English Dub Review: Seven Mortal Sins “The Town of Fog Where Greed Brews”

Are you feeling greedy for some breast milk?

This… was a different episode this week. Seven Mortal Sins still had its prevailing themes and staples like the extreme exaggerations of the seven sins, Lucifer getting owned, crotch shots, nipple censors and Maria not knowing what the hell is going on. However, what I found interesting that in the fight between Lucifer and Mammon A.k.a. Greed that the shows attempt to show off the 7 sins being perpetrated have been taken to much more interesting extremes then I originally thought. The acting and writing are still stale as week old toast but with these recent episodes, it feels like more care is put into the theming of the sins itself making them fully realized. Unlike in say coincidentally enough the Seven Deadly Sins, while in both anime each character represents the sin they are labeled, the Deadly Sins stick to being the physical embodiment of the definition of each sin while Mortal Sins are the physical and societal embodiment.

For instance, in today’s episode, Lucifer and the gang are heading off to jolly ol’ England where Greed is embarking in the most satanic of demon acts… Real Estate. Plus, luring helpless women into her clutches, selling all their material possessions and giving them a lifetime of babysitting Greed’s countless “children.” I put children in quotes because I’m not too sure what they are supposed to be. They look like stuffed bunny toys but they cry and they breastfeed like actual babies. This is the episode that may put some viewers off by its weirder imagery. Sure, before we had fan service galore but this is more exploitation film level. And I think I like it like this.

It’s definitely weird but this is a true identity for the show. Before where Google was still making The Seven Deadly Sins appear when you searched Seven Mortal Sins, I really thought about what made my initial distaste for the show flare? The shameless fan service would be the easiest target to blame but then there is anime like Keijo which I love so that couldn’t be the main reason. Then it hit me, the reason I felt the first episode’s dialogue and writing were so atrociously awful in comparison to episode 4 where it comes off more hilariously stilted and stale. It’s because, since episode 3, we finally have a point to the crazy crap happening. With the deeper focus on the themes of the seven sins the show’s writing, while written still like a teen’s overzealous high school religion fan fiction, allows itself to obtain a context that makes the dialogue have actual narrative weight behind them. Not to some Shakespearean level obviously but enough to truly show a progression in character and narrative.

But pushing that into the background how was the episode itself? It’s a mixture of every hilariously awful thing the show has to offer but still having bits that seem surprisingly deeper. The concept of greed is such an ingrained concept in our public consciousness that it really doesn’t need that in-depth of an explanation. But Mortal Sins actually talks about a side of greed that isn’t usually explored in this context. The greed for love and purpose. Greed’s entire scheme and the method she took people’s souls had less to do with fulfilling a carnal desire like Lust did previously. Greed is the sin that tries to complete your soul with outside material things like money, property or status, but a more nuanced aspect of greed that many don’t explore is whether the pursuit of happiness is intrinsically greedy.

It definitely can sound like I am reading a bit too deep into a show where the badass fallen angel of pride gets whooped every episode then pathetically acts all pompous after. However, I’ve always been of the mind that despite obvious ass and tits you can still make an intelligent show if you so desired. Seven Mortal Sins isn’t intelligent by any means but the themes of lust and greed explored were interesting to see visualized. Plus, laughing at the ineptitude of team Lucifer is great for a change of pace in the show.

At the end of it all, each week I have been feeling nicer and nicer to Seven Mortal Sins. Could it be that I’m just hardened to the show’s level of crap? I still find some of the art direction questionable at best, and it needs no repeating to say the dialogue and voice acting is about as natural as cardboard cut-outs of breasts. But Seven Mortal Sins now has made it to a point for me where I can entirely mock its ineptitude but dissect its use of theming for the seven sins. It’s a show that I’m not enjoying waiting for the next episode to hit the air.