The Seven Deadly Sins Season 1 Review

Episode Guide

The Seven Deadly Sins
The Sword of the Holy Knight
The Sin in the Sleeping Forest
A Little Girl’s Dream
Even If You Should Die
The Poem of Beginnings
A Touching Reunion
The Fearsome Pursuer
Dark Pulse
The Vaizel Fighting Festival
Pent-Up Feelings
Bloodcurdling Cannon
The Angel of Destruction
A Reader of Books
Unholy Knight
The Legends, Provoked
The First Sacrifice
Even If It Costs Me My Life
The Fairy King Waits in Vain
The Courage Charm
The Looming Threat
What I Can Do for You
Despair Descends
The Heroes

Seven Deadly Sins is a brightly coloured, vibrant anime full of charismatic characters and an intriguing premise rife with fantastical elements. Unfortunately for this promising anime, the over-sexualised humour overpowers the narrative and despite some nice ideas, fizzles out before the climactic ending. As the series progresses, the sexual humour is toned down but in its place, long, drawn out action scenes between countless enemies takes it place to varying degrees of success.

There’s no doubting the story is rich with back story and the lore around the world of Britannia and its characters in this 24 episode first season is incredibly polished. With fantasy elements at its heart, Seven Deadly Sins explores a world ravaged by the tyrannical rule of a group called the Holy Knights. After overthrowing the previous rulers, the Seven Deadly Sins, one of the Princesses named Elizabeth escapes from the capital and tracks down the seven exiled warriors to take back control of the kingdom from their tyrannical reign. There are moments where the story feels a little too complicated with numerous enemies and factions popping up but for the most part, the story boils down to a straight forward war between the Holy Knights and the seven warriors, the deadly sins.

The world building is far and away the best part of this anime. From the imaginative monster design to the lore and dialect between characters, every aspect of Seven Deadly Sins drips in colourful history and intrigue. Interesting bites of expository dialogue are used during fights for each of the special moves and, although slightly overused and bordering on the unbelievable, the magic is used in clearly defined and interesting ways. From giant Diane (Erica Mendez) to arrogant, immortal Ban (Ben Diskin), each of the characters are distinctly fleshed out with their own backstory and moral code. These clearly defined traits lead to some intriguing clashes and fights between the characters and their enemies although Meliodas (Bryce Papenbrook), the captain of the seven deadly sins, is one of the most unlikable and pretentiously perverted protagonists seen for quite some time. 

For all the positives, Seven Deadly Sins’ tonally confused narrative detracts from the overall enjoyment of this anime. The over-sexualised humour is unnecessary and at times borderline inappropriate. Seeing Meliodas regularly groping Elizabeth and the constant references to sex and breasts is really off-putting in an animated title that otherwise manages to nail the world and characterisation. The constant jumps between sexualised humour and serious, well-choreographed, animated fights is jarring and makes for a pretty unbalanced watch. The latter period of the show does improve on this but this humour still crops up throughout the series.

Seven Deadly Sins is a bit of a mixed anime. On the one hand, the world building, characterisation and action are excellent and for large stretches of the series absorbing enough to ignore the constant sexualised comedy. The show does take a while to hit its stride though, during which time the overpowering sexualised humour and mis-timed slapstick may put a lot of people off. Whether the inappropriately timed and jarring comedy is enough to put you off watching will determine on your own personal tastes but if you can persevere with this, there’s a beautifully animated, interesting world waiting to be discovered. It’s just a shame that the negative parts of this show overpower the positive, making the overall experience a bit of a mixed one.