Nanatsu no Taizai
The Seven Deadly Sins

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"The Seven Deadly Sins" is a shounen action/fantasy manga that seems like it would be about as generic of a story as you could imagine something in this genre being. But only at first. It certainly clears that up quickly by introducing a world and a complex cast of characters that are anything but generic.

Beginning with a meeting between a princess and a man with a childlike stature acting as a barkeeper, the manga begins with the duo deciding to find a powerful group of warriors known as "The Seven Deadly Sins" in order to defeat the evil that has overcome the kingdom's monarchy. What ... is soon revealed is that the barkeeper is no ordinary person, but actually the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas, the Sin of Wrath. He is a legendary (and might I add, incredibly overpowered) warrior who the Holy Knights of the kingdom of Britannia (yes, it's not a creative name) has claimed was responsible for the death of the Great Holy Knight. Holy Knights are basically the strongest protectors of a nation, and the Great Holy Knight is the strongest out of all of them. The Seven Deadly Sins were originally allied with the Holy Knights, but ten years ago, everything changed and the members split up as they fled from the Holy Knights. Now Meliodas and the princess named Elizabeth begin their search for the other Seven Deadly Sins.

Still sounds like a fairly generic setup, but trust me, that doesn't last long. So what makes it unique? Aside from the characters, the complexity of the world is slowly showed to the reader in a way that will keep you focused and wanting to know more. This story hides an incredible amount of detail from reader, dangling it just out of reach, but not too much to the point of being annoying. It makes you wonder many things:

(1) What are the sins that each of the Seven Deadly Sins have committed? This is a huge part of the story and one of the most interesting features of the main characters. Even the other main characters do not know what sin each of them has committed, and they don't ask. So far (as of 82 chapters into the story) only two have been revealed so far, which is done in lengthy side chapters. The reason I'm mentioning this in so much detail is because the first one to be shown in chapter 25.5 is one of my absolute favorite backstories ever (and I'm a huge sucker for a good, emotional backstory). It also creates one of my favorite couples in a long time.
(2) Who are the real villains in this story? Most of the people of Britannia and the Holy Knights initially believe that the Seven Deadly Sins are the villains and that the Holy Knights are the heroes because of what happened ten years ago. However, that's not how the Seven Deadly Sins and Princess Elizabeth see it. But just because they are the protagonists does not necessarily mean they are really good. If you think the main characters are going to be similar to something like how the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece really are good and are just seen as being bad because they're pirates, keep reading and you'll see how conflicts in that belief will arise.
(3) What the hell is up with Meliodas' power? It's obvious he's incredibly strong, but... Well you'll know what I mean when you get to the end of the Byzel arc.

And those are just a few of the questions that I wonder the most. Given that each of the Seven Deadly Sins is incredibly strong beyond belief, and most of the Holy Knights are as well, it creates some of the most intense battles I've ever seen in a shounen battle story. Every fight in this manga is exciting and the outcome is unpredictable. Despite being very overpowered, the main characters do lose and do underestimate their opponents because of their power.

While the Seven Deadly Sins as well as many of the Holy Knights are very interesting and unique characters, Elizabeth is about as boring of a female protagonist as you can get in a shounen manga. She's your typical damsel-in-distress and only has a couple useful moments. There are mysteries surrounding her, but aside from being the catalyst to start the story and a motivation for Meliodas and the others to spring into action, she hasn't done very much so far and has less fighting skill than the talking mascot pig character, Hawk.

As for the art, it starts off a little rough but eventually settles into an excellent groove. This manga has some of the most detailed battles I've ever seen in a shounen manga. The character designs are also interesting and good. Despite being ecchi, it never pushes it too far and only has it as a backdrop occasionally with Meliodas' perverted side and the occasional ripped clothes in a battle. The scenery of the fantasy world of Britannia is also beautiful. The world has a Middle Ages' European style as many fantasy stories do.Each town is unique and shown from a distance before the characters enter it (and sometimes destroy it).

What I originally thought would just be another typical "find some allies and beat the bad guys" story turned out to be a much more complex tale then I could have imagined from the cover. The characters, the world, the art, the mysteries. It's all excellently executed. Despite the beginning being a little slow, Elizabeth's uselessness, and some other issues here and there, this is one of the best shounen action stories I've seen in a while. Plus it's still got a long ways to go. With an anime announced sometime in the future, hopefully this manga will continue on for a long time and be able to fully show what the world of "The Seven Deadly Sins" really has to offer.

Nanatsu no Taizai is one of the more recent manga I’ve read, and i must say, when i first saw the trailer for the anime (which i saw before reading the manga) i was skeptical, it didn’t look too good, something about the faces i think... but after giving the anime a shot i liked it, and then i started reading the manga and i loved it.

The story:
let’s skip the mandatory plot synopsis, and jump right in. the first thing i liked about the plot was the main characters’ situation, how they are considered traitors and are constantly moving forward, it helps keep the pacing ... up and the story progress since they are always chased by somebody else, but also at the same time they have their own agenda and goals, so it’s not like they’re just being pulled along through the plot but are actively moving it forward. Another thing i like is the setting, its set in a fictional kingdom (though based on a real one) in a medieval period and it has couple of pretty imaginative locations. But the plot isn't perfect, obviously. it suffers from something i don’t think I’ve seen in a while and that’s 'deus machina because i said so' syndrome, sometimes i had no clue why certain things happened and while it does feel a bit contrived it was never a too bad as to make me want to stop and I’ll now explain why: in a different review i mentioned something i called short burst effect - in which you start a new series and you binge read it, and when you can’t binge anymore cause you reached the last chapter and have to wait now, if a series is still good after you've had time to calm down and read something else, is the true mark of a good running manga - and Nanatsu no Taizai is just that. No matter how many plot holes there were i never got mad at it, cause Nanatsu no Taizai doesn’t try to sell itself as anything other than fun, and fun it is. i became immersed is what I’m trying to say, i liked the characters, the fight scenes, the general plot and how it progressed. that’s the main reason i gave it such a high score because despite its fuck ups, if a series can immerse and make you care about it, you can forgive it, it’s like a good friend - they may not be perfect and have their flaws but if you like hanging out with them you forget about that stuff, so to conclude this drawn out section - Nanatsu no Taizai, despite its flaws, became like a good friend for me because it’s fun.

The characters:
The thing i like most about the characters is, and i don’t think I’ve seen this very often, i found something i like about every one of the main cast - the sins and even the plot princess Elizabeth. while the sins are in their own right...how to put this?...ridiculously OP (over-powered if your dense) but despite this they don’t come off as invincible and while each one individually could beat almost any other character one on one, the sins are traitors (duh!) and are bombarded by strong enemies in large numbers and that gives a sense of threat, making the characters a bit more vulnerable and real (as real as they can be for OP badasses). Another thing i really like is the sins...well, sins. Each member of the seven deadly isn’t a representation of their sin, they are merely given a sin based on the nature of their crime. For example, while a character may be the sin of wrath he isn’t some hot-headed spiky haired dipshit, it’s just that the crime he committed he committed out of wrath and may he himself usually be very calm, as one would be if they were as powerful as him. while we haven’t seen all of them yet the series shows the characters history, showing us what their sin is and how it connects to the plot, which i really like, we haven’t seen many of the sins backstory yet, but i found myself caring much more for the characters that did have their backstory told, which is a pretty amazing feat considering how unrealistic this characters are in terms of ability, and sometimes personality. The characters all have great chemistry and just seeing the relationship and dynamics between two characters can be hilarious and also very interesting.

The art:
there’s not much i have to say about the art itself, its pretty good. as i said, when i first saw the characters in the anime pv i didn’t like it too much, but it grew me and then i was able to appreciate it, since although some characters designs aren’t really to my tastes, generally everything is well drawn and professional. the thing i find most likable about the art is just how much fun its feels the artist had drawing it, especially during the fight scenes, which are way over the top, but since they still have a sense of scale and the characters still struggle against strong opponents a lot of the crazy moves or attacks still have impact.

Some more stuff:
this didn’t really fit into any category but i still wanted to say it, the thing that i think i love most about Nanatsu no Taizai is although it’s not trying to be anything more than just fun, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t try at all, i get a sense that the author really cares about his work and that’s what make it really great for me.

So to conclude:
Nanatsu no Taizai is fun, and by not trying to be more than that and making itself really fun it ends up being more than that, and so i wholeheartedly recommend Nanatsu no Taizai.

Originally aimed primarily at the young male demographic, shounen manga today is consumed around the globe by old and young, male and female alike. However, shounen has been bombarded with numerous series trying to breakout throughout the years, causing saturation. Few are able to be prominent amongst their contemporaries. Regardless, "The Seven Deadly Sins" (七つの大罪) written by Suzuki, Nakaba, is able to unify many clichés creating a unique narrative that can only be experienced firsthand.

The tale begins within a rowdy bar ran by a short-statured man, Melodias, and his talking pet swine. Wasting no time, Suzuki takes advantage of the bar's chatter and introduces ... "The Seven Deadly Sins," through bar gossip, as a group of rebels who previously tried to overthrow the current kingdom. After a chance encounter with Elizabeth, a young girl roaming the lands, the readers, as well as Melodias, learn of her intent of locating the notorious seven in hopes of opposing the unjust Holy Knights who are oppressing the commonfolk. Melodias quickly reveals himself to the wandering girl as one of the rebels after her honesty and kindness shines in the face of death. And thus, the two embark on a journey to reunite the remaining outlawed revolutionaries in order to "save" the kingdom from its own knights.

A cliché to say the least. In all honesty, this introduction can easily give the wrong impression of the work as "lazy" or "boring." The plot is expanded as the chapters progress through the mangaka's use of literary technique. Suzuki incorporates multiple point-of-views to give a voice to each character and is not afraid to utilize shounen staples such as flashbacks and information dumps. However, it is not done carelessly, but rather organically. The story flows in such a way that using this formulaic approach does not degrade from a reader's satisfaction. Plot is kept lively and ever-so entertaining despite common literary tropes and pitfalls. "The Seven Deadly Sins," is not a narrative masterpiece by any means, but manages to stay refreshing and consistently enjoyable throughout its many chapters.

The characters, for the most part, are varied and distinguishable amongst themselves. It is not uncommon to relate personalities of this series with those of another shounen only to conclude similarities between, however, to suggest these similarities act as a detriment is not reasonable. Within the context of the series, each character Suzuki introduces is overflowing with canonical back-story and personal voice. Personally, I found myself disliking certain characters early on only for them to go under gradual development and progress to roles I also grew to enjoy (or even dislike more intensely). The parallel happens as well, where strong, likable characters change for the worse as the story advances. From the manga's main cast to the vast supporting personae, the conflicts derived between individuals create memorable scenes for the readers to enjoy.

As for the artwork, "The Seven Deadly Sins" does not disappoint. The manga is only in its infancy, however in just a short period of time it became evident that Suzuki is constantly growing his illustrations. Each page is filled to the brim with minute features, from the landscape to the characters themselves, the mangaka utilizes all frames to his best ability. Action sequences are fluid and incredibly comprehensive, characters are animated to suit their nature, and each grandiose set piece is given life vibrantly. For example, you'll know the scale of an army as it approaches its destination in such detail that it invokes the scene's direness and hostility to the reader. Not only is that amazing in itself, but Suzuki continually manages to use that technique in his art to further develop the plot and characters. It is great to say the least.

Overall, "The Seven Deadly Sins" provides yet another enjoyable journey filled with resolve and determination. Suzuki may have utilized ideas and techniques prevalent in other works, but does so in such a way that remains fresh and exciting chapter to chapter. If you are a fan of shounen, this manga surely will give you some sort of amusement. If you aren't a fan, giving it a chance is up to you. Ultimately, "The Seven Deadly Sins" set out to create an enjoyable tale for those willing to listen, and I feel it has accomplished that goal while humbly continuing to achieve it.

8/10

If you're looking for a decent shounen, this is a good pick. It's fun, enjoyable, and appeals to those who desire it.

The Seven Deadly Sins is the worst battle-shounen of all time.

In fact, the shounen community usually has several types of mangoes that can be good and bad, the quality goes from taste to taste, this becomes more common when it is a popular series, and someone can see clear problems, and with that a discussion is generated within a work. I am the type of person who, after all, likes to enjoy a shounen as a hobby, being sincere with the reader, even if it is bad, I probably had fun seeing some fights and flashy characters that I probably would not find anytime soon ... in another manga type, I believe that some can develop unique designs.

But what happens when you follow a series since 2014, and it is propagated to be more shit than before? I will tell you that this is the reason why I did this review, I will be straight with you, Nanatsu no Taizai is an objectively bad shounen. I will not deny in this review that I had fun with the series in the past, when it still had its first arcs, you can say that X or Y is the worst shounen you have ever read, but I want to tell you that this is the worst battle shounen that has ever existed.

The world of this manga was something I liked, I've read a lot of bad shounens but they had incredible universes, and I hoped that this series could explore it a little more, it's a mixture of fantasy medievalism, like those children's stories what you read when child, I was ready to love and defend the universe... Until the end of Hendrickson's arc, where the Nanatsu universe decides not to explore anything, not to show traces of mythology, some exotic creature, new places and prefers to building a lot of nothing, worthy of one of those empty open world games. I ask everyone, what kind of memorable place has this series given us? What was the most striking place that when we look at it, we feel that comfortable feeling? None, the nanatsu scenarios are an empty nature. The types of creatures are few, the story tries to buy you that is a fantasy medievalist story, but then they insert more demons than dragons and orcs that originally should be treated here, I can't believe that this guy read all the fantasy stories and managed to make mistakes in all of them transporting a boring universe to the reader, it's funny how the author repeats the same demon design all the time, nothing of variation, it's always the same shit, and they all don't give a sense of danger, the Nanatsu no Taizai universe tries to demonstrate danger but fails completely.

Meliodas is the worst protagonist of a battle shounen I have ever seen, he has no characteristics that define him well, he is more like a self insert of the pervert mangaka that has super strength, just that, his charisma is practically nonexistent when he only has one type of reaction for any occasion, he has no development around 300 FUCKING CHAPTERS, he doesn’t learn anything new, no matter how much someone tells him, this type of information doesn’t make the character mature or prove to be a more interesting person. The author tries to play me that he is interesting because he has a sad backstory, but it is just an act of lazy cowardice because he don't know how to define the character well in the current stage, you cannot convince someone with just a backstory, unless this backstory define why the character continues to have those attitudes, but here it is not the case, and both these backstorys are completely forgotten, you should not carry them all the time, because it is only the author trying to push an idea that he didn't know how to build.

The characters are garbage, all of them except Escanor, I praise Escanor because at least he is a character who bought the public for his charisma and his characteristics as a character, who at the end of the journey (dying in vain because just because the author wanted to) demonstrated a coherent story as a farewell to your character. Ban was an interesting character but he sold himself as a sad person in flashback influenced by secondary characters who only appear coveniently, I had become interested in his bow, but then I realize that he was useless, the character has no obstacle of his own and being a support equal to everyone. Merlin is just a character that the author decided to build only in the last seconds of a basketball championship, his construction is totally forced as his conflict with Meliodas, if he wanted to develop it why didn't he do it before? It was only necessary to create new arcs before leaving for the great final arch. Diane is just a character that exists, and like Ban, her entire backstory is forgotten and she becomes a forgettable character. Gowther was an interesting character, he had subplots that became consequences, in addition to a backstory that matches the character, maybe he is the only one that I forgave for the backstory, because the author gave him a vestige of mystery that was convincing, the King it's just a garbage support character that desenvelop overnight.

Now let's look at the secondary characters, all of them suck, one worse than the other, the dumb author besides not knowing how to make a backbone for storytelling, he doesn't even know how to create secondary ones. Do you remember Gilthunder? Jericho? Howzer? Guila? Helbram? Even Hendrikson? I'm sorry to say but they are empty crap, which after the first big arc ends, has no function in the story or even for the main characters, they are character types that only fill a scenario, and have no development, imagine that you read this series by the characters, in addition to being captivated by the main characters, want to see a secondary, what option do you have? None, the author doesn't respect his characters, is not surprising that all discussions of the manga are focused only on the 7 protagonists, all are uninteresting.

Art is perhaps the positive point that this manga has, the mangaka has the potential to make very well planned and dynamic action scenes, in addition to its detail in more open panels, which can be a merit since he does everything himself, his sequels panels is also great, facilitating a dynamic battle and without so many dialogues and shit monologues like a Shounen Jump series. The scenario, despite being empty, are well designed, maybe you can remember a little of Akira Toryama at the beginning, since the author has total influence over him.

The story of The Seven Deadly Sins is a huge waste of time, as well as unsatisfactory, we can say that we have about 4 short arcs, a medium arc and then we have a giant final arc lasting approximately 200 chapters, and after that final arc we have an epilogue false to later turn into a second final arc, and then we go directly to another epilogue, for the author to show us ANOTHER FINAL ARC, dude fuck this shit, this is no way to structure a story, holy shit even Fairy Tail which is a bad manga, has a better structure in arches and how to tell a story. Now how about I talk a little about this story? It starts as an adventure of reunion between the protagonists, to fight an oppressive kingdom, and then it becomes a fight of demons that lasts for 500 hours, since there is no time interval in the universe, and as always, the author is blatantly abusing unnecessary flashbacks during conflicts, I cannot understand this anxiety that Nakaba Suzuki has, it seems that he thinks of himself than of the reader, but as if that were not enough he creates fake endings to DECEIVE all readers, in some cases of mangas it's even fun, but it has become completely offensive and unnecessary, you who are a reader of Nanatsu no Taizai, i'm telling to you that Nakaba is calling you an idiot and stealing all your time while you could do something better.

Still talking about the story, it's the same kind of fight story you expect to see, the only interesting part was when Meliodas and Ban fought side by side against the demon king, that was fun, The Seven Deadly Sins is a lot of support and protagonists ready to fight in any background, it is that manga you can only think of throwing up after so much repetitive situation. You will see the protagonists facing Zeldris, then they will face an Evil Meliodas, after that they will face Zeldris again, then they will face the demon king, and now they are facing a stupid dog... It impresses me how they are not fighting against a talking cake and a chair with a life of its own, I summarize that everything is a boss rush, anything can be a final boss here, so there is no way you can take anything seriously that the author conveys.

The ending is completely generic and awful, the kind of story that needs to end in a SHIT happy ending, with the characters being couples and having children, endings worthy of a fanfic of someone arrested at 13 years of age, just to give that a possible story can continue to follow, like a new cycle, is stupid and cowardly. The only times I forgave the same happy ending manga was when the job showed no signs of continuing, as it conveyed a happy ending, but a closed loop forever and acceptable. Their children's design looks like something that came entirely from Deviantart, not even the hair collides with the character, it's the kind of ending that buys emotional people, but I'm sorry, I won't accept this attempt by the mangaka.

This manga should have ended long ago.

In the end, nanatsu is a totally bad and empty story, uninteresting, without a captivating world, empty characters and meaningless behind the concepts themselves, a trash protagonist who has developed nothing over 40 volumes, besides being a story who does not know where to going and prefers to be dishonest with the reader, tricked all its readers into stupid fake endings, just to lengthen the story where it shouldn't, if you think about reading this manga because it is a fantasy medievalism, I ask you not to read it, the author does not know anything about the time he is bringing to the manga, and neither cares about it, a waste of concept that could be original, as well as a disservice to battle shounen, many may name several bad or worse shounens, but I can tell you that they should all have some possible backbone for the story , which is something that this manga doesn’t have, I don’t recommend this manga even to the person I hate the most, I heard that the author plans a sequence, but please, I telling to you, don’t read, it may seem extremist but it’s not worth reading the sequel, don’t give visibility to this guy, you’re a person just like all of us, have love for yourself, don’t finance something for this guy, he has proved that he is extremely selfish and will not change.

If you want a series that shows you the '7 deadly sins' in a coherent way, read Fullmetal Alchemist, if you want a series that can introduce you to a fantasy universe combined with children's tales, read Magi, if you want to see fun characters fighting at all exaggeratedly, read Baki or Kengan Ashura, that's all I can tell you, don't waste your time here.

My first impression after watching the first season was that the anime was amazing but I couldn't wait for the second season so I decided to read the manga and at the time the new arc was barely just brewing and it was amazing, I was reading this, One Piece, and Bleach (which was barely finishing) and in the past it was the manga I was the most hyped up about once a new chapter came out.... After a few years a bunch of chapters came out and that hype died away by a lot and it's just sad because this series started out so ... great but it just turned into another pathetic shonen manga.

Like seriously... the second arc was and still is a great arc even with all its flaws and it was even preparing the ingredients to concoct the next arc to be great also... Then the supposed Holy War Arc started and all it did was ruin everything, unneeded swerves, unneeded power ups, unneeded characters, unneeded revivals, unneeded moments, useless plot points, two not one but two useless end villains, plots points that never got explained, story became so complicated, the same fucking Shonen Friendship Trope, and the list just keeps going on and on. You know it's sad when I didn't even know that this manga had just ended and that's pathetic and I swear to God that someone else had authorship and created the Holy War Arc because it had so so so so much hype behind it but all it did was become another sad manga.

When this manga was still on its second arc, the community score for this was an eight and my score was a high nine for it but now it's around the seven range and my score is also a 7 and I would've given it a 6 or 5 but the beginning is still some of the best reading anyone can get into... will not everybody but still!

I keep this short

Story (7): I already gave my point on this and up to this point I still scratching my head on how it became so convoluted...

Art (10): Sorry for my cursing but I fucking love the art here, with unique looking characters and some of the scenery it's just downright gorgeous. Sometimes the art looks kinda wonky, especially til the end but that doesn't deter my score at all!

Character (6): Out of the Seven Deadly Sins, I love Meliodas, Escanor, and Ban, I meh King and Dianne, I just don't care for Gowther and Merlin. Everyone else I really don't care about them other than Elizabeth who is just fine as a good character and I absolutely fucking hate Hawk. One more thing before I move on, I really did like Arthur Pendragon at first but as the story progress he basically became a useless plot point up til the final few chapters! I never been so disappointed in anything ever and hope the sequel does him some justice but I highly doubt that.

Enjoyment (5): It would've been a 10 at first but again I stopped caring about when a new chapter came out and didn't even know that ended a few weeks ago. Plus I went on to read better manga

Overall (7): You can skip out on this if you want to because you'll end up like me and many others, disappointed... Then again you'll be missing out on some of the greatest fights that involved Escanor, Ban, and Meliodas.... so again, it's up to you!

The seven deadly sins starts with the princess of the lioness kingdom trying to gather the seven deadly sins a group of knights who were legendary to stop the corrupt holy knights who were abusing their power.At first this would seem like your average shounen full of the standard cliches and while it does have a lot of cliches the execution makes it enjoyable.The series is heavily influenced by Arthurian legend and Celtic mythology so if you like those you will be a fan of this.The whole race dynamic is also interesting.There are fairies,giants,humans,demons and goddesses.The characters are also really likable.There are tragic backstories and ... situations which you don't normally see in shounen and the execution is almost perfect.You can also theory craft for hours on this as this series has many mysteries.The art is also very unique and the fights are epic.And unlike other shounen the characters in the story don't need the main character to save them everytime.I highly recommend trying this series you will not be disappointed you will be hooked to this very quickly.

As a guy who mostly reads/watches shounen its's a 7 but for those who dont like the generic shounen stuff would probably not like it. So if u like shounen and u dont know what to read/watch i would recommend it. If u want something new (in terms of story) then this aint for you. I forgot to mention that it has very good characters so if u are a character driven person this is for u.
This is also my first review so pls like it so i can be a liitle happier.
I actually dont care i just want to write a review but ... My anime list says that it needs to be longer so i am filling this with random stuff.

Nanatsu no Taizai is an ongoing battle Shonen that the masses hype up as a work of true greatness and like most that can be described in a similar way, is an overrated mess.

Note: May contain spoilers regarding plot and characters.

To start off, the story is painfully typical of a Shonen. The first few arcs consist of gathering a group of main characters, battling minor villains before a showdown with the evil usurpers of a kingdom, plot threads that have been done far better in Saint Seiya's Sanctuary Arc or One Piece's Baroque Works Arc. After this, a new set of villains are revealed ... to be the true masterminds with far greater power, as it becomes yet another series ruined by bloated, rapid power escalation/power creep with the main characters suddenly getting dozens of times stronger to face the new threat. All this could be excusable as being average Shonen if not for how contrived and pointless the series' "plot twists" are, such as one character first appearing to be a scrawny midget in a helmet to being a huge knight to being a Bishonen fairy, going far beyond the realm of a decent twist and becoming pointless overall. We also have the Sins having been forced to retreat against the knights of the kingdom in the past when they still had their weapons and were stronger than at the start of the story, yet from the start up until the end of the first major arc, they're able to easily handle the elite of the kingdom's forces even after they've powered up tremendously through being infused with demon blood.
Then there's elements such as characters being affected by things such as amnesia all for the sake of the plot.

Speaking of characters, this is what the series is mainly praised for, despite not having much to differentiate it from most other Shonen. Whilst all the main cast members have colourful personalities and fleshed out backgrounds, none of them gain too much development for the first 100+ chapters and even when a select few do, characterisation in the series is ultimately bogged down by many acting in ways to be shaped by the plot rather than them shaping the plot. For instance, the amnesia I alluded to before causes all investment in one of the characters to be lost when it acts as a character rewrite. It's not as though their colourful personalities are unique to this series as each one feels more akin to a Shonen stereotype. Meliodas is the perverted hero seen in many Shonen of the 80s/90s, Elizabeth is the useless fangirl who accepts anything the protagonist does, Ban is your typical bloodlusted, battle hungry member of the main cast seen with characters such as Vegeta in Dragon Ball or Kenpachi in Bleach, etc.
Moreover, the villains are even worse. In the first half of the story, most of them seem to only be evil for the sake of evil. In the second half, they're instead shown to have all their actions be irrelevant due to being mind controlled by a bigger threat, making any attempt at good characterisation amongst it's villains to become a joke.

Art is decent enough. It's distinctive enough from the typical manga/anime conventions with unique aspects such as the way Suzuki draws noses and eyes for his characters, plus he's become far better at making his female characters look more appealing for male readers since his previous work Kongou Banchou, but beyond that nothing stands out in the art as being great.

As a piece of entertainment, the series works well if looking at it as dumb fun and is perhaps the best depiction of Arthurian Legend gimmicks within manga, though that's also quite a dismay when my interest in such is great enough that this seems like a disservice to such Legends. It at the very least never falls quite as low in quality as most other Shonen of the 21st Century such as Bleach, but never elevates itself above the standard either and gets considerably worse after the first major arc ends, meaning only the first 100 chapters are worth reading.

Overall, Nanatsu no Taizai isn't a series I found worth investing any more of my time in and one being completely overrated by those who like to ride on the bandwagon of modern battle Shonen mediocrities. If you want to view Nakaba Suzuki's better work, read Kongou Banchou or if looking for a similar but better action-adventure, read the first half of Dragon Ball.

Plot - 3/10
Art - 5/10
Character - 2/10
Enjoyment - 3/10
Overall ranking - 3/10

This review may contain spoilers!!!
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ok, so i didn't dropped this because i already had advanced a lot on the history but I wish i hadn't picked up this Manga, when I first saw the anime it didn't looked that bad but the animation was horrible we already know that so i read the manga, my first problems with this was:
1. With the power of love I realize you!!! : this was so cringe, it was awful how every villian was later like uwu I'm good demon actually, and all of the sudden everyone has a beloved one and that love is what saves ... everyone, man that's was just so cringe for me.
2. Sizes: I noticed that the more power you have, the more adult you look, but why is it that almost everyone have to look like a kid in here, i wasn't that annoyed on how Meliodas looked but after seeing his "more adult form" i couldn't help to think that i would have enjoyed this love and romantic story if everyone looked more adult, even Merlin who real form was a kid, i couldn't take this seriously, it's even laughable!!
3. The art: at first it was like "oh how cute the art is", but seriously, it's not like it was sooo bad, but there was always an arm more big than the other lmao, it was so ugly to look at
4. The ending: it was so f***** boring, the author just added more and more fights and for what?? even Meliodas brother was "uwu i luv my brother and I have someone I love" and his more powerful form of course is an adult too, the author just started to add more characters but they didn't make me feel anything, nor sad or excited, it was really bad, the only villian design i really enjoyed was the demon king, if the story had ended with Elizabeth dead that could have been a more a good impact imo.

Final: tbh another reason i just kept reading was for gowther how i really liked, Jericho who imo was better than that Elaine, and for Derieri and Monspeet, because this two story was more interesting and likeable than all the 3000 years story of Meliodas and Elizabeth.

I gave it a 6 because sometimes I did enjoy the story but I just couldn't enjoy it ALL of it, i really wish I didn't read this, but at least I enjoyed the few characters that I liked

Nanatsu no Taizai kicks off with the main goal being finding all the Seven Deadly Sins and having them band together to defeat the Holy Knights. It's isn't overly complicated and the story uses that to its advantage.
Nanatsu's protagonist, Melodias, is the sin of Wrath. At first, with his childlike appearance and actions, it seems oddly placed. The man runs a traveling bar that is carried on a gigantic pig, and he's generally very carefree despite being powerful. But occasionally Melodias displays characteristics nothing but deserving of his attribute of wrath, and that has been a key factor a few times. He travels with the ... naive princess Elizabeth and a talking pig named Hawk. Later on, more of the Seven Deadly Sins will join him.
Nanatsu no Taizai has battles that utilize both physical and magical weapons, the majority of these being against the Holy Knights. Each character has its own story and place in the series, and the cast manages to grow without getting too hectic.
Overall, Nanatsu no Taizai, while still ongoing, avoids being a fantasy solely relying on fanservice for appeal, but rather is a simple action story meant to be fun to read.

I genuinely liked nanatsu no taizai for a long time, first 100 chapters were a silly and fun battle shounen worthy of praise (even with the problematic way that Meliodas treated Elizabeth), but from then on it started to get lost.

Even with the arrival of Escanor, a character that worked very well for being the essence of what the manga should always have been, the author was unable to maintain the level of the first arcs, leaving aside everything he had done right, opting for a narrative more and more convoluted and uninteresting, trying to be something bigger and more epic than it should.

What started ... as a fun reading ended as a pretty bad experience and a lesson on how not to write a battle shounen.

Warning: spoilers for chapter 280 ahead and extremely salty reviewer ahead.

I have to say, I used to love this show. I bought 22 volumes of the manga and was planning on buying more until I saw this chapter. I was losing interest from when Mael received the commandments a few chapters ago because he isn't a threatening villain to me. the reason why I think this is because one of the ways a villain is threatening would be to try to take over or otherwise fundamentally change the world they are in, see overlord, youjo Senki, death note, etc. while I do accept that this ... is not always the case in anime and manga at all because it is sometimes fun to see a villain who "just wants to see the world burn", Mael does not at all fit in the narrative as a villain who could possibly succeed in doing so.
this is because NNT is a comedy shounen anime/manga. it isn't a horror, it isn't a dystopia or a psychological horror. there is no way the story could possibly end with Mael destroying the world, the end. he has to be destroyed because he has no goal. Mael is, currently at least, an empty shell of a man, simply trying to kill almost everyone in the main cast (who of course will not die, or the story ends quickly), thus leaving the battles with no stakes because any battles he takes part in will be essentially rendered moot as soon as he is defeated.
I thought that there would be two ways he would be defeated:
1) escanor and ludoshiel and Merlin et al. team up to defeat him
2) meliodas finally, FINALLY wakes up and takes him down, which he definitely could do, 140K plus five commandments will definitely be higher than 60K plus four commandments plus whatever powers Mael unlocked with his memories, after a long battle in which Mael absorbs the last commandment in Merascylla and the whole team of good guys has to take down Mael with Meliodas, with this likely being the end of the story.
I knew there would have to be a deus ex machina in this section in order to save the characters due to Mael's stupidly high power level, but I thought it would be one of the above, a deus ex machina meliodas returns or something. I am honestly shocked. I never in a million years thought Nakaba would pull such a dirty trick as to have the Deus Ex Machina be Diane having essentially her own Counter Vanish technique hidden within her Sacred treasure, Gideon. let me repeat this: Diane has had an ability called Lightning Rod, which allows her to absorb any magic attack into Gideon (seeing as how it could absorb Mael's 200K Lightball of Love, it doesn't deem to have a limit) and channel it into the ground, almost completely nullifying the magic, with the only downside being quote "damage to the creatures that live in the earth".
that quote above, by the way, is Nakaba's excuse for not revealing this Deus Ex Machina and I have to say, it is an extremely poor one. it is such a weak excuse, in fact, that it almost seems Nakaba is giving me at least a giant middle finger. if there was some kind of limit to how many times she can use it before Gideon was destroyed or something then, yes I would still be somewhat angry, but the Deus Ex Machina would not seem as brazen, but there is not, just death for those who live in the ground. there have been numerous times when she could have used it to save others or her self and deliberately chooses self-harm over using lightning rod. what about when Diane was fighting Howzer, or Dreyfus, or Hendrickson's dead end, which was going to kill meliodas or Hawk (though they are main characters, so it was foolish of me to actually believe either of them would die so easily.) I know you want to protect the creatures of the land, but it's worth killing a few bugs to save yourself or others isn't it?
I'm just so... so angry. I feel betrayed because not only was there a Deus Ex Machina like I knew there would be, but it was one that makes Mael completely a non-threat now. there's no need for king to awaken his power now (another issue ill talk about in a minute) because Diane can just absorb all the damage. what about in chapter 278, where Mael launched lightball of love and Diane did nothing!? it's poor writing, poor writing to force the readers to care and to wring tension out of this dried up fight which has no stakes anyway cause the main characters cant die and whatever Mael's plan is (if towel head even has a plan right now) cannot possibly win anyway. there's no tension, no drama, the only ones who could die are pointless pure cinnamon characters (bye Oslo) who have practically no impact on the plot anymore since Merlin can teleport everyone anywhere anyway,
in short, the last few chapters have been, ever since Monspiet died, boring, bland and predictable with spectacle and power boosts galore to distract you from the plot that is eroding away second by second. the characters are being stupid for the sake of the plot and I hate it. I can't take any more of this. Monspiete died because derieri got him killed. derieri died because stupid... stupid Tarmiel let Mael go, despite the fact that he was clearly evil... then Sariel and Tarmiel die by being betrayed by Mael, which we all knew was coming, leading to OP towel head using lightball and Diane doing diddly squat when she could've lightning rodded, Oslo, the only dispensable character left on the island (besides the two archangels of course, who by that point had already served their purpose so were just chucked in the bin cause why not? they were two of the most powerful angels in the world, but I suppose strength is what the supreme deity valued, not brains, not loyalty to the goddess clan or to the world in general, just loyalty to a guy who was clearly evil and had killed countless of goddesses, who, if he was on their side would just surrender and offer to help or surrender the commandments inside him, but no, he keeps fighting, proving he's evil and can't be trusted).
and, to add insult to the incredible mortal wound to my interest in and loyalty for this show, in the end, King gets a powerup. wow. amazing. never mind that every time he and Diane have ever had a permanent powerup, they have been curb stomped by their opponent. never mind how there's no way this side of Liones that King can defeat Mael with his 200K, hell probably go to 70 or 80K, maybe more to 100-odd K but there is no way that he will get to 200K when Mael needed four commandments, which are fragments of the demon king's power itself, might i add... hold on, quick maths. one commandments raised Mael from 60,000 to 88,000, so one commandment= 22,000 power. the demon king's power was stated to have been split 50% for him and the remaining 50% was split among the commandments, so one dommandment= 5% of his power. 5% times 20 gives 100% so 22,000 times 20 gives 440,000. (this should be the full power of the demon king) at 200k, Mael is half as powerful as the demon king (it's actually above 200k, but still). for King to have a snowball's chance in an oven of even matching Mael now, he would have to be more than half as powerful as the demon king was originally? around as powerful as Meliodas (142,000 plus (22,000 times 5 commandments)= 252,000) either King has no chance of getting this strong immediately, and judging from his horrific track record, I'd say this is almost certainly the case, or he somehow does get this powerful, which would be a Deux Ex Machina in itself as to how a normal Fairy could go from 4,190 to 41,000 to 2650k? no way. plot convenience. when Arthur had "great potential within him" and he showed even an inkling of his possible power, he was one-shotted by Cusack. now King is gonna go up against half of the demon king? no way. no freaking way. never mind that though, never mind that when king grew his wings he was destroyed by Chandler (at least he got a fight; Diane just shrunk, making her almost completely useless... but she was too small to carry Gideon, which was how Nakaba got her out of using lighting rod against him, wasn't it? I'm catching on to this. so instead of Diane being able to fight, she was taken out of the fight as easily as Ban was. pathetic. truly. what would have been good would be if she had used Lightning rod against Chandler, making his attacks useless and showing herself to be worth a damn against an enemy more powerful than her, until they were both crushed by true form Chandler, but then the readers would know that Mael's magic would be worthless and so this fight now would have no tension... OMG. the whole series has been engineered like this, deliberately either making Diane and King just as powerful as the plot needs them to be and easily crushed when the enemy needs to win. it's so transparent. I'm in awe, truly, at how duped I've been with this whole series. It's so transparent. the characters are the only redeeming part of this whole show, that and the actual physical fight scenes, like with meliodas vs Galan, or Meliodas vs the Ten Commandments.

if you like this show, please, go ahead and like it. I have nothing against you, but as a fan who has sunk two years of my life into this show to be rewarded with this stab in the back? I'm putting my foot down. I'm ending this now. I refuse to sit here watching, reading a show that is infinitely worse than many other shows. Youjo Senki, Overlord, FMA, Death note, Psycho-pass are just a few of the shows I would recommend other than this.
I just can't, I really can't care anymore about this show. Good luck and I hope you enjoy this series. I'm done.

[NOT spoilers here]

For starters: if you haven't readed it yet, get the eff out of here and get yourself confortable to read it. NOW.
Just go. Don't waste any more time. You'll have plenty of time to thanking me later. Go ahead.

To begin with, I must confess I'm not a frecuent manga-reader, I only read them either when the anime is discontinued or when I don't feel to waiting an eternity for new seasons, just like this case. So let's put this as simplest: I've readed a few mangas including NNT and that's it, so maybe if you're searching for an experimented manga-reader's review, this one ... won't do it. BUT on my defense, I can provide the sight of a skeptical that doesn't usually enjoy reading them and it turned out to be amazed and amused like a child on x-mas night and has hungrily devoured it.

Now let's just jump into it, shall we?

I met Nanatsu no Taizai recently from my little brother who continuesly had recommended me to watch it on Netflix and I had it on my "plan to watch" list for quite a long time. Finally I gave it a chance and OMG. I felt so stupid for not watching it before. But we're not here to talk about the anime. Once I watched the whole thing in two days, I realized two things:
1. I have a serious problem with addiction to this sh*t, and
2. I'm absolutely not waiting for the next season that isn't even anounced yet.
That's how I started with the manga. And if I already loved it before, now I'm devoted to it. I'm not willing to make any spoilers, but let's just say that things are getting seriously dark and deep on the middle arc and gradually worst on the last one. There's so much sh*t going on all over the place and the twists constantly punch you on the face. If you, like me, are so into character developtment and backstory, you would be loving this. But let's cut it so we can rate it properly.


STORY [9]:

What could I say that it haven't said before? The story settles on the middle age kind of scenario mixed with holy knights carriers of outstanding powers which defend the realm and seven fugitive criminals known as "the seven deadly sins" who appear to be invensible.
Not hooked yet? Add a fugitive gorgeous princess that escaped from her castle and is looking for the seven deadly sins because they're the only hope for the people as it seems that the holy knights are the bad guys. I think you should give it a try, seriously.

This story has been constructed so well with so much details that it's pretty impressive. As I said, I don't want to spoil anything and I know the first arc is huge and kind of boring, but I swear of god, it pays off. Once everything is stated, the characters are known and the basic info has been given, the plot pushs up rapidly and nonstop. And yes, it has some cliche situation, but they managed to fit it very natually and it works great. Why did I give it a 9 instead of 10? Because of the beginning. It really takes its time to break flight even if it's so worth it, it could push you away.

It's epic, fantastic, action-packed, dark, deep, emotional, romantic, funny and very entertaining. Yes, it has everything. My mom hates anime/manga but she loved NNT. That should be enough for you.


ART [10]:

As said, I'm not especially used to read mangas, but all I can say about the art is that is stunningly beautiful and awesome. Every single character is very distinguishable from each other and has its own unique style, which is refreshing since there're lots of characters on this story. The emotions and facial expresions are so well achieved and drawn very accurate. The fights are clear, epic and detailed; you're not going to get lost within the squares and going to be able to follow it perfectly. I gave it a 10 and, again, I'm not an expert on this topic, but to me it's a 10.


CHARACTER [10]:

I've already talked about how much I love them, but let's explain it a little further. Of course we can't have a shonen without cliche situations and stereotypes, but again, they feel so natural and well served to the story that it doesn't bother at all. Every word spoken, every decision made, every step taken has its purpose. There's so much backstory with every character and the much you know, the more you understand their desires and love them. And there're one for any taste, but all of them are likeable, even the evil ones.

Something I'd like to point is the love. Shonen has love sides in its plots usually, but there's a few that do it so well like this one. Again, not spoiler, but love is a recurrent topic that encourage the characters to fulfill their fates. Relationships are geniously articulated and feel real.

Last thing: Meliodas, the main character, is probably one of the better crafted characters had ever made for a shonen. He's so complete and complex that could easily be a real person.


ENJOYMENT [10]:

Not much to say on this one. It's very entertaining, you can easily get lost in its pages and everytime you finish a chapter, you just want more and more. Besides of the beginning that it could be a little bit tedious, I've never got bored, not a single time through the whole 304 chapters of this manga.


OVERALL [10]:

Probably I sound like a fangirl, and I honestly don't give a eff about it, but this is my opinion. It's not a master piece, but I can't give it a 9 or less otherwise because I don't have an argument for that. It fulfill its commitment: entertain, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else than that. So for me, it worked. In my opinion, is so worth the try. Especially now that we don't know if the anime will continue (go watch it if you didn't ffs).

It's funny how some people dropped this manga after 100 chapters and I started loving it after 100 chapters ^^

I totally understand why anybody would not enjoy, get bored or be uninterested by it since the story takes like 200+ chapters to start unfolding.
For the first 100 chapters you kind of get that filler vibe, that lack of originality in everything, it bothered me in the beginning and wasn't enjoy it as much. The MC also felt kind of emotionless which was irritating.

So in the first 100 chapters there isn't really any plot except gathering the sins so you get that feeling of lack ... of substance and epicness which starts right about the 100th chapter. So before that you get to know about the characters and some of their backstories to then face adversity where all the epic shit goes down. That's why every single chapter is necessary since it contributes to the understanding of the characters' choices and emotions when you go on with the story.

Now I'm just going to say this, if you don't like ''child-like'' shounens like BnHA or Naruto, then be my guest, dislike this manga and go your way. However if you are a true shounen lover then you will absolutely love Nanatsu no Taizai. I was sceptic about it at first but this manga surprised me, it surprised me a lot. Where it seemed to be emotionless, a sea of emotions was hidden. Where I thought there was no adventure, a rich and masterfully crafted story started unfolding.

This manga is hidden masterpiece.
Just like it's main character, it's not flashy, doesn't try to impress with cool looking characters and crazy battles. Everything about it may seem dull while deep inside it is about to explode with so much richness of drama, action, emotions and story that you're so not ready for.

Nanatsu no Taizai is continuously catching you off guard. Continuously.
It doesn't feel generic, it always tries to surprise you. Even with its style and choices of plot and characters which always make so much sense in the end and never feel contradictory.

It also shows to be a deeply emotional journey as you go on and discover along with the nakamas, their past, their connections and bounds which for some take like 200+ chapters to unfold but are so worth it.


Story 10/10

I already said my piece here and there about everything surrounding the story so.. don't know what else to say except ''brilliant''. Just brilliant.
As said before it takes a while to take off though.


Art 8

The art is great, one thing that I find particularly stunning is the armors, they look insane. I keep getting reminded of Berserk while reading this shit. All this Medieval shit going on really is a sight to see, very impressive looking. Now it's the characters for me that don't look that great, pretty underwhelming. Bad guys or good guys, I'm not a fan of the choice of style overall. Overtime you start liking the characters but at first the art was turning me down a little bit, and it's not the best quality too except for armors and landscapes.


Characters 9

One big point that I haven't mentioned is how interesting the characters are, it's like the complete opposite of Fairy Tail to me where every single character feel corny and generic. I'm not necessarily a fan of the art or design of most characters, they aren't that spectacular and flashy like in Bleach or One Piece but they are really likeable and interesting. You can strongly feel that each and every character has his/her own interesting past and story to tell. That which is completely nonexistent to me in Fairy Tail for instance. There is always that feeling of richness, be it in story, backstory, characters, history and so on. It's the first time that I can sense this feeling of a rich and vast universe and adventure since One Piece. Never felt that since then and Nanatsu no Taizai gave it to me, it says much.


Enjoyment 10

I mean.. it's a blast man. Got totally in love with the nakamas, I really started caring about them and feeling attached to them, there are so many beautiful moment to witness. I like the fact that there is a lot of romance, I'm glad that the author, Suzuki Nakaba isn't ''scared'' to implement romance as most shounen do. I was deeply touched through the romance and there is quite a bit of it, which doesn't obstruct the story but rather gives it way more depth and so more delicious drama.
Also I've been enjoy a lot the bonds between characters, it doesn't feel hollow like they're just a team working together to achieve a goal but rather like a true family that cherishes each like nothing else, it's very beautiful. And there also are a lot a fun and chill moments which are really enjoyable just like when Luffy is on the sea with the Thousand Sunny and everyone, these moments are special and Nanatsu no Taizai does feel special.




Conclusion:

I gave a 10 because I don't see how you can get better than this as far as shounens go.
I'd recommend this mostly to those who enjoy shounens even though I love seinens just as much. I think the story is so deep that some people don't take the time to understand it because it is too hidden, while it might seem dull the dullness itself is like the shell of the story, literally covering its heart. It might take long, but each chapter will pierce through it and reveal more and more of its shining beauty.


I don't make reviews often, just the fact that I had so much to say about this manga speaks for itself.


You beautiful masterpiece.

The main story line is pretty bad... until the chapter ~100. So you have to survive this because what comes next is just so epic! I'm looking forward to learn about reincarnation, Meliodas's past and Escanor. Yes, yes, the main feature of Nanatsu is that friendship/love surpasses death through reincarnation - watch this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd4pMykGn9g).

As I said before, the main story line is retarded in the beginning. But Ban's Side Story and King's Side Story are just super awesome. The worst things about Nanatsu are fan service and ecchi elements. Ecchi looks completely unsuitable.

Many people complain that the main characters are overpowered. Yes, they are... ... till chapter 100.

Also, the anime skips a lot. That' why manga >> anime.

My scores:

Story: 5/10 (but it will be 10/10 later, I promise)
Art: 8/10
Humor: 8/10
Characters: 8/10 (Ban, King and Escanor are super awesome)

Overall: 8/10 (but it will be 10/10!!!)

A pretty good story that went on for too long and ended poorly. There was one point where I thought oh this is the ending, but then it continued on for at least twenty more chapters. Then when everything seem concluded and was finally ready to end, they created a side storyline that seemed to come out of nowhere and then didn't even finish explaining it. Overall it wasn't a bad manga. Art is hard to understand sometimes but not badly done. Characters are fairly interesting and parts of it were a fun read, but the ending was severely disappointing. It honestly felt like the ... author didn't care enough to properly end this series.

Story 5/10
Art 6/10
Character 6/10
Enjoyment 6/10
Overall 6/10

I like the concept of the "sins" is the hero at the beginning and later the "commandments" is revealed as the villain. The story development is so damn good, especially with mindblowing flashback about holy war 3000 years ago. The only negative thing (for me) is the power level sometimes just too absurd and confusing (the chara is using power up at magic, physique or spirit?) and the progression of the main chara is a bit too fast for me

The art is great, idk the reason but maybe because I know drawing is so damn hard, especially with so MANY chara in this manga. ... I just somehow confused why meliodas is so damn tiny.

The character versatility is so damn good, the protagonist who sometimes do evil thing, or antagonist who actually have a good heart. It's all about perspective, but for me the mix between evil and angel in this manga is so excellent.

I really enjoy this manga, but in my country the manga production is so damn slow, so forgive me if I read it in wrong platform (I'm so sorry) but if the newest chapter is out in my country I'd try to buy it, even if that f*cking chapter is already out 2/3 years ago in JP T_T

Overall, i like this manga. I hope this manga get a happy ending, especially for elichan and melikun. But if this manga got sad ending, I dont mind as long the end is reasonable :)

Seven Deadly Sins is a difficult beast for me. On the one hand I really like it, it's a modern Shounen that gives me a similar feeling to the one I used to get reading Shounen Jump when I was young, but on the other it's very confusing to read.

I really enjoy the artwork and many of the main characters, both the Seven Deadly Sins and Holy Knights, and think they have very interesting character concepts that I've not seen executed quite the same way in any manga before. I was roped in with the various love triangles, drama, and conflict between characters.

Unfortunately, I found ... myself mainly enjoying the backstories explaining their Sins and who they were, but not the chapters focusing on the present day and ancient past (which are a larger portion of the series) because many of those story arcs feel as if the writer is making it up as he goes along. He introduces enemies or a plot point, and then eventually reverses everything about it. It was interesting the first few times the author did this, because it was unexpected or an interesting twist, but now it's simply too repetitive or slightly less inspired. It's got to the point that I almost expect characters to reveal some big secret every chapter and there's too many characters in the limelight now for each one to have a deep and interesting backstory (not that it wasn't difficult enough already with seven main characters, eight counting the princess).

I would probably still recommend Seven Deadly Sins, but with this caveat: expect lots of Shounen-style fights, a decent chunk of fan service, and a very layered, sometimes confusing storyline that may require multiple reads to fully appreciate or enjoy.

Nanatsu no taizai is not your typical generic shounen anime, first arc may seem like it would be a very straightforward shounen plot but the story just gets more complicated from there on, it will be a bit hard to review this manga without any spoilers but I will try my best.

As mentioned earlier, The first arc had a fairly simple plot, a princess named elizabeth goes on an adventure gathering 7 legendary criminals, named as 'the seven deadly sins' who she thought was the only way to save ... her kingdom. First arc was all about introduction half of the seven deadly sins and their mission saving the kingdom from the true criminals, the demon clan.

What is different in this manga compared to most other shounen, it does not focus too much on the main characters to develop powers as they are super strong to begin with, although they do develop new powers along the plot of the story. there's a lot going on in the background stories of the characters which the author reveals bit by bit and when more and more backstory unfolds, you then realize the first arc does not reflect the direction of where the story of this manga was going. there is undeniably a LOT of plot twist, to the point where sometimes I felt it was unnecessary and just confused the readers a bit too much. Currently at the latest arc, it is quite hard to distinguish who is the real bad guy is since everyone has a purpose to fight.

The characters are my favourite part of this manga, since most of them has their own secrets which even to the current chapter has not been fully revealed and for me, that is the driving point to continue reading this manga. The seven deadly sins themselves are a unique bunch, each of them from a different race but they are somewhat connected, in the past and also distant past. I say distant past because some of them have known each other since 3000 years into the past but some of the others only a decade back into the present time in the manga, yes it is quite confusing.

There's also quite a bit of romance going on compared to your standard shounen manga. I mean most of the characters are paired up.The highlight is definitely the love story between meliodas and elizabeth, honestly, their tragic love story is the main reason why this story of holy war is happening in the first place. But due to this specific reason, The current arc would probably be the final arc where most of the characters have already been told and unless a super ridiculous plot twist happens, this manga would not go beyond 400 chapters.

Overall, this is an enjoyable manga but I think some parts could've been made more enjoyable.
however, I would recommend watching the anime first before reading the manga because the fight scenes are so much more well illustrated in the anime. hopefully the ending would be good because I could already smell the end at chapter 265.

The seven deadly sins is a conglomeration of all the usual unpleasant narrative devices of a shonen manga of the lowest quality, a feeling that is gradually exacerbated over the course of the series by a growing mediocrity.

The story takes place in a very summarily characterized fantasy scenario, perhaps in the first volumes a little superficiality was acceptable as the story is still in its beginning but going forward it will never be fully explored. The main setting is the kingdom of Liones, ten years after the seven deadly sins, once the group of knights directly under the king, became criminals accused of trying ... to overthrow the kingdom by subverting the established order. Traces of them are lost but for Princess Elizabeth they are the only hope of stopping the order of the sacred knights that threaten peace. Traveling in search of them, Elizabeth manages to meet Meliodas, the captain of the seven deadly sins, who runs a bizarre tavern called Boar Hat with the talking pig Hawk, a mascot that is immediately unbearable.

The sacred knights therefore present themselves as the villains of the story, although at first they may seem intriguing, they will soon seem devoided of any charm. They are evil usurpers who presumably have lost all their ideals after being corrupted by the two leaders of the sacred knights, who have a characterization bordering on ridicule and motivations behind their actions dictated by the simple "we needed a bad guy to defeat because he does very bad things as a villain ": Hendrickson who wants to resurrect the clan of demons motivated by the desire to wage holy war because that was the way he was feeling.

But sadly they are not the only ones, the author leaves the characterization of many characters to chance, in fact he makes them move according to the circumstances, as needed in the moment, that is, they suddenly pass over to the side of good or evil motivated by a bizarre sense of justice - they really change their minds even in the turn of a page - or that between various coincidences they make decisions that are inconsistent with their previous actions.

Proof of this are the often ridiculous foreshadowing attempts and clearly the result of a badly done retcon.
Certain choices give the very idea that the author was motivated only by the need to have plot twists at all costs and did not have the faintest idea of ​​where to end the story, demonstrating only a great presumption of being able to effectively spread the story over 41 volumes or simply underestimating the intelligence of their readers who should bear an embarrassing number of coincidences and inconsisent explanations.

Also, in this manga everything seems to be driven by love.
Surely there would be nothing wrong with giving more space to relationship issues but in this manga they are incredibly abused to keep the plot going and to motivate anything, it is a sequence of actions and reactions of the characters based exclusively on emotions and feelings. In some cases it succeeds, as for Ban and Elaine but for other characters the amorous component is forced and at times even boring. Think of King and Diane - not to mention Escanor and Merlin - the author again uses the trope of the girl in distress to show an angry King who comes to her rescue, against the backdrop of a flashback to a tearful past. The problem is that the girl in distress in question is a 915 cm giantess who in previous battles had not had any problems, indeed she had been presented incredibly strong and able to look after herself. Unfortunately, inconsistencies like this with the force hierarchy are a constant in nanatsu no taizai, starting with the quite ambiguous power system itself with the usual things like "I was not really serious" and other stuff to make Meliodas stand out above all others. Various power ups, characters mortally wounded before and who inexplicably look great shortly after, characters who come back to life to be recycled, powers randomly assigned in the clumsy attempt to give the clashes more pathos (since if nothing has more sense it is easy to make it impossible to know who will win, spoiler: in any case Meliodas is always the coolest), up to the ridiculous idea of the pig with the magic pendant that sees the fighting rank of the people as a Dragon Ball scouter. As these increasingly bad villains appear in this genre of manga, some sort of hope should arise in the reader that their favorites will have the upper hand, but the illogical motives that pervade them all make them lose interest in seeing them triumph.

Sore point are just Meliodas and Elizabeth, the most unpleasant protagonists of any shonen I have ever read. I found it impossible to empathize with them, Nakaba Suzuki makes never seen before favoritisms towards the protagonist, it is inevitable to assume that it is trivially a pathetic self-insert. From the beginning, Meliodas is detestable: he has no charisma, he always has the same indecipherable expression on his face, he is immediately very strong, he has no growth path and his only quirk is being a pervert. He is probably given the appearance of a child to make the constant groping of Elizabeth, who we remember being 16, less disturbing or even innocent.
While some fanservice may also be bearable in the context of some comic skits, the way in which Meliodas clings to Elizabeth and acts like a maniac become annoying and repetitive quickly. To make it less ambiguous, the author also immediately makes Elizabeth fall in love with her molester to give the readers a non-sense love story with a really creepy explanation that'll come later in the manga. With various embarrassed blushes the author gives the premise of some sort of consent and makes the girl remain motionless and mute while undergoing anything without reacting.
Elizabeth is truly insipid, she is always whimpering, she acts to be the perfect waifu and every clumsy attempt to make up for her uselessness is ridiculous. Obviously she is naive, she always thinks only of others and never of herself, she is always portrayed in weird positions for panty shots but at the same time is modest and genuine and oh my, what a bore, an extremely demeaning character whose role is commensurable to that of an ornament or to be more blunt to a sex toy in skimpy clothes that screams "noble Meliodas" over and over.

Not to mention the other female characters, if the main characters already lack charm the secondaries are even worse, both males and females, but in particular any attempt to deepen the psychology of girls is ridiculous: Diane, that becomes more and more useless and subordinate to King who has always to save her, Vivian, Liz, Jericho, Veronica, all demeaning. No girl in this manga seems to have a will of her own, they all act only in function of a man and above all they are all always half naked. Guila seems to be the only female character not overly sexualized, but she too unfortunately she gets lost later in the story.

It can be said that of the 7 deadly sins Ban is the only one with a decent characterization, along with the interesting power of Escanor, who is also badly treated.

Leaving out the poses and proportions of the characters at times a bit strange, the drawings are full of details and the backgrounds have well-made perspectives. The art style is perhaps the only merit of this manga.
Some decent characters with whom you can at least empathize, rare funny moments and a few successful clashes in a sea of ​​mediocrity: the seven deadly sins can be said to "arrive late", bringing typical stylistic features of previous works that are already outdated (it is practically Dragon Ball in the Middle Ages), maddening fanservice, various sentimentalisms bordering on trash, disturbing love affairs as a result of the author's innumerable perversions and fetishes and making a mess of fantasy elements without anything innovative. One of the few manga that after reading it left me absolutely nothing, if not a sense of annoyance and remorse for having wasted my time and my money, which is why I had to let off steam by writing this very long review for the unfortunate who will want to read it all.