban = the aloof keep to himself cool guy whom drinks the most because of his problematic past, this also isn't short from the cliches of excessive groping, friendship is power, no one can die, hidden main character abilities and how the main character is always smiling etc.)

Other than that they did execute the plotline fairly well and in a concise matter which was enjoyable. The action was fun, the story was paced well, and even with the tropes you did find the characters intriguing in some sort of way. I think how they executed the backstories was it's best suit.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 29, 2015

Z_Tetriminos

Not Recommended

I've always wanted to review Nanatsu, but I just couldn't give myself energy to do it. There's a lot of wrong things in this piece, and to flesh out each of them is gonna take time - but I really need to. A lot of reviews on MAL just didn't get to these points, so I'll have to talk about them myself.

Nanatsu is your average shonen, with ALL the cliches you can expect to see (overpowered characters, tits, superpowers, power of friendship and shit). But not only shonen cliches, also medieval story cliches: unbelievably unbreakable swords, giant monsters everywhere, kingdoms and knights, games of power ... and sexism - A LOT of sexism. I'm actually surprised no one has talked about it until now. But let's move on and I'll flesh this out later.

The story is a huge cliche, but has some interesting ways of don't letting it show - it is never clear if the seven deadly sins are good, bad or just a bunch of chaotic neutral egoists (much like Genei Ryodan from HxH). The corruption inside the holy knights is shown in a way that makes you think before you judge. Are they really the evil ones, they're just doing their jobs or are being manipulated?

Sound and animation: nothing that stands out. Average visuals for a battle shonen, average music for a medieval story. Loved the second ed song, though the video is quite sleepy.

The fights are beautiful and very well-animated, but quite predictable. The main problem with overpowered characters (for Nanatsu, it means all the cast) is that you're watching a battle and BOOM someone pulls power off their asses. Ohh no he just got sliced in three BOOM he regenerates with a sacred power that no one talked about until the last 10 seconds. After seing fights like this for 3-4 times, you just start not caring anymore. Everything will get solved in some miraculous way, just leave it be. Soon this character will awake his krakenian demonic rainbow powers and beat everyone's asses up.

One of the major problems in Nanatsu is the inconsistency of the characters. Not of THE characters, but of them as a whole: you have some pretty good ones, that really interest you and break some cliches, like Guila, King and Gowther. Many of the charaters have interesting stories and a lot of development as the story goes on.
Then you have your Bucket of Golden Crappy Characters, mainly Meliodas and Elizabeth. Meliodas is a man with the appearance, manners and mentality of a 12-year-old, infinite powers and a broken sword - and you have to put up with him being the main character. Elizabeth is a sack of potatoes with tits. Oh, and she also cries sometimes. Ok, MANY times. Just what you expected from a medieval story. (I'm personally not a fan of this kind of narrative, so keep this in mind while reading... Or not.) This is something you see very much, SO MUCH I can't stand it anymore. The swordsman with a main character-centered morality and the hot woman who falls in love with him because he is so "brave and heroic", and not for any other particular reason. Problem with that? Despite being a BIG cliche, no, it's not a problem. The main problem with Nanatsu comes NOW:

EVERY EPISODE has some scene where Meliodas harasses Elizabeth - puts his hand under her skirt, inside her pants, on her tits. And he does it like he's putting a cup of tea in the table. Nothing wrong, I'm just rubbing your breasts. And what does Elizabeth do? Does she go yandere and smack him in the face, like in so many other animes? Does she call for someone to help? Does she accept it, and confesses that she gets turned on by this? No. Of all acceptable (or not) things, she does NOTHING. Elizabeth just asks "sir Meliodas, what are you doing?" "oh I'm just putting my hand there, it's warm" and gets back to what she was doing before, like she's not feeling anything at all. Elizabeth exists for the purpose of being harassed for the fanservice. Her character is shallow as a human being and as a woman.

"OHH NO THERE GOES THE SJW" - no. I personally HATE sjws. Before this being a fault because of the sexism, it is a fault of CHARACTER CONSTRUCTION. Things just don't work that way. It's plausible that pigs can talk, that fairies exist in their own kingdom and that a swordsman acts like a horny teenager. It's NOT plausible that a woman exists just for crying and being harassed like nothing was wrong.

"OH BUT IF YOU STOP WATCHING ANIME BECAUSE OF ECCHI YOU'LL NEVER WATCH ANYTHING BLAHBLAHBLAH". I love Tenchi Muyo!, because the women there are REAL women, with personality and reactions. I love Prison School, because is ADMITTEDLY an ero comedy, with funny reactions and unbelievable funny situations - with plausible characters for that kind of universe. Nanatsu is pure abusive fanservice. That kind of thing would be understandable in a hentai - a genre with the sole function of hardening certain body parts; though it would still be ridiculous.

Overall, Nanatsu no Taizai is something I watched as a challenge. A challenge for myself, "can I stand this thing and watch it to the end?", and a challenge for the series, "does this get better ANYTIME?". Yes, it gets better in the second half, though rushed, but in the end it felt so hollow. Battles and amazing powers and some deep and interesting characters and a lot of fanservice shit and oh look there's a lot of better shonen animes with much fewer cliches.

The main reason behind the hype for Nanatsu must be the superpowers, something that I really don't care about, despite being a fan of typical shonen. I don't really see any other reason for someone to watch this, it's just... An extremely whatever anime. Does this sentence make sense? Well, but that's it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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