English Dub Review: Seven Deadly Sins Season One And “Holy Wars”

A roving tavern, a pint-sized proprietor, and a holy war that has begun all over again.

Spoilers Below

Ten years ago, the region of Britannia came under attack by the strongest of the Holy Knights, called the Seven Deadly Sins. Supposedly, the Holy Knights of the Liones Kingdom stepped in and put them down, but there are rumors…

Today, the Holy Knights have successfully seized Liones, imprisoning the royal family. Elizabeth, the third princess and unimportant in the power structure of the kingdom, escapes and sets out in search of any of the Seven Deadly Sins. She hopes, perhaps in vain, that if they still live, and if they are truly the heroes of justice they had once been, then maybe they would help her liberate her kingdom from the tyrannical rule of the Holy Knights and their magical power. Her search seems fruitless. Meliodas runs the Boar Hat Tavern, a straw hat shaped building with his home above the bar. Despite his diminutive stature, he seems to have been battle hardened. He even carries an ornately-handled sword on his back. A Holy Knight Apprentice attacks Meliodias, revealing two things. One, the sword at his back is broken, the blade snapped off just above the hilt. Two, the broken blade doesn’t matter. Meliodas mops the floor, revealing in the process his true identity. Dragon Sin of Wrath, Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Having been awoken to the cruel tyranny of the Holy Knights, he joins Elizabeth in her search for his comrades. Scattered across Britannia, the Sins have fallen on hard times and have hidden away. Melodias and Elizabeth are joined by Diane, a giant, Ban, their equivalent of Deadpool, King, a literal king of fairies, and Gowther, a living doll. Oh, and there’s Merlin. She’s got a really skimpy outfit, but she knows what she’s doing with magic. While they hunt down their people, they are being hunted by the Holy Knight Gilthunder and his buddies. This goes everywhere from the City of the Dead to a haunted forest to a martial arts tournament on a mountain devastated by a giant’s hammer. Two guesses to whom that belongs. I won’t ruin the ending for you, but suffice to say, the Holy Knights are dabbling in some Yog-Sogothery for power, and there are consequences to that.

Recently, Netflix has brought a “season 2” to American retinas. I put quotes around this because there are only four episodes here. This was a four-week television special, written by the original author of the manga, that acts as a solid epilogue to season 1 and a good wind-up for the real season 2. Melodias and Ban handle their bad blood, Diane clears the air with the citizens of the capital, King deals with his feelings towards Diane, and the bad guys continue their Yog-Sogothery. We also get a view of the next set of big baddies, the leaders of the demon tribe known as the Ten Commandments. Get it? Everything is inverted here. Need a degree in English to smell what they’re cooking around here. </sarcasm>

The animation on this show is top-notch, and the battles are rife with fun camera angles and perspective shots. The artist and author of the original manga, Nakaba Suzuki, was inspired early in life by Akira Toriyama’s Dr. Slump and Dragonball. He also drew from Fist of the North Star and Kinnikuman, early action manga that are the foundations of modern shonen manga. This really shows in his art style, which evokes for me the feel of Toriyama and Tite Kubo (creator of Bleach, who was inspired by Toriyama’s writing style). Suzuki is a solid artist, and his character designs are unique and recognizable. His backgrounds have the right level of detail to feel real. The anime continues this art and really brings it to life. I’ve had no problem with the voice acting, although the voice being put on for Hawk, the tiny pig mascot, is a bit grating. The pacing of the plot is good. You’ll always have enough action to keep you involved, but the deeper story is always being revealed in slivers. I give this anime series eight Holy Knights out of ten and will definitely be looking out for the real second season when it pops up.