First Impressions / Nanatsu no Taizai / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「熱情のスペクトラム」 (Netsujou no Supekutoramu) by いきものがかり (Ikimono-gakari)

「七つの大罪」 (Nanatsu no Taizai)
“The Seven Deadly Sins”

(So this Snapshot is rather late; my apologies. But I thought, ‘better late than never,’ and wrote it up anyway. Let’s not waste time with excuses and dive right into it.)

The thing you really need to know about Nanatsu no Taizai is that it’s being directed by Okamura Tensai. Okamura Tensai made Darker than BLACK.

…It just goes to show, directors can be awfully versatile.

If one were to fish for comparisons (as I find myself often doing) the first one to come to mind would be Akame ga Kill. Both feature a roughly medieval fantasy setting where a bunch of outlaws are our only chance of fighting against a corrupt order. Not that Nanatsu no Taizai gets anywhere near as dark or violent. For a story featuring the cardinal vices as a central motif, Nanatsu no Taizai sure is quirky. Seriously, look at this thing. It’s a giant, green CGI pig. That’s just silly. And awesome! And I know each Sin is supposed to represent their vice somehow, but how relevant that’s going to be to the narrative is unclear. Main man Meliodas (Kaji Yuki) is awfully chill for Wrath. Perhaps he has a berserk button or something, but until then the only indication that’s he’s supposed to be a horrible sinner is his casual assaults on damsel in distress Princess Elizabeth Liones (Amamiya Sora). That’s just lechery. It’s entirely possible that the seven deadly sins angle was used simply because it sounds cool; any amount of Western concepts are as exotic to the Japanese as samurai and ninja are to us. If we were being serious about all this the leader of the Sins would be the classical ‘original sin’ Pride, not Wrath. And the talking animal mascot character would not be a pig named Hawk (Kuno Misaki). And Merlin wouldn’t be a woman. I swear, they’re just trying to confuse us now.

So, apart from the quirkiness the plot is a fairly standard affair. The Princess manages to find Obi-wan KenobiMeliodas, who rescues her from peril and death. They defeat their first boss, who’s rather overpowered for a throwaway villain, just to give an idea of how the powerlevels are going to go in this series. And because we’re not being too serious here nobody even dies. They just suffer from exploding clothes syndrome and are then left to lie around ignominiously, even though the sensible thing for an outlaw to do would be to murder all witnesses. I guess they’re setting up for a recurring villain? Or maybe they don’t want to leave that high a body-count as we merrily prance around the countryside.

From here I guess it’s simply adventure time! Meliodas starts off wielding a broken sword, and seems to be immortal or something, so there’s plenty of exploration there. Or maybe the broken sword is just giving him the potential to be more stupid powerful. Even then, the OP hints at more strange individuals will be joining the cast, so that will be interesting. On my part, I’m hoping for more development for Elizabeth, who spent too much time sitting around and crying. Otherwise, I’m fine with Nanatsu no Taizai continuing along the lines we’ve seen so far. The visuals look good. The story looks fun. A comfy fantasy romp will be a welcome addition to the weekly routine. Okamura Tensai can do that too.

 

Full-length images: 03, 10, 12.

 

Preview

End Card

56 Comments

  3. Big fan of the manga!

    Looks like a good adaptation so far…(knocks on wood)

    The fights in this series have the potential to be extraordinary if they have a little money to work with.

    maskedmecha
    Reply

  6. Nakaba Suzuki, Sins’ mangaka, has done manga crossovers with Mashima Hiro, Fairy Tail’s mangaka.
    Suzuki would draw Fairy Tail characters, Mashima would draw Sins characters. This is what they look like.

    Natsu & Happy, by Nakaba Suzuki
    http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140126154913/nanatsu-no-taizai/images/e/ea/Natsu_Dragneel.png

    Elizabeth, Hawk & Meliodas, by Mashima Hiro
    http://dailyanimeart.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/melodias-elizabeth-and-hawk-in-magnolia.png

    zztop
    Reply

  8. I hope this anime goes the One Piece route. Seemingly goofy and funny but with a lot of dark background and moments the more the story unfolds. At least in terms of visuals and ridicliousnes it seems to come close to OP.

    dean
    Reply

    1. i hope not. Anything more than 50 episodes is pretty much menacing to anyone who is interested in trying it out, especially if the first few episodes start pretty slow and an adventure shounen series. Hopefully it does the manga justice so it can hook the viewer to read the manga instead.

      sithstormjedi
      Reply

      1. I get what your saying, One piece, WHILE being good, does fall into the prolonged battle stuff, I basically read it in huge chunks (when each volume comes out) this series is pretty much the same. the overall story kind of gets lost.

        Noh
        Reply

    2. Or if you are talking how One piece side tracked its purpose in finding the treasure and went on endless battles and struggles? Im even less agreeable on that one. I wished One Piece was more about the mystery, the adventure and even Indiana Jones-esque than defining the typical shonen genre instead. But then again conveniently i forgot where i left off in the story so if they did find the treasure, let me know.

      sithstormjedi
      Reply

      2. @Skizzit

        Oh , but isn’t that what the first few chapters and episodes of the series said? Because before anime/manga DDLs/torrents/streaming was prevalent thats what i gathered from it. I guess Oda should redo the first few chapters and episodes then.

        sithstormjedi
        Reply

      3. also, yes i totally missed it now considering it shouldn’t take 700+ chapter to find a single treasure, unless the world is literally expanding to fit the stories of traveling the seas and stuff.

        Also, its still called One Piece, so at least bring it back into focus, then Oda can call it “The adventures of the Pirate King” or whatever. His writing proved that he can side track and still attract millions of readers to buy his work, so whats a little bringing it back going to harm him? Im sure he’s still going to prolong that series to feed his family and support his children.

        sithstormjedi
        Reply

  12. I swear this is the season of fantasy, we have everything from Vanadis, Nanatsu, and Chaika up to Bahamut (which seriously needs and introductory post btw) along with pseudo-fantasy Log Horizon and FSN, among others.

    As for Nanatsu here I’m already in love. Big talking pig and a giant green pig with a bar on its back? Count me in for the ride. Also Elizabeth has to be one of the most accepting girls seen so far. Squeezing my breasts? No biggie, let’s go find the other sins! The whole thing is so nonchalant it’s awesome 😛

    Pancakes
    Reply

  16. oh btw, the CGI and handdraw Animations are very good. Only thing that give the first seconds away, that this castel and city are CGI is the handdrawn and animated birds like things.

    The different FPS/Framekeys. You can see that this Birds are a bit off. But nice blending of CGI and Handdrawn Textures

    Germanguy
    Reply

  17. One of a few series I gave a fairly thorough “test read” before the season started. IMO, this was a good, inclusive, and faithful adaptation of the source material. Actually, quite “lifted right off the pages” type unless I forgot something. Points for that. I think it’s fair to say the series is very “Shounen Jump” with all that entails (good or bad depending upon your viewpoint). Definitely not as as grim-dark/bloody as Akame ga Kill which may or may not work for some viewers. And yeah, some moments can be down right silly. Personally, I could do without the “Team Rocket blast off” stuff. OTOH, don’t care at all if they got the sins in the “wrong” order of priority, or if Merlin get’s a gender bend. Not like this is the only show this season with a different take on the Arthurian legend. *shrugs*

    If you like this type of series/shows, I would think you’d like this anime. Even for those who are not big Shounen Jump fans (such as myself), this still could turn out to be a fun “popcorn entertainment” type show if you approach it with the right mind set. The fact that it contains pigrific and porktacular elements tells the viewer up front and in no uncertain terms “Don’t take this too seriously. Let’s have some fun here… and, BTW, pigs are cool.” OK, fine. I added that last bit. 😛 However, that does make a difference for me since the series isn’t trying to pretend it’s something other than it is. I can respect that. One last point, I agree that the visual quality is good – something I did noticed rght from the start. A step up from some other shows I watched this season and hope it continues.

    daikama
    Reply

  19. I honestly don’t blame you for not being able to get this post out early due to the unfortunate circumstances regarding this series. What with it being picked up by Netflix with no simulcast and a surprising lack of subber interest (It’s certainly not going to set the world on fire, but it did have quite a bit of hype) there’s not really much you can do.

    Unless, of course, you understand Japanese and were holding out on us. In which case I’ll be first in line with the pitchforks and torches. 😛

    It always surprises me why Japan has such an obsession with the cardinal vices anyways. This show isn’t even the only one this season that includes it (the latin names were strewn throughout Trinity Seven’s op and ed) and I’ve seen tons more (FMA, 11eyes just off the top of my head). Despite that, we’ve never actually seen the virtues despite them just begging to be included as a foil.

    Not edgy enough? Don’t want to deal with the fanatical religious people? Who knows.

    In any case, waiting warmly for Ban and Tatsuhisa Suzuki’s rock star voice.

    Kuntzy
    Reply

    1. Hold out on you? Never! I love you guys.

      I don’t know if most people (in Japan, especially) are even aware of the contrary virtues. Virtues just have bad PR. It’s similar to the way that whenever we have ‘the Church’ in Japanese fantasy it’s always Catholic, always world dominant, and always involved in ancient conspiracies.

      Three things anime will always recycle, though: the cardinal vices, tarot symbolism (but only the major arcana) and Alice in Wonderland. They love those. And I’m really not sure why.

      Passerby
      Reply

  22. My god this had to be one of the most GENERIC opening episodes I’ve seen in my damn life. Already got the useless princess who will be saved by the perverted badass going on here for me to almost not want to touch this again.

    The music sounded pretty similar to Fairy Tail but overall the show has more of One Piece feel to it.

    leatherhead333
    Reply

  24. Its standard shounen fare, apparently.

    But who says you can’t have fun with standard shounen fare? Aside from that the manga where I read up to is pretty satisfying. Judging ftom the first episode Sin should be looking to be a fun series to watch with quirky characters that are mostly easy to love.

    And yes, Elizabeth gets some development as a character, eventually.

    Owaranai
    Reply

  25. This had okay start imo. It kind of bothered me how the MC just grabbed Elizabeth’s boobs like that. It makes it seem like he can do whatever he wants regardless of how perverted it is. I am usually not that sensitive to that kind of stuff but, for some reason it bothered me a little here. Elizabeth did spend a lot of time crying and being helpless I hope the flesh her out more soon. I don’t really like any of the characters so far that much except the pig.

    PaladinJoe
    Reply

      2. No.
        Young boys sexually harassing their female schoolmates and not understanding/respecting consent = a common problem.
        Young boys attacking government officials with swords/knives = not a common problem.

        j
        Reply

      4. Look at the latests screenshots on posts here at RandomC. There is boobgrab after boobgrab after boobgrab, used as fanservice.
        As one of all girls who grew up with groping and sexual harassment in school, it makes me deeply troubled to see it reduced to something titillating for the audience.
        It sends a completely wrong message.

        j
        Reply

      5. I’ve experienced violence in my life, majority of anime use violence for entertainment but I’ve never had a problem with that and it’s not just violence, anime use murder,theft,rape,war,pain,suffering,etc things plenty of people around the world experience, to entertain the audience you watch all that and take issue with this?Either get over it or don’t watch it.

        Besides I doubt you’re telling the truth seeing as I’m a student myself and I’ve never seen or heard such things happen.Also these things may look good onscreen but in real-life we’re talking about schoolgirls who have been wearing the same dress for hours, with all the sweat and dirt I really doubt any boy would actually want to go about touching them like that.

        anon
        Reply

    2. Unfortunately, the casual letch is a bit of a character archetype in anime, used to denote a simple and honest free spirit. Or something like that. Japanese society’s attitudes towards women are woefully antiquated, sometimes. And it’s exacerbated in Nanatsu no Taizai by Elizabeth being a doormat.

      Passerby
      Reply

      1. @Passerby I am very much aware of the societal and cultural differences most Japanese have from the rest of the world and it is unfortunate that some old ideas are still stuck there. I watch a lot of anime and most boob grabs that I have seen are usually followed by a slap or something and the grab is usually accidental in this show it was purposeful and no consequences were met I think that is the part that bothered me. I would not say this show promotes that kind of behavior but, I can say it certainly does not condem it.

        PaladinJoe
        Reply

  26. Quick thoughts:
    – Glad to see this series covered! I hope this won’t stop!
    – Why should the protagonist finish off his opponent or kill witnesses when there is no need for this? Human life shouldn’t be that cheap. Personally I was put off by the “””edginess””” of Akame ga Kill and some other series, I’m perfectly used to seeing violence in media but often it’s gratituous, hollow and added only to impress the viewer. The worst is that death is treated like no big deal. I’m glad Nanatsu no Taizai tries to impress us with other things (like the ridiculous powerlevels and the giant green pig). The dead knights in the opening scene is more thant enough.
    I really hope that random characters dying left and right for no solid reason doesn’t become a standard for nowadays animes.

    Wanderer
    Reply

  27. Loved the first ep! Based on what others who have
    read the source, this looks like a series that’ll be fun!

    I love the hero type that doesn’t look like a hero, but is
    super bad-ass (Mondaijitachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu yo).

    Looking forward to this series…

    mac65
    Reply

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