It's been a while since I did one of these. I finally got around to watching a new animu. This time it's The Seven Deadly Sins, a Netflix original.
The Seven Deadly Sins is set in the nation of Britannia, and takes a certain amount of inspiration from Arthurian legends. The kingdom is watched over by the Holy Knights, a powerful and exclusive order of magical knights that have a very much "Paladin" aesthetic. They tend to have over-the-top classic anime style magical powers: one of them controls lightning, another can create explosions at will, and so on.
We're told that the most powerful group of Holy Knights are the titular Seven Deadly Sins, all loosely (and I do mean very loosely) themed after one deadly sin or another. Ten years ago, they betrayed the Holy Knights and slaughtered a whole bunch of them, along with their current grand master.
As our story begins, Elizabeth, the third princess of Britannia wanders into an inn in search of the Seven Deadly Sins, as it turns out the Holy Knights have secretly overthrown the King, and are running the Kingdom. She soon stumbles into their captain Meliodas, who swears to help her with her quest to free the Kingdom again.
What follows is a fairly disjointed but charming collection of events that I hesitate to call a story. The group typically shows up somewhere, meets a few new characters, fights for a few episodes, and leaves, sometimes having gained a new member. These little stories are entertaining, and don't tend to drag on too long. I can't say the action or the characters are particularly special. Fights are pretty standard anime fare: big explosions that throw people into cliffs creating massive dust clouds, a lot of speaking about "His power" and "At this rate, we'll...", a lot of people miraculously recovering from massive wounds because the power of friendship and so on.
The character roster is similarly good but not great. The main cast are all endearing, with the exception of Elizabeth who I found ridiculously boring, each having their own little fun quirks that come up enough to be distinctive but not enough to be annoying. A surprise favorite of mine is Hawk, the over-excitable comic relief talking pig who I thought would be insufferable.
Side characters are usually more like vignettes than proper characters. There's a small amount of characterization, a few motivation, an emotional moment at some point, and then we move on. This worked surprisingly well for me, especially considering that I'm definitely a character-based guy when it comes to my entertainment. The exception comes in the main characters (for obvious reasons) and the main antagonists, who do get a bit more depth. I found the antagonist pretty cookie-cutter. They did their job, but they didn't really stand out, and I can't say I particularly cared.
The result of this is a show with a tonne of variety. The things that the characters are physically doing are constantly different. They'll be breaking into a prison, and soon having a fighting tournament, or reminiscing about old times. On the way, there's a bunch of colorful characters who will entertain you well enough. The show feels constantly fresh and exciting, and thanks to the sheer amount of fighting styles and locales to fight in, the action never gets stale, even if it never is that fantastic. There's also just enough humor there to get the occasional chuckle without being overbearing with constant forced laughs.
Character and World Building: 7/10
This very much focuses on variety rather than depth. This means that there's no particularly fascinating characters, but you're constantly in the process of meeting a new one, which keeps the show really fresh throughout.
Story: 5/10
I can't say the story is good or bad. It's very much just present. We go around, fight a dude, fight another dude for some other reason, and blah blah blah. I don't really care. Can I see the talking pig again?
Presentation: 4.5/5
I really like the music, and I actually adore both Hawk's voice and sound effects. The sound effects for battles are fine too. The visuals are pretty top-notch with plenty of cool looking magic things in fights. Character faces do tend to look somewhat weird though.
Enjoyment: 13/15
This is a show feels like it's constantly on the move, yet is never quite overwhelming. Instead of feeling like it's fast paced, The Seven Deadly Sins manages to constantly harvest that honeymoon period where you're meeting what seems to be a cool new character for the first time. Whilst they never evolve past that, they manage to stay at least somewhat entertaining in the finale, and the result is a show that constantly feels shiny new. and is entertaining throughout.
Overall: 29.5/40
A Bit Under 7.5/10
While by no means a masterpiece, The Seven Deadly Sins is a bunch of fun, and I deeply enjoyed my time with it. It's not that it has a lot of flaws, it's simply that its strengths are rather superficial. I'm not going to go round recommending it, but I think most people would not regret giving this one a watch.
The Seven Deadly Sins is set in the nation of Britannia, and takes a certain amount of inspiration from Arthurian legends. The kingdom is watched over by the Holy Knights, a powerful and exclusive order of magical knights that have a very much "Paladin" aesthetic. They tend to have over-the-top classic anime style magical powers: one of them controls lightning, another can create explosions at will, and so on.
We're told that the most powerful group of Holy Knights are the titular Seven Deadly Sins, all loosely (and I do mean very loosely) themed after one deadly sin or another. Ten years ago, they betrayed the Holy Knights and slaughtered a whole bunch of them, along with their current grand master.
As our story begins, Elizabeth, the third princess of Britannia wanders into an inn in search of the Seven Deadly Sins, as it turns out the Holy Knights have secretly overthrown the King, and are running the Kingdom. She soon stumbles into their captain Meliodas, who swears to help her with her quest to free the Kingdom again.
What follows is a fairly disjointed but charming collection of events that I hesitate to call a story. The group typically shows up somewhere, meets a few new characters, fights for a few episodes, and leaves, sometimes having gained a new member. These little stories are entertaining, and don't tend to drag on too long. I can't say the action or the characters are particularly special. Fights are pretty standard anime fare: big explosions that throw people into cliffs creating massive dust clouds, a lot of speaking about "His power" and "At this rate, we'll...", a lot of people miraculously recovering from massive wounds because the power of friendship and so on.
The character roster is similarly good but not great. The main cast are all endearing, with the exception of Elizabeth who I found ridiculously boring, each having their own little fun quirks that come up enough to be distinctive but not enough to be annoying. A surprise favorite of mine is Hawk, the over-excitable comic relief talking pig who I thought would be insufferable.
Side characters are usually more like vignettes than proper characters. There's a small amount of characterization, a few motivation, an emotional moment at some point, and then we move on. This worked surprisingly well for me, especially considering that I'm definitely a character-based guy when it comes to my entertainment. The exception comes in the main characters (for obvious reasons) and the main antagonists, who do get a bit more depth. I found the antagonist pretty cookie-cutter. They did their job, but they didn't really stand out, and I can't say I particularly cared.
The result of this is a show with a tonne of variety. The things that the characters are physically doing are constantly different. They'll be breaking into a prison, and soon having a fighting tournament, or reminiscing about old times. On the way, there's a bunch of colorful characters who will entertain you well enough. The show feels constantly fresh and exciting, and thanks to the sheer amount of fighting styles and locales to fight in, the action never gets stale, even if it never is that fantastic. There's also just enough humor there to get the occasional chuckle without being overbearing with constant forced laughs.
Character and World Building: 7/10
This very much focuses on variety rather than depth. This means that there's no particularly fascinating characters, but you're constantly in the process of meeting a new one, which keeps the show really fresh throughout.
Story: 5/10
I can't say the story is good or bad. It's very much just present. We go around, fight a dude, fight another dude for some other reason, and blah blah blah. I don't really care. Can I see the talking pig again?
Presentation: 4.5/5
I really like the music, and I actually adore both Hawk's voice and sound effects. The sound effects for battles are fine too. The visuals are pretty top-notch with plenty of cool looking magic things in fights. Character faces do tend to look somewhat weird though.
Enjoyment: 13/15
This is a show feels like it's constantly on the move, yet is never quite overwhelming. Instead of feeling like it's fast paced, The Seven Deadly Sins manages to constantly harvest that honeymoon period where you're meeting what seems to be a cool new character for the first time. Whilst they never evolve past that, they manage to stay at least somewhat entertaining in the finale, and the result is a show that constantly feels shiny new. and is entertaining throughout.
Overall: 29.5/40
A Bit Under 7.5/10
While by no means a masterpiece, The Seven Deadly Sins is a bunch of fun, and I deeply enjoyed my time with it. It's not that it has a lot of flaws, it's simply that its strengths are rather superficial. I'm not going to go round recommending it, but I think most people would not regret giving this one a watch.
