The once-popular anime series “Seven Deadly Sins” came to an end Oct. 1 with a final movie, “The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light,” which wrapped up all the loopholes in the original story.
The series was based on a Japanese fantasy manga series written and illustrated by Nakaba Suzuki. After the first season aired, Netflix acquired the rights for exclusive English-language streaming, while Funimation currently has the home video rights for the first season.
During five long seasons since 2014, the journey of the knights of Britannia has taken viewers through all sorts of laws related to western literature. There were references from “King Arthur and His Knight of the Round Table” and “The Wizard of Oz,” amidst others.
The main story begins with a princess, Elizabeth, who goes on a journey to save her kingdom by finding a group of knights that have been banned. First, she finds the main character and leader of the team, Meliodas. Gradually, they find other members and stop the holy war.
Since all the characters in the story were labeled as criminals, each member belongs to one of the sins. Meliodas is wrath. Ban is greed. Diane is envy. King is sloth. Gowther is lust. Merlin is gluttony and Escanor is pride. Together, the group is given the name “Seven Deadly Sins.” Furthermore, most of them are from different races and have different sets of powers, such as a witch with a unique skill of boosting any spells to an infinity.
Most of the concerns expressed by the audience were about the inconsistent quality between each season.
The graphics were not the best during the highly anticipated fight scenes, but most viewers watched it for world-building, not the graphics.
However, the story is filled with rich lore and character developments. At every turn, there is some kind of mystery within each characters’ past.
There is an underlying theme of love in this series. The romantic interests were mainly Meliodas and Elizabeth, Ban and King’s sister, King and Diane and Escanor and Merlin within the team.
Meliodas and Elizabeth represent a love that has to go against fate. Ban and King’s sister, Elaine, represent love by sacrifice. King and Diane represent childhood love. Escanor and Merlin represent the love that was too late to reciprocate. Another character, Gowther, got to experience love, but he first had to go on a journey to define the concept of “love.”
One of the best things about this series is Merlin. Aside from using magic, she is the big sister of the group and usually watches over them using her magical abilities. She is different from other characters because she did not get a happy ending or a fix to her crime of being gluttony of power. At the end of the final movie, “The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light,” she appeared for several scenes. Viewers might just see her in a spin-off series.
Overall, it was good that the series finally had a chance to wrap up. A show that drags its plot too long is not a praise-worthy show. The final movie had some plot lines that were random but fixed the loopholes that fans were curious about.
You can watch the “Seven Deadly Sins” series and movies on Netflix and Funimation. Like the “Naruto/Boruto” series, the future generation will take the lead in a spin-off soon.
Follow Thomas on Twitter @TPholnikorn.
