Nanatsu no Taizai: Fundo no Shinpan

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

So, finally the 4th season of Seven Deadly Sins have hit our retinas and is is something that one can watch without getting cancer from the mere sight of it? Well yes. It is an obvious improvement form season 3. For example even though the animation might not be the greatest but it is better that what season 3 offered. Also the blood is red this time. No more nut in veins. Still the show does not meet my expectations.

The story is still more of the same but it honestly started off good. The first 3 episodes were honestly fun to watch. We saw Ban enter purgatory to find Meliodas and eventually he did after almost losing his sanity in the process. We saw Escanor beat another of the Demon brother. This time it was Zeldris. He already beat Estarossa and Meliodas. And Estarossas true identity was also revealed. After the 3 fun episodes we go on an adventure that is only downhill and just plain bad. it is inconsistent, boring and a complete mess. The fight against the big bad was pretty bad and the fact that the big bad was not the true big bad was also dumb as all hell.

Animation has again been improved but it isn't on the level of season 1 and 2 yet, but it is way better than season 3. Escanors The One wasn't as cancerous in this season as in season 3. But this show still uses a lot of still images with effects to give to feeling that it moves but it really doesn't. Also the character models still do look a bit wonky at times but it isn't as bad as season 3. It had some improvement in the second half but still it sometimes looks very odd.

The ost is this time pretty nice as always, but this has one big improvement and that is the opening. The first opening of season 3 was complete shit but this time it is actually somewhat good but still could use something.

Let's just say that this is an improvement to season 3 but still feels a bit lackluster. I have enjoyed episodes 1-3 quite a lot. Like they were some of the best episodes of SDS to date in my opinion but after that it kinda felt slow. Can’t forget my biggest beef with the entire CHAOS badguy thing which was never seen again. Stupid as hell.

I would say that it is still pretty mid. It started off being fantastic but then comes 21 episodes of absolute dogshit. I would say watch the 3 first episodes and just read the manga.

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It's the end of everything...that for a huge series like Nakaba Suzuki's Nanatsu no Taizai a.k.a The Seven Deadly Sins, and what a shit-ton of drama from start to finish: the strong start with A-1 Pictures and Aniplex's backing for the first 2 seasons, then the unfortunate tragedy that is the original canon movie "Prisoners of the Sky" that caused Aniplex (and subsequently A-1 Pictures) to bail because they're in the same business umbrella after the movie bombed, leaving Studio Deen and the outsourced Marvy Jack for the notoriously infamous Season 3, and that brings us here, to the final season with the same co-production, which adapts the rest of the manga not adapted yet into anime form, from where Season 3 left off and finally to the manga's true ending. WHAT A rollercoaster of a RIDE.

After the horrible disaster that is Season 3, the reason why the minority of you (me included) just want to watch this to get the entire Seven Deadly Sins adaptation done with. Everything needs no mention because seasons have carried this show for 6 to 7 years (inclusive of this final season), and it's dead obvious by this point for a former Shonen juggernaut that nowadays, series like it are rife across the board today.

At least, both Studio Deen and Marvy Jack took their time to finish this final season the "best" way they possibly can through the same subpar animation, and at least the blood is RED, not WHITE, so at least the botched "censoring" is outta the way. The OST for the final season is no doubt, great on the 2 sets of OP/EDs, though IMO Sora Amamiya's 2nd OP sure does not fit within the other song choreographies all that well. A bust on that one.

Take it or leave it that if you've come this far, your mission is one and only: finish the crap outta The Seven Deadly Sins, and be on your way, once the manga, now the anime. A conclusion that took 6.5 years to reach in animated form, with a strong high, rabbit-hole mid, and a decent ending to Nakaba Suzuki's long running-work.

Welp, a juggernaut finally put to rest in both read and watch forms.

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It’s no news to anyone that’s strapping in for the final season that Nanatsu no Taizai has been considered to be going downhill after the Commandments arc, both for animation and plot reasons. In my opinion, it’s not so much that this series changed drastically after that point, although that definitely plays a role. I think it has to do with the fact that Nanatsu keeps using the same plot devices and cheap writing choices to keep it going, and the more you look at it, the more you can see the cracks showing. The result is a clusterfuck of plot armors, confusing action and forced emotional drama.

**Spoilers**

Let’s dig in the plot of this season. The plot is becoming less and less about this band of powerful fighters we’ve come to love for their unique quirks. The Holy War fight and the 3000 years flashback leave many questions to be answered: Why didn’t Zeldris talk to his father about the vampire clan? How the fuck did Gowther rewrite everyone’s memories about Estarossa with ~magic~? There are so many questions I could add that it could easily fill this text. I don’t even want to get started on Estarossa being Mael plot twist, this was the definition of ridiculously forced drama. He got his name from a puppy... a puppy. Christ.

Just as Estarossa comes to the ‘good’ side, our big baddie is revealed: the terrifying Demon King. You’d think that the final villain should surpass every previous villain’s qualities. However, the Demon King is as bland as dry corn flakes at 6 am. He has no motivation besides ‘more power’, no backstory, no important relationship to understand his character. He’s just the shallowest villain you can get that only says the same generic quotes about defeating the MCs. As the final arc progresses, the author repeatedly makes you think the story is wrapping up, only to say ha gotcha!, and prolong it even more. The fight with the Demon King is prolonged three times at least, but it has no weight. The Demon King is actually a pushover who is easily defeated by the main crew without them breaking a sweat. There are no stakes in this final fight, no suspense, nothing. Each time, the Demon King is defeated only to come back because the author wanted to milk the series to its last fucking drop.

One of the biggest advantages of Nanatsu no Taizai is the author’s boldness in his decision to include romance in a shonen series. Most shonen series shy away from romance and shove it in last minute making it seem out of left field, like in Naruto. It’s clear that almost all members of the Sins have a love interest that motivates them, whether the feeling is reciprocated or not. Exploring the characters’ relationships or feelings and how the dynamics begin to shift, like in Meliodas/Elizabeth’s case, or Escanor's feelings for Merlin for example, is very interesting and refreshing. The problem in this season is that every. single. character. is given the exact same romantic sob story in a very perfunctory way. Estarossa and Zeldris were the newest victims of this modus operandi. Their romantic feelings are shoehorned without properly exploring how their relationship with their loved one is unique or different from the others. We are just told that their goal is to save or be with the women they love. Is that a bad thing? Hell no. However when romantic factors are literally the only motivation to the actions and goals of the entire cast, this writing device feels recycled, boring and lazy. The author also tried to add Meliodas' and Zeldris' sibling bond in the mix, but without any scenes that solely had to do with them in flashbacks, or any development in their relationship it's hard to find this depiction moving in any way.

Watering down the plot and the characters’ goals to romance is not the only thing that is poorly written in this season. The characters are also becoming plot devices to move the story forward. It feels like Holy War is an arc that undoubtedly had to be mainly action, but the fights so tedious you can barely sit through them. Our main crew is receiving power ups out of nowhere only to defeat the seemingly insurmountable obstacle in front of them-- granted with a plot armor of 100 tons of course. You need olympic medal gymnastics to be able to reconcile all these drastic and sudden changes that happen conveniently every time. These power ups are poorly explained and give off the idea that the author couldn’t think of a better solution and settled with the easy options. And it’s not just power ups without build up; The fights are boring both in choreography and inventiveness. That’s no news of course, since Nanatsu has always lacked inventiveness when it comes to action. The characters are using moves we’ve never seen before, and the villains are suddenly turning from invincible to weak when the plot requires it which makes it hard to engage and get invested in anything that’s happening really. Nothing seems much of a challenge or suspenseful when the author keeps making up bullshit to escape the corner he’s written himself into. I never thought NnT’s fight scenes were anything spectacular, but with the action in this season being more prevalent, the poor writing is even more apparent.

Last but not least, the elephant in the room: the animation of this season. As someone who hasn’t read the manga, I recognize that some complaints I’ve had about this season might be the studio’s fault and not the author’s. The artstyle and animation are supposed to elevate the source material, not make it worse. I’m really not a picky watcher when it comes to animation; I barely notice faults others effortlessly take up quickly. Studio Deen’s treatment of Nanatsu has been god awful. The animation is not just bad, it’s practically nonexistent for the majority of the show. The action seems odd and as if in slow motion; the characters’ faces remain emotionless and expressionless because the animators just wanted to use the same frames. When Meliodas was being lied to that Elizabeth was dead for good, his face was literally the :O emoji for a good 5 seconds. My point is, the dramatic effect some scenes could have had falls flat because of the poor animation quality and effort. I understand this is not the studio’s fault and the animators tried their best, but unfortunately the production committee’s decision could only produce a power point slideshow as a result. It’s sad because animation is not even half of what makes an anime good, but when the effort is so low that it undermines the source material you have a problem. The audience can’t engage in the action sequences nor can they feel the dramatic moments the characters are having properly, no matter how excellent the voice actors or the soundtrack are in Nanatsu’s case.

All in all, they say the journey is what’s most important instead of the destination. In Nanatsu no Taizai’s case, I can definitely keep in mind the good things the series as a whole offered us; the quirky characters, the funny moments, the intriguing backstories. But when the destination itself is so bad it washes away what you had in high esteem, you are left with a feeling that this story should have ended much sooner than it did.

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Watching this anime was pure pain and, minus the odd 5 minutes once in a blue moon, I hated every single second of it.

So, you may immediately think to yourself "so J, why did you finish the entire series then dumbass".

Well there was one reason and one reason only why I finished this anime, the soundtrack is fucking amazing! Sawano has an ending song which is always going to be great but even the openings absolutely bang.
Unfortunately, by the time I was about 10 episodes in and realised the soundtrack had lulled me into a false sense of security, the sunken cost fallacy had already taken a firm grip on my mind and it was too late to drop it. I also did not expect this complete trainwreck of an anime to get 24 episodes you cannot imagine how devastated I was once I saw it didnt end after episode 13.

But besides the soundtrack, why is it so bad?
Well they spend the first half of the anime in the main arc that the previous seasons have been leading up to, thats totally fine. The fight was overall pretty boring but whatever. However, for the latter half of the season they decide, for whatever reason, to cram in a whole other arc about "chaos", which they've never mentioned before by the way, leading to the absolute genius idea to use 3 episodes to have not just a boss fight but also a whole character arc for merlin.
Needless to say this did not go well.

Furthermore, the animation quality was also just subpar compared to the first couple seasons with half the characters attacks not even being properly animated

Realistically, the anime just fails to get the viewer invested due to certain scenes of terrible writing - they did my boy Escanor particularly dirty this season. The ending blew my mind for being spectacularly bad but I wont spoil you in case this review has filled you with the burning desire to watch it for yourself...

(If that is the case please consult a doctor immediately)

Basically this is the worst anime I've ever actually ever tried to finish and I deeply regret all my life choices that have led up to this moment. That said, I'll give it a 2/10 instead of a 1 because, as previously mentioned, the soundtrack was very good and I have just about survived watching every episode.

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